Sonicfox:
Have you heard of software that controls the megachanger to gather all the disc info? Someone told me about it probably 2 years ago, but I never followed up on it. Evidently, it uses the 1/8" connectors that allow "chaining" two units together.
My understanding is that you load the changer, sit it next to an internet-enabled computer, and connect the included serial to 1/8" jack to enable the PC to talk to the changer. Then, the software rotates to each CD slot, gathering the info needed for the Gracenote database to figure out the artist and album and enter the information. I'm not sure what it does with the "group" classification.
I have two Sony 400 disc changers that offer me a love/hate relationship. I do think that these units are best paired with a mate to avoid the long wait times between disc access. I love being able to choose a genre and have them shuffle play all tracks from the genre (group), even adding a short crossfade between the two. I love that they are text-CD capable and that the big display on each does a decent job giving you track names, etc. I love the fact that I have 700 discs taking up very little space in comparison to Jewel Cases.
I
don't love not having the ability to play multiple groups without others, plus the limitation of 8 groups. For instance, my groups are
(and nobody better give me no crap!): 50s, 60's, 70's, hard rock, rap, best-of, new, and Christmas. I have the 50's, 60's, and 70's groups because I have the complete Time-Life series of each decade and, to me, I can't just put them all under "rock" because I don't want to hear the Black Crowes followed by Chubby Checker. But sometimes I
do want to hear a wide variety of music, so I'd
like to choose all…. But then I'm hearing "White Christmas" in July. If I had more "groups" available, I'd add soft rock, jazz, classical, and "other" (for such CDs as those soundscapes CDs with The Seashore, Thunder and Rain, etc…hey, I haven't tried that last one with my Axioms and 350 Sub!).
I also intensely dislike having to enter in the info for each disc. I completely emptied the changers about 10 months ago because discs weren't back in the right slots, plus most discs' information seemed to have gotten corrupted: Jimi Hendrix under the Artist Group of "Journey" for example. I have yet to put them back in the changers, and instead just have them on spindles making it very difficult to gain access to a disc when I'm in the mood for it. I
know it's gonna take three days to get them all entered, though, and I always have more important things to do!
I've been stalling in hopes of finding a media server that I like, and getting my networking setup correctly (I have 6 computers and three printers that need wired, wireless and gigabit networking and it's been very problematic…I'm waiting for my "Systems Integrator" to make the trip here and get it done once and for all). At that point, I might just convert some of my older video-editing drives into a 400 Gig array and dedicate and older computer as a server house-wide.
I've even considered ripping all my music to harddrives in the meantime, and duping each disc to a CD-Text capable version. That way, the artist and album info are ALWAYS "with" the disc if it should end up in the wrong slot, and I'll have track names so there's no missing the Jewel Cases stored in the attic.
In the meantime, till I figure out how best to handle all these discs, I miss my music!
I should also add: Nice system, by the way! And having just gotten a new large-creen with high-def capability, my opinion is that you should kick your current rommate out in favor of one with a high-Def monitor!
