Metadata and album art problems

Frank Angelini

Good evening,

I am experiencing problems using the BluOS player to navigate my library which consists of “local shares” of my iTunes library.   I have been ripping CDs to this library since 2005 and meticulously editing metadata, often splitting a CD into two or more albums.  For example, I would rip a CD with Beethoven’s 5th and 7th symphonies and then edit the metadata so that these show up in iTunes as two separate albums (Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 7).  All music is imported as WAV files.  I have always had success with this process and it has allowed me to very easily navigate an extensive music library in iTunes.   

The problem that I am running into with the BluOS player is that many of my albums are not showing up.  When I navigate via Composer, for example, the player shows that I have a total of 35 albums by Beethoven.  The actual number is closer to 200.  I am able to play the music from the missing album, but to do so I must search my library via "Folders," which is at best a cumbersome process. 

I am also having difficulty with album art.  I paste a jpeg of the album art into the album's folder, but it does not show up  I have done several re-indexings/rebuildings.

Has anyone else experienced such a difficulty?  Any suggestions on how to fix it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Frank Angelini

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Comments

8 comments

Date Votes
  • Official comment
    Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    Here's the frequently read Help Centre Article on how we handle Album Artwork; https://support.bluos.net/hc/en-us/articles/360000368827

    Keep in mind .WAV is a dejour standard and has no industry standard on metadata. When looking for a WAV to FLAC convertor remember the old IT adage of Good, fast, cheap - pick 2.

    I, personally, had great success with JRiver in testing but that was a number of years ago and software changes rapidly.

  • Stefan Mehre

    Hi Frank,

    about coverart, what filesize do they have? Coverart should not have (much) more than 600 kb, for me that worked always.

    For the separated albums, I would suggest show us all metadata you are using for this example. I would expect you have the same albumtitle and same album-artist. If so, it will be seen as one album and put together.

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  • Frank Angelini

    Stefan,

    Thank you for your response.  I will double-check the file size of the jpegs I'm using.

    I have attached a screenshot of the metadata I'm using for a disc I've ripped.  It is one CD with three pieces on it:  Piano Sonatas 1, 2, 5, & 19 by Beethoven.  As you can see from the screenshot, I edited the metadata so that the disc is split into 4 albums.  However, in the BluOS controller, these albums do not show up
    .  I need to search through "folders" and find the folder for Claudio Arrau, the performer. 

    Thank you in advance for any insight you can provide!

    Frank

     

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  • Stefan Mehre

    So these albums are completely ignored? Or do they sow up under a shorter albumname together?

    Could imagine the # could be an issue for the indexer. Maybe you change this and test again.

    What I am wondering is, why does iTunes show the complete collection with another name ? Honestly not shure if iTunes does something special. Maybe something like the „these items belong to a compilation“ feature. This is something most indexers can‘t recognize.

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  • Mark Everett
    • Edited

    Hi Frank,

    You state that "all music is imported as WAV files". If this is the case then I think you will always have problems in the way your library is presented in BluOS since indexing will then be dependent solely on file name and folder structures. Whilst it is technically possible to add rudimentary metadata to WAV files there are no standards defining how this should be done.

    If you really wish to modify the cataloguing of your collection from the default then I think the only option is to convert your WAVs to FLAC or ALAC  - and I would also advise having separate folders for each virtual album rather than folders per real album (disc) to give you the most flexibility.

    regards, Mark

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  • Frank Angelini

    Mark,

    Thank you.  I now realize that unfortunately I will not be able to add metadata to WAV files, and am looking for software to convert WAV files to FLAC.  Any recommendations for a good WAV to FLAC converter, especially one that can do conversions in batches?  How about a converter that, in addition to offering WAV to FLAC conversion, copies the iTunes tags onto the new FLAC files?  Yes, I know:  a case of "wanting to have my cake and eat it too!"

    Thank you for your help and suggestions.

    Frank

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  • Mark Everett
    • Edited

    Frank, 

    My personal choice for batch WAV conversion would be the free Foobar2000 which is available for both Windows and Mac. I'm not sure about automatically populating the tags with iTunes data though. I guess there must be something out there which does this but as I don't know anything about iTunes perhaps others could make suggestions?

    Mark

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  • Tony W.
    Product Support Manager

    We have seen interesting results with metadata when converting Foobar200. Consider re-ripping the original CDs as ALAC Loseless if you are using iTunes...

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