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[El Phantasmo]

Hi everyone,

I'm just looking to get some pointers on how to use Media Center, or specifically, the Nomad Jukebox plugin.

Firstly, I can't seem to find any documentation on the Nomad plug-in specifically, like instructions or a guide or something. Are there any? If there are, can someone please provide a link? Thanks.

Failing the above, I'll just ask away here:

I hear it's possible to somehow import MC playlists into the Nomad player. I understand I can build new and edit existing Nomad playlists through MC, but what I would like to do is use an existing playlist in MC and send it straight to the Nomad.

The greatest problem I imagine is that to port a playlist to the Nomad, MC would need to map the playlist to corresponding songs on the Nomad that were originally found on the computer. So far, if I try to drag and drop playlists or files to the Nomad or into a Nomad playlist, MC simply tries to copy the corresponding files to the Nomad, and does not touch the playlist.

For example, RedChair's Notmad Explorer software seems to do this just fine, even being able to drag and drop formats such as Winamp playlists onto the Nomad. It would create a playlist on the Nomad by finding the matching files on the device. Any music files that did not exist on the player would be queued to upload and also included in the playlist.

How do I do this? Can anyone help? If this functionality is not available, it would be really useful!

Thanks.

[SteveG]

El,

Try right clicking on the Nomad and select 'Synchronization'. Check the playlists you want to transfer and sync. These playlists (and the corresponding files) will be synched with your Nomad.

Steve

[Nolonemo]

BTW, if you already have the files on the Nomad, click the skip duplicate files button when it pops up.  That will let you transfer an MC9 playlist to the Nomad without adding any files to it. (I have all my files both on the PC and the Nomad).

[SteveG]

Nolonemo,

Thanks for chiming in.

El,

Also, you should be able to drag and drop a playlist from MC onto the Nomad drive tree item and it will transfer the files and create the playlist automatically.

Steve

[El Phantasmo]

Thanks guys,

It seems like I wasn't able to figure this out because I'm running into some more bugs, either that or I'm being obstructed by my own stupidity. heh...

I can create the playlists as you have described, but it doesn't seem to work for some files. While doing the sync, these problematic files either get ommited from the resulting playlist, or if the entire playlist is composed of these files then the playlist doesn't get created. If I drag and drop a playlist full of such files and then click transfer, only an empty playlist is created.

The problematic files I was working with are ones by "50 Cent". I won't believe you if you say the Nomad knows to reject bad music. LOL. No, I figured more likely there is a problem with files that start with numerals being added to playlists. I did not investigate too deeply, but sure enough I could not include any songs whose filenames (and/or name fields?) start with 50 Cent, 2Pac, 112, 98 Degrees...

Note I have previously been able to include such files in a playlist by using Creative's PlayCenter. This brings me to my second point, which is that I unfortunately found out the hard way that when synchronizing, playlists that are not selected in the checklist will be deleted from the Nomad.

Perhaps you could make "delete unselected playlists" into a setting or checkbox, since it's not explicit. Another reason being it's fairly easy to delete playlists manually without doing it through the synchronise feature. Thirdly and most importantly, the user may not want to check off and then re-synch oodles of playlists that they know have not been modified, when instead they really just want to update one. Not to mention a case (like mine) where a user has created a playlist outside of MC...

Please keep me posted on these two issues.

Thanks again.


El Phantasmo

[Nolonemo]

I have created a playlist in MC9 that had a file with a track title starting with a number "50 ways to leave your lover", and I was able to sync the playlist with the Xtra with no problem (but the files were already on the Xtra, so there was no file transfer involved when I sync'd the playlist).

I have transferred tracks with the track name and the file name starting with a numeral by dragging and dropping from the Medial Library (ie, not syncing a playlist) with no problem.

Sorry this isn't more specific to your situation.

I agree that it would be nice that unchecked playlists be left alone when you sync rather than being deleted like they are now.

[El Phantasmo]

OK, so I decided to give up a few more minutes testing this playlist thing...

After over an hour I've decided I still don't know exactly what's going on, but here's what I've seen.

The files I have problems with have a filename that starts with a number. I don't think it's important, but all of my files currently have the "Title" field exactly the same as the filename. (Simply because I am still uploading using PlayCenter due to the 60 char. bug - still waiting for that 9.0.32 )

I've notice that if I actually TRANSFER the files to the Nomad through MC, then the file will later be immune to further problems. Hence, if the file doesn't already exist on the nomad, I can transfer via drag and drop or the synchronize without incident. The files are transferred and also added to playlists. Everything still works even if I change the name field or chose either Name or Filename as the title field.

However, it seems like when the file exists already (having been uploaded through PlayCenter), if I try to transfer the file, either through a drag and drop, or through sync, these files that start with a number do not get added to the playlist.

However, like I said above, If I delete the problem files, then transfer them again through MC, everything will work as expected. I will be able to create playlists with these files by using the sync even if they exist already on the Nomad.

So... maybe there is some wierd incompatibility with files uploaded through PlayCenter, and/or other software, though it is beyond my ressources to know how this would manifest...

Anyways, I guess dedicated MC users will not run into this, but until other parts of MC are fixed (and there's lots of fixing to be done!  ) I will still need to work with other software. All in all, there's a bug somewhere and it should be squashed...

[dpbeatley]

Hi,

Version 32 is available on the plugin page - the description still states it's v31 but it is indeed v32 - I dl'ed and installed it and MC states it's v32.

dennis