Topic: yadb is too sparse (Read 3741 times)

noborg · « **on:** March 18, 2003, 08:49:11 am »

Hi,

I've converted from MJ8 to MC9 (new paid license) and finally got things to where I was ready to start adding music. I was surprised and disappointed to find that the first three CDs I tried were not in yadb. This almost never happened with MJ8 (I was using CDDB).

http://www.yadb.com/stats.html reports that the current yadb success rate is not much above 50%, so my experience (above) isn't surprising. But it's a pain, since I have to resort to a convoluted workflow in which I rip via EAC and then import into MC (which involves several steps to make things right).

I assume that removing CDDB was a business decision (I note that yadb was written and is copyrighted by J River). I have no problem with that, except in that it has made MC9 considerably less convenient in this respect than MJ8.

Apparently, yadb is based on freedb. So why is the yadb success rate so low when the freedb success rate is high? (EAC uses freedb and was successful in all three of the cases mentioned above.)

How about enabling CDDB again until yadb gets more mature? Some may say I should be a good citizen and upload stuff to yadb, but since MC isn't free software I don't think that's a strong point.

js

ChicoSelfs · « **Reply #1 on:** March 18, 2003, 09:17:20 am »

Yadb is still very new and a way to grow up is submiting the cd's that we have, i'm doing that. If no ones submit Cd's they don't show up

JimH · « **Reply #2 on:** March 18, 2003, 10:09:19 am »

And the success rate is more like 70%. The 50% was for week to date.

Steef_V. · « **Reply #3 on:** March 18, 2003, 10:49:28 am »

About a month or 2 ago there were still quite some CD's in my collection that were not listed. Today I was surprised that even a cheap set of 10 oldies CD's from a Dutch publisher were all present in YADB! Only about 10% of the CD's I own cannot be found! Will add those very soon.....

noborg · « **Reply #4 on:** March 18, 2003, 11:25:44 am »

I rarely rip whole CDs (just a few tracks), so even if I were willing to take the time there's not much point in my entering and uploading. Plus, I don't really have the time. So I've figured out an EAC-based workflow for ripping and I'll live with that until yadb improves.

I think it's great that so many of you are willing to help improve J River's yadb (I am too -- e.g., trying to figure out the right iPod workflow), but please explain:

1. Given that yadb is based on freedb, why are so many of my CDs (4 out of the last 5) in freedb but not in yadb? Is it possible that my MJ9 setup is flawed?

2. Given freedb, why is yadb needed at all? (Obvious guess is that J River is building a CDDB competitor.)

js

JimH · « **Reply #5 on:** March 18, 2003, 11:27:00 am »

What version of MC are you using? Some bugs have been fixed over time.

Are the disks bought in stores?

Even the same CD can have different pressings.

noborg · « **Reply #6 on:** March 18, 2003, 11:36:51 am »

MC version: 9.0.129. Yes, all the CDs are store-bought.

Non-obscure examples (in freedb, but not yadb): Dutty Rock (Sean Paul), Nightclubbing (Grace Jones), Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits).

Again, what does it mean that yadb is based on freedb? And why not just use freedb?

js

JimH · « **Reply #7 on:** March 18, 2003, 11:50:45 am »

Noborg,
We use YADB. We don't use Freedb. We don't use CDDB.

You may have found several that aren't there, but please try 30 or 40 to get a better feel for it.

YADB is in its first year, but we already have fewer problems than we did with CDDB.

Jim

TimB · « **Reply #8 on:** March 18, 2003, 12:14:23 pm »

This is my view...

With yadb JRiver (a) doesn't have to pay a huge royalty (upped by a huge percentage over the last agreement) and (b) has control over its own destiny.

I recently ripped 800 CD's, > 90% were in yadb, I have a few classical CD's, they were ALL in yadb.

-=Tim=-

michel · « **Reply #9 on:** March 18, 2003, 12:30:05 pm »

Quote

Again, what does it mean that yadb is based on freedb?

That means Yadb DB started as a copy of Freedb DB but it is managed by a software developped by JRiver.

JorgeGVB · « **Reply #10 on:** March 18, 2003, 01:00:24 pm »

I ripped 500+ CDs around the holidays and I also found YADB success rate to be around 90%. I uploaded my info once I completed ripping my CDs.

Frankly, if you purchased the MC software, you joined an exclusive club of serious music lovers. I would think you would be happy to share your CD info with all of us and make it better. Jim and the gang are probably the best user friendly software developers I have ever seen. I am happy to help were I can.

nila · « **Reply #11 on:** March 18, 2003, 01:10:36 pm »

FEATURE REQUEST
Ha - that'll teach you guys to post links and bring up subjects - u give me ideas

I went to the yadb link page and looked at the stats.

I saw the: 10 most played songs this week, 10 most ever.

BUILD THIS INTO MJ!!!

I'd love to have like instead of a Billboard top 50 - have an MJ top 50. Ask users if they mind if the songs they played are passed onto a web site with NO info passed as to who is playing it so it's purely just listing the number of times played etc and use this to include into MJ a top 50 chart. Would be SUCH A SWEET FEATURE!!

If you extended this db to include: time of day played etc so that it could replicate WMP's smart playlists of: Played in the evenings, played on the weekends etc then MJ could include an AMAZING db of the songs played most during particular times of day, days of the week etc in a web chart. - It could even just be a screen that automatically displays your website stats presented slightly better.

What'd u think??

I think it'd be sooooooo cool.

I'd love to see what kind of music people listen to at nights etc.

