Finally Cataloged My CD's

[Bing Fung]

Well I have been buying CD's off and on for 20 years now. It has been a modest collection, however I never have taken the time to catalog them, even though I have a running catalog of my DVD.

I finally have them all on the same Excel spread sheet as my DVD's.

What I find funny is in 20 Years of CD buying I only have 343 CD's. But in 4 years of DVD buying I have 334 DVD's..

Thats 17.15 CDs per year compared to 83.5 DVD's per year :E

[John Holmes]

What I find funny is in 20 Years of CD buying I only have 343 CD's. But in 4 years of DVD buying I have 334 DVD's..

It just goes to show you have your priorites inline! :B

Well I have been buying CD's off and on for 20 years now. It has been a modest collection, however I never have taken the time to catalog them, even though I have a running catalog of my DVD.

That's me! I've been saying for yrs that I'm going to catalog them. I'm just to lazy to do it. But, all my dvd's are in DVD Profiler! :T :lol:

[Burke Strickland]

Interesting that you should bring this up. I went through a similar exercise recently. I didn't actually catalog my CDs in a computer file, but arranged them on some new shelves that I built recently. I wanted to be able to store my collection in one place in an organized fashion instead of having a stack of cardboard boxes and miscellaneous carry cases to fumble through trying to find a given title. That of course is apart from the 200 or so that I have in a CD jukebox.

By latest count, I have just under 650 CDs total (including the jukebox CDs), collected over a time span about the same as yours, having gotten my first CD player about 20 years ago. I thought I had more CDs than that. Maybe some are hiding in still-packed boxes. I know of a few titles that I distinctly remember buying but which I haven't located -- maybe they are cached with a lot more that I don't remember off the top of my head. But where? :>)

As for DVDs, I have them listed in an MS Access data base and I also went through a similar exercise arranging them on shelves. I’ve been collecting DVDs since they were first introduced and have about 740 titles in my collection. Since I've been keeping track of them in the data base, that wasn't a surprise. But it is interesting to see just how much shelf space 440 discs take up (those are the ones that are not in my 300 DVD jukebox).

I don't even want to think about how much all those discs cost, but I can say that collectively they have brought a lot of pleasure over the years and it is great to have them on hand to choose from when I want to listen to music or watch a movie.

Burke

[Bing Fung]

John, I wish I had more CD's. Its just harder to find fresh music these days for me.... I find I always go looking for the older classic groups I grew up with rather to evolve in the mainstream stuff. Jazz music though I keep discovering new material there, but not quick enough.


Burke, thats a pretty big collection of both. Whats funny is how you have them stuffed here and there. : I have all my CDs in a book case and all our DVD's in 2 rack (5 shelf) units. Whats funny is we went and bought addition racks that are still packed away, and ready to be unpacked for when the DVD collection expands past the two racks. That was my wifes idea just in case the racks are no longer available later on in years.

I was actually thinking of getting a CD juke box just to store my CD's in then I could reclaim the book shelf for books and place all the CD jewel cases in a box in the basement.... But I dont' have room for a Juke bx in my equipment rack. Oh the perpetual storage problems of a modern day world... :scratchhead:

[Bing Fung]

Here are some more stats I did on the spread sheet of my collection.



There is some blend between Pop and Rock, as I catagorize Rock only as the hard rockers such as Aerosmith, AC/DC. CD's like Genesis, Journey went in to Pop




There is some blend between Romance and Comedy as I know there is a lot of Romantic Comedys in the comedy section. There is also blend in the Family/Comedy/Animation.

And no, Fantasy is not P0rn :smackbutt: : It's shows like Lord Of the Rings, Harry Potter...

[brucek]

And no, Fantasy is not P0rn

Would it then be under Romantic or Thriller? :roll:

I only own about 200 CD's myself, and don't have them organized. I have been musing lately about getting a jukebox to store them in, and to get them off my fireplace mantle.

I thought it would be nice to have a jukebox that had a OSD along with a management catalog system where you could enter the titles through a keyboard or it would also dial out to CDPlus on the internet and catalog them all for you.

Then you could search for a genre on screen etc, etc.

