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[lalittle]

I recently posted about some problems I was having with random songs having the ends cut off early when played on the iPod.  The only solution I had originally found was to re-encode the songs, which solved the problem.  Another poster wrote that he had solved this problem by doing a full restore of the iPod, which subsequently worked for me as well.

However, after synching some new rips, I found that the problem had immediately popped up again.  This time, rather than doing a full restore, I simply did a new MC9 format.  This solved the problem as well, showing that a full restore was not needed.  The problem is that I find myself needing to do a new format and full synch EVERY time I add songs to the iPod in order to guarantee that none of the songs cut off early.  If I simply synch on top of the old songs, I find myself feeling undue tension as I listen to new songs, wondering if each new song will make it to the end, and finding that once in a while, they do not.

Given that the MC9 format is some sort of proprietary format, I'm wondering if there is an issue with the latest version of the iPod/firmware and MC9.  I don't see too many references to this problem, but the only ones I DO see are on this forum -- i.e. from other MC9 users.  I see similar issues on other forums, but none that are really the same.

Does anybody have any further information with this particular issue, where songs cut off early and just play silence for the rest of the track?  As I said, re-encoding usually solves the issue, as does a new restore or new MC9 format.

Thanks for any help with this,

Larry

[JimH]

Please take a look at other posts on this in the iPod support threads here and at ipodlounge.com.  It is an iPod problem, not an MC problem.

[lalittle]

I've already done a lot of searching of various forums, including this one, the iPodlounge, and Apple's iPod forum, and while I've seen "similar" issues, the only mention of this SPECIFIC issue I've found has been on this forum.  The other posts tend to be about songs stopping and skipping directly to the next one, or the problem with VBR songs, which is not what I'm experiencing.  Rather, my symptom is that the song continues to play silence to the end of the time on the track, and it happens with CBR songs.

Perhaps I'm just not looking for the right combination of key words.  Do you have any specific suggestions on this -- i.e. words that you might remember from similar posts?  Any assistance in this regard would be appreciated since I'm not having too much luck finding the posts you're referring to.

Thanks again,

Larry

[SteveG]

Larry,

Can you find a song that when played on the iPod gets cut off early? Try playing it from within MC and see if it gets cut off. Let me know the result.

Then, delete the file from iPod and resend it from MC. Check whether it is cut off. If it is, please email me the file.

Thanks,

Steve ( steve @ jriver.com)

[lalittle]

Here is the behavior of the issue with songs getting cut off early:

- The songs do not get cut off early in MC9 or WMP -- just in the iPod.

- If I delete the song from the iPod and and re-sync it, the problem remains.

- Changing the tags and name of the file before re-synching does NOT fix the issue.

- If I re-encode the song and re-sync, the problem "usually" disappears.  There have been a few cases where an entire album showed the problem, in which case re-encoding did not help.

- If I do a MC9 format of the iPod (or a full restore) and re-sync the songs, the problem disappears WITHOUT needing to re-encode the songs.

I sent you a couple files that had this problem before doing a new MC9 format.  Note that now that I did a new format, these songs no longer get cut short.

Thanks for looking into this -- it's getting quite frustrating,

Larry

[SteveG]

Larry,

The files you sent me play fine for me. Try this..

Send a small number of songs, or better yet one song that you can verify will be cut short. Once you can verify the file is not playing correctly. Make a copy of your iTunesDB file (Drive Letter:\iPod_Control\iTunes\iTunesDB). Then reformat and send the file again so that it plays correctly. Make a copy of this iTunesDB file and send them both to me (steve @ jriver.com) .  I am almost certain there is nothing the plugin is doing to cause this, but this test will help me verify this.

Thanks,

Steve

[lalittle]

The files you sent me play fine for me.

They play fine for me as well now that I've done a new format.  Before the format, the files would not play all the way to the end.

Try this..

Send a small number of songs, or better yet one song that you can verify will be cut short. Once you can verify the file is not playing correctly. Make a copy of your iTunesDB file (Drive Letter:\iPod_Control\iTunes\iTunesDB). Then reformat and send the file again so that it plays correctly. Make a copy of this iTunesDB file and send them both to me (steve @ jriver.com) .  I am almost certain there is nothing the plugin is doing to cause this, but this test will help me verify this.

Thanks,

Steve

I just did the new format, so I'll have to rip some more CD's and do some more synchs before the problem will pop up again.  After some listenning, I should run into some more songs that get cut short, so I'll send you the iTunesDB files at that point.

Thanks again -- I'll post back when I send the files.

Larry

[SteveG]

Larry,

Sounds good. Let me know.

Steve

[lalittle]

I just did more testing with this and have some important updates.  First, unlike my previous experience, an MC re-format did NOT solve the problem, nor did a full iPod restore / MC format / full synch.  Even after all this, the same three files still clearly cut off a few seconds early.

Next, I confirmed that this is definitely related to MC by doing a full iPod restore, then synching the same three files with Ephpod.  When I synch using Ephpod, the three tracks play to the end properly.  I tried going back and forth a few times -- i.e. restoring then synching with MC, then restoring and synching with Ephpod, then back to MC, etc.  Each time I used MC, the tracks ended early -- each time I used Ephpod, the tracks played to the end.  I always did a full iPod restore in between each synch.  Even after about 8 synchs alternating between Ephpod and MC, the results were totally consistant.

Steve -- I'm sending you two sets of files in two emails.  These emails each include 4 files -- the 3 tracks along with iTunesDB from each of the two configurations (i.e. the MC configuration where the tracks cut off early, and the Ephpod configuration where the tracks play to the end.)  The actual tracks are taken directly from the iPod itself, so you'll be getting the file as it existed on the iPod.

Thanks for looking into this.

Larry

[SteveG]

I replied to this in the main iPod thread. Lets pick this up there.