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[garydolson]

Greetings.

I'm new to JRiver MC and am really enjoying its audiophile features & performance. My current challenge is juggling music management between our home & 2 cars. Our music library is duplicated in .flac (for home) and .mp3 (for cars). Everything is stored on our HTPC which we use to listen to our .flac library. We also use it to "manage" all 3 libraries.

My wife has a 32GB stick for her car & I have a 128GB for mine. I copy only the music she likes onto her USB stick but the entire library is copied onto mine because 1. I want her to have access to her favorite music while riding in my car, and 2. It all fits (just). Creating playlist for our HTPC is a snap using the "Playlist" feature within MC19, but I haven't yet figured out how to do this for our car USB sticks. Until now, I've been creating (kludging) "playlists" for these drives by creating folders in the root directory, copying duplicate .mp3 files to the folder, then manually renaming each file adding numbers ("001" etc) to the beginning to force them to play in the order I choose.

I know there is a better way, especially since I already have these files on the drives, so here's my question:

Is there a way to:

1. Manage these 3 separate libraries in MC19
2. Use the playlist feature for our USB sticks (assuming our car stereo supports it)?

Thank you.


Gary

[connersw]

1. Manage these 3 separate libraries in MC19

You can keep different Libraries by managing what each one Imports in your Library & Folder Options.  Go to File -> Library -> Library Manager -> Add Library to create a new/different one.  Then to change it, File -> Library and select the appropriate one.

That being said, since the Library also stores your MC settings, I find duplicate Libraries to be more hassle than they are worth.  It is easier to Import everything into one Library, and then use your Views to filter what you would like to see.  See: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/View_Schemes  You can filter out File Types to separate mp3 from flac or you can use Stacks:  http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Stacks

2. Use the playlist feature for our USB sticks (assuming our car stereo supports it)?

Treat your USB sticks as a Handheld device.  Set up the syncing options in Tools -> Options -> Handheld.  Then you can use the Sync Handheld link in the Action Window (lower left corner) when you want to sync them.  See: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Sync

[MrC]

Welcome garydolson,

MC doesn't provide a convenient way to renumber files for external devices that show items in numerical (ASCII-betical) order.

So I wrote a pscriptor scriptlet for a user that does this.  It copies the selected tracks and creates a playlist (currently its m3u8, since that's what the user wanted, but could also do m3u, and renaming the file suffix is often sufficient).  The folder hierarchy and file names used are customizable, including using indexes (on a per-grouping basis).  If you're interested, here's where the meat of the thread starts:

    http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=85990.msg611361#msg611361

Here are some related posts:

   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=88853.0
   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=88395.0

[garydolson]

You can keep different Libraries by managing what each one Imports in your Library & Folder Options.  Go to File -> Library -> Library Manager -> Add Library to create a new/different one.  Then to change it, File -> Library and select the appropriate one.

That being said, since the Library also stores your MC settings, I find duplicate Libraries to be more hassle than they are worth.  It is easier to Import everything into one Library, and then use your Views to filter what you would like to see.  See: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/View_Schemes  You can filter out File Types to separate mp3 from flac or you can use Stacks:  http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Stacks

Treat your USB sticks as a Handheld device.  Set up the syncing options in Tools -> Options -> Handheld.  Then you can use the Sync Handheld link in the Action Window (lower left corner) when you want to sync them.  See: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Sync

Thanks for the quick response.

I haven't yet used Sync because I've never really understood what it will and, more importantly, won't do. Will the Sync feature see the .mp3 files already on my stick and use the playlist file to point to them? Or will Sync add (or delete) music files even though they may already reside on my stick?

Thanks again.


Gary

[MrC]

I haven't yet used Sync because I've never really understood what it will and, more importantly, won't do. Will the Sync feature see the .mp3 files already on my stick and use the playlist file to point to them? Or will Sync add (or delete) music files even though they may already reside on my stick?

You set up the HH sync to sync items according to a smartlist, playlist or other.  It will smartly copy only what it things is necessary, so updates are pretty fast.  You can also configure the sync to delete items that are not in the defined list.

[garydolson]

You set up the HH sync to sync items according to a smartlist, playlist or other.  It will smartly copy only what it things is necessary, so updates are pretty fast.  You can also configure the sync to delete items that are not in the defined list.

That sounds very good. I'll give it a try a report back.

Thanks.


Gary

[spiggytopes]

Not sure if the question has been answered, but this is how I do it:

In JRiver - create the playlists you want and drag the files into them.

eg, "Mary - Classical" "John - Oldies"

Then create similar folders on each usb stick. I do it:

1- Brasil
2- Classical   etc.

Then name the stick so you can identify it and map the JRiver playlists to the usb folder. Choose the conversion quality if going from say FLAC to mp3.

Then click on the usb folder and you should see the files waiting to be sync'd. Press sync and sit back.

It is a bit fiddly to set up initially but it means that in future every time you alter a playlist in JRiver you can sync it to the usb painlessly.

Hope this helps.

[garydolson]

You were all very helpful. Here's what I did to exactly achieve my goal for playback in the car:

1. Created MP3-only library in MC19
2. Added USB stick via tools/options/handheld/add device
3. At right side of same window, checked "All Audio" (unchecked all others - for now)
4. Sync'd the USB stick (took several hours as entire library was transferred to stick)
5. Created several playlists (some containing hundreds of songs)
6. In tools/options/handheld, I selected my USB stick, then "checked" the new playlists (see step 3)
7. Sync'd the USB stick (took seconds this time:)
8. Installed stick in car stereo (2008 BMW 528i)

After several minutes reading the stick, the stereo gave me a choice to use playlists or go directly to artists or genres. It all works as it should.

Thanks to those who helped. I know this is rudimentary & old hat to you. Now it's time to kick the music enjoyment factor up a few notches.

Much obliged.


Gary