Squeeze Box vs Transporter

[garym]

How do you properly get album artwork so that it displays in LMS ?

For example 2 recently ripped CD's with ITunes (Apple Lossless).
Disc 1 did get album art work automatically added in ITunes but I don't see album art in LMS.
Disc 2 did not get album art work automatically. I added manually in ITunes. I do see album art in LMS.

itunes stores its artwork in a special itunes database. You won't see this artwork in LMS. But in itunes, you can also copy and paste the artwork in itunes file properties and as you've discovered this will work. There are also some programs that will automatically do this for you if you have lots. Google for iCoverArt.

[aubuti]

If you're just starting to rip CDs and planning to use them with LMS, then you may well find it more convenient to use a better ripper/tagger like dBpoweramp. Yes, you can do what you need to do with iTunes, but it will probably end up being more hassle in the end.

[spike99]

If you're just starting to rip CDs and planning to use them with LMS, then you may well find it more convenient to use a better ripper/tagger like dBpoweramp. Yes, you can do what you need to do with iTunes, but it will probably end up being more hassle in the end.

Actually what I did to get LMS to see cover art was to add a jpeg cover art file in same directory album was located. But this doesn't seem ideal if I purchase a single song... Probably would be best if cover art would be embedded in song file...

This is why dBpoweramp looks interesting... They have a 21 day trial.. I may try it out...

Edit: I did rip some CD's with dBpoweramp and have a question... when I rip a CD either with iTunes or dBPoweramp... I see the bit rate varies... but when I play directly from CD it is a constant 1411 kpbs. I suppose this is normal ?

[aubuti]

If you purchase a single song you could put a cover.jpg file in there with it, or you could embed the cover art in the file's tags. Either works fine, and take up comparable amounts of space. If you're worried about them getting separated then embedding the album art is the better solution.

As for the differing bit rates, I think that's just the compression of encodings like Apple Lossless or FLAC. Both Apple Lossless and FLAC are lossless, so you don't need to worry about losing audio quality. Less complex music (data-wise that is) compresses more, and needs fewer bps to reproduce the sound. It's analogous to the way some types of files compress much more than others when you use zip or rar.

And I recommend giving dBpoweramp a really good tryout.

[garym]

If you purchase a single song you could put a cover.jpg file in there with it, or you could embed the cover art in the file's tags. Either works fine, and take up comparable amounts of space. If you're worried about them getting separated then embedding the album art is the better solution.

As for the differing bit rates, I think that's just the compression of encodings like Apple Lossless or FLAC. Both Apple Lossless and FLAC are lossless, so you don't need to worry about losing audio quality. Less complex music (data-wise that is) compresses more, and needs fewer bps to reproduce the sound. It's analogous to the way some types of files compress much more than others when you use zip or rar.

And I recommend giving dBpoweramp a really good tryout.

+1 for dbpa. I use dbpa to rip all my CDs to FLAC. I also create a lossy (mp3) version of all these files to use on my ipods, iphones, ipads, etc. And as aubuti points out, the different bitrates have to do with LOSSLESS encoding. Not a problem at all.

[garym]

Also, for artwork, I use "cover.jpg" as a separate file in the album subdirectory for all lossless (FLAC) files, even if the "album" is only one song. I use embedded artwork in all my mp3/m4a files as I sometimes move these files around in odd ways and want to be sure the artwork is always with the file.

[spike99]

OK, Thanks for the comments.

[spike99]

OK... I have an issue and need some more help

I just received my Synology yesterday and installed 2 hard drives... Then I copied 2 albums to Synology...

I installed LMS in Synology... Also updated latest Synology's DSM. LMS versions seemed the same for Synology and SB Touch.

I purposely stopped LMS on my PC.

But my SqueezeBox Touch does not appear to see LMS in Synology.. always complains about LMS not running on my PC.

I have both Synology and SB Touch connected directly to same router.

I'm trying to get some support... but I'm starting to wonder why I need Synology...
Yes, I can don't need my PC always on to play SB, but I normally have PC on anyway.
Yes, I can share files with other PC's but in reality... I don't think its gonna be used much... and I can always have a public share to share any files...

[aubuti]

To get the Touch to see the Synology, go to My Music > Switch Library (it's the last option). If the Synology and your network are well-configured then it should offer the Synology as an option, so choose that. If that doesn't work for you, you may want to re-do the entire Touch setup procedure, and specify the Synology as the server that way. To do a "factory reset" of the Touch (ie, wipe out all settings), press the small button on the back and hold it for 10-15 seconds, until the screen says "Factory Reset" or words to that effect.

Re the "need" for the Synology, I'm not sure what to say. In your original post in this thread and at least one subsequent post you said that you wanted a NAS to run LMS. You were very clear about that, so I think we all took you at your word and didn't question the choice. If you'd rather run LMS from your pc then you may want to use the Synology for its original intended purpose, which is serving files, as opposed to serving music. Didn't you say your pc's hard drive was 95% full? If so, then move some of the files onto the NAS. Though it will probably take a while to fill up the two drives at that rate ;-) Could you use the NAS in your file backup system?

EDIT: If neither of those uses of the Synology appeal to you, can you still send it back?

[garym]

To get the Touch to see the Synology, go to My Music > Switch Library (it's the last option). If the Synology and your network are well-configured then it should offer the Synology as an option, so choose that. If that doesn't work for you, you may want to re-do the entire Touch setup procedure, and specify the Synology as the server that way. To do a "factory reset" of the Touch (ie, wipe out all settings), press the small button on the back and hold it for 10-15 seconds, until the screen says "Factory Reset" or words to that effect.

Re the "need" for the Synology, I'm not sure what to say. In your original post in this thread and at least one subsequent post you said that you wanted a NAS to run LMS. You were very clear about that, so I think we all took you at your word and didn't question the choice. If you'd rather run LMS from your pc then you may want to use the Synology for its original intended purpose, which is serving files, as opposed to serving music. Didn't you say your pc's hard drive was 95% full? If so, then move some of the files onto the NAS. Though it will probably take a while to fill up the two drives at that rate ;-) Could you use the NAS in your file backup system?

EDIT: If neither of those uses of the Synology appeal to you, can you still send it back?

agree. I'd use the Synology as my network storage, store my audio files there, then point LMS on my PC to the directory on the NAS with those files. Then you've freed up space, you're running a fast version of LMS, and if you ever want to turn off computer, just use mysb.com temporarily for other stuff. And in addition, I'd create several backups on USB drives (stored at two different locations, and not normally plugged in).