MP3/Audio Book file-management feature?

[BetterRed]

In here I'll try to maintain an index of posts both in this topic and elsewhere that relate to using calibre to manage Audio Books

Adding audio files to a Calibre library

Catalogue of audio books

Both Ebooks AND Audio books in Calibre Updated 2015-03-05

If anyone knows of a topic that should be included in this index PM me the link and I'll add it.

BR

[DoctorOhh]

Calibre's main function is ebooks, but MP3s and audio books can be added to calibre. Drag and drop them to the book list and they will be added. It is a little ugly (see attached) but it works. This might be a good case for having a second calibre library.

Be sure to add the [Metadata Reader] AudioBooks plugin prior to adding the mp3s that way you have a chance of extracting the id3 metadata from the mp3 upon adding. You also might want to read the entire [Metadata Reader] AudioBooks plugin thread prior to attempting this.

Good Luck.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by booksonthemove

Hi,

I cannot import audio files into calibre - it complains that the format is not recognised. I can, however, just drag files into the audio directory on the sd card and the sony will see them. Are there any plans afoot to allow calibre to recognise mp3/aac?

Pending support for MP3, FLAC, etc these threads may be of interest.

If you use Windows these threads show how a shortcut (LNK) file can be used to reference an external file or folder. Limited to one link per book - but that can be to a folder, which could contain audio, video, game, etc files.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=202532
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...84#post2395784

In this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=196599 from post 13 onwards a solution is discussed that provides the ability to keep multiple external reference links for a book - folders, files, Internet URLs etc. This solution is platform independent

Both solutions use vanilla GUI calibre. I use both of them.

BR

[DoctorOhh]

This is an interesting thread on Cataloging audio books using calibre without actually having the audio books added to the calibre library folder, pertinent info starting at post 6.

[BetterRed]

In this thread Both Ebooks AND Audio books in Calibre, member Marcs1102 has documented how he/she has added the following facilities into their calibre installation

• text to speech - so you can listen to your epubs, mobi's etc
• store and listen to regular audio books - including multi part audio files

Its a good example of how one can integrate (bolt together) calibres existing features and plugins with 3rd party programs to create a solution to fill a specific need.

BR

[MeSue]

So I have been adding my audiobooks to Calibre as empty records (or in some cases not empty if I also have the ebook) and then I tag them as audiobook. But currently I have no pointers to the audio files which are stored separately from my ebooks on my home server. If I wanted to add pointers… which would be preferable, m3u or lnk files? I will experiment with both, but thought I would ask if anyone has experimented and has advice.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by MeSue

So I have been adding my audiobooks to Calibre as empty records (or in some cases not empty if I also have the ebook) and then I tag them as audiobook. But currently I have no pointers to the audio files which are stored separately from my ebooks on my home server. If I wanted to add pointers… which would be preferable, m3u or lnk files? I will experiment with both, but thought I would ask if anyone has experimented and has advice.

If you try to put a shortcut file (.LNK) into calibre via Add Books then the windows API kicks in and presents the shortcut target to the calibre Add functions - which is exactly what its supposed to do. Applications are not normally expected to process the actual shortcut files, they're expected to process the target files. But there is a means via which you can get a shortcut folder into a calibre book folder and and have it appear as if it were a format file.

You may want to put calibre into your Send To folder if its not already there

Press Win+r to bring up Run Dialog, type shell:sendto enter. This will open your Send To folder. you need to drop a shortcut to the calibre program into that folder. The simplest way is to press Win, in search box type calibre the calibre executable should be at top of results - right button drag drop it to the Send to folder and select Create shortcuts - see attachment. Close the Send To folder.

