I had not considered what you suggest. My immediate reaction (of course not based upon experience) is that the on the fly conversion might make sync times very long. Of course, if the USB connection to an IPOD is the bottle neck, then maybe the format conversion will have no impact.
I expect to sync the IPOD classic occasionally because it will have my entire collection on it, whereas the NANO we each own will get sync'd on a far more regular basis since it holds much less software and is used for working out. Do I take it that syncing works on a 'net change' basis? That is, if I a new album to my collection, then syncing will simply add the new album to the Classic rather than attempting to sync the whole collection again?
Many thanks for your responses,
Ash
Look into the 'handheld cache' option under the ipod device.
You allocate some temp folder for MC to store the transcoded mp3 files in.
The initial time you sync, it will take a while. Let it run overnight.
Each additional sync will be much faster as it will check the cache for an MP3 version of the song and use that instead of transcoding again.
The 'stack' feature keeps the tags in sync between the parent flac file and it's child the mp3 should you make any tag changes.
I have two ipod videos, 2 nanos, and 1 touch. All sync just fine with J River except for the touch.
I'm stuck using a competing product for that one device until some progress is made on a plugin to MC.