Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 43130 times)

MartinH · « **Reply #150 on:** October 17, 2003, 05:38:16 pm »

Hi all.

Having toyed with iTunes for a day or two, I can safely say that although it will stay installed, it won't replace MC9 for my iPod management.

I'd like to echo Kurt's comments about the sound check feature, however before I can even consider using it, it needs to support an album gain option whereby all the tracks on an album are given the same replay gain value. After ripping in MC9 I have to use MP3gain, which is great but it'd be nice to have the functionality built-in to MC9. I can explain why an album gain option is required if necessary.

Dynamic play-lists would be a nice addition, again mentioned by Kurt (am I a 3rd iteration of this character

).

Finally, the change to on-the-go playlists is that they are not cleared when the iPod is connected to a computer - Steve, is there anyway you can retrieve this playlist and import it into MC9?

Before I go, Steve, thanks for making the iPod support in MC9 so good, I know it'll only get better and while I'm not the most "vocal" contributor on here your work is very much appreciated.

kiwi · « **Reply #151 on:** October 17, 2003, 06:53:36 pm »

Quote from: SteveG on October 17, 2003, 03:01:28 pm

kiwi,

I will try to modify this soon.

Thanks, I look forward to trying it out.

kiwi

crowfan · « **Reply #152 on:** October 17, 2003, 11:07:15 pm »

I am having major problems with iPod/MC/iTunes.

I updated iPod software to version 2.1, then installed iTunes.

When I installed iTunes for the first time, it scanned for my library, and I deselected the option to have iTunes automatically organize my music. MC would open, but I could not touch the iPod. All I got was an error message, an empty box with the letter "h" and nothing else. iTunes also messed up my iPod DB. As per kiwi's advice, "Enable disk mode" was checked (on) the whole time.

So I uninstalled iTunes, Restored my iPod, Reinitialized in MC, and re-transferred all my music. All was well.

Foolishly, I decided to try installing iTunes again. This time, after install, it didn't scan for my library, it was just there. "Enable disk mode" was still selected. But this time, MC wouldn't even open. I just got the "Media Core has encountered a problem...." error message. So I uninstalled iTunes, and reinstalled MC. MC works now, but when I try to access the iPod from MC, it crashes. I'm sure I can Restore the iPod again and re-transfer my music again, but I don't have the energy tonight.

I want to be able to browse the iTunes Music Store, and I want to use MC for all music management, and all iPod syncing.

Any ideas? Thanks so much.

Media Center Registered 9.1.281 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2249 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 329 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 2, 0, 0, 0 , ASPI for WIN32 DLL, Copyright © Adaptec 1995 / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0001)

Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive E: LITE-ON LTR-40125S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #153 on:** October 18, 2003, 02:13:36 am »

Hi there,

Actually I have the same crashing problem.

After I updated my iPod to 2.1 firmware, MediaCenter (.278) didn't accept the iPod anymore and opened an error window with a red circle and an X in it (but no error message).

Then I got version 281, which was even worse in combination with the iPod, since MediaCenter always crashes when I right-click on the iPod.

So may I assume we have to wait a bit until the new iPod firmware works with MediaCenter (or other way around I guess)? Do I have to go back to 2.01 on my iPod?

Cheers,

Mighty A-MAN

MartinH · « **Reply #154 on:** October 18, 2003, 02:32:51 am »

Guys,

It's iTunes that causes the problem, not the 2.1 update. As soon as iTunes syncs with the iPod or transfers files, I think it does something to the iTunesDB file and Media Center can't handle that. I initialised my iPod in MC9 and started from scratch and everything is ok now.

It will be a problem if you were hoping to use the music store as I think you can only use iTunes to add those songs. Maybe Steve can find something with your help.

gpvillamil · « **Reply #155 on:** October 18, 2003, 02:34:55 am »

I'm still having the problems with disappearing playlists, and missing songs.

Here's what I did: after the last time I had the problem, I initialized the iPod (via the Initialize iPod option on the right-click menu), and then did a full sync.

I imported a few new albums into MC.

I did another sync.

...and all my playlists were gone, replaced by an empty chevron >

They do show up in the MC tree when I plug it in.

I've initialized, and am doing a full sync now. I'll save that copy of the iTunesDB. I'll then try to replicate the problem, and save the iTunesDB where the playlists don't appear, and I'll e-mail them to Steve!

I appreciate all your efforts - keep up the good work!

