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[Bob in LA]

Hello everyone,

I just got a Zen Xtra.  My 9.316 MC doesn't seem to recognize it.  Should it?  If it's a matter of upgrading to version 10 to get functionality, I'd rather do that then spend the money on Notmad if the features are generally equivalent between the two.  Comments, ideas and suggestions are greatly appreciated in helping me make this decision.

Regards,

Bob L.

[LonWar]

Upgrade to 10 and try it...

I find it amazing with the Jukebox3

[Nolonemo]

You dont' need to upgrade to 10, but you do need to go download the plugin for the Xtra, it will install automatically.  (Find the plugin manager in MC9).  The plugin may work better in 10 than 9, but I don't know if that's so.

At present Notmad has slightly more functionality than MC, eg, the ability to control playback on the Zen from the computer, and the ability to show the contents of the Zen in panes (MC can only show one long list, although it can be nicely sorted by columns).  One great thing MC can do is to export a listing of the Zen's contents sorted by genre/artist/album using the XML plugin.

I've never managed to transfer all 9000 files to my Xtra without MC crashing, I have to it genre by genre, but others have done so.  I set up a Zen playlist on MC with what I wanted on the Zen and transferred it over.  Now all I have to do is to add or delete files from the Zen playlist on MC and sync to keep the Zen the way I want (I have way too many files to fit on even a 60GB zen).

[loraan]

As a registered user of BOTH Notmad and MC 10, I feel like I can speek to their pros and cons.

In terms of basic music transfer and synching functionality, I consider both products to be equal. I originally bought NotMad during a period when MC's Nomad plug-in was a little buggy. I don't remember which specific bug was a deal-breaker for me (I think it had something to do with MC not transferring tags properly in WMA files), but at a certain point, I said, "screw it" and bought Notmad. Since then, MC's Nomad plug-in has gotten much more stable and full-featured, and I'm happy to use both.

The main thing that Notmad can do that MC can't is stream files from the jukebox in real-time (i.e. without downloading them to the PC first). Any media player that supports HTTP MP3 streams can play the files. I use this when I travel to play files from my jukebox over my laptop's speakers.

The main thing that MC can do that Notmad can't is synchronize your playlists. Technically, Notmad does support playlist synchronization, but you have to manually export them from MC first and then manually import them into Notmad. With MC, it's one click and all playlists are synched. This is especially handy with SmartLists, since they can be easily updated every time you synch. This feature is why, even when I use Notmad to transfer files, I use MC to synch my playlists.

MC has the potential to do things that Notmad hasn't even thought about. One example is generating tags at synch-time based on other tags' values (for example, "Album" on the jukebox is "Album Year - Album" from MC). MC's nomad plugin can't do this today, but I'd lay good odds that it'll do it before Notmad does.

Another advantage of MC is that you can use it to synch for free, whereas you have to buy Notmad separately. If I hadn't been compelled to buy Notmad by earlier bugs in the nomad plug-in, I certainly wouldn't buy it today.