Media servers, audio formats, meta-data etc.

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Mabel

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I have some typical newbee questions; I apologize but please believe that I spent many hours searching the web but only found partial answers or contradictory ones.
I only recently decided to take the organisation and usability of my digital audio more seriously, so I installed Windows Media Server on a dedicated computer, bought Chromecast Audio to link to my HiFi system and (naively) started ripping CD's to the flac format (using Exact Audio Copy), expecting to be able to find and play them using windows-, android- and iOS devices.
Disappointment: the albums do not even show up under WMP. Sure, I can find them using the file-system but nothing is done with all those painstakingly added meta-data. I noticed that VLC-player (also, I think, capable of providing media-server functionality) does read some of the meta-data but not all that are relevant to me. (Like for instance the composer and performing artists).
So I started reading about meta-data and about other (lossy and lossless) formats (e.g. AAC, Vorbis, WMA, AC3) and also about the way various players/media-servers gather meta-data. Although I learned a lot, I can't say the overall picture is more clear now, rather the contrary. So I'm turning to this forum for some advice.
I have dozens of questions about details, but what it comes down to is simply: What Should I Do?
Sub-questions are for instance: Is there any practical standard for meta-data in flac's? And does EAC use it? Can I make WMP read such flac meta-data? If not, which media-server can? What windows-, android- or iOS player, capable of using a dnla-compatible media-server and casting to ChromeCast Audio, can fully read them? Is (lossless) WMA the answer? If so, can that work on a Linux NAS-box? (I can always mass-convert them to something else, can't I?)
Or is high-quality AAC the way to go? If so, what cd-ripper and codec do I use; can I make EAC write such files? Or is maybe 320Kbps mp3 still the most practical choice?
I could go on, but you get the picture, I hope: I'm confused and have no idea how to proceed.
I would be most grateful for any tips, but also for any links to serious articles about this. I don't mean articles about one or other detail, as my problem is the integration of all this in order to make up the best home sound system - quality-wise, in ease-of-use and able to face the future.
Mabel
 
You need to use a better media player/managment software than Windows Media Player.

To be specific you need a media library software that will manage/store your metadata in an easy to use manner. One software that will work well is JRiver. Another software which is free is Foobar. Both will have you up and running in minutes. Another well regarded software is Roon but it's a slightly different animal than JRiver or Foobar.

Lot's of information available online. Good luck!
 
Mabel said:
I have some typical newbee questions; I apologize but please believe that I spent many hours searching the web but only found partial answers or contradictory ones.
I only recently decided to take the organisation and usability of my digital audio more seriously, so I installed Windows Media Server on a dedicated computer, bought Chromecast Audio to link to my HiFi system and (naively) started ripping CD's to the flac format (using Exact Audio Copy), expecting to be able to find and play them using windows-, android- and iOS devices.
Disappointment: the albums do not even show up under WMP. Sure, I can find them using the file-system but nothing is done with all those painstakingly added meta-data. I noticed that VLC-player (also, I think, capable of providing media-server functionality) does read some of the meta-data but not all that are relevant to me. (Like for instance the composer and performing artists).
So I started reading about meta-data and about other (lossy and lossless) formats (e.g. AAC, Vorbis, WMA, AC3) and also about the way various players/media-servers gather meta-data. Although I learned a lot, I can't say the overall picture is more clear now, rather the contrary. So I'm turning to this forum for some advice.
I have dozens of questions about details, but what it comes down to is simply: What Should I Do?
Sub-questions are for instance: Is there any practical standard for meta-data in flac's? And does EAC use it? Can I make WMP read such flac meta-data? If not, which media-server can? What windows-, android- or iOS player, capable of using a dnla-compatible media-server and casting to ChromeCast Audio, can fully read them? Is (lossless) WMA the answer? If so, can that work on a Linux NAS-box? (I can always mass-convert them to something else, can't I?)
Or is high-quality AAC the way to go? If so, what cd-ripper and codec do I use; can I make EAC write such files? Or is maybe 320Kbps mp3 still the most practical choice?
I could go on, but you get the picture, I hope: I'm confused and have no idea how to proceed.
I would be most grateful for any tips, but also for any links to serious articles about this. I don't mean articles about one or other detail, as my problem is the integration of all this in order to make up the best home sound system - quality-wise, in ease-of-use and able to face the future.
Mabel
Click to expand...

