Now that the Rip is done.. what program to catalog?

[davidki]

I"m new to the forum and have been reading for a while... I have just ripped a bunch of CDs in a collection and seems like all went well, we ripped them to FLAC using the recommended 5 setting. Now the big question come up is what is the best catalog program to use.. I've used (years ago) the Orange Cd program but unfortunately it looks like it my be now only supported by the users... not a bad thing but if I'm going to invest in a new catalog and spend a lot of time I'd like to use a program that has ongoing support from the folks that make it. No doubt my first priority is to be able to import all the CD's I've ripped with this program... I don't think that would be an issue but you never know until you ask.

My goal is to put all of my files up on a NAS in our home and have access to it from multiple sources.. .I'm not really interested in "cloud storage" or use outside the house (I can handle that in other ways).. but it would be nice to use the program on my windows PC (windows 7 and 10) and on our android tablets in the house... I also use a Minix media server at the house so it would be nice to put an app on that (android) and be able to use my music as a big jukebox...

Hope that gives you folks enough information and I appreciate any suggestions you may have... if I've not covered something here just let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer..

Dave

PS,right now I"m at about 900 cd's

[garym]

Re: Now that the Rip is done.. what program to catalog?

EDIT: There is also ASSET, a product of Illustrate (dbpoweramp). This can organize your music and serve to DLNA/UPNP capable players. You can use PC or tablets to control choice.

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-dlna.htm

I don't use this, but there are lots of ASSET users on this forum.
==========================================

What actual players do you intend to use? In my case, I personally use two options (with LMS currently my main use):

1. Logitech Media Server (organizes and serves the music to various networked music players in my home, either different things to different players, or the same thing synched to different players). These serve music to various Squeezebox players. There are also ways to create players from Rasberry Pi microcomputers, etc. Or if you are using a computer for your player, you can install Squeezelite on that computer as a player. All freeware.
LMS ver 7.9.1 is very stable. Mine runs 24/7:

http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.9

forum on LMS here:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/

2. Roon. This catalogs your music and serves to different sorts of players. Not free.

info here:

https://roonlabs.com/

forum here:

https://community.roonlabs.com/

[davidki]

Re: Now that the Rip is done.. what program to catalog?

Thanks Garym for the suggestions... I'll check out the information and links you have provided. Right now I have a few of the Lenovo and Netgear NAS products running in the house, One of them has a large Movie database of collected videos... with that I can use ANT Movie Database to pretty much catalog my movies. My goal was to take my CD's that have been sitting in a rack in our family room and rip those to FLAC and create this huge database (now at about 205 GB )... I will hopefully have all my ripped files cleaned up and ready to catalog in the next couple of days.

So, like I had mentioned with the files ripped up on a NAS I want to use a catalog program that would allow me to to play the albums on my notebooks and tablets when I want to... Then, My media device I actually have a couple ... I have a WD Media player, a little older product but works... then my more recent Minix U1 that is an Android based media device, It is on Android 5.xx and there are quite a few players that would allow me to play what ever files I want ... I"ve looked at programs like Orange CD that seem to do a pretty good job but like I mentioned user supported now. I"m not looking for any real magic.. On the movie side, ANT has given me an easy catalog system that collects data and can be put up on the nas and all the computers can view, but their Android version has not been updated.

I have seen some pretty super hardware platforms as media servers and capability.. .but I dont know if I really need all that... Once I get everything cataloged I might get a few albums or movies a month... that I would just need to keep the catalogs up to date and that should work fine on a Home NAS setup.. .Our house was wired with CAT 6 with 1GB switches and router... so bandwidth isn't a problem... and our Wifi is a very fast 5g set up.. .so again, I do not have a problem with streaming..

