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[ph_bradley]

i have two pcs, (one at school and one at home) and i store music on both. However, the music content on both these computers is contnually changing as i add and delete songs on both.

does anyone have any tips as to how best to manage this situation, vis-a-vis syncing in particular ( i dont want to sync my music on my other computer and lose all the music i had just put on it from the first computer)

[Kurt Young]

i have two pcs, (one at school and one at home) and i store music on both. However, the music content on both these computers is contnually changing as i add and delete songs on both.

does anyone have any tips as to how best to manage this situation, vis-a-vis syncing in particular ( i dont want to sync my music on my other computer and lose all the music i had just put on it from the first computer)

[shameless plug]
Check out the MC9 forums over at iPodlounge.com for more information about this issue.  I'm sure I've seen it there before.
[/shameless plug]

You could sync with the "Delete files not on portable" unchecked... but this could result in an overfilled iPod pretty quickly.

[Jonny5]

Don't mean to nag or anything but I've as I've just paid my 40 dollers, how is the iPod playcount and rating stuff coming along?  

I had a play around at the weekend and was able to read the file to extract the play count and the star rating but couldn't work out how it was related to a specific song in the DB.  

I dont care about seeing my song ratings on the iPod, I just want the ratings and playcount from the iPod to be imported to MC when I do a sync so my smartlists update...

[dcwinton]

First, I'm just a user, not a developer.  I have no idea what most of the chatter around here means, but I assume it's all going to the creation of an even better product.  Thank you all.

And, while I have seen that the favorite answer to questions is that the answer is already answered somewhere else, I have checked the iPod instructions, and have been unable to find the answers to these questions there.

Now my questions.  (FYI, I'm now using .239, but I think my last version was 224(?).) Not completely sure.

1.  When I synch a playlist, it doesn't show up on the iPod as a playlist, just as a collection of songs.

2.  When I synch, and the new upload includes a song that's already on the iPod, it asks if I want to uplicate or erase the old version.  What I really want is for the song to appear on both the playlist that I've already synched, AND the new playlist that I'm adding.  

3.  Why does MC quasi-freeze when syncing?  I can't minimize it, or get to my desktop, but can only access other apps either through the start menu or the taskbar.

4.  What's with the "various artist" thing?  When I rip a compilation of artists, each artist shows up as "various artists."  When I try to change them individually, they all disappear from the CD list, and migrate to their own little world.  For instance, now I have a single song by an artist, isolated off to itself, but that song no longer appears on the list where it originated.

[IG88]

MC 9.1.240 equipped...

i have a BUG, when i download a mp3 from my Pc to the iPod, i have a problem when i eject my iPod (right click eject device)

On my iPod my playlist was erased and the new mp3 unexiste on the iPod...

Sometimes it's works and sometimes no    

[mclaugh]

I'm having a problem w/ the newest Ipod plugin- it was putting the music files in the playlists folder, instead of the f00 folders.
I have to downgrade to 9.0.36 plugin to regain the ability to listen to music again.
Here's what I did:
-Upgraded to 9.1.238, then 239, then 240
-Found that it wasn't downloading properly, and couldn't eject using MJ
-Formatted Ipod using Windows
-Used MJ to re christen Ipod
-Tried uploading again
-Looked at file structure of Ipod using Windows Explorer, noticed f00 folders were empty, and music files were located in folders that were named with playlists.
-Formatted Ipod again
-Figured I would repair Ipod using Apple Updater
-Uploaded- still couldn't see music- but noticed I had only 1.35GB available on a 10gig ipod
-Manually deleted all folders from Ipod
-Downloaded older Ipod Plugin from website, and then uploading of Ipod went fine.
Did anyone else have a similar problem? I noticed that some posts on page 1 of this thread had similar problems.
Also, I'm writing this down the morning after my problems (from work)- I may have missed a step, or put them out of order.

WinXP, 10gig, 9.1.236/8/9/40, etc.

[CautionESPN]

1.) Are you checking the boxes in the playlist area in the synch process or are you going to the playlist, highlighting the songs and choosing send to ipod?  Unless you specifically check a playlist in the synch screen you will not get the playlist added.

