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[skifastbadly]

Before I start, I know this information is probably in here somewhere but I've been looking around for awhile and I'm going to throw myself at the mercy of the board and hope for patience....or flame me, that's ok, I'm a big boy.

I currently have two separate systems, one PC in my media room where I'm playing FLAC files out S/PDIF into an Adcom DAC and then into my stereo system.  It's been working very well with the only problem being that the PC generates a lot of heat and this is causing problems.  The second system is my work PC (I work from home) which has crappy little computer speakers and here I run MP3 files.  The reason for the MP3 files is that I started a long time ago with iTunes and I sync MC with my iPod which I travel with. 

I am in the middle of replacing the Media PC with the Raspberry Pi which I've asked about in the Linux thread, and it's working except obviously there's no CD drive on the Pi, which makes ripping and burning a bit of a challenge.  I've been trying to figure out how to attach a drive to my Router, but it's been hit and miss (It's a Netgear R8000 in case that matters.)  MC is having a hard time seeing the disc attached to the router, I don't know why.

I've decided to simplify the whole thing and have all my files attached to the office computer.  I figure I can have two libraries, one for the MP3s and one for the FLAC files, separate disc drives.   

So a couple of questions:
Am I missing something really obvious with this set up?  Doesn't it make sense to have everything on one PC given enough storage?
I want to continue to rip CDs twice, once for FLAC and once for MP3s.  Can I set up default ripping so that MC knows which format to use based on the library?

Thanks

[mwillems]

I want to continue to rip CDs twice, once for FLAC and once for MP3s.  Can I set up default ripping so that MC knows which format to use based on the library?

I'm not sure about some of your other points, but you really, really don't need to rip twice to get files in different formats: you can rip once to FLAC and then have MC convert it to MP3 which will be much faster than ripping the CD a second time and can be done in large batches (which is even faster).  As long as you rip to the lossless format, you can convert to the lossy format and it will be just as good as an MP3 ripped off the disk.

But I do have a very basic question:  if all the files will be on one PC used as a server, why do you need/want the mp3 files at all?  I understand with your old/current setup why you'd want the smaller files on the office computer with the crappy speakers, and that makes sense when you have two separate disconnected systems. But if you only have one repository of files that is serving both computers, what does the duplicate lower quality library do exactly?  It doesn't save space: if you have FLACs of everything, creating a second set of MP3's on the same computer is literally just wasted space (a lot of wasted space). If you need to conserve bandwidth, MC can transcode on the fly.  

What am I missing?

[skifastbadly]

Thanks.  I'd forgotten that I could convert.  That simplifies things.

I wish to retain the MP3 format for my iPod. I have a 160G iPod that I use all the time either when I'm riding my motorcycle or when I'm flying, which I do a lot of on business.   I can't imagine flying to Europe without music.

[ferday]

Use the convert-on-the-fly to sync to your iPod.  This way you keep your FLAC and there is never an MP3 copy but MC puts them on the iPod as MP3 in any bitrate you choose.  I fill my 160 classics all the time this way and it's nice not to have duplicates

Really if you want to keep the MP3, there's still no need to manage two libraries.  Just set up a view scheme for MP3 and one for FLAC and it's easy to keep them separate but also have them together for when you want and greatly simplify managing the collection