Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Old Man Stan]

Hi all, new user here.  I want to burn files in a playlist in the same order they appear in the playlist.  When I burn the files, the burned file filenames appear to start with the track number.  This causes the files to play in the wrong order on players that don't use the playlist file burned with the files.

iTunes will burn the files with a sequence number added to the filenames that allows them to play in the correct order, but I want to transition off of iTunes with the new computer.

Even better would be the ability to transfer the files from the playlist with sequencing added directly to a thumbdrive, so I don't need to burn to a CD or DVD first.

Thanks in advance!
Old Man Stan

[JimH]

Hi all, new user here.  I want to burn files in a playlist in the same order they appear in the playlist.  When I burn the files, the burned file filenames appear to start with the track number. 

That's optional in MC.   Click on the little icon in the upper left corner of the ripping window.

[RoderickGI]

The request is for writing files in a specific sequence to a CD or thumbdrive Jim.

Even better would be the ability to transfer the files from the playlist with sequencing added directly to a thumbdrive, so I don't need to burn to a CD or DVD first.

Easy enough. Use the Handheld Sync feature to write the files to your thumbdrive, and specifically the Filename Rule to write the files so that they sort in the correct order.

If you are writing just one Album, then the Track number can be included at the beginning of the files, so they will sort correctly in Auto Audio and other systems that just use the filename for sequencing.

If you have a mix of Tracks from multiple Albums then you will need to do a little more work. MC also has a Sequence number in Playlists, but it can't be used in expressions for file naming, unfortunately. However, you can easily create a new Custom field and use that for a sequence number. It is easy to populate that Custom Sequence number during the Handheld Sync process for all files... Oh, I just found an issue with that. I'll have to look further later. MC might need a slight change.

Anyway, see if you can work out the details. If not, bump the thread and I'll add more information later.


PS: Jim, it would really be nice if the Sequence number in Playlists could be available for expressions where Playlists are involved, such as the Handheld Sync process. If just one Playlist was being synced in Handheld Sync then a custom field wouldn't be required. But I'm not sure that can be done, given the way MC uses Seq Number.

[wer]

If one is burning a CD, using "update order" after you sort or arrange a playlist will set the burn order.

However, this question is nonsensical in the context of a thumb drive.  Thumbdrive filesystems have no "order" to the files, in the sense that you mean.

When using a thumbdrive, the order that material is presented or displayed is 100% dependent on the player.  The player might choose to display in any order, such as alphabetical. This is why there is an option in MC, to prefix the file name with the track number.

If the player is sorting files by date (I saw a car do this once) there are many utilities to alter the time stamps on files without otherwise modifying them. A google search will reveal them.

Some embedded players are very stupid in how they read thumbdrives. You will need to know the idiosyncrasies of your player, so that you can work around them.  But thumbdrives have no inherent order, and there is no one way MC can organize files on a thumb drive that will present the same everywhere you use it.

[Old Man Stan]

Thanks for the replies so far, I will try some of the suggestions.  Here is some additional info that may help.

First, I like to make custom multi-artist "mixtapes" to play in my vehicles, and I want the tracks to play in a particular order that I set when I create the playlists.

I have been using iTunes to do this, but as you know, iTunes has many limitations, one of which is not being able to "burn" a playlist to a thumbdrive.  I can burn the playlist to a CD or DVD, and then manually copy the files to a thumbdrive. This is time consuming and wasteful, but the files play in the correct order since iTunes appends the sequence number to the filename so dumb players will still play in the correct order. If I select the files in the playlist, then drag and drop to the thumbdrive, the sequence number does not get appended, and the files play in alphabetical order.

Additionally, the burner on my old Toshiba laptop quit working, and apparently iTunes is often responsible for creating the "code 19" condition that makes the burner no longer operational.  I spent 2 hours trying everything short of re-installing Windows to get rid of the code 19 error, to no avail. Time for a new laptop, which I got last week.

Anyway, if anyone has additional things to try in MC, I am ready to try them. Thanks again.

[wer]

Please read this article:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/CD/DVD_File_Naming

If your car wants to play in alphabetical order, use the option I previously mentioned to you: Prefix the list order to the CD filename
That will make alphabetical order match the order of your list.

If your car uses track order, you can "update track number from list order" but that will modify the files in your library; better act on copies if you don't want that.

You can also use MC's Handheld Sync option to write files to your thumbdrive while making particular modifications. Take a look at this article:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Handheld_Sync_Options

Also, some car players actually respect .m3u playlist files.  You might investigate that.  You can export MC playlists in that format.

I hope this helps.  Good luck...

[justsomeguy]

I have struggled with this as well. There is no good "clean" way of doing it unfortunately. Here is what I've done in the past though:

• Setup a new device in MC, Options > Handheld, under "Device management" click "Add device". Give it a name and choose a path on your flash drive where your files will live.
• Now add that flash drive folder you just created to the auto-import options. Tools > Import > Configure Auto-Import > Add, from here set the Folder option to that flash drive folder.
• Now setup a new Smartlist called whatever you want. Edit this new list and create a rule "Filename (path) - is - F:\Music\" or whatever the path to the flash drive where your music will be.
• Now add some music from your library to the device you created in step 1. Once you've added a few files go ahead and click "Sync Now".
• Once it finishes syncing go to the smartlist you created in step 3. The files you just synced should be there.
• Now make sure the files are in the order you want them. Select all the files in the smartlist. Go to Tools > Library Tools > Fill Track Numbers From List Order..., uncheck "Start over each album or disc". Click OK
• Last step, make sure all files in the smartlist are still selected. Go to Tools > Library Tools > Rename, Move, & Copy Files...". Make sure it is set to Rename, setup the "Filename" rule however you want but use track# as the first field like, [Track #] - [Artist] - [Name]. Click OK and you should be done.

After doing this the first time from then on you should only have to do steps 4 - 7.
Doing it this way you don't modify any of your original files, only the files on the flash drive.
Almost all car stereos I've encountered, unless they are android based, play files alphabetically from within a folder completely ignoring a .m3u playlist. In that case this is the only way I've found to create a flash drive that will play in the order you want if the files are from various artists/albums.

[Old Man Stan]

Thanks wer, it looks like that will work, and the option by justsomeguy will work as well.

Compared to iTunes, MC is very complex, with a steep learning curve for me.

Now I am trying to add more files to a playlist I setup yesterday, and the playlist name is grayed out so I can't add the files to the existing playlist. Hopefully I can figure out why the playlist name is grayed out, the playlist displays fine.

Thanks again for the help.

OMS

[Old Man Stan]

Playlist was locked, not sure how. Building a 300 track playlist now.