merging kma files
 

I looked at the exsisting threads and couldn't find anything that specificallly addresses my problem..

First, I'm using an external HD and both folders reside on the same external HD.
The exsisting folder works well (we'll call this folder "a") When I try to merge folder "b" I open the tools/merge files. Then I select the folder I want to merge (folder "b" to bring into my exsisting dbfor use) . I then select the " merge into songs database" button.
Hoster then either stops imediately or at a specific point an shuts down hoster. I have to completely reopen hoster and nothing was merged at all.
I treid a few different senerios but nothing worked.
Does anyone have any sugestions?

You have to list both folders in the Merge or move the files in B to A then run Merge on A.Hoster doesn't actually move the files, but only adds the location to the database.

I understand that...I did have both listed and thats when the program would fail.

Vista or XP?
Are you completely up to date on your Microsoft updates? There are service pack updates for both .Net Framework 2 and 3 that just came out Tuesday. They don't show on the Auto Update list either.

yes i'm uptodate with all windows updates (xp home as of 02/12/2008)...I just updated my ver of hoster and it still gives me an error message and shuts down.

Also, it stops at file 282 of 44599. Could the problem be on file 282 in the songs database log?

i think if your moving a file from a drive to onother drive it will do that, if that file your moving is already in it, but i think if your merging your songs it wasnt supposed to stop, once its done merging it will show an error..

All my files are on the same ext hd. I want to merge the files my goal is to add files from different folders and fill unused bookids along with adding new ones. i used songverter to convert the zips (not all) into kma files. Also, used the import for other zips.

I tried two different processes. First I tried to merge files without rebuilding the data base with the folder containing the files i want to merge and it immediately shut down. next I rebuilt the data base adding the folder to my list. Then tried to merge that folder and it made it to file 282 of 44k and shut down.

I'm wondering if I understand the process of how to merge. I've read the manual over and over. That being said it did start the merge process and then stoped at file 282 and shut down.

Bob

[quote=rmryanjr;70708]All my files are on the same ext hd. I want to merge the files my goal is to add files from different folders and fill unused bookids along with adding new ones. i used songverter to convert the zips (not all) into kma files. Also, used the import for other zips.

I tried two different processes. First I tried to merge files without rebuilding the data base with the folder containing the files i want to merge and it immediately shut down. next I rebuilt the data base adding the folder to my list. Then tried to merge that folder and it made it to file 282 of 44k and shut down.

I'm wondering if I understand the process of how to merge. I've read the manual over and over. That being said it did start the merge process and then stoped at file 282 and shut down.

Bob[/quote

i'm not sure if i am getting this right i'm no expert, but are you saying that all your kma files are in the same drive, but on diff. files? is there a way you can just click and drag them into just one file, the only problem was if you click and drag those files ( if you have duplicate files you wont be able to click and drag them ) , unless you delete the duplicate files ,then open up hoster and click on " save to folder " in the import screen and select the drive where ever you have all your files, then open up the built song data base
select and delete the drive on the drop down screen, then select the same drive and click on rebuild song data base..

your partially correct all my files are on the same drive but different folders. I'm looking to correct my bookids. I understand that by merging files this will add files to unused book ids. In short I want to renumber all my kma's. I don't need all the files in one folder ..I have them seperated by brand.

merging files will changed your book id's

exactly what I want to do....change all my bookids...I get a duplicate bookid file when rebuilding my data base...I randomly check files from this log and there are files that are not in my songs data base but, they have duplicate bookids. This ia why I wanted to use the merge to recreate my bookids. I don't have a problem with duplicate songs in Hoster because i can weed them out after I create a song book then remove what I want from the song book and hoster.

It would be nice is all the tools inhoster would work.

One more thing..It's not only me I tried this on another laptop using a different processor and hd and still the merge shuts down hoster 3.319.

I'm doing all this to have all my songs on the ext drive and off cds. there are different folders so I can keep some structure and brand separation.

Can you believe that this is just a hobby and not my livelyhood.


Thanks , Bob

same here, just a hobby ,a very expensive hobby

This thread was a bit confusing so this may or may not apply


In the past whenever an issue has occured at a specific KMA it ended being a corrupt file causing the problem. remove that KMA and try again. Possibly a too long artist or title name.

understood but, some of the folders that did merge did ok and if there was a problem with a file or files it would complete the remaining file merge and create a error file. I then looked at the errors and fixed acordingly. The other point is that if I'm merging kam's how do I know which file it is. All the kma's are designated by disc Id (win xp file name) so there is no indication that the title or artist name embedded in the kma is too long. If you know what the char limit for title and artist name please let me know..I then can rebuild my DB and adjust those long names. I'll try using MS to open the files and check for any extremly long title/artist naming.

