Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[bjsolem]

I have what I think is a cool idea, though I am probably not the first, but it's not working yet.....

I created a smartlist called fill Ipod as follows:

~nodup=[Name] [Media Type]=[Audio] ~s=13700 [File Type]=[m4p],[mp3] ~nodup=[Artist],[Name] ~sort=[Random]

This should grab a bunch of tunes and be just the right size for my 15 gig ipod.

Then I have a bunch of other smartlists that use this smartlist to get smalller chunks of tunes, 5 star, mellow, etc.....

These are the only smartlists that I synch to the ipod, all the others are turned off.

It doesn't work because it ends up being to big for the ipod.  I had to move the size of Fill Ipod down to 10 gigs to get rid of the too much data message.

What am I doing wrong?  Does this have to do with MC smartlists not synching correctly yet?

[SteveG]

bjsolem,

This looks like it should work. When you select 'Fill Ipod' and hit F5 a few times, does it always report under the 13700 limit? If so, and all other smartlists are based on 'Fill iPod' the max should not be reached.

Unless.... do you have 'Delete unselected files checked' in the sync dialogue? If not, you could hit the limit as new files are added due to the 'random' rule in your smartlist.

Are you getting warnings about duplicate files?

Steve

[bjsolem]

Hitting F5 always returns a list under the amount of the size limit.

I played with turning the delete unselected files on and off, it didn't fix it.  

The random is to pick up new tunes when I sync.

I'm not getting any warnings about duplicate files.

[SteveG]

What happens if you sync just 'Fill iPod'?

Steve

[bjsolem]

If only Fill Ipod is selected there is no problem, few hundred megs left over.

But as I add back in the other sub-smartlists the free space number goes down and down and down until it finally hits negative and I can't sync,

[SteveG]

On second thought...

The problem here is the dynamic nature of the base smartlist. Each sub smartlist will recalculate the base list which can potentially exceed the available size of the player. You are better off either using static playlists, or using smartlists with limits that when added together do not exceed the limit of the player.


Steve

[bjsolem]

I agree that this appears to be the case.  

I will try to do your test this weekend (maybe while I'm watching the Wolves - Lakers game!!!).  

So to restate what I (we?) think is going on is that the sub-smartlists are "re-running" the Fill Ipod Smartlist and getting a different list of tunes to make their further selections from than the list of tunes that Fill Ipod returns on its own.

Does that summary make sense?  

So just like when you click on Fill ipod you get one list, click somewhere else, and then click on Fill Ipod again you get a different list, sub-smartlists are getting a different list easch time they reference Fill Ipod.

Assuming that this is the case, is it a bug?  It seems like it probably is not a bug as the Fill Ipod smartlists are working the way that they are supposed to, giving a new list of tunes each time it is used.

So, assuming it's not a bug, is there any way that I can do what I want to do, which is to use a smartlist to get new tunes into the Ipod and then have a bunch of playlists generated based on this list of songs on the Ipod?

Can I have the sub smartlists point to the Ipod database instead of my music library?  This way they could generate a list of songs already on the Ipod based on their rules and send that list back to the ipod as a playlist.

Sorry for restating things a whole bunch and for rambling on, but I think that it would be really cool if we could get this worked out.

Thanks for all your help Steve.

J River Rocks!
Go Wolves!

[bjsolem]

Could the thread below be involved in the issue at all?

If so, it would be back to being a bug.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=21590

[SteveG]

bjsolem,

So to restate what I (we?) think is going on is that the sub-smartlists are "re-running" the Fill Ipod Smartlist and getting a different list of tunes to make their further selections from than the list of tunes that Fill Ipod returns on its own.

Yes.

It is not a bug, but how smartlists are designed. The link you point to is related, but I do not think it will affect this. We will see.

So, assuming it's not a bug, is there any way that I can do what I want to do, which is to use a smartlist to get new tunes into the Ipod and then have a bunch of playlists generated based on this list of songs on the Ipod?

You could create smartlists in MC for the purpose of transferring to iPod which collectively add up to a size less than the space on iPod. You could weight them however you want, but as long as the total is less than the available space, you should be OK.

Can I have the sub smartlists point to the Ipod database instead of my music library?  This way they could generate a list of songs already on the Ipod based on their rules and send that list back to the ipod as a playlist.

You could, but you would need to reimport the files into MC and then when they are synched(and potentially deleted and readded) you would need to reimport. I definitely do not recommend this.

Lets come at this from another angle, perhaps you could give an example of what you functionally are trying to do and I will see what I can suggest given what we have to work with.

Go Wolves!

Ya sure, you betcha. Lets spank those LA boys. HOWWWWWLLLLLLLLL

[bjsolem]

Lets come at this from another angle, perhaps you could give an example of what you functionally are trying to do and I will see what I can suggest given what we have to work with.

What I am functionally trying to do is use a smartlist to automatically pick some new tunes to put on my Ipod.  I don't have such a big collection that this will be a total replace each time I sync, just mixes it up a bit.

From this list of tunes on the Ipod I have a group of general smartlists that I want to look at the 'new' batch of tunes on the Ipod.  Most of them are based on star ratings, recently imported, mellow, uptempo, and some lists based on artists that others in the family like.  These are all general enough that they can just go against what is being sent to the Ipod and pick up whatever matches the criteria.  Sometimes they might be long, other times they might be short, doesn't really matter.

I can try the smartlists with size limits that equal the total, but that's not really what I want.  Although, if I weight them accordingly as you suggest I may never know the difference.

Right now the Ipod is freaking out anyway, gets really hot, battery says it's charged than it looks dead right after I start using it, also last night MC said it had about 3000 songs on it and this morning the ipod said it only had 3 songs.

I need to figure out what's going, probably reinitialize it and then try the weigeted smartlists before I bug you anymore.

Thanks for all the help.

Have I mentioned that J River rocks?

[park]

one method that could work with your master smartlist is if you add another rule to it (although thinking about it, would take away the randomness that you're trying to get) :

I have created a field called "ipod" and have given it 2 values; yes and no.

It takes a bit of work at first, but you only really need to do it once: tag all your files to yes and then go through the albums tagging the ones you know you'll never need to no. You can also apply this to whole genres or file types to multiply tag quickly.
When the amount of songs tagged to yes is smaller than the amount of space on the ipod you're set.

add the rule ipod=yes and your master smartlist will always be the right size and the sub smartlists will always take from the same batch of files. to mix it up a bit, occasionally you just have to select a bunch of albums and retag them to yes, while removing an equal amount of other albums.

[SteveG]

bjsolem,

If size is not a limitation for your library, why worry about weighting the smartlists?  Just create smartlists with whatever random rules you want and sync them.

Steve

[bjsolem]

If size is not a limitation for your library, why worry about weighting the smartlists?  Just create smartlists with whatever random rules you want and sync them.

Size is a limitation, just not a major one.  Ipod holds 13.8 gig, music collection is about 18 gig.

[SteveG]

bjsolem,

OK. Then your best solution is to either create a playlist that is under your limit and base your smartlists off of the playlist, or create smartlists with size limiters that when added together do not exceed the size of the iPod.

Steve