Any one know of a freeware CD cataloging program like 'Catraxx'

effdee

"Owen" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns94729109798DFoldfartdodocomau@203.194.27.1...
> "effdee" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in news:(E-Mail Removed):
>
> > Any one know of a freeware CD cataloging program like 'Catraxx'
> >
> > effdee
> >
> >
> >
>
> Here is cathy if you like , it is great!!!!
>
>

Thanks, but I mean a music CD catalogue system.

effdee

"effdee" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Any one know of a freeware CD cataloging program like 'Catraxx'
>
If you would like a CD catalog prog that will fit and will run from a floppy
if required try this;
http://www.equi4.com/catfish.html

A brilliant but very small program.

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 03:40:16 GMT, effdee wrote:

> Any one know of a freeware CD cataloging program like 'Catraxx'
>
> effdee

The suggestions of Cathy, Catfish, etc. just don't cut it for what you are
looking for. These programs catalog tracks on CDs as Track01.cda,
Track02.cda, etc. ... hardly what one needs. If the catalog software
doesn't have access to FreeDB, CDDB, or AllMusic, then it really isn't
(music) CD catalog software.

I've been looking for something similar to Catraxx also, but really haven't
found anything.

That being said, you might take a look at Jesterware JeFCo:

http://www.jesterware.org/software.html

It's main purpose is to facilitate building a local FreeDB database of your
music discs (which is what I use it for), but it does maintain a viewable
hierarchy of the discs and the data downloaded from FreeDB.

The main issue for me is that it's written in JAVA, so it's got that JAVA
look and feel (which I don't particularly care for), but it does work.

Hopefully, someone can suggest something that I've not seen that's even
more closely related to Catraxx.

Visual CD v1.7 (January 2004 version)
http://boozet.xepher.net/ 2.3mg
Visual CD is a disk cataloguing tool to index CD/DVDs, floppy disks, hard
disks, and even folders. You can then explore the disk catalos, search
files and folders, create MP3 playlist file without having the physical
disks in the drive. Upon insertion of the corresponding disk, you can open
files, split files into smaller pieces, extract ZIP, RAR, and CAB archive,
and more.
Rose W

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 08:59:49 -0500, Rose Weir wrote:

> Visual CD v1.7 (January 2004 version)
> http://boozet.xepher.net/ 2.3mg
> Visual CD is a disk cataloguing tool to index CD/DVDs, floppy disks, hard
> disks, and even folders. You can then explore the disk catalos, search
> files and folders, create MP3 playlist file without having the physical
> disks in the drive. Upon insertion of the corresponding disk, you can open
> files, split files into smaller pieces, extract ZIP, RAR, and CAB archive,
> and more.
> Rose W

Rose,

I use Visual CD (as opposed to Cathy or Catfish mentioned by the other
posts). Visual CD has proven to me to be the best of the free DATA CD / DVD
catalogers that I am aware of, but it certainly is not what the OP is
looking for (the OP is looking to catalog AUDIO CDs) . Visual CD will
catalog audio discs, but it stores the tracks as Track01.01, Track.02, ...
Track.n and has no online access to FreeDB, CDDB, or All Music. Adding
online access to FreeDB is not that big of a deal...plenty of free
components that do that function are available... the author of Visual CD
would just have to add it in. As it stands now, Visual CD does not have
this.

Can you imagine having to catalog tens, hundreds of audio CDs and then
having to manually type all of the album, artist and track info?

If the OP can't find free software that auto-downloads the data from an
online database, he would save a lot of money by simply buying a a pay
version that does do that. I'm sure he considers his time wasted typing to
be quite valuable.

PS

Evidently Visual CD is going to get a big boost in an upcoming version by
adding thumbnail support for image files...the option is now on one of the
menus, but when clicked, a message box pops up with "Under Construction".
I've been waiting for that feature. Now, if FreeDB access is added, it
would almost make it the complete free disc cataloger.

Re: Visual CD will catalogue audio discs, but it stores the tracks as
Track01.01, Track.02, ...Track.n and has no online access to FreeDB, CDDB,
or All Music.

Oh, that is unfortunate. I did a catalogue of one of my hard drive folders
that has a mixture of music types and of course it catalogued it perfectly
with all the titles and music types. I guess once it goes onto a cd in music
format things get changed. The labels of Track1, 2 etc is not acceptable.

