XP Pro / MC 10 build 173 / 3 USB 2.0-connected drives / async rip & encode - 3 rip, 4 encode procs
I should probably post this later, after I'm done with the 1500 plus CD's that I'm ripping ... because I am so pissed-off and frustrated that it's going to be VERY hard to not have this post be a mad rant.
Has JRiver ever tested Media Center with multiple drives when trying to rip a large number of CD's? From where I sit, it's buggier than a baitshop.
Here are the problems I am having:
YADB lookups fail constantly, with a "Cannot connect ...", even when the disc IS in the database. (The problem isn't with my connectivity --- I have dual T1's here!)
MC ignores the Option setting to choose the first result if there are multiples
On several occasions, all three drives have shown the same artist/album/track info
MC crashes, leaving the ripped but unencoded files in limbo ... I need to manually figure out what's been done and what needs re-ripping
MC seems to want to look CDs up twice before starting the rip. Frequently the first lookup succeeds, but the second time fails, then the idiot thing wipes out the correct CD info, and rips to Unknown/Unknown.
MC ignores the "Do Nothing" Audio CD setting
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The biggest problem is when it works well for 5 or 6 CDs in a row, and has a big backlog of WAV files to encode, and then crashes .... I've got to go back and start over!
It's very clear to me that for whatever reason, MC's threading is completely FUBARed. YADB connection attempts are blocking screen updates, and sometimes other drives' CD changes. Sometimes wrong YADB data gets associated the wrong drive's CD.
I have three recommendations:
First, test the damned thing in this configuration! I'm not making this stuff up.
Second, make an option to "Never start rip without tag data", and be certain MC obeys the setting.
Third, in the case where MC is set for asynchronous rip/encode, start a whole other program to drive the encoding process. Maintain a task queue for it the simple, stupid, bulletproof and effective way; a plain old text file. That way, if MC crashes, the encoding process will continue, so work done previously will not be lost.
Fourth, as an additional precaution, if you must rip into the Temp directory before encoding, at least maintain the Artist/Album directory structure underneath Temp, so that ripping work isn't lost.
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I realize that it's unlikely you'll re-architect MC to fix this stuff, but if you have any interest in having me do any tests to help you fix or diagnose the problems, contact me via email.
Paul
How to fix this: