Bugzilla – Bug 6566
Known music tracks that are 'Unknown' to slimserver
Last modified: 2012-02-27 17:33:04 UTC
I have about 1000 CDs in WAV format on a external harddisk. All songs are stored using Windows Media Player and are clearly identified in the albums. About 100+ songs, when scanned into Slimserver, are identified on playlist as Unknown. When doubleclicked, album name and art appears on left side of page.
What SS/SC version are you using? What's your file's folder structure? WAV doesn't know tags. Thus SS/SC has to "guess" the meta data from folder/music paths.
John: can you comment?
John - we don't work on the 6.5.x branch any more. Please update to SC7 and report back whether you still see the issue.
John sent me the following details by PM: Michael - I spoke briefly with Julius today about the above incident to get an update. We reviewed your request for additional information, namely the SS version and file structure. I am using Slimserver version 6.54. I store my music on a Western Digital 1TB hard drive. My music folders are in \\mybookworld\public\ <file:///\\mybookworld\public\> . There are five subfolders \\mybookworld\public\Rock <file:///\\mybookworld\public\Rock> Music, \\mybookworld\public\Classical <file:///\\mybookworld\public\Classical> , \\mybookworld\public\Jazz <file:///\\mybookworld\public\Jazz> , \\mybookworld\public\Smooth Jazz <file:///\\mybookworld\public\Smooth%20Jazz> , \\mybookworld\public\Latin <file:///\\mybookworld\public\Latin> & Carribbean, and \\mybookworld\public\holidaymusic <file:///\\mybookworld\public\holidaymusic> . I sent Julius 3 tracks that are unknown album/artist. They were each appropriately stored in and copied from their proper folder. One came from \\mybookworld\public\Rock <file:///\\mybookworld\public\Rock%20Music\The> Music\The Beatles\Live At The BBC Disc 2\The Beatles at the BBC Disc 2 01Crinsk De Night [Speech].wav A second track came from \\mybookworld\public\Rock <file:///\\mybookworld\public\Rock%20Music\Be%20Bop%20Deluxe\Futurama\Be%20B op%20Deluxe%20Futurama%2001> Music\Be Bop Deluxe\Futurama\Be Bop Deluxe Futurama 01 Stage Whispers.wav. I do not remember the last track I sent him (I think it was by Van Morrison).
John - please set scan logging to debug (Settings/Advanced/Logging) and run another scan of your collection. Then attach the scanner.log file to this bug. Thanks! Is there an important reason you want to stick to WAV files? They are the hardest to manage, as you can't tag them. Converting them to FLAC would not only allow for proper tagging, but save you some 40% of disk space without any loss of quality.
John - any news on this? What about using FLAC instead of WAV? It would be much less of a hassle for you, too.
I have no idea of what an invalid resolved bug is. I have sent responses for each request for information I have received. I have not been able to communicate through the bugtracker. My issue has not been resolved -- I still have600+ "unknown" tracks. No resolution has been offered through Slim Server or a third party. Because I use .wav files (the highest quality sound source), it is my understanding that you cannot support this format on a consistent basis. This is going to be a major concern for many of your Transporter clients who are willing to pay premium prices for equipment that enhances their listening experience. I am sure that the folks who wrote the favorable reviews in Stereophile Magazine and Audioholics were not aware of this problem. I am very disappointed.
John - I'm sorry I did not understand what's going on here. As I didn't see any feedback I mis-interpreted the current state. Did you send log files to support? Julius? BTW: FLAC and WAV results will be identical in quality - it's identical data to the player. But FLAC is much less of a hassle thanks to its ability to be tagged. Assigning to QA to reproduce.
Once I get the files from Julius I will take a look. Michael, we do or did support some types of WAV tagging in the past. I will check if this has changed as well.
Thanks for the clarification on your part. I did send Julius 3 tracks that at "Unknown" and asked him to submit them to you (Michael). I have had difficulty working with the debug system -- there are a lot of things that can be debugged and it creates a file that is larger than 1 GB. I need to know which items you would like me to get debugged. I have also had problems in being about to write to this file. I think I have found a way to overcome it. Please let me know if there are any other outstanding items that you need from me.
You should probably delete that log file before it's filling up your disk: - shut down SC - rename/delete the log files - restart SC - set all scan* logging options to debug (Settings/Advanced/Logging) - run a _full_ rescan This will hopefully result in a usable log file which can be uploaded (after compressing it to .zip or something).
Michael -- Now that I can see the entire file on this, I realize that I have not commented on a couple of things. First, I use .wav files because they are audibly superior to FLAC or any other format I have tried. I have actually tried a couple of 'lossless' formats and while they result in smaller files, there seems to be something lost. I do not have any concern about file size or memory due to the recent decreases in prices for memory (Costco is now selling a 1 TB Western Digital hard disk for about $250!!). When listening to music, there doesn't seem to be a downside to .wav formatted music. Second, I have updated to 7.0a1 and 'unknown' problem continues. John
1. What's entered in SC7 under Settings > Advanced > Formatting > Guess Tags Format? 2. In common terms, what are you using for your folder and file naming convention? Do these missing files adhere _exactly_ to this convention? It's extremely difficult to read what you've posted above, but it looks like the Beatles track is using: GENRE\ARTIST\ALBUM\ALBUM TRACKNUMBER TITLE.wav while the Be Bop Deluxe track is named using: GENRE\ARTIST\ALBUM\ARTIST ALBUM TRACKNUMBER TITLE.wav They're not both going to fit the pattern you've chosen for guessing tags. Also, it looks like the Beatles track filename may be missing a space between TRACKNUMBER and TITLE.
The three files provided to support contain the following WAV LIST tags: Tag information for: Be Bop Deluxe Modern Music [Bonus Tracks] 01 Orphans of Babylon.wav (240 bytes) (20 offset) Artist: Unknown Artist Title: Track 1 Album: Unknown Album (11/10/2007 8:27:05 AM) Genre: Unknown Genre Tag information for: The Beatles Live at the BBC Disc 2 01 Crinsk Dee Night [Speech].wav (340 bytes) (20 offset) Artist: Unknown Artist Title: Track 1 Album: Unknown Album (11/10/2007 12:38:36 AM) Genre: Unknown Genre Tag information for: Van Morrison Back on Top 01 Goin' Down Geneva.wav (194 bytes) (20 offset) Artist: Unknown Artist Title: Track 1 Album: Unknown Album (11/16/2007 7:18:10 PM) Genre: Unknown Genre Since the WAV LIST tag contains "Unknown" this is what will be displayed in SqueezeCenter. I suggest cleaning the tags with a LIST aware tagger. dBpoweramp is one that comes to mind.
Reduce number of active targets for SC
Closing resolved bugs - if you feel this bug still exists please first re-test with the latest SW/FW version. If you are able to reproduce then feel free to reopen and attach new logs / steps to reproduce.