Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 44860 times)

SteveG · « **on:** November 24, 2003, 10:17:02 am »

Hello All,

For anyone who is new to MC, please be sure to get the latest version from our downloads page or from the first thread on this board.

An excellent help file (thanks Adam) on using MC and iPod can be found here:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/

For additional information, please check the previous help thread at:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=16571

For any issues not covered, please post below and someone will respond ASAP. Please copy and paste your system info from MC Help and include the version of the Portable Drive Plugin you use.

Thanks,

Steve
JRiver

mikbau · « **Reply #1 on:** November 24, 2003, 10:29:16 am »

Hi all~
Hopefully a simple question here - I searched the archives but couldn't find an answer.

I have an anomoly with one particular CD where it shows up correctly under it's corrosponding artist in MC9, but when I sync to the iPod, it puts it under the "Various Artists" category - I looked and all the tags look right, but I may have missed something....

thanks much
Mike

SteveG · « **Reply #2 on:** November 24, 2003, 10:43:04 am »

Everyone,

I have started to try to figure out the dynamic playlist implementation for iPod. It is a time consuming process. In an effort to save us the costs of doing this from scratch, if you would like to see this feature implented, please consider emailing Apple here...

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html

and ask them to consider cooperating with us.

Thanks,
Steve

Mike,

If you right-click on your iPod drive letter in MC you will see an item called "Select Artist Field". This is set to use Album Artist(auto). If you enable viewing the Album Artist (auto) field in MC, you will see that the information in that field is 'Multiple Artists'. If you prefer to see the 'Artist' info on iPod, simply select that as the option under "Select Artist Field"

mindracing · « **Reply #3 on:** November 24, 2003, 10:58:00 am »

Steve,

By right click on Root you do mean F, which is my iPOD drive letter?

I don't see the option here and am running build 309. Is there a later one?

btvillarin · « **Reply #4 on:** November 24, 2003, 11:02:48 am »

This is what I emailed to Apple, maybe people could send the same or word it better.

Quote

Hi,

I'm a JRiver Media Center user (http://www.musicex.com/mediacenter/), and I'd like to see dynamic playlists implemented in their software plugin for the iPod. The developer has been trying to figure out how to do it, but it's frustrating for him to try and do it from scratch.

Could you please assist him in getting that feature to work in Media Center? A whole bunch of us would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Bryan T. Villarin
btvillarin.com

If hundreds of us all send the same message, perhaps they'd help Steve and the rest of the gang here.

mindracing · « **Reply #5 on:** November 24, 2003, 11:30:47 am »

Here's my version of the Apple feedback.

Having more than one version to use will make them more likely to be read but maybe we need a seperate thread for the posts if there are to be loads.

Dear Apple,

I am on my 3rd iPOD and love it. It does everything I need it to do and almost completely integrates with the rest of my AV equipment and software.

I use a program called Music Center by J River (http://www.musicex.com/mediacenter) to manage all of my media, iPOD included.

The developers are excellent and implement all iPOD functinality apart from one element - the on-the-go playlist synchronisation. They and I would really like to have this feature. I am sure that a NDA with them that would allow them access to the iPOD functionality would allow them to resolve this.

This would cost Apple nothing allow choice for the iPOD owner. Whilst iTUNES certainly fulfils a basic need it does not currently provide a one stop solution for media management like MC.

I am sure that you do not want to create an iPOD/iTUNES situation like WIndows/I.E..

Opening up the iPOD to J River would certainly demonstrate that Apple take a pragmatic and consumer choice standpoint with regard to product use.

Regards

SteveG · « **Reply #6 on:** November 24, 2003, 12:18:11 pm »

Ashley,

309 is the latest available and by Root drive, I do mean your iPod drive letter. I am not sure why it is not there. Please try again with 310 and let me know if it is still unavailable to you.

Ashley and Bryan,

Thanks for the messages to Apple, hopefully it will get things going.

Steve

btvillarin · « **Reply #7 on:** November 24, 2003, 12:21:56 pm »

Ashley, that's even better!

I hope more people will email Apple. Anything to help you out, Steve.

