Maintain Parallel iTunes and WMC Music Libraries

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tcc

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Maintain Parallel iTunes and WMC Music Libraries

#1

Post by tcc » Thu Sep 22, 2011 2:15 pm

Hi,

Is there any interest in a configuration where iTunes is used as the master music library and WMC is essentially a slave parallel music library?

I've been running this way using a script, procedure, and conversion tool. The end result is an Apple Lossless iTunes library and a parallel WMA Lossless WMC music library that uses the higher res iTunes album art for Gallery, Now Playing and Music Wall, and does not screw with the music metadata, or create the hidden/system jpg files or overwrite the Folder.jpg's.

The constraint is that after resetting Windows Media Player by deleting its art cache and database, and turning off some settings, it can NEVER be launched again EVER.

Tim

Cafe.Racer

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#2

Post by Cafe.Racer » Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:21 pm

YES!

Very interested.

Throw in Zune as well, and I'll be very happy.

PrplHaz4

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#3

Post by PrplHaz4 » Thu Nov 10, 2011 8:00 am

wow, I've searched all over for a solution to this problem (why can't they just get along!?)...definitely be interested in what you came up with...

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STC

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#4

Post by STC » Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:37 pm

Very interested!
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tcc

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#5

Post by tcc » Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:40 am

Hi,

The iTunes-WMC utilities and instructions are contained in the latest release of our free Media Center Integration Kit (MCI-Kit). Download from http://sinderon.com

Note #1:
Make sure that you use non-production (test) iTunes and WMC music libraries to become familiar with the tools and the process.

Note #2:
The readme suggests that the entire dirtree of the WMC music library must be the same as the iTunes music dirtree. The process is simplist if thats that case, but the dirtrees can be different up to \[Artist]\[Album]. In fact my own WMC music library dirtree is relativly flat compared to my iTunes default dirtree.

My WMC music dirtree - drive:\Audio\Wmc\[Artist]\[Album]
My Itunes music dirtree -drive:\Audio\iTunes\Tim\iTunes Media\Music\[Artist]\[Album].

If you want the WMC dirtree to be different from the iTunes dirtree then alter the readme instructions as follows:

a) Do not specify your WMC music library root as the target directory in dBpoweramp converion tool
b) Instead, specify another location for example d:\Wmc_Temp
c) dBpoweramp then auto-creates the iTunes dirtree including [Artist]\[Album] directories under d:/Wmc_Temp during conversion
d) When conversion is complete, copy (move) just the [Artist]\[Album] directories to the WMC music library root

Having different dirtrees up to [Artist]\[Album] works out ok because the iTunesCopyArt.cmd tool that copies Folder.jpg files from iTunes to WMC uses Robocopy which automatically handles having different dirtrees.

Tim

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