Topic: iPod plug-in for Media Jukebox (Read 11927 times)

SteveG · « **on:** October 21, 2002, 02:39:06 pm »

I have posted a new iPod Plug-in for testing on this page:

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/downloads/plugins.pl?type=8

The following changes have been implemented (thanks to all for the reports)

1) File transfer speed improvement implemented. (no progress bar for now. Let me know how it works for you and if it is better, I will make this change permanent.)

2) Duplicate file issue corrected.

3) Format should work better now. All folders F00-F19 created (like MusicMatch and Ephpod). All files deleted.

4) "Explore" option removed from levels other than root.

5) Playlist creation after format fixed.

6) Playlist functionality implemented. You can drop MJ playlists on the root level. If you do this the files will Download, but the playlist name will be lost (for now)
Try creating a Playlist (right-click on Playlists) and then drop MJ playlist on new playlist. This should work and I can improve later.

7) Support for wav and aiff files added.

I am aware of a bug with adding existing iPod files to a new playlist and will work on this tomorrow. Also deleting files from Playlists does not work. Tomorrow will also bring some kind of folder synchronization.

Thanks for all your help.

Steve

Kurt Young · « **Reply #1 on:** October 21, 2002, 08:54:56 pm »

Rock on! Darn nice build, dude... many many good things.

File transfer speed totally rules now! Most all of the disastrous bugs are gone. The twenty \F* folders are a great improvement! Playlists still don't work; nothing I could do produced a populated playlist on the iPod (though I didn't create a playlist and drag mj items onto it as you suggested -- i only tried to add items that existed on the iPod to playlists).

Can you re-enable right-clicking on subfolders? This will facilitate deleting entire albums/genres/etc or adding them to playlists. Just remove the "explore" option from them,

Biggest concerns are MJ-playlist/smartlist to iPod-playlist translation and synchronization, the null field in the "Add To Playlist" dropdown, and including iPod system files like iTunesDB in the "Format iPod for MJ" function.

One note about the progress bars. I don't think it's necessary to have one for the individual songs; they upload real fast anyhow. Just the "uploading xxxx" and a progress bar for the entire upload is all that I believe is necessary.

Yeesh, I can't think of anything else. Helluva sweet build, bro. Here's the "he wrote it as he tested it" file.

And here's Kurt's list.

PS: I'm going to miss the other thread. *sniff*

SteveG · « **Reply #2 on:** October 22, 2002, 06:03:21 am »

Kurt,

Thanks for the report.

In regards to right-click on subfolders, this should already work, but only when you first select a playlist. If you highlight a playlist and right-click, the delete option should be available.

In regards to "Add to Playlist", the box you see is a combo box. If you click on the arrows to the right of the box, you should see a drop down for existing playlists. If you prefer to start a new playlist, type the new name in the box and it will be added automatically.

I am going to clean up the Playlist stuff today, and I will take your advice regarding progress bar.

Thanks,

Steve

udeups · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2002, 07:29:33 am »

I am using a mac formatted iPod with Xplay and Ephpod, but now am trying to make it play with MJ. I'm sure that, since you're testing with a win iPod, making the plugin work with a mac version is not your top priority. Anyway, I thought I'd briefly share my experiences.

I have started with a freshly reformatted and wiped iPod courtesy of Ephpod. Media Jukebox sees the iPod, but I'm not sure that it recognizes it as such. It lists any files that are in the iPod root directory. Then, I add a song. Navigating to the iPod from My Computer shows that the song has been copied to the root and not into the F00 or any other of the F* directories.

Now, it seems that regardless of the format, the directory structure is the same. So I thought that this might work since the PC can see the HFS formatted iPod. Given that this is accomplished by Xplay, I would hope that directory structure and database would then be accessible to MJ. If it's not that simple, no problem. If, however, there is a way for me to either format my iPod as a PC disk, or for MJ to play with a mac version, that would be most desirable!

Hope someone can help.

Phil Lee · « **Reply #4 on:** October 22, 2002, 07:42:25 am »

Udeups, you may find the best thing to do to get your iPod to work with MJ is to convert your Mac iPod to a Win iPod.

At the end of last week Apple uploaded version 1.2.1 of the iPod updater for Windows. It is a 12.7 Mb download from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120119. There is a thread on the iPod Lounge forum at http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/dennx/index.cgi?board=windowsgeneral&action=display&num=1035093498 explaining how this can be achieved using the updater.

udeups · « **Reply #5 on:** October 22, 2002, 07:48:19 am »

Phil, thanks a lot! Last I heard, Apple was frowning on any talk regarding switching from one format to another! Thanks for the info...

paul

jgourd · « **Reply #6 on:** October 22, 2002, 08:02:34 am »

This has been a problem for a few builds.

When the iPod has over a gig of files one it, browsing to the root of the iPod within MJ will cause MJ to crash. I have sent a crash report to Steve.

SteveG · « **Reply #7 on:** October 22, 2002, 08:17:31 am »

udeups,

At the moment I am focused on getting this to work well with Windows, I can look at Mac later. Phil_Lee thanks for the suggestions.

JGourd, others have not seen this, but I will check it out today. Thanks.

jgourd · « **Reply #8 on:** October 22, 2002, 08:44:50 am »

Cosmetic bug:

when you create a playlist, the iPod collapses down to the root. You have to click the plus at the root and the playlist folder to see your playlist after you have created it.

Speed is now good. You can loose the file progress and just implement a job progress. It took less than 5 minutes to transfer 1.5 gig.

How about mapping the "Album Artist" to the "Composer" field. This way I can look up the whole album if it is a "Various Artists" album.

A calculated upload speed on the status bar would be nice.

Should a Queued file not actually exist on the file system, offer to remove it from the queue in addition to complaining about it not being there. Include a check box to resolve similar problems the same way without asking again.

LeoH · « **Reply #9 on:** October 22, 2002, 09:09:04 am »

Mapping Artist / Album to composer is a good idea. Mapping any arbitrary field to composer is better yet. My MJ database actually uses the composer field as much of the content is classical music where that information is a relavent.

And, BTW, on the iPod, how does one scroll right on the sub-category fields when there are long names?

jgourd · « **Reply #10 on:** October 22, 2002, 12:09:04 pm »

It would be nice to be able to eject the iPod directly from MJ.

Phil Lee · « **Reply #11 on:** October 22, 2002, 12:26:29 pm »

OK, I've just tested the new build and have some comments.

I used the format iPod option in the plugin to wipe my iPod from Sunday. I then ran through several upload tests.

I had some trouble with the Cancel option when uploading. As a first test I uploaded several playlists which featured common tracks. The plug-in was uploading one copy of each track for each playlist it was in which led to the occassional clash of files. This was handled fine by MJ but I wanted to cancel the upload. Unfortunately the Cancel button didn't seem to work.

Speed is much better. I uploaded 8.263Gb of songs in a little under 25 minutes, working out at about 6Mb/s, the same as I get with Ephpod.

This time round there were no phantom playlists created which is good.

I agree with jgourd, it would be nice to be able to eject the iPod from MJ. At the moment, you have to exit MJ before it will unmount properly.

Apart from these minor niggles, it is a big improvement in the Friday build.

SteveG · « **Reply #12 on:** October 22, 2002, 02:40:00 pm »

Hello again,

There is a new build with the following improvements...

1) Playlist addition and deletion now works. Try dropping files directly onto an existing playlist, or moving files on iPod to a Playlist with a right click.

2) Rename of Artist, Album, Genre and Name Fields implemented.

3) Track upload status progress reflects total progress, not per file.

3) MJ will now format / initialize a blank iPod. (i.e after format from windows)

4) Cancel during upload now works.

5) Right click eject device added to root level of tree.

Note.. In regards to the eject and JGourd's cosmetic suggestion about the left tree refresh, I am aware
of this problem but we may not be able to correct until version 9. It is an MJ bug, not the Plug-in.

Tomorrow I want to get to syncing. Please offer your opinions on the following possible ways to do this.

Option 1 (easier)- Leave everything similar to how it is but change when you upload files to check if the file exists on iPod. If it does, give the user an option to overwrite the file or to leave it. This would only need to be selected once. To achieve a sync, you could drag all your files to the iPod and it will take care of checking for duplicates without your interaction. Downside = this will slow uploads down some while it checks for duplicates.

Option 2 - Provide an option where you can point the Plugin to a PC directory and it will add to iPod any files that do not exist.

Option 3 - Sync so that the Plug-in and a given PC directory will sync and provide options to handle tag differences.

These range from easy to hard and I can't promise what we will do. However, your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

SteveG · « **Reply #13 on:** October 22, 2002, 02:41:05 pm »

Hello again,

There is a new build with the following improvements...

