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[dcwinton]

I stopped buying/using MC during Ver. 10 because I got an iPod and the app just never seemed to be able to get it together with that piece of hardware.  (Though I have never thought it was anyone's fault other than Apple's lawyers and marketing people, and don't blame James River folks.  I'm sure that Apple keeps tossing spokes into the works at ever bend.)

But I thought I'd revist the issue and see if things had improved.  MC has improved a LOT.  Very nice app.  But it still hates iPods it seems. 

1.  Playlists don't  sync as playlists, but as bits and pieces of lots of different albums.  As long as I only have 1 playlist to sync, that's no big deal because the 'pod can shuffle on its own.  But if I have  more than 1 playlist, or put podcasts or audiobooks on it, this doesn't work.  I need playlists to maintain their integrity as PLAYLISTS.  That, of course, is why I create them in the first place. 

2.  As soon as I plug the iPod in, it seems to queue up my entire library for sync.  Then, of course, it informs me that my 190gb library is 160 gb too large for the 30gb limit on the iPod.  Right, I knew that.  But who told it to cue up the entire library?  Not me. 

3.  Podcasts.  What a nightmare.  I don't even know where to start.  Is there a SIMPLE way to send all downloads of a single podcast to the iPod AUTOMATICALLY? 

4.  Audiobooks from audible.com.  Again, a nightmare.  They don't show up as audiobooks in the iPod because MC doesn't seem to categorize them any differently than any other songs, tracks or albums in the library.  They're just .aa files that happen to be of the "music" genre "audiobook."  But that classification doesn't tell the iPod that they are audiobooks and thus to be treated differently than the other 936 albums in the library that actually ARE music.  This matters when I try to listen to a book in the car.  My care stereo searches the iPods for files called audiobooks, not songs that are in the genre "audiobook."  It treats them differently as well, in that it provides a placeholder. 

[JimH]

Make sure you have 12.0.380 from the MC12 board.  Then make sure you have the latest iTunes.  It should work then.

Apple has made a lot of changes lately and the ipod firmware and MC version need to agree.

[dcwinton]

Thanks.  That was the FIRST thing I tried.  The listed problems are net of the new changes.

[JimH]

Are you sure you have the latest iTunes and have updated the iPod firmware?

Please copy your system info from MC Help and paste it here.

[dcwinton]

iTunes says it is ver. 7.5.0.20, and that no new updates are available.  iPod check says it is version 1.2.3 and that it it "Up to date" and that no new updates are available at this time.  MC is 12.0.380, as seen below. 


Media Center Registered 12.0.380 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
AMD Unknown 2193 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1572 MB, Free - 361 MB

Internet Explorer: 7.0.5730.11 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.2900 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2900 / Shell32.dll: 6.0.2900 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive Y: _NEC    DVD+RW ND-2100AD  Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Drive Z:   Mode:Normal  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: No 

Burning /  Drive Y: _NEC     DVD+RW ND-2100AD   Addr: 2:0:0  Speed:32  MaxSpeed:32  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /

Portable Device Info
  Removed devices:

Device info dump for 'David's iPod (P:)':

WMDMName: DAVID'S IPO (P:)
DeviceUID: $$?$storage#removablemedia#9&bff2f91&0&rm#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}$0
CanonicalName: \\?\storage#removablemedia#9&bff2f91&0&rm#{53f5630d-b6bf-11d0-94f2-00a0c91efb8b}$0
VendorName: ; VendorID: 1452
ProductID: 4617; FirmwareVersion: 1.62
WMDMSerialNumber: NULL
DeviceType: 3; DeviceID: 8L635UWMV9M; DeviceName: Apple iPod; UnsupportedDevice: 0
IsDrive: 1; DriveLetter: P:; DrivePath: ; MainDriveLetter: P:
IsJanusCapable: ; IsIpod: 1;iTunesDBVersion: 26
SupportsAlbumArt: 1; AlbumArtEnabled: 1; CoverArtTagRule: ; SaveCoverArtToFolderJPG:
SupportsFolders: -1; PlaylistFormat: 0; EjectMode: ; AlwaysPumpCOMMessages: 0
SupportedFileTypes: mp3;wav;mp4;aa;m4a;m4b;m4p;aiff;aif;bmp;jpg;jpeg;gif;tif;tiff;png;sgi;psd;mov;m4v
ContextMenus: Delete

