- Don't worry so much about going down a wrong path. Once you've
ripped and tagged your CD library _properly_, you'll realize that the
library itself is the most important single component of a PC based
audio system. You can change the hardware in the future if you want,
but the music library should last many many years into the future.
- Rip your library and encode it in Flac, which works best with
Squeezebox and has become something of a standard. Flac is
lossless, and it's future proof. You can transcode your entire Flac
library any time you like into any other lossless or lossy format.
- Use either dbpoweramp or EAC on a Windows machine to rip your
library. Use AccurateRip to give you some additional assurance of
perfect CD rips. Read up and figure out a good strategy for ripping
your library _before_ you get into it. Rip and rerip the same CD 100
times if it takes you that long to be comfortable with the procedure
and the results. Only then should you start into ripping the rest of
your CDs. You don't want to have to do it again, and you shouldn't
have to if you do it right the first time.
- Download and use a good audio file tagging program such as
'Mp3tag' (http://mp3tag.de/en). Use it to modify or add to tags. At
the very least, you'll probably find yourself fixing typos that you
discover days, weeks and months later. You'll may also find
yourself adding and adjusting tags to make the files work and
function better within Squeezebox Server.
- Make absolutely certain that you keep at least one backup copy of
your library. Don't ever rely on RAID to protect your data. Ideally,
keep a backup copy in a different location than the original
library.
- For running Squeezebox Server it may be best to start by running it
on an existing machine on your network before investing in a NAS,
Vortexbox, or other dedicated server.
- There's no reason why you can't install Squeezebox Server today
on such a machine and get a feel for how it works.
- You can also install SqueezePlay (downloaded from the beta
download page) on a PC and even play music and get a feel for the
Touch's interface. SqueezePlay is a software emulator of the Touch
and Controller.
- For a dedicated server, be careful about using an underpowered NAS.
Squeezebox Server isn't the most lightweight or fastest application
and it does take some CPU power and memory to run. If run on Windows,
a machine will need a bit more of both, particularly memory, than it
will when run on Linux. Dual-core Intel Atom and AMD Fusion based
systems are a nice compromise between power and cost.
Sounds like you'll be doing movies from a server, so you might build
or buy a system capable of storing your video files as well as your
audio files and running Squeezebox Server.
--
JJZolx
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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