1) Playlist addition and deletion now works. Try dropping files directly onto an existing playlist, or moving files on iPod to a Playlist with a right click.

2) Rename of Artist, Album, Genre and Name Fields implemented.

3) Track upload status progress reflects total progress, not per file.

3) MJ will now format / initialize a blank iPod. (i.e after format from windows)

4) Cancel during upload now works.

5) Right click eject device added to root level of tree.

Note.. In regards to the eject and JGourd's cosmetic suggestion about the left tree refresh, I am aware
of this problem but we may not be able to correct until version 9. It is an MJ bug, not the Plug-in.

Tomorrow I want to get to syncing. Please offer your opinions on the following possible ways to do this.

Option 1 (easier)- Leave everything similar to how it is but change when you upload files to check if the file exists on iPod. If it does, give the user an option to overwrite the file or to leave it. This would only need to be selected once. To achieve a sync, you could drag all your files to the iPod and it will take care of checking for duplicates without your interaction. Downside = this will slow uploads down some while it checks for duplicates.

Option 2 - Provide an option where you can point the Plugin to a PC directory and it will add to iPod any files that do not exist.

Option 3 - Sync so that the Plug-in and a given PC directory will sync and provide options to handle tag differences.

These range from easy to hard and I can't promise what we will do. However, your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

willrmc · « **Reply #14 on:** October 22, 2002, 02:52:18 pm »

i think option 1 sounds the best. syncing to a directory would be useless to me because i have 60gb of music of which i can only put 10 on my ipod. i would like to click a button and it syncs my whole mj library, playlists and all on the ipod (i only keep 10gbs in my mj library because of this) at that time it could also update the playcount and update the smart playlists (whenever that beautiful feature is ready) THANKS!

Phil Lee · « **Reply #15 on:** October 22, 2002, 02:56:25 pm »

I agree, I have more music than will fit on my iPod so synching with a folder isn't a priority.

What would be nice though would be a feature like on iTunes where you can get a random playlist of 25 tracks by a single artist uploaded automatically.

willrmc · « **Reply #16 on:** October 22, 2002, 03:35:26 pm »

i deleted all the old stuff and reinstalled the new plugin but only the handheld file is downloading not the ipod file. anyone else having this problem?

JimH · « **Reply #17 on:** October 22, 2002, 03:42:59 pm »

Try using IE to download.

willrmc · « **Reply #18 on:** October 22, 2002, 03:51:00 pm »

thats what i am using. ie on the plugin download page. it still shows contacts/calendar and uploads to the root. i wiped the ipod clean, deleted the old ipod.dll and the portable.dll file and installed the new one but nothing. the portable.dll file is from 10/22 5:30pm
am i doing something wrong?

Kurt Young · « **Reply #19 on:** October 22, 2002, 03:55:43 pm »

I have to agree with Phil, synching with files and folders on the computer isn't the best solution.

What I would like is, unfortunately, not one of your options. I think that synchronization the way that MMJB or iTunes handles it is best -- I designate MJ playlists/smartlists to synchronize with. This:

1. transfers files to the iPod on the playlists/smartlists.
2. deletes files on the iPod that aren't on the playlists/smartlists.
3. creates iPod-playlists that mirror the MJ playlists/smartlists.

I imagine a dialoge that would be like this (poorly edited) shot:

This way, I can use one of MJ's strongest features, the smartlist, to populate my iPod. And when I'm out on the go, I'd automatically get playlists to match the ones at home, instead of having to manually create them in the MJ iPod plugin.

Please please please consider this as an option.

udeups · « **Reply #20 on:** October 22, 2002, 06:42:19 pm »

I would second KurtYoung's suggestion for a method of syncing. I think the automatic smartlist syncing would be a very nice feature, and is one that iTunes currently supports. I think that the more that everything can be handled within MJ, the better (ie, I don't want to have to worry about syncing to a directory and moving songs to that directory to ensure that they are synced). If the smartlist/playlist sync was implemented, all one would have to do to sync to a certain PC directory would be to setup a smartlist that only showed songs from that directory.

I'm not sure if this bug has been mentioned. I'm using a freshly formatted PC iPod (formerly a mac iPod - thanks for the link, Phil) with no songs currently on it. I copy one song over. That works great. I then attempt to delete said song, and get "file deletion error." I close MJ, open EphPod and delete the file. This happens with any number of songs that I transfer over. I also notice that while I can right-click and add a song to a playlist on the ipod, I cannot simply drag songs onto the playlist. Maybe this has not been implemented yet, but wanted to let you know.

