Topic: Can MC sync to lossless files in Ipod classic? (Read 7186 times)

Captor · « **on:** March 19, 2014, 07:19:45 am »

Hi
Can I sync my flac files directly into my ipod classic and get apple lossless? And also, will the album art follow? And playlists?
With MC19. I have 2 Ipod classic 160 GB. One I think it is gen 5 or 6. The other is gen 3. I am using win 7, 64 bit.
Thanks in advance

Captor

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #1 on:** March 19, 2014, 11:29:14 am »

No, iPods can't play FLAC files. However, if you convert them to Apple Lossless (ALAC) they'll play fine on the iPod. If you're wondering, converting FLAC to Apple Lossless is a lossless conversion - no data is lost.

Captor · « **Reply #2 on:** March 19, 2014, 12:50:02 pm »

Hi Donkey
Thank you very much for your answer. That means I have to create one more library, right? With ALAC-files.
Meaning double space on my harddrive?
What about the playlists then and the albumart? Will they follow to the ipod?

Captor

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #3 on:** March 19, 2014, 04:40:23 pm »

In MC you can convert FLAC files on-the-fly to ALAC when adding music to your iPod without needing to change or double your main library. Assuming you manage your iPod with MC, of course.

As for playlists, perhaps if they're small enough to fit on the iPod, but yes on the album art.

Captor · « **Reply #4 on:** March 19, 2014, 04:58:23 pm »

That´s good news, Donkey! Just what I have waited for in MC. I haven´t follow this issue for a while so I was not aware that it is possible to do this now. So then I will give it a try. Hopefull it will work so I can get lost with the darn iTunes!
Thank you very much for your support!

Best Regards
Captor

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #5 on:** March 19, 2014, 06:43:32 pm »

Indeed. This screenshot should help give you the basic idea how to set it up with conversion from FLAC to ALAC while maintaining artwork (set the conversion settings exactly as shown). Assuming you already know how to add music to the iPod already using MC, it should be a piece of cake to setup the automatic conversion. Also take notice to the far right - you *may* be able to sync your playlist(s) that way (if you've imported them from iTunes)!

Captor · « **Reply #6 on:** March 20, 2014, 07:25:47 am »

Hi agian Donkey,
Your support is really awesome! Thank you very much.
I am not using MC now for my ipod but I have tryed some in MC16 or 17 i think it was. After your great explanation I am sure I will find out how it works. I have until today used iTunes and there I have playlists and coverarts as well. It is apple lossless ( I guess it is ALAC).
That is in my ipod right now. From the itunes. So I am thinking the best is to reset the ipod to factorysettings and start all over again but this time with MC19. Then I hope I will get all playlists and coverarts as well imported from MC. Is that a good plan?

Besides hooking ALL AUDIO to be included to the right in the screenshot, should I not hook for: Include ALL IMAGES in media types as well? I mean the coverarts are pictures?

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #7 on:** March 20, 2014, 12:08:49 pm »

Yeah, that's what I did - I factory reset my iPod before dumping iTunes and using MC19 to handle my iPod's 'needs'.

Captor · « **Reply #8 on:** March 20, 2014, 12:36:09 pm »

Ok, thanka! Then I will do the same.

Captor · « **Reply #9 on:** March 21, 2014, 10:00:51 am »

Dear Donkey
I am syncing right now! Looks like it work but to early to say if it will succeed. For example if the albumart will come into ipod too. It takes some time. About 24 hours left. Do I dare to play music at the same time?
Anyway, so far so good...

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #10 on:** March 21, 2014, 03:48:42 pm »

What I would of done is just test synced an song/album or two and tested that before removing them from the iPod and syncing a whole playlist. But regardless, good luck!

Captor · « **Reply #11 on:** March 22, 2014, 09:21:16 am »

Hi Donkey
It worked out very well to sync my ipod. First not all playlists were there but then I synced again and then they came.
A question: In the meny to the left (se pic.) there is (when the ipod is connected) first Apple iPod Classic (H) and also iPod (1). What is the difference between them? (H) is onviously the device. But what is iPod (1)? Is that a list showing all fills that will be synced?
Another question: If I have 200 GB music in MC and I can only have about 140 GB in the iPod. How can I do? As far I can see I can only sync the whole library. Or is this were iPod (1) comes in to the picture? Can I here chose what albums to not sync?

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #12 on:** March 22, 2014, 10:54:36 am »

Quote from: Captor on March 22, 2014, 09:21:16 am

A question: In the meny to the left (se pic.) there is (when the ipod is connected) first Apple iPod Classic (H) and also iPod (1). What is the difference between them? (H) is onviously the device. But what is iPod (1)? Is that a list showing all fills that will be synced?

That's odd, partition perhaps? Then again, I've got my iPod syncing in disk mode so it appears only as one drive. Maybe that's normal? Oh wait, maybe that's the overflow it can't sync.

Quote from: Captor on March 22, 2014, 09:21:16 am

Another question: If I have 200 GB music in MC and I can only have about 140 GB in the iPod. How can I do? As far I can see I can only sync the whole library. Or is this were iPod (1) comes in to the picture? Can I here chose what albums to not sync?

Oh boy, there's only two choices here.

1) Opt to not sync all the music to the iPod to keep within the capacity limits. Like you pointed out, remove items from the playlist (or create a new playlist for the iPod) and sync that.
2) Convert it to high quality lossy AAC or MP3 so it'll all fit. Nope, it won't be lossless but the highest lossy quality instead so the library should fit then.

That's about all you can do, there's no way all 200GB of files in their current state will fit on that 160GB iPod.

