I have about 1,500 audio CDs, which occupy a set of shelves all accross
the front of my living room. I'd like to record these to a hard disk
database (no lossy compression)and then have access the database from a
laptop near the stereo setup. Then I could box up the CDs in the
garage as my "backup".

I've looked at the Sony Jukeboxes, but they "only" hold 400 CDs, and I
don't know if they can be chained together.

I prefer the option of having this software based, as it might allow
various indexes (song, artitst, genre, etc.) and might also allow
linking to scanned images of the "little booklet".

Is there anything like this out there? It seems as if hard drive
storage is getting cheap enough to make this feasible.

Thanks

Almost any audio jukebox program will process uncompressed files as well
as MP3's, but of course that's gonna cost you tremendously more disk
space. I don't know offhand of any that support lossless compression
formats; I haven't had reason to go looking.

I'm currently using high-bit-rate MP3 files (mostly MP3Pro, actually)
and MusicMatch -- which probably is no better than anything else on the
market, it just does most of what I want and wasn't unreasonably priced.
I've got about 300 albums in it so far, and with MP3 compression that's
taking about 12G. I'd guess it would be about 120G completely
uncompressed. You're talking about an order of magnitude more data, so
you're going to either need LOT of disk space even by today's standards
or some form of compression.

Have fun...

Haolemon wrote:
I have about 1,500 audio CDs....
I've looked at the Sony Jukeboxes, but they "only" hold 400 CDs, and I
don't know if they can be chained together.

You can chain a total of three for 1200 CDs. But you have 1500 CDs; I
only have about 300.

I prefer the option of having this software based, as it might allow
various indexes (song, artitst, genre, etc.) and might also allow
linking to scanned images of the "little booklet".

That's a lot of scanning, and, along with the HD recording, could take
months! You might lose your sanity. Seriously.

On a related note... I bought a couple of Pioneer photo albums that
hold 4x6 photos. The CD booklets fit nicely in the pockets, but stick
out enough so they are easily removeable. I put them in the same order
as the jukebox, and numbered them. I have two per album page (in the
two bottom pockets) with a copy of the track listing in the pocket
above each booklet (I cut the copied pages to fit the 6" width). Now I
just browse through these albums and select the appropriate number on
the jukebox. The browsing in itself turned out to be quite
entertaining, and I now read liner notes - prior to this I was averse
to removing the booklets from those fiddly little CD cases. This system
works very well for me, but, of course, YMMV.

And, again, you have 1500 CDs.... maybe you should keep things the
same; life is short.

-Naren

In article om writes:

I have about 1,500 audio CDs, which occupy a set of shelves all accross
the front of my living room. I'd like to record these to a hard disk
database (no lossy compression)and then have access the database from a
laptop near the stereo setup. Then I could box up the CDs in the
garage as my "backup".

I've looked at the Sony Jukeboxes, but they "only" hold 400 CDs, and I
don't know if they can be chained together.

You will have a very tedious job doing this, and to what end? There
are probably 1,000 or more of those CDs that you'll never listen to.
Get a 400-disk jukebox, pick out your 100 favorites and load them up.
Then rotate 300 others of your collection in the other slots. Change
30 of the "floaters" every month. If you find one that you go back to
a couple of times in the month, swap it out for one of the "prime
100."

Large data bases and storage systems are great for libraries or
esoteric (not top 40) DJs who want to make up a program of individual
songs to play one time (and then do it again with a different set of
songs next week). But this takes a fair amount of thoght and effort.
CD players are for people who want to put on music from a particualar
artist and listen to an hour of it at a shot.

I don't know about you, but with a randomly accessable collection like
that, I'd probably never access most of it. I have about 30 LPs and
CDs stored on my Jukebox 3 player and that's been enough variety to
travel with for over two years. Your attention span may be different.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Thank you for all those voices of sanity. Quite amusing.

I've started using I tunes and a Roku music bridge this way. The Roku
plugs into your stereo.You can use either AAC compression or go all the
way to non-compressed, but AAC seems like a good compromise since
xfring stuff to an ipod is much more practical that way. The Roku is a
network device and can be either hardwired w/ a CAt 5 cable or access
your computer with I-tunes wirelessly. With the unit's readout and
remote you can access the albums you've loaded into i-tunes and on the
computer you can create custom playlists, store them and then access
them via the Riku. Alternatly you could use a second computer to access
your i-tunes in more detail and feed that to your stereo..
Good luck

On Aug 14, 2005, Haolemon commented:

Is there anything like this out there? It seems as if hard drive
storage is getting cheap enough to make this feasible.
------------------------------snip------------------------------

I've struggled with the same problem you are, Gary, only on a larger scale;
I've got a collection of about 11,000 CDs with which I'm constantly annoyed
in trying to keep them organized and stored.

