Just a thought but has anyone thought of connecting an external USB CD Reader to the BeoMaster 5 and then in the Windows mode set up a way so that when a CD is inserted it automatically rips the CD to the MUSIC folder in a high qualty MP3 Setting (320kbs) whilst automatically detecting the cover art??

I feel that this is something a lot of people would be interested in as not always do you want to have your computer involved and then if you want the music on your PC as well you could use the BeoPlayer software to "Copy Music from BeoSound 5" back to your PC.

In the next couple of days I am going to have a play but in the meantime if anyone thinks of anything I should consider or whether anyone else has done it then your comments would be greatly appreciated!

No one interested? Because I've got it working and its very smart, almost Kaleidescape esque!

I think many don't mind to manage a library anyhow to copy the files to a mobile player.

Also, the ID tags are sometimes funny and require clean up. It's a nice to have feature I guess.

It's very intersting Fishta !

Could you describe a little more your set-up ?

I've always wanted a kaleidescape system for the video but the price is very high.

So, why not try a similar solution for music.

I have installed some software and changed some settings in the BeoSound 5, connected an external USB CD drive to the BeoMaster 5 using one of the spare sockets and now whenever a CD is inserted into the drive it automatically rips onto the BeoSound 5 with coverart etc in lossless audio. It works absolutely seemlessly and I am very proud of it indeed!

For those users who don't want to be slave to PC and get involved with network and syncing issues this is a great solution.

Sounds great..How did you set it up?

Quite simple in the fact that I plugged in an external USB CD Recorder, put the BeoSound 5 into service mode (windows desktop) this installed drivers for CD drive and it was sat in My Computer on view.

After this with keyboard and mouse I navigated to the Microsoft Website (via a quick trip to Beoworld) and downloaded the latest version of windows media player. I set it up to record in lossless WMA, get track info and cover art automatically and most importantly to rip the CD upon detection of the CD in the drive.

At first if the BeoSound 5 was restarted it didnt work so I went back to windows mode set media player to auto startup on the machine booting and hey presto it works all the time!

Pictures to follow...

Yeah,very cool Fishta,

waiting for your pics !

Very interesting indeed  

What bit rate do you achieve when coping on WMA lossless mode?

With WMA lossless the bit rate depends on the music. Microsoft advertises 470-940 kbps, in other terms 200-400 MB per disc or about 1:2-1:4 compression ratio compared to the raw data.

I don't have a BS5, but thanks to fishta's idea, I've finally started to rip my CD collection by feeding them to my laptop while reading the morning paper (will take a few days more). I have now ripped 112 discs and they consume 32 GB on the disc which is a little less than 300 MB per record.

The process works pretty well nowadays - I have only spotted one record which didn't get at least decently correct tagging. Some records are missing the cover art, but those are mainly more esoteric Finnish albums. WMA Lossless is a safe format in that you can convert it to other formats even with free tools. I'll eventually go to FLAC as I very much prefer free multiplatform choices, but I didn't have the energy to think of how to do that directly with this ease.

Now I only need to think of what I'm going to do with all those bits. Much of my CD collection, mostly acquired 15-20 years ago, is such utter sh1te that I can only hope I didn't pay normal prices for them...

BTW, this Vista laptop of mine starts the ripping process automatically after just inserting a disc, even if Media Player is not running. The key to this might be in the autoplay settings, but having MP start automatically after boot is probably just as good a solution.

fishta,

this is amazing stuff. for the less computer literate could you run us through the steps one by one?

few Qs..

1. when you say you installed software; what software and how?

2. how do you put Bs5 into service mode?

3. how do you connect a keyboard, mouse and all it' drivers to the Bs5?

4. how did you navigate to Microsoft; was this on the Bs5 display?

5. how/where do you access 'windows mode media player' autostartup?

6. what do you do about missing cover art?

7. can you tell it to not rip certain songs if you don't like them on the CD?

Fishta,

you say "WMP get automaticaly cover art".

Yes, when i rip cd with WMP, cover art is here but in low resolution.

I must scan the original cover or find it on the net to get a good resolution on the BS5 screen.

So, did you find a solution to get the cover art automaticaly in high-res ?

seethroughyou:

fishta,

this is amazing stuff. for the less computer literate could you run us through the steps one by one?

few Qs..

1. when you say you installed software; what software and how?

Windows Media Player was the software installed, which you can get by googling it on the BeoSound 5 when you are in the service mode.

2. how do you put Bs5 into service mode?

Its been a while since I've done it now but I believe its by pressing "Left Right Left Go" I'm sure you can find out how on the forum if this isnt correct.

3. how do you connect a keyboard, mouse and all it' drivers to the Bs5?

I used a USB keyboard with trackpad mouse on it which worked a treat, yes all drivers are there as the BM5 is based on Windows XP

4. how did you navigate to Microsoft; was this on the Bs5 display?

Yes

5. how/where do you access 'windows mode media player' autostartup?

Not sure what you mean by this?

6. what do you do about missing cover art?

This can be edited in BeoPlayer

7. can you tell it to not rip certain songs if you don't like them on the CD?

No unfortunately not

I hope that this helps, sorry for not replying sooner but when I came up with all of this I worked in a B&O store and have since left and completely forgot to ever update it and now I see B&O are making a device that will do this for you...