Then after a search, of course, if I wanted to do some critical listening, I could remove that CD and pop it in my single player........But for general listening the jukebox would be fine..

brucek

[jimmyp58]

Bing:

The CD jukebox is the way to go. Too bad you don't have room for one (or two!). I am going to be buying my third one anyday now, another SONY CDP-M555ES --- I love them. I have one completedly filled with Rock (all varieties) and the second one has a significant number of compilation CDs with a vastly growing collection of jazz discs that is nearly getting filled. I'll use the third one for my compilations and any new Rock CDs and grow the second one out with jazz until it is maxed. I, like you, find that I can no longer get older CDs; I have all that I need/want. Now, I have grown my jazz collection over the past year when I got my Bryston 14B SST amp for 2-channel duty ... what an awesome sound. I have amassed quite a nice jazz collection. If you want, I can send you my spreadsheet that I put together a couple of years ago to catalog my collection. Perhaps you can get some ideas there. It's also great to catalog so that when you want to burn your own disc, you've got your entire library at your fingertips and can completely maximize your disc with time (I have every song's time in my spreadsheet).

Jim

[jimmyp58]

Brucek:

That SONY unit I have is just the ticket for you. Has OSD and you can add a new CD via a keyboard entry. What's neat too is that you can enter a genre for each disc so that you can, as I mostly do for jazz, hit 'shuffle' a punch the 'jazz' hot button so that only my jazz discs play and the machine shuffles between each disc. Sweet! I have not found the need to pop one out and play it on a different machine to hear critical differences. This unit does a wonderful job all by itself.

Jim

[Bing Fung]

Would it then be under Romantic or Thriller? :roll:

brucek

Riiiiight.... :W


Jim, I bet that Bryston 14B sounds awesome!! In case you didn't know it, I absolutely love Bryston Amps and seriously covet a set of 7B's or that 14B you have :amen: :P

A juke box would be a nice thing to have, however I need to think about which direction my system is going... There could very well be a Jukebox in the future....

Jim, I'm very interested in that spread sheet of your collection. That would be a great resource tool for this "Love Jazz, but don't know who to look for guy". Send it here Thanks :T

[jimmyp58]

Bing:

I just e-mailed you the spreadsheet. Hope you like it.
Yeah, you could say I love my 14B but that would be a serious understatement! That thing is bloody awesome. Not only that, the 7B for my center really complements it to a tee for multi-channel/movies.

Jim

[brucek]

That SONY unit I have is just the ticket for you

Yeah, that one looks pretty good. I've always been a fan of the 'ES' equipment. I would like a unit with a quality analog out, so this one seems to fit the bill. I use my single CD player in analog through a bryston preamp, and if I could get a decent analog output from a jukebox, I would be pleased.

sidenote - I use a 4BST for my mains and a 5BST for my center channels. With two channels on the 5BST bridged driving one center speaker and the remaining channel driving the other, I have around 600 watts to my centers - seems to be sufficient. Yeah, I know, two centers are a no-no, but it works for me... :T

[Bing Fung]

Jim, I got it Thanks :T :T Very nice collection indeed! I'm looking forward to sampling many of those artist :yesnod:


Great company indeed with all the Bryston'ites :T

Man to have a centre channel as powerful as you guys :E :E

[brucek]

The CD jukebox is the way to go. Too bad you don't have room for one (or two!). I am going to be buying my third one anyday now, another SONY CDP-M555ES --- I love them

I see Sony Canada has now removed them from their site. They sure change models fast.

I believe now that the only Jukebox Sony will sell with the 'ES' moniker is the new DVP CX777ES. It's a 400 disc DVD/SACD/CD/MP3/CDR/KitchenSink model introduced in November.

Quite the machine - it has a beautiful DAC... I may look at this one.

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDetailDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=167463&navigationPath=45940n32070

brucek

[jimmyp58]

I knew Sony came out with that model but I thought they would continue with the 555ES model as well. Interesting. I was hoping to get another one but might end up with the new one.

Jim

[jimmyp58]

Just checked the Sony Style website, US, and the 555ES is still available. Bruce, are you certain you can't get that model in Canada?

Jim

[Lex]

Bing is doing pie charts of his CD collection. :roflmao: Here's a novel idea, istead of cataloguing them, you could listen to them. :

I'm not to sure how many CDs I have, not really all that many really, but DVDs it's much higher, like 450. I have 2 Pioneer Elite DVD changers, bad thing is, they are not progressive. I had a converter to progresive scan, but darn thing quit working.

Lex

[brucek]

Just checked the Sony Style website, US, and the 555ES is still available. Bruce, are you certain you can't get that model in Canada?

Yeah, it's listed on the US site (sony.com) but has been removed from the Canadian site (sony.ca). I don't see the DVPCX777ES on the US site yet, but both sites have the non ES version DVPCX985V at half the price.

I like the ES version though and am going to check it out. I don't have SACD yet and I also like the idea of all my DVD and CD's in one player.

