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[SteveG]

 Hello All,
 
For anyone who is new to MC, please be sure to get the latest version from our downloads page or from the main MC board here...

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3
 
An excellent help file  on using MC and iPod can be found here (thanks Adam):
 
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/    

Also additional helpful suggestions can be found here (thanks Larry):

http://www.musicex.com/mediacenter/Larry_Little_iPod_Management_MC.html
 
For additional information, please check the previous help thread at:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=8;action=display;threadid=20748;start=0

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

[Seviien]

Not sure if we're supposed to report v11 bugs yet, but after some false optimisim, my nagging bug is still there.
It would appear that it does not happen, however, when only synching one list whose contents are dynamic.  I tested it with the new release tonight and the first list stood up fine and remained at 10 songs after multiple synchs.  I then transferred a whole bunch of songs (~2.7k) and the contents of the playlists did not update properly.  Moreover, playlists which were moved to a new spot in MC's playlist tree appeared multiple times (which is probably related to the nonremoval of deselected playlist issue reported earlier.)

[ChinaMan]

I let MC10 import all my Music from iPod and it worked fine. I am aware that the drive letter may change but this is ok and I can handle it.

I discovered another issue: in Media Jukebox I was able to see my complete library and make playlists with them even if my external drive where all the music resides on was not connected. Of course I could not play these files but at least I can organise them.
Can MC10 do this as well? It constantly tries to update my library but it is ok when I work offline for a while and then update the changes. Can MC10 do this?

Other than that I can report tha iPod and MC10 work well together. Great job!

[SteveG]

ChinaMan,

I discovered another issue: in Media Jukebox I was able to see my complete library and make playlists with them even if my external drive where all the music resides on was not connected. Of course I could not play these files but at least I can organise them.
Can MC10 do this as well?

Yes. MC should allow you to add files to playlists which have paths that are not recognized by MC.  You will not be able to modify tags for unrecognized files if you have the option under Tools->Options->General->Update tags when file info changes selected.


Seviien,

I then transferred a whole bunch of songs (~2.7k) and the contents of the playlists did not update properly.

Can you be specific about what happened and try in testing to narrow down the problem?

Moreover, playlists which were moved to a new spot in MC's playlist tree appeared multiple times

Playlists are path based in regards to iPod.  In other words the playlist 'My Favorites' and the playlist 'My Favorite Group\My Favorites'  are different playlists.

Steve

[Seviien]

Yup Steve.  My concern isthat if in between synchs, the playlist 'My Favorites' gets moved from group 'Plalists A' group 'Playlists B' then upon resynching it gets duplicated within the ipod.  i.e. it appears along *both* paths.

It's just speculation, but i think this is related to something i reported earlier where if you deselect a playlist for synching (and have delete non selected enabled) MC does not remove the playlist upon synch.

I'll see if i can do some more testing.  Any suggestions?

[SteveG]

Seviien,

Hold up. I think I found and fixed the root of your problem. Check out the next build of MC 11 and all should be well.

Thanks,

Steve

[Seviien]

I love you Steve

It works super spiffily...

[Mighty_A-MAN]

Hi there,


I experience the following "problem": While in Media Center 10 I could right-click on the iPod entry and choose "synchronize", this "synchronize" button is not there anymore. Therefore I need to select "Handheld Player" on the Action Window.

However, it seems I can't simply synchronize as I could before. Right now I want to get all my new song ratings into Media Center 11 (I rated songs on the iPod, and want that these ratings show up in my MC library as well as usual).

Neither Transfer Files nor Sync Playlists (I don't have any on the iPod at the moment, since I simply transfered unrated songs from MC to the iPod without using a playlist) let me get the ratings into MC.

Did I miss out something on other threads and this is just not possible for the moment, or am I simply doing something wrong?

Edit: I'm running the latest Beta version of Media Center and have an iPod mini.


Thanks and best regards,

Mighty A-MAN

[SteveG]

Seviien,

Thanks for the love   but the changes are not in yet. They will be in the next release of 11, but they were not included as of Friday.


