Batch convert my HDX WAV library to MP3

With the latest HDX firmware the HDX will do this under the music store menu option.

Thanks Paul.   Yes. It appears that this should be the case.  Unfortunately, I can't find any documentation how to do this ( before anyone asks, I'm in the US where most dealers haven't a clue).  I have firmware 1.7b - is that recent enough?

1.7b is the current  firmware.

best

David

OK, I'm looking at the DTC and don't see any way of backing up my music library as MP3 on my network share.  Am I missing something here?

Try dBpoweramp Batch Converter. Works for me.

sktn77a posted:

OK, I'm looking at the DTC and don't see any way of backing up my music library as MP3 on my network share.  Am I missing something here?

Make sure that you enable the MP3 creation for new CD ripping. This will actually also run a conversion programme.

Thanks Adam.  I enabled MP3 ripping but I cant seem to get anywhere that transcodes the Wav files to MP3.   Would that work on the WAV library that I already have or would I need to re-rip everything?

You don't need to re-rip. You can just set it to keep a parallel library of MP3s.

Alternatively, is there another lossless format your car will handle, such as FLAC? Personally, I find MP3s pretty dismal, even for use in the car.

Also, have you tried using a larger USB stick? My guess is that it would work, despite the FAT32 thing - maybe worth a try??

The car hardware (Lexus/Toyota) only reads MP3 or WMA format from FAT 32 USB drives.  I've tried NTFS-formatted sticks and they aren't recognized.  

So how would I do  a parallel rip from the existing WAV files to MP3 files to either the internal HDDs or the external NAS?

cdboy posted:

Try dBpoweramp Batch Converter. Works for me.

 

Thanks, yes I looked at dbPoweramp batch ripper but it doesn't do what I need to do.

EDIT:  Never mind, batch ripper is not what I want - I looked at batch converter to see if that will work but that's not clear either.

The FAT idea was just a guess! I've re-formatted larger USB sticks in FAT in the past and found they still worked fine, so possibly worth a try?

I'm not at home right now, and I can't remember exactly how you would create the MP3 library. In N-Serve for Mac, I have a feeling that if you control - click on Albums, there is an option to do this. There's probably a different one in the browser interface, and yet another way via the desktop client.....

Once you've created the MP3 library, you should find it in the LQ folder, and you can drag or copy from there to a USB stick or wherever.

Thanks, if I can figure out how to get the current MQ (WAV) folder contents into the LQ (MP3) folder, I'll be In Like Flint!  If you can shed any light on that I'd be eternally grateful.  

Well, I think I figured it out.  Couldn't do it from the DTC but managed to get the conversions started from the touch panel on the HDX.  It churning away as we speak - said it would take 5 days to complete (?)

Naim really needs to hire some experienced technical writers for its streaming products as the existing manual is awful and their dealers in my neck of the woods get a little green around the gills when asked to do anything more complicated than "hum along to the tune"!  

Well done! From now on, every rip you mke will be in WAV and an MP3 version will be made too. The encoding Will take a while - hardware in the HDX / UnitiServe platform is rather old.

As to technical writers - try to figure out the 'Signal Ground' switch description on the source components like and ND platform 

sktn77a posted:

Naim really needs to hire some experienced technical writers for its streaming products as the existing manual is awful and their dealers in my neck of the woods get a little green around the gills when asked to do anything more complicated than "hum along to the tune"!  

Yes I agree with this. And preferably technical writers who don't have any prior Naim knowledge because you have to be a Naim expert to understand their current user reference manuals!

best

David

I'm not sure how 'technical' they actually need to be. It's more about writing a dummies guide. A little while ago my Airport Express light turned orange, which gave me the heeby jeebies. But within five minutes I'd found an Apple guide on the web and had the firmware updated in a few minutes. 

Yet backing up a UnitiServe seems harder than learning brain surgery. Naim's guidance at that time was virtually non existent and it was only thanks to Forum members that I managed to do it at all. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

I'm not sure how 'technical' they actually need to be. It's more about writing a dummies guide.

Agree with that,  my old cmpy used to employ a bunch of tech writers, all sub-contract self employed.  Those who were deep into how it all worked wrote stuff that was perfect for a service technician, but useless for most owners/operators.   We evolved into two streams.  Operators Manuals & Service Diagnostic Manuals,, both were available to all.  

Hungryhalibut posted:

I'm not sure how 'technical' they actually need to be. It's more about writing a dummies guide.

Well, I'd like to cut NAIM some slack but I think most of us here are above average intelligence and technical know-how.  Their reference manuals just plain stink!

Sktn77a

if you need more assistamce call us at Audioplus Services.

your HDX will do it the way you have found, but it is so slow that you are better with DB poweramp. The reason for that is  Naim has chosen to do  this convertion at the latest priority, so it is always stopped by all running processes.

i use an old hdd drive (250GB) (in a USB box) formated as FAT32 in my car with 320 kb mp3, it sounds ok.

Thanks Manu.  It seems to be working and is about half way through the conversion.  Yes, its slow but I'm not using it so I don't think there will be any processes running to further slow it down.  I posted on the dbPoweramp site and was also assured that this program would work (I used to use the program many years ago when it was free) but, like I say, the HDX is running now and seems to be working fine.  

I'm looking into formatting drives larger than 32GB in FAT32 format so I can just use a single USB drive. 

Oh, and thanks for the offer of assistance in case of future needs.