Crutchfield has a good explaination of the 777 unit. Incredible specs.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-MDIjlHCyS1t/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?i=158DVPX777&search=DVP%2DCX777ES

[David Meek]

I've had my CD's in an Access DB for years. Unfortunately it's not current what with the move to (and back from) Washington and things. Guess that'll be a good "dog days of August weekend" project. At last count I had about 700 CDs.

DVD's? I have all 440 of them in DVD Tracker (see signature), but it doesn't trap all the things I want, so I'm moving them back into Access.

[Bing Fung]

Nice collection David :T

Hey Lexi, I just so happened to be spinning CDs while I was inputting them in to Excel :B And then when I was done it took 2 minutes to Pie chart them. :Z

[Lex]

good answer Bing! David, you mean it gets hot in Texas in August? :wink:

Lex

[Bam!]

Bing!

Fantasy is not porn ?

Then which one is porn! :W

:lol: :

[Eduardo]

I catalog my CD too. But that not all. Here is the procedure when getting a new CD.

1. Catalog the CD into MusicLibrary

2. Burn a copy with CD-Text and one dublicate

3. Put copy into Sony CD Jukebox.

4. Put copy into car cd notebook

5. Either keep or sell original

[Kevin P]

I didn't know the CDP-M555ES was still available. I snagged one on Ebay a couple years ago and use it in my Cubicle Tubicle system. It's a great piece. What gets me about the Sony jukeboxes is that the CD boxes are so nice and easy to operate... but their DVD jukeboxes are clunky. It's as if the group that designed the DVD jukeboxes didn't have any communication with the CD jukebox group.

I also burn a CD-Text copy of CDs when I buy them, and put them in my 555ES. The originals are kept at home. If it's a CD I want to listen to in the car, I'll burn a 2nd copy for the car.

[Bing Fung]

Doug :

Bammer, suprizingly I don't own a p0rn DVD.. I would like to check out whats the big deal with the multi-angle feature... :twisted: Surely this feature was not insituted purely for p0rn? :scratchhead:

EJ, good recommendations, I howled at the last one "5. Either keep or sell original" :rofl:

I think I need to burn more CD for the car... Generally we just take the CD out and slip it into a CD wallet and away we go, or I have 3 6ix packs ready to go for my CD changer, however most of those are compilations I have burnt.

[Eduardo]

Whoops, I let #5 slip out. :twisted:

[Burke Strickland]

Whats funny is how you have them stuffed here and there. I have all my CDs in a book case and all our DVD's in 2 rack (5 shelf) units.

That's supposed to be past tense, as in "had them stuffed here and there". :>) I'm getting there with the shelves I built, now that I have enough shelf space to keep all the discs together (the ones I've located). :>) All the shelves are adjustable, so I can change the configuration if that's even necessary. As I have it set up now, eighteen two-foot DVD shelves hold up to 720 DVDs and 12 two-foot CD shelves hold up to 720 CDs.

With almost everything organized and centrally located, the urge to get additional carousel players is much diminished for me. I am swapping out little-played "favorites" from the jukebox to their original cases and refiling them, since it is now not much trouble to go over and get a disc to play in single mode. But it is still nice to have the “most played” discs “on line” with playback just a click away.

Whats funny is we went and bought addition racks that are still packed away, and ready to be unpacked for when the DVD collection expands past the two racks. That was my wifes idea just in case the racks are no longer available later on in years.

Your wife has the right idea. I had a couple of small racks that held a portion of my DVD collection but the model I had didn't make the most efficient use of scarce floor and wall space, and it was discontinued so I couldn't get enough of them to store everything anyway. When I built my shelves to hold my current entire collection, I made the components for another set that effectively doubles the capacity. I just haven't gotten around to painting and assembling the second set, yet. (Not a big rush, since it will be a while before I have that many more discs.) :>)

Burke

[Bing Fung]

The one thing I would miss in the Juke box is the actual physical placing the CD in the tray. This to me is much like running the Disc Washer LP cleaner over each record before every play :P Rituals...

Also I like to read liner notes as I listen.....

Burke, The beauty of the racks we bought for the DVD's is if we ever go to built in storage, the racks are nice enought to be used as standalone shelfing in a room. So each one could be used anywhere in the house.

[Bruce]

Anybody thought about putting up a PC server over ethernet and serving lossless encoded CDs from a hardisk to anywhere in the house (including the HT system).

This way the process changes to:

1) Copy CD to disk
2) Copy CD for car
3) Store CD as backup

Many music server systems now seem to be able to deliver lots of info to a PDA or the TV screen for music selection.

Seems like it would be a much more expandable system than a changer, provide for searching and unattended playlist setup.

