Finally - CD Library working again

I've finally got one of my old computers up and running and working with my Kenwood 200-disc CD changer. This doesn't sound like much but given the bugs with the NetNamer software and the problems I've been having with my dial-up internet service, this is a major milestone. The biggest step was getting the high(er) speed wireless internet service from Routcom - which allows me to use the internet the way it is meant to be used.

So, with that working I can proceed from my current status of about 600 CDs inventoried... I figure that I am not quite half way through the pile. My cousin, Jeff, is a net programmer so he has built a little software tool that pulls in all the NetNamer CD files and loads them into a database, so eventually I will have a full database of all of my CDs that will be fully searchable and support report generation. Eventually I hope to have the inventory posted on the net for easy access, which would also better support any future plans to sell/trade some of the collection.

I'm a little annoyed that the NetNamer software doesn't download the Artist name when it does a lookup. I get all the songs and the Album title, but not the Artist... Makes no sense. But there are so many bugs that I am just taking what I can get and looking to by-pass the poor functionality. I've asked Jeff if he can look into the CDDB/Gracenotes lookup functionality to see if we can access the full information for a CD using the disc id information available from the NetNamer software. I would then use the NetNamer software just to get the CD disc ID information and then do all the lookups through another bit of software. Frustrating...as an engineer I see the huge potential for software like this - full disc information, cataloguing collections, multiple custom play lists, live song rating that drives intelligent auto-playlists of favourites, etc. It is a shame that so little of that potential has been realized - AND that from what I have read on the net, little or no development has been done to improve the software going forward into new hardware releases!!! I think Kenwood really dropped the ball on this one...