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[robojock]

Hi,

I am trying to create a handheld device (Folder) where i can copy my music to and convert it from flac to mp3, so that this can be imported into rekordbox. I have a playlist setup which i select to sync, this playlist contains mostly flac and some mp3. I get it right to sync to the folder but media center does not convert the flac even though i have conversion setup to convert to mp3. The moment i change to the supported types to .mp3 it won't let me sync anything

[Peter_T]

You may need to tell MC that the folder only accepts mp3s...

- look at the Options for your device (folder)
- under "Files, Paths, & More", right at the end there's "supported file types"
- make sure that this says "mp3" rather than "*"... if not, click on the field and type in "mp3"

Hope that helps!

[robojock]

Hi Peter_T,

I did that and media center was giving me errors, seems like there was a corrupt flac which was causing the error.

[robojock]

It now works copying the flacs and converting it to mp3 but the existing mp3s in the playlist don't get copied over :

[RoderickGI]

The "Supported File Types" setting specifies the file types that the target device supports. I just leave that set to "*" when syncing MP3 files. I guess if you were syncing FLAC and MP3 files it would make sense to set it to MP3 for a device that can only play MP3s.

If your FLAC files have now synced and were converted to MP3s, I suspect with the trying different things that MC has got a little out of whack. A resync should copy the MP3s over as well, if they aren't in the folder already.

Try setting up to do a new sync, set all the options including setting the Audio Mode to "Specified output format only when necessary", with the supported format as MP3, then click OK and check if there are any files marked as "In Queue" still. If not, click the "Recheck Sync" button which will basically check everything, but often forces all files to be synced again, depending on other settings.

Of course, if your MP3 source files are marked as "On Device" then MC thinks it has already copied the files across to the folder. If that isn't correct, remove the playlist from the settings (add a dummy one file playlist if necessary to get all the option settings), then make sure the "Delete from handheld any files not in sync list" setting is ticked, then sync, then add your playlist back, then sync.

If nothing works, delete the Device (just select it in the left navigation pane and press the Delete button - don't use the right click "Remove & Ignore Device" function) and start again.


Basically, the Handheld sync functionality works, but it can be a bit tricky to get set up and working properly.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Sync_Handheld
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Handheld_Sync_Options

[robojock]

Thanks RoderickGI, the recheck sync did the trick. Now i seem to have a stubborn file flac that does not want to convert to mp3 everything converts to mp3 except this one file. Media Center even copies it to JRiver Conversion Cache folder and everytime i say recheck sync it shows up in queue and makes multiple copies of itself in JRiver Conversion Cache folder and on the "device/folder"

[RoderickGI]

There may be something wrong with the file. It could have been the cause of the initial problem if MC tried to convert it first. Obviously not something major if it can be played.

Actually, I wonder if the $ in the file name could be an issue? Maybe for the conversion routine, but not for playback or other files functions. I believe the conversion from FLAC to MP3 uses the Lame encoder. Perhaps it can't handle the $ in the name.

Try doing a manual conversion to MP3 and see if that works.

[robojock]

Trying to convert manually to mp3 it fails, converting it to another format .alac/m4a works. Then its how media center and lame handles the $/dollar sign. It's then a bug with media center as using an external tool xact to convert with lame does not have this issue.

[RoderickGI]

Yep, it could be that you have found a bug. Someone from JRiver will have to comment on that.

The $ is a legal character in Windows file names. Maybe the version of Lame MC uses is having the problem.

You could try copying the problem file to a new name that does not include a $ and then converting it, just to confirm that it is the name and not some internal issue. That would help JRiver in solving the problem.

EDIT: I just converted a file named "01 - One More $hance.flac" to mp3 and it worked fine. A bit slow to start the conversion, but worked, and the resulting file played no problem. So it could be something else about the file.

[Matt]

I also added $$$ to the end of a filename and it converted to MP3 no problem.  So something else must be happening.

Any ideas?

You could even send a test file to matt at jriver dot com.

Thanks

[robojock]

@Matt and RoderickGI,

did you guys try with the $ in the tag itself?

Edit: if i change the $ to s in the tag then it converts to mp3

[Matt]

I put $ in a couple tags and the conversion still went no problem.  And the output filename does have $ in it.  I'm testing on a Mac since this is on the Mac board.

[robojock]

@Matt, i will have to mail you the problem file then

[robojock]

Hi Matt,

I figured out the problem, the drive that my music is located on is ntfs. I am using paragon ntfs driver so that i can read/write to that drive. That specific file if i leave it on the drive media center fails to convert it to mp3, if i copy that file to desktop media center converts it without problems. This is then still a bug with media center as other mac apps that convert from one format to another do not have this problem.

[RoderickGI]

Hmmm, that seems a bit of a stretch. I would say it is a problem with the Paragon NTFS Driver not handling file operations from MC, and my proof would be that MC works fine on the internal hard drive.

I use MacDrive on my PC to read HFS+ disks. I expect that to work seamlessly with all applications if they work on native NTFS drives. I would expect the same of Paragon on a Mac for NTFS drives.

But this is one for Matt to consider.

[robojock]

I don't think that is the issue, as converting to other formats alac/ape on the same drive works. It's only when converting to mp3 that it fails.