BoothUK · « **Reply #8 on:** November 24, 2003, 04:44:32 pm »

Steve,

Further to my problems (posted about in the last thread) with unmounting my iPod when MC is running:

I've removed iTunes from my system and the iPod Service thingy in the services control panel is disabled - I'm sure they're not to blame.

MC's behaviour still appears to be the same. I've worked out that I can connect my iPod, browse it in MC and then disconnect it using Windows' Unplug or Remove Hardware tool with no problem.

The problem occurs when I've done a "major" operation on the iPod - such as syncronising it or importing it's data back into MC. In those situations I can't use the Windows tool to dismount the iPod - it just tells me that the device "Generic Volume" can't be removed because a program is accessing it. As soon as I quit MC, i can dismount my iPod *straight away*. It really seems to me that it is MC that's causing this, although I can't explain why it doesn't happen on other people's machines... Ejecting the iPod from within MC doesn't help because even though the iPod's screen changes to "OK To Remove" Windows still lists it in the Remove Hardware Tool and I have to dismount it from there as well. Even if I eject my iPod within MC - I still need to quit MC before I can dismount the iPod from the Windows tool.

It's a 20GB 3rd-gen running V2.1, the PC is Win2k SP4. My Firewire controller calls itself a "Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE1394 Controller" but it came built in to my ABit Motherboard and I think it actually a VIA chip. My MC info is below, I'm not sure what other info to offer.

Thanks loads for your help. I really like MC and the way you guys support/develop it!

Quote

Media Center Registered 9.1.309 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
AMD Athlon 1797 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 345 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3700.6705 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / No burners found.
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

P.S. I'll also send off a message to Apple about getting dynamic playlists. But wouldn't it be better to sent it from the iPod feedback page - http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html - instead of the iTunes one? It's kinda more feedback on the iPod itself instead of feedback on iTunes, is it not? That's where I think I'll send one from - I'm sure they ignore them all anyway

tlongacre · « **Reply #9 on:** November 24, 2003, 06:01:15 pm »

I sent my message from the iPod feedback site. Let's hope they pay attention.

willrmc · « **Reply #10 on:** November 24, 2003, 08:56:03 pm »

don't hold your breath, apple doesn't listen to anyone.

drbenson · « **Reply #11 on:** November 24, 2003, 11:49:08 pm »

Just picked up a 3rd gen iPod- my first venture into Apple land. I was surprised and VERY pleased that MC9- my player of choice- supports the iPod, allowing me to chuck the software junk that comes with it.

I am, however, having a problem. I have my tunes stored on my home theater PC in Windows Media Lossless. I am converting to MP3 VBR set to high quality for storage on the iPod. MC offers the option of doing the conversion during transfer. Very good!

However, I'm getting an MC-freezing error in the middle of the transfer- often, though not always. I get a modal error window with an unreadable message in the box plus an OK button. I can click the button and get rid of the box, but MC is then unresponsive and I have to do the old three finger salute to kill and restart it. Not at that computer right now, but I can post a screenshot if it helps.

Anyone else had this problem? Could it be the perverse combination of decoding / encoding I've selected? Suggestions? Currently using the 09 build, I'll try 10 later tonight.

bellipod · « **Reply #12 on:** November 25, 2003, 01:15:56 am »

Why do all my playlists transfer an entire name/location? For example: "Workout Music (My Smartlists)" I don't want it to say the "(My Smartlists)" part, and it just started recently.

No big deal, just something I'd like to get rid of.

Thanks!

Niro · « **Reply #13 on:** November 25, 2003, 01:17:43 am »

Steve,

That happens to me all the time, every couple of synchs. The ItunesDB files is completely blank...I can send it over, but it's just blank...

After restoring and resynching the itunesDB file becomes normal again obviously. Also for what it's worth...this has been happening for a while...and I've seen completely reinstalled the OS (for other reasons...that woulda been a pretty extreme measure for just a synching problem

)...and now the problem continues even after the reinstall. No other ipod software is installed.

