Topic: OLD IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 40600 times)

Chrispod · « **Reply #150 on:** July 14, 2003, 04:08:22 am »

JC, I am using WIndows XP, and when I eject the ipod there are 0 files in "about". By my target it tells you what operation you're performing at the time... except when I have the ipod in. It should say the Letter of the ipod I think...

I did read the post about the Replay Gain being added to the new version, but other posters said they had it.
Can't wait!

Is there some "save changes" that I'm not doing after transferring files?

Christopher

Chrispod · « **Reply #151 on:** July 14, 2003, 04:19:48 am »

JC, I'm scared to say this becouse I don't know how accurate it is: I seem to remember in Adam's instructions, that the task you are performing "now" should be up at the target. He says you can drag songs there, I don't know of I'm correct and I don't have time to check it, I'm off to work. Also, I have a Gateway 600 laptop and I'm told they're set up to give handhelds, etc a new letter each time it comes in. The letter I gave Ipod initially is F, but it comes in on G since I got the other new ipod in June which comes in on E. ANY MATTER?

Christopher

SteveG · « **Reply #152 on:** July 14, 2003, 06:02:41 am »

Chrispod,

What happens if you run another program to connect to your Ipod? I want to try to establish whether there is some kind of hardware issue causing your problems.

Steve

Kurt Young · « **Reply #153 on:** July 14, 2003, 07:40:55 am »

I'm not really sure how to say this, so bear with me,

If MC ever crashes mid-sync, all playlists are destroyed. It's been like that since synching started, and rarely really happens... but every time it crashes, I can count on all the playlists going away.

Is there any way to, I dunno, "move the playlists to the end" of the sync, so that, if MC tanks mid-sync, the playlists have a better chance of staying alive?

The only reason I ask is that I've "helped" my friend out a few times by plugging her iPod into my machine, and 2 out of 5 times, MC has tanked mid-sync and swallowed her playlists, leaving me to wipe the egg offa my face.

Prolly just the way things are, but I figured I'd ask,

Sherm123 · « **Reply #154 on:** July 14, 2003, 10:50:15 am »

Steve
I apologize if I've placed this in the wrong forum. I downloaded 9.1.213 from your message and used it to rip a couple of CD's, created a new playlist and loaded the 16 ripped tracks in it and then uploaded the playlist to my 15G iPod. Everything worked, the tracks sound great on the iPod.
Only question I have relates to the "Sound Check", "Replay Gain" function discussed in previous postings. Nothing like either of these appears in the dropdown menu I get when rightclicking on the iPod Icon in the left window. What have I missed?
Sherm

SteveG · « **Reply #155 on:** July 14, 2003, 12:49:29 pm »

Kurt,

I will try to improve this soon.

Sherm123,

That feature will be available when we do the next build of MC 9.1.

ashawley · « **Reply #156 on:** July 15, 2003, 08:43:35 am »

Steve:

I've updated my iPod w/the Replay Gain values on my tunes and I'm not sure we have this. I'll check further tonight, but is actually seems that now w/Replay Gain applied my tunes are more disparate as far as volume than they were before replay gain was applied.

Anyone else seeing the same? I just know one thing, I've had to touch the volume on my iPod a lot more today then ever before.

Hmmmm......

Adam

ayja · « **Reply #157 on:** July 15, 2003, 08:46:18 am »

hello all, I need real help installing the ipod plugin. I am not connected to the internet and it seems that to install the ipod plugin, it must connect to the media jukebox server when trying to install the downloaded ipod plugin. Is there anyway around it? Thank you

KarlPod · « **Reply #158 on:** July 15, 2003, 09:22:51 am »

Random smartlists - They don't work in Ipod
Hi there,

I have created a few random smartlists but when I sync and upload to Ipod I only ever get the same tracks created even if I use the random 1 hour smartlist. Is this correct or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks
Karl

SteveG · « **Reply #159 on:** July 15, 2003, 09:55:02 am »

Adam,

If you can test it more and let me know. Check what you have set for the 'Replay Gain Adjustment'

ayja,

If you have MC 9.1, you do not need the plugin, it is automatically included as part of MC.

