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[stevenf]

Is it possible to create 2 new play list group called Artists & Albums where i can store only my favorite artists and Albums on the IPOD? Right now, every artist and album contained in the play lists are shown and it takes too long to find anything in particular, especially if you have four or five hundred artists or albums?

I own one of the older 3rd generation Ipods.

Also, would the latest Generation Ipods allow you to do this?

Thanks

Steven F

[Magic_Randy]

You can do this with smartlists, then sync the smartlists.  You could either make 1 smartlist or 2.  If you are not familair with smartlists, you may want to make 2 really simple ones. For each of them, use the Stock Rule for Audio only (Media Type is Audio).  Add a second rule for Artist or Album.

You can set your iPod sync options to sync these smartlists.

The newer iPods have a useful feature that would probably help you as well. It is called compilations.  With compilations it groups all mixed albums together, making it easier to find things by artist.

[stevenf]

Unfortunately using smartlists, this does not create the sub groups Artist and or Albums within Playlists which is what i want. Is that even possible?

Steven F

[stevenf]

I Am also wandering if the reason you can't create sub groups, within IPOD is because of the plugin or is it something to do with the original IPOD software?

If the reason is the plug-in, could it be altered so as to allow people who wish to create sub groups, create them. Here's an example.

Playlists - Rock songs
              Popular Songs
              Metal Songs.. and so on

Then, create Custom Playlists such Artist or album, which is separate from the default Artist and Album Groups.

Thanks

Steven F

[Magic_Randy]

Hi Steven,

I'm not sure I totally understand what you are trying to do. It sounds like you are trying to use playlists on the iPod as a way to organize and find the music you are looking for. For that reason you are looking for playlists that have sub-groups.  Am I understanding you correctly?

If I'm correct in my understanding, I do not see a way to do it.  It is not a restriction within MC, it is the way the iPod works. Also, the JRiver team does not try to change the functionality of the iPod itself, even if it is possible.  They try to maintain a pure interface that works the way it should on the iPod. No changes in behavior, no missing features (almost none anyway), and no extra features.

The reason I'm struggling a bit with your question, is I have no issues finding things on my iPod.  I have the 5.5 generation 80gb unit, although I've used a similar approach with older models.  I use smartlists for syncing, but I never refer to them on the iPod. I use the built in iPod capabilities to find things. And my iPods are always full. Depending on the mix of audio and video, I will have anywhere from 13,000 tracks to 15,000 tracks. As an example:

I have all music organized by Genre (Rock, classical, country, etc.). If I look up a genre, I see all of the artists for the genre. If I look up the artist, I see all of the albums for the artist. 

Alternatively, I will look it up by artist, and see all of the albums for that artist.

alternatively, I will look up albums.

If I'm understanding you correctly, this is how you want to look up tracks on the iPod. Am I missing something?

I will admit it was more difficult for me with the older iPods.  I have a lot of compilation albums, so the list of artists was too much.  With the new iPods, the compilations can be organized separately.

Randy

[stevenf]

Hello Randy

What i want is a playlist Directory that contains all of the playlists created, then a second playlist Group that only contains my favorite Artists., and also renamed Artists. This playlist group would only contain my favorite 10 or fifteen albums.

You see the problem is this. I have around 50 playlists on my ipod, an old 3rd generation model and most of the artists only have one to five songs, so it seems pointless to have those artists in the default Artist List. The same goes for the Albums.

Hopefully this will make things a little clearer. Also, are the latest generation Ipod better with this request?

steven F

[Magic_Randy]

Steven,

The only advantage of the newer iPods is the compilation support. For me that made it much more manageable.

I don't think your going to find what your looking for regarding the playlists groups/sub groups.  Maybe someone can point you in the right direction.

Best of luck...

Randy