_K_C_ · « **Reply #14 on:** November 25, 2003, 05:29:06 am »

I have a third generation iPod and am extremely happy with it.

I use a program called Media Center by J River (http://www.musicex.com/mediacenter) to manage all of my media, iPOD included.

I would like to ask you to work with J River's programmers to allow them to improve interoperability between their product and the iPod, and in particular to allow them to use dynamic playlists.

I was already using Media Center before I bought my iPod; that Media Center already supported the iPod was an important element in my choosing the iPod. The MusicMatch software supplied with my iPod was extremely poor. I've tried iTunes, but prefer Media Center as it manages all of my media - a one stop solution. There's no real possibility of my switching away from Media Center for the foreseeable future, whether or not dynamic playlists are implemented.

The J River developers are excellent, and very responsive to user requests. Co-operating with them could only benefit the sales of iPods to Windows users.

I firmly believe that competition drives innovation to the benefit of consumers. Although Apple may be tempted to favour the development of iTunes over the development of third party programs, that would be commercially short sighted. Giving consumers a choice of software, with each appealling to different user groups, will help to drive sales of iPods.

I hope that you take this request seriously.

Many thanks

SteveG · « **Reply #15 on:** November 25, 2003, 09:39:34 am »

Everyone,

Thanks to all for sending the notes to Apple. I appreciate all the time and carefulness you have taken with this. All we can do is give it our best shot. As an update to the dynamic playlists, I have successfully managed to create a dynamic smartlist on iPod from MC in which a rule of 'Rating = 2' is dynamically updated on iPod. This is encouraging for the end result of as near a full implementation of this as I can achieve with what we have to work with.

BoothUK,

I think I found what may be causing the problem for you. Please try the next build of MC.

drbenson,

Definitely try .310 or later. Beginning with 310 I fixed a bug that definitely would have caused problems when converting large numbers of files on the fly. If you continue to have the problem, try sending the files in smaller batches to try to isolate when the problem occurs. In addition, you could try sending me a copy of the file iTunesDB from your iPod after you see the crash (steve @ jriver.com).

bellipod,

The full path is included because iPod has no way to distinguish between two playlists from MC such as 'MySmartlists\A great playlist' and another playlist called simply 'A great playlist'.

Niro,

Are you doing on the fly conversion during these transfers? If so, 310 should provide a fix. When you say the iTunesDB is blank, have you viewed it using a hex editor or are you just going by the 0k size. If the latter, please send me the file anyway.

btvillarin · « **Reply #16 on:** November 25, 2003, 09:50:35 am »

Quote from: SteveG on November 25, 2003, 09:39:34 am

Everyone,

Thanks to all for sending the notes to Apple. I appreciate all the time and carefulness you have taken with this. All we can do is give it our best shot. As an update to the dynamic playlists, I have successfully managed to create a dynamic smartlist on iPod from MC in which a rule of 'Rating = 2' is dynamically updated on iPod. This is encouraging for the end result of as near a full implementation of this as I can achieve with what we have to work with.

Whoa, nice! I hope you can post your updates on the dynamic playlists. Hopefully this achievement (sp?) will give you the motivation to keep on truckin. Not sure if you'll get Apple's help, but looks like you might not even need it.

SouthsideIrish · « **Reply #17 on:** November 25, 2003, 09:58:05 am »

Well I also sent a letter into Apple, but really didn't want to add a reply, since it seemed like a bad use of web space, but I do have an annoying problem right now.

I've been unable to play some AAC files, and now know why this is happening. Basically, it has caused me to give up on the format entirely unless I decide to switch to iTunes full time, and that isn't happening.

QT appears to not be able to play any songs with a file length over 33 or so characters and can't play any songs with Japanese characters in the file name. Since a lot of my filenames are in Japanese it is impossible for me to play or even upload mp4s to my iPod as QT and MC9 show the songs as 0 length duration. I have tried to play the songs in QT, but QT cannot find the path to these songs.

BTW this doesn't happen if I use iTunes since iTunes doesn't seem to pass the filenames to QT.

