newbie question: What, exactly, is "Virtual CD"

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Billman
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:42 pm

newbie question: What, exactly, is "Virtual CD"

Post by Billman »

I just bought a copy of MM gold and appreciating it's flexibility and power. I have not, however, been able to understand what exactly this "Virtual CD" business is all about. I'm used to the iTunes and MP paradigm of "insert CD, recognize CD and get data, rip tracks to library". I don't understand the role or function of Virtual CD in all of this.

I've read the help and understand that it has something to do with creating a catalog of actual physical CD vis-a-vis what's been ripped to the library. (I don't understand exactly what or how, however.) But this is a big "so what" as far as I'm concerned - I just want to rip the tracks to the library and be done with it - but it still looks like "virtual CD" plays a role here, too.

Can anyone explain this to me - is there an easy explanation? Thanks
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Post by Lowlander »

First of all you can rip to your library the same way as in other applications, but besides that MediaMonkey offers an additional option. To rip to the virtualCD. The virtualCD maintains a link to the original CD and that's about it. It is useful if you enter the CD back into your PC, but few will do that.

Now the undocumented use is discussed a lot on the forum. Many users have their music on a network PC or external harddrive and use a laptop to listen to their music. Now when you take the laptop with you, you don't have any music anymore (as it's on the network/external harddrive). You can copy some files from your library to the virtualCD and MediaMonkey will see that copy as the same copy as the original (so no duplicates in library). You can find more on this on the forum.
Billman
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:42 pm

Post by Billman »

Thanks for the response, Lowlander --

I'm still not sure I understand the laptop example: I get that you don't want to duplicate the network library on the laptop, that you want to copy only some of the music to the laptop for transport (kind of like a manually managed iPod with iTunes). If they're copied to the laptop as a VirtualCD, then you can have the entire library listed on the laptop, but only some of the track physical copied tothe laptop for transport? Is that accurate?

What keywords should I search for for more information on it? I did a search on VirtualCD but didn't see anything like this.

Bill
Teknojnky
Posts: 5537
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:01 pm
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Post by Teknojnky »

The virual cd function is very simply a way to 'cache' files from your main library to a local user folder ("my documents\my music\mediamonkey\virtual cd\" I beleive is the default).

In this manner, you can use the virtual cd to flag files to be 'cached' for access when the main library or cd is not accessable.

You can right click selected files and use the virtual cd tab, right click and send them to virtual cd, or use the 'advanced' toolbar icon to copy them to the virtual cd.

Think of it as having a virtual mp3 (or any music file) cache.
junglemonkey

Post by junglemonkey »

okay i too finally understand it thanks.

now how do i delete any vcd from monkey will it delete the files it cached? out of the main library?

every time i try to delete one that it made when i ripped a cdrom it shows me an alert saying do you really want to remove this cd and all the files?

does that include the main library?

:o
Lowlander
Posts: 56491
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Post by Lowlander »

Yes, this is the case for tracks ripped from CD to the VirtualCD. The VirtualCD is the only copy of the song in your library.

The solution would be to go into Windows Explorer and move all the songs in the VirtualCD folder to a folder where you normally store your music. Now use add/rescan to add them to the library and use Maintain Library to delete the library entries for the song in the VirtualCD (as they are no longer there).
monitoringpost
Posts: 48
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:43 pm

Post by monitoringpost »

I'm a new user to MM too and you'll find the Help > Content has a comprehensive description of VCD and how to set things up. Check that out.

- M
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