That's all I've got for now. I'm excited to see this stuff working so well together. Thanks for your work, Steve.

Paul

TimB · « **Reply #21 on:** October 22, 2002, 06:46:12 pm »

Quote

I have to agree with Phil, synching with files and folders on the computer isn't the best solution.

This is where we get to a topic I raised before. We need to think about new ways to store music on these large storage devices, for example looking at products from an album rather than song perspective. A periodically select and when I do an update grab everything I've marked. A burn and select option. We've got iPod and now Zen and there'll be others. (My apology if MJ already has some of these features but I'm just trying to spark thought and I'm still a fairly novice user.

)

You have to believe the market is going to move this way and we need 'outside the box' kinda tools (some of which MJ already has) to load data in.

-=Tim=-

Kurt Young · « **Reply #22 on:** October 22, 2002, 09:54:27 pm »

Aye, udeups put it better than I could: Keeping it as internal to MJ as possible is best.

I, too, don't want to worry about keeping a directory full of the files that I want to synch with (although that's kind of what I'm already doing... exporting my MJ playlists to a directory and having XPlay synch with it).

Ephpod and XPlay can already synch with files and folders on my hard drive. The one thing that they can't do, though, is interact with my MJ data. To me, the whole point of an MJ plugin is to do something with MJ that you can't do with anything else: make the iPod interact directly with my MJ data. More specifically, my MJ smartlists. If I wanted to set up synching with files on my hard drive, I'd just use Ephpod.

MMJB, iTunes, and XPlay are all geared to synching with their internal playlists (well, XPlay synchs with Windows Media Player's internal playlists) -- but there's one thing that's different: MJ doesn't suck.

The one thing that's missing from my iPod experience is having MJ do what the other iPod solutions do -- synch with my internal MJ playlists. MJ smartlists are truly innovative, and are the center of how I listen to music.

Gosh, I can grovel with the best of 'em, can't I? I apologize for my tone, Steve. I know that I'm sounding like a jerk, and you gotta know that I'm not trying to be preachy or anything. You know that I'm grateful for the hard work and long hours you're putting in on this thing. I sure as heck couldn't code anything like it in a million years, and I haven't the first clue on how easy or how hard it would be to do what I've suggested. I just want to very strongly voice my thoughts on this matter.

I hope that you've taken my suggestion on playlist/smartlist synchronization to heart -- I think it'd be a mistake not to do it.

SeanC · « **Reply #23 on:** October 23, 2002, 04:38:57 am »

Quote

What I would like is, unfortunately, not one of your options. I think that synchronization the way that MMJB or iTunes handles it is best -- I designate MJ playlists/smartlists to synchronize with. This:

1. transfers files to the iPod on the playlists/smartlists.
2. deletes files on the iPod that aren't on the playlists/smartlists.
3. creates iPod-playlists that mirror the MJ playlists/smartlists.

I third this - definately the best way in my opinion.

jgourd · « **Reply #24 on:** October 23, 2002, 05:01:13 am »

Quote

I third this - definately the best way in my opinion.

Yup, this is the way to do it. What makes the iPod so special is that Apple really really researched the interface and delivered something that causes the users to evangelize. MJ users tend evangelize as well. If you do some right, there is no argument.

Phil Lee · « **Reply #25 on:** October 23, 2002, 05:30:01 am »

I agree with Kurt's suggestion too. It would be best if MJ could synch the iPod using playlists. In fact Kurt's dialog looks ideal too.

Ideally this synch method should also check for songs featuring in multiple playlists and only upload the song once to save space and minimise potential for file duplication. I appreciate that this will slow the upload down a bit but that doesn't matter.

It would be useful to have an option to upload the entire music library if you want to as well.

It would also be really good if MJ could display a dialog allowing songs/albums/playlists to be removed from a synch if there isn't enough space on the iPod to hold them.

SteveG · « **Reply #26 on:** October 23, 2002, 07:11:33 am »

Hello and thanks for all the feedback.

First let me take care of the people having problems...

Udeups,

I introduced a deletion bug yesterday when I added all the Playlist stuff. It is fixed, and will be posted when I leave for the day. Thanks for the report.