Re: adding thumbnail support for image files
Now that will be really a great feature. At the moment in v1.7 a right click
menu allows access to another program so the Xp fax photo viewer will open
the image. This is fine for checking one or two images. Browsing thumbnails
would be icing on the cake.

Re:if FreeDB access is added, it would almost make it(Visual Cd) the
complete free disc cataloguer.
I'm not exactly sure what FreeDB is but I interpret it would allow notes or
a comment file to be added. I downloaded File Notes which allows this in the
Fat32 Xp so a comment column can be in the Windows explorer. Unfortunately,
it doesn't 'stick'. If the file is burned to Cd no File Note goes along with
it or if the folder or file is moved to an NTFS drive the notes don't move
also. This defeated the effort of adding a comment so I have gone back to
creating a list and adding a comment that is saved as a text file.
Would a FreeDB allow for a short explanatory note or reminder to be attached
to individual files in a long list of downloaded freeware which would show
up if it were burned on a CD?

When all these additions are put into Visual CD it will be on its way to
'commercial ware' <LOL>
Rose

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 14:26:53 -0500, Rose Weir wrote:

> Re: Visual CD will catalogue audio discs, but it stores the tracks as
> Track01.01, Track.02, ...Track.n and has no online access to FreeDB, CDDB,
> or All Music.
>
> Oh, that is unfortunate. I did a catalogue of one of my hard drive folders
> that has a mixture of music types and of course it catalogued it perfectly
> with all the titles and music types. I guess once it goes onto a cd in music
> format things get changed. The labels of Track1, 2 etc is not acceptable.

Yes. Music stored on hard drives is usually of the formats MP3, OGG, FLAC,
WAV, WMA, etc. These are all formats that can be named whatever you want
AFTER extracting / ripping the original data from an audio cd. That's why
Visual CD correctly reads those names and stores them as expected. However,
an audio cd has its tracks laid down somewhat differently and are only
listed as Track01.cda, etc. That's what Visual CD sees. Not very
informative or useful.

<snip thumbnail stuff>
> I'm not exactly sure what FreeDB is but I interpret it would allow notes or
> a comment file to be added.
<snip>
> Would a FreeDB allow for a short explanatory note or reminder to be attached
> to individual files in a long list of downloaded freeware which would show
> up if it were burned on a CD?

FreeDB ( as in free database...as opposed to GraceNote's CDDB which costs
developers money to implement) is an online database of thousands of audio
CDs. If a piece of software has FreeDB implemented, you can insert a CD in
your computer's player and check FreeDB, which will then download all of
the CD info (album name, track names, artist, year of release, etc.)
Because this info can't be stored on a pre-recorded CD, the FreeDB-aware
software usually has some facility to store the data on your hard drive so
next time the CD is inserted, the info will show up (as opposed to
Track01.cda, Track02.cda, etc.) without even having to be connected to the
internet. Sometimes this is stored in a common Windows file called
cdplayer.ini, but more sophisticated software will actually create a FreeDB
database structure of your CDs in a folder of your choice.

Also, if you have a high speed connection and available hard drive space,
you can download the entire FreeDB database locally (hundreds of megabytes)
from here:

http://www.freedb.org

> When all these additions are put into Visual CD it will be on its way to
> 'commercial ware' <LOL>
> Rose

Hope not.

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 03:40:16 GMT, effdee wrote:

> Any one know of a freeware CD cataloging program like 'Catraxx'
>
> effdee

I asked a similar question a few weeks ago, and found nothing useable for
audio CDs. FWIW, I reverted to paying for an excellent shareware app
which has everything I need in a music CD catalogue (including CDDB).
With more than 400 audio CDs, I didn't need a program that forced me to
enter everything manually!

If you want more info on the shareware app, e-mail me off-list.

--
Mike of Bloem
(remove numbers from @ddress)

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, effdee
((E-Mail Removed)) says...
> Any one know of a freeware CD cataloging program like 'Catraxx'
>
> effdee
>
>
>

Maybe this one:

MediaMonkey Standard

Manage a music library consisting of small to very large collections
of audio files and playlists, whether they're located on your hard
drive, CDs, or a network. Organize, browse, or search music by Genre,
Artist, Year, Rating, etc., and never waste your time trying to find
mp3s you know you have.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/download.htm