Karl,

What version of MC are you running? I cannot duplicate this with 9.1.213.

Steve

KarlPod · « **Reply #160 on:** July 15, 2003, 11:08:05 am »

Hi Steve

I'm actually using 9.180.

If I try the beta will it ruin my playlists etc when I upgrade to 9.1?

thanks
Karl

SteveG · « **Reply #161 on:** July 15, 2003, 12:00:13 pm »

Karl,

Your playlists should be fine, but I recommend backing up your library just to be extra safe.

Steve

digitaltrapper · « **Reply #162 on:** July 15, 2003, 03:49:02 pm »

I can no longer "transcode" or covert files to my ipod on the fly. With the new version (9.1xxxx15) Whenever I try to sync my ipod to transcode at VBR mp3, it either disappears completely (crashes... and is no longer one of the active, running process according to winxp) or quickly starts to go through a list of files saying "Conversion not applicable" until it crashes and disappears again. I tried going back to an older version of MC with no luck.

I have tried to sync without transcoding, and it seems to work fine, however this is an essential feature for me, and i can't upload my entire library without it.

cct1 · « **Reply #163 on:** July 15, 2003, 08:35:44 pm »

Hmm...can't download via the media server on build .215 either--it flashes the screen for uploading when you select upload, then the upload screen disappears..

KarlPod · « **Reply #164 on:** July 16, 2003, 04:49:37 am »

Hi there,

I have now installed the 9.1.215 release and all appears to be fine at the moment.

I have now analysed all my files and I have peak levels ranging from 50% to 100% (I take it 100% is good), now how do I get all my peak levels to say 140% for use in my Ipod?

Is this easy to do or is it something that is not implemented at present?

Thanks
Karl

SteveG · « **Reply #165 on:** July 16, 2003, 05:13:32 am »

DigitalTrapper and cct1,

I will look into these and post later.

Karl,

Right click on your iPod and find the setting for 'Replay Gain Adjustment'. Try boosting this level and it will take the overall Replay Gain adjustment for all your files and set it higher for the iPod. I think this is what you are looking for.

Steve

KarlPod · « **Reply #166 on:** July 16, 2003, 05:46:37 am »

Hi Steve,

I am using the Ipod .38 release and when I right click I can't see any regain option. Am I using the wrong Ipoad plugin?

Thanks a lot
Karl

KarlPod · « **Reply #167 on:** July 16, 2003, 07:18:57 am »

Hi there,

Please ignore that last post - I was being dumb!

I notice when I analysis certain files it tells me there were errors with the analysis. Does that mean the mp3s are at fault?

Also If I do make the regain analysis and set it at 120db is this applied to the mp3 or just a setting in Ipod.

Many thanks
Karl

SteveG · « **Reply #168 on:** July 16, 2003, 08:14:42 am »

Karl,

The 'Replay Gain Adjustment' setting will only be applied on the iPod. The error during analysis is most likely caused by the bitrate for the file being too low for analysis, not necessarily a flaw in the file. I will implement today the ability to detect if the file is not analyzed and then I wll apply the average setting for the files in the synch.

Steve

ashawley · « **Reply #169 on:** July 16, 2003, 08:18:54 am »

Steve:

USER ERROR!

I noted that it seemed that Replay Gain wasn't working. DOH! Realized last night that 600 or so songs hadn't been Analyzed. Did that, resync'd all seems really great this morning. I'm loving this.

KARL:

I think maybe we need to explain what Replay Gain is in the context of MC9 and how it benefits you in MC9 as it relates to the iPod.

I apologize in advance if you know this already, I just want to be thorough.

Replay Gain was designed, not for the iPod, but for MC9 to allow users to "normalize" the volume of their songs. Because CD1 might have been recorded louder than CD2, it can cause problems when listening to playlists in MC9 (or on the iPod). Now as to the specifics of how it works, Steve can elaborate on that. Or check the MC9 help file. Bottom line it stores a db level adjustment in MC9's database so that when you enable DSP Audio (a feature of MC9) it will use this value to raise or lower the volume of each song based upon the db adjustment of the Replay Gain value. It does not alter the mp3 file in any way.