Mighty_A-MAN,

If you want to get ratings from iPod to MC, you must use the synchronize feature with the ' Sync Data to MC ' feature enabled. This feature is playlist based. To get the ratings back with files that are already on iPod, create a playlist in MC that includes the songs which are on iPod and then sync it. Assuming you have not updated the tags of the songs in MC since your last sync to iPod, the ratings should come back from iPod. If you have never synced to iPod, the ratings will not be retrieved.

Steve

[Seviien]

Don't I look silly...
I did notice that the plugin version didnt change; I just thought it was a minor tweak not merriting a new version number.   Placebo effect or no, it works now.

[SteveG]

Seviien,

Not so silly. You just would not have done a sync that would have caused the error yet. Regardless, the new version should straighten things out for good.

Thanks for the report.

Steve

[Mighty_A-MAN]

Mighty_A-MAN,
If you want to get ratings from iPod to MC, you must use the synchronize feature with the ' Sync Data to MC ' feature enabled. This feature is playlist based. To get the ratings back with files that are already on iPod, create a playlist in MC that includes the songs which are on iPod and then sync it. Assuming you have not updated the tags of the songs in MC since your last sync to iPod, the ratings should come back from iPod. If you have never synced to iPod, the ratings will not be retrieved.

Hi Steve,


Thanks for your help. In the past I always used playlists, so this was new to me and I didn't realise that it only works with playlists.

However, I have another problem: In the past all the ratings have been synchronized automatically without downloading the mp3-music-files back onto my PC. But this is exacly what happens now. Instead of synchronizing the ratings only within seconds, it takes ages, 'cause every newly rated song is downloaded to the PC.

That was different in the past, wasn't it? Do I have a wrong setting or is this a known issue?


Thanks,

Mighty A-MAN

[SteveG]

Mighty-A-Man,

Songs should never transfer from iPod to the PC unless you initiate that action with a right click on the files and select the option to send files to the PC.  

If you change a rating on your PC, the file will be deleted from the iPod and resent to the iPod when synching.

Steve

[Mighty_A-MAN]

Songs should never transfer from iPod to the PC unless you initiate that action with a right click on the files and select the option to send files to the PC.
If you change a rating on your PC, the file will be deleted from the iPod and resent to the iPod when synching.

Hi Steve,


Thanks for your swift reply.

Well, it seems the iPod is indeed uploading the file. I just tried it again:

1) I rated two songs on the iPod    
2) I used "Action Window/Handheld Player/iPod/Sync Playlists" to sync the newly rated songs    
3) MC sends a message like "Syncing Portable Info to MC" (here only the ratings should be transfered)    
4) After this, the two songs will be UPLOADED, the Action Window explicitely says "Uploading ..."   ?

I don't know this behaviour from Media Center 9 and 10, and either I'm doing something silly or there is an issue.    

Fact is, either the iPod is uploading the rated file to the PC or - as it just seems to me - MC is re-sending the file to the iPod, after having changed the rating in the MC library. But both shouldn't happen, should it?

Any ideas?


Thanks,

Mighty A-MAN

[SteveG]

3) MC sends a message like "Syncing Portable Info to MC" (here only the ratings should be transfered)    

If the MC file tag has not been changed since the last sync and the rating is different, the MC file should be updated with the iPod rating.

4) After this, the two songs will be UPLOADED, the Action Window explicitely says "Uploading ..."  

At the point where the sync is to begin, if the rating, composer, or comment has changed in MC and is different from what is on iPod, the files will be deleted and resent to iPod. The upload refers to moving files to iPod.

Test this by checking the rating on a file that is on iPod and is in MC. Change the rating on iPod. Reconnect iPod and open select the 'Transfer Playlsit' option with the 'Sync data to MC' option on. Cancel the sync. Check the file in MC and you should see that the file's rating is updated to what was on iPod. Then, sync the files and the file should not retransfer unless you have changed any other tag info.

Also, please confirm what version of MC you are running.

Thanks,

Steve

[Mighty_A-MAN]

Also, please confirm what version of MC you are running.