WillRMC,

My best guess is that the correct Plug-in is not registered on your system. If you have an ipod.dll, delete it. Search your drive for hh_portable.dll and remove all copies of it. Redownload the plug-in and you should now have a hh_portable.dll in your Media Jukebox\Plugins directory (from yesterday at 5:30). Run MJ and if you still see Calendars and Contacts. If you do, go to Start->Run and type the following and hit return (you may have to adjust the drive letter)....

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Plugins\hh_portable.dll"

You should see a message that the file registered correctly. If so, then you should be all set.

In regards to the synch issue.....

Thanks for all the strong opinions. Please do not feel that is bad to express wishes/desires strongly. This is very helpful and not offensive at all. I only ask that when you do, keep in mind that if we decide to pursue a path other than what you want, it is not a statement that your opinion is stupid or ill informed. There are many reasons for choosing the paths that we do (i.e. looking at the MJ project as a whole and doing what is best for it), so try to respect that. In hindsight, I think that is why I snapped when we had the whole go round on formatting the folders like MusicMatch.

Anyway, your posts are pretty clear as to what might be best. Let me work with it and see what we can do.

As always thanks for the input.

Steve

JimH · « **Reply #27 on:** October 23, 2002, 09:05:02 am »

We made a small announcement about the iPod plug-in on the Apple board:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?14@105.kWXKayKtgww.2@.3bbb5ef6

jgourd · « **Reply #28 on:** October 23, 2002, 09:22:11 am »

Suggestion:

Currently, if I use the iPod Updater to reset the iPod back to factory condition, when I first re-connect it, MMJB launches and formats it. It will do this even if MMJB had the "auto launch when connect" feature disabled.

It would wonderful if MJ could register itself as the agent to auto launch and format the iPod.

SteveG · « **Reply #29 on:** October 23, 2002, 09:23:32 am »

The fix for the file deletion is posted.

I have a plan for synching, but it requires some changes that I do not think we will be willing to make in v 8. I am going to try to tackle integrating what we have so far in v9 where there is the ability to make more major changes such as the ones that must be made to accomodate this task.

Marc · « **Reply #30 on:** October 23, 2002, 09:36:50 am »

Quote

I third this - definately the best way in my opinion.

Steve,

Add me to the list of requesters with one addition:

I store almost all my audio files in lossless .ape format. I'm pretty sure there are others doing the same with FLAC. My playlists traverse .ape and .mp3 files seamlessly within MJ. When I want to load songs onto my iPod, I must first convert the files and download them to the iPod. It would be fantastic if your plugin could perform the following:

Check for .ape or FLAC files
Alert me. Pop up: Convert or skip download of incompatable files (conversion could take some time)?
Either run conversion engine and download, or skip

The cool part of this is the elimination of about 15 GB duplicate .mp3 files I keep around that have been downloaded to my iPod.

Just my $0.02. Thanks for all your hard work!

Marc

jgourd · « **Reply #31 on:** October 23, 2002, 09:57:24 am »

Bug:

I dowloaded last night's build a just got around to hooking up the iPod today. Prior to this I had used MJ to load 2063 files.

Today, I go to look at the iPod in MJ and there are no files listed. The status bar indicates 2063 files, all my playlists are there, but in the right pane of MJ, there are no actual songs listed.

I ran the "rebuild Database from Ipod" and that didn't help. It did however duplicate all my playlists so now I have two of each.

I ran the "Format for iPod". This took a long time during which time I was tempted to terminate MJ because I thought it had hung. I copied a single album to the iPod and once it was uploaded all the song disappeared. I finally figured out that I had previously set it to show only queued files. Setting it to display all file brought the files back. Although this was clearly my stupid human error, perhaps something on the status bar indicating how many are hidden would be apropriate.

I can't delete any files without formatting but I think someone already documented this.

SteveG · « **Reply #32 on:** October 23, 2002, 10:31:31 am »

Marc,

Have you explored the "Option" button under the "Upload" button. With this button you can set MJ to convert your files on the fly during copy to iPod. It deletes the converted files after the transfer so there is no wasted storage space. I think this is what you are after.

JGourd,

Can you get today's Plug-in to verify the deletion problem is fixed. Also, thanks for the bug report on the "rebuild database..". This is fixed and I just posted a new Plug-in that has that change.