Captor · « **Reply #13 on:** March 22, 2014, 11:35:09 am »

Actually the second unit (its not listed as a drive) maybe is some kind of playlist as well. Maybe when syncing the apple lossless files land here first. And after that I have to sync one more time to get the files into the device. Sounds not realistic! But acturally something like this happen. After the firsl sync (which took about 10-12 hours) the device was still empty. I then poined at the drive (iPod Classic) and started sync again. And this secont time it took only 1-1,5 hour to upload to the device. Maybe the first sync was only a file conversion from flac? But in that case it should take additional space on the HD. But I have still same empty space as before. So it is more likely some kind of song and album list. Only thelling the names of the songs but not the files itself. Strange..

Captor · « **Reply #14 on:** March 22, 2014, 01:02:41 pm »

I have deleted the second unit. Seems to work well anyway.

About creating a new playlist, lets name it iPod. OK so I can drag in all the song an albums I want to have in the ipod. So then what about the playlists I want to have? Shall I put them in the playlist Ipod as well?

I have noticed one tning. It looks like some albums are double or tripple or more. For ecxample Chris Rea - The road to hell. That album there was 5 of that in the ipod device. But I could only see one when I looked into the drive (H) iPod Classic! So I wonder which is it? Are there 1 or 5?

I erased the one I could see on (H) and then looked into device. All 5 were gone. Fine so then I synced again with my library so it came back again to the drive (H). But when I disconnected the Ipod again and looked into that there were 5 again! Very annoying! There seems to be some bug or what do you think? 10 files were synced so that is the whole album. So there is only 1 ex. But it shows 5 albums. It shows 5 too in coverflow.

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #15 on:** March 22, 2014, 04:16:43 pm »

Well, the playlist(s) you want to add, are they small enough to put on the iPod? If not, it's back to the choice of either pick and choosing albums/songs or converting the music to a lossy format.

Captor · « **Reply #16 on:** March 22, 2014, 05:11:17 pm »

I try to avoid a lossy format. Sometimes I use my ipod with loudspeakers and then I prefer lossless.
The playlist I want to add shall contains less then 160 GB.
So I guess I create that with the files I want in my iPod and then in addition sync the actual playlists as well.
Maybe I can put the actuall playlists insid the iPod playlist. Well I will give it a try.

Do you have any idea about the 5 separate albums of "The road to hell" in the iPod? Why it is like that?

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #17 on:** March 22, 2014, 07:25:46 pm »

Quote from: Captor on March 22, 2014, 05:11:17 pm

Do you have any idea about the 5 separate albums of "The road to hell" in the iPod? Why it is like that?

Is there five different instances of the album in the main library?

Captor · « **Reply #18 on:** March 23, 2014, 05:28:02 am »

No, there is only one. Strange, uhu?

I have now during the night done the way you suggested with a playlist for the MC contant I want to have into the iPod. + the other playlists I want to have in ipod. So now I actually convert and download to iPod only playlists. That works. So with this method I can keep the playlist that I named, iPod, down in size.
But I was thinking, can I not create another library instead? With the same content that I have in MC today. And then I use that library for ipod upload only. OK, that means I have to put my new music into 2 libraries if I want that into ipod as well. Otherwise only into one library. A little bit extra work but maybe it is more easy to keep track on thing this way? So if I want some more songs for example with Chris Rea into my ipod I have to take away some other songs from that library so I don exceed maybe 145 GB at any time. But my main library will still content all music I have in MC.
I am not sure which way is the best. An extra library or a new playlist. Can not see trough it clearly right now.
What is you thoughts about that?

And, after done that method above with playlists for ipod instead there are still 5 albums of The Road to Hell!

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #19 on:** March 23, 2014, 08:57:58 am »

That'd be a waste of space, would it not? Especially when you consider that MC setup with a forked limited playlist of the main playlist (limited as in to keep under the capacity limit) and automatic conversion from FLAC to ALAC is in place, it should be pretty simple, no?

Captor · « **Reply #20 on:** March 23, 2014, 09:55:44 am »

I am not sure. Can I not have several libraries that are getting the content from one library on disk were att the actually files are located? Every library could then have different content. Based on the "Main" library which contents all the flac-files.
I found this on the JRiver webpage:

The Library Manger allows the user to create and maintain multiple, independent Libraries (databases). This can be useful in a multiple user environment, or when a specialized library is needed. Here are some of the ways that multiple libraries can be used:

You can create a library for each member of the house. Members import only those files they like. They can also rate their music in their own way. You may want to disable tag updating in this scenario.
You can create a library for Party Music. When your friends come over, they see the music they are supposed to see (and your collection of Engelbert Humperdinck albums remains your secret!). See Party Mode and Access Control for a different way of doing this.
On a laptop that you use both at home and on the go, you could have two libraries: one for home use accessing a network drive containing the losslessly compressed content, and one containing smaller (lossy compressed) content for travel.

Captor · « **Reply #21 on:** March 23, 2014, 09:57:42 am »

So I am thinking I can have 2 libraries (databases) internal in MC. That would not increase the actual amount of flac files on the harddrive. Or am I thinking wrong here? :-)

Captor · « **Reply #22 on:** March 23, 2014, 12:45:57 pm »

Hmm... that did not work the way I was thinking, I must have 2 databases with the actul flac-files in each.
And not som easy to import the playlists as well. Not difficult but I have to do that everytime I make changes.
I guest the best way is to work with playlists instead for 2 librarys. The way you mentioned yesterday.
So what will happen if there are songs in the playlist of Chris Rea (for example) were I have deleted the songs from the "main playlist" which I named iPod? Will the iPod stop playing when it is time to play them or will iPod just jump to next song in the playlist?

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Author Topic: Can MC sync to lossless files in Ipod classic? (Read 7186 times)