doctorcilantro Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 Except for MS, PC's would be by human reaction times instantaneous by now. CPU speeds are such that only an impossibly obese OS can possibly slow them to the reaction we get. Frankly, I do not know how they do it...and, frankly, I don't think they do either. ROTFLMAO, I have to agree. Throw a quad-core in, tweak out your OS and BIOS, and you can do some things fast (like analyze audio files, transcode, etc.), but move or copy a file in Windows.......go make a sandwich until it's done; open a folder with thousands of files in it......go make a 10ft. hoagie. That said I was installing Adobe Creative Suite and watching something at 1080P yesterday.....it's hillarious that the core Windows functions just bog things down.....nasty, nasty code. [] DC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 19, 2008 Share Posted July 19, 2008 Nice to know I am not alone. How can it take ANYTIME to simply pull up a directory... Please, DON'T answer that question... Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 I pulled up pandora on the internet and just played it for a while. After a while the computer locked up. I noticed that my new monitor also give me warnings that it needs a different resolution and moving open windows on the screen uses up a lot of resources. I really hope that the video card clogs the congestion. A better mousetrap - use off the shelf hard drives with the ability to upgrade/swap them out (ie. an inexpensive way to make them bigger), RAID 1 mirror will be sufficient, have the ability to play, record, copy music, and internet access for Pandora and other functions that are realy necessary for a music server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Here is a decent article I found on the electroweb. Building the ultimate Linux-based music server http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT6488801276.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Pretty much in line with my own design, except I want to use embedded media Linux instead of Debian as much of the custimizing is already done. The VIA VT1708A chipset has great reviews, though I've not heard it. I'd also go with less CPU so as to be fanless to start with. You really don't need that much for audio only. As mentioned elsewhere, however, my own project is on hold as I spent my mad money for a Korg MR-1 instead. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted July 21, 2008 Author Share Posted July 21, 2008 I pulled up pandora on the internet and just played it for a while. After a while the computer locked up. I noticed that my new monitor also give me warnings that it needs a different resolution and moving open windows on the screen uses up a lot of resources. I really hope that the video card clogs the congestion. Its now Monday and I am using my work computer. Slightly fatser than my HTPC and less ram (3.2 GHz vs 2.8 GHz and 1.0 God Ram vs 2.0 Gih Corsaire RAM). My work computer can handle Pandora and about 7 to 10 windows constantly open with no problem. I am really hoping that the video is slowing teh other computer. If not I will need to tweak it to eliminate whatever is using all of its resources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted July 24, 2008 Author Share Posted July 24, 2008 OK, I received the Nvidia card and installed it. Before doing so I went into my BIOS and turned it to AGP so that the onboard video is off. I downloaded drivers and not I have 4 bit vga and no better. It started at higher resolution and looked good, but was struggling with the video. Then it became set (I don;t remember if I did it or if it did automatically) to 4 bit and it works smoothly but the video is at really low resolution (too low to use). I want to start over. How do I remove all of th eexisting drivers that I installed (leaving the standard XP drivers) and then reload the drivers that I need? How many drivers are needed? Do I need one for the Video card and one for the monitor? My monitor is a Videosonic 22" wide screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorcilantro Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Sometimes after installing new drivers the optimal settings may not be loaded. Have you checked the advanced Video properties? You may be able to access from the systray icon(look for Nvidia display etc.) or Right click desktop>Properties>Settings (Advanced should take you to the Nvidia control panel or you may see an Nvidia tab here). Check you desktop settings and Color Quality (set this to 32). Are you using Vista? "I downloaded drivers and not I have 4 bit vga and no better. Itstarted at higher resolution and looked good, but was struggling withthe video. Then it became set (I don;t remember if I did it or if itdid automatically) to 4 bit and it works smoothly but the video is atreally low resolution (too low to use)." This is really strange; sounds like Vista changing something. What are you using for playback ...DVD, video file (containers like .avi. .mkv)? What are you using for playback? dc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted July 24, 2008 Author Share Posted July 24, 2008 I tried the advanced video settings. No dice. The only choice is 4. NvIdia is showing as the driver. I am wopnderign if teh drivers that I loaded for the monotor are in conflict with the NvIdia drivers. I'm not sure but it does look like the video was what was slowing the system down. I seem to remeber it startign to have problems when I went from an old 17" CRT to the 22" monitor. I am using Windows XP - Media Edition 2005. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 I tried the advanced video settings. No dice. The only choice is 4. NvIdia is showing as the driver. I am wopnderign if teh drivers that I loaded for the monotor are in conflict with the NvIdia drivers. I'm not sure but it does look like the video was what was slowing the system down. I seem to remeber it startign to have problems when I went from an old 17" CRT to the 22" monitor. I am using Windows XP - Media Edition 2005. Have you checked device manager? See if it is listed under other devices. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_Manager Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorcilantro Posted July 24, 2008 Share Posted July 24, 2008 Seems like the driver is not installed. Control Panel>System>Device Manager should tell you what's going on. You only need a driver for your card. Check the Display Adapters If you see something like Standard VGA display instead of the name of your card (iirc) then the driver isn't installed. dc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted July 25, 2008 Author Share Posted July 25, 2008 OK, That was fun. The drivers that I downloaded had to be removed and the drivers that came on the CD used (older ones). I also had to go into the BIOS and change to AGP, I switched to PCI when I was trying to troubleshoot and forgot about it. Everything is working much better now. sNow I am only accessing about 1/3 of my music, if that. How do I set up my files? It also looks at some albums and reads them as 10 "albums" instead of 10 songs. Kind of a pain. Am I opening a can of worms here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorcilantro Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 I just remembered the title of your thread. Glad you got the video issues worked out. Regarding the music, my only advice at this point, if your using Windows Media Player, is yes, you are opeing a can of worms. Download J. River Media Center 12 trial ($40 after 30 days) or use their free audio-only version, Media Jukebox. best DC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted July 25, 2008 Author Share Posted July 25, 2008 I just remembered the title of your thread. Glad you got the video issues worked out. Regarding the music, my only advice at this point, if your using Windows Media Player, is yes, you are opeing a can of worms. Download J. River Media Center 12 trial ($40 after 30 days) or use their free audio-only version, Media Jukebox. best DC It looks like I need to go this route. I already have Windows Media Edition 2005 with a remote and I just want to use this for music. Can I just download the free edition and create the tags? Last night I was reading that MS Media Player can downlod metatags. Is the problem that those tags cannot be edited to put one artists music together because it is messy right now (ac.dc, AC/DC, AC-DC, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorcilantro Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 WMP will probably let you edit tags but it's not really designed for it. If your ripping discs, J. River will let you utilize FreeDB, Gracenote, and YADB meta-data databases to auto-tag (you can make modifications later). For existing files, you can submit them to YADB (J. River's own database) for analysis and retrieval of metadata. There is also a 3rd party plugin, Spartasoft Datamaster, which allows you to find even more esoteric metadata; I've used it to tag about 7K files with lyrics which can then be displayed with other info on some nice full screen track info displays. You can add your own tag fields with J. River as well. Try the free version, Media Jukebox, and try to use the retrieve info function for existing files: right click on one or many files>Library Tools>Retrive info from YADB. DC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Guy Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 Personally I prefer using Windows Media Player 11 and MCE, I tried J. River and did not care for it. AV Album Art Fixer is great for editing album info and getting your album covers. With a little work you should be able to have everything working the way it should. I also added G-Force to WMP for nicer visualizations. The Nvidia driver I am currently using is 175.16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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