Topic: How is the Ipod support coming? (Read 15901 times)

LarryJoe · « **Reply #50 on:** October 13, 2002, 03:03:27 am »

Same here Steve. My email addy is on my profile. Bring it on!

Phil Lee · « **Reply #51 on:** October 13, 2002, 07:18:08 am »

I know I'm new to the party but I'd be happy to test the plugin too. I'm really looking forward to it, especially as I only started using MJ after I got my iPod.

jgourd · « **Reply #52 on:** October 13, 2002, 02:19:19 pm »

I have resisted installing Ephpod. I have been waiting for the MJ support instead. My experience with the Music Match that comes with the 20 gig iPod has been problem free.

That is because I do not use Music Match's Main screen at all. I just manually drag and drop files onto the iPod device.

So that is how I use it, until MJ goes iPod native!

SteveG · « **Reply #53 on:** October 13, 2002, 03:11:18 pm »

Everyone,

The Plug-in I am working on can now successfully add and delete files. This is a HUGE step. There is a bunch of little stuff I would like to take care of before I start having people test and I need to get out of here for the day. Sorry to delay again, but let me post an update tomorrow. Go easy on me for stalling.

Thanks,

Steve

Phil Lee · « **Reply #54 on:** October 13, 2002, 03:17:41 pm »

Sounds great Steve. I can be patient since Ephpod works pretty well, still it will be great to do be able to manage my iPod in MJ. It looks like I made the right decision as to which mp3 software to buy anyway.

ashawley · « **Reply #55 on:** October 15, 2002, 10:56:52 am »

OK, Steve, not to rush you :rush,rush,rush: but it is officially tomorrow... Update?

(I know, quit buggin' the poor guy and let 'em code)

Sorry for the intrusion...

Adam(S)

Marc · « **Reply #56 on:** October 15, 2002, 11:23:03 am »

Steve,

Thank you for your hard work in this area (MJ -> iPod Connectivity). This will complete the final link in my "music environment" and allow for a single, seamless solution bringing together two excellent products. If you are interested, here are a few features I'd like to see and use in the final version:

Since I archive and listen to most of my music on my PC in .ape format, I'd like to be able to decompress (in LAME) and save to iPod automatically. Processing time is not critical - quality is.
Playlists. It would be great to automatically be able to send playlists and associated songs to the iPod (along with above-listed conversion)

Again, thank you for your efforts. I look forward to the fruits of your labor!

Marc

SteveG · « **Reply #57 on:** October 15, 2002, 01:18:06 pm »

Hello Everyone,

If you go to the Handheld download section, you will see a Plug-in for the iPod.

Here is the deal....

This Plug-in will replace the hh_portable.dll Plug-in that you currently have in your Media Jukebox\\Plug-ins directory. If you ever want the old one back, you can redownload it from our site. The new Plug-in should allow your iPod to show up under Devices in the left tree as a drive letter.

Please take note of the warning on the Plug-in which basically says, do not install it unless you are willing to lose whatever you currently have on your iPod. This level of paranoia will decrease in time, but so far I have only had time to test this in a very limited fashion ( as in on my PC) so results may vary in the real world.

I can, with this Plug-in, successfully display a small (50) number of files with all the supporting Artist, Album, etc information. I can upload and delete files on the iPod. Create and delete playlists and send files directly to Playlists (by dropping them directly on a Playlist. You can also get files on the iPod by dropping them on the drive letter) I mention the number of files, because I put all the files in one folder for now. I am sure there is an upper limit where this will no longer works, but I have not explored it yet.

I will next add the ability to rename tag information and the ability to send tracks that are on the iPod to different Playlists. This currently does not work so don't try it. You can try creating a Playlist and dragging the files onto the Playlist. This should work.

On a personal note, I have left for the day to pick up my parents who are in town to visit my one year old. This is a rare occurence so my apologies for not being around to field any issues. I will be in tomorrow to trouble shoot whatever you find.

To everyone, thanks for your encouragement and suggestions. Please know that any suggestions you have made, I will try to include when what we have is stable. I am sure there will be other issues that need to be addressed first, so please be patient.

Steve

Phil Lee · « **Reply #58 on:** October 15, 2002, 01:28:47 pm »

OK, I've downloaded the plug-in and tried it with my 10Gb iPod. I can see the iPod as a drive in MJ. I can also see the contacts and calendars I have on the iPod. Unfortunately I can't see any music on it. All my music has been uploaded using Ephpod.

jgourd · « **Reply #59 on:** October 15, 2002, 01:53:46 pm »

That is probably to be expected at this point. He did mention that he is only looking at one directory for now.

