Copyright: OTS MP3 Conversion Utility Help  v1.0
Citation: Copyright 1999 Ots Corporation


Introduction
OTS MP3 Conversion Utility Help Guide

Introduction

The main functions of this program are:

- Creating OTS Albums (group of MP3s, album graphics, and other data in one compact file)

- Converting one or more MP3 files into OTS Media files

- Extracting MP3 files from OTS Media files

Contents of this help file

Why were OTS files designed and how are they useful? (About OTS Media files)

How do I convert my MP3s to OTS files easily? (Converting MP3 files to OTS files)

How do I convert my OTS files to MP3s in a flash? (Converting OTS files to MP3 files)

What do the various options do? (Options in detail)

What do I need to know when including a JPEG image? (Including a JPEG image)

What do the various buttons do? (Button explanation)

What do the various fields in the dialogue prompt box mean? (Dialogue box)

How can I use OtsJuke DJ with My Music really easily? (My Music)

OTS MP3 Conversion Utility

Copyright 1999 Ots Corporation

All rights reserved worldwide.

You may use this program freely for non-commercial use. For commercial use, a license is required. Consult www.otsjuke.com for license details.


Converting MP3 files to OTS files

This section explains some easy ways to convert your MP3 files to OTS files, including how to make OTS Albums.  It is highly advised you see the Options in detail and Button explanation sections to get the most out of this program.

The OTS MP3 Conversion Utility has been designed to accomodate the needs of a vast array of users.  Some common usage examples are categorized below.  Simply read the section relevant to you.

"I just want to quickly convert a few MP3s and get them playing for me in OtsJuke DJ":

The Find Some MP3s On My Hard Disk For Me... button is most likely the best option for you.

Simply click on it and it will search the current drive for all MP3s.  When it has finished you will see the first directory found in its search in the left side file pane.  Select the MP3s you wish to convert (or select none for entire folder) and hit the MP3 -> OTS button.

All converted files will end up in your "My Music" folder on the right side file pane, unless you had changed this to a different folder. OtsJuke DJ can be launched from the desktop to automatically play the music in the "My Music" folder.

Simply click on the Find Some MP3s On My Hard Disk For Me... button again to see the next folder of MP3s found and so on.

By the end of this procedure you should have a nice collection of OTS Media files, ready to start being played in OtsJuke DJ for your own radio station with no ads!!

"I have hundreds of MP3 files in a folder structure which I would like to convert overnight":

- Navigate to the parent folder containing all the MP3 files in the left side file pane..

- Tick Recurse folders.

- Set Prompt for info as Never.

- Set Item grouping as Automatic.

- Un-tick Pause on warnings.

- Set If destination file exists as either Skip or Overwrite.

- Tick Delete Source if you have limited hard disk space.  (OTS files take up marginally less space than MP3s due to some efficient storage techniques used.  However as a rule of thumb allow enough hard disk space as your MP3s are taking.  Note: You can always convert OTS files back to MP3 files if ever needed.)

Make sure nothing is highlighted (selected) in the left side file pane so entire contents of current folder (including sub-folders) will be converted. Alternatively you could select some particular folders if that's all you want to convert.

- Hit the MP3 -> OTS button and go to bed!!

There will be a log file accessible in the morning with full details.

See Options in detail for explanation of the options mentioned above.

How to create OTS Albums - "I have a neat collection of MP3s and want to make the most of album compilation, cover art and accurate title/artist/copyright information":

- Go to the location of your MP3 collection or use the Find Some MP3s On My Hard Disk For Me... button to automatically have some found for you.

- Set Prompt for info as Always. (This will give you control over details for artist, title, copyright, cover image, etc.  If you're not worried about monitoring this information, choose "Never" or "If not tagged" instead.  See Options in detail for info on these.)

- Set Item grouping as Entire selection.

- Set If destination file exists as Confirm or Overwrite.

- Tick Delete source if desired (you can always convert MP3s back if needed).

