ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Just ripped two new albums to my BeoSound 5 disk and found they both were recorded as Unknown and with no named tracks or album cover artwork. Is this a glitch other users are experiencing currently? I am wondering if it is a bug in a new automatic update. It has been about one month since last successful ripping operation.
Yes, I'm experiencing the same issue and it's quite frustrating. I spend some time trying to problem solve why internet connection read "no" and still had N.Radio working fine until I read others with same problem.
Here is the response of Band & Olufsen - it is a disgrace!
Thank you for your request. Below is a summary of your request and our response.
The BeoSound 5 are getting old rather quickly
But I guess this is the danger with connected devices.It's not only the hardware that gets older, services might also be removed with essentially no prior notice.
I wonder how this will affect the customers willingess to pay premium for streaming devices?
Maybe this is one reason that the BeoSound Moment was discontinued?
It wasn't long ago that Spotify and Deezer also stopped support for the BeoSound 5, removing the online streaming option which was a modern alternative to buying a CD. I wonder how long it will remain an internet radio device?
You would think that searching metadata online, like iTunes still routinely performs, would not require so much effort and resources to the extent that a service actually needs to be discontinued.
I feel absolutely let down by Bang & Olufsen. I bought into their concept and now they just move on without even warning customers it was about to happen and without informing customers it had happened after the event.
Very poor customer support.
Well that is the end of that then!
I wonder what protections to customers EU consumer law offers?
I cannot believe that this function has been lost. Let alone without any announcement!
I happened to come across this thread whilst searching the net for a solution. I too feel very let down by B&O customer service, this function was one of the main selling points for me, especially when I consider the capital outlay that went into the hardware.
The least that B&O can do is provide an explanation/patch on how the required information can be entered manually so that it is displayed on the BeoSound 5
sfbeo21: The least that B&O can do is provide an explanation/patch on how the required information can be entered manually so that it is displayed on the BeoSound 5
Will the Bliss Music Tagger software display album art on BS5 when just playing a CD and not ripping it??
I have never been a fan of the CD ripping device (and I have one!): I mean the ripping works fine, but compilations or multiple CD albums always get messed up afterwards on the BS5. Furthermore, the album art it adds is crappy (low resolution), assuming it is actually found.
The solution? If you have a PC, rip the CDs in FLAC and use MP3Tag (it's free!) to do the tagging yourself and add proper album artwork. And where do you get album artwork in the perfect resolution? iTunes of course, which provides (practically) all the album artwork you need in the optimal resolution, i.e. 600x600 pixels in 16 mio colours. If iTunes doesn't have the artwork, scan your CD covers yourself. Once you have done that, you transfer your perfectly-tagged files with beautiful artwork to the BM5.
So yes, all this does take extra time! But afterwards, you have all your albums in the correct order on your system, and displaying optimal artwork (Steve Jobs would use the term 'gorgeous' I think).
I hope this helps!
Current: Beovision Eclipse 65" v1 - Beolab 50 - Beolab 28 - 2 x BS2 (GVA) - 1 x BS1 (GVA) - Beoremote Halo - H9i
Past:
Beovision MX4000 - Beovision 3-32 - Beovision 7-55
Beosound 9000 - Beosound 5 / Beomaster 5
Beolab 6000 - Beolab 8000 - Beolab 5 - Beolab 3 - Beolab 17
beorumples:Will the Bliss Music Tagger software display album art on BS5 when just playing a CD and not ripping it??
I have been provided with assistance from the Guildford,UK dealership of B&O and am establishing a work around to replace the ripping facility on the BeoSound 5 with an appropriate ripper on a computer in my home network.
I was able to connect the BeoMaster 5 disk to my iMac in Finder using instructions in a Technical Information document issued by B&O in March 2017, which replaces the defunct BeoConnect software.
In short you need to establish the IP address and User Name of your BS-5 in MODE-> SETTINGS-> NETWORK INFO->
and set a client password on the BS5 in MODE-> SETTINGS -> NETWORK SETTINGS,
which you get to by pressing the > button twice then GO when at the SETTINGS stage.
Then using the IP address and the new password, set up the BM-5 as a server on your home networked computer (through your internet router). On a Mac go to Finder-> GO -> Connect to Server and complete the dialog with the the user NAME (default is BM-USER) and password, saving the latte to the keychain for repeated easy access. This puts the MB5 disk as a shared drive on the computer to which you can drag and drop music files and associated metadata that you have ripped on the computer.
