Media Scanner

Media Scanner is a tool intended for adding, organizing and saving information about musical records to a collection.

Media Scanner provides you with three modes of adding information:

Audio CD scanning

This mode is intended for adding information about records on audio CDs to a collection.

Local drives scanning

This mode is intended for adding information about records stored as audio files on hard disk of your computer, DVD/CD-ROM or any other digital media to a collection.

Media Scanner allows you to extract additional information (artist name, album title, track name, track number, etc.) from informational tags of most popular file formats, such as MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, etc.

Manual mode

This mode is intended for adding information about records stored on both digital and non-digital media. We recommend you to use this mode for adding information about records on non-digital media, such as vinyl discs, compact cassettes, tapes, etc.

How to add information about audio CD?

To add information about audio disc to a collection:

• Insert an audio CD into CD-ROM.
• Start Media Scanner.
• Select the Audio CD scanning mode and click the Next button.
• Edit scanned information according to your requirements.
• Click the Save all to collection link in Tasks group on the navigation bar to save information to a collection.

How to add information about audio files stored on hard disk?

To add information about audio files:

• Start Media Scanner.
• Select the Local drives scanning mode and click the Next button.
• Select folders for scanning and click the Scan button.
• Edit scanned information according to your requirements.
• Click the Save all to collection link in Tasks group on the navigation bar to save information to a collection.
  

Use the same way for adding information about audio files from DVD/CD-ROM and other digital media.

How to add information about vinyl discs, compact cassettes, etc.?

To add information about records stored on non-digital media:

• Start Media Scanner.
• Select the Manual mode and click the Next button
• Add albums and tracks using links on the navigating bar, buttons on the floating toolbar or items from the context menu.
• Click the Save all to collection link in Tasks group on the navigation bar to save information to a collection.
  

How to scan a medium for new tracks only?

You can scan a medium for new tracks only in the Local drives scanning mode.

To scan a medium for new tracks only:

• Start Media Scanner.
• Select the Local drives scanning mode and click the Next button.
• Select folders for scanning.
• Click the Scan selection for new tracks link in Tasks group on the navigation bar.
• Edit scanned information according to your requirements.
• Click the Save all to collection link in Tasks group on the navigation bar to save information to a collection.
  

How to download track names from Internet?

To download track names from Internet:

• Select the album for which track names will be downloaded.
• Click the Update track names from FreeDB link in Tools group on the navigation bar.
  

If the search was completed successfully, the FreeDB Results window will appear. Select the most appropriate album and click the OK button to save track names.

You can also use the on the floating toolbar to access this function.

For getting information about an album, Media Scanner makes a query to Internet FreeDB service. To increase the probability of the search, two conditions must be met:

• Album tracks are arranged in the same order as in the original album
• Playback duration is set as exactly as possible

FreeDB Results window

This window displays results of album search in FreeDB database.

Select the most appropriate result and click the OK button to save it in the album.

How to sort tracks using a playlist?

You can sort tracks using a playlist only in the Local drives scanning mode.

Quite often it appears that informational tags of audio files are missing and it is impossible to extract the track number from the file name. In that case it is impossible to restore the original sequence of tracks in the album. Playlist for an album can solve this problem.

To sort album tracks using a playlist:

• Select a track from an album.
• Select the Sort | By playlist… item from the context menu of the track.
• Select a playlist according to which the sorting will be accomplished, and click the OK button.
  

Album tracks will be sorted according to the selected playlist.

You can also use the button on the floating toolbar to access the Sort by Playlist function.

How to redefine the character case?

To redefine the character case in the name of one or several objects:

• Select object for which the character case should be changed.
• Select the Case item from the context menu of the object, then choose one of three items from its sub-menu:
  • Upper Case
  • Lower Case
  • Capitalize

How to get track name from file tag?

You can get track name from file tag only in the Local drives scanning mode.

To get track name of one or several tracks from informational tags of corresponding files:

• Select track names for updating.
• Select the Load Name from Tag item from the context menu of the track.

How to get track name from file name?

You can get track name from file name only in the Local drives scanning mode.

To get name of one or several tracks from names of corresponding files:

• Select track names for updating.
• Select the Change to File Name item from the context menu of the track.