Messages

1

Questions / Re: How to keep portable version of MB up to date

« on: January 18, 2018, 09:51:27 AM »

Thanks guys for your responses (however, your links provide only recent patches, so they can't be bookmarked for future updates). But what I understood now is the following:

The best approach to keep a portable installation up-to-date (without having to redo all settings when doing a new portable "full install") is to follow this site:
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=21135.0 and use the "incremental update" at the bottom of the page, and unzip / extract it into the current MB-folder, correct? So I'd better bookmark this site for future updating.

In this case the official download site: https://getmusicbee.com/downloads/ can be ignored, unless I want to have a language or skin update.

@Steven - is there a chance also to add incremental "portable updates / patches" to the official MB download site (https://getmusicbee.com/downloads/) once they are stable and officially released? That would make it easier to find them for not so forum-savvy people. 

Thanks!

2

Questions / Re: How to keep portable version of MB up to date

« on: January 15, 2018, 05:38:08 PM »

That sounds like an interesting alternative...

However - my problem is, that I find it difficult to find the portable incremental updates, and to differentiate them from the "full install packages", as they are not clearly indicated on the download pages.

So - if there is no clear indication which Version is suitable for an incremental update of a portable MB Version, my Suggestion would be just to add another section on the download page for these updates.

Which links do you usually use for incremental updates? The patches from the wiki site, or the portable (ZIP) Files from the regular download page?

3

Questions / How to keep portable version of MB up to date

« on: January 15, 2018, 10:19:20 AM »

Hi All,

I am a great fan of portable SW. I use MB both on a stick (on my office PC), but also at home on my desktop, because I just prefer to have SW in local folders without having to install it. However, I am a bit confused about how to keep my portable MB installations up to date. Whenever a new release / update is announced I can choose between the following:

incremental update and includes all changes since version 3.0 - unzip and then run MusicBee_Setup_3_1_6585.exe
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/Weekly/MusicBee_Setup_3_1_6585.zip

=> which I believe is meant for the users of the install version of MusicBee (because the file name says "setup")

or the full download, including updates to skins and localisations
http://www.mediafire.com/file/popd8bvnq62bz5t/MusicBeeSetup_3_1_Update2.zip

portable:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/84ng37dsjvo15fe/MusicBeePortable_3_1_Update2.zip

=> now this probably what I should be looking for, but it says "full download", so this would be just another instance of a portable MusicBee "installation"

Question: can this kind of "full MB download (portable)" also be used just for updating the portable "installation" of MB, by just extracting all the files in the Zip into the folder, that hosts my "portable installation". I am aksing, because I would just like to reaffirm this approach before ruining my instance of MB.

On the other hand there are also patches, which can be found here (for example): http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Latest_Update.

I just used the patch-link provided on this page and "patched" my portable version 3.1.6567 to version 3.2.6588. Hopefully that will not turn out into a problem...

But still I am not sure what would be the best approach to keep portable versions up to date without having to reinstall them fully with each update. Any help is greatly appreaciated.

Many thanks!

4

Beyond MusicBee / How to rip an unplayable CD

« on: December 08, 2017, 11:40:18 AM »

Hi Folks,

I am ripping my CD collection to store it on my media server (and for archiving purposes) using MusicBee, and for most of my CDs this works without any problems. But recently I came across one CD that states on the back side of the sleeve "This CD is not playable on computers" - and indeed, it isn't!!

The playser just doesn't do / show anything when the CD is inserted (except from some movement noise, the CD drive is making for a while).

I tried to play it on different Windows and Linux machines but had no success. So my question is now, how could I "save" the music, which is on that CD / Album. Is there any way to connect a regular CD player to a PC in order to rip a CD? How would that setup look like?

Did anyone experience similar problems in the past? Any suggestions / solutions?

Thanks in advance!

5

Questions / Re: Titel löschen

« on: October 05, 2017, 01:31:23 PM »

Hi rafaelohaj,

could you maybe state your question in German (like the title). Maybe this could help to understand your problem better.

6

Questions / Theater Mode - Radio Style - Volume Control?

« on: September 26, 2017, 03:53:52 PM »

Is it possible that the theater mode "Radio Style" has no possibility to control the volume (without changing to a different view) or am I just too blind to find it...? 

7

Questions / Re: Fill Device with random selection - space limit possible?

« on: September 26, 2017, 10:11:51 AM »

I found some requests in the wishlist dated some five years ago (e.g. one posted by "finzenmaster" in 2012). So I'm not sure if adding a "+" would really help.    There is a workaround explained, how that can be achieved by using appropriate playlists and syncing these to the device.

However, I feel that adding this option directly to the sync menu would be a bit more of a user-friendly approach because the goal of filling a defined amount of space with random music could be achieved in one single step (without creating a random playlist).

Thanks!

8

Questions / Fill Device with random selection - space limit possible?

« on: September 25, 2017, 04:02:36 PM »

Now that my Music Library is growing with MB, I'd also like to take it with me on my mobile device (android). I very much like the "fill device with random selection" option, but I would not like to fill up my device completely. I am looking for an option to leave some space for app updates or whatsoever without having to clean up the device manually afterwards.

Is there any possibility to limit the available space for "filling the device with random selection", e.g. if I have 17GB free space on my mobile but would like to use only 15 GB for the music?

I am already using the "on-the-fly conversion" to convert my lossless files to mp3 when syncing them to the mobile phone to save storage space on the phone. However, that does not really solve my problem, as I would like to fill only a defined amount of space with a random selection. Any way to accomplish that with the sync function?