There are a number of big-ticket audio servers designed for this purpose,
like the Escient Fireball, but most of these trap you into proprietary drives
and operating systems. I'd like to see one that's open source and would let
you attach as many hard drives as you want, preferably firewire or USB 2.

While big hard drives are coming down in price -- I just picked up a couple
of 500-gig drives for under $350 each last week -- the primary problem lies
in coming up with a fast and easy way of ripping all the CDs, plus coming up
with an interface that will let you access the music in a way that's
intuitive and convenient. My gut feeling is the solution doesn't quite exist
yet.

For now, I think you have to continue suffering with just having shelves and
shelves of CDs and listening to them that way. Eventually, though, maybe
some smart company will come up with a Mac- or Windows-based solution to this
problem and create a music (or media) server that is both affordable and
flexible, and is also more convenient than just playing individual discs.

--MFW

Haolemon wrote:

I have about 1,500 audio CDs, which occupy a set of shelves all accross
the front of my living room. I'd like to record these to a hard disk
database (no lossy compression)and then have access the database from a
laptop near the stereo setup. Then I could box up the CDs in the
garage as my "backup".

I've looked at the Sony Jukeboxes, but they "only" hold 400 CDs, and I
don't know if they can be chained together.

I prefer the option of having this software based, as it might allow
various indexes (song, artitst, genre, etc.) and might also allow
linking to scanned images of the "little booklet".

Is there anything like this out there? It seems as if hard drive
storage is getting cheap enough to make this feasible.

1500 CDs at an estimated average 600MB each (for the sake of easy
calculation) comes to 900GB.

Drive space ain't quite that cheap yet... the biggest readily available
SATA drives are now at 500GB, so you'll be needing a couple of those (at
CDN $550 each). Or maybe three 400GB drives at around CDN$350 each.
You're looking at about a grand just for storage, if you insist on
remaining uncompressed.




---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0533-0, 08/15/2005
Tested on: 8/15/2005 11:23:15 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com

Have a look at SlimServer...

http://www.slimdevices.com/

You don't actually need the hardware device - your software music player
will handle the stream.
I use this to play music from my home PC on my work PC - works fine on a
fast network - set the stream to some sensible bitrate to suit your
bandwidth.

http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html

Guy


"Haolemon" wrote in message
ps.com...
I have about 1,500 audio CDs, which occupy a set of shelves all accross
the front of my living room. I'd like to record these to a hard disk
database (no lossy compression)and then have access the database from a
laptop near the stereo setup. Then I could box up the CDs in the
garage as my "backup".

I've looked at the Sony Jukeboxes, but they "only" hold 400 CDs, and I
don't know if they can be chained together.

I prefer the option of having this software based, as it might allow
various indexes (song, artitst, genre, etc.) and might also allow
linking to scanned images of the "little booklet".

Is there anything like this out there? It seems as if hard drive
storage is getting cheap enough to make this feasible.

Thanks

Winamp plays FLAC files which are lossless and around half to a third of the
size of the uncompressed file. Winamp's jukebox feature should be sufficient
to catalogue your entire collection.
--
Lynn
Wobbly Music
"Supporting the Mature Artist"
=============================
http://www.wobblymusic.net
Latest Release... "Friends" by John McKeon
Order your copy now and get 2 FREE bonus tracks!
http://www.johnmckeon.wobblymusic.net


"Matt Ion" wrote in message
news:4EfMe.27901$vj.11981@pd7tw1no...
Haolemon wrote:

I have about 1,500 audio CDs, which occupy a set of shelves all accross
the front of my living room. I'd like to record these to a hard disk
database (no lossy compression)and then have access the database from a
laptop near the stereo setup. Then I could box up the CDs in the
garage as my "backup".

I've looked at the Sony Jukeboxes, but they "only" hold 400 CDs, and I
don't know if they can be chained together.

I prefer the option of having this software based, as it might allow
various indexes (song, artitst, genre, etc.) and might also allow
linking to scanned images of the "little booklet".

