I'm in need of suggestions for how to manage and play my digital media

[rivethead]

Here's my situation:

I want to store my ripped cds as .flac files. I also have mp3s.
I want to store my ripped dvds as .iso files.
I (unfortunately) have an iPod (4GB) media player. It was a gift. So I think I'm stuck with iTunes.

I'd love some suggestions on how to manage all that media, play it on the computer, and sync it to my iPod.

WMP 11 seems good....but doesn't like flac or iso files and I don't believe it plays nice with iPod.

iTunes sucks, but at least it'll sync my iPod.

It would be GREAT if there was ONE program that would rule them all. ONE ring to bind them. (sorry...too much LOTRs lately)

One program that could:
rip and play flac files and manage tags and album artwork
rip and play iso files
on-the-fly file format conversion (flac to mp3) and syncing to my iPod.

Suggestions?

 

[stlcardinals]

I believe MediaMonkey will do everything you want on the audio side. Not too sure on the video side.

 

[0roo0roo]

rip to iso as needed for dvd, don't waste your time ripping it before hand, there is no need. storing an obsolete format is silly as worrying about your vhs tapes.
use eac/lame to rip/encode cds
let itunes deal with the playlists etc..
one program to rule them all?
no such thing.
even media monkey does't encode in lame i believe. its useful for embedding artwork into the file though.

 

[rivethead]

I'll check out Media Monkey. I guess I could always use Daemon Tools to mount the .isos, but I was really hoping for some sort of media library manager that would organize the .iso files too.

So there is no one program to rule them all? Sounds like an opportunity to me.

 

[Binky]

For movies, check out "MY Movies" for Media Center, and YAMMM. I haven't used either one in a while but they may be exactly what you're looking for on the video side.

There may be others. Check out the forums at media center and SageTV forums (e.g. greenbutton, missingremote, sagetv).

 

[Gooberlx2]

I believe there are plugins for WMC that will allow it to play DVD .iso files. There are ways to get flac files into the library and play in WMP (k-lite codec pack will do this), but I dunno about tags or album art. WMP can rip in WMAlossless, if you still desire a lossless format.

But yeah, WMP/WMC is still no "one player to rule them all" since it won't deal with your iPod.

 

[rivethead]

Ok. I've tried out Media Monkey and I definitley like the file-management and tagging abilities of this program.

However, I don't think it sounds good at all compared to files played through WMP. I need to dig a little deeper and try to find out why. MM's playback is just......muddy with heavy bass. WMP's playback is crisp and clean.

I still haven't figured out a solution on the video side.....I'll look for that .iso plug-in for WMP

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Foobar?