MCE & iTunes from same library. How to stop MPlayer changing the ID3 Tags

[Mark Ward]

I'm setting up an MCE PC for my Uncle and would like to allow him to see his iTunes Music from withing MCE's music interface.

I've no problem pointing Mediaplayer to the iTunes folder storing the music, which is in MP3 format, but Mediaplayer keeps changing the ID3 Tags based on information from it's database which at times isn't correct. Is there any way to get MCE (Mediaplayer) to import the artwork into MCE without altering any of the embedded info?

The best I've come up with is to switch off internet music checking & manually cut & past artwork into MCE, but this won't work for my Uncle.

Thanks,

Mark.

[MacBurp]

In WMP10:

'Tools', 'Options'

Under the 'Player' tab, ensure that 'connect to the internet' is unchecked

Under the 'Library' tab, ensure that all boxes under 'automatic media update for files' are unchecked.

I hope it works.

regards,
Paul

[Mark Ward]

Originally Posted by MacBurp

In WMP10:

'Tools', 'Options'

Under the 'Player' tab, ensure that 'connect to the internet' is unchecked

Under the 'Library' tab, ensure that all boxes under 'automatic media update for files' are unchecked.

I hope it works.

regards,
Paul

Hi there,

These are the setting I'm currently using, however the Album art isn't imported into MCE/Mediaplayer with these settings. He has a LOT of CDs and I can't see him wanting to manually add cover artwork in MCE.

If possible I want Mediaplayer to detect artwork based on the MP3 files of the CD that was imported into iTunes, without amending ID tag data if it disagrees with it.

Thanks,

Mark.

[MacBurp]

Originally Posted by Mark Ward

Hi there,

These are the setting I'm currently using, however the Album art isn't imported into MCE/Mediaplayer with these settings. He has a LOT of CDs and I can't see him wanting to manually add cover artwork in MCE.

If possible I want Mediaplayer to detect artwork based on the MP3 files of the CD that was imported into iTunes, without amending ID tag data if it disagrees with it.

Thanks,

Mark.

I don't think you can do this - I do manually add artwork using Album Art Fixer, so its not a problem for me.

regards,
Paul

[springtide]

Maybe try musicbridge ...

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/34552.aspx

Or maybe.... MCE Tunes ...

http://www.mcetunes.com/


Haven't tried these yet, so let ME know if they are any good

I copied and converted all of my library (using Art Fixer) - which took me about 30 hrs. They are now out of sync, but I really don't care cos' I'm not doing the sync again (unless there is a better solution)!

[Chris_B_75]

Originally Posted by springtide

Maybe try musicbridge ...

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/34552.aspx

Or maybe.... MCE Tunes ...

http://www.mcetunes.com/

I was just about to recommend MCETunes myself.

Organise all your stuff in iTunes then MCE Tunes lets media centre play it even your purchased itunes tracks and media player doesn't try to alter anything

[Mark Ward]

I downloaded the trial version of MCETUNES and can now see an "iTunes MCE Playlist", however I can't tell whether the Albums will appear under "Albums" and "Artists" in "My Music" as ALL the tracks in the new play list were already in My Music from my previous attempt to import the "iTunes Music" Folder into MCE.

Could someone confirm that the Albums & Artists Lists get populated with the iTunes library including artwork? Thanks....

Also, Is there a problem with the fact the the default storage location of iTunes music is a sub-folder of "My Music" and Mediaplayer/MCE already searches in "My Music" by default?

Is there a quick way to delete the whole "My Music" MCE/Mediaplayer listings without deleting the tracks themselves?
Thanks,

Mark.

[Chris_B_75]

Mce Tunes will sort all your iTunes music and artwork into the correct artist/album structure within MCE/MP. I've turned off the monitoring of folders within MP so only music is from MCE Tunes.

Quick way to clear media player is to go to the all music folder, click on the first track and while holding shift, press 'end' on the keyboard to select all your tracks. If you press delete now, it will give you the option to remove the tracks from your library without deleting them from the computer. You can then run the MCE Tunes to import a clean set of data from iTunes

Hope this helps

[Mark Ward]

MCETunes worked a treat!

Thanks!

Mark.