Just an FYI,

Bill McNair

BoothUK · « **Reply #18 on:** November 25, 2003, 10:32:09 am »

Steve,

Not sure if by next version you meant 9.1.310, but I just downloaded that and it doesn't seem to have made a difference.

btvillarin · « **Reply #19 on:** November 25, 2003, 01:53:04 pm »

Crud, I still got that bug. My playlists disappeared just now.

SteveG · « **Reply #20 on:** November 25, 2003, 02:21:24 pm »

Bill,

I know that Quicktime has a problem opening files more than 32 characters in length. I did not know about the Japanese character limitation. At this time we are tied to using Quicktime to play these files so we are somewhat stuck. Thanks for the info.

Sorry.

BoothUK,

I meant the next version to be released which will be 9.1.311.

Bryan,

I assume you are not doing on the fly conversions. If you can find a pattern to the deletions that would be great.

drbenson · « **Reply #21 on:** November 25, 2003, 03:29:50 pm »

Had time for a little bit of MC9 / iPod play last night. Just for diagnostic purposes, I ripped a CD that I'd previously tried to convert from .WMA lossless to .MP3 VBR without success. This time I ripped to .APE, and the conversion went flawlessly. This may have to do with only one CD worth being converted at a time- I'll know more when I play more.

Two quick related questions:

Can MC9 translate into .AAC? How would sound quality compare with MP3 VBR High Quality?

If I find the conversion glitch has to do with .WMA, I might let MC9 convert all of my ripped content to .APE. Since both are lossless formats, theoretically I would lose nothing in the conversion, and could still reconstitute the original .WAV files from .APE if necessary for any reason in the future. Is practical (real world) equal to theoretical in this case?

gwj · « **Reply #22 on:** November 25, 2003, 04:17:57 pm »

My problem is transfer of Playlists to iPOD from MC 9. It doesn't happen. I have transferred some 2000 songs to my iPOD(3rd generation) but can't seem to transfer the playlists.

Do I drag and drop a Playlist name? When I do that MC tells me the songs are already on the device.

Am I missing something here?

Graham

mindracing · « **Reply #23 on:** November 25, 2003, 04:30:44 pm »

Audible files.

As you will know, when listening to audible files on the iPOD, it remembers the last position heard so that next time it is selected you can start where you left off.

When I sync the iPOD (without writing the files, just synching to update the smartlists) the 'marker' in the audible files is lost and they all start from the begining again.

This is a particular PITA when sone of the audible files are 7 hours long!

Any ideas?

SteveG · « **Reply #24 on:** November 25, 2003, 04:59:02 pm »

drbenson,

MC9 does not natively provide a way to convert to aac. Search Interact for some suggestions for other ways to do this, these have been discussed in the last few months.

Quote

Is practical (real world) equal to theoretical in this case?

It should be.

gwj,

Try either drag and dropping the playlist on the iPod drive letter or better yet, click the little iPod icon a the bottom of MC to bring up the 'Synchronization dialogue'. You can also access that dialogue by right clicking on the iPod drive letter and selecting 'Synchronization'.

Ashley,

I will check this out tomorrow.

Steve

drbenson · « **Reply #25 on:** November 25, 2003, 10:38:44 pm »

Upon further experimentation, it appears that some of my .wma files are corrupt- they don't play in MC9 or WMP9. I suspect my iPod transfer error message is related to that, so not a MC9 problem. I will mess around and hopefully confirm. Don't know how they got corrupted.

Another quickie question I couldn't solve via a forum search: How do I rip a continuous mix double album to a single MP3 file? As I understand it, the MP3 format inserts a (jarring) pause between tracks, no matter what.

Niro · « **Reply #26 on:** November 26, 2003, 12:22:10 am »

Steve,

I actually opened the itunesdb file with notepad...not a hex editor. It hasn't happened yet...I actually think it only happens when I make changes to the media center library and then synch...next time I make changes to the library I'll see if it does it again.

mindracing · « **Reply #27 on:** November 26, 2003, 01:55:43 am »

Steve,

I'm now on build 311 and the audible problem seems to have gone. No idea why this should be.

I will check it again today and let you know if it reoccurs.

