Files on USB drive

[Steve Woodhouse]

I currently have a Mini, but will soon be getting an Ultra.

For reasons too long to go into, I’ll be using the USB port to access my old music library from a hard drive.

I’m having to convert my old WMA Lossless files to FLAC. This is great, but I have a potential problem, and I wonder if someone with an Amp can check.

I’ve converted a couple of tracks as a tester. The same thing has happened with both. The track is Tear it Up by Johnny Burnette & the Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio. Now all the tags have copied over correctly (Contributing artist, Album artist, Album, Year, Date released, #, Genre, Length - in this case # means Track number). All of these are identical to the original.

However, the conversion has changed the actual file name. It was ‘24 Tear It Up.wma’, but is now ‘Johnny Burnette & the Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio - Rockabilly Boogie - 24 - Tear It Up.flac’. Rockabilly Boogie is the correct album name.

I’m worried that the new file name may fuel something up on USB playback. Maybe the files will play in alphabetical order instead of track number order (as the tracks’ file names now no longer start with number), or the albums, album art, details, whatever won’t show up correctly on the WiiM.

Can anyone using a USB drive on the Amp please confirm? Many thanks.

 

[harkpabst]

Don't WiiM devices support WMA? I think they do, so did you really have to convert in the first place?

Which tool did you use for conversion? It might be configurable regading the file name. MusicBee e.g. has close to no limits when it come to filename generation. I told it to trunc all filenames it is touching to 50 or 45 characters (just to be on the safe side) and it works brilliantly.

Since few people have seen and used the Ultra so far I can only comment from the WiiM owner's perspective. It's not just playing what's on the stick (on whatever order). It contains a built-in music server that will allow different navigational paths and sorting options. Navigation by folder is one of them. Sorting by track number (the field, not the part of the filename if it exists) works.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

The files are in the WMA Lossless format. WiiM supports lossy vanilla WMA, but not lossless.

Thanks for the answer.

By the way, my preference is for folder view.

 

[Brantome]

Assuming your tags were copied over correctly, you should be fine. Here are the sort/play options for the WiiM Amp USB:



Edit: removed ref to filename as that’s not a tag…

 

[harkpabst]

By the way, my preference is for folder view.

Sincere condolences.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

Sincere condolences.

Patronising, much?

 

[Brantome]

Patronising, much?

Just joking I’m sure

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

Just joking I’m sure

I’d certainly hope so. Apologies if I had a sense of humour bypass.

 

[harkpabst]

Just joking I’m sure

Me too!

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating. If I use folder view to check out U2, I can see each of their albums and singles in there.

If I use artist view, every compilation they appear on pops up.

Meanwhile, if I just bring up artist view, every artists on every compilation comes up, even if they only have 1 track on one compilation, and it’s a track I’ve never played or ever will play.

I have 413GB, 33,466 files, 2,223 folders. You can only begin to imagine the mess in artist view.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

Me too!

Fair play.

 

[Brantome]

I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating. If I use folder view to check out U2, I can see each of their albums and singles in there.

If I use artist view, every compilation they appear on pops up.

Meanwhile, if I just bring up artist view, every artists on every compilation comes up, even if they only have 1 track on one compilation, and it’s a track I’ve never played or ever will play.

I have 413GB, 33,466 files, 2,223 folders. You can only begin to imagine the mess in artist view.

Yeah, an albumartist view would help that, which isn’t that far from a folder view imho

 

[Brantome]

And given the size of your library, I’d guess your usb drive has or will need an external power supply

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

And given the size of your library, I’d guess your usb drive has or will need an external power supply

Yes, which isn’t an issue, thankfully.

 

[deaste]

all the tags have copied over correctly

OK, then the file name has been changed by the conversion tool according to the tags.
If you want to convert the file names according to the tags in a custom way, you can use a free tool called mp3tag

Mp3tag - Download

Download Mp3tag, a powerful and easy-to-use tool to edit metadata of audio files

www.mp3tag.de

In this tool you can use Convert - > Tag - Filename

 

[Brantome]

OK, then the file name has been changed by the conversion tool according to the tags.
If you want to convert the file names according to the tags in a custom way, you can use a free tool called mp3tag

Mp3tag - Download

Download Mp3tag, a powerful and easy-to-use tool to edit metadata of audio files

www.mp3tag.de

In this tool you can use Convert - > Tag - Filename

Isn’t the filename rather moot since sort/play order will be dictated by the file tags, not the filename?

 

[harkpabst]

Why would I want to try and answer a question and insult you at the same time?

It's just a bit ironic that you won't benefit much from the effort that WiiM has put into their USB playing solution. I had not seen that approach of running your own media server on any network amp (maybe apart from those CD rippers with built-in hard disks) and found it to be pretty cool. And I can even access it from any other DNLA client.

Adding a view based on the albumartist tag would really be appreciated. But no matter if you try to organise your music by folders or by tags, there are always limits and decisions to be made. Take e.g. an album like "Neck and Neck" by ... well ... there are two names on the cover, one more to the left, the other more to the right, so is it "Chet Atkins, Mark Knopfler" or "Mark Knopfler, Chet Atkins" or even "Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfer" or the other way around? Using the albumartist tag you can at leas make it appear under all of these four names, while you have to decide on one folder name.

Just like me stuffing the LP back into the disc rack again.

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

Why would I want to try and answer a question and insult you at the same time?

It's just a bit ironic that you won't benefit much from the effort that WiiM has put into their USB playing solution. I had not seen that approach of running your own media server on any network amp (maybe apart from those CD rippers with built-in hard disks) and found it to be pretty cool. And I can even access it from any other DNLA client.

Adding a view based on the albumartist tag would really be appreciated. But no matter if you try to organise your music by folders or by tags, there are always limits and decisions to be made. Take e.g. an album like "Neck and Neck" by ... well ... there are two names on the cover, one more to the left, the other more to the right, so is it "Chet Atkins, Mark Knopfler" or "Mark Knopfler, Chet Atkins" or even "Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfer" or the other way around? Using the albumartist tag you can at leas make it appear under all of these four names, while you have to decide on one folder name.

Just like me stuffing the LP back into the disc rack again.

The beauty of it is, you can always switch view.

Folder is wonderfully simple for most things, but as you say, there'll be oddities, so the other options are still there to be had.

I have an old FiiO DAP. It has pretty much the same options as this. 99% of the time I used folder view. But if there was a track hidden away on a compilation, and I couldn't remember the name of the compilation, just switch view and search.

But in general, why folder view? Well, in Ye Olde Dayes ™ of vinyl, tape, and/or CD collections, most people (not all, but most) had their CDs in racks in alphabetical by artist, with Various Artists at the end. Folder view just replicates that simple format (albeit with Various Artists very near the end, in between Van Morrison and Visage).

 

[Steve Woodhouse]

May I ask another question? This has been prompted by me reminding myself of my FiiO DAP.

On that, to ease the use of folder view, I divided the artist folders further into 13 larger folders (A-B, C-F, etc.) as the whole list of every artist can be daunting (in whatever view you choose).

Would that fowl up the library on the WiiM in any way?

 

[Brantome]

May I ask another question? This has been prompted by me reminding myself of my FiiO DAP.

On that, to ease the use of folder view, I divided the artist folders further into 13 larger folders (A-B, C-F, etc.) as the whole list of every artist can be daunting (in whatever view you choose).

Would that fowl up the library on the WiiM in any way?

I wouldn’t think so, but I’d hope that’s something that WiiM could add to their views of the USB drive contents. As was mentioned in another recent post, server software like Minimserver offers that as a configurable setting amongst other benefits.