[Pat Pucker]

Hello, I came across this thread after doing a search, as I am also considering how to get my itunes into MCE, and had a few questions on MCE tunes:
First off - does MCEtunes bridge directly between itunes and MCE, or does it just point to the particular folder used to store the music? The reason I ask is that I currently store my music on another machine on the network that runs itunes, and don't have itunes on the MCE pc in question. Would I have to put itunes on the MCE machine and set up it's library from the same data, or could I sync the new itunes installation to the other machine's itunes (with the itunes library-share function?).
2nd Question - if the music files remain on the other networked machine, will MCE tunes drag the files locally as part of the sync, or will it always reference the original data?
3rd question - Does MCE unes require manually synchronising to the itunes library periodically, or does it keep itself up-to-date after the initial sync?
Last question! - Will I need a seperate AAC codec to play the files or is that included in MCE tunes?
Phew, hope that hasn't exceeded my question quota, any help appreciated...Sy

[Mark Ward]

Hi There, I'll answer what I can, I succesfully installed this for my uncle, but haven't had any real usage experience to know precisely what's happening...

Originally Posted by Pat Pucker

First off - does MCEtunes bridge directly between itunes and MCE, or does it just point to the particular folder used to store the music?

From what I understand, and I'm pretty sure I'm correct here, MCETunes enables the iTunes music folder to be seen/read from within MCE, the artwork appears in MCE as well but nothing is copied, it's merely read from the iTunes database.

The reason I ask is that I currently store my music on another machine on the network that runs itunes, and don't have itunes on the MCE pc in question. Would I have to put itunes on the MCE machine and set up it's library from the same data, or could I sync the new itunes installation to the other machine's itunes (with the itunes library-share function?).

I can't really answer this, but if you where to create a Mapped drive to the music folder ir might work I guess. At home I have my music stored on a raid server, I have iTunes installed on my desktop PC but configured to store the music on the Raid server. I don't know whether MCETunes needs to read iTunes registry settings, or whether the access to the iTunes Music folder would be sufficient. My guess would be that since iTunes stores artwork in a separate folder and the artwork is visible from within MCE that there must be some settings being read from your iTunes configuration. This would suggest that iTunes would need to be present on the same PC as MCE & MCETunes.

2nd Question - if the music files remain on the other networked machine, will MCE tunes drag the files locally as part of the sync, or will it always reference the original data?

I think it references the original data.

3rd question - Does MCE unes require manually synchronising to the itunes library periodically, or does it keep itself up-to-date after the initial sync?

When setting up it asks you whether you regularly add music, do you want to sync daily or something like that, however I did notice that a lot of my uncle's music wasn't visible until I manually re-ran the MCTunes program. This could have been due to the fact I'm having trouble persuading my uncle to leave the PC on 24/7.

Last question! - Will I need a seperate AAC codec to play the files or is that included in MCE tunes?

For us it all played straight off, though none of the music was bought through iTunes (so had no DRM). It's supposed to work even with DRM stuff but I can't confirm this myself. I can't bring myself to pay all that money for a low-bitrate DRM imited version of a CD when I can buy the real thing online, usually for less money. My uncle agrees so hasn't bought anything through iTunes.

Phew, hope that hasn't exceeded my question quota, any help appreciated...Sy

No probs, I hope others with experience of MCETunes can chip in as I only had a few hours experience of it.

My solution at home is to keep separate libraries for the iPod and home use, where I am able to use Lossles Flac for the home files and MP3 for the various portable devices. Disk space really isn't an issue these days. My raid server, if I were ever to fill it with 750gb drives would hold over 8TB and I can't see me ever needing that amount of space*.

*= Famous last words

Mark.

[Pat Pucker]

Mark, thanks for your detailed response, this is most helpful, I will give this a go tonight then....
Raid server - blimey? Is that a lot of effort, I was thinking of Network hard-drives as my longer term plan?...anyway, I digress...got enough on my plate without getting into that just yet.. thanks again

Sy

[Pat Pucker]

So since my last post I went home and tried out MCEtunes, and in the end I'm very happy with the result. To answer my own previous questions though:
MCEtunes would not work with itunes when I only had itunes running with the "shared" library from the other networked machine (i.e. using the library share function on the itunes on the remote m/c). I had to import the same music files to the local itunes for it to work. Now this might not sound like a big deal and it isn't, but it does mean that I now have to keep two itunes libraries in sync (e.g. if I rip a CD in one machine, I have to then import the same folder into itunes on the other machine). This is a bit of a pain but I'll get over it. Aside from that, MCE tunes merged hapily with the itunes library once it was on the local machine, even though the data source is a networked drive.
Sy