Ash

NickM · « **Reply #28 on:** November 26, 2003, 03:00:10 am »

Just thought I would post this to iPod as well

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=17071

Does anyone think an add-in to MC that keeps a selection of MP3's ready for an iPod would be useful. Only relevant to those who keep their music in APE...

nick

NickM · « **Reply #29 on:** November 26, 2003, 03:54:25 am »

Minor issue with Sync messages:-

"Click the "Transfer" button to copy the queued files shown above to the handheld device.
Internal Memory: 18.8 GB of 27.8 GB free (18.8 GB free after 1.3 GB upload)"

I guess the last part should read "(17.5GB free after 1.3GB upload)".

Nick

SteveG · « **Reply #30 on:** November 26, 2003, 09:39:40 am »

drbenson,

Thanks for the update on the first problem. In regards to the continuous mix question, there is currently not a way to do this with MC. You could rip to another format such as .ape or .wav which would alleviate the pause, but you cannot do this with mp3.

Niro,

Thanks for the update. Please let me know when you know more.

Ash,

Not sure why that would be. Nothing has changed regarding .aa recently.

NickM,

Thanks for posting regarding feedback for your suggestion. In regards to the add-in, once MC does a conversion of files on the way to iPod, subsequent syncs will skip over these files and not reencode them. Doesn't this kind of take care of the problem?

In regards to the message your reported, what version of MC do you have? I cannot duplicate what you reported. Thanks.

NickM · « **Reply #31 on:** November 26, 2003, 09:47:32 am »

SteveG,
Not really - if you have a look at the other post - what I am looking for is a limited functionality hardware solution that can hook up to MC/network storage. There are some units on the market already but these seem to read MP3 format only. I thought that maybe MC could convert and keep a temporary store of MP3's based upon a central store of other ( non-lossy ) files.

Life would be simple if we onlydealt with MP3 - maybe I shold and I am only making life complicated. For my sins, I spend more on storage and keep my files in APE.

When I synchronise to iPod, MC converts these to WAV, then converts to MP3 and synchronises. I guess these MP3's are stored in a temporary folder before synchronisation with the iPod.

What I am suggesting is a feature to add to a SmartPlaylist, whereby a selection of non-lossy files can be converted during idle time to a set of MP3's so that when your iPod synchronises, the MP3's are all ready to go.

Having a folder of MP3's based upon a SmartPlaylist would then fix the simple hardware re-play problems that networked players only seem to read MP3.

Nick

drbenson · « **Reply #32 on:** November 26, 2003, 10:19:26 am »

Thanks for the reply- can I make 'transfer to one MP3 file' a request for future development? I do store tunes in a format that doesn't insert the pause on my main server, but the iPod, of course, doesn't handle that type of file. Surely I'm not the only one who has continuous mixes they want to keep together and uninterrupted on their iPod.

mindracing · « **Reply #33 on:** November 26, 2003, 10:43:05 am »

Well, after no end of successful syncs it happened. No playlists.

THis occurred whe synching to add some more playlists - not from a formatted iPOD.

I have not used any other software with the iPOD.

I can only find 2 odd things - there may be more. I have a file that will not appear on the iPOD even though it says it has transfered and an audible file that is on the iPOD but does not display the file type.

Steve, I am sending you both files and my iTUNES DB.

Meanwhile I'll look for any other anomalies.

mindracing · « **Reply #34 on:** November 26, 2003, 11:18:45 am »

Forgot to mention that the playlists all show up in MC OK and contain the files they are supposed to. Also the Audible file markers have reset.

On re synching I got the error message some files are not in the MC DB again. It looks like there's more to this message but it just shows the top of the letters in the next line.

Ejected iPOD and still no playlists.
Performaed a soft reset and still no playlists.
Synched again - still no playlists.

Synched again - adding a playlist. Still no playlists.

The audible file I mentioned before with no file type won't play either. Plays OK within MC and file type shows up in MC.

Re initialized iPOD! MC Not responding!

MC burst back to life with initialize complete.