2.) This will work if you choose to synch via the method described above.  Check the playlist(s)

3.) Don't know the answer to this one.  It slows my system down but doesnt freeze completely

4.) There are a number of threads which explain this...I don't know the exact answer but it has something to do with albums which are compilations of songs by multiple artists (i think) refer to other ipod threads.

First, I'm just a user, not a developer.  I have no idea what most of the chatter around here means, but I assume it's all going to the creation of an even better product.  Thank you all.

And, while I have seen that the favorite answer to questions is that the answer is already answered somewhere else, I have checked the iPod instructions, and have been unable to find the answers to these questions there.

Now my questions.  (FYI, I'm now using .239, but I think my last version was 224(?).) Not completely sure.

1.  When I synch a playlist, it doesn't show up on the iPod as a playlist, just as a collection of songs.

2.  When I synch, and the new upload includes a song that's already on the iPod, it asks if I want to uplicate or erase the old version.  What I really want is for the song to appear on both the playlist that I've already synched, AND the new playlist that I'm adding.  

3.  Why does MC quasi-freeze when syncing?  I can't minimize it, or get to my desktop, but can only access other apps either through the start menu or the taskbar.

4.  What's with the "various artist" thing?  When I rip a compilation of artists, each artist shows up as "various artists."  When I try to change them individually, they all disappear from the CD list, and migrate to their own little world.  For instance, now I have a single song by an artist, isolated off to itself, but that song no longer appears on the list where it originated.

[Grimmi]

Running MC 9.1.240 ..

Restored my iPod then sync'd it with the iPod...upon attempting to sync again, MC estimated I'd have 5.5 gigs of space left (which is basically what I'd have left if I had 2 copies of all the music on my iPod)...I sync'd it anyway for the hell of it and was pleasently surprised when MC did NOT re-transfer all my files...seems it just estimated incorrectly.  I'm not sure if this is intentional or not...I just know 9.0.180 did not function in this manner

[SteveG]

Everyone,

I will attack the Playlist and Rating again tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, but I was working on something else. The progress so far is that I can now create the Play Counts file in the correct way, but there seems to be some elusive setting in the iTunesDB that I must figure out to get the iPod to read the file correctly. Will try again tomorrow.

Steve

[Jonny5]

Excellent news!
If the elusive setting remains that way, is there any chance you could just update the Media Centre library with the playcounts and ratings from the iPod?  At least then the smart lists would update in media centre even if the ratings were not visible on the iPod.  Currently when I select the "Synchronize iPod Info With PC" option media centre just locks up and I have to kill it with the task manager.

Does the iPod show the rating correctly when running on a mac with iTunes?  Is it possible that it is a one way system, it's only possible to rate songs on the pod, not view the song's original rating?

Keep up the good work, its an excellent piece of software!  

[SteveG]

Grimmi,

This was a bug and is fixed in tonight's build of MC.

Everyone,

Please get tonight's build (MC 9.1.240 plugin 9.0.47)and report any continuing problems. I did a bunch of work on this today.

In regards to the Playcount/Rating, the ability to send this information to MC is now implemented. The drawback is that the information does not always get written to the PlayCounts file correctly by iPod. There may be some kind of flag that needs to be set to get this to work consistently and finding that is difficult.

Jonny5, your request should work now. Try right clicking and select "Synchronize iPod information with PC"


PS If anyone is running XPlay and is having success with iPod remembering Rating information (i.e. when a change is made to a file and the file is sent to iPod, iPod reflects the change when detached from the PC), please email me the files in your iPod_Control\iTunes folder. This would be a help to solving this.  Also, if XPlay is remembering Ratings, does it remember bookmarks, where the file was last playing when stopped?)

Steve

[cct1]

Steve,

Is the ratings thing a two way street--ie can I send my ratings from my PC to the ipod?  I've already rated most of my tunes in MC9--if I were to do the "Synchronize ipod info with MC9" thing I'm afraid I'll lose all my ratings done on MC9...Otherwise I'll just stick with doing ratings in MC9.  Not a big deal--the playcounts is what I REALLY want...

