how does directory affect SB

[mgh]

Hi All,

Considering a Sqeezebox, and beginning to rip my collection to FLAC.

I am used to ripping with one folder for each artist, then having sub-folders for individual albums. For SB to display all info, track name, artist name, album name, does all that info have to be on the ID tag?

Right now, some folders have the album name, but the file itself does not include the album name. So when using the SB, do I navigate through folders to find what I want to listen to as I would navigate through Windows explorer? If I do not have all the info on each file ID tag will that hamper my searches or options when using the SB?

Thank You.

[azinck3]

Hi All,

Considering a Sqeezebox, and beginning to rip my collection to FLAC.

I am used to ripping with one folder for each artist, then having sub-folders for individual albums. For SB to display all info, track name, artist name, album name, does all that info have to be on the ID tag?

Right now, some folders have the album name, but the file itself does not include the album name. So when using the SB, do I navigate through folders to find what I want to listen to as I would navigate through Windows explorer? If I do not have all the info on each file ID tag will that hamper my searches or options when using the SB?

Thank You.

There are two ways to browse music on the squeezebox:
1) By tags - If you don't have tags then, when slimserver scans your collection, it will try to guess at what your tags *should* be based on folder structure. You can even tell it what your folder structure is so that its guess is more accurate.

2) Through the folder structure - this is truly just a straight browse of the directory structure, like you do through windows explorer

[mgh]

Thanks,

I was/am a bit confused about the ID tag. When I list the files in explorer, it does not show the album name, while other files do show that info (files ripped differently). However, when I look at the ID tag info it does show all info, including the album info.

So does the SB see the file name, or the actual ID tag?

[SuperQ]

Hi All,

Considering a Sqeezebox, and beginning to rip my collection to FLAC.

I am used to ripping with one folder for each artist, then having sub-folders for individual albums. For SB to display all info, track name, artist name, album name, does all that info have to be on the ID tag?

Right now, some folders have the album name, but the file itself does not include the album name. So when using the SB, do I navigate through folders to find what I want to listen to as I would navigate through Windows explorer? If I do not have all the info on each file ID tag will that hamper my searches or options when using the SB?

Thank You.

there are several tagging software applications that can automate adding tags to music files.

See the slimdevices wiki:
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cg...GuideToTagging

I don't use windows, but this one seems like it will fix up your FLACs nicely.
http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm

[azinck3]

Thanks,

I was/am a bit confused about the ID tag. When I list the files in explorer, it does not show the album name, while other files do show that info (files ripped differently). However, when I look at the ID tag info it does show all info, including the album info.

So does the SB see the file name, or the actual ID tag?

It's able to "see" both. If your music is tagged, then it will use the tags for display and browsing...the filename is virtually irrelevant. If your music is not tagged (i.e. the ID3 tags are empty) then it will look at your filename and directory structure to try to guess at what the tags are supposed to be (this only really works if you've followed a consistent naming convention).

The only time you'll see your filename is if you use the "browse music folder" option on the sb, in which case you'll browse the directory structure and see the filenames just as they appear in windows explorer.

[mgh]

Great, that was what I needed to know.

I have been experimenting with EAC and dbpoweramp for ripping. It seems PA is doing a very good job tagging the files, while EAC does no tagging at all. I have not yet tried to use any automatic tagging software to see how that goes.

I think I am getting closer to being able to purchase the sqeezebox.

[Mark Lanctot]

It seems PA is doing a very good job tagging the files, while EAC does no tagging at all.

EAC sure should be tagging. Have you set it up to use freedb online lookups? You're calling FLAC through a command-line command, make sure it's set properly with the "-T "artist=%a"" etc. entries.

Are things set as specified in http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?EACInstall?

Also you can install SlimServer at this point.