Hi Steve,


Sorry for not being clear enough, I'm running the latest daily build of MediaCenter 11, which was 11.0.81 if I remember correctly (I just found that a newer version has been released last night!?).

After synchronizing my iPod last night and before I posted my last message above, I just rated two songs on the newly-synchronized iPod to see what's happening. Syncing it again, MediaCenter uploaded the two newly rated files instead of just have transfered the new ratings.

So, it seems there is a definate error. I only changed the rating within the iPod, nothing on the PC, but the files have been uploaded again.

I will try the new build tonight (German time) and see if I have the same phenomenon. And I will also de-install MediaCenter 10, maybe there's a possible conflict with it.

I'll report later, and excuse my English, which might be confusing sometimes ...


Best regards,

Mighty A-MAN

[Mighty_A-MAN]

Just coming home, connecting the iPod to MediaCenter, syncing it and all 44 songs I rated during the day are AGAIN UPLOADING to my iPod while I'm writing this ...

I'll see if the .82 version will bring any change.


Cheers,

Mighty A-MAN

[Mighty_A-MAN]

Hi there,


Alright, I installed version .82 and rated two formerly unrated songs on my iPod. Then I connected it to my PC via USB 2.0, MC brought up the Action Window, and I clicked onto Sync Playlists.

The result was the same behaviour as outlined earlier, but this time I even saw a message like "Deleting Files", so it seems the files got deleted on the iPod after the ratings got synced, then the files got deleted and after this, uploaded again ...    

Any ideas?


Cheers,

Mighty A-MAN


Edit: If this helps ...

Media Center Registered 11.0.82 -- C:\Programme\Media Center 11\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2524 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 83 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1552 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1556 (xpsp2_gdr.040517-1325) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive X: HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-4040B  Mode:ModeSecure  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Drive Y:   Mode:ModeSecure  Type:Auto  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: Yes  Soundfile:   C:\WINDOWS\Media\CHIMES.WAV

Burning /  Drive X: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4040B   Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:24  MaxSpeed:24  BurnProof:Yes
  Drive Y: _NEC     DVD+RW ND-1100A    Addr: 1:1:0  Speed:16  MaxSpeed:16  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[SteveG]

Mighty-A-Man,

I will need to test this further and see if I can duplicate it.

Steve

[SteveG]

Mighty-A-Man,

After the sync, did the MC files have the old rating or the new iPod rating?

Steve

[Mighty_A-MAN]

After the sync, did the MC files have the old rating or the new iPod rating?

Hi Steve,


First of all, thanks for your efforts!

I'm only putting unrated songs onto my iPod, that way I try to get all my songs rated in a couple of months. Media Center indeed shows the ratings I did on the iPod. So basically all data (ratings) are kept and no data loss. The only problem is that it is so annoying when you only want to synch your ratings, but then need to wait for ages until the (slow) iPod mini did get all songs back from Media Center, despite the fact the songs where on the iPod just seconds before ...


Thanks,

Mighty A-MAN

[SteveG]

Mighty_A-Man,

Thanks for the info. I found the problem. This will be fixed in one of the next builds of MC 11. Maybe not today's.

Steve

[Mighty_A-MAN]

Mighty_A-Man,

Thanks for the info. I found the problem. This will be fixed in one of the next builds of MC 11. Maybe not today's.

Steve

EXCELLENT!

I already thought I'm too stupid or dreaming, since obviously nobody else reported this! Glad you found the issue. Looking forward to the next build(s).


Cheers,

Mighty A-MAN

[Mighty_A-MAN]

Dear Steve,


I was travelling a lot and couldn't check out the latest builds, which I now did. The result: Everything works fine - problem solved.


Thanks a lot and best regards,

Mighty A-MAN

[SteveG]

Mighty A-Man,

Thanks for the update. Glad all is well.


