Topic: SACD/DSD/DFF files from external hard drive isn't working (Read 6943 times)

mstulken · « **on:** March 15, 2013, 09:53:10 pm »

I'm trying to add a new library of data from an external hard drive that contains a mix of flac and dsd/dff files. The flac hi-rez files were added no problem, but I'm having difficulty in getting j river to recognize any of the dsd files. All my previous files were on the computer's hard drive and none were dsd and I had no problems. Would love to hear the DSD files - I have a Chord Chordette QuteHD that is DSD compatible, but the problem appears to be with j river or my lack of knowledge. I tried to add the new files through file/library/import/configure auto import and added the e:/ directory that contains all my new files. In the drop down Audio tab all the file formats are clicked including dsd audio. Not sure what else I can do as until I get this solved I can't listen to dsd.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

mstulken · « **Reply #1 on:** March 15, 2013, 10:21:38 pm »

ps the version i'm running is 18.0.106

6233638 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 16, 2013, 08:32:36 am »

I would suggest updating to the latest version before trying anything else. (help > update channels > latest)

mstulken · « **Reply #3 on:** March 16, 2013, 10:03:50 am »

Thanks. I tried that after posting and still no resolution. Any other suggestions?

6233638 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 16, 2013, 10:48:06 am »

I'm not really sure to be honest - if you go to Tools > Import > Run Auto-import now, what does the status window say when it's finished?

mstulken · « **Reply #5 on:** March 16, 2013, 10:52:47 am »

Hi, I get a count of how many files I have (not including the dff files) and says zero files imported.

mstulken · « **Reply #6 on:** March 16, 2013, 04:12:45 pm »

Hi, I'm getting frustrated by the inability to solve this issue.

JimH · « **Reply #7 on:** March 16, 2013, 04:38:12 pm »

What extension do the files have? dff?

What happens if you use MC's file/"open media file" to open one? Can you play it?

mstulken · « **Reply #8 on:** March 16, 2013, 05:10:36 pm »

Hi Jim, thanks so much for responding. I'm going nuts trying to figure this out. The files are dff files - ps3 ripped sacd's. Maybe there are no tags and that's the issue. But based on your suggestion, of file/open media file its playing as I type - nirvanna(not the band). Is there some way to get these into my library? assuming that the lack of tags is the issue? Otherwise I'm content to use the manual approach as you suggest. Can I manually apply tags so that I can get them into the library?
Regards,
Mike

eddyshere · « **Reply #9 on:** March 16, 2013, 07:28:22 pm »

Importing dsf, dff files works without an issue for me...I'm wondering if the naming is not erroneous. If you unhide known file type what naming do your files really have and what extension. You could try extracting the ripped iso to dsf, (dsf will be able to store meta-tags, dff will be tagged in MC but not in the file), then try reimporting...

mstulken · « **Reply #10 on:** March 16, 2013, 07:37:05 pm »

Thank you for your reply. Perhaps you could be more specific about how to unhide the file name. I'm not sure of the sequence of commands. When I open the files in windows explorer the file type is "Media Center File (.dff)". In order to save space I didn't save the ISO's just the dff's. Any further suggestion on how to get this into media player's library would be appreciated - if possible w/o the ISO.

bulldogger · « **Reply #11 on:** March 16, 2013, 07:49:14 pm »

Quote from: mstulken on March 16, 2013, 05:10:36 pm

Can I manually apply tags so that I can get them into the library?
Regards,
Mike

You can drag each file into JRiver into the Audio section. That's what I have done in previous version of JRiver when a file would not import.

mstulken · « **Reply #12 on:** March 16, 2013, 08:10:13 pm »

That's a great suggestion, I gave it a try and unfortunately jriver won't let me do this.
Thanks anyway.

bulldogger · « **Reply #13 on:** March 16, 2013, 08:53:17 pm »

Open JRiver. Then open your drive. Find the file and drag it into JRiver-Audio. Not sure why it's not working for you.

kstuart · « **Reply #14 on:** March 16, 2013, 09:04:37 pm »

Just FYI - everything works fine in MC18 with SACDs as ISO files - is it really worth your time, just to save a few GB of hard drive space ?

