For some time I’ve been ripping CDs on my PC and copying them over to my Melco N1A EX (using a mapped network drive). This has all been working fine. I can add and edit tags (using dbPowerAmp), including embedding images.
I’ve now got a Melco D100 ripper and started playing around with re-ripping a sample of CDs. The ripping seems to work well, and the new rips certainly sound good, but I’m having issues with the editing of tags etc. The files seems to have ‘special’ permissions.
Any pointers to what I can / should do?
Actually, it did allow me to add a sort tag, but coping with embedding art images seems too much for it (to the extent that it seems to have lost all the tag info for that album).
Gavin, I would send an email to Melco with a precise description of what is happening and a request for advice.
I’ve done that, but no response yet.
It seems to struggle when I try the tag-editing directly onto the mapped Melco drive, especially when trying to add embedded artwork.
I copied the files down to my local machine, did everything I needed to do and copied them back into the right place, replacing the old rips.
The Melco-generated artwork files do seem to have some sort of protection - they wouldn’t copy down to my PC.
It’s all a bit of a faff but it’s a working process. I’ve got 3000+ CDs to work my way through, but there’s no rush 
I don’t pretend to understand what you are trying to do here.
I re-ripped all my CDs via a Melco D100 when I heard what it had to offer over my Unitiserve rips and I didn’t do any ‘tag editing’, whatever that is.
However I do know that due to copyright issues there are problems with editing album artwork subsequently. I think you need to wait for a reply from Melco. It can take a bit of time, but you will get a reply.
In the UK that’s the least of your worries. It’s technically illegal to rip CDs in the first place.
@GavinB what you want to do is possible because I do it myself. I use Jaicoz (spelling is not right) software and change the images and mass amounts of data on all of my rips. You may need to hear from Melco first though. I would reach out to your dealer and get them to speak to Melco/Alan directly.
@RipVanRadio The Melco rips don’t have any Artist sort tags so I add these in (to ensure David Bowie appears under B, not D). I’m also not editing the artwork - just embedding it into the FLAC files.
@Steve Thanks, I’ll have a look for this. I suspect it’s to do with the ‘bandwidth’ (definitely not the right word) for accessing the Melco drive via a mapping to my PC - it works but is easily overwhelmed. I’ve emailed Melco and will see what comes back.
@ChrisSU Yes, technically, but I can’t see the authorities coming after me, you and half the members of this forum. I can at least claim that I’ve still got the CDs
(EDIT: Found the software - Jaikoz. I might give it a go, but I suspect it’ll suffer from the same issue as the dbPowerAmp tag editor.)
Forgive me Gavin, but when you ripped the CDs, did the artwork not appear automatically? What do you mean by ‘embedding it in the FLAC files’? Copying artwork into Melco-Ripped files doesn’t work, as I understand it. You are stuck with whatever the the database used by Melco throws up, I think.
As regards ‘Sort Tags’ , as a Roon user the concept is to me irrelevant. I can find what I want to listen to in so many ways that whether Bowie is D or B doesn’t matter. What practical problem does is pose for you?
You’re right, Melco does create folder.jpg in the album folder, and many applications can pick this up for display purposes. Other applications (such as playing the files in the car) may not. (I’m saying may not because I haven’t tested it rigorously.) Anyway, since I’m editing the tags, I might as well embed the artwork too.
The only practical problem nows seems to be the additional step in copying the ripped files down to my PC to do the tag editing, but I guess that’s no real biggie.
I’ve forgotten how long I have had my N1, the original model. So the following might not be the up to date information. I was having a few difficulties and contacted Melco. It was emphasised how important backups are and NOT to try editing directly to the unit, rather work on the backup drive, then do a restore.
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Thanks. Will email them to ask for best practice, although this sounds like what I’ve happened upon.
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