Steve

[pank2002]

Steve,
Something crippled about the replay gain w/iPod and MC11 build 106.
  All my music is analyzed (except the aac, but they weren't included in this test,) but  the replay volume function doesn't seem to work as it should. I'm interesting in lowering the overall sound of the music -- I use Shure e3c and generally I only use 1/4-1/3 of the volume. I'd like to increase sound on the iPod to get better dynamics without blowing my brain out
  Well, here's the interesting. I've experience a bit with it and it seem that the gain is only added to the uploaded songs. Fx I tried to upload 'by the way' with replay gain set to around 0-2dB and the album was significant lower than the other albums -- on which the volume seemed to be the same. Yesterday I uploaded 'Be here now' and replay gain was set to -3dB, and it was really low. I had to turn volume to max, and it was still to low for the bus. However all other albums kept their  'normal' volume.
  Just to clarify; when I talk about replay gain I mean the 'set upload volume'-function when you right click on the iPod.

BTW, why is the iPod called [Drive letter] now? Fx at my comp it's called I:(not permanent disc.) It used to be just iPod.

Thanks,
Rasmus
 

[SteveG]

Rasmus,

Once a file is on iPod, it will not be deleted, resent or modified when synching unless you have 'Delete unselected files' checked, and the file on iPod has different tag info for the Name, Artist, Album, Genre or Track number fields. If you apply replay gain and send a file to iPod and then later change the replay gain in MC, the new gain will not be applied until you delete and resend the file to iPod. I could make this smarter.


Steve

[pank2002]

It'd be nice if you made it smarter.
I don't care too much for replay gain in Windows.
I have delete tracks when not is play list checked.

As I've understood the replay gain on the iPod itself is somewhere in a database. I would prefer it to work by setting the replay gain (for the iPod -- not MC) and it's updated when you sync rather than having to reupload the songs every time one chose a different value for 'set upload volume.' If I remember correct that was how it worked in MC10, but I may be wrong.

[SteveG]

Rasmus,

The replay gain setting is typically stored in the file tag itself. iPod does not have a replay gain setting. To compensate for this, when files are sent to iPod from MC, an approximation of the replay gain setting is stored in the iPod database (the iTunesdb file) which is then applied when files are played on the iPod.  MC 10 worked this way as well. In regards to modifying the setting when it changes and potentially deleting and resending the files, I could solve this, but it would increase the complexity of the interface.  Would others find this feature useful?

Thanks,

Steve

[jimbo_boy]

Rasmus,

Once a file is on iPod, it will not be deleted, resent or modified when synching unless you have 'Delete unselected files' checked, and the file on iPod has different tag info for the Name, Artist, Album, Genre or Track number fields.

Steve

Hi Steve
At what time does the play count, rating, last played data get sent to MC?  If I play a song on the ipod,rate it,  edit the id tags of the song on MC before sync'ing - will MC apply the changes from the ipod before deleting the file?
Changing the replay gain without reloading all songs would be a nice to have but doesnt even compete compaired to smartlists updating themselves on the ipod  

[SteveG]

jimbo_boy,

If you have the check box for 'Sync data to MC' checked, it occurs as soon as you open the synchronize dialogue in the action window, even if you subsequently  cancel the sync.

Steve

[pank2002]

Steve,
That means that if I were to lower the overall volume on the iPod I'd have reload all the songs?
Other programs like euPOD VolumeBoost can change the volume without having to reupload the files. I don't want to change the actual volume of the mp3 file on the replay volume when played on the iPod itself...

[SteveG]

rasmus,

Is euPOD VolumeBoost, changing the volume of all the songs the same? I presume so, but that is different than logisitcally handling individual track settings. It is trickier when each track has a different level setting as in Replay Gain and then making the comparisons between the individual track settings on the device and in MC and all the decisions that follow. Again, it is not that it can't be done, but a decision of whether to do it or not.

Steve

[Skeet]

This is a quick simple question. I've just got a new 4g ipod.  When a I installed my old one I used the excellent help file in  www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/      as a reference. Things have changed a bit since those days. There's no MMJB, there's itunes and the instructions don't really follow any more. Do I have to rename the device to IPOD before MC10 recognises it? There's no "format Ipod for MC" etc.  Is there an up to date guide I should be following for the initial setup, before I launch into the Larry Little guide.?

