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[Donmc]

My main computer was running out of memory and I could not increase it.  As a result, I decided to put Media Center on another computer on my network.  When I did so and imported my music collection, much of the metadata disappeared or was completely scrambled.  Cover art was missing and even the way the albums were organized had been messed with.  It was as if it had reverted to the original metadata.

I have an extensive collection (over 20.000 files) and much of it is classical music.  I had spent many hours reorganizing the metadata but now it seems that I will need to do it over again.

Is there something I can do about this like a trick to importing the files into Media Center?

I am using Media Center 21 on Windows 10 computers.

[glynor]

Most metadata and the entire View system are stored in Media Center's Library (the database). Re-importing the files will, by and large, start fresh (then it will only be able to import the tags embedded in the files themselves).

You need to make a Library Backup on the original machine, and then restore it on the new one:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Backup

The files will need to be available via the same "path" (same drive letter and everything) on the new machine as the old one, or else you'll also need to fix the broken file links using the Rename, Move, and Copy Files tool (after you restore the backup):
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Rename,_Move,_and_Copy_Files

[Donmc]

Thank you. 

I tried that and it helped but things are still somewhat messy with missing cover art (about 20%), albums combined and separated into individual tracks and incorrect (original?) labeling.  Should I restore the library backup first and then import the media files?

Don.

[blgentry]

You should restore the backup.  But DON'T try to import the files again!  The Backup contains all of the information about the files and their metadata already.  Importing will just confuse things.

I suspect that your new machine has a different file path to your music files than the old computer.  If that's true, after your restore, none of your media will play.  You'll see all of it, but won't be able to play it.  In that case, you need to use the Rename, Move, and Copy tool to update the file path to the correct location.  See the link in Glynor's post above.  Once you update the paths to be correct, all of your media will play again.  ...and of course all of your metadata should be intact across the entire process.

If your Cover Art is stored in a single directory (and not inside or beside the files) then you'll need to copy that over too.

Brian.

[Donmc]

Thank you.  That worked much better and the path to the music files (on an external NAS drive) was correct.  The files play now but much of the metadata is still messed up with about 20% of the cover art missing and other issues.

If I try to edit while music is playing, the music starts and stops - momentarily like a dropout.  It is now running on a dedicated computer that is doing nothing else.  I thought this was a memory issue on my other computer but it is still there on the new one.

[blgentry]

The files play now but much of the metadata is still messed up

The Album, Artist, Name, Date, etc tags should be identical from your original system to this new one.  A Library backup contains everything related to these fields (and all the rest of the fields in MC's Library database).

with about 20% of the cover art missing and other issues.

I would guess that the missing cover art is probably stored in a common cover art directory.  Go back to your original system and look at one of your problem albums.  Now look at the [Image File] tag.  That will tell you where the cover art is on the original system.  If it's in a common cover art directory, you can copy that from the original system to the new system.

If I try to edit while music is playing, the music starts and stops - momentarily like a dropout.  It is now running on a dedicated computer that is doing nothing else.  I thought this was a memory issue on my other computer but it is still there on the new one.

This might be because your computer isn't very powerful.  You could run the JRiver benchmark to see:  Help > Benchmark > run benchmark .  It might be because your network connection is slow due to weak wireless signal at one end or the other.  It might be due to the NAS being very low powered.  The most common ones of these are routers that have optional USB inputs to become a cheap NAS box.  Or maybe it's something else I haven't thought of.  Maybe that will help you get started in the right direction.

Brian.

[Donmc]

Thanks.

I had to give up on the separate computer for now because my 15 day return period was over and it clearly wasn't working.

I am back to my main computer now and the problem is the audio stuttering.  The computer is running windows 10 and has an Intel dual-core processor with 8 gb RAM.  It should be up to the task.  I ran the benchmark for it and here is the full report.

=== Running Benchmarks (please do not interrupt) ===

Running 'Math' benchmark...
    Single-threaded integer math... 4.199 seconds
    Single-threaded floating point math... 2.486 seconds
    Multi-threaded integer math... 2.153 seconds
    Multi-threaded mixed math... 1.314 seconds
Score: 1872

Running 'Image' benchmark...
    Image creation / destruction... 0.870 seconds
    Flood filling... 1.582 seconds
    Direct copying... 1.912 seconds
    Small renders... 2.096 seconds
    Bilinear rendering... 1.326 seconds
    Bicubic rendering... 0.881 seconds
Score: 2538

Running 'Database' benchmark...
    Create database... 0.382 seconds
    Populate database... 2.634 seconds
    Save database... 0.954 seconds
    Reload database... 0.304 seconds
    Search database... 3.599 seconds
    Sort database... 1.718 seconds
    Group database... 1.056 seconds
Score: 2019

JRMark (version 21.0.50): 2143

I don't know how to interpret this.

I tried shutting off all the Windows sound enhancements and then turning off all applications including my anti-virus.  The stuttering was somewhat reduced but still happened on a regular basis - every few seconds.  The stuttering is worst with any browser activity.  It seems like all my work was for nothing.

Don.

[blgentry]

Other people here are better at diagnosing Windows audio issues than I am.  They are probably going to tell you to uninstall your AV software as a test.  But I'll leave it to the others.

The good news is, your JMark score is plenty for most tasks, as long as you aren't trying to do tons of convolution or decoding really high rate DSD files or something.

Brian.

[RoderickGI]

I would look at your NAS first, before worrying about AV software, if playback used to work fine.

The problem happened on both PCs, and the NAS is a common element to both the old and new setup. I assume that you have the same AV software on the new PC as the old had, so that could still be a problem. In fact, if a NAS is a bit slow in delivering files, and then AV software analyses every file delivered, it can be the combination of both that causes stuttering of music.

But first the NAS:
Do you have utilities that can check the health of your NAS?
Are all the disks on the NAS in good condition?
Is it getting full, or old?
Is it running the latest firmware?
Had you made any changes to the NAS around the time the problem started?

Perhaps create a new, empty library on the new PC, copy a few files across from the NAS to the local hard disk on that PC, and then import them into the local library. Then see if the playback problem happens with those files. Be careful when using multiple libraries and switching between them that you are on the correct library when you do maintenance. You don't want to damage you main library!

Read these if you aren't familiar with using multiple libraries.
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Manager

[Donmc]

Many thanks for the suggestions.

I was blaming Windows 10 for the problem so I disabled the enhancements.  Then I decided to remove a sound card that didn't seem to be working properly and then I uninstalled other music software - Logitech, Media Monkey, and iTunes.  This seems to have solved the problem - for now.

Don.