OK, now that that's figured out. How does it help you? Well, the iPod also has a database field to store this Replay Gain information. So, when you "Apply Replay Gain on Upload", MC9 populates the iPod's database w/this adjustment. Now, it's not necessarily going to make each song lounder, that's not the point. Some songs will have a raised volume, others will have a decreased volume. So they all sound roughly as if they were recorded at the same volume.

OK, but you probably want to boost your volume (I'm guessing your a euro-podder? Could be wrong on that).

Easy, Steve has added another feature: Set Replay Gain Adjustment. This allows you to essentially boost (or lower if you wished) the replay gain values on all your songs.

So, let's say you set this value to +5db. If one of your songs was analyzed w/a Replay Gain value of -10db and another song was analyzed at +5db each of these would be changed to -5db and +10db when uploaded to the iPod.

Hope that helps things a little. It's a little different than Xplay does things (if that's where you first tried this) and much better as it does the boost relative to its analzed Replay Gain setting. So things all sound as if recorded at the same volume.

Sorry for the novel, but I thought it'd help.

Adam

SteveG · « **Reply #170 on:** July 16, 2003, 09:23:53 am »

Adam,

Thanks for taking the time to write that up, you explain it very well and it will be a help to others. If you wouldn't mind cutting and pasting that into the help, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

KarlPod · « **Reply #171 on:** July 16, 2003, 09:57:13 am »

Hi Steve/Adam,

Thanks so much for the explanation

It means a lot to me!

Yes I am a Euro-podder and have not been too impressed with having to have my volume at 100% all the time. I even went to the doctors today to have my ears syringed

but the nurse said my ear had no wax in them:) so I guess the volume does suck

I had dabbled with Xplay but XP did not like the program. MC9.1 seems to be going like a dream apart from the errors mentioned.

Again thank you so much.

Karl

KarlPod · « **Reply #172 on:** July 16, 2003, 10:02:34 am »

Hi ,

Sorry about this but I just notived another little error with build .215.

When I do a sync with Ipod I now notice that any various artists compliation that I am playing will show the song title and LP name but where is should show the artist it shows (in Ipod) the wording 'Multiple Artists'

Regards
Karl

ashawley · « **Reply #173 on:** July 16, 2003, 11:23:32 am »

hehe, Steve, I almost said I was going to do that. But didn't.

Yup, I'll get it added. I'll add a whole section on Replay Gain since it really solves the problem for Euro-podders.

Karl, when you get everything analyzed and sync'd w/a good volume, let us know what you ended up setting yours at, could you? That will serve as a guideline I can put in the help guide.

Since I know your ears are clean now, I think you'd make a good baseline.

Adam

Sherm123 · « **Reply #174 on:** July 16, 2003, 11:51:53 am »

Adam,
Thank you. Your Post explaining the Replay Gain concept and implementation was very helpful.
I have formatted my iPod.
I've just analyzed my MC9 Audio files and now want to upload the Replay Gain DB level adjustments from my MC9 database when I synch and repopulate my iPod.
Where is the box I check to get MC9 to "apply the replay gain on upload" ?
Sherman

SteveG · « **Reply #175 on:** July 16, 2003, 11:52:02 am »

Karl,

The 'Multiple Artist' is by design. It is occuring because you have 'Album Artist (auto)' selected when you right click on iPod and choose 'Select Artist Field'. If you want this field to always send 'Artist' simply select it under 'Select Artist Field' and you will be all set.

FYI 'Album Artist (auto)' uses 'Album Artist' if it is populated and then defaults to 'Artist' if 'Album Artist' is empty.

**Edit** You do not need to wipe the iPod clean, just make sure 'Update Tags' is selected when you synch and have 'Apply Replay Gain' checked.

Sherman,

Right-click on iPod and select 'Apply Replay Gain during Upload'

Steve

KarlPod · « **Reply #176 on:** July 16, 2003, 11:52:21 am »

Hi Adam,

I sure will!

As a matter of interest do I have to wipe my Ipod first before re-syncing and replay gain as I did syncronise with the replay gain and adjusting the db but it did not seem to make a great deal of difference to my file volumes.