In regards to the status bar notification, this will be implemented in v 9.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #33 on:** October 23, 2002, 12:12:52 pm »

Marc,

Aye, the "force convert" option works very well. However, it will convert everything you send, even if they're already mp3. In the future when all functionality is in place and there's time to just add polish, I wonder how hard would it be to change the "force convert" to "safety convert", converting files only if they're not already mp3, wav, or aiff.

Phil Lee,

I'm behind you on the multiple file thoughts. If playlist synching is implemented, and the same file is "called out" on, say, three different synching playlists, only one copy of the file itself should be sent to the iPod. However, the three playlists that the plugin would create on the iPod should all be populated.

Jgourd,

Try killing the ipodwatcher program or disabling the ipodsrv service (if you need help doing these just ask) and see if you experience the same problems with MMJB auto-launching when you attach. I agree it'd be cool if MJ could be made to auto-launch when you attach your iPod... even cooler if it could start synchronizing automatically when attached. I don't know much about Media Scheduler, but could it be somehow called upon to perform these functions?

Does anyone know how long it's expected to be until v9 can use handhelds again? I know that v9 is still preview and not the most stable testing environment, but I'd sure love not having to uninstall/reinstall all the time,

Cheers guys!

jgourd · « **Reply #34 on:** October 23, 2002, 12:37:46 pm »

I got the new build. It appears that the deletion problem is fixed. I selected several files and deleted them. The problem I have is that the sort order reverted back to Name after the files were deleted.

In fact, there are a few things cause it to revert back to Name sort order: Deleting, Right-Click>Add To Playlist>Create new playlist, Rename anything.

Whenever the sort order changes, the length of the Name column reverts back to some outragous length which matches the longest Name ("Toccata (An Adaptation of Ginastera's 1st Piano Concerto, 4th Movement)"). Is there a rule I can change so that this doesn't happen? My screen is wider than most people's and after the Name column changes size, there is no room for any other columns until I resize the Name.

The Eject iPod doesn't actually eject it. It just allows the iPod to be ejected without quitting MJ.

If you drag a playlist onto a playlist, the song order is not preserved.

SteveG · « **Reply #35 on:** October 23, 2002, 12:45:46 pm »

I have to take off for the day.

JGourd, I will look at these issues tomorrow.

Kurt, I started working on getting basic functionality going in v 9 today. This is a high priority now because this is where we will do the work on getting sync to work.

Steve

jgourd · « **Reply #36 on:** October 23, 2002, 12:51:43 pm »

Duplicate Files resolution idea.

You can resolve the duplicate files issue quickly without taking a penalty in speed quite easily.

Before uploading, filter the list of files in the queue by executing a SQL query where you select from the "queue list" NOT IN the "already on the iPod list". (I suppose I could have actually written the SQ out for you but this is not the forum for that.) This will return a list of only those files that have to be trasfered. In the case where a play list will be affected simply add a pointer to the existing file to the affected playlist.

udeups · « **Reply #37 on:** October 23, 2002, 01:59:01 pm »

jgourd, would your proposed solution also include some method of detecting a change in a given file's properties? In essence, if I correct some tag info on a song in my library and want to update the iPod containing that song with the change, I want the duplicate filter to know that it shouldn't skip the updated file...

does that make sense?

jgourd · « **Reply #38 on:** October 23, 2002, 02:08:42 pm »

Yeah, just add a harddrive.date > ipod.date to the WHERE clause.

SteveG · « **Reply #39 on:** October 24, 2002, 09:04:37 am »

JGourd,

After file deletions, etc. MJ 8 will revert the file order to whatever your default is. Understandably, this is not ideal. I will improve this in v. 9.

SteveG · « **Reply #40 on:** October 25, 2002, 12:34:03 pm »

There is a new iPod Plug-in posted which should work for anyone who is running MJ version 9. There are still bugs to be worked on that I am aware of, so maybe hold off on posting cosmetic changes until I have some new features loaded in. Many of the features that you have requested cannot be included in MJ 8 because it would require reworking code that is already modified in v9. I will be concetrating on adding features to this version next.

So far, I have fixed the tree snapping shut when Playlists are added and deleted. I am still working on synchronization and that will be the next big item to be added.

Steve

DB7 · « **Reply #41 on:** October 25, 2002, 05:54:10 pm »

Help Please, I'm a new windows IPOD user:

I have the 20g version and running windows 2000 sp3. Didn't like the MMJB that came with IPOD, so I'm trying MJB trial version 8 with the IPOD plug in downloaded from this site. I'm having the following problems:

1. when I plug in the ipod, my system reboots. I don't think this is a MJB issue, but perhaps someone can enlighten me. This seemed to happen with MMJB also.