The best way to do what you want requires three types of software:
1. Software to rip your CDs. EAC is a good (free) option, but DBpoweramp (not-free) has a better GUI in my opinion and it is easier to use. By the way, I rip all my files to FLAC.
2. Meta-Data Software. Both EAC and DBp allow access to music databases and let you tweak the data. However, sooner or later (actually sooner when dealing with classical music: Is it LvB, or Ludwig van Beethoven, or Beethoven, Ludwig v.) you WILL need software to fix the metadata! My favorite software for this purpose is MP3TAG (freeware; donations welcome).
3. Music management software. I have used Logitech Media Servers in the past but have since adopted Roon as my favorite music management software. I have Roon running on my iMac computer but it also works with Windows and Linux machines as well. Roon can give you easy access to your entire music library. Your library can be stored in a NAS or hard drive in whatever format you pick such as FLAC, WAV, AAC, ALAC, MP3, etc. Also if you have a Tidal subscription, Roon integrates very well with Tidal giving you access to millions of Tidal tracks.

Then you can use your phone or tablet to control Roon and play the music to your Roon-compatible device.
 
A few tidbits of information:
  • FLAC and WAV are lossless formats. You can store high-resolution files in FLAC or WAV.
  • If you are in an Apple environment, ALAC is Apple's version of FLAC. ALAC (just like FLAC) is also lossless.
  • FLAC is not supported by Apple devices. So if you are in an Apple environment, ALAC may make more sense because they can be natively played by all Apple devices (iPods, iPhone, etc.).
  • FLAC and ALAC allow you to compress the file for storage (to save space) but will decompress the files to their original size and resolution prior to playback.
  • You can take a FLAC, ALAC or WAV file and convert it to another lossless format.
  • MP3, AAC, Vorbis are lossy files. Once you save a file to any one of these lossy formats, you will lose information that cannot be recouped. They are called "lossy" because you lose data. All these lossy formats support metadata.
  • WMA is a windows file that is not widely used or supported. If I were you, I would avoid it.
  • Use bit-perfect software for ripping like EAC and DBPoweramp. (There are others, but I am familiar with both of those)
  • Rip once to a lossless format (FLAC, WAV, or ALAC). Once you rip a track you can easily make lossy versions (MP3, AAC, Vorbis, etc.) of those files.
  • Always keep the original (lossless) ripped file! Then use that file to create other types of files.
  • FLAC (and ALAC) give you more flexibility with metadata than WAV. Originally, you could not add metadata to your WAV file. But now it is possible to add metadata to WAV files using certain software.
 
I do think FLAC is an excellent choice.
· Lossless.
· Excellent tagging support including cover art.
· Allows storing custom tags in the file.
· Checksum stored in the file. This allows you to verify if the audio is corrupted.
· Wide support on Win, OSX, Linux, Android.

Stick to it.
Don't make the error to rip to lossy formats

If you want WMP to play FLAC you need Win10 as 10 is the first Win version supporting FLAC.
But why should one use WMP?
There are better ones both UI wise and audio driver wise.
My personal favorite is MusicBee: https://www.getmusicbee.com/
Of course it plays FLAC and of course it does support the composer tag (crucial for me)

As you talk composers, you probably are into classical.
You better don’t as almost all media players are designed with pop music in mind.
MusicBee is pretty decent in handling classical: http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MusicBee/MusicBee_Classical.htm

WMA lossless, it is MS own FLAC and WMA got very little traction. Stay away from it.

DLNA: have a look at Minim: http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Streaming/MinimServer.htm
One of the few DLNA servers caring for classical.
 
Thanks for the replies!