I have a question: Does this plugin exist because JRiver reverse engineered the iPod, or because Apple has released their SDK?

jgourd · « **Reply #60 on:** October 15, 2002, 02:46:31 pm »

OK, I used it.

1. It saw all my songs.
2. I copied a few songs to it.
3. MJ Crashed
4. iPod is now empty and doesn't even show up as an iPod in Media Match.

jgourd · « **Reply #61 on:** October 15, 2002, 03:02:45 pm »

More Feedback.

After restoring the iPod to factory condition I was able to use it with Media Match again. I transfered 1 album via MMJB and it was visible in MJ. I added another album using MJ and disconnected the iPod by ejecting it. The iPod was blank and would not play back anything. I have to restore it again.

At this point I am going to give up until a new build comes along.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #62 on:** October 15, 2002, 03:14:40 pm »

Woowoo! I can't wait to get home and try this! Thanks Steve, and you'll be getting a full report from me, have no fear!

One thing... I'm using the .67 preview of MJ v9. I would very much like to keep it. Do you expect the plugin to be compatible? Would you rather me test it on the current stable version of v8? I'd really like to keep v9. Much better smartlist options.

ashawley · « **Reply #63 on:** October 15, 2002, 05:10:26 pm »

Well, things are interesting at this point.

I can get to the drive letter, see contacts and calendar, but nothing else.

I was able to copy a song, but upon exploring the iPod it put the tune in the root of the iPod. This is probably why songs copied don't show up on the ipod. Just a suspicion.

Steve, you are writing to the iPod database, right? I know, that's probably a silly question.

Played around a little more and found a setting in Settings>Options>Devices called "Search For Files in Subfolders". Checked that, still didn't see anything, then I changed the ipod_control folder to be a non-hidden folder. Bingo! Files show up. The only problem is, it's not pulling from the database, it's just pulling the file name. And since mine are all numbered (I use that option in ephPod), it doesn't really do me too good.

Well, that's what I've found out. Copying and deleting works, but I can't find out where I could set the copy to folder (actually it should do that automatically) and I can't verify if it's writing to the iPod's database.

Let us know when the next build is Steve.

Adam(S)

willrmc · « **Reply #64 on:** October 15, 2002, 08:29:42 pm »

yeah same with me, i tried sending a playlist and an album to the ipod and it transfered to the root and not the music folder and was not registered with the itunesdb, therefore not able to be played by the ipod.

wavell · « **Reply #65 on:** October 15, 2002, 08:35:16 pm »

I had the same experience in ability to rip a CD and transfer to the iPod - but cannot see nor play back. It's a start but some ways to go yet.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #66 on:** October 15, 2002, 08:48:30 pm »

First thing's first, Steve. Thank you for the time and effort that you've spent (and will no doubt continue to spend) on this project. I couldn't program my way out of a wet paper bag. Any suggestions I make aren't taking into account how difficult it may be to actually implement. I'm just a consumer.

I performed a restore on my Windows format iPod, setting it back to factory settings. I then installed the plugin on MJ9.00.67. Clicked on the I: drive in the handhelds section -- crashed. link link

I uninstalled MJ9 and downloaded/installed MJ8. Deleted all my .jmd files in the process. Installed the plugin. Success.

The plugin, at this version, is only a utility to copy files to the root of your iPod, and it works. This won't let someone listen to music on their iPod, of course, but it's a good first step in the right direction.

Working:

File copy to the iPod works.
With the "only show queued items" option turned off, you can see everything on your iPod and delete it.
You can send any item in the Media Library tree (whole albums, whole genres, playlists, etc) to the iPod easily.
Normalization seems to work. Nice touch!
Force-convert works also. Very nice touch!

Existing functions that need work:

File transfer speed needs a boost. I copied 100mb in 1 minute. Expected speed is around 5mb/second, or 300mb/minute.
When a duplicate file exists, upload aborts.
Please hide everything in the right pane except music and playlists. Hide all subfolders in the tree. Deleting these items could wreck the iPod.

