Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming dBpoweramp plug in failures

The plug-in creates a file for each album which is in the same format as a Sooloos backup.It is also possible to set up dBpoweramp to produce a conventional rip at the same time, thereby creating a database that can be read by other streaming systems.

With the plug in it is possible to rip say, 250 albums at a time, and then perform a "restore" to upload all these albums to the Sooloos database as a single exercise. There is then no need to create a further back up of these albums - the back up is simply what has already been uploaded. The "restore" function is much much easier to use than the "import" function in that it does not attempt to access AMG to re-check the metadata - it is therefore much quicker and requires less user interface. It really can be kicked off and left to its own devices.

Anyone who needs to rip large quantities of classical albums (I still have 3500 to go) will immediately recognise the benefits of the plug in. Virtually every classical CD, in my experience, requires some editing of metadata to get it into a useable format - this is a recognised problem with all the well known databases and nothing to do with Sooloos. Without the plug in one can still use dBpoweramp to do the rip, and to manipulate the metadata, but the problem arises when one tries to import the data into Sooloos using "drag and drop" - on import, Sooloos re-checks the data with AMG and overwrites most the editing the individual has already done within dBpoweramp, which means that most the editing has to be re-done within Control:PC. This is the case (on the whole) regardless of whether the "prefer local metadata" box is checked within Control:PC.

Anyone who has used "drag and drop" to import a batch of 100 classical albums will know that Sooloos presents mayhem on the screen as all the careful editing within dBpoweramp is overwritten, album artists, album titles, covers etc are all changed - and boxed sets are a complete nightmare. It is a thankless task to try to work out what is what in these circumstances, and often better to just start again by importing one album at a time.

Anyone with small ongoing volumes of CDs to rip, or anyone who listens mainly to contemporary music (where the metadata is generally much better) will not benefit much from the plug-in. It really comes into its own for large volumes of classical CD rips.

To recap the benefits as I see them:

- uploading time to Sooloos of albums with edited metadata practically halved (no need for second round of editing within Control:PC)

- a more robust uploading process for large batches (no user invention required once restore process kicked off)

- full bypass of AMG metadata check once the dBpoweramp files have been created (ie an effective work round of the "prefer local metadata" issue)

- automatic creation of back up (the plug in creates the back up!)

I really do hope Meridian fix the problem because the plug in is a godsend for anyone needing to do a significant number of rips - presumably most new Sooloos customers would be in this position.