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[slipknot]

Is there anything special I need to do to get my ipod to play gapless using v12?

I have made it work using iTunes to prove it works, but what about v12? 

[stuart_tetley]

As far as I can tell, 'It just works'  (now where have I heard that before?  )

I just dropped the files onto the iPod and synced away - only settings I changed was in the mp3 encoder settings (which I set to use L.A.M.E VBR, target quality: Extreme, 'Use Fast Mode' disabled.)  Using MC 12.0.90 Beta

Gapless playback worked perfectly on a shiny new 80GB iPod Video.

Hope this helps.

One other thing I've seen happen.  I loaded some music onto another iPod 5G using MC 11.1.200, then later plugged that iPod into a PC with iTunes on it.  The MC-loaded music disappeared without trace from the iPod.  I don't know if this was a one-time incident, but since MC now gives gapless support, I have no iTunes installs anywhere my iPods might be.

[lalittle]

It's not working correctly for me.  I just updated my 60Gig 5G iPod to the latest firmware (1.2), initialized it with the latest version of MC (build 93 at this moment), and did a full sync, and the gapless playback isn't working correctly.  The "gap" is gone, but so is just a little bit of the song -- i.e. it's removing a little too much at the seam such that you can hear it jump forward just a bit when the seam goes by.  It's not a "lot," but it's clearly noticeable on songs that you're familiar with, or on songs where there is a continuous beat accross the seam.

I didn't try versions earlier than build 93, so I'm not sure if this just started or not.  I do know that when I play the same songs in MC, the gapless playback DOES work perfectly.  It's only on the iPod that this issue is occuring.  ALL the songs were encoded with a fairly recent version of MC using VBR "High."

Has anyone else noticed this?  It's definitely different than what I heard with Rockbox recently (which definitely did NOT have this problem with gapless playback), or what I hear when I play the same songs in MC directly.

How does MC accomplish gapless playback on the iPod?  If it's using the LAME information encoded in the metadata, then it must be miscalculating something since it's definitely not accurate.

Thanks for any feedback on this,

Larry

[lalittle]

I just did some more experimenting with this and discovered that with SOME songs, I get a small "pop" at the gap instead of a small missing piece of the song.  The pattern seems to be that the "pop" occurs with CBR encodes made a little while back, while the little "jump" happens with the newer VBR encodes.  Note that in BOTH cases, the tag info shows that the songs ARE gapless, and in BOTH cases they play back perfectly gapless on both Media Center AND the Rockbox'd iPod (same unit).  It's just the native apple firmware on the iPod that is giving me this issue.

Thanks again,

Larry

[SwellGuy]

We're using the Lame pregap and postgap information. But in it's absence we are using a cheat which I will remove for the next build to see if this is the culpret.

[lalittle]

We're using the Lame pregap and postgap information. But in it's absence we are using a cheat which I will remove for the next build to see if this is the culpret.

Thanks for the update.  ALL of my mp3s were ripped with a version of LAME that DID in fact include the gapless data, so if the "cheat" your referring to is in fact the culprit, it's apparently interfering with the correct usage of the pregap and postgap data even when it DOES exist.

Thanks,

Larry

[lalittle]

We're using the Lame pregap and postgap information. But in it's absence we are using a cheat which I will remove for the next build to see if this is the culpret.

I noticed that build 94 is now out, but this change is not listed.  Was the "cheat" removed from build 94?  I'm downloading it at the moment, so I haven't tried it yet.  If this change wasn't implemented, I'd rather not take the time to do another full sync to test it since this takes between 3 and 4 hours.

Thanks,

Larry

[SwellGuy]

The cheat was indeed removed  in 12.0.94.

[lalittle]

The cheat was indeed removed  in 12.0.94.

Thanks Swellguy.  Did the cheat "remain" removed from build 95?  Assuming it was, I'll test this tonight.

One question:  I was thinking I had to do a full initialize and full sync to test this, but can I just delete and re-transfer a gapless album onto the iPod?  I'm not sure how the MC/iPod gapless system works, and when it "does it's thing" to enable the gapless iPod playback.

Thanks again,

Larry

[SwellGuy]

It does it's thing when it writes the iPod database entries (after transfers). You can test by transferring that single album.

The cheat is gone for good.

[lalittle]

It does it's thing when it writes the iPod database entries (after transfers). You can test by transferring that single album.

The cheat is gone for good.

Okay.  I tried this and build 95 was NOT gapless.

Thanks,

Larry

[lalittle]

coolblue posted some VERY helpful data on this in the MC12 forum.  His tests showed that when using iTunes for BOTH ripping AND synching, gapless worked on the iPod.  If MC was used to rip OR if MC was used to sync, the problems occured.  Hopefully the files he sent will help with this issue.

Thanks again -- and thanks to coolblue for taking all the time to help troubleshoot this.

Larry