mstulken · « **Reply #15 on:** March 16, 2013, 09:11:17 pm »

My apologies, you are absolutely right. I was thrown by one of my source files (the one I was testing with your suggestion) being mislabeled.
Your method works. I'll undertake to do this as I listen to each file and get up to the 2000 I want to load.
Thanks

mstulken · « **Reply #16 on:** March 16, 2013, 09:47:32 pm »

Quote from: kstuart on March 16, 2013, 09:04:37 pm

Just FYI - everything works fine in MC18 with SACDs as ISO files - is it really worth your time, just to save a few GB of hard drive space ?

Thanks for that insight. Someone ripped close to 3TB of sacd's for me and in aggregate the ISO's would have tipped me over the hard drive capacity - not just a few GB's.

6233638 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 17, 2013, 02:35:11 am »

Quote from: kstuart on March 16, 2013, 09:04:37 pm

Just FYI - everything works fine in MC18 with SACDs as ISO files - is it really worth your time, just to save a few GB of hard drive space ?

Will JRiver play these files natively, or do you have to mount them first? (like you do with DVD & Blu-ray)

bulldogger · « **Reply #18 on:** March 17, 2013, 07:01:47 am »

Quote from: 6233638 on March 17, 2013, 02:35:11 am

Will JRiver play these files natively, or do you have to mount them first? (like you do with DVD & Blu-ray)

JRiver will play them natively.

Phil A · « **Reply #19 on:** March 17, 2013, 12:52:13 pm »

Tagging .dff files is tough. I could not figure what was up initially as it seemed to pull in the number of files and I could play an individual file but finally realized I need to tag them. I'm getting the non-classical ones done for now (getting cover art) and after that I'll put the hard drive back in the music server and tag them (and hopefully test how to back them up on the PC where I just have a small portion of the files - the two hard drives with hi-rez, DSD and non-DSD, I leave in the music server - just easier to work with the PC at the desk).

eddyshere · « **Reply #20 on:** March 17, 2013, 06:50:36 pm »

Quote from: Phil A on March 17, 2013, 12:52:13 pm

Tagging .dff files is tough. I could not figure what was up initially as it seemed to pull in the number of files and I could play an individual file but finally realized I need to tag them. I'm getting the non-classical ones done for now (getting cover art) and after that I'll put the hard drive back in the music server and tag them (and hopefully test how to back them up on the PC where I just have a small portion of the files - the two hard drives with hi-rez, DSD and non-DSD, I leave in the music server - just easier to work with the PC at the desk).

Maybe as a hint : dff cannot hold tags in the file structure in a standardized way. (audiogate tags dff but only audiogate can read it afterwards). dsf can hold tags and more standardised. If you tag dsf files foobar and MC18 will read them. If you tag dff with MC then the tag is held in the sidecar (and not the audiofile). If you connect to a MC server in which library you tagged dff you'll have them on all MC machines but if this is not the case your tags will be "lost" should you change the source files location down the road and you haven't "taken" the sidecars along.

Phil A · « **Reply #21 on:** March 17, 2013, 08:24:16 pm »

Quote from: eddyshere on March 17, 2013, 06:50:36 pm

Maybe as a hint : dff cannot hold tags in the file structure in a standardized way. (audiogate tags dff but only audiogate can read it afterwards). dsf can hold tags and more standardised. If you tag dsf files foobar and MC18 will read them. If you tag dff with MC then the tag is held in the sidecar (and not the audiofile). If you connect to a MC server in which library you tagged dff you'll have them on all MC machines but if this is not the case your tags will be "lost" should you change the source files location down the road and you haven't "taken" the sidecars along.

