Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Sooloos Ripping Problems

My new Sooloos system was installed 3 or 4 weeks ago, and my first task has been to rip my collection of 500+ CDs. I�ve been trying to do this at every available opportunity, and recently �finished� all the rock / pop stuff, and I am now launching into my classical collection (which represents about a third of my CDs, but a much greater proportion of my current listening habits).

Perhaps inevitably the ripping process has not gone entirely smoothly, but with so many to do, I have just made a note of any failures and pressed on, intending to return to the problem discs at the end.

When I load a CD into the PC, annoyingly i-Tunes always launches, but sometimes this is useful, as it shows whether a problematic disc has been recognised by the i-Tunes meta-database (Gracenote?) � which it virtually always is � with far fewer unrecognised discs than through the Sooloos service.

However, the reason for this post is to highlight the additional difficulties I have faced following an �upgrade� (to version 2.324, build 253) of the Control:PC software, which happened about a week ago. This upgrade seems to have been a retrograde step in many ways (as I will explain) and I am wondering if there are any workarounds, or if there is a way to roll back to the previous version?

The biggest problem is that much of the control (during ripping) seems to have been taken away from the user in this latest version. That is fine whilst the system is working � ie. correctly recognising a disk which then rips without issue � but it makes it impossible to know what is going on and force a workaround in many other cases.

An example:- I am trying to rip my boxed set of Sibelius Symphonies by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra (BIS), which is on 4 different CDs. I�ve successfully ripped 2 of these, but cannot rip the other 2.

With the new version of Control:PC, the 2 �unrippable� Sibelius disks are simply ejected, with no error message or notification of why. My suspicion is that Control:PC thinks I have already ripped them (as trying to re-rip an actual already ripped disk, results in the same behaviour), but you get no chance to force the issue which you did with the previous version of Control:PC. In that version, you got a message saying something like �this disk already exists, do you want to rip another copy�. I haven�t edited any metadata yet, but it was my assumption that I would (in those circumstances) have ripped the �duplicate� disk (which actually wasn�t a duplicate at all) and then edit the metadata to correct the disk title at a later date. Now I can�t do this, as I can�t get the disk to rip at all.

Also, the previous version kept a dialogue box loaded on screen, to show you, effectively, a list of the discs you had just successfully ripped (as well as showing you which ones had missing cover art). I found this useful, particularly as two of us are sharing the ripping process. But that has gone now too.

In general, I found having a dialogue box appear, which confirmed that the database had identified the disc, showed you if it had found the artwork or not, gave you access to an edit facility at that stage, and asked you to confirm if you wanted to begin ripping, a very useful piece of functionality. That has now been taken away, and I feel much less in control, and unable to try workarounds for unrecognised discs (as described above) myself.

Sorry for the rambling post, but if you are reading this M, can you rethink removal of user-control in the next release of Control:PC, and in the meantime, has anyone any ideas as to how I might be able to roll back a version?

Thanks

Neil

Hi Neil,

with your disc 3 and 4 that eject, does it do the same for disc 1 and 2 ? This will tell you if the fact that it is already there is the issue. If Cd1 stays in then it is something else causing it (e.g. duff disc, scratched, not a compliant CD, copy protected etc).

As for your other issues noted, I'm not sure I recognise what you are describing (not able to check just now).

Nick

I'll check re-ripping Disk 1 and 2 tonight, and post the results then.

The other stuff I am describing basically boils down to the fact that all the information dialogue boxes which used to pop up when ripping, have been removed in this new release.

So you can't see what is happening any more...

Neil

Neil,
Have you checked the Settings Tab on your Control:PC software? I use the Mac version (version 2.324, build 245) and it sounds like the 'Skip duplicate albums' and 'Automatically remove completed imports' boxes are now checked. Good luck!

Reg

Thanks Reg.

I will check those settings tonight, though I certainly didn't change any settings when installing the new version.

It might be that the new version interprets existing settings differently however...

Neil

Hi Neil,

I'd guess Reg has highlighted the problem here..

Uncheck these boxes, and then close and restart Control:PC and confirm that these boxes have stayed unchecked and then try ripping a previously ripped CD again.

Cheers,

Rick

Thanks Rick

I will be trying your suggestion this evening. I'll report back...

Cheers

Neil

Okay - an update by those waiting with baited breath

First off, at Nick's suggestion, I tried re-ripping one of the Sibelius disks which I know I have already successfully ripped, and the behaviour was indeed identical - ie. the draw automatically opened to eject the disc, though there is no error message to explain why (though I already knew!!).

I then tried unchecking 'Skip duplicate albums' and restarting Control:PC (as suggested by Reg and Rick). I first checked that the changed setting had been saved (as there is no 'apply' or 'save' button) which it had.

I then tried ripping one of the Sibelius disks which had failed and ejected this morning, and it immediately worked.

I have not yet tried any of the other options suggested.

Interestingly, with 'SDAs' unchecked, I did get a dialogue box, which correctly confirmed that the disc in place was Symphonies 2 & 3, and I did (I think) get to 'accept and transfer'.

I note there is now a tick box in settings 'Automatically approve albums with complete metadata' and this is ticked.

I wonder if this option didn't exist in the previous build, and the adding of that option, which was automatically ticked, is what made me feel like I had lost the control which I previously had - with the clearly flaky 'de-duplication' functionality only compounding that view.

Musings...

Cheers

Neil

Gosh - I'm sorry, but things just got even stranger!

I think I may have got all this wrong...

Remember that I said that 2 of us were doing the ripping, and how not having the list of successfully ripped albums (from the current session) available in the Import window, was making this trickier than it felt pre-the new Control:PC build?

Well, having just ripped my Sibelius 2 & 3 disc, I've just gone into Play; My Library; Artists and scrolled down to L where the 2 successfully ripped disks had previously appeared (listed under Lahti Symphony Orchestra). But the disc I just ripped was nowhere to be seen!

So I then went into Play; My Library; Recently Imported Albums; Last Day, and scrolled down the list, passing the 2 Lahti discs. Only this time I carried on down, and soon found 3 discs listed not under Lahti (the orchestra) but under Osmo Vanska (the conductor) and lo and behold there were 2 copies of Sibelius 2 & 3 (the one I've just ripped).

So for anyone struggling with this, it appears that the de-duplication functionality was working afterall. What threw me was completely inconsistent metadata, in the key field on which all albums are indexed - the same box set having half its discs listed by orchestra and the other half listed by composer.

Phew!

Sorry about that, and the inadvertent misleading nature of some of my earlier posts in this thread. Hopefully someone will have learned something from my confusion, and Tassie D will be along soon to give me a masterclass in metadata editing for classical collections.

I obviously need it...

Cheers

Neil

I know you want to crack on and rip disks, but I found that the quickest way long-term is to check the meta data for each rip at the time of ripping.

I think Tassie did a similar thing and when an album is misidentified you have nightmare finding it in Sooloos.

What I do now is always check the metadata, fix it if I can, but if not and there is a problem add a TAG that I can search for to find the problem albums. "ISSUE Album Art" or "ISSUE Album Data". etc.

Regards,
Carl

Hmm. That's very interesting, Carl, and sound advice I'm sure. Just a shame I've already ripped c. 400 CDs in the last couple of weeks...!

Anyways, I'm still hoping for metadata editing advice from Tassie, or someone else who has ripped an extensive classical collection into Sooloos.

Cheers

Neil