Sync 1 playlist - OK
Sync another - OK

Now synching the whole 28G (less aa files and the file that won't transfer) worth - this will take some time.

I'll report the result later.

SteveG · « **Reply #35 on:** November 26, 2003, 01:29:25 pm »

NickM,

Thanks for the clarification.

drbenson,

We can try to add this in the future.

Ash,

If MC shows the files, but iPod does not, the iTunesDB would be helpful in figuring this out. I have not received your email, so perhaps you can resend.

Everyone,

I am leaving for the Thanksgiving weekend and will check in when I can. Back on Tuesday. Have a good turkeyday all.

Steve

mindracing · « **Reply #36 on:** November 26, 2003, 02:07:04 pm »

Steve,

Following the initialize and sync the playlists are back!

The aa file that showed up with no file type when viewing the iPOD from within MC now has a file type.

The mp3 that would not transfer has now transfered.

However, aa files do not play! Ideas?

I am emailing the iTUNES DB but with my thin wires and slow dial-up it will take a while.

mindracing · « **Reply #37 on:** November 26, 2003, 02:37:37 pm »

Steve,

Also just noticed that all my ratings have gone!

Definately something in MC is affecting the iPOD. I doubt it's the other way around as lots of us are experiencing the loss of playlist problem.

Fortunately I have my ratings backed up in a playlist.

The DB should be with you soon.

I can't see that I have done anything different to all the succesful syncs and the iPOD has DEFINATELY not been exposed to anyone elses software.

Ask if you need to know more.

EDIT

I attempted to select my tracks to be rated while synching and MC crashed.

Also, could the loss of ratings and the issue of audible files losing their markers be linked?

Ash

bspachman · « **Reply #38 on:** November 26, 2003, 05:06:47 pm »

Quote from: drbenson on November 26, 2003, 10:19:26 am

Thanks for the reply- can I make 'transfer to one MP3 file' a request for future development? I do store tunes in a format that doesn't insert the pause on my main server, but the iPod, of course, doesn't handle that type of file. Surely I'm not the only one who has continuous mixes they want to keep together and uninterrupted on their iPod.

You can use other tools to accomplish this. Notably Exact Audio Copy will allow you to rip the entire CD as a single track. I rip to WAV, then compress my single large WAV to a large APE file. EAC will also generate a CUE list that some programs can use to split the large file into individual tracks. Again, I use Monkey's Audio to split the large APE into small APL files. The APLs are then imported into my library. Some folks do similar things with MP3s.

Good luck,
Brad

mindracing · « **Reply #39 on:** November 26, 2003, 10:38:19 pm »

Steve,

I have found a bug that may be related to the missing playlists. Either way it is still a bug.

I have an iTRIP which requires a playlist containing the frequencies to be used. To force this to the end of the playlist list I renamed it zitrip stations. I then synched (the files were already on the iPOD) but the playlist did not appear.

I also noticed that the number of playlist entries being synched was 10112 for a total file count of 4785.

Thinking this was high I checked my playlists and found that I had inadvertantly created a second all music playlist. I unchecked this and resynched. The zitrip stations playlist now appeared!

I have rechecked this several times and watched the sync. The contents of the zitrip playist are transferred at the end of the sync but the list doesn't show up when the playlist entry count includes the extra all music list.

Unchecking this list allows it to show up. It seems that there is a limit to the number of playlist entries (not files) that either the plugin or the iPOD can handle. After that point is reached the playlists that come after have the playlist entries synched but the the playlists don't show up. I have tested this using some dummy playlists but with simple playists the number is not a factor. When I revert to my usual set of playlists/smartlist the problem is repeatable.

If you would like my iTUNES DB for each situation just ask.

Whilst playing with this I have noticed that in the sync box, starting with no lists checked, as lists to be synched are checked the checking gets slower and slower as I get down the list. MC must be doing something as each box is checked. Whatever it is could it be done once the sync button is clicked instead to speed up checking?