Finally I don't need to have access when I go away.. when we go camping I have a 4TB HDD with about 600 movies on it to watch.. I figure that should be more than enough :-).. I hope that explains it enough of what I am looking for.
Dave

EDIT: There is also ASSET, a product of Illustrate (dbpoweramp). This can organize your music and serve to DLNA/UPNP capable players. You can use PC or tablets to control choice.

https://www.dbpoweramp.com/asset-upnp-dlna.htm

I don't use this, but there are lots of ASSET users on this forum.
==========================================

What actual players do you intend to use? In my case, I personally use two options (with LMS currently my main use):

1. Logitech Media Server (organizes and serves the music to various networked music players in my home, either different things to different players, or the same thing synched to different players). These serve music to various Squeezebox players. There are also ways to create players from Rasberry Pi microcomputers, etc. Or if you are using a computer for your player, you can install Squeezelite on that computer as a player. All freeware.
LMS ver 7.9.1 is very stable. Mine runs 24/7:

http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.9

forum on LMS here:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/

2. Roon. This catalogs your music and serves to different sorts of players. Not free.

info here:

https://roonlabs.com/

forum here:
https://community.roonlabs.com/

[garym]

Re: Now that the Rip is done.. what program to catalog?

There are many, many options that work as music catalogers/servers. In addition to the three I mentioned, some folks like JRiver. I'm not familiar with any of the players you mention, so not sure what kind of companion music server you need. I suspect some of those use DLNA/upnp approach. If so, ASSET I mentioned would work. Do any of those players you use have user forums? If so, you should ask there.

Essentially you need three parts:

1. Server that catalogs and feeds music to players. (ASSET, LMS, ROON, JRIVER I mentioned can all do this). You don't need a separate NAS or PC to be a server, it could be your main PC/laptop/Mac.
2. Players (endpoints) that are connected to something that will produce ultimately analog sound to speakers. (think of this like a CD player connected to a preamp). A SONOS is a player/speaker combined that receives music from your server.
3. Controller (something that allows you to choose what artist, album, song, stop/start, etc.). This could be the same PC as your server, or a tablet or smart phone.

All three of these functions could be one thing. For example, a PC could be running a program that organizes the music, the PC soundcard/speakers are used, and one controls things on the same PC.

In my own case, I do this:

1. Server. Standalone small computer running linux that holds my music files (and movie files, fed by PLEX). This is sitting in a back closet connected via ethernet to the router. It has no monitor and no keyboard. I control it from a web interface on my regular laptop.

2. Players. Several squeezebox network players around the house. One connected to main stereo, and connected to network with ethernet (again, think of this as a CD player connected to the stereo preamp). I have others around the house as well connected to other systems (or self contained squeezeboxes that have their own speakers (e.g., bedside radio). Some of these are ethernet connected, some are wifi connected.

3. I can control all these things using either a dedicated squeezebox wifi controller, any of our iphones or ipads, or from a web interface on my regular laptop.

[davidki]

Re: Now that the Rip is done.. what program to catalog?

Garym, Thanks for the additional information ... it seems like I am in a much easier set up. I have a Netgear ReadyNas that stores my music and video files, I use a Minix U1 media box that I use with my sound system and TV. All I do is with a Kodi app on the Minix I just choose Music, direct it to my NAS and file folder with music and I can see everything there.. .I choose the album (or video) I want to watch and hit Play... It is an Android based system and for now it's doing everything I need it to do which is pretty simple.. . choose an album when I want to listen to it and hit play and it plays the files just like it is in a CD player. It took me a while but I have ripped all of my CD collection to FLAC.. much easier than trying to go up find the CD and put it in a player...

I'll check out the other suggestions you have made.. it may even end up being a better choice than what I now have.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.
Dave

[garym]

Re: Now that the Rip is done.. what program to catalog?

many years ago, I ran LMS on a netgear readynas (which also held my music). I found it too underpowered to run LMS well with my size library (about 4,000 albums at that time). Anyhow, lots of choices....your current setup sounds like it does what you need.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Now that the Rip is done.. what program to catalog?

I use kodi / libreelec to catalogue and control my library.


Dat Ei