Thanks
Karl

KarlPod · « **Reply #177 on:** July 16, 2003, 01:16:29 pm »

Hi again,

Is +12db the highest that the replay gain will go to?

I applied it as mentioned earlier but there appears to be no real gain here.

The strange thing is that tracks that I have not anaylised seem a lot higher in volume. Very strange.

Karl

sub-24 · « **Reply #178 on:** July 16, 2003, 01:36:22 pm »

Has anyone found out the cure yet for the cut off of tracks once transferred to the ipod.

I am still suffering from this in virtually every track.

Does anyone know how to cure it yet.

KarlPod · « **Reply #179 on:** July 16, 2003, 01:44:14 pm »

O.K. - I have been playing around with the settings and I have applied +12db and it does indeed boost the volume quite a lot. On mine probably by 20%. I normally have to listen to my euro Ipod on 100% volume. I now listen at about 80%. I would like that to go down to 50% to save on battery power but we can'r have evrything

I guess Ilike the volume VERY LOUD

It would be nice to be able to increase the db to +20 but I would imagine many people would be blowing up their headsets!

Also alot depends on mp3 quality - especially if you download off file share sites as a lot of people still rip very poorely.

Thanks for your efforts

Karl

SteveG · « **Reply #180 on:** July 16, 2003, 02:10:37 pm »

Mikeh,

You could try restoring the iPod with iPod Manager to see if that will help. Also, be sure you have MC 9.1.215, but if you are pretty current, it should not matter.

If your tracks are still cut off, email me one that is cut off and I will test it here and verify that there is no problem. If I do not hear the cutoff, it is most likely a hardware issue, but I will keep checking.

Karl,

There is a maximum I can boost the volume on iPod and if you are at + 12db that is the max.

sub-24 · « **Reply #181 on:** July 16, 2003, 02:21:54 pm »

I'll send you a track now if you give me your email address.

Ive just tried a few tests.

If i do a conversion then transfer the track cuts off about the last 5 seconds. IF i manually convert the track and copy it to the ipod using explorer renaming as F06\43671.mp3 it still cuts off.

But if i copy the file back from the ipod and play its okay.

It also only happens on files that i am converting. Files i already have as mp3 go on okay.

digitaltrapper · « **Reply #182 on:** July 16, 2003, 02:50:53 pm »

Update: Steve, I am still having this problem of MC just crashing (and disappearing) when I try to sync. Unlike the other user, I was not trying to upload via the media server. I have found that this happens when I try to sync very large numbers of files or large playlists with the transcode feature turned on. This happens when I am trying to both SYNC or UPLOAD. I have been able to get the ipod to UPLOAD and transcode smaller numbers of songs. I just did 37 songs with no problem.

Also, I've been getting songs that get cut off too. When I play the ipod files back over MC, they play fine, however I do have a lot of songs that get uploaded and have incorrect durration times displayed on ipod. Sometimes this causes "dead air" to be played, other times it will cause a file to be cut off....

KarlPod · « **Reply #183 on:** July 17, 2003, 01:46:31 am »

Hi,

Well I have been playing quite a lot with various db levels in 9.1.

If I set the levels to +10 or 12 it seems to work very well with lower frequency tracks (brings up the levels very well) but when it brings down db levels for louder songs (like Sum 41, Queens of the stone age, Rancid etc) the tracks are very bassy and not that crisp at all.

When I take off replay gain the louder songs are again very crisp.

Karl

sub-24 · « **Reply #184 on:** July 17, 2003, 02:18:47 am »

SteveG

I have ran some tests today to see if i can find out why the end of some tracks cut off and i think i have it very consistent now.

I took a CD and ripped a track to 192mp3 - loaded onto ipod and it played perfect.

Ripped the same track to 320mp3 - loaded onto ipod and it played perfect.

Ripped the same track to 320mp3 - loaded to ipod doing a convert to 192mp3 and it cut off the last 1 second.

Ripped the same track to .APE - loaded to ipod doing a convert to 192mp3 and it cut off the last 5-6 seconds.

The above is consistent and it happens every time. It is deffinatley when a conversion is done that you loose the end of a track.

.APE is the worst and it depends on the length of the track being converted as to how much you actually loose.

