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Better Jukebox Software for Bigger Libraries?
jimjenkins1975 asks: "I recently ripped and encoded my entire CD and Vinyl library, as well as merged my home and work computer's libraries (I work at a music company so my work library is very very large). It resulted in well over 750 GB of MP3's. I was hoping to get away with using iTunes to manage this, however the XML database file has grown very large, and the application itself is non-responsive or very sluggish at best, once it has loaded up (a process that takes several minutes itself). Is there another application (preferably for Mac, but I do have a PC) with similar features out there that can handle a library of this size with aplomb?"
Don't forget that Amarok can use PostgreSQL or (I believe) any other standard database for handling it's database. I'm sure that will make dealing with 750 GB of music MUCH more efficient.
Libertarian: label used by embarrassed Republicans, longing to be open about their greed, drug use and porn collections.
I use mpg123 and the file system hierarchy to organize and play my mp3s. I have no idea what the hell you kids are talking about.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
I'd like to amplify the comments about being an MP3 tag nazi
(does that count as Godwinning??).
The beauty of spending all your time getting the MP3 tags right and the
album art and lyrics *embedded* into the tags is that
someday, guaranteed, you are going to have to move
from one media organiser to another. Amarok wont always be
the killer app and some other smart organiser will take its place.
If you're tag data is good, that switch will be trivial. If, like
itunes, it stores some data in a DB rather than tags, you get locked in.
Tagrunner (commercial s/w) is my pick.
*Dzing* Incorrect answer. Thank you for playing
A "database pro" would look for unoptimized queries and missing indexes and speed up the database on the current hardware. As a matter of fact, most "database pros" work in environments where commissioning new hardware takes 6 months or so and goes through some ridiculous approval processes, so that's actually the hard option.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
As someone who designs lots and lots of database application, managing nearly 30 years worth of engineering data, as my full time job... I'd be looking for a new job pretty quick if my solution to every performance slowdown was to just throw more hardware at it.
If your saying: How can I get iTunes to run faster then yes, throwing more hardware might be the answer but that's only because you don't have access to the actual code that runs it... there isn't much of anything you can do about it. Chances are when friends and family ask for help getting things to run faster "buy faster hardware" is the only thing a DBA would have to offer because they didn't build any of the applications in question.
Though, you posed the question as if someone was building an new application from scratch, or at least had the ability to modify an existing application, in which case any DBA worth hiring would look for ways to optimize their queries. Nevermind the fact that iTunes uses XML to manage it's data as opposed to a more conventional database.
Sometimes better hardware is the answer, but it's never the first one you go to. More often then not in the business world you're required to build your application within the constrains of existing hardware.
Collector's Edition
> It's amazing what you can find in seconds with google =)
/. users know about Google. Asking a question on ask./. is about getting opinions, not so much about getting information.
I'm sure most
Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
Assuming these are mp3, at an average size of 3.5 MB per file, we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 GB. Correct me if my assumptions are unfounded. I'd call that "medium-big," but not huge.
Anyway, if you're looking for a good GTK jukebox (and yes, Rhythmbox totally blows), check out gmusicbrowser. Excellent browser, can use gstreamer or mpg321/ogg123/flac123 or mplayer as a backend, very adaptable interface, snappy as hell with my 80GB or so (mixed bag of flac/ogg/mp3), I can't speak for how well it'd hold up under a heavier load. It's initial scan with that much data takes a goddamn long time (start it before you go to bed), but once the files are scanned, you're golden. You can set it up to scan for new/deleted/changed files on startup, which is much faster and less processor-intensive than the initial scan, but even that can be turned off or done manually from the prefs menu. Enjoy!
Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
Posting anonymously since I modded parent up. Slimserver is your best solution as you have more capability than anything else that I'm aware of. I have 3 Squeezeboxes at home and it is nice to b able to browse my collection by remote or through a web browser. You can also stream to nearly any client including Audacious, XMMS, & Winamp. "Your music library contains 294 albums with 5077 songs by 1859 artists." That is the extent of my collection at this point. I only have about 250 physical CDs that I never touch anymore. I buy it, rip it, put it away. Tend to also gather up free (Creative Commons) music whenever possible.