INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 19 for Windows => Topic started by: finallygreen on April 20, 2014, 09:54:02 am
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Hey guys!
I feel like I should be able to figure this out, but I'm not seeing it in the settings anywhere. Basically I want to find a way to have MC NOT automatically import songs into the library as I drag them from Windows Explorer to burn them on CD.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Ummm... Why?
If you insist, use InfraRecorder (http://infrarecorder.org/).
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Actually, I'm a long-time Nero (and MC) user...rebuilding my HTPC and thought I'd give MC's burning capabilities a try in an attempt to install one less program. Seems to work just find for burning my audio, but if there's really no way to prevent it from automatically importing the audio I burn (that's a flawed assumption for MC to make, IMHO), I guess I gotta install Nero after all...
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No, why don't you want to import them into the Library?
Lets solve that problem, because it is very likely built upon some incorrect assumptions about what it means to import the files into the Library.
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I have multiple libraries...the one I'm working on now is primarily for family use and is all compact (mp3) audio. However, I treat the original CD's for this library as the "backups", and sometimes indie artists will sell (via Bandcamp, etc.) albums in WAV or FLAC for the same price as the MP3 version. In those cases, I burn the WAV or FLAC to CD as the "backup", then rip the CD to mp3 to match the rest of the family library.
I can think of plenty of other scenarios that would undo the logic of the software automatically presuming I want the audio I burn to be added to the library, but there's mine.
Would it be a big deal to, at some point, add a checkbox somewhere in that drag/burn process to NOT add tracks not already in the library TO the library?
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Well, there's perhaps a better way to do what you're doing from a variety of perspectives, but I don't know that you want to get into all of that. That is, however, a version of what I figured you were up to, and that is generally not a very efficient way to use MC's Library system. The concept of the Library isn't really designed to be used to "separate the good from the bad" (via what is in or out of the Library). It is designed to know about everything that exists on the system, and then you use Tags to separate the "good from the bad" (or whatever other categories you want to). In general, multiple Libraries are only useful when they do not cross purposes at all. The Library contains everything, but it doesn't have to show you everything. MC's Library "contains" all sorts of things it doesn't show you by default anyway (like lookup data for every CD it has ever seen, for example).
The Views are filters. You can add filters to them, and you can flag files automatically at import time. There is rarely a good reason NOT to import any file you need to use (even transient ones) because you can automatically hide them from everywhere you care about, and only show them where you need them, and importing them gives you much more power should you need (ever) to do more with them. People commonly imbue the process of Importing with more meaning than it has. All Importing means is: MC knows about the file. Period. It has no other special power.
But... As I said, you might not want to get into all of that. If you want to know more about how you can automatically not care about those kinds of details, while still presenting your family with a clean MP3-only, curated interface, then ask.
I would like to address this in detail though...
and sometimes indie artists will sell (via Bandcamp, etc.) albums in WAV or FLAC for the same price as the MP3 version. In those cases, I burn the WAV or FLAC to CD as the "backup", then rip the CD to mp3 to match the rest of the family library.
Okay, so to be clear, you're doing this:
- Buy an album in FLAC or WAV from Bandcamp and download it.
- Drag-drop these files into a CD burning application of some kind (you were hoping to use MC for this) and burning them to disc.
- Ripping this disc to MP3.
- Then importing those files and using them in your MC database.
Right?
If so, this is crazy-pants. Do this:
First, select your Audio Encoding and Conversion options. You only have to do this once, as the settings are persistent.
- Tools > Options > Encoding > Encoder: MP3. Then click Encoder Settings and set LAME to whatever mode you want used for MP3 creation.
- Select any file in your Library (just to get the options set) and right-click > Library Tools > Convert Format. Select MP3 Encoder and click Options in the Conversion Action Window.
- Audio Conversion Options > Convert to: Wherever you want, either the same as existing, or your actual long-term storage location (preventing a subsequent need to do Rename, Move, and Copy on the files.
- Audio Conversion Options > Mode: Replace original file on disk and in Library.
- Say OK to save the settings and then just cancel the conversion.
Then, once that is done, your workflow becomes:
- Buy an album in FLAC or WAV from Bandcamp and download it.
- Have MC watch the download folder so it Auto-Imports the files.
- Burn those FLAC files to disc to make your backup album.
- Select them, right-click > Library Tools >Convert Format. Choose MP3 Converter. Click Go. Done.
You do NOT need to use the physical disk as the intermediary, and doing so introduces propensity for error and takes longer. When you do the conversion, MC can automatically replace the originally imported FLAC/WAV versions with MP3s, once you've burned them off onto backup disc.
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A better answer than I could have ever asked for :)
I've known for quite a while (or, many versions, if you will) that I'm not using this thing to the best of it's capabilities...but to get from the workflow that I know to this new, easier, more useful place...I'm gonna have to LEARN it! Truthfully, my video collection is ever further off...Only about 20% of the video collection (ie the files I named to my liking and moved to the folder I wanted them to live) is recognized. On the same drives, in separate folders, lives the rest. Crazy, I know...but I've got to learn my way around all of the views and filtering before I can really let go of the old way of doing things :)
I'll resist the sudden urge to ask a thousand questions of someone who clearly has good answers, though...I'll go little by little and ask specific questions as they come up :)
Thanks again!