[SteveG]

cct1,

Is the ratings thing a two way street--ie can I send my ratings from my PC to the ipod?

This should occur automatically. Going from iPod to PC is buggy so if you do not want to lose your MC settings, do not use that option yet.

[Jonny5]

Steve,
Where can I download the 9.0.47 plugin?
I have MC version 9.1.240 but my Portable Drives plugin is 9.0.46

I'm really looking forward to playing with this  

Never mind, I'm sorted now.

[cct1]

cct1,


This should occur automatically. Going from iPod to PC is buggy so if you do not want to lose your MC settings, do not use that option yet.

Ahh!!! Thanks!!

[Kurt Young]

Chris... Fear not...

I have a bit of extra hard drive space these days.  So, I...

1.  Copied about 18 albums from my main music folders (Windows Explorer, mind you) to a new folder, C:\Moosic.

2.  Fired up MC9.  Added a new library.  Called it "Ratings test".  Loaded it.  Imported media from C:\Moosic.

3.  Formatted iPod.  For the duration of the tests, I'll not have a fully loaded pod... just 18 albums.  But my main library and my real files are safe.  Bring it on, baby!!

(Course, 28.8 is a slow download to start at 1:00 AM.  Prolly won't actually follow through with step 3 till tomorrow, heh.)

Can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait

 Listening to: 'Who Am I? (Animatrix Edit)' from 'The Animatrix' by 'Peace Orchestra' on Media Center 9.1

[nlegs]

Anybody could provide the link to plugin 9.0.47 ?

I'm still getting the older 9.0.38 with this URL: http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/downloads/mcplugins.pl?type=8

Thanks.

[Jonny5]

Updating MC with the data from the iPod

It's working!! (sort of)
When I select the "Sync iPod Info With PC" nothing (visible) happens.  I then selected one of my playlists and it displayed the "Saving Tag Info" box while it updated two tracks.  They then showed correctly that they had both been played once and one had been given 4 stars.   I'll keep trying but just to make sure I've got the process correct:

1.  Mount the iPod after playing/rating some songs
2.  Select "Sync iPod Info With PC" to update the MC library
3.  Select "Sync Files" to update the iPod with the updated playlists.

After some more playing, if after selecting "Sync Info with iPod" I then select the top level playlist item in the tree view MC updates the library with the iPod data.  It seems to over write any data that was in the library with what was on the iPod.  Since the iPod only stores  data since the last sync you quickly loose your info in MC.  It would work better if the data from the iPod was added to the data in MC rather than replacing it.  Also, the last played info from the playcount file is not being imported into MC.

[Jonny5]

Anybody could provide the link to plugin 9.0.47 ?

I'm still getting the older 9.0.38 with this URL: http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/downloads/mcplugins.pl?type=8

Thanks.

Download the latest beta build (9.1.241), it comes with the latest plugin.

Jon.

[Klingler]

In regards to the Playcount/Rating, the ability to send this information to MC is now implemented. The drawback is that the information does not always get written to the PlayCounts file correctly by iPod. There may be some kind of flag that needs to be set to get this to work consistently and finding that is difficult.

For myself, there are only two features that I really want to see work between MC9 and the iPod.  

1) I want MC9 to be able to use the iPod data to supplement it's playcounts.  In other words, if the iPod says that a song has been played twice, then MC9 should automatically increase the total times that the song has been played by 2.  I don't need the iPod to keep a total number, since there's no way for the PC formatted iPod to do anything with that number.  This seems like it should be pretty simple to implement at this point, since it doesn't require understanding how the iPod retains the data, if at all.

2) I want MC9 to be able to detect changes in star ratings on the iPod.  In other words, if I rate a song 3 Stars on the iPod, I would like MC9 to reflect that new rating.  If the rating is blank on the iPod, then MC9 should just leave the rating at whatever it currently is in the MC database.  Once again, I don't really care if the iPod displays the current rank of the song, since it can't do anything about it.

Sincerely,
Rob

[dallardice]

Still having convert-and-sync problems:

Using build 241 with plugin 47.