- In the MP3 section (left side file pane), hold down the CTRL (control key) and click on the MP3s you wish to group in one OTS Album (you can also click on a JPEG at this stage too. See Including a JPEG image for details on requirements).

- Hit the MP3 -> OTS button and watch!

If Prompt For Info is set to Never all selected MP3 files, and the selected JPEG image, will be grouped into one compact OTS file in alphabetical order.  You will prompted to confirm the OTS file name (e.g. a_file_name.ots), the OTS Album name, and include a JPEG if desired.  However, you will NOT be able to modify individual song track details.

If Prompt For Info is set to either Always or If not tagged, you may be prompted to confirm song details.  See Dialogue box for help in this area.

Enjoy your nicely compiled OTS Album!!

Hot Tip!! If you wish to determine the exact order of the songs in the produced album, you should rename the MP3 files with the song position number at the start.

For example:

1song_for_albert.mp3

2i_love_mondays.mp3

3last_night_I_fell_out_of_bed.mp3

4and_im_not_joking.mp3

5dont_laugh_im_serious.mp3              .......... etc

This will cause all songs to be in the right numerical order.

Again, it is highly advised you see the Options in detail and Button explanation sections to get the most out of this program.


Converting OTS files to MP3 files

Your OTS files can always be converted back to MP3s if you ever have the need.

You simply select the OTS files in the right side file pane that you wish to convert to MP3s and then hit the MP3 <- OTS button.  If you select no OTS files and hit the button, all OTS files in the current folder will be converted to MP3.

If you have the Recurse folders option ticked it will also convert all included sub-folder contents.

The generated MP3s will have an ID3 tag attached to include as much information as possible.  Naturally not all info can be stored from the OTS files due to MP3 limitations.

From the raw audio perspective, there will be no change from the original MP3 file. Ie, no cropping, trimming, fading, volume alterations, etc will have been performed on the re-generated MP3. It will sound identical to the original MP3 used to construct the OTS file. This process is non-lossy, meaning you can convert back and forth between OTS and MP3 without any loss of audio quality.

A JPEG will also be generated from the OTS file if the Use JPG if present option is ticked, and if the OTS file contained a JPEG image.

Also see Button explanation and Options in detail for comprehensive information with options.


Options In Detail

This section explains what each of the various options do. These are the options which are located in the centre of the window. Most of the options only apply to converting MP3 files to OTS files, however some of them also apply to converting back the other way.

Prompt For Info:

Never

No dialogue boxes will pop up under any circumstances.  All title, artist, graphics, genre, etc. information will be determined automatically and as accurately as possible.

For example, this option is great if you want to convert a large batch of files overnight and be certain that it will go throught everything automatically without stopping.

The program is quite clever and will generate well formatted title and artist info even if the MP3 contains no ID3 tag. MP3 files which are named in the industry standard format of "Artist Or Group Name - Song Name.mp3" will be fine. Even if files are named like "ArtistOrGroupName-SongName.mp3" or similar, or even if they contain underscores and brackets, etc, the convertor will do a great job at determining an accurate and well formatted title and artist.

Also see: Log files

If Not Tagged

If no ID3 tag is included in the MP3 file a dialogue box will prompt you for detailed information. The title and artist  fields in the dialouge box will default to what the convertor things is the right information based on the filename of the MP3.

All activity will cease until you click on "OK" after entering the desired information. You don't have to enter all fields. In fact you can simply click "OK" immediately to accept all of the defaults. The purpose is basically to give you the chance to enter info (or verify what the convertor thinks is correct based on the filename).

Most MP3s downloaded off the net include an ID3 tag containing some basic Artist, Title and Genre information.

This option is useful for semi-automatic operation.  It allows you to still include human-entered information if none is present for accuracy, but makes most files processable automatically without bothering you in the majority of cases.

Always

Regardless of whether an ID3 tag is included, you will be prompted to confirm all details and information with an "OK" after each music title.

This is useful when you want to be sure every detail is exactly correct, and have the opportunity to add in an album graphics JPEG cover, and additional information, such as copyright info.

