MC did tell me that my iPod might not be formatted for MC. So....I hit OK and right-clicked on the iPod before Windows could shut it down
Do you have any other iPod software installed? I have to uninstall XPlay to use MC and vice versa, or they interact with each other. Both take notice of an iPod connecting and start to work with it... it is just a disk drive from an OS standpoint, so nothing is preventing both programs from reading and writing to it simultaneously. I saw it earlier today when my transfers to the iPod were around 6Mb/s (unusual). I uninstalled XPlay, re-re-formatted the iPod, and the transfer was back to 9Mb/s in the display (2.5 GHz P4). The display typically starts a 3000-file transfer at 9.0Mb/s, and ends up at 8.1Mb/s at the end of the transfer.
(The displayed rate seems to apply to any given transfer between the PC and the iPod. If I divide the overall time by the Mb's transferred, the net rate is 7.2 - still very pleasing!)
Back to the question at hand: do we need to right-click the drive button to format?
Steve... how about incorporating the Format function inside the "might not be formatted for MC" dialog? If they press the button in the dialog, you can set up MC the way you want it and do the format right then. Even though I personally know what steps to follow, I'd find this preferable, given how often I reformat the iPod.
Good news: I synced a newly-formatted iPod with no problems. I read the stuff on the list and didn't have enough time this evening to do the test, then reload the pod.
Wish list 1: is it time to get the file count right? As I watch the display, it appears you're going through each playlist to register it in the iPod - thus, the file count includes each file's appearance in each Playlist. If you could incorporate all Playlist updates when the data file is first transferred, the appearance would be more natural, and the time estimate more accurate.
Wish list 2a: You mentioned that a file could be queued for transfer by dragging it to the iPod icon. But what if the iPod isn't attached? Could you make a Context Menu option that says "Include in next Synchronization" when the user Right-Clicks a file in the list?
Wish list 2b: If you do 2a, could you expose the flag through IMJFileAutomation, so plug-ins could designate files to be included in the next sync? This would give us lots of flexibility to do things that you might not want to include in the base product. (please, please) The whole issue of file synchronization with an iPod is interesting, as several of us have masters at a given bitrate with iPod copies at sizes that meet our preferences.
thx... see ya Friday... Randy