Needs:

Copy the music to the hidden \iPod_control folder; more specifically into X:\iPod_Control\Music\F00
Do everything possible to not resort to filename truncation. If a duplicate filename exists, copy the duplicate to another directory (F01, F02, etc) instead
Update the iPod's database file so that the iPod can recognize the music and play it
Pass each song's tag information to the database: Artist, Album, Title, Track#, Genre, Composer
If you send a playlist or smartlist to the iPod, create a playlist on the iPod to match

Wants:

Make it compatible with MJ9
Change the Force-Convert function to a "Saftey-Convert" instead. Rather than converting everything you send, only convert if it's not .wav, .aiff, or .mp3. Limit output format options to .wav, .aiff, .mp3, or .mp3vbr
Implement a synchronization scheme so that the iPod will synch with designated playlists or smartlists upon connect or upon MJ launch.
Have the iPod's playcount tallies update MJ's playcount information.

Good show! Remember, The longest journey starts with a single step. And a man who keeps his hand in his pocket feels cocky all day.

jgourd · « **Reply #67 on:** October 16, 2002, 04:41:25 am »

You guys are having better luck than I did. I was able to see all the music that resides on the iPod no problem. I was able to delete songs just fine.

Any time I copied any files to the iPod and ejected it, it came up as an empty unit and had to be restored using the iPod Updater in order to be seen as an iPod again by MMJB.

The copy speed was pretty poor. 5 or 6 meg MP3s were taking 3 or 4 seconds.

I am one of those people with the VIA Chipset and and Audigy. More on this issue at iPodLounge: http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/dennx/index.cgi?board=techsupport&action=display&num=1032499405&start=8

SteveG · « **Reply #68 on:** October 16, 2002, 06:03:49 am »

Good morning all,

Sorry to hear of the problems.

First, let me address the people who are seeing "Calenders and Contacts" under the drive letter. If this is what you see, the correct Plug-in is not registered. Go to your J River Plug-ins folder and delete the hh_portable.dll and make sure you see an hh_ipod.dll. If you do not, redownload the Plug-in.

To all....

I have done all my testing on Windows 2000 with a 5GB iPod formatted for Windows, not using MacOpener or similar. In all future bug reports, please include what OS you are using and what size iPod.

Please try the following tests and report the results. Ideally start, with a clean iPod.

1) Click on your drive letter and make sure you see the tree expand with "Artists, Albums, Genres, and Playlists" under the drive letter. If not, let me know.

2) Click on the root drive letter and let me know if you see all your files (if you do not have an empty iPod)

3) Click on Media Library in MJ and drag a single mp3 file onto the root drive letter. Click on the root drive letter and see that the file is "In queue". Click upload. Go to your iPod "DriveLetter:\iPod_Control\Music\F00 " folder and see if the file is present. Disconnect your iPod and see if the file appears and plays.

Lets get this much working for everyone and then go from there.

Thanks.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #69 on:** October 16, 2002, 06:20:57 am »

Steve,

Quick note before i'm off to work...

I see the contacts and calendars in the tree on the left under my device.

After downloading the plugin, I don't see an hh_ipod.dll. I manually downloaded the zip file and unzipped hh_ipod.dll to my \plugins directory. I deleted the hh_portables. I fired up MJ, no change. I used the plugin manager to install it, no change. At this time, I still see the contacts and calendars subfolders in the tree on the left, and files are still copied to the root.

Windows format 20GB iPod, Windows XP SP1

SteveG · « **Reply #70 on:** October 16, 2002, 08:42:12 am »

Update......

Bad news / good news.

Bad news - there was a problem with the download page that caused a totally wrong Plug-in to be used by MJ when you got the iPod Plug-in.

Good news - this is fixed.

For testing - Go to your Plug-ins directory and delete both the hh_ipod.dll and the hh_portable.dll. Redownload the IPod plug-in and then check that you now have an hh_portable.dll. If so, you should be in good shape to start testing.

Ideally, start from a clean iPod and remember, for now, the possibillty of having to reformat your iPod is real.

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

PS, for now please keep the feedback focused on basic functionality.

PPS, For users with XP, I tested on a clean XP successfully today.

JGourd... the SDK has not been released and as far as we know, there will never be one.

Phil Lee · « **Reply #71 on:** October 16, 2002, 10:11:13 am »

OK, I've redownloaded the plug-in, restarted MJ and connected up my iPod. Unfortunately MJ still just sees the Calendar and Contact folders and doesn't display any music.