Item Grouping:

None

All MP3s will be converted into single OTS files.  (Each OTS file will only contain one song)

Automatic

MP3s which follow the industry naming standard for when ripping from a CD, will be grouped appropriately.

For example, if you ripped a collection of songs from an artist called Johnny, you would probably end up with the following:

johnny01.mp3

johnny02.mp3

johnny03.mp3    .... etc.

The converter sees the theme between these MP3s and will place them all in one OTS file in the numbered order.

If you have a JPEG in the same directory it will also be included in the OTS file, as long as it was named "johnny.jpg" or "johnny.jpeg".  Note: This requires the Use JPG if present option to be ticked.

Entire Selection

This option is great for making OTS Albums fast!!!

All selected MP3 files, and the selected JPEG, will be grouped into one compact OTS file in alphabetical order.

If you wish to determine the exact order of the songs you should rename the MP3 files with the song position number at the start.

For example:

1song_for_albert.mp3

2i_love_mondays.mp3

3last_night_I_fell_out_of_bed.mp3

4and_im_not_joking.mp3

5dont_laugh_im_serious.mp3              .......... etc

This will cause all songs to be in the right numerical order.

This option cannot be used in conjunction with the Recurse folders option.

Also, note that even if you have Prompt for info set as Never, you will still be prompted at the very end just to give you an opportunity to name the OTS album and associate a JPEG image, etc. You will not be prompted for each individual song (MP3 file) however.

If Destination File Exists:

Skip

Any files being converted which contain the same name as a file in the destination folder will be skipped without prompting.

Confirm Overwrite

You will be prompted whether to overwrite or not, in the case of a file having the same name.

Overwrite

All files with the same name in the destination folder, will automatically be overwritten by the newly created file.

Tick Box Options:

Use JPG If Present

Enables the automatic grouping of JPEG pictures into OTS files during conversion.  (See "Automatic" option details in this section).

Recurse Folders

All selected folders, and contained sub-folders will be processed for MP3s to convert.

Delete Source

Enables the automatic deletion of original source file once successful conversion has taken place. Files which are not successfully converted will not be deleted.

Title Before Artist

Enables OTS MP3 Converter to interpret an MP3 file name in the format "title - artist.mp3" rather than the more standard "artist - title.mp3". This is very useful if all your MP3s are labelled in the less common "title - artist.mp3" format and you want to take advantage of the automatic Title and Artist extraction out of MP3 file names.

Save Button:

Saves the current option settings as the default to use whenever the program is first loaded.


Including a JPEG image
Including a JPEG image in your OTS file

A JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) image can be included in each OTS file. Typically, this image would represent the album cover of the CD that the music originated from.

Included JPEG images must be standard JFIF-format files. This is the standard format for JPEG images, so you should not normally have to worry about it. Popular programs like Photoshop and LView save JPEG images in the JFIF format. JPEG images on web pages are also usually in JFIF format.

Included JPEG images may be either full-colour or grayscale.

Included JPEG images should be 320 x 320 pixels. This is not an enforced standard, though images of these dimensions will be handled better by software that uses OTS files. The image dimensions must not exceed 480 x 480 or be less than 32 x 32, and will not be included in the OTS file if they are.

Process for best results when preparing an image yourself

Scan or create the image at a high resolution such as 300 dpi.

Scale it down to 320 x 320 pixels. Use a decent program to do this, such as Photoshop with "bicubic filtering" enabled.

Save it as a JPEG.

If you have an image which you did not prepare yourself

If you want to use a JPEG image which you did not prepare yourself, such as one which was downloaded from the web, then simply use it as is.

It is not sensible to scale it back up to 320 x 320 and then re-save it as a JPEG, as the quality is already only going to be as good as the original. In fact, extra scaling and JPEG decoding/encoding will only degrade the image further.

In summary, wherever possible, only include images which are exactly 320 x 320. This is the optimum size for the image to display best in all software. However, if you do not have the luxury of being able to scan the image yourself, and all you have is an image of lesser dimensions, just use it as is -- resizing it will not really gain anything.


