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Author Topic: MC -v- WMP  (Read 1184 times)

chrisjowett

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MC -v- WMP
« on: January 05, 2006, 04:27:57 am »

I am in the process of ripping all my CDs (over 300) for easy access (I have 2 x 300gb hard disks inside and an external 300gb back-up). As much as I love MC, there are 2 things that WMP does better:
1. The algorythm for alphabetical listing ignores "the" and possibly other articles. Consequently WMP lists "The Rolling Stones" under R, while MC lists them under T. Is there a setting or do I wait for an update?
2. So far I have encountered 2 CDs that the MC database just did not recognise, and several for which it couldn't find cover art. In the case of the former I had to rip in WMP, and in the latter hitting "find album info" in WMP provided the missing cover art in MC. Any ideas?
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Alex B

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Re: MC -v- WMP
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2006, 05:01:26 am »

I am in the process of ripping all my CDs (over 300) for easy access (I have 2 x 300gb hard disks inside and an external 300gb back-up).

What format are you using? MC uses LAME MP3 encoder which is known have the best MP3 quality. WMA and naturally the uncompressed wave format are the same in WMP and MC. MC has a secure ripping option (similar to EAC) that can detect and try to recover read errors. WMP doesn't have a secure ripping system.

Check this thread out for ripping tips: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29157.0

Quote
As much as I love MC, there are 2 things that WMP does better:
1. The algorythm for alphabetical listing ignores "the" and possibly other articles. Consequently WMP lists "The Rolling Stones" under R, while MC lists them under T. Is there a setting or do I wait for an update?

MC has an option for that. Tools > Options > Tree & View > Sorting > Ignore articles (a, an, the)
This is for sort order only.

Personally, I have filled the Album Artist field without articles and used that field in folder naming rules.
My usual folder naming rule is [Album Artist (auto)]\[Album]\.

MC fills the [Album Artist (auto)] field automatically with the Artist field unless the album is a multiple artists album (then it uses "(multiple artists)") or something is filled in the Album Artist field.

E.g. Artist is The Rolling Stones, but Album Artist is Rolling Stones.

Quote
2. So far I have encountered 2 CDs that the MC database just did not recognise, and several for which it couldn't find cover art. In the case of the former I had to rip in WMP, and in the latter hitting "find album info" in WMP provided the missing cover art in MC. Any ideas?

MC can read CD info from the cdplayer.ini file (a Windows standard). I have used Player and Audiograbber programs for finding and adding the info to the cdplayer.ini file when it is not available in MC's database. The details are here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29099.0

KingSparta has made a new cover art plugin: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=31068.0, http://www.spartasoftware.com/. You may want to try it.
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chrisjowett

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Re: MC -v- WMP
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2006, 06:55:57 am »

Thank you oh knowledable one.
I know the LAME codec and MC is superior, and as I've indicated I prefer MC anyway.
The worst identification problem I encountered was a Jimi Hendrix album The Cry of Love, which came up all blanks, so rather than entering all the details off the insert I went lazy and used WMP.
I knew there would be a setting, but again I concede I was too lazy to find it, but in my defence the word "article" does not appear in Help.
In any event I prefer your Album Artist approach, which will also enable me to list artists together despite name changes etc, eg Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, without changing the Artist.
Finally I had already tried the KingSparta (actually Greek or that weird American college thing?) plug-in but kept getting "There was nothing I could search for. Make sure the artist fields are filled in" so I gave up.
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