2. I was able to transfer some MP3's to the IPod with MMJB. However, now I can't seem to get MJB to recognize the IPOD on the file tree. I removed MMJB, installed MJB and then downloaded the IPOD plugin.

Suggestions will be appreciated.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #42 on:** October 25, 2002, 07:37:30 pm »

Every build gets better, man.

It works with MJ9! Sweet!

It also (mostly) works with XPlay - could use some polish. Playlist creation/population works, but also could use some polish.

One big concern is that the plugin allows multiple instances of the same song in the database. This causes crashes.

Here's Kurt's List.

Cheers, dude, and I look forward to playlist synching!

SteveG · « **Reply #43 on:** October 27, 2002, 11:07:49 am »

DB7,

MusicMatch causes all kinds of havoc on my system as well. When MusicMatch installs, it tries to take control of the iPod at the driver level. For example, if you install MusicMatch and then try to get to the iPod from Windows (i.e. from "My Computer") the player will disconnect. If you click on the iPod in MusicMatch, you should be able to select an option for it to not take control of your iPod when you connect. Definitely select this if you are going to try us out. Another option is to rename the iPod folder in Windows which gets created by MusicMatch, this seems to keep MusicMatch out of interfering too much.

Our plug-in is still a work in progress. You should be able to format your iPod and get files to and from your iPod well with what we have. Playlist synching is on its way. Try checking back midweek for added features.

Steve

ashawley · « **Reply #44 on:** October 28, 2002, 12:51:01 pm »

Hey Steve, great work so far. Just got back from a week in Hawaii and missed all the fun here, but I'm glad to see the progress.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents regarding the synching options. I totally agree with Kurt's suggestion about how to handle synching. I would just want to make sure that not only playlists could be selected to be synched, but Artists/Albums as well.

I myself don't use Playlists that much but I do have more music than will fit on my iPod, so I'd like to be able to navigate my MJ library and select which Artists/Albums should be synched

Hope that makes sense. So like Kurt's tree that he proposed, you'd have a tree of your Artists, which you could put a checkmark next to to synch all albums for that artist. If you chose NOT to select all albums for that artist, you could expand the artist icon, and select from their Albums that you would like synched. Further more, you could even go so far as to allow the Albums to be expanded to select individual songs to be synched.

I'll create a mock up of what I'm talking about, but I think you get the idea.

Aloha!

Adam

SteveG · « **Reply #45 on:** October 28, 2002, 01:30:19 pm »

Kurt,

Thanks for the list, I am working on it.

Adam,

Aloha indeed (it snowed here last week

)

I follow your suggestion, thanks. I am working out other bugs first and then will start on this.

Steve

ashawley · « **Reply #46 on:** October 28, 2002, 06:32:24 pm »

Steve:

Don't know rightly what this is, but I'm getting it on some songs when I try to upload. It's a warning message that states the file I'm trying to copy has some information that might be lost but that the contents of the file won't be changed. Then it lists the information that will be lost:

"Macintosh Application Info"
"Macintosh Multimedia Resources"

What is this? I can't see anything wierd in the tags. Also, since it happens on a number of songs, it makes uploading a large number of tunes a real problem. If I don't care about it a "yes to all" checkbox would be nice.

Oh, I'm using the newest version of the plugin w/MJ 9

Adam (S)

jgourd · « **Reply #47 on:** October 29, 2002, 12:41:58 am »

I am using the build dated the 25th. I uploaded about 12 gig to the iPod and took on vacation.

When I returned from vacation, I connected iPod and MJ crashed the same way it has since the beginning of the iPod Plug-in development.

SteveG · « **Reply #48 on:** October 29, 2002, 06:58:57 am »

Adam,

I don't know what that is. Could you email me one of the files that reports this and I will test it here. (steve @ jriver.com)

JGourd,

Not sure. It sounds like the Database file got corrupted. Did it crash immediately when you connected it? Can you give any more details about how it crashed?

jgourd · « **Reply #49 on:** October 29, 2002, 09:23:18 am »

MJ crashed as soon as I clicked on the root icon of the iPod. I have sent you diagnostic info and traces previously.

This seems to happen very regularly when the iPod is almost full.

20Gig unit.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: iPod plug-in for Media Jukebox (Read 11927 times)