Media Center Registered 9.1.311 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Unknown 267 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 383 MB, Free - 84 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive D: TOSHIBA CDRW/DVD SDR2102 Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:6 MaxSpeed:8 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

themurph · « **Reply #40 on:** November 28, 2003, 02:49:26 pm »

Win2K SP4
20GB 2nd Gen Ipod
MC 9.1.310 (and also previous version)

Hey all - new here, trying MC out to replace MM and EphPod. I like it so far, but Ipod synchs have been causing me trouble.

If I reintialize in MC and synch, playlists come over.
When I do a 2nd synch with MC, playlists disappear. They appear blank.

I've replicated this action 3 times now.

BoothUK · « **Reply #41 on:** November 28, 2003, 04:58:57 pm »

Steve,

Have just installed .313 and it seems to have sorted the problem I was having with not being able to unmount my iPod in windows while MC was running!

Thanks loads! I owe you a pint next time you're in Scotland

neo · « **Reply #42 on:** November 29, 2003, 12:11:24 pm »

All:

Several issues. I am getting the warning:

Some portable files are not in MC database, and could not be updated.

Anyone else get this, or know what it means? This was after already performing several warning-less syncs. Also, I just noticed that my "available after sync" number is negative, even though MC9 keeps letting me add files. Note that I have a 15GB 3G player. Here is my system information from MC9:

##############################
Media Center Registered 9.1.313 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium III 795 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 392 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1276 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3700.6705 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive F: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive F: PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W1210A Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:12 MaxSpeed:12 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
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Thanks.

n

JNKH · « **Reply #43 on:** November 29, 2003, 03:49:02 pm »

Quote from: themurph on November 28, 2003, 02:49:26 pm

Win2K SP4
20GB 2nd Gen Ipod
MC 9.1.310 (and also previous version)

Hey all - new here, trying MC out to replace MM and EphPod. I like it so far, but Ipod synchs have been causing me trouble.

If I reintialize in MC and synch, playlists come over.
When I do a 2nd synch with MC, playlists disappear. They appear blank.

I've replicated this action 3 times now.

Hi MC,

I also experience the same issue. I did a resync and some of the playlist disappeared. After the sync, I saw on my MC screen that some of the songs have no playlist attached. It was blank.

I removed the Ipod from the sync and checked the ipod. The playlist in the ipod disappeared.

I attached the ipod again to MC. I tried to access the ipod. MC always crashes. I can't connect them anymore. Each time I access my ipod, MC crashes.
Hence I can't reinitialize the ipod again.

I had to use other products like Musicmatch, supplied by Apple ipod to connect and remove all the songs on my ipod, before I can connect up to MC again.

I believe the database inconsistencies has caused MC to crash. Please look into this because at least if we can access the ipod and to a rebuild, we are alright. This is what we need at the moment.

ashawley · « **Reply #44 on:** November 29, 2003, 09:48:10 pm »

neo:

The message means you have tunes on the iPod that are not in the MC9 library. You will get this message any time you Sync iPod info W/MC9. It's telling you that you tried to update Rating, Playcount and LastPlayed data for a song on the iPod that doesn't exist in MC9.

Did you delete some tunes from your MC9 library recently?

Steve: A thought on this. Perhaps to prevent this, before you do the sync, you should do the Delete Files (if checked). This would prevent this error from happening as you would first delete the song from the iPod before trying to update it in MC9. Make sense?

Adam

Henk · « **Reply #45 on:** November 30, 2003, 01:34:56 pm »

Hi Steve,

I reciently upgraded to the latest version of 9.1 and I'm having the same problems as bellipod and you answered:

Quote from: SteveG on November 25, 2003, 09:39:34 am

...

bellipod,

The full path is included because iPod has no way to distinguish between two playlists from MC such as 'MySmartlists\A great playlist' and another playlist called simply 'A great playlist'.

...

My question/request is why was this only reciently introduced it seemed to work fine before? And could we have a switch that we can choose if we want the full path or not? I personally make sure that I don't have any double playlist names.

I have another question, since this last upgrade every time I sync my iPod I loose all the playlists that where already on the iPod. The music is still there but their associasion with the playlists is lost (well the playlist are no longer there). Is this something I can set somewhere? This wasn't what used to happen, I used to be able to do just incremental playlists.

