Accessing U/S-ripped tracks via Sonos
Posted by: heihei on 30 March 2013
Anyone know if it's possible to access tracks on my NAS via my U/S SSD? Am keen to do it this way to preserve the Naim tagging.
If it's possible, how??
US rips do not contain any tags at all. The US has its own data base from which it retreives the tag information.
Even if your Sonos was able to see the files there still would be no tags.
There is nothing special about the files ripped by UnitiServe. They are just wav files grouped in album folders and Sonos will be able to see them, just as it sees any other music files on your NAS. You just need to make sure you tell Sonos to scan the right NAS share.
Tagging is another story altogether, and Sonos won't naturally see the album art and other info that you see on UnitiServe. Track naming and numbering may also be compromised. If you want to be able to see the same art and info in Sonos, you have to perform a separate tagging process using a program like MediaMonkey (which is free to download).
In MediaMonkey, you just scan the music folders created by UnitiServe and amend the properties as necessary. You do it album by album so it takes time but it gives you the tagging needed by Sonos without having any adverse effect on UnitiServe.
NB only limited tagging is possible for wav files. If you prefer you can convert or copy to flac, which will allow you to add more info, but I have never bothered. I have left everything in wav and figure that, on those rare occasions when I really want to know more about an album, I can just google it.
There is nothing special about the files ripped by UnitiServe. They are just wav files grouped in album folders and Sonos will be able to see them, just as it sees any other music files on your NAS. You just need to make sure you tell Sonos to scan the right NAS share.
Tagging is another story altogether, and Sonos won't naturally see the album art and other info that you see on UnitiServe. Track naming and numbering may also be compromised. If you want to be able to see the same art and info in Sonos, you have to perform a separate tagging process using a program like MediaMonkey (which is free to download).
In MediaMonkey, you just scan the music folders created by UnitiServe and amend the properties as necessary. You do it album by album so it takes time but it gives you the tagging needed by Sonos without having any adverse effect on UnitiServe.
NB only limited tagging is possible for wav files. If you prefer you can convert or copy to flac, which will allow you to add more info, but I have never bothered. I have left everything in wav and figure that, on those rare occasions when I really want to know more about an album, I can just google it.
Does this actually work on the files the uServe has ripped to the MQ folder? They are "read only" as far as I know, and I did not think that they are modifiable other than with DTC of nServe (OS X) -- I did not think that MediaMonkey running on another networked device could modify the files in the MQ folder.
I have done it with my own music collection (1,000 + albums). I have an HDX rather than a U/S but that makes no difference. I ripped all my CDs via the HDX, then scanned the MQ files via MediaMonkey to tag them in a way that Sonos could recognise. It worked for Sonos and caused no problems for the HDX.
I suggest that you do what I did first-up - experiment with one or two albums and make sure that it's all OK before you proceed further.
Sonos can access UPNP servers, rather than a share, then you will get the tags and album art.
Assuming you have access to the Desktop Controller, click on Manage > Settings > Advanced and on the general tab click on Show Rhapsody UPNP Servers. You should then find your UPNP server appears on the list.
It works fine with Asset, it's not quite as convenient to use as native Sonos but is a useful workaround.
Richard
Richard - this is what I'd hoped. My Sonos allows me to add the U/S and I can see it under folders, but there's nothing underlying it, I just get "No Selections Are Available@.