Is there anything like this out there? It seems as if hard drive
storage is getting cheap enough to make this feasible.

1500 CDs at an estimated average 600MB each (for the sake of easy
calculation) comes to 900GB.

Drive space ain't quite that cheap yet... the biggest readily available
SATA drives are now at 500GB, so you'll be needing a couple of those (at
CDN $550 each). Or maybe three 400GB drives at around CDN$350 each.
You're looking at about a grand just for storage, if you insist on
remaining uncompressed.




---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0533-0, 08/15/2005
Tested on: 8/15/2005 11:23:15 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com

Hi,

If you're willing to "settle" for high bit-rate MP3's there are a
number of PC-based solutions.

The way I did it was this: I have ripped all of my CDs to an 80 gig
hard disk on my kids PC in another room. I play them through my living
room and bedroom stereos using two Netgear MP101 networked MP3 players.
This approach allows me to do playlists and random access of music. I
also use the Netgears to play my own radio stations and music
selections from the Rhapsody online music service through my stereos.

Personally, I can't imagine listening to music without playlists any
more. And the ability to create my own radio stations in Rhasody is
wonderful.

Dean

I don't know about you, but with a randomly accessable collection like
that, I'd probably never access most of it.

Ah, there we differ. I'm putting all my audio into the jukebox/server
system precisely because I can shuffle-play the whole collection and
thus MAKE MYSELF listen to stuff I wouldn't have thought of hauling out
-- and in combinations I wouldn't have considered.

This randomization actually produces better "programming" than most
radio stations I've heard recently. Weirder, but far more interesting.
Of course it helps that it's all prefiltered by being stuff I thought
was interesting enough to buy in the first place...

Matt Ion wrote:
Haolemon wrote:

I have about 1,500 audio CDs, which occupy a set of shelves all accross
the front of my living room. I'd like to record these to a hard disk
database (no lossy compression)and then have access the database from a
laptop near the stereo setup. Then I could box up the CDs in the
garage as my "backup".

I've looked at the Sony Jukeboxes, but they "only" hold 400 CDs, and I
don't know if they can be chained together.

I prefer the option of having this software based, as it might allow
various indexes (song, artitst, genre, etc.) and might also allow
linking to scanned images of the "little booklet".

Is there anything like this out there? It seems as if hard drive
storage is getting cheap enough to make this feasible.

1500 CDs at an estimated average 600MB each (for the sake of easy
calculation) comes to 900GB.


Drive space ain't quite that cheap yet... the biggest readily available
SATA drives are now at 500GB, so you'll be needing a couple of those (at
CDN $550 each). Or maybe three 400GB drives at around CDN$350 each.
You're looking at about a grand just for storage, if you insist on
remaining uncompressed.

Whereas if he losslessly compresses them to flac files, he could
fit them onto one 500 Gb drive with room to spare.




--

-S

Lynn wrote:
Winamp plays FLAC files which are lossless and around half to a third of the
size of the uncompressed file. Winamp's jukebox feature should be sufficient
to catalogue your entire collection.

I don't think I've ever seen a flac file that was a third of the
size of the original. 45-75% of the original size is more like it
IME.

Joe Kesselman wrote:
I don't know about you, but with a randomly accessable collection like
that, I'd probably never access most of it.

Ah, there we differ. I'm putting all my audio into the jukebox/server
system precisely because I can shuffle-play the whole collection and
thus MAKE MYSELF listen to stuff I wouldn't have thought of hauling out
-- and in combinations I wouldn't have considered.

Exactly my reason too.


--

-S

"Steven Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Joe Kesselman wrote:
I don't know about you, but with a randomly accessable collection like
that, I'd probably never access most of it.

Ah, there we differ. I'm putting all my audio into the jukebox/server
system precisely because I can shuffle-play the whole collection and
thus MAKE MYSELF listen to stuff I wouldn't have thought of hauling out
-- and in combinations I wouldn't have considered.

Exactly my reason too.

Also, look at the program Moodlogic.

This takes your track names, and uses an on-line database to categorise the
kind of music each track is. Then you can get it to generate playlists of
music, according to your parameters of the kind of music you want to listen
to.

One guy I know uses the playlists to create CDs to listen to in his car;
when he's listened to them a few times, he throws them away!