My OS is Windows XP Home. I haven't tried the plug-in with a clean iPod yet.

jgourd · « **Reply #72 on:** October 16, 2002, 11:05:06 am »

1) Click on your drive letter and make sure you see the tree expand with "Artists, Albums, Genres, and Playlists" under the drive letter. If not, let me know. - .SUCCESS

2) Click on the root drive letter and let me know if you see all your files (if you do not have an empty iPod) - .SUCCESS

3) Click on Media Library in MJ and drag a single mp3 file onto the root drive letter. Click on the root drive letter and see that the file is "In queue". Click upload. Go to your iPod "DriveLetter:\iPod_Control\Music\F00 " folder and see if the file is present.SUCCESS

Disconnect your iPod and see if the file appears and plays.FAILURE

At least this time it didn't wipe out my iPod like last time

Media Jukebox PLUS 8.0.388
Install Path: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

CPU: Intel Pentium III 1004 MHz MMX
Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 586 MB
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 (Build 2600)

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2600.0000
ComCtl32.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

20 Gig iPod.

SteveG · « **Reply #73 on:** October 16, 2002, 02:01:23 pm »

For anyone doing additional testing, please make sure you get the iPod Plug-in version 3.0.4. The time stamp on the file should be 4:20.

JGourd, maybe this file will help you.

I would really like some feedback from people who can start from a clean iPod. You can reset your iPod in MJ with a right-click on the drive letter. You will lose all of your data so only do this if you do not care. After you reset, go to the F00 folder on the iPod and make sure it is empty.

There most likely will be changes I need to make for large numbers of files, but I want to get things working more solidly first. On XP I just finished uploading 30 files multiple times with everything working great. This works for me also on 2000.

Phil_Lee,

If you are seeing the Calendars and Contacts, get the latest Plug-in and make sure that it is in your Media Jukebox\Plugins directory (should be hh_portable.dll with modified time = 4:20 in properties). Make sure it is registerd by going to Start->Run and entering the following minus the dots(you need to make sure the drive letter is correct if not C) and hit enter......
regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Plugins\hh_portable.dll"

I am taking off for the day.

Thanks again everyone for testing.
Steve

TimB · « **Reply #74 on:** October 16, 2002, 03:17:19 pm »

I've got a major problem!

I reset my iPod from MJ8.

I moved some files over, so far so good.

I then quit MJ8 and unmounted my iPod.

My iPod has been stuck on the Apple logo for about 20 minutes now.

HELP!

-=Tim=-

Chris Shaw · « **Reply #75 on:** October 16, 2002, 03:30:39 pm »

Perform a hard reset by pressing the Menu button and the Play/Pause button simultaneously until the Apple/iPod logo appears.
When you reset iPod all your music, data files, and customized preferences are saved.

(Excerpt from Applecare document 60958)

TimB · « **Reply #76 on:** October 16, 2002, 03:34:03 pm »

Quote

Perform a hard reset by pressing the Menu button and the Play/Pause button simultaneously until the Apple/iPod logo appears.
When you reset iPod all your music, data files, and customized preferences are saved.

(Excerpt from Applecare document 60958)

Tried this. The Apple logo flashes, I hear the drive accessing then the Apple logo stays stuck.

-=Tim=-

Kurt Young · « **Reply #77 on:** October 16, 2002, 03:57:18 pm »

I downloaded the newest one. The time stamp on hh_portable.dll is 4:20 on 16 October. I typed in regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\Plugins\hh_portable.dll and it said it registered successfully. I'm still seeing the calendars/contacts subfolders in the tree. The Portable Drives plugin in the Plugin Manager lists version 3.0.16. I'm using a 20GB Windows formatted iPod.

Same results after a reboot. This is on my work machine, and I did not restore my iPod prior to trying it. After I disconnected my iPod, my music database was lost -- iPod had 0 songs.

Media Jukebox 8.0.388
Install Path: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1593 MHz MMX
Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 324 MB
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 (Build 2600)

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2600.0000
ComCtl32.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2600.0000
wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

jgourd · « **Reply #78 on:** October 16, 2002, 05:04:42 pm »

I too have the hh_portable.dll modified:Today, October 16, 2002, 4:20:52 PM

I reset the iPod with a right-click and copied one file over. I verified it was on the file system of the iPod. I verified that it was showing up in MJ. I unmounted the iPod and there were no files on it when I tried to use it as a walkman.

I re-mounted it and MJ still see the file just fine. I open MMJB and it too sees the one file on the iPod.

MMJB can add more files. I verified that the files I dropped onto the iPod in MMJB are actually on the iPod's file system. However, Neither MJ or MMJB can actually see the mp3s. Running in HH mode it is still empty.