Ipod loses previously-synced files each time it converts 10 files.  Process is this:

Launch Sync of roughly 6600 files.
Converts 10 files to 160.
Syncs 39 files - the first 29 which don't need conversion, plus the 10 converted
Converts 10 files
Syncs 40 files - the next 30 which don't need conversion, plus the second 10 converted
After this point, only the 40 files from the second sync are on the Ipod - the first 39 have been deleted.

Repeatable (every time), 30G 3G Ipod.  Syncing without converting works perfectly.

[mclaugh]

SteveG-
Regarding Playcounts:
Will those with Ipod OS 1.3 be able to have their playcounts updated on their PC?
I know that the rating songs part on your Ipod is 3G Ipods only, but are the older Ipods able to have their playcounts transferred over?

[fex]

Is the ratings thing a two way street--ie can I send my ratings from my PC to the ipod?  I've already rated most of my tunes in MC9--if I were to do the "Synchronize ipod info with MC9" thing I'm afraid I'll lose all my ratings done on MC9...Otherwise I'll just stick with doing ratings in MC9.  Not a big deal--the playcounts is what I REALLY want...

This should occur automatically. Going from iPod to PC is buggy so if you do not want to lose your MC settings, do not use that option yet.

1.  For me this is a one way street. I have no ratings at all on my 15Gig doing nothing than syncing from MC.

2.   If I rate on the iPod, the new ratings are updated in MC, but not only the rated ones but also all unrated (see pt. 1 above). So all my existing ratings in MC are overwritten as unrated.

By the way: It's great to connect a brand new iPod without problems to MC. Great work. Thanks Steve.

[SteveG]

dallardice,

Is it possible to intialize your iPod and start clean? If not, have you transferred files to your iPod using other software?

The conversion and skipping files is based on a unique file ID that MC assigns. If you transfer files with other applications, MC does not know about the file's ID and you can see the behavior you are describing. I did the following:

1) Synched 40 files to a clean iPod with conversion set from 128kbps to 32 kbps. - Result - All files converted everything worked great.

2) ReSynched - Result -  All files skipped.

3) Added files to the playlists I was synching. Result - New files added, everything else remained as expected.



Rob,

Your requests should be in the next build of MC, but that won't be until next week.


Fex,

Your concern is addressed in the fix for Rob which will be available next week.


McLaugh,

With firmware other than 2.0, I do not see iPod recording anywhere the changes to the Playcounts, so I do not think this will work.


Everyone,

In regards to the 'incorrect synch number' issue, when doing synching x of y, where y is the total number of files synching, the number you see for y, is a total where the definition of a file is any single file residing in a playlist.  When you have 1 physical file in multiple playlists, the file is counted again because during the synch each virtual playlist file is sent individually. I can see how this is confusing, and I can doctor the numbers to reflect physical files, but it would affect the accuracy of the progress which is based on sending the virtual playlist files in the current version of MC.  For version 10 this will be totally revamped.

Steve

[Kurt Young]

OMG, no no no... please don't go down that path.

Fex, Rob, Steve, I wholeheartedly disagree with the "I don't care if my iPod can display the existing data, I just want the changes to flow" logic.  It should be a two-way street, unless it's 100% impossible to do so.  And Apple can do it, so we can too, eh?  

Examples:

1.  You hear a song on your pod.  You like it.  You say "I wonder what I've rated this song" and tap twice and see it's rated 3.  You change it to 4.  Upon sync, MC now has it set at 4.

2.  You hear a song on your pod.  You like it.  You say "I wonder what I've rated this song" and tap twice and see it's rated 0.  Oh yeah, MC didn't give the iPod the existing data.  So you try your best to remember how you rated this song...  Oh well, you rate it 5.

Example 1 rules.  Example 2 is so much less cool.

Also, factor in this:  You can tap twice and set a song's rating to 0.  So, let's say that MC doesn't tell the iPod that your song is a 3.  You tap the song twice.  You see 0 stars on the screen, and, in the background, your iPod sets the song's rating at 0.  Then you sync and the song gets rated at 0 in MC.  Bogus.  It could happen, though.

Some may not care about seeing the existing data displayed correctly on the iPod.  I do.  Very strongly.

[fex]

Kurt,

I think you misunderstood me. I only reported that it don't works yet as it should (not as a "two way street"). I absolutely agree with you.

[dallardice]

Re convert-and-sync problems:
Whenever I try this, it's with a newly-initialised Ipod.  I have no other sync software installed and have never used any.

I just tried syncing my smallest playlist (82 files) down to 32k to match the test you just performed.  At the end of the sync I had only the last two files on my Ipod - the previous 80 were deleted in batches of 10 each time a new batch conversion started.

[Klingler]

OMG, no no no... please don't go down that path.

Fex, Rob, Steve, I wholeheartedly disagree with the "I don't care if my iPod can display the existing data, I just want the changes to flow" logic.  It should be a two-way street, unless it's 100% impossible to do so.  And Apple can do it, so we can too, eh?  

Just to clarify, I have no problem with MC eventually being able to store those things on the iPod... I just don't want that feature to hold up being able to actually use it now....

Sure, it would be nice to be able to see the rating before you change it, but the facts don't change that the ratings and playcounts being on the iPod don't inherently allow you to do anything different right now.  Smart playlists still have to be made in MC9 to have those features have absolutely any affect on what song is played.

I'm just saying don't delay these things by only looking at keeping the data on the iPod... which seems much harder to do.  It seems everything is already known in order to accomplish my two requests.... Then start concentrating on the rest...

Rob

[cct1]

dallardice,

 For version 10 this will be totally revamped.

Steve

DID I JUST SEE A FLEETING REFERENCE to VERSION 10?!?!?  

And I agree with Kurt's last post 100%--it really should  (if possible) be a two way street; point number one was exactly the scenerio I was contemplating--but it looks like everyone else does to.  And I'm even more glad Kurt is able to test it--can't wait to see the results.

[Grimmi]

This is an iPod / MC 9.1.241 question, in my music library there are a few albums with Multiple Artists, in the library they seem to be handled correctly, that is albums under Multiple artists are stored under Artist / Album, however when I sync my lib to my 3G 30gig iPod, they are listed as (Multiple artists) this Multiple artists thing is not browseable via the iPod directly (using the artist view), but can be seen when viewing the contents of the iPod under MC (the albums with multi artists are available directly only under genre / album views)  I've tried going into my iPod and changing the artists directly and have optained mixed results...this isn't something I want to do every sync though, as I have 300 some files listed under this category right now.  Any help would be appreciated.

Edit: I just checked again and u can browse Multiple artists directly from the iPod...it's just under M instead of at the top where I figured it'd be...I'd still really rather have these songs listed under their respective artists rather then listed as Multiple Artists, as I normally browse via artists, not via albums.  Anyway to achieve this?

NM....figured out how to fix this

[sirshambling]

Steve,

I'm sorry to say that 9.1.242 crashes whenever I try to click on my Ipod - the "K" drive appears in the tree and Action Window OK but whereever/however I try to click on it MC crashes out completely.

The error message points to the handheld.dll :-

AppName: media jukebox.exe       AppVer: 9.1.242.0       ModName: hh_portable.dll
ModVer: 1.0.0.0       Offset: 0001d560

If I can't left or right click I can't do anything to solve the problem like reformat. Can you advise?

Many thanks. John.

[Kurt Young]

Copied 18 albums' worth ofsongs to a new folder, imported them into a new, empty MC9 library called "Rating Test"

Made a smartlist called "Load 'em up!" ([File Type]=[mp3]).  Synched it.  Unmounted iPod.

Played "Who Am I?"
- Original rating 3, playcount 1
- Tapped twice, noted 0 stars, tapped out.
- Let song play through to next song

Played "Got My Mind Made Up"
- Original rating 4, playcount 0
- Tapped twice, noted 0 stars, set to 5 stars, tapped out.
- Let song play through to next song

Paused iPod.  Docked it.  Did "Sync iPod info with MC" and selected something else... "Updating tags, xx of 288" popped up.

Went to Media Library and checked songs:

- "Who Am I?" now has a rating of 0 and 1 playcount.  It's last played time is set to "35.5 hours ago" -- which was when I played it in MC.
- "Got My Mind Made Up" now has a rating of 5 and 1 playcount.  It's last played time is set to "Never Played".
- EVERY OTHER SONG has a rating of 0 now.

Listening to: 'Got My Mind Made Up' from 'All Eyez On Me - Book 1' by '2Pac' on Media Center 9.1

Media Center Registered 9.1.242 -- P:\Software\Installed Programs\J River\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 1798 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 214 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive D:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: No /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
 Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: Yes  Soundfile:   chord.wav

Burning /  No burners found.
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[fex]

... EVERY OTHER SONG has a rating of 0 now.

You should have read the other posts above . For example:

...2.   If I rate on the iPod, the new ratings are updated in MC, but not only the rated ones but also all unrated (see pt. 1 above). So all my existing ratings in MC are overwritten as unrated...

Listening to: 'Can't Make Up My Mind (Extended)' from 'Can't Make Up My Mind (CDS)' by 'Sonique' on Media Center 9.1

[digitaltrapper]

Steve,
  As you recall I was getting the same problem dallardice is getting with syncs and conversion. Now I do not sync a playlist unless I am sure that ALL songs are already on the ipod, or none of the songs on the playlist are on the ipod. This way I don't encounter this problem. I know that the test you have run did not show this problem...  You stated that you synced 40 files with conversion then added some files to that playlist and synced again. Where those files added to the end of the playlist or somewhere in the middle? I tend to have a problem when it encounters a song not on the ipod in the middle of a playlist, not near the end.

dallardice, If you really want to load up your ipod without any problems I would try the following work-around: If you are syncing large playlists, create smaller ones (of about 500 files) then use the external encoder option to sync and convert one playlist at a time. Whatever you do, do not cancel an sync in progress... For some reason this will occasionally make MC start to do that "repeat thing" on my machine.

I've finally synced all my songs on my ipod and I'm not going to try to do things differently (or get a new version..still using 226) untill I am sure that everything is working OK.

[JimH]

I wonder if the temp folder where the files are stored during conversion could be set wrong.  It's under options somewhere.  Might be worth a look.

[digitaltrapper]

the temp  folder might have something to do with it. It is set correctly when I check, but I do notice that the temp folder does not delete files when it should sometimes... the files that get converted over and over stay there even after MC uploads them to my ipod

[ashawley]

Steve:

Been away on vacation, and I see a lot of great work has been done.  Good news.  Bad news is I'm back w/more work for ya.  

OK, backed up my library and took the plunge.  Here's what I did, everything was as expected at this stage of the build:

Restored iPod
Loaded 3K tunes
Disconnected.
Rated one song, played it throgh
Updated MC9 w/iPod info.

It wiped all my ratings out in MC9 but  the one song I played.  It did update the playcount info.

So, here's where I think we have a problem in the way things are architected now.

Proposed UI/Architecture
What you're doing now it seems is reading the entire database for rating changes when that's not necessary.  The Play Counts file is really your "history" file.  It indicates to you all the songs that should be read for changes.  Seems to me that those files and only those files should have their playcounts and ratings adjusted.  If it doesn't exist in the Play Counts file, as far as you're concerned it wasn't touched by the iPod.

Now, this might not be the case as it could be possible that a rating was changed but the song wasn't played all the way through, in which case it wouldn't be updated in MC9.  But, I'm willing to bet that iTunes would function in just the same way, namely, that if a tune didn't make it into the Play Counts file, it doesn't get updated during a sync w/iTunes.  Maybe a Mac user could check this out for us.  Could be wrong (have been before).  If I am wrong, then iTunes is using some other indicator to determine which songs have had their ratings changed.  Because there's no way that iTunes is retagging an entire library on each sync.  It's just way too fast.

So, that would solve the problem we have now where your entire library has to be updated during each sync which just takes too long.  It should only update played and/or rate-changed songs.

Now, I said this before and I know it's a work in progress, but I hope we can revamp the UI so that we have one sync command that does both the updating and the actual syncing.

As I said in a previous post it would be great if we sould have the sync dialog box come up when you select sync, add a checkbox there to enable updating MC9 w/iPod's data.  If that's checked the following steps happen:

1. Progress bar w/"Reading iPod Data"
2. Progress bar w/"Updating Tags and Smartlists"
3. Progress bar w/Syncing Tunes (the normal sync progress bar

Ideally, this would be the same progress bar for all three w/different titles or whatnot, but it sure would look better that way and would be nice to have it all in one step.

Sorry to be such a pill. These are just my thoughts.  Others will probably disagree, but I wanted to get 'em out there to think about.

Adam

[Kurt Young]

Welcome back, Adam!!

Guess who got broadband today?  

[woobag]

It seems I'm not the only one encountering this problem - Right click on ipod icon in order to synch and it pops up with 'media core error'.
I've been using mc9 for about 4 months with no problems, but I tend to use the latest beta version.

Tried re - installing mc9 but no luck. There must be something odd happening here as others are having problems. Any ideas?

Using xp by the way.

[ashawley]

Woobag:

When that happens it means you have a corrupt iPod database usually.

Try restoring the iPod w/the Updater program, then reloading your tunes on.

Before you do that, could you send your iTunesDB file to Steve?  I think he asked before that folks do that so he can improve the error handling.  Not sure why it happens myself.

steve @ jriver.com (remove the spaces)

(hope you don't mind Steve )

Kurt:  Welcome back to the world of broadband!  

Adam

[woobag]

Thanks Adam, I'll give it a try

[sirshambling]

Steve,

Spent last evening restoring my Ipod and then testing out the Ipod links in 9.1.242 using a completely fresh install of that build and a completely fresh Ipod configuration.

It's a 2nd gen 20GB Ipod which may be important.

Using about 3,000 tracks in playlists ranging in size from 2 to 2000+ tracks, all 128 MP3s.

Results:-

1. Whether using playlist synch or upload (drag 'n' drop to the action window) I got a similar 1% failure rate. Every time a track didn't transfer to the Ipod, it was accompanied by a whirring/clicking sound from the Ipod - don't know which was cause and effect!
2. Re-synching once or twice after that got all the tracks on to the Ipod.
3. The "failed" tracks were random - sometimes from one playlist sometimes another. Sometimes 2 or 3 quickly together - other times the transfer would go for minutes without a failure.
4. On 3 occasions the failure placed a very strange "track" on the Ipod - bitrate very odd, track length over 100 minutes etc. This "track" couldn't be deleted - this caused MC9 to hang and then crash. A reformat of the Ipod was the only way forward.
5. After each unsuccessful synch/upload I got a small box with a red cross in the top left hand corner - but no text at all. Obviously a warning of a failed synch/upload but not very informative.
6. All the tracks without excpetion successfully transferred have strange lengths when viewed in MC9. They range from 0.01 seconds to 29 seconds (real track lengths from under 2 mins to 25 mins). They play fine and show the correct times on the Ipod - so this must be an MC9 issue.

Hope this helps the development of the Ipod link.

Best,

John

[fex]

After getting my 3rd gen pod i prepared the 2nd gen 20GB pod for my girlfriend (after setting it up new - formatting and initializing). Synced over 3300 tracks (on the same machine as my new pod). And did three or four syncs lateron to transfer a few albums I "forgot" but my girlfriend wanted to have (not the best ones ). All whithout any problems (besides my girlfriend...).

[crowfan]

All,

I have the latest build of MC (9.1.242) and I cannot sync with my iPod.  When I right click and select "Synchronize", I get the screen where I can select my playlists. If I select "All Music", it seems to want to add all the files on my iPod instead of skipping the ones that are already there. (My library is about 22 gig -- If I select "All Music" playlist it says that after the sync there will be -16 gig space left on the iPod, where it should be about 5).

If I click OK to sync, I get an empty error message.  It just says "h" in the title bar, and nothing else except for red X graphics. I click the OK button and it goes away without syncing.  

