Question on non-music files on Touch HDD

[danull]

Hello,

I am planning on setting up a Touch Server in the next week or two. I don't have the HDD yet so can't test it myself.

I have been reviewing the following wiki article:

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Setting_Up_Squeezebox_Touch_Server

But it doesn't appear to have the answer I am looking for (unless I am crosseyed again - it has been known to happen). The search function in these forums is currently returning a blank page on search.php.

I am not sure whether I can have non-music files on the Touch HDD. For example, I'm thinking about having a folder containing subfolders for artists w/ music files for use by the touch and then another folder containing images & videos (images and videos not for the touch but so that I can use this HDD as an extra backup for that data).

Will I run into trouble if I have jpgs & AVIs & MPGs on the same HDD I plug into my touch or must it only contain folders + music?

-Dan

[JJZolx]

Will I run into trouble if I have jpgs & AVIs & MPGs on the same HDD I plug into my touch or must it only contain folders + music?

Theoretically, if they're not recognized as audio files then there should be no problem. In practice, though, I'm not sure it's a good idea. The Touch has no provision to designate a subdirectory for the Music Folder, so everything on the disk will be examined, although non-audio, non-playlist files and images that don't register as cover art should be ignored.

[JohnSwenson]

As long as they are not extensions that the scanner thinks of as audio files there is not a problem. It CAN slow the scanning process down though. The initial phase of the scan checks every single file on the disk so it can take some extra time if you have a lot orf them.

I have a very extreme case. I have a disk for my wife with some games and about 100 albums on it. (here laptop drive is not very big so she uses this when she travels) These games have several hundred thousand files per game. The result is 3 million files with 100 albums of music. I tried plugging this into a Touch and it worked fine. It took slightly over an hour to go through all 3 million files, then deep scanned the audio files in a couple minutes. It played music fine. The only problem is that every time the drive is plugged in it takes the hour to go through the file scan.

So if THAT disk can work I see no reason yours should not work.

John S.

[danull]

Thank you, I appreciate both of you taking the time to respond.

Sounds like it's worth a shot, at least... which makes me feel better about this scheme. If it doesn't work I will report back ;-)

-Dan

[toby10]

Mine works fine with a lot of non-music files on the HD.