My remaining question to you ALL out there is what kind of file types will a BeoSound 5 play...that are lossless in terms of audio quality.
The BS-5 device itself copies CD data to Windows Media Audio (.wma files) but reading around I can see FLAC is a free software that compresses audio to a ZIP like .flac file format which plays back as lossless audio. But before I pollute my BM5 disk with unwanted audio files I need to know if the BeoSaound 5 can play .flac files? Or what other lossless files?
Mike
Gerard and others, I do not follow the pointing of the BM-5 at anything on the internet, it is the other way round. Use your computer to point at the BM-5 and use a software installed on your computer to rip and relay internet derived metadata to the folder simultaneous with the ripping action.
I tried "Switch" software to rip and assign metadata and although it ripped ok I wasn't able to customise the metadata to suit the layout that the BeoSound 5 expects and displays.
I was then recommended "dBpoweramp" software by a B&O engineer and it has worked a dream.
If you have the BeoMaster 5 drive connected as a server/network drive on your computer, simply set the destination folder to the Music folder on the BeoMaster 5 disk. The output appears on my BeoSound 5 screen exactly as if I had ripped it on the B&O device.
A 21 day evaluation trial of dBpoweramp is possible from the website before you buy and marketing material is reassuring on issues such as Malware prevention.
The dBpoweramp software will rip in 8 levels of Lossless Flac and Uncompressed, with a default at Lossless Level 5, which results in 96-99% accuracy. The album artwork is selected from the internet by choosing an image to your own preference of graphic content and file size/resolution.
This means the BeoSound 5 can remain in my home rather than becoming an obsolete piece of junk.
Dear Mike,
could you explain a little bit more in detail the structure of the BS5 ripped
I used to ripp my CDs with EAC, as my BS5 does not connect to any Datserver anymore, I do not know the structure because I never ripped a CD with it, only got it in late 2017
Thanks
gerard
Gerard,
Structure? Of what? Is this a hardware question or a data question?
I'm not sure that I understand, but I will re-iterate what I did in case it answers your problem.
You have a NAS drive for your ripped music files, presumably on a local home network linked through your router. I assume you have a BeoMaster 5 in the system.
Similarly I have a network disk - B&O hardware controlled by the BeoMaster 5 box - and the BeoSound 5 is the front end linked via CAT 6 and video cable.
Since the B&O service to rip and tag files ended I have installed software called "dbpoweramp Music Converter" and "Perfect Tunes" on my computer, together these are a big improvement on the quality of ripping and the finding of image files for the album artwork. They are very reasonably priced and available for Windows and Mac OS. Perfect Tunes will search your disk for legacy missing artwork and offer the alternatives you can select to complete your collection. dbpoweramp Music Converter will let you choose the rip format ( I use flac lossless) and find the album artwork.
I found the default setting for the metadata output of "dbpoweramp Music Converter" worked fine with the BeoSound 5, avoiding the need to build a bespoke script to structure the album folders and track files and their names - the output matches what the BS-5 needs. I did test other ripping software where this was an issue, requiring extra skills.
The only thing you need to do is mount your NAS disk so your computer running the ripping software can see it as a destination for the ripped files and artwork. Your BeoSound 5 must already see it and the new files will appear on the screen after you restart it.
I hope this helped.
Hi Mike,
it's the structure of the metadata that I'm looking for.
Which tags are used by the BM5?
I've contacted the customer support on this and here's the answer:
Hi Gerard,
any news on this?
Would be very happy, if the BeoSound5 CD ripping device would display covers while playing CD.
Tagging is not my issue, I use (good old) CoverScout… but it would be nice to see, which CD is in the Player ;-)
Thanks for an info.
Best regards
Doc Leisure
Hi DocLeisure
No I did not get any news from BeoCare . It seems the only solution is to ripp your CD to the harddisk or on your NAS an play it as digital music which reads the cover art from the file tag.
Very disappointing from beo support.
I think I will write once more to them and post the answer here.
regards
deleted due to double post
On 2018-dec-03 I got an answer from Beocare,
« unfortunately no news, because there is no databse on the internet that has the needed metadata. »
Can’t believe that, they did not want to search a replacement an update the firmware.
They even canceled the online firmware update server.
