Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Squeezebox - Network topology and data scrubbing

Hi-ya Tom –

I’ll tell you what I have, and what I do. I’m not advocating it or suggesting you do the same, but you’ll at least have one more data point to reference.

A few back (three??) I decided to rip my CD collection after giving up on the Mega-changers (1200 – 1500 CD’s, and what a bitch that was). I think you recall all we did with those damn silly things….

So firstly, I screwed up ripping when I first started. I started out being cheap and used EAC. After several hundred later, I found out just how hard it is to properly tag and collect album art - after the fact. I then moved over to DB Power amp. Sure wish I would have started with this as it collects album art and does a fairly good job with tagging. It also levels playback DB levels. It also has a dual rip function for ripping two formats simultaneously. (I use FLAC for the home system and MP3 for my I Pod that resides in my vehicle).

I did not want my home PC running all the time and I do not like any other sort of software on my home PC that I can not easily move to another PC every two years or so. I like to keep it for work related stuff, like CAD. So…I ripped everything to an HP Media Server. I installed Squeezebox Server on the HP. The server runs all the time and I also use it to back up my other PC’s and external hard drives. I have it partitioned as well in the event I loose one of the drives. You can stuff four drives into the thing and I believe you can get 2T drives. I have four 1T drives and they are more than enough for me.

When this system works, it is brilliant and I’m happy.

It doesn’t work all the time and I’m often agitated.

The squeezebox software is a memory hog and the server often freezes to the point that I need to perform the good ol’ “hard re-boot” by use of the power button.

The stinking rotting squeeze box player often has to be reset to factory defaults in order for it to re-connect to my network. This happens just about every time we have a power outage (which is often). I’m sure I am partially to blame, as my patience with network issues is very low and I just don’t want to screw with it to find out what might be configured incorrectly, but I do know for certain that the stinking rotting SB player does not reconnect when just about everything else in the house does. I’m blaming the SB Player.

I should also note that I am using the SB Duet and the Touch may be more reliable. I’ve been pondering what to do next before I move to the Touch, or some other method to listen to my digital library, as well as Pandora and Rhapsody.