NoCodeUK · « **Reply #12 on:** March 18, 2003, 01:12:39 pm »

I may have reasonably popular tastes but so far I have not found a CD that wasn't in YADB and that is with my whole collection (just under 100). It even had some cheap and nasty compilations I got from a supermarket and CDs from the front of UK only magazines...so in my opinion it aint doing too bad

Adam

michel · « **Reply #13 on:** March 18, 2003, 01:16:59 pm »

Quote

if you purchased the MC software, you joined an exclusive club of serious music lovers. I would think you would be happy to share your CD info with all of us and make it better.

Thanks you dozens of thousands of people who helped to build Freedb (so Yadb). Thanks you but sorry you are not part of the club of serious music lovers so I cannot share my CD info with you.

Sorry, may be it is this war coming...

Michael Horton · « **Reply #14 on:** March 18, 2003, 01:29:12 pm »

Of the last 30 store-bought CDs that I have ripped, about 4 have been in YADB. For the others, I simply added the info and submitted it to tha database. I'm a hunt&peck-style typist, and it takes me no more than 3 minutes to add the info for a single unidentified CD. Of the CDs that are located by YABD, I have found them accurate and complete, typically including the year and comments field when appropriate. The system will serve us well if we all do our part and pitch in.

zevele10 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 18, 2003, 03:19:56 pm »

I understand someone who just want to get cd infos after having pay for MC.
And i understand that one does not want to bother to upload infos to YADB.

As someone ho had check TONS of cds to see if in YADB , i can say that YADB is FAR to be perfect concerning new records

But helping - or trying to help- another project of a different kind , now i understand where is the problem: different pressing DO NOT have the same digital print.
If one upload cd infos for the US pressing of a record, this DOES NOT mean one in France with a french pressing would get cd infos from YADB .

To upload tracks infos IS NOT the same than to upload cd infos.
But i do not feel to spend half an hour typing with ONE finger in my third language to explain.
Someone would tell you.
King or "Penguin on a bike".
I may do it but ,as Michel would say 'after the war going on finish'

JorgeGVB · « **Reply #16 on:** March 18, 2003, 03:27:48 pm »

I must be lazy or something, but I don't type in most of the info on my CDs that are missing. I copy and paste most of the song titles from http://www.allmusic.com. Couple of clicks and you are done!

rwf · « **Reply #17 on:** March 18, 2003, 06:08:14 pm »

Quote

I have loaded over 1,500 of my classical and jazz CD's into MediaCenter9. ... I will be happy to upload track info to YADB. It will then have a good classical music foundation and more jazz entries.

Before uploading, may I ask, does YADB support the "composer" field?

To LeoH:

As a classical fan - I surely hope you upload your info. I did 99% of my ripping & tagging in MMJB (before I discovered MC9), and while alot of the classical was found, I had to do a bunch of the tagging manually - and, it is a pain. Building up the classical offerings would be great.

I'm also hoping that yadb supports the composer tag (the initial attraction for me of MC9). Will be interested in the answer.

JorgeGVB · « **Reply #18 on:** March 18, 2003, 06:44:19 pm »

Quote

Thanks you dozens of thousands of people who helped to build Freedb (so Yadb). Thanks you but sorry you are not part of the club of serious music lovers so I cannot share my CD info with you...

What makes you think we didn't use Freedb before? I certainly did. I fail to see the logic those of you are using for refusing to upload your info.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #19 on:** March 18, 2003, 08:28:06 pm »

My question about submitting info to yadb:

If I ripped these CDs with another machine, or downloaded them from the internet and then tagged them and imported them into MC (still full albums, let's say)...

...can I still upload this info to yadb? Will it store them as an album? I want to help, but I don't know if it'd be a waste of bandwidth, providing y'all with info that you can't use.

I have hundreds of albums in my library, and if they can help other people then I'd gladly select my entire library and submit to yadb. But would it be useful?

LeoH -- you'd LOVE the iPod, sir. Composer field is fully supported and browsable.

Pardon me whilst I evangelize...

michel · « **Reply #20 on:** March 18, 2003, 10:58:06 pm »

Quote

What makes you think we didn't use Freedb before? I certainly did. I fail to see the logic those of you are using for refusing to upload your info.

I was probably unclear. In fact for me it was a closed topic since I gave my opinion a few month ago about Yadb but I had to react to the post of JorgeGVB.

What I would say is that it is not very fair to build Yadb starting from a free and open DB (Freedb) made by all users and then to improve it only for MC users (how many of you upload both Yadb and Freedb ?). So the serious music lover club expression from JorgeGVB was too much for me to stay without reaction.

Sorry again to put cold water on your enthousiasm (a french expression, may be it doesn't make sense in english !).

Have a nice day.

LeoH · « **Reply #21 on:** March 18, 2003, 11:06:12 pm »

Kurt,

The iPod is a wonderful player except that the display does not scroll horizontally. So, if you have long titles, i.e. - "Miles Davis & Gil Evans, the Complete Studio Sessions, disc 1 of 'n'", etc., the iPod will only display the first half of the titles. If there are many of these, one can easily get lost in the list. It make navigation a pain of trial and error. OTOH, the Archos and a few other players do scroll horizontally but uses a folder/filename method for indexing and navigation but looses the valuable tag info.

If only the iPod used horizontal scrolling, or the Archos read tags, life would be perfect...

LeoH

JimH · « **Reply #22 on:** March 19, 2003, 02:59:18 am »

Quote

If I ripped these CDs with another machine, or downloaded them from the internet and then tagged them and imported them into MC (still full albums, let's say)...

...can I still upload this info to yadb? Will it store them as an album? I want to help, but I don't know if it'd be a waste of bandwidth, providing y'all with info that you can't use.

Kurt,
Assuming the tracks are well tagged, please submit them. This will add them to the track database, but not to the database of CD's. They are separate. Both are useful. The first for tagging untagged or poorly tagged files, the second for CD lookup when ripping.

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Author Topic: yadb is too sparse (Read 3741 times)

nila

zevele10