Settings / Update / GO
now says : « Connection to server failed »
The close down continues
Shame on you B&O
I wont get any B&O Product anymore, using them since 30 years !!! After my last product Headphone H5 buttons break apart , now this !!!!
Yeh I could not agree more! I think B&O have behaved disgracefully over removing the metadata support for BeoSound5. The main attraction of their system for me was to upload my extensive CD collection. Having gone to great expense - only to find within 18 months of purchase they removed their support.
I certainly will not be buying B&O again!
I found ‘Mp3tag’ is a good app for uploading the metadata although the work involved is a pain if there are multiple CD to do.
Hi sorry to join this dicussion so late.
Basic problem is no network access, then I belive as some others suggest solutions for ripping with metadata can be done on PC.
How to crack this access that according BO after sales seems to be blocked since some pdate of the firmware?
strange indeed like others noted, NRadio works but no local network access.
So this is the essential problme : network access: how to reestablish this??
Maybe someone has the answer,
Great to hear from you
Nils
Nils Marsille: Hi sorry to join this dicussion so late. Basic problem is no network access, then I belive as some others suggest solutions for ripping with metadata can be done on PC. How to crack this access that according BO after sales seems to be blocked since some pdate of the firmware? strange indeed like others noted, NRadio works but no local network access. So this is the essential problme : network access: how to reestablish this?? Maybe someone has the answer, Great to hear from you Nils
Network access works fine in the BM5 still. When going into settings, it will show "NO" under "Network Connection", this is a lie and cannot be trusted :)
The reason for this, is that the SW checks for the google DNS at 8.8.8.8, but entering service mode, it is possible to ping this address, and also, N.Radio and station/cover download also works.
I bet the way they check for Network Access, is by checking the response from their connection to 8.8.8.8, and Google has changed this response, so now the B&O SW "fails" although it works fine.
The local network share also works without issues.
CD Ripper will not find any covers/metadata, probablhy because CDDB has changed/removed the old API, and B&O never bothered to update/implement the new behavoiur.
I can understand that Spotify died, and they did not want to update this, but the CD-Ripper functionality they should indeed have fixed.
/Weebyx
I'm trying Bliss as recommended, but not having much luck. I have everything set correctly and Bliss is reading the BM Share drive as it's supposed to. It recognises the albums that have no issues, but the albums marked 'Unknown' are not being found
x:________________________
Jonathan:I'm trying Bliss as recommended, but not having much luck. I have everything set correctly and Bliss is reading the BM Share drive as it's supposed to. It recognises the albums that have no issues, but the albums marked 'Unknown' are not being found x:________________________
I too was quite disappointed about the B&O CD ripper not tagging its contents. Its a fundamental function of the product.
I haven't found any product that can replace the functionality completely. So why don't we owners get together and request a solution from B&O, by either paying for the service to be re-instated, or requesting the code be released so at least we could integrate into it?
I also stand behind this idea to get together as a larger mass and request suppor or best if Bang & Olufsen could release the software as open source (without requesting support from them) as the product in their view is EOL but have all possibility to continue to be a beautiful stereo control unit.
BS3 DVB-HD, BV7-40 MKIII, BC6-26, BC6-23, BV4-50/BS2, BS5, BS9000, BL3500, MLGW, BLGW, PlayMaker, - BS6500, BS4500, LX6000, VX7000, MX5500, VX5000 - Beo6, Beo5, BeoTimex2, Linctonic
Hi anyone, made the unfortunate choice of buying a Beosound 5/Beomaster 5 for a good price, brand new still boxed, over a second Cambridge Audio CXN, on the assumption it would be as easy to setup as that. Nothing could have been further from that assumption! The CXN you simple plug in an external hard drive to the USB port and all the WAV files and folders are automatically recognised, Album Art, Artists, Album, etc, couldn't be easier. CD's simply ripped with Windows Media player. Even my old Logitech Squeezebox Touch was just as easy, and even that came out in 2010.
So back to the hell that that has been my Beosound 5 experience that is almost there. Obviously you can forget Beoconnect, long dead, but after some solid research on this forum and related downloaded PDF manuals, dug out an an old Windows 7 PC, put it and the Beomaster 5 on the network, managed to map the Beomaster 5 hard drive, reset the BM-USER password to connect, and successful copy across my CD library (backup from CXN) which only took about 8 hours.