I'm hoping to do something like this after I move.

[Brandon B]

Apple's new airport express looks to be a really spiffy way to do that wirelessly. You'd have to use Apple's codecs as that's all it speaks (AAC or their lossless one), but still pretty neat packaage for low $.

BB

[Bing Fung]

I had recently read in Sound & Vision that media servers are going to be the next wave of "Wired Home Technology"

When you think about it, I at least have always strived or attempted to marry the PC with home entertainment. Having the mass storage of media on my big server makes it very convienient. Having some type of unit that could handle the various file formats via LAN or Wireless would be very cool!


Pinnacle Show Centre

Netgear MP101

[Glen B]

Well I have been buying CD's off and on for 20 years now. It has been a modest collection, however I never have taken the time to catalog them, even though I have a running catalog of my DVD.

I finally have them all on the same Excel spread sheet as my DVD's.
:E

You should try CATraxx and CATvids CD and video cataloging software. I used to catalog my CD and vinyl collection on Excel until I found out about CATraxx last year. I bought a copy for $39.95 and have not looked back since. Data entry is automatic, You just insert a CD in your PC and click an icon. The program automatically downloads all data from the music database CDDB and finds and downloads an image of the CD cover as well. This saves hours and hours of data entry.
CATraxx: http://www.fnprg.com/catraxx/catraxx.html

[Bing Fung]

Cool Glen 8) 8) Too bad you didn't show up with that link a week or two earlier

Most of the work is done now, but I like the features of that, I'll have to take a look at it, Thanks!

BTW, welcome to The Guide :T

[Burke Strickland]

Glen -- Welcome to HT Guide and thanks for the tip on CATraxx. It looks really promising, especially with your (and others) testimonials to its ease of use.

Bing -- I've downloaded the manual for CATraxx to answer a few questions I had about it, since I've tried and abandoned other programs similar in concept and needed to see what this one can do. Of course the real test is in trying it to see if it as good as it claims to be, but on paper, here are two "biggies":

• You can import delimited text data into the program. Since you have your information in Excel, you could save your Excel data as a comma delimited text file (File, Save As, and select CSV comma delimited format) then use that file to import your data into CATraxx, thus saving yourself having to do the data entry again.

• You can batch the "automatic" CD look-up on the Internet, so you don't have to sit there and wait for the program to search the database each time you put a CD in your PC's CD-ROM reader. In this case, the data base will get searched for a group of CD titles at one pass when you give it the command. Not having this capability was the most aggravating, time consuming, limitation of a competing program.

Of course, it is still tedious to put every disc in the PC's CD-ROM drive, but it beats typing IF IT FINDS DATA for a given disc in the online database. Many classical titles I've tried to search for are not included, so in my tests of various software I've ended up having to manually enter the data anyway. That probably won't be any different since they use the same database (CDDB ).

So the speed with which the program reads the CD and allows you to put in another CD is also pretty important, since it is maddening to wait "forever" for the PC to read the CD then search and come back with nothing and have to enter the data yourself after the long wait, But that is something I will know only by trying the program in operation myself.

I had also tried using one program that claimed to accept scanned bar code data to initiate an entry rather than putting the CD in the CD-ROM reader, but that didn't "take" on the first pass very often and it was usually easier to just type in the UPC for the internet search. So I didn't even look for that feature here, although I note that it will support bar code scanners to check albums in and out (to keep a record of CDs you loan to friends and family for instance).

Frankly, the cumbersome and time consuming nature of other programs was what deterred me from trying to catalog my CD collection instead of just arranging the discs on the shelves. Since, like many of its competitors, CATraxx offers a 30 day free trial, I'm going to give it a try and see if it is really faster and more convenient than others that I have played around with. If so, they have a sale. If not, at least my CDs are still easier to find now than they were a couple of months ago. :>)

Burke

[jimmyp58]

Thanks for the heads-up Glen!

Jim

[David Meek]

Hi Glen, welcome to The Guide. :welcome:

That's a nice app you've found there. Like Burke, I'm going to give it a try. Many thanks!

[Bing Fung]

Burke, that was my point as well... Now that the bear of a task of inputting all 300+ CDs is done, it will be easy to maintain from this day forward.

Inserting each and every CD, is almost the same hurdle as starting a spreadsheet... Still it sounds like its cool SW, so I look forward to you user opinion of it as well.

[David Meek]

Bing, check Burke's message again. The app has a bulk load from spreadsheet option! You don't have to enter it all again, other than it might require you to move your columns around and rename them - something simple like that.

[Bing Fung]

Right, thanks David... I remeber reading about it now ops: