Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 50268 times)

SteveG · « **on:** July 17, 2003, 09:38:37 am »

Hello All,

For anyone who is new to MC, please be sure to get the latest version.

If you want to read an excellent help file (thanks Adam) on using MC and iPod please go to....

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/

For additional information, please check the previous help thread at...

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=MediaCenter;action=di splay;num=1055367255;start=150#150

For any issues not covered, please post below and someone will respond ASAP. Please include in your post your version of MC, version of the Portable Drive Plugin and Operating System.

Thanks,

Steve (JRiver)

Sherm123 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 17, 2003, 12:49:33 pm »

Steve,
Followed your suggestion and downloaded the latest build.
Results, as usual, outstanding!
Formatted iPod.
Uploaded Library w/ Apply Replay Gain on Upload and
Set Replay Gain Adjustment (3.0DB)
All tracks and Playlists loaded successfully and noticable
difference in volume when listening to iPod.
Thank you again.
Sherman

digitaltrapper · « **Reply #2 on:** July 17, 2003, 06:40:23 pm »

Steve,
I've done some more testing (on 9.1xxx217) and figured out something quite odd. It seems like it was the playlist itself that MC didn't want to sync (and crashed). When I create a new smartlist, that only includes the files on this other playlist, MC seems to start to sync and convert with no problem (so far).

I'll work on getting you some info on the discrepencies between MC's track time, and the actual track time of the file once I get everything on my ipod.

Also, the overall progress bar on the conversion/sync is far from being accurate. ;-)

Thanks.

Chrispod · « **Reply #3 on:** July 17, 2003, 07:01:34 pm »

I did the same as Sherman, and came out with less than happy results, as I've said before, the format never completely wipes clean, my space is reduce about 1GB every time. The playlists were mixed up, and dropped about 2% of the songs, and in one case duplicated a song five times, although the playlists in MC9 were correct. My ipod is the 20GB. I applied the two new sound features Sherman mentioned, but haven't test them. One other thing: I have a playlist called THE WHITE CATS that has Cat Power and the White Stripes together. The playlist name is not there but PART of Cat's album, and all of White Stripes is on the ipod, in artist. I know, a work in progress, but I should get that 2% back... CHRISTOPHER

Chrispod · « **Reply #4 on:** July 17, 2003, 07:39:45 pm »

Just two quick questions: The cancel button on ipod sync doesn't and has never worked. When MC9 freezes, how is the best way to close MC9 without shutting down the PC manually? And, after watching a sync, song by song, after completion what is the big red X and THUD? And where did the songs go that I just watched sync, this not just in the current version, this is always... Christopher

cct1 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 18, 2003, 06:57:23 am »

Ok, this probably wasn't addressed this build, but the media server is still malfunctioning--If I cue up files to my ipod, then try to upload, the progress screen briefly flashes then disappears--nothing downloads. It was working perfectly 2 builds ago.

If I try downloading in a different way--by I selecing a file then click on the ipod icon on the toolbar, I can get it to download, but with a bunch of crackles and pops, and the progress bar doesn't work at all--there is no way to gauge the progress of the download.

Thanks!

Chris

welcher · « **Reply #6 on:** July 18, 2003, 07:06:35 am »

Here's an iPod support question for ya.

I am, as yet, not an iPod owner, nor a MC owner. My entire music collection is WMA, but I'd really, really like to use an iPod.

I've read that MC9 can do "on-the-fly" conversions to MP3 during transfer to the iPod.

Is this true? Does it work from WMA9 to MP3? Is the output bitrate selectable? Quality OK? Is this somewhat contrived flow workable, or is it kind of a house of cards?

Thanks for any input as I consider the iPod and MC9.

Matt

SteveG · « **Reply #7 on:** July 18, 2003, 07:27:44 am »

Sherman,

Glad all is well. Thanks for letting me know.

DigitalTrapper,

If you can find anything peculiar about the one playlist and if you can recreate it and still have the same problem, please let me know. In regards to the overall progress bar on conversion/sync, I tested this with 100 files and it seemed right on. Perhaps I need to try with many files in the conversion. If you can devise a test that will definitively show me the lack of accuracy, please let me know.

*EDIT* Tonight's MC build will include changes to handle the progress better for large synch\conversions.

Chrispod,

Quote

format never completely wipes clean,

The report of available space has to do with how one defines the size of a MB. Hardware manufactures and Windows differ on this. After a reformat, check the available size against what Windows reports as the available size and if they are the same, then there is no problem.

Quote

The playlists were mixed up, and dropped about 2% of the songs, and in one case duplicated a song five times, although the playlists in MC9 were correct.

What version are you using? If not 9.1.217, please get it. Better yet, wait for tonight's build which include a fix for the cancel button which was actually fixed yesterday but did not make it into the build. If you still have the problem you mention above, try to replicate it in an organized fashion so I can fix it. When you say 'duplicated a song 5 times', do you mean the song is on the iPod five times? I find this hard to believe. It is possible the song can be listed 5 times when viewing at the root if you have it in multiple playlists, but 5 distinct copies are unlikely. Try to figure out some of the files that are missing and try to send them one at a time to see if they go.

Chris (cct1),

Try tonight's build. Due to some recent changes, the code that allowed for drag and drop of files onto the iPod was broken but fixed yesterday. This would affect the media server transfers. The fixes did not make it into yesterday's build but will be there tonight.

Matt,

MC9 can convert your wma files to mp3 during the upload or synch process. After the files are on iPod, if you send them again, MC checks to see if they are there and will not convert them again to save time (conversion is a time consuming process).

Another way to do this to save time is to convert the files once and store them for transfer to the iPod. This takes up a lot of disk space but saves time when synching files to iPod.

In either case, the bitrate is selectable, quality is good and this is not a contrived workflow.

Steve

Marc · « **Reply #8 on:** July 18, 2003, 07:33:20 am »

Hello!

I know this has probably been covered in the past, but I cannot find the solution and have been wrestling with this issue for quite some time now. Yes, I've browsed the great help file you posted above, but couldn't find an appropriate entry.

Background:

Media Center 9.1.215
20 GB iPod
180 GB music Media (50% APE, 50% MP3)
note - the mp3 songs were all encoded @ 256 or 320 kbps

Scenario:

Let's say I wish to take my five favorite songs with me on my iPod:

song-1.mp3
song-2.mp3
song-3.ape
song-4.ape
song-5.mp3

...and the iPod already contains the following:

song-2.mp3
song-3.mp3 (previously converted from above APE)

Problem:

How would I accomplish the following

song-1.mp3 - compare w/iPod - transfer as is
song-2.mp3 - compare w/iPod - match - skip
song-3.ape - compare w/iPod - find matching MP3 - skip
song-4.ape - comapre w/iPod - convert to MP3 - transfer converted file
song-5.mp3 - compare w/iPod - transfer as is

I've looked at the instructions and understand the sync command. I've looked at the forced convert option...but what about those existing MP3 files? I don't want to un/re-encode them. Especially when we're talking about hundreds of songs and a lot of wasted time!

Thanks!

Marc

SteveG · « **Reply #9 on:** July 18, 2003, 07:38:56 am »

Marc,

Get 9.1.217 and then try your test out (even though it should also work in 9.1.215). MC should recoginze that the converted files are already on iPod and skip over them during the conversion process. So the solution is to resynch the playlist the files are in. If you try to drag and drop the files, it won't work until you get tonight's build because of an uncorrected bug from yesterday.

Steve

sub-24 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 18, 2003, 09:10:50 am »

Steve.

Further tests to the cut of problem reveal the following.

If i convert a .ape file manually to .wav and load to ipod it plays okay.

If i convert to .wav and then to mp3 it cuts off the end of the track.

So i tried some other tests and - If i use MC to convert from .ape to .wav and then use another piece of software to then convert the .wav to .mp3 they all playback perfect on the ipod.

So its not the plugin thats doing it its something to do with the mp3 encoder that MC uses.

Ive tried both the Lame 2.0.55 and 2.0.57 and they both do the same.

Should i post this on a seperate thread or can you investigate.

SteveG · « **Reply #11 on:** July 18, 2003, 10:35:11 am »

Quote

So its not the plugin thats doing it its something to do with the mp3 encoder that MC uses.

Maybe. To catch everyone up on this, Mike sent me a file that he converted with MC from .ape to .mp3 which is always cut off on his iPod. I can play that file fine on my iPod, so this points away from the encoder as being the problem (if the file were enoded incorrectly I would not be able to play it either).

Mike can you try reformatting your iPod and then just send the one file that is cut off that you sent me and see if it is still cut off?

Also, could you use whatever software you used to transfer .wav to mp3 where the tracks were not cut off and do several files to try to confirm your results?

Steve

sub-24 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 18, 2003, 01:40:22 pm »

Steve - Further tests below.

But first - if I copy any faulty files off of my ipod and back to my PC - MC plays them perfect. They only cut off when played back on the ipod. I have one of the new 15gig with 2.01

Today i have ran the follwoing tests.

Test 1.
Copied 2 complete albums
Pink Floyd - Division Bell
Pink Floys - Animals

To a new folder on my hard disk. Both of these albums were ripped in .ape

Opened media files and selected both these albums - then proceeded to convert format using MC to uncompressed WAV.

Then opened Cool Edit Pro and tagged all of the .WAV that i just created above and used this to convert to .mp3 - 160

Then back to MC open media and selected all of the new .mp3-160 as above - retag etc. Selected to send to ipod.

Upload to ipod with no conversion.

Played back every track on ipod - perfect to the last millisecond.

Test2.

Deleted from ipod all of above.

Made another new folder on hard disk and copied same albums as above.

Selected all files and done a conversion to .mp3-160 using MC.

Then selected all files for upload to ipod with no conversion.

Played back every track - SHIT they all play back perfect this time.

Okay Test3.

Selected as above but this time convert to mp3-160 on upload. All done within MC.
Played back every track and they all cut off 4-8 seconds from every track.

Weird - but TRUE.

Its definatley something to do with the encoder vs Plugin when you do a convert while uploading.

Any other ideas.

Marc · « **Reply #13 on:** July 18, 2003, 02:41:37 pm »

Quote

Marc,

Get 9.1.217 and then try your test out (even though it should also work in 9.1.215). MC should recoginze that the converted files are already on iPod and skip over them during the conversion process. So the solution is to resynch the playlist the files are in. If you try to drag and drop the files, it won't work until you get tonight's build because of an uncorrected bug from yesterday.

Steve

Steve,

My efforts were met with failure. First, I upgraded to 9.1.217. Next, I re-formatted my iPod to test the theory. So far, so good, I right-clicked on the J: icon (where the iPod is) and selected synchronize files. Everything's OK. In the popup synchronization window, I selected a play list with about a dozen songs (6 APE and 6 MP3 files). In options, LAME is correctly listed in the EXE path, the parameters are correct (%IN %OUT --alt-preset extreme) and the extension shows mp3. OK so far.

Now, here's where I start running into problems. If the "Force file conversion during uploads" box is unchecked, the process fails and tells me "ape extension is not supported..." If "Force file conversion during uploads" is checked, ALL files get converted - even existing MP3 files! For a mere six files, I'd say OK. However, when uploading hundreds or thousands of files, converting MP3 to MP3 really is a time waster.

What am I missing here? Is there a way to accomplish this?

updated 2003-07-19
I just finished a massive upload of mixed APE and MP3 files - during which, both types of files were converted. After completion, I tested it by synching again. The MP3 files were skipped, but MJ did not recognize the MP3's on the iPod as being previously-converted and set out to re-convert them all again. Help?
End of update

Thanks!

Marc

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #14 on:** July 19, 2003, 10:25:48 am »

Hi there,

I just used the Replay Gain function to make all my songs playing at the same volume level.

It seems to work fine within MediaCenter, but not on my iPod.

All the songs I analysed are already on my iPod and I after analysation I just synched everything again. However, my understandig is that every song will then be uploaded again, the full 4 MB or whatever the size is. But actually the synchronisation has been done superfast as if there was nothing to save, just like when I synchronise and have only a very few new songs.

Also I tried to switch on/off the option on the iPod (I forgot the naming), but no difference. (By the way, do I need to enable that option?).

I'm working with the latest build of MediaCenter.

Thanks for your help in advance and sorry, if this has been answered somewhere else already, but I read a lot but didn't find answers to the above.

Best regards,

Mighty A-MAN

KingSparta · « **Reply #15 on:** July 19, 2003, 10:44:24 am »

Quote

It seems to work fine within MediaCenter, but not on my iPod.

thats because it does not change the music.

it does save some info to tags that mc9 uses to play music at the same level.

ashawley · « **Reply #16 on:** July 19, 2003, 11:02:56 am »

Mighty_A-MAN:

No it won't reupload all the songs. That's the beauty of it. The replay gain value is just added as a value in the iPod's database and then applied when played.

When you do the re-sync, you need to make sure the Update Tags option is checked on the sync dialog box.

Actually, you should just always keep this checked so your iPod is always in sync w/MC9 (in terms of tags I mean).

Adam

Chrispod · « **Reply #17 on:** July 19, 2003, 12:40:19 pm »

MC9 is not working for me in the way it is for others, so until I can get things figured out, I have to restore using the Apple Updater. MC9 works perfectly when I start from a clean slate, but there are many many problems when I try to resync. My question is, is it slowly damaging my ipod to RESTORE?

Also, I want to report that the cancel button for ipod syncing does not work (it freezes, I have to shut down), and the format DOES NOT ERASE EVERYTHING FROM THE IPOD. (Songs "hide". List says 0, but available space is 1/2 or 1/4 of what it should be, and it changes every time you hit RESTORE.)

I am using version 9.1.218, one more question, when you sugest getting a new version of MC9, does one just click on the link and put the new version over the old? So that would be getting the NEW VERSION sometimes 4-6 times a month? And do I just leave all those old versions on the PC?

Hi Adam... CHRISTOPHER

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #18 on:** July 19, 2003, 12:49:12 pm »

Hi Adam,

Understood! Thanks for your explanation.

Just to make sure: Do I have to enable the Soundcheck option, or doesn't that matter and the music is played on the Replay Gain levels automatically?

Thanks and best regards,

Mighty A-MAN

KarlPod · « **Reply #19 on:** July 20, 2003, 02:09:54 am »

Hi Steve,

I posted this in IpodLounge the other day .....

Hi have been testing the features on MC9.1 lately and while I love most of them I have to say that the replay gain function is not that great for us euro-podders. The maximum I can set is +12db which may sound a lot but to me its not so great.

Now I have downloaded Xplay after reading about its volume increasing capacities and have to say I am blow away by the volume increases. Set at 160% as mentioned in some threads is a massive leap in volume for the euro-podders. Ear splitting

Now can I use MC9 for playlists and syncrinisation but just uncheck update tags for it to work with mp3s that have had volume increased though Xplay?

Or is it best to do all my syncronisation in MC9 and then increase the volume in Xplay?

I know itsnot ideal but I do like the smart lists in MC9 and the ripping but love the volume in Xplay.

............................................................................... ......

You did say to me the other day that +12db is the maximum you can go on the volume tah increase. Could you possibly tell me why?

I love your program but at the moment Xplay's volume tag increase is excellent. Is there anyway in the future you may be able to do an increase like Xplay?

At the moment I am syncing all my songs via MC9 and then I explore my Ipod drive with Xplay and select all the songs and increase to 160%. This is not ideal but it does work although slightly buggy because I use 2 different programs in Ipod.

Thanks
Karl

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #20 on:** July 20, 2003, 02:47:09 am »

Karl,

Since you seem to have some knowledge/experience with the Soundcheck thing, can't you give me an answer to my question above?

Thanks,

Mighty A-MAN

KarlPod · « **Reply #21 on:** July 20, 2003, 03:00:32 am »

Hi there,

From what you are saying I think this is what you want:

In MC9 go to and expand CD, DVD & Handhelds. You shpuld see your Ipod drive.

Right click on that drive and make sure the replay gain option is checked. Just below that item is the volume adjustment which can be increased or decreased +/- 12db.

Once these adjustments have been made re-synce and make sure update tags is checked on the syncronisation window.

Hope that helps.
Karl

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #22 on:** July 20, 2003, 03:43:25 am »

Hey Karl,

Thanks for this. However, that's the part I figured out myself. My remaining question is if or if not I need to enable the Soundcheck option on the iPod or not.

I enabled and disabled it, but I couldn't hear any difference. Still songs are very quiet which have been quiet before and loud songs are loud. So I had the feeling that there wasn't a change.

So Soundcheck on iPod on or off?

Thanks,

Mighty A-MAN

CautionESPN · « **Reply #23 on:** July 20, 2003, 06:52:21 am »

I just wanted to inform everyone that I accidently allowed Audible.com's software to update my iPod last night, and for once it had no impact on the data loaded by Media Center. In the past the two were incompatible and audible users had to import their audible files into medic center and then sync with media center to get the info on to the ipod.

SteveG, just wanted to thank you for fixing this as it was a really irritating process!

In summary it looks like audible.com and media center are now compatible.

7_cats · « **Reply #24 on:** July 20, 2003, 09:10:17 am »

when i sync my ipod using replay gain, the little window zooms thru maybe 3/4 of my songs, seems to stop,and the program terminates! gone, and then i have to restart the program. thoughts? is this normal?

digitaltrapper · « **Reply #25 on:** July 20, 2003, 11:32:52 am »

Hey Steve,
Problem 1 (sync failure): I gave up on my old problem and decided to just reformat my ipod and see if that helps. I sync (with coversion) about 1169 songs before I recieved an error with a Red X and some strange characters for the error message. when i clicked the OK button, the MC program iteself was still responsive (I could move the sync window around, etc) but the sync window was unable to be closed and was frozen showing the last song it had encoded. I had to have windows shut it down for me. Now I should inform you that when I sync my ipod for the first time, it is no small task. I have over 4,000 songs on the playlist, most of which I want to have coverted to lower bitrates, so I usually start it-- and go to bed. Ideally once all of these songs are on my ipod, I won't be syncing that often.

Problem 2 (duration times): You wanted info on tracks in MC showing different durration times than they should. After this sync (with conversion), I had 14 files that had duration times of greater than 10 minutes (even though the smartlist I synced it with had a cutoff of 10 minutes. 2 of these tracks had times greater than 30 minutes showing on the duration field. (Even though Bruce Springsteen's "Rosalita Come out tonight" is only 7 minutes long.) When I double click the song to play withing MC, it shows the correct time on the media player bar, and only plays for 7 minutes like it should. When I listen to the song on the ipod it shows the wrong time, 30 minutes, and after playing the first 7 minutes of the song, it continues to play "dead air" for 23 more minutes. Now if I try to fast foward that track on the ipod to a time later than 7 minutes, the ipod recognizes that it doesnt really exist, and jumps to the next track. However this really makes listening less enjoyable when the next song does not follow right when the first song finishes playing. I know this happens in less extreme cases as well (where maybe 30 secs or a minute is added as "Dead air").
Now if I delete this song off my ipod and then reupload it manually (without sync, but with conversion) it get put back on my ipod with the proper time.
However there is no way for me to know which songs have "extra" dead air time at the end, and whcih songs are accurate in duration time, so I can't do this for all the problem files.

Problem 3 (status bar): As I let you know, the overall status bar is never accurate for me. Case in point, after my first sync failed halfway, I started to resync. After 3 songs into the sync, the "overall" status bar is already on 100%.

ashawley · « **Reply #26 on:** July 20, 2003, 08:23:43 pm »

Mighty_A-MAN:

No, you don't need to have Soundcheck on, it has no effect in MC9's implementation (only works w/iTunes).

Not sure why you're not hearing the Replay Gain adjustment. Are you sure that when you sync you have the "Update Tags" checkbox checked?

That's all I can think of...it's definitely working for me. Oh and you are using version .218 right?

mander · « **Reply #27 on:** July 20, 2003, 08:30:55 pm »

If I rate a file on my ipod 2.0 the rating doesn't seem to be pulled into Media Center. My ratings don't get pulled into my ipod either.

Thanks,

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #28 on:** July 20, 2003, 11:03:25 pm »

Hey Mander,

We all have the same problem, since that's obviously a firmware problem. Each time you connect your iPod to your Windows PC, the ratings you've done on the go disappear. That's something that obviously can't be fixed unless Apple changes the firmware and make the rating system available to Windows users.

Well, I hope I didn't tell anything bull above, but that's what I understood from one of the Media Center guys when I asked pretty much the same.

Cheers,

Mighty A-MAN

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #29 on:** July 20, 2003, 11:05:34 pm »

Hi ashawley,

Thanks for your help.

Yes, I do use the latest version (.218). Maybe just some songs are not perfectly matching the average volume. So I might expect too much. I will check this tonight or so with my Blues Brothers CD, which is extremely quiet. If Replay Gain works on my iPod, I defiantely must hear a difference.

Cheers,

Mighty A-MAN

sub-24 · « **Reply #30 on:** July 21, 2003, 03:25:58 am »

DigitalRapper.

The error with track lengths being reported longer than they are with Dead Air at the end is the same for me.

I dont notice the track times too much but its the cut off at the end that is the worst.

I have posted a few tests above but can confirm that it only happens when you are doing a convert at the same time.

SteveG - Dont know what to try next appart from using Cool Edit to do the conversions for me. Only problem here is that they dont do a plugin for .ape.

MAybe i should scrap .ape and convert all to .wma lossless as it is universally supported.

Any Ideas

Klingler · « **Reply #31 on:** July 21, 2003, 04:47:45 am »

Quote

I just wanted to inform everyone that I accidently allowed Audible.com's software to update my iPod last night, and for once it had no impact on the data loaded by Media Center. In the past the two were incompatible and audible users had to import their audible files into medic center and then sync with media center to get the info on to the ipod.

SteveG, just wanted to thank you for fixing this as it was a really irritating process!

In summary it looks like audible.com and media center are now compatible.

Has anyone else confirmed this compatibility? I've gotten used to the hoops I have to jump through, but if I don't have to... I'd love not to. I'm hesitant to test it myself though as my iPod works fine right now.

Rob

SteveG · « **Reply #32 on:** July 21, 2003, 01:06:11 pm »

MikeH,

I could not duplicate what you describe. I took three .ape files and converted them on the fly to .mp3 160kbps. All files played perfectly on iPod. If anyone else can reproduce Mike’s report, please let me know.

Marc,

The plugin is set to convert .mp3 files if the bitrate is different. For example, if you have 6 files in a playlist and 3 are .ape and 3 are .mp3 at 192 and you have ‘force file conversion’ set to .mp3 .160, all files will convert. On subsequent synchronization, all files will be skipped.

Here is the test I did..

1) Created a playlist with 6 files, 3 .ape, 3 .mp3 192 kbps
2) Set ‘force conversion’ to .mp3 160 kpbs.
3) Synched files.

All files converted.

4) Re-synched with same settings.

All files skipped.

I repeated this test with 3 .ape files and 3 .mp3 files at 160 kbps and all other settings the same. The result was that all the .ape files converted and the mp3 files were skipped.

Can you try repeating my test and let me know the results?

Chrispod,

Quote

is it slowly damaging my ipod to RESTORE?

No, this should not matter.

Quote

Also, I want to report that the cancel button for ipod syncing does not work

Can anyone else verify this with 9.1.218?

Quote

when you sugest getting a new version of MC9, does one just click on the link and put the new version over the old?

Always get the latest build of MC 9.1. Do not go and get the plugin from the download page.

Karl,

As far as I can tell, there is a maximum amount one can boost the file volume on iPod. If you are confident that you are seeing a greater volume boost with Xplay, could you transfer some files where the volume is much greater when compared with a transfer using MC with the boost set to +12 db. If you could then send me your iTunesDB( a file found on your iPod with the following path.. iPod drive letter\iPod Control\iTunes\iTunesDB) from Xplay with the name of the file with the great volume increase I can definitively get to the bottom of this.

Even better would be if you could send me the same iTunesDB file with the same file transfer from MC so I can compare them.

Thanks. My email is steve @ jriver.com

CautionESPN,

Thanks for letting me know.

8_Cats,

No this is not normal. Please get MC 9.1.218 if you do not have it. You may want to format your iPod from within MC by right clicking on the iPod drive letter and selecting ‘Format’. Assuming you have 9.1.217 or .218, this error has nothing to do with Replay Gain, but maybe has to do with some corruption in your iPod database. You can try synching without Replay Gain to verify this.

DigitalTrapper,

Do you have MC 9.1.218? Try that for Problem 1. For Problem 2, create a playlist in MC that includes a 3 songs that you are sure will have the incorrect file times when synching with conversion. If you can, start with a cleanly formatted iPod and then synch this playlist. If you can, verify that the duration is wrong. If it is, reformat and then send these same songs with conversion enabled but not as part of a synch and let me know what you find.

I will check Problem 3 out.

Mander,

Mighty-A-Man is correct, this is an Apple problem.

Mikeh,

In regards to the track length errors, can you try the same test I suggested for DigitalTrapper? In regards to the conversions, hopefully someone else can confirm or deny your results so we can chase this better.

Rob,

I can test this more thoroughly when I have more time.

Steve

Marc · « **Reply #33 on:** July 21, 2003, 03:25:25 pm »

Hello Steve,

Well, I think I might be onto something. My music library is randomly divided as follows:

25% APE
25% 320 Kbps MP3 - encoder = LAME
25% 250 Kbps MP3 - encoder = LAME
25% VBR (--alt preset extreme) MP3 - encoder = LAME

I have the conversion take place via an external encoder (LAME), using the --alt preset extreme settings.

Since I have three different types of MP3 files, there is no single setting I can choose to eliminate all re-conversion of these files. If I eliminate the "force conversion" option, the process dies due to the presence of the APE files. I guess I could create separate smart lists to address the presence (or absence of these APE files), but was hoping to find a way to get the plug in to handle this automatically.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Marc

cct1 · « **Reply #34 on:** July 21, 2003, 08:32:14 pm »

Steve,

Finally got all my audio analyzed so I could use the replay gain--and I must say it is friggin' awesome. As far as I can tell, it is working perfectly. Nice job!!

CautionESPN · « **Reply #35 on:** July 22, 2003, 05:58:03 am »

Quote

Has anyone else confirmed this compatibility? I've gotten used to the hoops I have to jump through, but if I don't have to... I'd love not to. I'm hesitant to test it myself though as my iPod works fine right now.

Rob

Well, on further examination there is still some incompatibility

Here is what was done:

Load up iPod from MediaCenter
close Media Center
Open AudibleManager
Download New York Times subscription
AudibleManager automatically sent this to my iPod
Close AudibleManager

All Tracks work on ipod..things seem great

Next day, connect to MediaCenter and try to sync (I have a number of random smartlists for the iPod, makes driving much more pleasant).
watch MediaCenter present empty error window.
Try three more times.
Say "arghhhhhh" in frustration.
Format ipod.
resynch.
vow never to lease iPod in cradle when opening AudibleManager.

Sorry to get your hopes up.

Chris M

Klingler · « **Reply #36 on:** July 22, 2003, 06:04:17 am »

Quote

Well, on further examination there is still some incompatibility

...

Sorry to get your hopes up.

Chris M

No problem. I was going to try it myself later this afternoon, but you saved me the frustration. I guess we'll just continue to jump through hoops.

Rob

SteveG · « **Reply #37 on:** July 22, 2003, 06:25:24 am »

Marc,

Your situation should not be a problem. I will try to get to test it more today. The way the Plugin should work when you select 'Force File Conversion' is that MC will check each synching file 's(MC -> iPod) bitrate and file type. If either is different, MC will convert during the transfer. After you do this, all subsequent synchs should check to see if the file exists on iPod and if it does, it will skip the conversion (and the transfer) of the file.

This process will not work if you use other software in between your synchs, but if you use MC then all should be as I stated above and you should be all set. Please let me know if you find this not to be the case.

cct1,

Thanks.

CautionESPN and Klingler,

I will try to get this to be smoother when I have some time.

Steve

park · « **Reply #38 on:** July 22, 2003, 09:15:09 am »

Evening all,

Makers of media centre: not to sound ungrateful, cos the replay gain thing is fantastic, but...

it makes all the songs a closer level which is cool, but makes an album really uneven sounding. especially albums like movie soundtracks or scores where the tracks kinda flow into each other but might be different kinds of music. replay gain makes the parts with speech go really loud and then totally kills the following rock track, making it all soft and quiet. Any way to make the replay gain apply the same settings to a whole album. Would that work?

Good work though. I love the layout of mc9.1.

Goodnight.

bri

Kurt Young · « **Reply #39 on:** July 22, 2003, 12:31:39 pm »

Steve, just a quick toss-in today, submitted for your approval:

Based on continuing confusion from the lounge and here, I would like to suggest changing the terminology "Format iPod" to something a bit less scary, like "Prepare iPod for use with MC" or "Initialize iPod" or etc.

The word "Format" traditionally means to wipe out the entire volume, and all data. Here, we're just wiping out a folder, right? Folks who've just formatted their iPod and see that all of their contacts, notes, and data files are still there are sure to start giving the screen some funny looks.

Also, people feel inconveineced, "I just did a restore, and that formatted it... why do I have to format it again?"

People could also be confused when we say "Format" and go to Windows Explorer and perform a disk format on the iPod. That's very very very very bad.

sub-24 · « **Reply #40 on:** July 22, 2003, 01:08:54 pm »

SteveG.

I'm sure i'm not going mad but today i have reloaded latest MC9.1XX

I re-formatted and reloaded firmware on ipod.

Then i uploded 1 album with convert on fly tp mp3 160 and although a little bit better it still cut off a few seconds from most tracks.

A whole day of testing has revealed that if you convert on the fly to mp3 - 160 normal it is okay. (so far)

If you convert to mp3 -160 High Quality the problem is much worse.

So if you get a chance try converting a .ape to mp3 - 160 HQ and see if you get a cut off then.

I'm still proving it as ive only done 1 album but fingers crossed.

Let me know if you can reproduce it.

Cheers

digitaltrapper · « **Reply #41 on:** July 22, 2003, 02:01:16 pm »

I haven't tested it out as much but I know that I am getting some tracks cut short (as well as some tracks cut too long. i.e. dead air at the end). I am using covert mp3 128 high speed.

Also, when uploading (without sync) files, a prompt will sometimes come up asking if I want to overwrite a pre-existing file. A box is also checked that says "Apply to all subsequent files", however each time a "conflict" comes up, it does not automatically overwrite the file, it asks me if I want to overwrite it each time. Makes it hard for me to try to automate this when the sync still does not work for me.

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #42 on:** July 22, 2003, 05:52:19 pm »

Hi there,

Okay, it really seems like me having immense problems with Replay Gain on my iPod.

As advised earlier, I can't hear a difference after I analyzed all my files and activated "Apply Replay Gain on upload".

While the files show up with the Replay Gain adjustment number on my regular Media Center Library, I have only a "?" when I look at the files on my iPod (through Media Center). So the songs don't seem to be rated and as said before, I don't hear a difference anyway. Quiet songs are quite, loud songs are loud.

I use the latest version (.219) and it was neither working with .218 on my side, which is depressing.

Do I have to analyze all the files twice, once for Media Center and once on my iPod? Since I'm synchronizing playlists on which the files show up with their Replay Gain Levels, I would have thought it's all just one go. (Edit: Just tried to analyze the files "on the iPod", but that's not even possible.)

Well, any help is greatly appreciated. I'm leaving to Japan in a couple of hours, and I wanted to have everything ready by then, so your quick help is even more greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Mighty A-MAN

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #43 on:** July 22, 2003, 06:34:47 pm »

Okay, me again.

It seems being working now. I don't know why and I don't know why the Replay Gain Levels are not shown on the list (I'm sure they've shown up when I originally analyzed the files). Maybe it works now because I re-formatted the iPod and synchronized again.

Thanks for your help anyay.

Take it easy,

Mighty A-MAN

7_cats · « **Reply #44 on:** July 22, 2003, 06:44:26 pm »

i'm downloding to my pod using replay gain, and it seems to convert the same songs over and over...any ideas?

thanks!

ashawley · « **Reply #45 on:** July 23, 2003, 09:36:46 am »

Steve:

Don't know if you're still trying to figure out if you can boost the 12db limit. But here's just a little polite nudge to you. No, I don't need it, but the entire EU seems to need it.

Xplay is taking your market share from Europe.

Adam

Klingler · « **Reply #46 on:** July 24, 2003, 04:44:25 am »

As requested, I'm posting this in the IPOD thread instead of it's own thread. (Might it be possible to create an IPOD forum... it's kind of tough following six or seven different threads inside this one thread. Furthermore, it seems some IPOD related posts are not told to go report here. Just a thought...)

I would like to request once again that JRiver look into PlayCounts and Stars. It is my understanding that Apple changed the behavior as of 2.0.1.

Here is the latest post on the iPodLounge forums that confirms that someone was able to get a Star Rating off their iPod without any change in firmware.

Thanks,
Rob

Quote

And just now, I was able to retrieve a STAR RATING from the play counts file! It definitely is *not* being cleared out here, guys.

First, I found the format of the Play Counts file here: http://gtkpod.sourceforge.net/Play_Counts.txt

Now, I copied off the ipod_control\Itunes\Play Counts file to my hard drive. Then I unmounted the iPod.

Using the iPod, I picked a song (311 - Down, in fact), started it playing, hit the select (center button) twice to get to the star ratings, and gave it 5 stars.

Then I hit the Next Song button to stop the song playing, put the iPod back into the dock, mounted it, and copied off the Play Counts file again.

Then I simply compared the files. What I found was that one byte had changed from a 0x00 to an 0x64.

Reading that document I posted a link to above, the Star Ratings are stored there as "# of stars * 0x14". 5 stars * 0x14=0x64. And it was in the right location in the file.

So... what's the problem here again? The Play Counts file works perfectly, at least with regards to star ratings, as far as I can tell. I did nothing special to the iPod, nothing special to the software on my machine. Works great.

Edit: This iPod is running 2.01 firmware, BTW. Also, as a check, I just unmounted and remounted the iPod. The star rating is still there after doing this. I haven't checked whether play counts themselves work or not, but I don't see any problem getting the "on the fly" star ratings off the unit.

SteveG · « **Reply #47 on:** July 24, 2003, 05:15:53 am »

Everyone,

Sorry to be out of touch, I am working on a project that needs all of my attention through the end of the week.

*If playcounts and star ratings now persist with 2.0.1 firmware, I will get this going soon.

*I will add a feature to boost all tracks to maximum volume which is essentially what XPlay appears to do. This will not be as slick as Replay Gain (which keeps all tracks at a relative volume) but it is pretty easily done.

8_cats,

If you have the latest 9.1 and the files are converting, this has nothing to do with Replay Gain. You must have "Force file conversion" enabled and probably are sending tracks that are either not on iPod, or are on iPod and perhaps you reimported the tunes into MC. This is my best guess as how to explain what you are seeing.

DigitalTrapper, MikeH, Park and Kurt,

I will look at these as soon as I have some available time.

Steve

7_cats · « **Reply #48 on:** July 24, 2003, 06:33:39 am »

thanks steve--looks like i did have force file conversion on (whetever that does). i turned it off in my ripping widndow, and now it kicks ass--9.xx megs/sec thru a7n8x built in firewire.

this is such a great program, tho in beta id does seem crash prone.

it's sooooo complex, tho--how about a real manual so i can really ge to know it??

thanks for your exemplary support

Josey Wales · « **Reply #49 on:** July 24, 2003, 11:44:22 am »

What's the story with my file transfer rate when syching from MC9 to iPod?

To this point I'm really enjoying MC9.0 and am thoroughly impressed with the many improvements over the other media players I've used in the past. However, one gripe I do have is the speed at which I can sync my files to my iPod (3rd Gen., 15 GB). I'm connected to my PC via a Firewire-to-USB adapter cable I purchased from Apple, and this runs directly from the iPod docking station to one of my USB 2.0 ports. I'm confident in saying my computer is relatively new and should be more than capable of supporting MC9's optimal transfer rate of my mp3 collection, but can't be the case as I'll explain.

I've just begun ripping my cd collection and to this point I have roughly 950 songs encoded at vbr mp3. When I try to sync the existing playlist (all files) to my iPod I always get the same transfer rate - 0.89 MB/s! This is unacceptable and I have read in many places that I should be getting anywhere from 4 - 7 GB/s, or around one file/second. It took me over 2 1/2 hours to transfer my library of 930 songs!

What am I doing wrong and how can I improve the speed at which MC9 copies files to my iPod.

Regards,

Jason

P.S. - I'm running MC9 v9.0.180

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