@Nikhil: Don't get me wrong: I am full willing to try other software, but I've already spent so many hours experimenting (and reading) that I was hoping for some more background and explanations. What's wrong with Windows Media Server or VLC (the two I tried); what do jRiver or Foobar do better? And what client-player do I use to profit from the difference?

@nicoff: your valuable advice is much appreciated. EAC works like a treat; it even 'restores' damaged tracks from VOCD's (Very Old Compact Disks) by using data from others! My only gripe is the very limited amount of metadata I can add.
About using FLAC: my worry is that afaik the format of the metadata is not well defined, so it's a kind of a gamble whether the media-server interpretes them in a way they can be integrated with mp3 metadata into one searchable database. Do I have to worry about that?
BTW, as an alternative to flac I only considered WMA-lossless, which features a well-structured set of metadata (I thought that could be useful for the time being?) and can if necessary be bulk-converted to any other format.
About editing metadata: I'd been using Windows Explorer (not bad at all) but mp3tag is clearly much easier to use. It is, however, far from my ideal metadata editor. But maybe I'd better start a different thread on this subject.

@Vincent kars: I do use flac, but like I said hereabove I worry a bit about the metadata. You are right, I am into classical, but not exclusively; so I had hopes that I could find a media-server able to handle, integrate and expose ALL kinds of metadata. Ok, maybe two different players (one for 'classical', one for the rest) are required to query these metadata and come up with reasonably short lists of choices; I could live with that because I can see the ratio behind it. But it would be a different matter if I had to split my music collection in two and run two different media-servers. Is not that what using MinimServer would oblige me to do?
Muisicbee seems promising too, especially after reading some postings discussing Chromecast Audio. It seems I would have to install BubbleUPnP as media-server?
It is NOT VERY CLEAR to me how this technology works (e.g. what the heck has my media-server to do with being able to cast from my notebook or smartphone?) but I'm more then ready to be enlightened:-)
BTW, you said "But why should one use WMP? There are better ones both UI wise and audio driver wise." But I only use WMP as a media-server (hardly ever accessing the GUI) and as such it seems to do a decent job (?).
(Aside: you simply state that flac is only supported from win10 on, but forgot to mention several free codec-packages which remedy this for win7 or even earlier; e.g. mediaplayercodecpack.com. Windows is, unlike Apple, an open system, which has its advantages as well as its drawbacks.)
Mabel
 
Excellent advice by Nicoff.

FLAC uses OGG Vorbis comments as its tagging schema.
I have never experienced any problems with FLAC tags.

Building and maintaining the library.
This is about ripping and straighten out the meta data.
That is one of the reasons I use dBpoweramp as it supports AMG, GD3, MusicBrainz and FreeDB for meta data.
AMG and GD3 are paid ones so more structured then FreeDB.
This helps in case of classical.
My personal favorite for tagging classical is MusiCHI.
Its tagger saves me a lot of time: http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MusiCHI.htm
MP3Tag is a good one too.
Mediaplayers like MusicBee offers editing too.

Playback
There are many ways but the major ones are:
Direct playback: the media player uses the file system, be it local, an external hard-disk or a share on a computer somewhere in the network.
This is what all media players do.

Streaming: there is a media server (just like a webserver) somewhere in the network and clients attached to this network can browse the contents as exposed by the server and of course can play the music.
A common standard to do so is DLNA.
WMS is simply a DLNA media server.
Obvious all the clients should be DLNA enabled.
On Android BubbleUPnP is a well-known app.

I know that there are Direct Show plugings enabling WMP to play FLAC.
I don’t know if this applies to WMS as well.

The next question is what tags are exposed by the DLNA server and what tags are displayed by the DLNA client.
Custom tags are out of the question.
One of the reasons I mentioned Minim is because it exposes tags like composer, composition, genre, conductor, orchestra and soloists.

You don’t need to run 2 DLNA servers, the question is can you find one that satisfies your needs.
A bit more about DLNA: http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/stream.htm
 
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