Tim

Tim Martin wrote:

"Steven Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Joe Kesselman wrote:
I don't know about you, but with a randomly accessable collection like
that, I'd probably never access most of it.

Ah, there we differ. I'm putting all my audio into the jukebox/server
system precisely because I can shuffle-play the whole collection and
thus MAKE MYSELF listen to stuff I wouldn't have thought of hauling out
-- and in combinations I wouldn't have considered.

Exactly my reason too.

Also, look at the program Moodlogic.

This takes your track names, and uses an on-line database to categorise the
kind of music each track is. Then you can get it to generate playlists of
music, according to your parameters of the kind of music you want to listen
to.

if the online database categorizes music the way *I* do, this would work.

As it stands, all my FLAC file tags are personally reviewed by me, and
with foobar2k I can generate playlists according to pretty much any
parameter the user can define (or just use the pre-defined ones, like
genre).






--

-S

On 10/3/05 2:45 PM, in article , "Steven
Sullivan" wrote:

Tim Martin wrote:

"Steven Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Joe Kesselman wrote:
I don't know about you, but with a randomly accessable collection like
that, I'd probably never access most of it.

Ah, there we differ. I'm putting all my audio into the jukebox/server
system precisely because I can shuffle-play the whole collection and
thus MAKE MYSELF listen to stuff I wouldn't have thought of hauling out
-- and in combinations I wouldn't have considered.

Exactly my reason too.

Also, look at the program Moodlogic.

This takes your track names, and uses an on-line database to categorise the
kind of music each track is. Then you can get it to generate playlists of
music, according to your parameters of the kind of music you want to listen
to.

if the online database categorizes music the way *I* do, this would work.

As it stands, all my FLAC file tags are personally reviewed by me, and
with foobar2k I can generate playlists according to pretty much any
parameter the user can define (or just use the pre-defined ones, like
genre).

Or alphabetically-by-third-letter ?

SSJVCmag wrote:
On 10/3/05 2:45 PM, in article , "Steven
Sullivan" wrote:

Tim Martin wrote:

"Steven Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Joe Kesselman wrote:
I don't know about you, but with a randomly accessable collection like
that, I'd probably never access most of it.

Ah, there we differ. I'm putting all my audio into the jukebox/server
system precisely because I can shuffle-play the whole collection and
thus MAKE MYSELF listen to stuff I wouldn't have thought of hauling out
-- and in combinations I wouldn't have considered.

Exactly my reason too.

Also, look at the program Moodlogic.

This takes your track names, and uses an on-line database to categorise the
kind of music each track is. Then you can get it to generate playlists of
music, according to your parameters of the kind of music you want to listen
to.

if the online database categorizes music the way *I* do, this would work.

As it stands, all my FLAC file tags are personally reviewed by me, and
with foobar2k I can generate playlists according to pretty much any
parameter the user can define (or just use the pre-defined ones, like
genre).

Or alphabetically-by-third-letter ?

If one wanted to, yes. Foobar2k is *extremely* user-configurable. One is
limited mainly by how well one masters the coding language.



--

-S

"Steven Sullivan" wrote in message
...

if the online database categorizes music the way *I* do, this would work.


Well, the idea of it is you don't have to do the categorisation yourself,
you just use the results of others' efforts.

So it's never going to give you results as good as those you can achieve by
categorising the music yourself. On the other hand, it categorised about
80% of my on-line collection, with no effort from me, and the playlists it
generates for me seem fine.

Tim

Tim Martin wrote:

"Steven Sullivan" wrote in message
...

if the online database categorizes music the way *I* do, this would work.


Well, the idea of it is you don't have to do the categorisation yourself,
you just use the results of others' efforts.

So it's never going to give you results as good as those you can achieve by
categorising the music yourself. On the other hand, it categorised about
80% of my on-line collection, with no effort from me, and the playlists it
generates for me seem fine.

I'm not against automated categorization by any means.
I rip all my CDs with EAC (plus an automatic handoff to a the FLAC file
compression tool), which uses the freedB database to generate names
and tags (artist, CD title, track title, number, genre), as well as
a directory structure for my files.
When needed I can correct most of this input right at the start, before the
ripping process. So all of my files begin life more or less in the ballpark
of correct. With downstream tools -- e.g. Tag & Rename, or the ones
built-in to foobar2000 -- I can bulk-correct tags or
do individual fixes.



--

-S