If I unselect the "All Music" playlist, I won't get that strange calculation, but the "h" error message still appears if I try to sync.  

Thanks

crow

Media Center Registered 9.1.242 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2252 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 272 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 2, 0, 0, 0 , ASPI for WIN32 DLL, Copyright © Adaptec 1995 / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0001)

Ripping /   Drive D:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Drive E:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
 Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive E: LITE-ON  LTR-40125S         Addr: 1:1:0  Speed:40  MaxSpeed:40  BurnProof:Yes
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[ashawley]

Crowfan:

I personally don't recommend the "All Music" playlist as I don't believe it will let you bring over any of your other playlists.

I'd make your own smartlist.  Just use one rule, File Type=mp3.  Then sync with that list and any other's you've made.

I'd reinitialize the iPod (right-click it and select this option) and start from scratch just to be sure everything's nice and clean.

Adam

[SteveG]

Dallardice and Digitaltrapper,

I found and fixed a bug with the conversion during synch which I think will take care of your problems. Look for MC 9.1.243.

Kurt,

Check out 9.1.243, I made improvements last week that will help this that are not in the current build. iPod playcounts will be added to MC playcounts rather than overwriting them. Ratings will only overwrite if they are other than '0'.


Adam,

Thanks for your thoughts. At this point the architecture is less of a problem than deciphering what iPod is doing. I am pretty confident I am putting info such as Playcounts, Ratings and Track Bookmarking in the correct place, but figuring out how to get iPod to recognize the data is a 'needle in a haystack' kind of proposition. I am still looking.

Woobag,

Adam's advice is good. Also be sure you get 9.1.243. I made changes in 9.1.241 and higher that should have curtailed the media core problems.

John (sirshambling),

Can you isolate any of the failing files? If so, can you email one to me? (steve @ jriver.com)

Fex,

Tell your girlfriend to not be so picky about her music. You have to lay down the law on who loads the iPod in the relationship  


Crow,

Try a reinitialize. Did you transfer files with another program? If you do, MC will not recognize them when it comes to skipping duplicates.

[Kurt Young]

<snip!>
Kurt,

Check out 9.1.243, I made improvements last week that will help this that are not in the current build. iPod playcounts will be added to MC playcounts rather than overwriting them. Ratings will only overwrite if they are other than '0'.
<snip!>

Right on, sir.  Does this mean that if I have a 4-star song, and I want to make it a 0-star song, that the change will not flow back to MC?  Is there a way you could work in some kind of "HasBeenModified?" bit during the down-sync so that the iPod will overwrite MC if it's a 0 on the iPod but is not a 0 in MC?

Did that make sense?

PS:  Don't forget about Last Played Date[/color] data!

<snip!>
Fex,

Tell your girlfriend to not be so picky about her music. You have to lay down the law on who loads the iPod in the relationship  
<snip!>

ROFL!!  That's great advice!!  

[digitaltrapper]

I found and fixed a bug with the conversion during synch which I think will take care of your problems. Look for MC 9.1.243.

Awesome!! I knew there was a bug somewhere that was hard to track down! See-- I'm not crazy ;-) Can't wait to try it out... finnaly going to upgrade and try out this new action window gizmo :-)

[bdjohns1]

Check out 9.1.243, I made improvements last week that will help this that are not in the current build. iPod playcounts will be added to MC playcounts rather than overwriting them. Ratings will only overwrite if they are other than '0'.

I was lurking and snagged .243 quickly, as I just got back from a week and a half of vacation and wanted to update the library with what I actually listened to.  I observed the following:

* Play Counts flowed correctly from iPod to MC9 (incremented, not overwrote play count)
* Change to rating worked correctly (although I didn't verify the 0-star case)
* Last Played information was not transferred
* "Negative space remaining" in sync window is gone.  Now showing currect amount of free space

Great progress made!

--Ben

[TimB]

Pardon my ignorance but do the playcounts increment automatically when you reconnect your iPod AND does this work on Gen2 iPods?

Thanks!

-=Tim=-