Most of my music is .APE and that is why i suffer the problem so much.

Can you or anyone else try ripping to .APE and then converting to 192mp3 when uploading to ipod to see if you have the same problem.

stevenf · « **Reply #185 on:** July 17, 2003, 04:02:42 am »

When i transfer an album over to the ipod, it transferes in alphabetical order and not in the sequence that the songs appear on the cd. Is there anyway of ensuing that the correct sequence is transfered.

Thanks

Stefenf

_K_C_ · « **Reply #186 on:** July 17, 2003, 04:20:28 am »

MikeH

Are you convering to constant or variable bit rate mp3s? I was having the same .ape problem with VBR transfers, but choosing CBR seemed to fix it. I saw in a non-IPOD thread there might be an issue with MC's VBR conversion.

sub-24 · « **Reply #187 on:** July 17, 2003, 07:18:45 am »

The last tests were all CBR.

Also if i covert using the plugin or convert manually then transfer manually its still the same.

Sherm123 · « **Reply #188 on:** July 17, 2003, 08:31:45 am »

Steve,
Perhaps I have the wrong plug-in.

Sherm123 · « **Reply #189 on:** July 17, 2003, 08:39:18 am »

Steve,
Sorry, I hit the wrong key and posted before I finished my question.
When I right click on iPod I get a drop down menu that
doesn't include Apply Replay Gain on Upload.
It does show the following:
Show queued files only
Play
Add to playing now
Explore
Format iPod
Rebuild database from iPod
Synchronize files
Eject device
Select artist field
What newer software should I download?
Sherm

digitaltrapper · « **Reply #190 on:** July 17, 2003, 08:56:32 am »

I'd agree with the thinking that the tracks that get cut off are the ones that have been converted. My tests tend to show the same thing. I was using VBR with high speed conversion. All my tracks are converted, however not all of them are cut off. (Or at least they only cut off "silence" at the end of tracks"). I do notice that if a track is cut off, the rest of that album tends to have tracks cut off as well.

Still no luck with sync without MC crashing, however it is definately the size of the sync that is causing a crash. I'll do more tests tonight to try to pinpoint the exact amount of tracks that cause it to crash. Anything more I can tell you Steve to help you diagnosis this??

trapper

SteveG · « **Reply #191 on:** July 17, 2003, 09:37:01 am »

Everyone,

Once again, this thread has gotten huge. I will close this one and open a new one, but first let me resolve remaining open issues.

mikeh,

If you want to send a track, my email is steve @ jriver.com. But before you do, I tried the steps you outlined on my XP machine with MC 9.1.215 (Plugin 9.0.42). I could not duplicate your problem( Thanks very much for posting a test that should recreate your problem, that is a huge time saver). Everything played fine with no cutoff on iPod. Can anyone else follow mikeh's steps and repeat his problem? If so, what OS are you running?

DigitalTrapper,

If you do not have MC 9.1.215, please get it. I included many changes yesterday to make it more crash proof. Any more information you can give would be great. I will try to make it fail more today with large numbers of converting files.

*EDIT* Get today's build MC 9.1.216 when it is available. I made additional improvements and tested it synching and converting 800 files worked fine for me.

In regards to the 'dead air' and incorrect playback time, the duration should be identical to what is reported in MC, please tell me if it is not. If there is dead air, it is not related to the duration. I have tested by setting duration to 0 and the files all still play fine on iPod (just without any reporting of where in the file you are)

Karl,

Thanks for the report. The whole "Replay Gain" thing is not an exact science. I hope it is working well enough for now.

Stefenf,

How are you slecting the songs on the album for upload and what are you trying to accomplish?

If you want the songs to playback in track order on iPod when you select the 'Album' you must make sure that the "Track Number" field is correctly identified in MC because this dictates the order on iPod. If you just want the tracks to transfer in a particular order, after the files are "in Queue", right click on iPod and select "Show Queued Files Only". If you adjust the order after this, the files will transfer in the order you select.

If you have not yet, I would suggest exploring Playlists and Smartlists and the synchronization feature in the plugin.

Sherm123,

Get MC 9.1.215 if you do not have it and you should see the features I mentioned.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: OLD IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 40600 times)