REQUEST: CD Support out of the box please!

[cmaffia]

I know there are workarounds for this but at this stage of SageTV MEDIA CENTER's development one would expect the ability to play an audio CD OUT OF THE BOX to have already been implemented.

Would it be difficult or possible for this request be fulfilled before the next version is implemented? :-)

Thanks,

A happy SageTV customer since April 2004

Six Sigma practice - VOC - Voice of the Customer

[dagar]

I think it would be impossible to expect it at this point ... we've been asking for it for years now

[mistergq]

I thought the purpose of a CD was to put it in my computer, start Itunes, have it create MP3 of the songs to be uploaded to my Ipod and then play from my computer or in HD100? There is another purpose?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by mistergq

I thought the purpose of a CD was to put it in my computer, start Itunes, have it create MP3 of the songs to be uploaded to my Ipod and then play from my computer or in HD100? There is another purpose?

Yes and then they can be used a pretty coasters for my bar....at least that's what I do with them!

My wife knows when she brings home a CD, to just hand it to me and 10 minutes later she's either playing it on Sage or loading it onto her MP3 player....

[cmaffia]

CD's are still viable obviously. It just seems silly that you can put a CD in your PC and play it in Windows but on the same computer you can't play the same CD using SageTV.

Heck I still play my old vinyl records from time to time! :-)

[mistergq]

all kidding aside, I agree. If Sage can play a DVD, then it should be able to play a CD. Unfortunately, as each year passes, the chance of this coming to fruition is going to become less and less.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by mistergq

all kidding aside, I agree. If Sage can play a DVD, then it should be able to play a CD. Unfortunately, as each year passes, the chance of this coming to fruition is going to become less and less.

The difference here is that the majority have their music collections in some other form other than just solely CD. DVD's on the other hand, most do not have the space to have their whole DVD collection on their hard drives. I have a file server with 1.6TB of storage space but even I don't have all of my DVD's ripped to it (only the ones I will watch regularly). Another reason for having your music collection in some other format is due to most people interested in HTPC's, have some sort of MP3 player (we are gadget guys aren't we?). This makes a built in CD player rather trivial for most users. I personally couldn't imagine trying to find a CD when I want to listen to an album. The only time this would ever be an issue is if someone brought over a cd to listen to and even then I would just use one of the half dozen CD players in my house.....

[cmaffia]

Back to my original request....It's not much to ask.. really. The audio CD is a recognized and extremely popular music format!

Any media center should allow it to be played directly AND allow it to be ripped to the media center as an option AND provide this service out of the box.

I miss this feature, my wife misses this feature, my kids want this feature and I know I am not alone :-)

[CollinR]

What happens if you simply add the CD ROM drive as an import directory?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by CollinR

What happens if you simply add the CD ROM drive as an import directory?

I can't speak for other platforms, but in Windows you need a player that can recognize and play .cda files. I don't think the built-in media player can do that. Even if it could, the disc itself contains no metadata, so all you'd get would be anonymous numbered .cda files. You wouldn't really want those files added to the media database; you just want to play them and then forget about them when the disc is ejected.

I've written a plugin that uses Windows Media Player APIs to access the .cda files on the disc and download metadata from the Internet. It provides a simple UI for playing audio CDs in Sage, but is not well integrated with the V6 music browser. (I don't have the time or inclination right now to do such integration myself, but anybody with decent STV coding skills who wants to tackle it is welcome to do so.) I haven't brought it up before on this thread since the OP insists on out-of-the-box functionality and isn't interested in plugins or workarounds.