Steve:
CCT1 is talking about Dynamic Playlists. And they are very different in iTunes (and hence on the iPod) than in MC9.
For example: in MC9, when you click on a smartlist, everytime you click on it, it changes. So, if I create a smartlist of 5 random tunes, each time I click on that smartlist its contents are updated. Not so in iTunes. In iTunes if I created the same playlist it would never change. Ever. I would grab five random songs from the library and stay that way.
The only way to get the smartlist to change would be to add a qualifier to it that could update the contents. For example, a "Last Played > 1 day". The way iTunes (and iPod smartlists) are updated is that when you play a song, as that song no longer meets the criteria of the smartlist, it will be removed and a new song will be added.
You can do this easily in iTunes and watch the smartlist change.
Now, how does this apply to the iPod? Easy, smartplaylists that get copied to the iPod through iTunes, don't get copied as a list of tunes (as in MC9); rather, the rules get copied. Or at least that's how we believe it works. Because these smartlists don't require a sync to be updated. If I create the same smartlist: "5 random tunes, last played > 1 day" it will update dynamically on the iPod. So, you will play a song, then, when you go back to look at the contents of the playlist, the song you listened to will be removed. All w/o a sync.
This also applies to ratings and playcounts. If I have a 5 Star Rated playlist and I change a song from a 4 to a 5, it will be added to this smartlist w/o a sync.
So, that's how they're different Steve, and I think it has implications for the sync speeds as well. Basically, what I think you've been doing is creating "Manual" playlists using MC9's smartlist capabilities. This requires you to update the "Playlist" column for each song when syncing. I don't think iTunes has to do that. It just needs to update the rules for each smartlist. Then the iPod applies them.
Get it?
Adam