Now all the Music is WAV lossless, all the Album Art is there, the music plays (currently finding Albums by selecting by Cover) but am now stuck down the Rabbit Hole that is unknown Artist and unknown Album. I have tried it all Bliss, mp3tag, music tag, but absolutely no luck!!!
I've tried manually renaming every tag for an album to no avail. No matter what I try doesn't change the unknown issue. Does anyone have any idea what tags the Beosound 5 actually uses? Is is some obscure Tag that is so redundant you can't edit it. I am at a compete loss, even tried looking at the sample MP3 music that came on the unit that actually show, still no idea.
?????
** UPDATE ** Finally success !! Reading though all related threads came across a comment about a converter recommended by a B&O Engineer, dBpoweramp. I'm not sure whether the issue was WAV as this time I converted to FLAC along with Tag data recognised by the BM5. Converting was quick, about 2 minutes an album. Had tried Mp3tag, music tag and Bliss to add Tag info to the WAV files but no difference, still wouldn't show in BM5 BS5. dBpoweramp achieved exactly what I was after
eugeneh:Now all the Music is WAV lossless, all the Album Art is there, the music plays
eugeneh:made the unfortunate choice of buying a Beosound 5/Beomaster 5 for a good price, brand new still boxed, over a second Cambridge Audio CXN
eugeneh:So back to the hell that that has been my Beosound 5 experience that is almost there
Be fair, the BS5 is more than a decade old, whereas the Cambridge is at most 2 years. If you did not noticed, the technologies have developed significantly in this period.
It was your choice! A choice with examining the pros and cons of both, I asume?
How are the files tagged for the Cambridge Audio CXN? Do you really use .wav files or another format? As far as I know .wav files do NOT support any form of tags. Only the pure file name. FLAC, MP3 etc. do support tags.
TWG:As far as I know .wav files do NOT support any form of tags. Only the pure file name
And yes, the tag infos are displayed on all my digital devices.
Carolpa: TWG:As far as I know .wav files do NOT support any form of tags. Only the pure file nameThis has changed. You can add full tags. Generally I rip to WAV and can tag the files. And yes, the tag infos are displayed on all my digital devices.
Thank you for the update on wav files. Which software do you use for tagging wav files?
TWG:Which software do you use for tagging wav files?
EZ Meta Tag Editor or MP3tag (edit tags)
Not quite true, the Cambridge CXN V1 came out in 2015, some 6 years ago, the 2nd gen V2 came out in 2018. But as for poor support for standard industry music tagging, my first media streaming device was the Logitech SqueezeBox Touch which used the same principals as the CXN and to an extent the Beosound 5, where the Squeezebox Touch was a wifi music streamer which you could also attach an external USB drive as a music source. The Logitech would then scan the entire HD Drive and build a music library including all the artwork as well as being touch screen. This was way back in 2010 and in a device that was about $US400. It still works well today accepting any new CD's ripped in WAV format, it is the Squeezebox Touch I was looking to replace with something a bit more upmarket with the Beosound 5. I would have expected as a minimum B&O as a fix would have provided some basic software to scan the Beomaster 5 for any main stream audio format and generate the required tags to display.
But any advice is welcome and I will persevere as SO CLOSE! At the moment the WAV files play, artwork comes up, can search by Cover, just battling with the tagging issue. May try converting a WAV file to WMA or FLAC and try tagging that to see it it makes a difference.
For both the CXN (v1) and the Squeezebox Touch the CD's are simply ripped on a PC using Microsoft's standard Media Player and ripping to WAV lossless images. Then simply copy across the ripped Album folder to the two external hard drives for the CXN and Logitech, plug them back into the respective Media Players. The CXN simply reads the data directly from the Hard Drive, where the Logitech rescans the Hard Drive and rebuilds its own Music and Album Art library files.
Even though the CXN doesn't seem to build any internal library, it lets you search by Artist, Album, shows the Artwork and has a mobile APP to control it from your phone. With built in Wolfson DAC's from an audiophile perspective it is an impressive device. Why I didn't just buy a CXN, I already have one, just wanted something as a bit if Tech Art for the lounge. The Beosound 5 is sexy, still like it and desperately want to get it working properly. It only came with a wall mount, so busy building a table mount for it that will create more of a 'floating' look as opposed to the standard B&O table mount.
Hence for something the cost of the Beosound/Beomaster 5, this kind of basic functionality would have been expected as a minimum, especially considering that with the Beomaster 5, it's basically a Windows PC.