Thanks!

9

Questions / Re: Musibee 3.1 - CD Rip Settings for FLAC - Profile "Archiving" has disappeared

« on: September 22, 2017, 12:15:43 PM »

OK, thanks guys. I think I got the point! 

For the moment I'll stick with the lowest compression level to avoid any encoding / decoding difficulties when playing songs on another, maybe less powerful device (and because I started with that setting). If my collection should consume too much disk space I might use a higher compression level or convert the already ripped files to a higher compression level (=> which tool would I use for that?), but whatever compression level is chosen, it makes no difference to the "quality" of the ripped music.

One final question maybe: I think I read somewhere that iTunes was able to convert / transcode lossless files to mp3 files "on the fly" when copying them to a portable device (such as an iPhone). Is there any option with MusicBee to achieve something similar (i.e. to convert flac files to mp3 when copying them to a portable device)? Or any other tool?

10

Questions / Re: Any difference between installed and portable versions of MB?

« on: September 21, 2017, 10:47:30 AM »

Thanks for the explanation Steven,

but I am still wondering what would then be the advantage of installing the SW on your machine when you get all the same without installing? Could it be that the updating process to new versions is incremental, i.e. all settings, skins and everything is preserved and only updates to changed (program) files are installed?

I noticed with the update from 3.0.5 to 3.1 that I had a completely new installation of MB, so I had to redo all my personal settings, skins, etc. - but maybe I did something wrong (I wasn't sure if I could/should unzip the new version in the folder of the old one). Maybe there is also a way to backup and preserve all settings when migrating to a new version, which I have not discovered yet.

Again, if there is any advantage of installing the SW, I would do that. But if it just a question of personal preference, then I'll stick with the portable / no install one.

11

Questions / Re: Musibee 3.1 - CD Rip Settings for FLAC - Profile "Archiving" has disappeared

« on: September 21, 2017, 10:37:24 AM »

Generally the encoder settings in the preferences menu are corresponding to the drop down menus in the CD Rip settings:

In the preferences / encoder settings of MB3.0 I have the following two options:

1. "portable device" [-s -8 -o [outputfile] -]
2. "file archiving" [-s -0 -o [outputfile] -]

In the preferences / encoder settings of MB3.1 I have the following two options:

1. "max.compression" [-s -8 -o [outputfile] -] => seems to be the same as "portable device" in MB3.0
2. "std.compression" [-s -5 -o [outputfile] -] => this one is different from the "file archiving" setting in MB3.0

I made a reference copy of one CD in MB3.0 (archiving) and MB3.1 (std.compression) and file sizes are nearly the same (archiving files are generally 1-2MB larger). I guess I liked the "archiving" setting, because that is just what I do... 

However, I guess if I change the parameters in the preferences / encoder settings from "-s -5 -o [outputfile] -" to "-s -0 -o [outputfile] -", I should get the archiving settings also in MB3.1.

I am just a bit unsure, because I don't know what these settings mean and I would not like to break my Bee... 

12

Questions / Any difference between installed and portable versions of MB?

« on: September 20, 2017, 03:58:18 PM »

I am a great fan of portable SW and therefore I am using MB portable at the moment (I have one on a pen drive for work / travel and another one on my home PC). I was wondering if there might be any (technical / functional) differences between the portable and the installed version?

So the question is, whether MB portable might be some kind of a "lighter" MusicBee? If this is the case, I would use the installed version at home to get the full flavor of it. On the other hand, if both versions are identical - what would be the advantage of "installing" MusicBee on your computer instead of just unzipping the portable version to the folder of your choice??

BTW: I am using MB3.1.6466 on Windows 10 64 Bit machines, just in case this might be important.

Thanks!

13

Questions / Any way to personalize the "All Artists" icon (Album Artist)

« on: September 20, 2017, 03:19:26 PM »

Hi,

In the "Album Artist" panel ("MUSIC" Tab) I see Artist pictures (thumbnails) for each individual album artist (since I updated to MB3.1 there is also a picture for the "Various Artists" section (great!   ). The only "undefined" or "emtpy" icon / thumbnail is the one for topmost "all artists" link (summary view).

Is there any way to personalize this one, too and to add a user-defined icon / thumbnail for the "all artists" link under "album artist" in the "MUSIC" tab?

Thanks!

14

Questions / Re: Musibee 3.1 - CD Rip Settings for FLAC - Profile "Archiving" has disappeared

« on: September 20, 2017, 03:01:41 PM »

Hi frankz,

thanks, that's what I thought. I was mostly interested in knowing which one of the new profiles ("standard compression" / "maximum compression") would match the old profile ("archiving"), but I guess I would need Steven to answer that.

I used "standard" compression for ripping one CD and the file sizes were already reasonably small. So this might seem to be a good deal in leveraging storage space and machine resources. I guess I'll rip the CD again in MB3.0 to get file size comparison values. Then I can decide which level to choose. Storage space is not really an issue for me.

However, I might also continue using MB3.0 for the ripping business, not sure yet...

15

Questions / Re: Musicbee 3.1 - creating empty folders (Tag Backups)

« on: September 20, 2017, 01:59:14 PM »

Yes, I am using the "Additional Tagging Tools" Plugin and the folder I mentioned is set in the "(Auto)Backup settings" of that Plugin. So this is the cause. I am using the latest version of the plugin which I downloaded from the Boroda74's download site a few days ago.

I will set the destination folder in the "(Auto)Backup settings" to a MusicBee subfolder, so it will not appear anymore in my root directory.

Thanks for your replies...!