Using the right-click>Reset doesn't seem to delete files from the iPod file system.

I unmount and it still acts like a walkman with no files.

I do a factory reset on it. I plug it in, run MJ, try to move a few files and I get a warning dialog with not text. Upon investigation, I discover that the "iTunes" and"Music" folders were missing. Quitting MJ and running MMJB created them.

Mounting the new fresh factory reset iPod and copying files to the iPod yeilded an iPod with files, but still it was a blank handheld.

Tell me, in your development environment, are you using an iPod that is managed by EphPod instead of MMJB? If you are then shame on you. EphPod is not officially supported by Apple. MMJB formatted iPods must be your gold standard.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #79 on:** October 16, 2002, 06:34:26 pm »

I got home and tried it, with positive results.

I performed a restore with the Windows Software Updater 1.2. During the restore, I disconnected/reconnected the iPod, as is required. When the restore was finished, I loaded MJ, after installing the 4:20 version of the plugin (I love that name!).

Things looked great! The contacts/calendars folders were gone and the Artists, Albums, etc were there. I queued up a song and started transfer. This resulted in a weird error. I explored the iPod_control folder, and noticed that the only thing in it was a subfolder called \Device, which contained two files, "Preferences" and "sysinfo". I manually created \iPod_Control\Music\F00 and tried again. Success!

Transfer speed was around 100mb/minute. All files were transferred to \F00. All subdirectory items in the MJ tree (Artists, Albums, etc) were populated correctly at the end of the transfer. Although one of the things I transferred was a playlist (I right-clicked a playlist and selected "Send To > Device - I:"), the Playlists item in the tree was not populated.

I unmounted my iPod and disconnected it. The first thing to show was the language selection screen, which is to be expected since I just restored it. The About screen lists 0 songs. I plugged my iPod back in and explored the iPod_control folder. Its contents and the contents of the \device subfolder were the same as before.

I started MJ again and clicked on my I: drive. Even with "Show queued files only" disabled, MJ lists zero songs on my iPod. I queued up a song that I hadn't transferred before, and it uploaded just like mentioned above. I queued up a song that I had transferred before, but no longer showed on the iPod via MJ's interface, and received an abort error message , saying the file already existed.

Then, I right-clicked the handheld and selected "Reset iPod." Confirming the warning, it deleted the one song that I had uploaded this session from MJ's interface. I checked the \F00 directory and that song was gone. MJ's interface now showed no songs. However, all of the songs that I had uploaded in the previous session were still in the \F00 directory. No other changes were made to any files or folders in \iPod_control.

Stellar progress, dude! Cheers!

Media Jukebox 8.0.388
Install Path: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

CPU: Intel Pentium III 931 MHz MMX
Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 534 MB
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106
ComCtl32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

edit: Adam, download this and extract this to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes.

joefreshman · « **Reply #80 on:** October 16, 2002, 07:03:29 pm »

jgourd--

I shudder to think of the day that MMJB is considered the "gold standard" of anything.

There are lots of known problems with the way MMJB copies files and writes back the DB.

iTunes should be the "gold" standard, if any problem excels to that. Next would be XPlay, as they deconstructed the entire iTunesDB format (including a couple fields that the iPod doesn't use).

--joe

TimB · « **Reply #81 on:** October 16, 2002, 07:38:18 pm »

Quote

I've got a major problem!

I reset my iPod from MJ8.

I moved some files over, so far so good.

I then quit MJ8 and unmounted my iPod.

My iPod has been stuck on the Apple logo for about 20 minutes now.

HELP!

-=Tim=-

I pressed the iPod's back and forward arrows simultaneously (as recommended in some docs that someone in iPoidlounge told me about) and reinstalled my system software to my iPod.

All seems to be well now but I think I'll hold off until the Plug-In is a little more stable. Maybe I can't handle the ups and downs of beta this early.

But thanks Steve for the work and I look forward to the finished product.

-=Tim=-

ashawley · « **Reply #82 on:** October 16, 2002, 08:59:30 pm »

Great progress Steve!

Here are my results (similar to Kurt's).

Ipod would not show any songs until I did a full restore (used 1.2.1 as opposed to Kurt's test with 1.2). I ran into the same problem that Kurt had, there was only a Device folder in the ipod_control folder. I used ephpod to create the itunes and music folders and the associated files/sub-folders that go in them.