And while I'm at it I have another minor pet peave

Every now and again when adding a playlist that is already on there MC will put the song on there twice disregarding the orginal song that was already on the iPod. So after every sync I have to go in and delete the doubles.

btw. MC 9.1 is really great !!! One of the best purchases I've ever made, keep up the great work.

Cheers,

Henk.

MarkGrigsby · « **Reply #46 on:** December 01, 2003, 04:27:31 am »

Steve,

I am having problems similar to those reported by Niro...

I have about 5400 songs on my iPod, and regularly (successfully) sync the playcount data back to MC. However, when I add music to the library, and sync, my Playlists often disappear, and I am left with a single playlist entry of ' ', which itself contains a single ' '. The new music is all there on the iPod (using the Browse views). In addition, in MC, you can see the playlists from the iPod. Resyncing does not cure the problem.

I can manually 'fix' it by doing a 'Rebuild' of the iPod DB, and then re-syncing to get the playlists back..

I did some further testing, and have isolated the problem further. It only appears to happen when syncing AFTER importing about 10 or more songs into the library. It doesn't make any difference whether MC is shut down and restarted after the import. Deleting songs from the library and syncing does not cause the problem. During testing, I did not tick 'delete songs from iPod' or 'Sync Data to MC'. I can successfully add a few songs to the library and sync with no problems. Also, I am not doing any 'conversions' at all.

I have separately emailed you my system info and one of my corrupted iTunes DB files. I can simulate the problem at will if you want me to make any more tests.

Thanks as always for your excellent support,

Mark.

mindracing · « **Reply #47 on:** December 01, 2003, 05:14:25 am »

Quote from: MarkGrigsby on December 01, 2003, 04:27:31 am

I have about 5400 songs on my iPod, and regularly (successfully) sync the playcount data back to MC. However, when I add music to the library, and sync, my Playlists often disappear, and I am left with a single playlist entry of ' ', which itself contains a single ' '. The new music is all there on the iPod (using the Browse views). In addition, in MC, you can see the playlists from the iPod. Resyncing does not cure the problem.

I can manually 'fix' it by doing a 'Rebuild' of the iPod DB, and then re-syncing to get the playlists back..

I did some further testing, and have isolated the problem further. It only appears to happen when syncing AFTER importing about 10 or more songs into the library. It doesn't make any difference whether MC is shut down and restarted after the import. Deleting songs from the library and syncing does not cause the problem. During testing, I did not tick 'delete songs from iPod' or 'Sync Data to MC'. I can successfully add a few songs to the library and sync with no problems. Also, I am not doing any 'conversions' at all.

This is really interesting. Yesterday I synched both a 2g and a 3g iPOD running 2.0.1 and 2.1 respectively. I lost playlists on both. That eliminates the firmware.

I had added tracks to MC before synching but hadn't made that connection.

We seem to be seeing more and more missing playlist issues and your post will, I am sure, help to narrow down the problem.

mindracing · « **Reply #48 on:** December 01, 2003, 12:56:59 pm »

I have posted about this before and it is still occurring.

I now have a theory: (sadly not a solution).

When using Audible Manager the devices that you wish to use the audible files on have to be registered - iPOD, CD burner etc.

When an audible file is downloaded it takes a file name in the following format

Programname_accountnumber_username.aa

My theory is that registering the iPOD allows it to play only matched downloads and downloads cannot be palyed on another device.

Sometimes, when initialising iPOD for use with MC, the iPOD loses it's identity for Audible purposes AND sometimes registering the iPOD with Audible Manager makes it unuseable by MC. I'm not sure as yet which comes first.

Anyone have another theory or suggestion?

tlongacre · « **Reply #49 on:** December 01, 2003, 01:08:00 pm »

mindracing,

Doesn't audible.com itself say that you should not use Audible Manager to transfer to the iPod -- they say you should use iTunes (but I'm not sure it matters, as long as you don't use Audible Manager)?

Or are you not doing that? Just wondering what you mean by "registering" the iPod in Audible Manager.

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Author Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 44860 times)

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