Flac Mirroring questions and backup questions

[Fischer]

I have all my Flac and MP3 files on the external back hard drive from Vortexbox 5. If I hit the Flac Mirror option will it reconfigure the current MP3 files I already have?




I see by another post that there's a glitch in the Flac Mirror option, will that affect me?




How much better are the MP3 files in the Extreme and Insane options over the standard? Any opinions on sound quality? I plan on using them off a laptop and a Samsung NC20 Netbook.




I read where the Backup will incrementally backup files on a dedicated backup hard drive. I'm taking this to mean if I had another 100 cds burned that it will only add those to my existing files and not rewrite the entire file.




Once I add new CDs I will have to use Flac Mirror to get my files to go to do MP3, correct?




If I wanted to to a MP3 and Artwork only External Hard Drive, what would be the best way to just copy just those files. I'm thinking--well I guess I don't know.




Thanks for any suggestions.

[StefanP]

Flac Mirror will first build a list of all FLAC files that don't have a corresponding MP3 file and only convert those. This means your existing MP3 files should be unaffected.


Re compression quality, it really depends on your quality standards and the equipment you play your MP3s on. I am fairly demanding, have some high end gear in my car so I use Extreme for MP3 compression. You should try compressing the same song with different settings, listen to it on your preferred setup and judge for yourself. Space can also be an issue, the higher the quality, the bigger the resulting MP3 files.


Incremental backup: you are correct. It only backs up files that have been added or have changed since the last backup.


After you add new CDs you need to run Flac Mirror again to convert them to MP3.


Copying to an external drive, assuming it is a standard USB drive, I suggest you hook it up to your laptop and drag and drop from there. Alternatively, you mount it to your Vortexbox and do the drag and drop that way. I suggest the first method since the second requires logging in and using the Linux command line.


Good luck!

[Fischer]

Stefan,




Thanks, that was very easy to follow. I appreciate the help.




If I wanted to change the existing MP3 files to a higher resolution would I delete all the current MP3s and the hit Flac Mirror at the higher resolution?

[StefanP]

That is right. Just delete the ones you want to reconvert, change the resolution and run Flac Mirror again.

[Fischer]

Very cool. I can keep my lesser used CDs at the standard and then use the insane for those that I really enjoy.




Thanks again.