Connected to MJ. Could see the Artist/Playlist/Genre/Songs etc. under the ipod drive. Added a full album, clicked upload. The songs uploaded fine (no errors). I could see them properly under Artist, Album, Genre etc. in MJ, but when I disconnected iPod and tried to view the same on it, there where no songs present.

Reconnected and verified that the songs were indeed on the iPod in the F00 folder.

Tried a "reset ipod", then selected another batch of files from a different album. Ran into an error that one of the files already existed. This should not have happened as I selected a completely different set of files and I know the file names were different than the previous set of files I uploaded (sorry, that last sentence was confusing...too much wine again :-> )

Anyway, I aborted (had to do a "End Program" in task manager).

Keep up the great work. I really like the interface. Just switched to my new favorite skin (Doreen's TV) and it's nice to see the uploading. Just so you know, the speed is still roughly half of what I get with ephPod (about 2.5 seconds/song w/MJ, 1 second w/ephpod).

Looking forward to more builds.

Adam S

Media Jukebox PLUS 8.0.387
Install Path: C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

CPU: Intel Pentium III 498 MHz MMX
Memory: Total - 276 MB, Free - 91 MB
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106
ComCtl32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Off topic, but....

Hey Kurt: I saw your theme on your links. Looked at your website...you say your not a coder? And you say you couldn't code your way out of a paper bag...shame, shame. Any tips on how I can get that???

jgourd · « **Reply #83 on:** October 17, 2002, 04:01:03 am »

Quote

jgourd--

I shudder to think of the day that MMJB is considered the "gold standard" of anything.

--joe

I do not disagree with your assement of MMJB. However, I still say that since it is what comes with the iPod and it is the only Apple sanctioned way of managing an iPod, then iPods formatted with MMJB are the gold standard.

jgourd · « **Reply #84 on:** October 17, 2002, 04:08:28 am »

Stupid Question:

I D/L'ed the 1.2.1 firmware. What do I do with the "iPod1.2.1Updater.dmg.bin" file now that I have it?

KingSparta · « **Reply #85 on:** October 17, 2002, 07:13:40 am »

I had a question in this thread that i think got erased due to the forum crash.

Like i said it seems like a lot of messages in here about the IPOD is this things all that greate?

Or is it all Just Hype?

jgourd · « **Reply #86 on:** October 17, 2002, 07:27:35 am »

This my OPINION, take it with whatever grain of salt you wish.

I have owned many portable MP3 players in my search for "the right one". I have every flavor you can imagine including WinCE hand helds with micro drives. My search has ended now that I have the iPod.

However, the new Archos Jukebox ( http://www.archos.com/lang=en/products/prw_500347.html?country=cn )

does look very cool. I won't switch though.

A lot of what makes a good MP3 player is subjective and you have to have a list of features you want clearly in your head before you go shopping. For me it was 1) Shirt Pocket Size - NO BIGGER, 2) Hard Disk Based, 3) Sound Good, 4) Support for or future support for more than just MP3 formats, 5) Easy to see and use. The e.Digital Treo and the Apple both fit that profile. I also own both and the Apple is clearly better.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #87 on:** October 17, 2002, 07:43:12 am »

KingSparta, here's what sold me on the iPod:

It's the size and weight of a deck of cards or a pack of cigarettes. When jgourd said it fits in his shirt pocket, he's not lying.

It uses firewire, instead of USB; I'm used to about 5MB/second in transfer speed. Transferring 20GB of music on USB would take all day, heh.

The user interface is very very nice. The scroll-wheel on the front saves so much time, it's unreal. I couldn't imagine scrolling through 17GB of songs without it. The display is large and readable, too.

It's hard-drive based, yet it is still small and compact. I didn't want a flashcard-based, rom-based, or cd-based mp3 player. The iPod, even 5GB model, holds a sickening amount of music. I don't have to plan ahead on what I want to listen to... with a 20GB iPod, I have music on hand for any mood I find myself in. Check out [shameless plug] www.ipodlounge.com [/shameless plug] for more iPod information than you could ever want.

TimB · « **Reply #88 on:** October 17, 2002, 09:20:53 am »

King,

I LOVE MY iPod!

The size is perfect, After flashcard players I was a little surprised at the weight but I guess I have to remember that there's a hard drive in there that holds 20 gig of music.

Apple is great at design and the physical and user interface design is just amazing.

Its great having 4000 songs in one place, like Kurt says you've got music for every mood. I was driving this morning listening to something mellow, got bored with it so I changed to something loud and there was no shortage of choice in either direction!

