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[shAf]

(sorry if this has been asked before, but searching the subject on this forum is difficult and turned up very little that is current)

As my 3 year-old Windows 8 computer is currently taking 3 days to 'recover and restore' after booting to a solid blue screen rather than login, I contemplate replacing it with more reliable hardware (e.g., Apple Mini).  At this point I consider MC running on the Windows platform tried & true, but I wonder if MC for the Mac wouldn't suit my purposes(?) (playng & organizing music, RIP'ing music, playing MKV video) ...

Edit: I should also add that my Windows preferred audio output is "bitstreamed" via HDMI

TIA ... Your thoughts and advice is much appreciated!

[mwillems]

The sticky thread at the top of the MC20 Mac board comparing windows and mac is mostly up to date: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=97363.0

The only major change from what's in that thread is image support has been added (as far as I know). 

[shAf]

The sticky thread at the top of the MC20 Mac board comparing windows and mac is mostly up to date: ...

The only major change from what's in that thread is image support has been added (as far as I know). 

Thanks mwillems

I did see that in the MC20 forum, but imagined there may be additional plans for MC21 ... for example, I see that CD RIP'ing is considered finished, but I wonder if it's as polished(?)  The Mac OS files system is strange to me, and the MC interface to it isn't the same as for Windows.  E.G., how would I use an external encoder (AAC) for RIP'ing and converting audio?

[glynor]

I updated it a bit and moved it here.

By the way:

The Mac OS files system is strange to me, and the MC interface to it isn't the same as for Windows.

The OSX filesystem isn't the weird one. Windows is the weird one.

OSX is UNIX and uses a standard POSIX filesystem layout (like Linux and BSD and all other POSIX shells).  When you open a command line, you get a Bash prompt, just like on Linux.  There are some Mac-specific oddities to the filesystem, like that all external drives are mounted in /Volumes instead of /mnt and whatnot. But these are mostly changes to make things easier to understand for novices (and you can mount things in /mnt if you want).

And, of course, HFS+ is awful, but... That doesn't impact the way you use the filesystem at all.

I'm not sure what you're asking about the "MC interface" to the filesystem. Specific questions might be easier to answer.

[shAf]

I updated it a bit and moved it here.

By the way:
The OSX filesystem isn't the weird one. Windows is the weird one.

...

I'm not sure what you're asking about the "MC interface" to the filesystem. Specific questions might be easier to answer.

Thanks Glynor ... I believe I know what you mean regarding "strange" but it's also relative to,what one is used to. I find it nice to be able to edit the file system from within MC for Windows such that MC's catalog can update automatically, while there's no equivalent for the Mac version.

Regarding setting up the external encoder, I've never tried it it with the Mac...everything is managed with the Windows version while my Mac simply simply has access to the library server. It should be easy(?) to download a similar encoder (Mac), put the executable somewhere and point MC at it because MC allows a separate dialog field for the arguments to use.

[glynor]

Thanks Glynor ... I believe I know what you mean regarding "strange" but it's also relative to,what one is used to. I find it nice to be able to edit the file system from within MC for Windows such that MC's catalog can update automatically, while there's no equivalent for the Mac version.

This is not correct. Auto-Import works EXACTLY the same way on OSX as it does on Windows, as do External Encoders. I don't know what you're talking about.

As I said before, please explain directly and explicitly what you're looking to accomplish (almost certainly in a separate thread) without assuming that you've already "figured it out".

[shAf]

This is not correct. Auto-Import works EXACTLY the same way on OSX as it does on Windows, as do External Encoders. I don't know what you're talking about.

I wasn't speaking of "auto-import" ... I was speaking of "Locate=>On disk (within MC)" such that file system editing (file renaming, file moving, folder ops, etc) can be accomplished within MC such that these changes are internally monitored and automatically updated ...

As I said before, please explain directly and explicitly what you're looking to accomplish (almost certainly in a separate thread) without assuming that you've already "figured it out".

I was about to go thru the procedure for setting up an external encoder for file conversions.  The dialog is identical to MC for Windows so I imagine I won't have any problems with it ... EXCEPT, I cannot seem to find a version of QAAC for the Mac.  Research reveals that Finder can convert but the files needs to be in wave format first.  Is anyone familiar with converting typical audio formats to AAC with MC/Mac (other than, of course, resorting to iTunes)??

[blgentry]

I wasn't speaking of "auto-import" ... I was speaking of "Locate=>On disk (within MC)" such that file system editing (file renaming, file moving, folder ops, etc) can be accomplished within MC such that these changes are internally monitored and automatically updated ...

Yeah, so the "Drives" part of MC isn't present on MC for mac, so you can't navigate the file system from inside of MC.  Like you said, you can do "Locate on disk external", but then any changes you make aren't synced because you're outside of MC!  But there are several supported ways to change file names within MC.  The best is the Rename, Move, and Copy tool.  If you haven't used it, you should.  It is awesome!

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Rename,_Move,_and_Copy_Files

The other way I know of, is to use the Tagging Pane.  From Tagging, you can edit the file name and MC will change it in it's database AND on disk.  You can use expressions here too, which is convenient.

I was about to go thru the procedure for setting up an external encoder for file conversions.  The dialog is identical to MC for Windows so I imagine I won't have any problems with it ... EXCEPT, I cannot seem to find a version of QAAC for the Mac.  Research reveals that Finder can convert but the files needs to be in wave format first.  Is anyone familiar with converting typical audio formats to AAC with MC/Mac (other than, of course, resorting to iTunes)??

Hmm.  There are quite a few GUI based file converters for Mac designed for sound files.  Switch, Burn, XLD can all do it.  There are more too.  But you want a command line tool called from within MC?  I did a few minutes of research and didn't find anything definitive.  Doesn't FFMpeg include an AAC conversion tool?  Yeah, it looks like it can:

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/AAC

Brian.

[glynor]

There are all sorts of command line tools for OSX.  Probably the best way to get them is through Homebrew (ffmpeg is certainly there).

Yes, you can use external encoders with the Mac version of MC just like you can with Windows. You have to get and know how to use the command line tools, though.

The Mac version of MC does not have the internal filesystem browser, though there are a bunch of options. As Brian pointed out, the RMCF Tool is probably your best bet.  But you could also let Auto-Import's Fix Broken Links feature fix them if you really want to move things outside of MC.

The other way I know of, is to use the Tagging Pane.  From Tagging, you can edit the file name and MC will change it in it's database AND on disk.  You can use expressions here too, which is convenient.

If you change the [Filename] tag, MC moves the file.  This is essentially what RMCF does in Rename mode.  So, any way you can change the Filename tag, you can move files.

RMCF, of course, also allows you to use expressions. I'm sure you knew this, but others might get the wrong impression from your post, so I wanted to clarify.