Unfortunately all my files are .dff. So right now, for the non-classical ones, I'm getting cover art and it will be a long process (I've gotten through a decent portion though). I have not tried library back-up or anything much on MC but I have a fraction of the files on the PC (vs. music server with the system) and I'll try some stuff. Even for the non-classical, it is going to be a process as I'm going to back up what I'm doing on another drive.

mstulken · « **Reply #22 on:** March 17, 2013, 11:34:46 pm »

I've got about 2000 albums and to try and tag these manually would be a real pain. I guess if I need to see cover art or read up on a performance, I'll look it up on amazon. In the mean time Jim H's suggestion of file/get media file seems to work fine for me. If I need to organize things, I can edit my source file folders into some sort of meaningful sequence. By highlighting a bunch of tracks (shift down arrow) in Windows explorer it plays a whole album or whatever tracks I want in sequence of the source file. Seems to me that this area could be a worthwhile enhancement for future versions of jriver. Maybe it could search based on whatever information is in the file or folder title or individual tracks and assign some tags. This whole area of computer audio is a weakness for people who want to listen to music more than play with a computer. I can see this is off-putting for many people who may be sitting on the sidelines.
This was frustrating for a day, but the ability to play the dff files over a compatible dac makes it worthwhile. The sound is amazing.

kstuart · « **Reply #23 on:** March 18, 2013, 01:02:01 pm »

mstulken wrote:
"This whole area of computer audio is a weakness for people who want to listen to music more than play with a computer. I can see this is off-putting for many people who may be sitting on the sidelines."

No, when you buy music downloads, they are ready to use.

The problems arise when you want to use your existing physical disks, but use them in computer audio players. Doing so requires some work.

(Also, the number of people looking to use DFF files - as opposed to SACD ISO files or DSF files - is likely to remain in single digits for a long time.)

By the way, in general, if albums have information in the folder names and filenames, then MC18 can tag them automatically based on those.

For example, if your albums are on the hard disk in a consistent format, such as:

D:\Music\Artist\Album\Tracknumber - Trackname.extension

then you can use the "Fill Properties from Filename" (one of the Library options).

bulldogger · « **Reply #24 on:** March 18, 2013, 05:11:37 pm »

Quote from: mstulken on March 15, 2013, 09:53:10 pm

I tried to add the new files through file/library/import/configure auto import and added the e:/ directory that contains all my new files.

Do you have each folder selected as well as having the drive selected? I had this problem when I selected the drive but didn't add all folders. See the attached image to see my auto-import looks like.

Phil A · « **Reply #25 on:** March 18, 2013, 09:30:38 pm »

Quote from: mstulken on March 17, 2013, 11:34:46 pm

I've got about 2000 albums and to try and tag these manually would be a real pain. I guess if I need to see cover art or read up on a performance, I'll look it up on amazon. In the mean time Jim H's suggestion of file/get media file seems to work fine for me. If I need to organize things, I can edit my source file folders into some sort of meaningful sequence. By highlighting a bunch of tracks (shift down arrow) in Windows explorer it plays a whole album or whatever tracks I want in sequence of the source file. Seems to me that this area could be a worthwhile enhancement for future versions of jriver. Maybe it could search based on whatever information is in the file or folder title or individual tracks and assign some tags. This whole area of computer audio is a weakness for people who want to listen to music more than play with a computer. I can see this is off-putting for many people who may be sitting on the sidelines.
This was frustrating for a day, but the ability to play the dff files over a compatible dac makes it worthwhile. The sound is amazing.

I just re-extracted several to dsf and copied the cover art I put in the dff folders. Everything comes out tagged. I'm told Audiogate can convert dff to dsf. I believe I have almost all of the ISO files so it is not a big issue to me. I can then decide to re-rip or if tired just tag the few manually and be done with it.

eddyshere · « **Reply #26 on:** March 19, 2013, 04:58:47 pm »

Quote from: Phil A on March 18, 2013, 09:30:38 pm

I'm told Audiogate can convert dff to dsf.

Yes it can !

Phil A · « **Reply #27 on:** March 19, 2013, 06:34:41 pm »

Quote from: eddyshere on March 19, 2013, 04:58:47 pm

Yes it can !

I may use it for a couple of things. Someone also indicated that it can leave ticks in between tracks? Right now I'm re-extracting to DSF and that will take a bit but I can do it in batches. I'll see at the end how many dff files I have where I don't have a corresponding ISO file. Hopefully not many.

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Author Topic: SACD/DSD/DFF files from external hard drive isn't working (Read 6943 times)