Amazing.

I can't wait for the 40 gig iPod.

-=Tim=-

SteveG · « **Reply #89 on:** October 17, 2002, 09:38:38 am »

Hello Again,

First, thanks to everyone for testing. TimB, sorry for any trouble. Let me again reiterate to everyone that the help is greatly appreciated, but the more I am finding out (more later) the more there is always a possibility you will end up reformatting your iPod at this time.

I have posted a new Plug-in with the time of 11:59 today. For all future tests, please be sure that the hh_portable.dll in your Plug-ins directory has this time. If you are still seeing "Contacts and Calendars", do a search for hh_portable.dll and delete all copies that were not modified at 11:59.

Now, jGourd and others who are using MusicMatch, when I first started this project I tried to get MusicMatch to work. I was incredibly frustrated with failures. To be fair, I was also using an Audigy card which I later learned was not necessarily the best compatibility choice. I eventually replaced the card and was able to work with Ephpod and after seeing customers compliment the ability to work with Ephpod I decided to look to implement our compatibility in a manner similar to Ephpod.

What I have created seems to work well if you start with an iPod wiped clean with Ephpod. The "Reset" option in MJ should approximate the clean Ephpod condition so we can have a similarly clean slate. If you use the Reset in MJ, double check that there are no files remaining in the FOO folder on iPod. If they are there, remove them. I will clean this up once things are working better.

I agree that I will eventually need to cross the hurdle of working with iTunesDB's created with MusicMatch. Currently when I install MusicMatch and then try to look at the contents of the drive using Ephpod, my plugin, or Explorer, the player disconnects. I won't go into the litany of problems that I have when running MusicMatch. Suffice it to say, that as a work around I managed to have MusicMatch and my plugin work on my machine by renaming the iPod folder which is created by MusicMatch to iPod1 so that whatever evil it is working on my machine is deactivated. As a test, anyone who is running MusicMatch successfully, can you go to "My Computer " and try to look at the contents of some folders on the iPod and see if you can do this without the player disconnecting?

Anyway, when I did the rename, I was able to upload one file file from MusicMatch to my iPod successfully(before renaming the iPod folder). Then, rename the iPod folder and run MJ and see the file. I then uploaded 5 additional files from MJ, all of which were seen and available to play on my iPod. When I renamed the iPod folder, these files were all visible in MusicMatch.

I will work this out, but for those who want to help, for now the most useful testing to do is to run Ephpod, wipe your player clean, and then run MJ and send a small number of files to iPod and see if the player recognizes and plays the files.

Thanks.

jgourd · « **Reply #90 on:** October 17, 2002, 11:39:37 am »

I am willing to give EphPod a try if it will help speed up MJ development. I too am one of the frustrated Audigy 1394 users who has trouble with MMJB's ability to complete an upload to the iPod.

However, It might make more sense from a testing standpoint that I leave the system the way it is and be the "devil's advocate" tester.

Here is my thinking: You have more work to do for sure. Right now, your plugin cannot create the folders or databases from scratch like EphPod and MMJB do. I am betting that most of the Windows iPod customers are simply going to install the software that came with it. When the frustration level gets too high they will look for a better choice. MJ users will look to the plug-in manager first, and not to EphPod. This means that the MMJB formatted iPod has to work (without the MMJB frustration) the first time they look atit with MJ.

Like I said, I'll install EphPod if it will help with the testing. Where do I get it?

Phil Lee · « **Reply #91 on:** October 17, 2002, 11:59:34 am »

OK, I wiped my iPod using Ephpod. I then deleted the handheld dll from the plug-ins folder. I downloaded the 11:59 version and installed it. I also made sure I'd registered the dll. I exited MJ and opened it again. The iPod showed up as an H: drive. I sent one CD of music to it which was uploaded to the root of the H: drive.

Looking at my iPod it has the following folders on it:

iPod_Control
- Device - Preferences, SysInfo
- iTunes - 9 files
- Music - 20 folders

I am using WinXP Home and have had no problem with Ephpod.

ghettonet · « **Reply #92 on:** October 17, 2002, 12:45:01 pm »

I was going to get an iPod but my new Creatiev Zen arrived and I think I cancel my purchase. The Zen is slighty larger than the iPod but also 200 $ess. The quality is great too both in the build & sound. I am having problems with MJ working with it though and will address that later. Anyone looking at an iPod may want to check out the new Zen.

