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[WinoOutWest]

exMMJB-MC9 Newbie here (another week or so left on my trial version)  anyway... I digress...

I have reripped my CD collection to 256k MP3 format and am curious what the others are doing with the mp3 portable players.  Is there are way to re-encode on the fly to a 128kb size (that'd be sweet) or do you keep a separate directory with the smaller MP3s for the portable?

What are you doing?
Cheers!

[Phil Lee]

I have a 10Gb iPod and ripped the vast majority of my files using the MP3 VBR Encoder using either the --r3mix or --alt-preset standard options. I am now reripping my favourite CD's using the LAME 3.90.2 external encoder.

These options produce relatively large files but they are very high quality. At the moment I have 1746 songs on my iPod which is around 150 CD's worth.  I am happy to have fewer songs at a higher quality on my iPod.

Which MP3 player are you using BTW?

[WinoOutWest]

Yeah... I am thinking that I will end up with an iPod but probably not 'till next year.  Until then I have to make do with my Rio600 with 128MB.  Once I go to the iPod I know my issue will go away as I will just transfer them at the encoded 256k.  Until then however I am looking for a way to efficiently work with my RIO.
Cheers!

[nila]

For a player with 128 I'd probably do what I do and just plan what u want in advance and then just convert all the songs u want to put onto the player to a lower bitrate and then copy them accross.
Then just delete the files.

If I want new songs I again just re-encode the new songs.

If I had an ipod I'd use the full quality ones due to it's stupid amounts of space (zen makes the ipod look small though as it has 60 gig's).

For my portable player I use these settings:

-b 32 -m j --abr 70 -B 112 --resample 32 -q 2


Dont know what they are but they're the pre-set's in Razorlame for a portable player - they work great for me and give me small file sizes.

[Bartabedian]

Personally, I do one high quality encode and use those files on my Nomad II, and just get less music on it. Why?Normally when using the Nomad it's with headphones on, and have you ever heard low quality encodes right in you ears? Not fun.

[SteveG]

WinoOutWest,

After dragging your files to the memory of your Rio, click on the Rio600. You will see the queued files. In the lower right, click on "Options" and you will see the ability to enable file conversion on transfer. This will automatically convert your files on the way to your Rio and then delete the files from your PC so you don't have them taking up space.


Steve

[WinoOutWest]

That's Perfect!  Now I will have the option of leaving the files on my HD right?  I mean I want to keep all the stuff on my HD and then just convert the files I want on my player at the time of conversion leaving the originals in tact.

[kcorbett]

What am I doing? Using Windows Explorer, because Media Center lacks functionality to synchronize files and preserve a hierarchical naming scheme. I consider this a horrible limitation in an otherwise stellar product.  

I have an Archos Jukebox 20 Recorder which functions as a 20GB disk drive (USB). I manage my MP3 collection on my PC's hard drive.

The Archos UI is a file browser; you navigate up and down the file menus, and push a button to select. (Actually I use Rockbox, but the Archos firmware works the same way.) So I keep my files organized in the typical hierarchical form, with separate directories for Artist/Album.

I use Windows Explorer to copy & paste files from one hard drive to the other (Archos).  I have to keep a list of changes to be applied on the Archos: new directories, renamed / deleted files, etc.

(I've experimented with various Windows file synchronization tools, and so far I haven't found one that is a) powerful and b) easy to use.)

Unfortunately, I haven't found any features of Media Center that help with this workflow.

What I want is something like Media Center's synchronize files that would take a property mask like [Artist]/[Album]. Alternatively, I would like to have a copy files command that would work like rename files. Enhancing the synchronize command would be ideal, since it works off a playlist; then I could control what subset of my PC collection would be copied over.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I would be most grateful. Thanks!

/kmc

[jj.oneil]

kcorbett,

I use TreeComp to sync my music to an external HD. It's the most powerfull freeware one i found. http://www.xs4all.nl/~lploeger/TreeComp3.htm

Alternatively, you may try to create a windoze briefcase on your pc and manage your music from there. Just a thought.

JJ.

[Galley]

I must use RealOne Player to copy tunes to my Palm Zire 71 (which is running RealOne Player as well).  ROP has an option to convert any files to a specified bitrate.  Does MC have anything like that?

[JimH]

Yes.  It's under Options when you upload to the player.  Once you set it, the setting applies until you change it.  You can convert from wma to mp3 and change the bit rate, for example.

[jhuff]

What am I doing? Using Windows Explorer, because Media Center lacks functionality to synchronize files and preserve a hierarchical naming scheme. I consider this a horrible limitation in an otherwise stellar product.

I would have to agree w/you on this. I have been trying w/out success to use the Windows CE handheld plugin to load my Cassiopeia 125 with tunes from MC9. This plugin refuses to upload tunes to anything but the root directory of this PPC and if you know anything about the Cassiopeia 125 you know that it is not able to store much of anything unless it has a flash card installed! The plugin simply will not address the flash memory at all and will insist on placing the tunes I try to upload in the root dir. Exasperating! It would have been better for this plugin not to have been born at all than to have been released in this sorry state of affairs!  

[SteveG]

jhuff,

I did not give birth to this plugin, but it is my responsibility now.  I had not heard any complaints so I have not addressed this plugin for a while. Now that you have given your criticism, take a breath and I will improve this ASAP.

kCorbett,  

I will also try to work in some improvements for you as well.

Steve

[jhuff]

SteveG
Sorry about my tone but this was after several hours of exasperting failure with this as I was trying everything I could think of to get it to work properly thinking I was doing something wrong. This piled on top of the very poor support given by Microsoft for these devices. They seem to be all too happy to support the current PPC 2002 devices and educate the users of this OS but if, god forbid, your device is running a version of Windows CE that is just one generation behind the times there seems to be no way to determine if the software is current or if it needs some update or patch. I was finally able to determine that my Cassiopeia needed an update and it did resolve a few of the issues I was having, unfortunately not this one. (deep breath)
I would be most happy to work with you to get it working correctly and was on the verge of purchasing a newer PPC 2002 device in the hopes that the issue was the verion of WinCE on my Cassiopeia. Thanks for your patience.  

[SteveG]

KCorbett,

Please get the latest Portable Drive plugin from our website(v 9.0.21). This version includes a right click toggle on your removable drive letter (under CD, DVD & Handhelds) to Auto-Create directories from filenames. I think this will be close to what you are after. With this option selected, MC will create a folder structure on your player based on the directory structure in your filename. Please explore this option and make suggestions.

jhuff,

Thanks for your reply. I sent you an email.