iTunes + My Music

[barnsey_00]

Hi Folks,

I've been searching the site for a similar post as this but can't find one, sorry if I missed it. Starting to go a little crazy....

I found people wanting to use their iTunes collection through the "My Music" option on XP MCE all on the same box, but situation is different, my collection of iTunes data is kept on a server, along with "My Pictures", "My Movies" and soon to be "My Videos" from MCE.

I have told MCE to add the folder and sub-folders (default) that contain the iTunes collection, and off it goes adding the folders without any issue. Once it is complete the newly "added" music doesn't appear in "My Music" , which is what I sort of expected, as I knew that iTunes uses a different format, that WMP doesn't read. I have read the posts about MCETunes, but MCETunes doesn't mention anything about Server/Client relationship, and the website doesn't offer much help either.

Can anyone suggest a tidy solution for this as I know i'm not the only one with a server/client setup. I know I could just ditch iTunes and use WMP, but i'd like to avoid that.... if possible.

Thanks for your input!

[atheo]

Hey,

I have been looking at this a little also. Firstly it seems you need to make sure both VMC and iTunes rip to a common media (ie MP3).

Now i havent done this, but basically MCETunes as i understand it, basically creates playlists, albums and album info around the MP3 files. So it ensures that the two programs understand what the MP3 files represent. IT DOES NOT COPY OR MOVE FILES.....IT SIMPLY POPULATES THE MUSIC DATABASES IN EACH BIT OF SOFTWARE.

I am thinking of doing the following:
Creating an ITUNES and VMCMUSIC directory under a MUSIC share on the network, and have each program rip to their respective subdirectory.

The you add the "location" as the parent directory (ie MUSIC share).

Then you simply ensure you rip to the common format and run MCETUNES to sync the databases.

This is my understanding as to how it works. We are in the middle of renovations, so my build is on hold. I will try it soon. But let me know how you go.

Thanks

Adam

[Jaiidan]

Hey there

I had a similar set up with all my music etc stored on a seperate server. I paid for and installed MCETunes and it would play the songs but it had a major flaw on my system....it would cut off about the last 20 seconds of a song and then it would give long pauses before playing another song.

If you search the MCETunes forum it is a common problem which they couldn`t solve......so much so that they actually refunded my money but let me keep my license etc in case they ever solved it! Gotta say - excellent support.

I haven`t visited the site in a while coz i ended up just ripping everything to mP3 instead and it all just works flawlessly now..... maybe they`ve cracked it now

Anyway my 0.02

Good luck

J

[barnsey_00]

Hi Guys,

thanks for the info. I drop MCETunes a support request and the answers I needed.

There still seems to be a problem with the songs stopping before the end, but there is now a work around, whilst they workout what causes it. http://www.proxure.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1448

I'd be interested to see if this actually works or not.

I'm tempted to pay for the Pro version to see how I go, whilst being naive about it.

But on the other hand, i'm leaning towards using WMP on my server to rip my cd's as mp3's, that way my MCE box can get the songs, artwork, etc from server and I can use "Add folder" under iTunes so I can still use my ipod.

Everyone wins, and I'm $40 better off.

[Jaiidan]

hey

ye there was a workaround which involved letting it run in safe mode i think.....still didn`t work for me

My 0.02 worth

J

[barnsey_00]

Guys,

I thought i'd "close" this thread with my solution to my setup.

I have used WMP on my server to rip the cd's to .mp3 format, it gets all the song names, album, artist, etc plus album covers, and the MCE box is setup to monitor my shared folder on the server and it automatically adds the new albums, so no merging required, unlike MCE Tunes. No bugs, no workarounds, very tidy. Which is what I wanted.

I have two choices when it comes to playing the music on my iPod too! Firstly, use iTunes and select "Add Folder" under the File menu, iTunes just adds my mp3's to the library which it can share with my ipod. Or the other option is a $20USD software purchase which will allow you to do the above in WMP 11 (only). I know which option i'll be using....

Hope this helps anybody in a similar situation.