MemoryTypes: Internal Memory

InstallURL:
ApplicationName: Media Center
ImageName: Apple iPod Video (black)
RootBasePath:
AudioBasePath: Music\[Artist]\[Album]\
ImageBasePath: Images\
VideoBasePath: Video\
DataBasePath: Data\
PlaylistBasePath: ROOT\
DatabaseBasePath:
AudibleBasePath: Audible\
MatchKeyExpression: If(IsEqual([Media Type], Image), Clean([Name], 3)
[File Size, 0]
, [Name]
Clean([Artist], 1)
[Album]
[Genre]
TrackNumber()
[Media Type]
)
ChangeKeyExpression: If(IsEqual([Media Type], Image), , [Rating]
[Composer]
[Date Modified]
)


Interface Plugins:
  last.fm (Active)
  Library Server (Active)
  TiVo Server (Active)
  UPnP Server (Active)

[JimH]

Please choose one of your problems and provide more details.  We'll try to help tomorrow.

[dcwinton]

Thank you.

Let's start with playlists not syncing as playlists, but just as a lot of tracks. 

[lalittle]

Thank you.

Let's start with playlists not syncing as playlists, but just as a lot of tracks. 

I'm unclear what you're saying here.  A playlist IS just a bunch of tracks in a certain order.  Once on the iPod, they're accessed via the "Playlist" item, and they should be in the same order as they are when you view the playist in MC.  Exactly what are you seeing?  Does this list contain songs that it shouldn't, or are there songs missing that should be there?  Is the list in a different order?  I'm not clear what the actual problem you're describing is.

Thanks for any clarification on this,

Larry

[dcwinton]

Here's what the iPod directory or index would show after I sync a 100 song playlist with 37 artists drawn from 20 albums:

Artists:  37
Songs:  100
Albms: 20
Playlists: 0

If I add another, different playlist, say one with 10 classical selections from 5 artists and 3 albums:

Artists:  42 (as in the prior 37 + the 5 new)
Songs:  110 (prior 100 + the 10 new)
Albums: 23 (prior 20 + 3 new)
Playlists: 0

So instead of maintaining the arrangements as "playlists," each with their own integrity and unique selections, it just adds the pieces to the overall list.  I can play everything, and if I set the pod to shuffle, it will shuffle throughout the directory.  But then I get R.E.M. back to back with Rachmaninoff, even though they were uploaded in the form of two different playlists and I didn't intend them to ever appear in the same playlist. 

I've tried "sending" the playlist to the iPod and also dragging and dropping in the iPod window on the left side.  It adds the components (songs, etc.) but not the actual ordered and structured playlist AS A PLAYLIST. 

I hope that makes sense. 

[lalittle]

Here's what the iPod directory or index would show after I sync a 100 song playlist with 37 artists drawn from 20 albums:

Artists:  37
Songs:  100
Albms: 20
Playlists: 0

If I add another, different playlist, say one with 10 classical selections from 5 artists and 3 albums:

Artists:  42 (as in the prior 37 + the 5 new)
Songs:  110 (prior 100 + the 10 new)
Albums: 23 (prior 20 + 3 new)
Playlists: 0

So instead of maintaining the arrangements as "playlists," each with their own integrity and unique selections, it just adds the pieces to the overall list.  I can play everything, and if I set the pod to shuffle, it will shuffle throughout the directory.  But then I get R.E.M. back to back with Rachmaninoff, even though they were uploaded in the form of two different playlists and I didn't intend them to ever appear in the same playlist. 

I've tried "sending" the playlist to the iPod and also dragging and dropping in the iPod window on the left side.  It adds the components (songs, etc.) but not the actual ordered and structured playlist AS A PLAYLIST. 

