The Net Gate

Squeezebox iTunes integration

Squeezebox Server supports iTunes libraries and playlists. It can fully integrate the music library, without scanning the music folders.

To make this work correctly, enter the location of the iTunes library. You can do this by following these steps (make sure the Squeezebox Server is running):

1) Click on the Squeezebox Server icon in the system tray and choose ‘Open Web Control’

2) Click on the ‘Settings’ button (at the bottom right) of the Squeezebox Server Web Control page

This will open the Server Settings web page.

3) Click on the ‘iTunes’ tab and enter the iTunes library (library.xml) location

Then press the ‘Apply’ button to save the settings.

At the next scan the iTunes library and all playlists will become available on your Squeezebox. You can manually rescan the library under the ‘Basic Settings’ tab (Rescan Music Library).

Squeezebox

This streamer offers superb playback audio quality on hi-fi systems. Besides support of iTunes playlists, it performs very well for Internet radio streams.

The Squeezebox Classic is a streamer with a Remote Control.

you need to setup an account to manage your Internet radio streams

Squeezebox Server is the software that you need to manage the music streams.

Squeezeslave is a lightweight Windows Player for the Squeezebox Server.

Load this programme to playback on a pc (typically on the pc where Squeezebox Server is running).

Control of the playback is through the browser interface of the Squeezebox Server:

This system works fine for me with iTunes 9 installed on a Windows XP (SP3) system. The Squeezebox is connected to my wi-fi router.

How to cleanup orphan itunes library entries.

iTunes libraries will flag orphan entries with an exclamation mark!

These entries can be cleaned in two ways:

A) Create a new library:

Start iTunes by holding the shift key (keep the shift key pressed, while you select and start iTunes). iTunes will prompt you to create a new library (or choose an existing one).

B) Use a 3rd party tool:

iTunes Library Updater is a free utility to synchronize the iTunes database with your media collection. I run it with the ‘Clean orphaned entries’ option only:

note that .NET Framework must be installed to run this programme

Iomega ScreenPlay Pro Features:

The ScreenPlay Pro supports the following video codecs: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (HL/ML), .MPEG-4 (part 2), ASP, DivX (3.11, 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, HD), Xvid, MP4.

AVI, MOV, MKV, VOB, and ISO are container formats. Specifically, AVI, MOV and MKV contain file playback information as well as the formats used for audio and video streams.

Issues with H.264

Because the H.264 codec is not natively supported. It is required to use the included transcoding server software to stream the video into a format that the ScreenPlay Pro HD can natively play back.

It is however, recommended, in this situation, to re-encode the video stream of the file into a format that is natively supported by the ScreenPlay Pro HD. This will make sure that the file can be played directly from the device without needing to be connected to a netwok.

Issues with MKV files

Then Iomega ScreenPlay Pro HD does not include native MKV file support. However, you can the Transcode Server software to get around this limitation. Read the article on the Iomega support pages: ‘How do I play MKV files with the ScreenPlay Pro HD?‘

Issues with GMC = Global Motion Compensation

If you have a file that contains S-VOP’s (GMC), then you would need to re-encode that file.

Re-encoding a file can be done with freeware, such as PocketDivXEncoder.

Issues with Windows 7

Windows 7 has new security policies put in place that forbid incoming connections that do not utilize a new CIFS/SMB (Samba) standard that has been implemented in Windows 7.

Because of this, the problem can be fixed by changing the policies regarding CIFS/SMB connections. I am required to say that you can perform these policy updates at your own risk. This may or may not make your system less secure to other devices on your network, but we will not be held liable for anything that may occur when these default policies have been changed.

There is a guide out there that can be found by doing a Google Search with the term “Windows 7 network file sharing policy fix”. It will guide you, step by step, through adjusting your policy to allow your ScreenPlay Pro HD to connect to Windows 7 public shares.

Firmware version R1.96 should  fix the issues with Windows 7 network shares

source: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822186146

Songbird is a good alternative music player for iTunes.

Songbird for Windows can play protected AAC, m4a and m4p (protected FairPlay) audio files, provided that:

• you  have installed the QuickTime Playback add-on and
• you have installed the QuickTime codecs (e.g. QT Lite)

Burn an Audio CD with iTunes (version 9.x)

Follow these steps to burn an Audio CD that can be played in any CD player.

1. Create a playlist with the songs that you want on the Audio CD

2. Select the playlist with the songs to be burned on the Audio CD

3. Select ‘Burn Disc’ at the bottom right of the screen

4. Select Disc Format: Audio CD and hit the ‘Burn’ button

iTrip Auto support

Looking for the right frequency? check these sites:

• Radio in Vlaanderen (list of FM frequencies in Flanders)
• Radiovisie lists all radio station frequencies in Belgium

iTrip Auto Support FAQ

Changing the iTrip Auto to International mode (frequencies below 87.9) instructions:

Hold the select button down until you see USA on the screen. This takes approximately 10-15 seconds.

Toggle the +/- switch between USA and INTL mode. Depress the select button to lock in the mode selection.

The iTrip Auto is now capable of being tuned to the international frequencies range of 76-90Mhz!

my Audio tools

Tools that I use for my audio files:

• iTunes Art importer (freeware to import Artwork from Amazone.com)
• Exact Audio Copy (freeware to grab audio from CD-ROMs)
• Lame (freeware to encode to MP3)

iTunes Audio protection removal and conversion to MP3

These steps explain how the iTunes Audio protection can be removed and to convert your files to MP3.

Note that this should only be used for backup purposes only. You should respect the copywrite laws.

1. iTunes Voorkeuren aanpassen

Kijk eerst en vooral in ‘Bewerken’ -> ‘Voorkeuren’

Kijk dan onder ‘Geavanceerd’

Zet ‘Branden’ op Audio-CD

Zet ‘Importeren’ op MP3

2. Audio CD Branden

Maak een speellijst aan met de muziek die je wenst voor deze conversie en voeg hieraan alle liedjes toe.

Selecteer deze lijst en selecteer ’schijf branden’ rechts onder op het scherm.

Plaats een lege cd in de cd-brander en wacht tot de cd voltooid is.

3. Audio CD importeren

Vervolgens importeer de cd en alle liedjes zullen automatisch geconverteerd worden naar mp3 zonder beveiliging.

iTunes zal vragen ‘bestaande vervangen’ of ‘bestaande niet vervangen’. Kies ‘bestaande niet vervangen’ indien je de originele (beveiligde) tracks wenst te behouden.

Getting organized with iTunes for the iPod

The way to organize your files depends on the details you want to keep about the song. iTunes parses the MP3-tags information: Artist, Title, Genre, etc. Good housekeeping rules are essential to keep your playlists tidy. Select the ‘Info tonen’ (Show Info) option from the ‘File’ menu (Ctrl-I) to alter all the information.

Here are my housekeeping rules:

1) check for typo’s in the Artist name and Title information

note: selecting multiple tracks to rename will open an empty info panel (you may proceed, this is OK), only the fields you complete will overwrite

2) assign the ‘Genre’ to the song that you have defined

3) review the ‘Album’ title;

note: if it is not part of a full album, you may want to remove the album title to simplify the Album list on your iPod

4) keep singles of the same artist in a common folder

note: you can do so by choosing the same ‘Album’ name and tagging the ‘Deel van verzameling‘ (Part of compilation).

5) make regular backups of your playlists: use the ‘export’ function under the ‘file’ menu to export to both xml and txt format

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