[pank2002]

Skeet,
MC11 has excelent iPod support, if you are ready to take the swich. When you have plug it in you should see it as a removable drive in MC. You can than right click on it, and select initialize ipod or something like that. You should be good to go.

Steve,
In other words, for now my best chance is to reupload all the music to get the desired lower volume?
 
-Rasmus

[Skeet]

And if I don't want to upgrade to 11 just yet? Is there no guide?  After installing the plugin, MC is reporting I have the wrong plugin and won't sync. Do I need the plugin for MC10? Should I be formating the ipod? Surely these basic questions are listed somewhere?

[SteveG]

Rasmus,

For now, yes. We will take a look at whether to add this or not. It is on the list.

Skeet,

Do not install a plugin with MC 10. Reinstall 10 and everything you need will be included. After you do this, right click on the iPod in the MC tree and select 'Initialize'. This may not be necessary, but better to be safe in starting correctly. Please look at the first post in this thread. Adam's and Larry's links are both great resources. Other questions, feel free to post here.

Thanks,

Steve

[schwaa]

I just got a new 4th Gen 20Gb iPod and found it has a cool new feature:  You can save On-The-Go Playlists directly on the iPod as new playlists to be called up later on the iPod.  It assigns it a name (I believe it is a number).  Howver when I synch (using playlists) they do not appear in MC.

The question is:  Can these newly saved playlists (saved on the iPod itself) be uploaded to MC (I am still using 10.0.173  ).  I could not find this issue brought up yet...

[SteveG]

schwaa,

Not at this time. Sorry.

Steve

[Ric]

What about the original On-the-go playlist? This doesn't seem to get transfered to MC from the iPod and is cleared on the iPod after a sync. This occurred with both MC10 and MC11. Is there any on-the-go playlist support?

Thanks.

[SteveG]

Ric,

There is currently not 'On the go' playlist support in MC. The sync of playlists is unidirectional from MC to iPod.

Steve

[pank2002]

Steve,
Have you seen the open source project called MediaChest on SourceForge?

It has some interesting features. The following is copied from the feature-section:

• Upload songs and pictures to iPod with populating iTunesDB records based on ID3/AAC tags or/and file name and directory structure
• Extensive manipulations with iTunesDB residing on iPod including smart play lists, and grouping operations
• Attach album arts to songs to view on iPod photo.

[/i]

I don't know if MediaChest is published under GNU, GPL or any other open license, but you ought to have a look at it either way. It seems to do everything MC is to do (in the future ... hopefully.) Furthermore, the author present one of his philosophies in an included text file:
Competition is only way to improve software, so my program will enforce other vendors make software better. (He, or maybe she, does mention MC9 :-)


I haven't been able to check it out myself as I'm currently iPod-less, waiting for my iPod Photo to arrive.

Keep up the good work, there (as I can understand from the build history quite some progress have been made on the portable front.)

Thanks for your effort,
Rasmus

[Piranhahaha]

Hi, I hope this is the correct place to post this -- my major concern is iTunes.

I purchased MC 10 last summer, and subsequently switched computers.  I am getting ready to re-install it on my new computer.  I still have my “install key” code, so I assume I can download a new copy -- correct?

If so, I have a couple of isolated but important questions:

- I have a huge iTunes database and wish to continue having iTunes organize and play all of my music.  It seems like everybody here is using MC to control their iPods, but I want to do the opposite -- use MC to import LP & cassette recordings into .wav’s and then put them into iTunes on AAC, with iTunes remaining the program that syncs & organizes the database.  How do I make sure that when I install MC it doesn’t disrupt iTunes? (This is crucial!)

- I see that there’s MC11 now available.  It looks like it’s still a beta release.  Will my purchase of MC10 allow me to get MC11, and if so, should I do it now or just download MC10?  If I should do MC11, is now the time to do it or wait for the official release? 

- How much space does MC10 or 11 take up on one’s harddrive?   

- Some of those links above are dead, and looked like they could provide good advice.  Are there other threads/areas I should read?

Thanks for your help.