SteveG · « **Reply #93 on:** October 17, 2002, 01:30:07 pm »

jGourd,

Don't go changin (to try to please me

) yet. I like your devil's advocate idea. Let me fiddle with this some more. As far as I can tell, I can currently create a working database from scratch assuming that the player is formatted in the style of Ephpod. With what I have, I believe I can tweak it to work in another method (i.e like MusicMatch) but I have to spend some more time deciding what is best. I have taken off for the day, but will explore and post more tomorrow.

Phil_Lee, are the files recognized by iPod OK? They should be in the F00 directory.

Ghettonet,

I should receive my Zen on Monday and then can connect it and see what is going on. I will update on this next week.

Phil Lee · « **Reply #94 on:** October 17, 2002, 02:07:45 pm »

Quote

Phil_Lee, are the files recognized by iPod OK? They should be in the F00 directory.

Sorry Steve they aren't. When I sent the files to the handheld device then uploaded them, they got copied with their original titles to the root of the H: drive. The F00 folder was empty.

I have double checked the hh_portable.dll and it is dated 17th October at 11:59. It is 208896 bytes big.

jgourd · « **Reply #95 on:** October 17, 2002, 02:24:34 pm »

Steve,

Do you want me to send you a RAR archive of my iPod with one or two songs on it? I may be useful to you in creating an MMJB formatted iPod without acutally having MMJB do the job.

jgourd · « **Reply #96 on:** October 17, 2002, 07:04:48 pm »

I played with the latest plugin tonght. I used the iPod updater to wipe out my unit. I used MMJB to layout the db and folders.

I copied 2 files to the iPod. Lo and behold, I could listen to them.

I tried to copy whole albums but I kept getting an empty warning dialog and then the upload would freeze.

The good news is that I can now transfer and listen to mp3s.

The crashing may be related to my VIA/Audigy situation. That will change this weekend when I install my new motherboard.

jgourd · « **Reply #97 on:** October 17, 2002, 07:26:56 pm »

Good News!

After a reboot, I was able to copy 591 Megs of MP3s to the iPod and they were all accessable to listen to.

Coool

The speed was 118 MBytes/Minute ( 1.97MBytes / Sec. ).

ashawley · « **Reply #98 on:** October 17, 2002, 08:05:10 pm »

Progress is a great thing...

I was able to upload an album and see it on the iPod. I did a full wipe of my iPod first in ephPod (note, not a restore, a "wipe iPod clean").

One strange thing. I tried first to upload a different album, and got a "duplicate file" error message. This shouldn't have happened as the file name is different. The only thing I can think of is that I tried to upload this same album before in MJ. Is it somehow keeping track of what's being uploaded and not refreshing? I dunno, it's strange. I'll play around some more and see what happens.

Ah, I think I may know. How exactly are the files being named when uploaded to iPod? I don't think you're changing the file names to numbers, are you truncating them at 32 characters? I'd check now, but I've already started re-uploading my pod w/ephpod so I don't what to stop halfway through.

I'll check tomorrow.

Thanks,

Adam (S).

Kurt Young · « **Reply #99 on:** October 17, 2002, 08:50:13 pm »

Very nice progress, dude!

Working:

The plugin successfully uploads songs to an iPod, passing their Album, Artist, Track#, Title, and Genre information to the iTunesDB. Yes, Virginia, you can play them on your iPod. Sweet!!

Limitations:

The plugin can't initialize a freshly-restored iPod yet. That is, it can't create the directory structure, the iTunesDB file, etc. The plugin won't work with an XPlay-initialized iPod yet, but it will work with an Ephpod-initialized iPod. It can't delete songs from an iPod unless you "reset your iPod," which deletes all songs and playlists. Its playlist features aren't done yet, so you can't create usable playlists, either manually or by adding an MJ playlist/smartlist.

Here's the annoyingly long, "he wrote it as it was happening" version, for more detailed information on my testing. I figured it was more polite to link it rather than putting down another HUGE post.

And here's Kurt's List.

edit: now that I think about it, the whole "not compatible with XPlay" thing could be caused by the iPod_control folder being hidden. I can't be sure, and it's too late to test it tonight. Sorry bout dat.

edit 2: got to work today, plugged in my XPlay-initialized iPod. I un-set the "hidden" and "read-only" bits on every file and folder on the iPod... MJ still shows the contacts and calendars. Guess it's XPlay's format after all.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: How is the Ipod support coming? (Read 15901 times)