About OTS Media files

OTS Media files were developed for important technical reasons. Here is an overview of the key points relevant to those who may be new to OTS files.

* MP3 files can be converted to OTS files.

* There is no loss of audio quality when you convert an MP3 file to an OTS file.

* An OTS file stores a lot more information that just the audio data that an MP3 file contains.

* An OTS file is slightly shorter than the original MP3 file - even with all the extra information it stores!

* An single OTS file can contain many items (or songs), just like a CD.

* Some examples of the additional data that an OTS file can contain are CD cover art, song lyrics, mixing information, genre, release info, copyright info, and of course title and artist information.

* You can convert an OTS file back to an MP3 file and the MP3 file will be identical to the originating MP3 (ie. no quality loss or truncation).

* An OTS file is faster and more efficient for the playing software to access and handle.

* An OTS file makes certain technical feats in the playing software possible or more feasible.

* An OTS file is fully extensible and expandable. Powerful forwards and backwards compatibility mechanisms are in place to prevent annoying "File version not supported" errors that you may get with other file formats.

* You create an OTS file by using the OTS MP3 Conversion Utility, or OtsJuke Studio (still in development). This tool currently ships with both the demo and full versions of OtsJuke DJ.

* OTS files are not limited to MP3 compression. Although MP3 compression is brilliant, with time obviously more sophisticated compression algorithms will become available. OTS files will be able to benefit from them without altering the entire format.


Button Explanation

This section explains what each button does, located across the top and centre of the program.

Action buttons:

"MP3 --> OTS"

Clicking on this button will commence a conversion process of MP3s located on the left hand side, into an OTS file(s) on the right hand side.

If you have no MP3s highlighted the program will assume you want all files converted, and if you have the Recurse folders option ticked it will also convert all included sub-folder contents.

Naturally by selecting one or more MP3s, and then clicking on the MP3 -> OTS button, only the selected files/folders will be converted.

Also see: Log files

"MP3 <-- OTS"

Clicking on this button will commence a conversion process of OTS files located on the right hand side, into MP3 files on the left hand side.

If you have no OTS files highlighted the program will assume you want all OTS files converted, and if you have the Recurse folders option ticked it will also convert all included sub-folder contents.

"Re-Process OTS"

Clicking on this button will commence a re-processing of OTS files.  This process updates all or selected files with latest mixing technology and audio information enhancements. If you have OTS files which you generated with our initial command-line tool, MP3OTS.EXE, then you should definitely re-process them all with this convertor. You will then get tighter and nicer mixes!

The process is intelligent and will not re-process files which were created with a newer tool, or items in an OTS file in which you have hand-edited the mix points. (OtsJuke Studio allows you to perform this type of manual editing of all information. As of this date it is still in development.)

If you have no OTS files highlighted in the right side file pane the program will assume you want all OTS files re-processed, and if you have the Recurse folders option ticked it will also re-process all included sub-folder contents.

"Save As Default"

Saves the current option settings as the default to use whenever the program is first loaded.

"Find Some MP3s On My Hard Disk For Me..."

This button is an excellent way of finding all MP3 files on your computer with complete ease.

When you first click this button it will scan the current drive for MP3s and, when completed, report the first directory with MP3s found in it.

You then have a chance to convert desired files in that folder.

When finished, simply click on this button again and it will go to the next folder of MP3s, and so on, until there are none left and a notification message pops up.

This tool is especially useful for beginners not aware of where their music is located.

The drive which is scanned for MP3s is the drive which is already referenced in the current path. If no specifc drive is referenced, such as if all drives are being displayed, then drive C is scanned by default.

For example, if you wanted to scan drive D, you would simply click on "Drives" ("D"), and then double click on the "D:\" which would be shown among all of your various drives. Then, click on the "Find some MP3s on my..." button.

"About"

Program, copyright, version and development information.

"Help"

Launches this online help file.

"My Music"

This button brings up your "My Music" folder in the right side file pane, showing all contained OTS Media files.

