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[submeg]

Hello all,

I've been doing some searching around, and it seems that you cannot update the play counts in JRiver from the plays on a portable Android device? I came across a thread which has a method for updating play counts from last.fm, but surely, this can be done natively?

I am currently investigating whether or not I can switch from iTunes to MC; discarding my iPod (and other Mac products) and using my phone and a microSD card. I have recently discovered how to pull in all the metadata from my Mac based iTunes to a PC based MC, but play counts are critical to many of my smart playlists, so by syncing with a phone, I need to be able to import these plays into JRiver; without this I may have to stick with iTunes. This is something I don't want to do as a) my Macbook Pro is dated and b) It will just be a matter of time until my iPod Classic (circa 2012) gives up.

Has there been any further development into this? If not, how open is JRiver for allowing people to create plugins? I have coding experience (not sure what language JRiver uses) and so if worst came to worst, I would be interested into looking into this.

I really want to move away from Apple and their increasingly constricting (i.e. ridiculous) decisions and want to be able to regain control of how I manage and listen to my music. I mean, I can buy a 128 GB micro SD card now...I just don't understand how I cannot have a device that is capable of carrying more that 128 GB of data; I don't mind having an additional device separate from my phone, but there just doesn't seem to be anything on the market right now.

If anyone has information around this, it would be greatly appreciated. I am currently in the trial period of MC and this is a crucial component for me making the complete switch.

Submeg

[JimH]

You can sync from a remote to a computer only if you have set up authentication (login, password) on the server.

[submeg]

You can sync from a remote to a computer only if you have set up authentication (login, password) on the server.

Hi JimH, how would I go about that? But is that used only for controlling the software?

What I meant to say was that I am using my Samsung s5 as a portable media player; not controlling the software itself. After connecting the s5 back to the computer, the play count updates.

[blgentry]

There's not really a straight forward way of doing what you're asking as far as I know.  The problem implies lots of assumptions.  For example, what do you do when the play counts don't match on the portable and the main library?  Which one "wins"?  It's a lot of decision making that MC doesn't support.

But really, is it relevant to making playlists anyway?  Do you care that you've heard the song once at home and once on your portable?

There are a ton of reasons for moving from the horrendous world of itunes to MC.  I think you know lots of them.  It would be a shame if you let a feature like this sway you back to itunes where you have no control, and are subject to new user interfaces with every single release.

Brian.

[submeg]

There's not really a straight forward way of doing what you're asking as far as I know.  The problem implies lots of assumptions.  For example, what do you do when the play counts don't match on the portable and the main library?  Which one "wins"?  It's a lot of decision making that MC doesn't support.

But really, is it relevant to making playlists anyway?  Do you care that you've heard the song once at home and once on your portable?

There are a ton of reasons for moving from the horrendous world of itunes to MC.  I think you know lots of them.  It would be a shame if you let a feature like this sway you back to itunes where you have no control, and are subject to new user interfaces with every single release.

Brian.

If I were to look at this in a psuedocode way:

1. Sync device with MC library (copies across playlists and metadata to the device)
2. Use device.
3. Reconnect device to PC.
4. Compare ratings and play counts:
   4.1 If rating (PC) <> rating (Device) Then rating (Device) = rating (PC) [this could be an issue, the only way to address it would also to look at WHEN the rating was altered; the
         one with the most current date would take precedence.]
   4.2 If play count (device, at sync) <> play count (device, currently) Then play count (PC) = play count (PC) + (play count (device, currently) - play count (device, at sync) [This
         may require an additional field]
5. Sync any new playlists

I don't care about where I played it, just how many plays I have. For example, I have playlists such as:

○ plays greater than x
○ plays less than 25 and played in the last month and with a rating > 3
○ plays = 0 and rating ≥ 4

and so on. I have many such playlists which utilise play counts, which makes these playlists dynamic; once I have rated and grouped my songs, the library organises itself through playlists.

The sound quality increase and other benefits do definitely outweigh the issues, but this is something I would definitely like to have. I am willing to look into coding/ developing for something like this, as it would seal the deal for me.

Submeg

[submeg]

There's not really a straight forward way of doing what you're asking as far as I know.  The problem implies lots of assumptions.  For example, what do you do when the play counts don't match on the portable and the main library?  Which one "wins"?  It's a lot of decision making that MC doesn't support.

But really, is it relevant to making playlists anyway?  Do you care that you've heard the song once at home and once on your portable?

There are a ton of reasons for moving from the horrendous world of itunes to MC.  I think you know lots of them.  It would be a shame if you let a feature like this sway you back to itunes where you have no control, and are subject to new user interfaces with every single release.

Brian.

I dug a bit deeper and discovered that -

"for MTP devices, the MTP database does have a field for rating and for play count. However in practice i have yet to see it being used by the android players. So until that happens 2-way sync wont do anything, and although MB is able to scrobble the difference in play count, in practice that won't do anything either"

So I understand it is up to the player to recognise and use this field. Sigh.

So, I became aware of the ability to use scripts to connect to last.fm. I have a last.fm account, so I have no issue doing it that way. I came across THIS script, but it says you requires the .NET Scripting plugin. I had a look at the thread regarding the plugin, but how do you get that plugin into JRiver?

Submeg

[submeg]

Okay, so I downloaded and used the JRiver installer to add the scripting plugin, but during installation, I received this error:



And when I try to activate the plugin, I receive this:



How do I get the plugin to operate correctly? Cheers.

Submeg

[JimH]

Please don't double post.

[submeg]

I apologise JimH, it's just that I am at the final hurdle with this and then I can say goodbye to iTunes forever. I am just trying to search for a response from someone who knows about using C# scripts in the scripting plugin (I have since gotten the plugin to install correctly). If you or anyone could point me in the right direction as to how to install and get the lastfm2jRiver script to run, I would be forever grateful.

I wish to retire my Macbook and make the switch, but until I can get those play counts back into JRiver, I'm missing some functionality that I use, but once this script is working, I will be over the moon.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can point me in the right direction.

Submeg

[submeg]

AND I just compared the difference in ripping between JRiver and iTunes; even in an m4a format, the difference is staggering. I want to complete this transfer as soon as possible! Wow.

[submeg]

When I try to compile the code, the first issue I have is:

" c:\J River\Media Center 22\Plugins\Script Plugin\Scripts\New Script 1.cs(6,7) : error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'CookComputing' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)"

even though the .dll file is located within the folder?

[maddog510]

AND I just compared the difference in ripping between JRiver and iTunes; even in an m4a format, the difference is staggering. I want to complete this transfer as soon as possible! Wow.

Are you talking about ripping speed & or the quality?