[mikel51]

I have been using MediaCenter 9.1 to manage my music and JPEGs on a laptop. I don't listen to music using my laptop, but I do use it to synch music to my IPOD. Using the IPOD made me open my eyes to the concept of using a computer to store and manage all of my music. I have been using EAC to rip my CDs and then importing the files into MC9.

I just built an HTPC to serve as a music source for my stereo system. Since it is a relatively high quality system, I want to use uncompressed .wav files (or perhaps use a lossless compression format). Of course, I will want to maintain a separate library of compress files for use with the IPOD.

Any suggestions on how to manage this process would be appreciated--e.g. should I use .wav files (and how can I manage the information about author, album, song title) associated with these files?…or am I better off using a lossless compression format such as .ape or flac? Hard disc space seems cheap enough that I am not too concerned about file size.

What is the best way to manage having compressed files for the IPOD and uncompressed files for the home stereo? Before I invest too much time in ripping all of my CDs, I would like to establish a workable and flexible ripping, compression and data management system.

I like Media Center 9.1, but are there any other data management and player software tools I should consider using?

 

[blessingx]

If you use uncompressed as oppose to lossless you could use iTunes for both ACC/MP3 and WAV.

But if you want tag support you may want to go the lossless route (tags proper aren't supported with WAVs though there are ways around this). Tagging FLAC files in EAC is as easy at MP3. Since I don't use your platform I'm inexperienced with organization software in Windows. I have to manage lossy and lossless separately on OS X. I do see Media Center 9.1 supports at least APE (and possibly FLAC). Since it also syncs with the iPod (according to site) that may do it.

Although you already have your music system set up, you may find this interesting.