Make sure your Add Books preferences has the Mark newly added books checkbox ticked

Assuming you can see the server folders from Windows Explorer then

1. Create a shortcut (.lnk) file to the audio file (eg mp3) that's on your server - on the desktop will do.
2. Select the book to which you want to add the link to the MP3 and Mark It, select Show Marked Books from Mark Books - so there will only be one book showing.
3. Either drag drop the .LNK into the book list. Or I select the shortcut to the MP3 on the desktop, navigate to and select Send To->calibre
4. Now you should have two Marked Books, use sorting to get the actual book as the
   first row, with the LNK file book as the second. Select both books (ctrl/a), now click Edit Metadata->Merge Book Records->Merge into first select book delete others.
5. Now you should have one marked book, and the LNK should be in the View list, click it and the mp3/flac should play - from the server.

It sounds complicated, but once you have calibre in your Send To folder and you are comfortable with creating shortcuts via right button drag drop its easy.

You could do similar with the m3u playlists, but add file direct (I assume they're not very big). But be aware that you will then have a copy of the playlist on your server and in the calibre library. If that matters, create a shortcut (.LNK) for the playlist and add that to calibre as above.

The advantage of using a shortcut is that if you're running the Distributed Link Service (which IMO you should be) then if you move the shortcut target (ie the mp3 or m3u) there's a good chance that Windows will find it and fix the shortcut - works better in Win7 than it did on XP.

BR

[MeSue]

Thanks @BetterRed! Perfect!

Another advantage to the .LNK file I just found is that it opens the folder containing the MP3 files when I click LNK in Calibre, which is what I want. Clicking the M3U from Calibre on my system doesn't do anything. And I don't use M3U files so easier just to create the links and delete them when added to Calibre.

The only thing is this doesn't work for me:

In calibre select the relevant book and then use Add Books->Add files to selected books - you will need to spin the file type selector to All Files, select the shortcut file you just created and click OK.

I don't have OK, I have Open, and clicking that follows the link into the folder that the shortcut is pointing to. But I found a workaround... I can drag and drop the shortcuts into Calibre en mass and then go through and Alt-Shift-M merge each one with the existing book record. This will be faster, I think.

Distributed Link service is running on my system.


I've been wanting to do this for a long time!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by MeSue

Thanks @BetterRed! Perfect!


I've been wanting to do this for a long time!

@MeSue Aaaargh - I think i gave you a bum steer - to get a LNK file into calibre you have to subvert Windows by sending it through a worm hole

I have rewritten part of that previous post

Sorry BR

[MeSue]

Another interesting thing I just discovered...

You can drag and drop a folder onto the comments field of the Edit Metadata screen and it will create a link to the folder containing the audio files. I am using this when I have multiple versions of an audiobook (different narrators) for a title but I don't want multiple book entries.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by MeSue

Another interesting thing I just discovered...

You can drag and drop a folder onto the comments field of the Edit Metadata screen and it will create a link to the folder containing the audio files. I am using this when I have multiple versions of an audiobook (different narrators) for a title but I don't want multiple book entries.

Wow, I never knew that, I always click Link Button - see attachment. It allows you to label the link, and if its an image it wraps it the html needed to to display the image.

I fixed my earlier post - sorry about that, wasn't thinking straight

The file:\\\.... links in Comments are URI links. If you move the target Windows wont fix like them like it will with a shortcut.

BR

[MeSue]

Thanks again for all the help! All 195 of my audiobooks are linked in Calibre now. Happy, happy OCD book nerd.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by MeSue

Thanks again for all the help! All 195 of my audiobooks are linked in Calibre now. Happy, happy OCD book nerd.

Having just visited your blog I realise that some of my 'instructions' were a bit Teaching grandmother to suck eggs

Cheers BR

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Having just visited your blog I realise that some of my 'instructions' were a bit Teaching grandmother to suck eggs



Cheers BR

Still helpful! I appreciate it!

[Marcs1102]

Happened on this sticky, that references an old post of mine, but in the last year i've found a much better easier way than i described and use now... I just created a format (zab for Zipped Audio Book) and tell my system registry to run zab's with my player (vlcplayer). If you try and use the format .zip it is assumed to be an archive of ebooks, but rename the shortcut/link's to .zab so only the shortcut file with a link is copied into the calibre library as it's own format... You can pretty much do all sorts of cool things
with an unknown to calibre format