I have been experimenting and have been succesfull in merging 12046 kma files I then created a songbook and looked at the bookid numbers assn'd the those kma's. I was surprised to see that the number scheme used a root id of "1" (101 bookid) then the next number used was "2" (201 bookid) for the second kma file resulting in the last number used 9999901. Based on the way it numbered the kmas Im at the limit of 1 million files. The boobkid numbering should have use "1" as the root for the first one. example, 101,102,103,104,105, ect then 2001,202,203,204,205,206, and so on. It's dropping all the availible numbers between 101 and 199 before using 201.

This all being said I have updated every hardware driver and firmware for all my hardware and software on my lptp. along with all win xphome updates and drivers ..even found an update to the "ntdll.dll" error i'm getting b4 Hoster shuts down. I don't experience any other problems with any other MTU product or any other process in hoster. Just this one thing.

Thanks for you're input
Bob

To back up a bit, you stated that you converted part of your files with Songverter from Zip to KMA and I suspect this may be what is causing your problem. When you convert to KMA in Songverter it does not add a bookid so they are not Hoster ready. When you Rebuild the database these all show up as having a duplicate BookID (all 0s).
When you try to Merge the database, it sounds like it doesn't know what to do with those invalid BookIDs. Normally, you use the Merge command when you have imported files on two computers and assigned the same BookID to two different CD disks.
My suggestion is to try this to see if that is the problem. If your Sonverter processed files are in a separated folder remove that folder from the database list and rebuild the database. Then run your Merge Database and see if it will run. If it will then that is your problem. At that point go back to those zip files and import them into Hoster the same way you did the others.

I believe this has been worked on in version 4.00, but if not I am sure they will. The problem here is actually not that the Merge isn't working, but that it is stopping after an error, when it should log the error files and go on to finish. Rebuild used to do the same thing, but now just logs the duplicates (which you could check to find out what files are causing the problem) and goes on to finish.

Actually you are not looking at this correctly. It starts with 101, the first digit being Book 1 and the last 2 being track numbers 01-99 so those numbers are available, but only if you have 99 tracks on your CD. The next book is 201, and so on. This equates to 99 tracks on up to 9,999 disks as the Book number is up to 4 digits and the track numbers are two digits. So you are limited to 989,901. I really don't think you will ever run out of numbers.:g

Merge KMA Files is totally automated. You specify the folders containing your KMA files and away it goes. Merge ONLY renumbers BookIDs that already exist in the Songs database. If a merging file's BookID is unique, if I am right, it is still renumbered to the next lowest available BookID in the Songs DB. It does not let you specify any numbers to omit, start at, etc... fully auto only.

Artist and Title fields are up to 63 chars each. To my knowledge, we auto-truncate longer ones. As Dale pointed out above, I don't think a too-long filename (at least in later Hoster versions) can cause any problems. There was a bug in the past.

You are going against the tide. The way we number is totally based on 7 years of user feedback. Everyone wanted us to retain "DiscID" grouping of tracks. Thus, a DiscID has a 1:1 mapping with a unique BookID.

In Hoster 4.00x, we're about to break that, allowing an SCDG DiscID imported tracks (1,000+) on the hard drive (not from a SCDG disc) to map to many BookIDs, each going up to 99 tracks per BookID.

If your windows ntdll.dll was not updated, WINDOWS, not Hoster, crashed Hoster. Sorry, but we are at Microsoft's mercy on this one. :r

First about the last ....the ntdll.dll has bee updated (replaced ) before my last post. As far as the numbering systemI havn't used any custome numbering at all. As far as my assumtiom for the bookids is based on what I found after clearing the song db file and starting at "0" . My goal was to renumber my bookids. I wanted this due to the fact that if I rebuild my song db I get a file telling me there are 7k duplicate bookids. This is why i wanted to use the merge and renumber. Again the merge has worked randomly and if there were errors it would create an error file, great i can live with that. The problem is that it won't complete a merge. I checkd all file names and there were no long file names. Besides the kma has only a disc id+track as a file name.

Is there a work around for the lack of reliability in the merge process? I'm sure that during the testing process someone either had no problems or had a problem and figured a way to fix it.

Im just looking for some help here.

I take it that I'll have to wait for the next gen 4.00 upgrade. My question is will it work then? It's availible in 3.319 it should also work in 3.319.

I've done all I can do. I don't experience any problems with any other programs.

Bob

http://forum.mtu.com/images/icons/icon9.gifToo late on reverting back to zip files I took an earlier suggestion to reduce the number of folders then try the merge....I now can't pick which ones were converted using songverter. I did if fact try taking 6 kmas and converting to bins (songverter) then importing to hoster . Hoster reqcognized the diskid and bookid so it wasn't worth the trouble. I dont think i want to convert all my files to zips or bins then reimport. I'll have to check the duplicate bookids log and see whats there and maybe reimport the 7k files. I might be done by the time ver 5.0 is released. http://forum.mtu.com/images/icons/icon11.gif


Bob