Where can I get a Windows version of the FreeDB server?

June 6, 2005 6:57 AM

I'd like to run a FreeDB server on my Windows box at home so I don't have to stay connected to the internet to get the track listings for the CD's I want to upload into iTunes. However, although I can find a zillion FreeDB aware clients, I'm having difficulty finding a native Windows version of the server. Does such a thing exist?

I'm well aware of the UNIX version of the FreeDB server and since I have cygwin installed, technically it is no problem to compile and run. However I can't just help feeling that a point and click native Windows version would be substantially easier to manage. You know the kind - you run the installer and then, once that is finished, start up the application, point it at the database and away you go.

I'm not remotely interested in the other features of the FreeDB server. As long as you can query CD's and get back the information then I'm happy. I have no need for remote syncing, updating the database and all that kind of stuff. Single user read-only access is the name of the game.

Yet, either my google-fu is failing me or there simply isn't a native Windows FreeDB server version available. Does anyone know of one, or should I just stick with running it on cygwin?

posted by ralawrence to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

The very first post on freedb.org states "Giant writes "Advanced MP3 Catalog 3.25 released. The new version has the new report system and improved search speed in the local Freedb. With Freedb and Advanced MP3 Catalog you can organize your mp3 collection much faster. The program supports both types of the databases - the local Windows Freedb and Internet Freedb protocol 6, can organize, tag and rename mp3 collection using Freedb data. More information about the application is here: http://www.wizetech.com/amc/ ." "

Perhaps it has that functionality built-in as a side-effect, though i think your real problem is you want a local copy of the FreeDB -database- more than anything. Their download section shows this:

"There's also a Java implementation of a cddb-protocol server available, which is being developed under the GPL by Andy Key. It's currently in alpha status and only supports http and protocol level 4. Instead of using flat text files, it uses a MySQL-database to store the data. It can be used under various OSes, including Windows.
If you're interested visit the JMBase Server homepage at Sourceforge"

Perhaps the java implementation is more to your liking. I am unsure how much management you expect to have to hassle with - the thing runs against a big mess of files and on occassion you update the fileset.
posted by phearlez at 7:23 AM on June 6, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks for the links. Unfortunately I've trawled through the website and user manual of "Advanced MP3 Catalog 3.25" and it would appear that it is a FreeDB aware client and not a FreeDB server.

I took a look at JMBase and although it shows promise, making users set up a MySQL database means that it is actually more complicated than the flat text version of the FreeDB server! At least with the latter, you build and run - with this you'd have to install the database, configure it and then import all the data before you could even begin to get anything out of it.
posted by ralawrence at 7:56 AM on June 6, 2005

If you rip a CD without names, you can still get them later with iTunes. When you do get online highlight the tracks from one album and select "Get CD track names".
posted by O9scar at 8:31 AM on June 6, 2005

CDex, the ripper, used a flat-file (actually) flat-files CDDB database. Try running the "Advanced MP3 Catalog 3.25", and see if there's a setting that makes it copy stuff to the local db automatically. (With CDex, I had to remember to save to the local manually.)
posted by orthogonality at 12:06 PM on June 6, 2005

Response by poster: Thats the one. Before I saw orthogonality's answer I just found out that you can point CDex's local database to the downloaded and decompressed FreeDB databse folder (needs to be the Windows format) and it'll happily query that and populate your CD data.

Which means that I can now rip (nearly) all my CD's to MP3 with the correct tags without having to connect to the internet all the time.

(and to think that I'd almost finished hacking up a mini-FreeDB server for Windows)
posted by ralawrence at 2:01 AM on June 8, 2005