This is the folder the icon on your desktop uses - "OtsJuke DJ (My Music)".  You can store music in sub-folders too and they will all be included in your "My Music" collection.

If you place different styles of music in different sub-folders you can easily change your "My Music" button to point to all the music via the main folder, or selected music via a sub-folder.

For example...

Main Folder:

c:\OtsJuke\MyMusic\

Sub-Folders:

c:\OtsJuke\MyMusic\techno

c:\OtsJuke\MyMusic\dance

c:\OtsJuke\MyMusic\top40

c:\OtsJuke\MyMusic\classics

If you pointed the My Music button to the "main folder", all the sub-folder categories would play in a nice mix.

Where as, if you just wanted to hear techno you could point the My Music button to the "techno sub-folder".  You do this by using the Save As My Music Folder button.

"Save As My Music Folder"

This button saves the current folder as your "My Music" folder.  Especially useful to change the music used in the automatic programming of music on startup of "OtsJuke DJ (My Music)".

"Launch OtsJuke Player With These OTS Files..."

Launches OtsJuke Player in "surf mode" with current directory accessible to surf and play files.

Very useful to get a quick listen of freshly converted music.

"Parent or P"

This button changes the current displayed folder to the parent folder.

For example, if you were in:

c:\otsjuke\mymusic\

and you clicked on the parent button, you would end up in:

c:\otsjuke\

"Drives or D"

This button shows all the current drives available on your computer.

For example, C drive, D drive, E drive, etc.


Dialogue Box

This section explains what each field and component is for in the pop-up dialogue box which prompts for artist, title, etc info.

Fields...

Title

Name of the song or track.

Artist

Name(s) of the performing artist(s) of the song.

Copyright

Year and name of copyright holder for song.  Usually a record label company or artist's company.

Year

Year the song was released.

Genre

The style of music.  i.e. pop, rock, classical, etc.

OTS file title

What you want to title the OTS Album.  If it is a single you would normally leave this blank (and allow it to inherit the title of the one and only track by default).  If you have a collection of songs all from one physical CD album in the OTS file you would type the original album name in here.  If it is your own complilation of different artists you may want to call it "Mega Hitz 2000" or something to that effect. It is a title for that particular collection of items, rather than for any individual item.

OTS file name

Name of the physical OTS file.  i.e.  best_of_johnny.ots

Image file

Location of the JPEG image you wish to include in the OTS album.  You can either type in the path and click "Test" to see how it looks, or click on the "..." button to search and find the JPEG image.

Note: Although flexibility has been allowed, images should conform to a certain standard for best results.  See Including a JPEG image

What the buttons do...

"Listen..."

Launches your default MP3 player to preview the MP3 track. If you have no MP3 player set up on your machine, then this will do nothing!

"View..."

Displays the JPEG image in it's full true size.  Great for previewing!

"Test" and "..."

See "Image File" section above.

"Abort"

Aborts the current conversion operation all together.

"Help"

Launches this Help section.

"Reset To defaults"

Abandons all manual changes and shows original settings.

"OK"

Accepts all current settings and continues with conversion process.


Log Files

All conversions record a log file detailing setting options used, files NOT converted or re-processed, and how successful the operation was.

This is especially useful when performing a batch operation overnight.

This log file pops up at the end of a conversion session, but in the case it is too long, you can view at the indicated location.

Note: Only the last conversion is detailed in the log file.


"My Music"

The "My Music" folder is designed to include your entire collection of OTS files within its folder and optional sub-folders.

By default, "My Music" is at "C:\OtsJuke\OtsFiles\MyMusic\", however you can set it to be anywhere, even another hard disk, by using the "Save folder as My Music" button. Once you have altered which folder is your "My Music" folder, this change will also be reflected next time you double click on the "OtsJuke DJ (My Music)" icon.

One major advantage to this storage standard is the shortcut on your desktop, titled "OtsJuke DJ (My Music)".  This launches OtsJuke DJ with your whole music collection automatically and creates a random playlist!

With "My Music" you can sit back and enjoy your own radio station program with no ads!!

See Button explanation