2. pc-audio
  3. 1102828063

Large Audio Libraries

My question is fairly simple - is there a PC-based "jukebox" (WMP, iTunes, etc.) that handles a large music library efficiently? I have about 1500 CDs (16K songs) currently in WMP 10 - it does okay, but it takes a long time to manipulate the interface on a lot of tasks, given the size of the library. This wouldn't be the first time that MSFT released software that was, um, sluggish on early releases and then let the hardware catch up. I'm wondering if there are other players that would handle a library of this size efficiently.

Second, what are the key things to do to ensure performance in WMP 10? It seems disk bound, so I'm assuming just having fast drives is the only real help, but does a significant addition of RAM help, for instance?

Finally - any good resources (links) on audio PC libraries and how to get good peformance?

Thanks, Kirk
kthomas
kthomas OP
911 posts
 
DC - Thanks! Since initiating this thread, I have continued to look for and keep my eyes open for a better jukebox - they're relatively easy to try and see how easy they are to break. Anyway, I had come across J. River MC and you are absolutely right - this is the best, period. It is so intuitive - after several months with my library loaded on WMP, and struggling to do anything much advanced in a way that I thought was intuitive, J. River is a revelation. Easy to set it up to let you look at your music collection in any / all ways that make sense. An easy $25 to pay. Thanks, Kirk
ejliu
109 posts
 
I have about 150gig of Apple lossless on iTune in Windows XP environment and it runs fairly fast. That's about 500 cds. I think iTune runs on mp3 ID3 tag as well. Maybe it has its only internal database system.

I tried the same on WMP and it is not great. foobar 2000 was very fast but I don't like the interface much. Slightly better sounding than WMP and iTunes though.
fishpatrol
30 posts
 
iTunes does have its own database: XML.
slothman
311 posts
 
I've got a friend that uses Windows Media Center and is able to access his collection via remote through his television. He also does searches via wireless keyboard. I didn't recall him being able to access directory stuctures in this way. I did think it was rather nice to just be able to scroll through the album cover icons via remote and just point and shoot to play.

I'm curious as to how the J. River software compares in accessing your media in this way. Has anyone compared the features of Microsofts Media center to J. River's? I'm just talking about the media interface layer and not the backbone.
kthomas OP
911 posts
 
J. River has a reasonably good media interface, meaning an interface that is designed to be thrown up on a TV and navigated the way you'd expect that level of interface to be navigated. I haven't hooked it up to my TV, nor have I bought a video card that includes the remote, but I see no reason why this wouldn't work, and assuming it did, you'd have the same sort of remote controlled, A/V interface to your music collection. I like J. Rivers interface better than WMP in all respects, but I think this interface is way more interesting than the WMP or XP ME version.
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