I hope that makes sense. 

I'm still fuzzy about a few things you're describing, so please forgive me if I say things here that you already understand.  I feel like one of us just isn't understanding the other -- I'm just not clear exactly where the confusion is taking place.  It "seems" like you're either 1) not syncing the actual "Playlists" themselves, but simply syncing all the files from the playlists, or 2) that you're not accessing the files via the "Playlist" category on the iPod.

My main questions, therefore, are:

1) Are you actually selecting the playlists when you sync the iPod?  In other words, do you go to the sync options and specifically put a check next to the playlists you want to sync over to the iPod?  You need to do this if you want to actually access these playlists on the iPod.

2) When you access the songs on the iPod, are you doing so via Music > Playlists?  When you sync playlists to the iPod, you can STILL access all the songs via the normal Genre/Artist/Album approach, in which case you'll see ALL the songs from ALL the playlists grouped together.  In order to just access a SINGLE PLAYLIST'S group of songs, you need to do so via the iPod's "Playlist" category.  This is simply the way the iPod works, and has nothing to do with MC.  It "sounds" like you are still accessing the songs via the OTHER categories (Genre, Artist, Album), which will display ALL the files on the iPod.

When I sync playlists to the iPod, these lists show up under the same playlist name I used in MC, and if I select one of these lists, I see the songs in the same order that they were displayed in when I created the list in MC.

Does this explain what you're seeing, or am I just completely misunderstanding the problem?

Larry

[dcwinton]

We're getting closer. 

No "playlist" as a unique entity with its own structural integrity and composition appears AT ALL anywhere on the iPod.  You would not know from looking at the iPod that a playlist was synced but you would think that I'd cherry pocked songs and uploaded them individually.  If I call the playlist "Jennifer's Playlist" neither the word "Jennifer's" nor the word "Playlist" would appear anywhere in any index on the iPod, although all of the songs that are on the playlist would be uploaded.  Another way of looking at it would be to hypothesize a "box of songs" which you want to upload as a box of songs, complete with the box and all songs contained in that box.  But instead of uploading the box of songs, you just turned the box upside down and dumped all the songs into the iPod. 

[dcwinton]

You just inadvertently solved the riddle.  That part about "checking" the box.  I hadn't seen that option at Tools>Options>Handheld but was dragging/dropping and "sending to" the iPod in the handheld action window, neither of which preserves the playlist integrity.  So the answer is that, in order to upload a playlist as a playlist, you have to got to Tools>Options>Handheld and check the box for each thing you want uploaded.  Drag/drop and the "send to" option when you right click a playlist won't do it.

[lalittle]

You just inadvertently solved the riddle.  That part about "checking" the box.  I hadn't seen that option at Tools>Options>Handheld but was dragging/dropping and "sending to" the iPod in the handheld action window, neither of which preserves the playlist integrity.  So the answer is that, in order to upload a playlist as a playlist, you have to got to Tools>Options>Handheld and check the box for each thing you want uploaded.  Drag/drop and the "send to" option when you right click a playlist won't do it.

I'm glad we got to the bottom of this and that it's working for you now... although I'm not sure why you call it "inadvertently" solving it.  I specifically suggested you check for this as one of 2 possibilities of why it wasn't working.  i.e. I said in my last post:

It "seems" like you're either 1) not syncing the actual "Playlists" themselves, but simply syncing all the files from the playlists...

and

Are you actually selecting the playlists when you sync the iPod?  In other words, do you go to the sync options and specifically put a check next to the playlists you want to sync over to the iPod?  You need to do this if you want to actually access these playlists on the iPod.

By the way, you don't have to do this through the "Tools > Options" menu.  You can also click the "Options" link in the handheld Action Window, OR at the top of the iPod details page.  Both of these will bring up the same iPod Options page.

Larry

[Matt]

In build 389:
Fixed: Right-clicking on a playlist in the tree and sending it to a device was transferring the files but not the playlist information.