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[PRGeno]

I've attempted to use the PDA plugin to send tracks to my iPaq running Pocket PC 2002.

It seems the plugin will only transfer tracks to the iPaq's internal memory, and will not recognize my huge CF Card installed.  This causes the plugin to report my playlist exceeds the storage space available in the PDA.  There doesn't seem to be any option settings to configure the plugin to use the CF Card.

It also seems to want to convert tracks to WMA format.  I'd like to keep the tracks in OGG format, which are supported by Pocket Player running on my iPaq.

Am I missing some configuration method, or is this plugin limited in these areas?

Thanks,

PG

[Nolonemo]

try this:  Click on the Handheld picture in the action window (lower left of screen) to activate the PDA.  Then expand the tree view of the Windows CE device above the action window, which will show you the top folders on the device, including your storage card, on the PDA.  Drag the files/albums you want to copy onto the icon for the storage card (not onto the PDA icon in the action widow).  Then "click here to continue" in the action window, and you'll see the files you dragged cued up to go to the storage card.  Click the transfer button and away you go.

As to the coversion, go into Options when you're at the screen with the Transfer button and make sure "force file conversion during uploads is unchecked."  That's the only thing I can think of, it's never been an issue for me since all I have are mp3s.

Having said all that, transfer to the a PDA via its conduit, as described above, is abysmally slow, at least for me.  You might want to consider getting a USB2 card reader, which will show up on your system and in MC9 as another drive, and just copy them over.  Just highlight the files you want to transfer, right click and Library Tools-> move/copy disk files, select the PDA's storage card and copy the files.  This could be faster by a factor of 10 or more.

[PRGeno]

Nolonemo,

Thanks for the reply.  You are right, the only apparent way to access the CF card is to use the tree view above the action window.  It doesn't seem to work for me the way you described though.

While I can see the CF card in the tree view, there doesn't seem to be a way to get the plugin to map to that area, in order to get it to copy the tracks there.  It still insists on putting tracks into the default location in the handheld's main memory.

Another thing, looking at the handheld in the tree view, the only thing MC recognizes on the handheld is MP3 files.  It doesn't even notice my OGG files loaded on the handheld.

The way I got them there is outside MC.  I found it much easier, and faster, to load the CF card via my PC Card  to CF adapter, using good old File Explorer copying.  The CF Card looks like another drive on my notebook, and I simply copy the tracks from my HTPC across the network.

The PDA Plugin seems to be kind of useless, as it doesn't really work as would be expected.  No matter, I'll just use the old file copy method.  Kind of a shame though, and a little bit surprising.  I would have thought a PDA type of connection to be one of the easiest plugins to build.  

Thanks for the help,

PG

[Nolonemo]

are you dragging the files onto the CF card in the tree view?  That's what you have to do.  Anyway, the only reason to use MC9 to transfer to the PDA would be if you wanted to automatically transfer the tracks in a playlist, which would require transferring each file separately (I keep all my albums on the pc in a genre/album folder structure).  Boy is the plugin transfer slow though!

[PRGeno]

I tried a number of things, which included dragging to the CF card icon, and then clicking continue in the action window.  I don't remember exactly what happened during that attempt (again I tried lots of variations), but I do know it wasn't what I expected.  

I probably was still doing something incorrectly, but the bottom line is the PDA plugin isn't exactly intuitive, or functional for what I need it to do.  

I had hoped to be able to transfer playlists.  My music is in a Artist/Album folder sturcture.  Copying individual track files across multiple artists/albums, using the file system, is far more tedious than simply copying a playlist within MC, regardless of transfer speed.

I had hoped the PDA plugin would work, but such is life with this kind of software.  I'll have to deal with it another way, until if/when this PDA plugin is fixed, or another one comes around.

Thanks again for your help.

PG

[Nolonemo]

OK, PG, try this.  Activate the PDA in the action window.  Open up the tree for the PDA.  Click on the playlist you want to transfer so the files appear to the right.  Highlight all the files and drag them onto the CF card icon.  Click on the continue bar in the action window.  Now you should see the files in the playlist in the queue window queued to the CF card (under the "handheld path" column.  Click the transfer button.

This transferred  the files in the playist to my PDA.  However, it didn't create a playlist as such on the PDA, so you'd have to set the order in whatever player you use on the PDA.  (But as far as I can tell, even if you right click on the playlist you want to export and choose the send to handheld option, all that will happen is that you will send the files in the playlist to the PDA 's main memory you will not create a playlist per se on the PDA.)

[PRGeno]

Nolonemo,

Cool, that worked!!

As you said, it's very slow, but it actually works.  So now I can transfer playlists without sifting through my folder structure.  I just have to make sure I have a lot of time available.

Thanks for pointing out the error of my ways.

PG

[Nolonemo]

Actually, I just realized there's a way to send the playlist files to a card reader, which would be a lot faster.

Open the playlist and select all the files in it, then right click in the file list and Library Tools -> Move/Copy Disk File.  Select the card reader and be sure you've checked the "copy" box.

It seems like if you drag the playlist files to the card reader in the view tree, you move, not copy, the files, so that method doesn't work for the reader.

Nolo