AZ_JazzyJ · « **Reply #156 on:** October 18, 2003, 02:45:58 am »

I have having a similar problem to what Tom described. Much of my music is in MP3 format but I have been trying to replace it with APE rips. I set the iPod to synchronize and have "Delete unselected files from Portable", "Update file info", and "Sync data to MC" checked. Under Options I have "Force file conversion during uploads" checked and the File Conversion set to "MP3 Encoder" Quality 192. It synchronizes the MP3 files and part of the APE files but after a few, MC will just quit. No error message, nothing, just closes. If I uncheck "Force file conversion during uploads" all but the APE files sync without any problem. If I then go back and have it convert the APE files, it will unexpectedly quit during sync. My iPod is a 2G 20 MB model running 1.3. My MC configuration is listed below:

Media Center Registered 9.1.281 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2812 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 702 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive F: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive E: PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W4824A Addr: 0:0:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Drive F: SONY DVD RW DRU-500A Addr: 0:1:0 Speed:24 MaxSpeed:24 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

Any help you could suggest would be greatly appreciated. I really didn't want to convert my APE files to MP3 if at all possible.

Jeff

Mighty_A-MAN · « **Reply #157 on:** October 18, 2003, 02:48:30 am »

Quote from: MartinH on October 18, 2003, 02:32:51 am

It's iTunes that causes the problem, not the 2.1 update.

Hi Martin,

That sounds cool - I will check it out immediately. Thanks a lot anyway.

Cheers,

Mighty A-MAN

Phil Lee · « **Reply #158 on:** October 18, 2003, 05:54:29 am »

Quote from: SteveG on October 17, 2003, 03:01:28 pm

Eddie, gpvillamil, and Phil,

The lost playlists are due to the reimport of files as best as I can tell. In synchronization, your playlists are populated based on an ID assigned to files in MC. After a sync, when you delete and reimport files into MC this ID changes. Until you reinitialize, the files are not recognized by MC in regard to the sync. After an initialize try not importing files that are already on the iPod back into MC and hopefully you will be all set. New files are no problem. The problem only occurs when you delete a file from MC and then reimport while the file is still resident on the iPod.

Steve, I have never reimported files into MC. The sequence of events I reported were done one after the other. I initialised my iPod, synched to it, played a track then synched again. This caused the playlists to disappear. No music was imported or reimported whilst I was playing the track.

CautionESPN · « **Reply #159 on:** October 18, 2003, 09:59:48 am »

Ok, Steve I recommend a new ipod thread because i forsee all kinds of problems moving forward with co-existence with iTunes.

Questions: Are the playcounts and ratings maintained in the actual library or at the files level in tags? I can set ratings within itunes and they do not propagate to MC9 and vice-versa.

Additionally, how about support for the euqalizer settings? As I mentioned in another thread, I couldn't find any info within the tags themselves so it looks like it is stored within the library and in the iTunesDB. Would be GREAT to have this support.

As of right now I cannot seem to gt the two products to live happily together for iPod usage and I REALLY want to be able to make use of the iTunes music store. But I most definitely want to continue using MC9 for pretty much everything else.

As far as I can tell iTunes has just a single area where it does something better than MC9 and this is in the smartlist creation (though i really like being able to use checkboxes for artist/album selection). Otherwise I think that MC9's handling of the iPod is better and I prefer the overall design and organization behind MC9.

doughty · « **Reply #160 on:** October 18, 2003, 10:51:42 am »

I'm using build .281 and a 2nd gen 10GB iPod. I completely rebuilt the iPod using the 1.3 updater from Apple, then initialized from MediaCenter. I removed all the last played and play count data from my library. I synchronized with the ipod. I played two songs on the iPod and synchronized again, making sure to "sync data to MC". My play counts are all 0 and my last played dates are all garbage. (e.g., 9404029.5 minutes ago).

Is this something that's supposed to work? Is this thought to be working?

Phil Lee · « **Reply #161 on:** October 18, 2003, 03:54:28 pm »

Quote from: doughty on October 18, 2003, 10:51:42 am

I'm using build .281 and a 2nd gen 10GB iPod. I completely rebuilt the iPod using the 1.3 updater from Apple, then initialized from MediaCenter. I removed all the last played and play count data from my library. I synchronized with the ipod. I played two songs on the iPod and synchronized again, making sure to "sync data to MC". My play counts are all 0 and my last played dates are all garbage. (e.g., 9404029.5 minutes ago).

Is this something that's supposed to work? Is this thought to be working?

The first thing you should do is check the clock on your iPod. It is probably set a little bit fast.

Kurt Young · « **Reply #162 on:** October 18, 2003, 05:16:22 pm »

Quote from: SteveG on October 17, 2003, 04:36:48 pm

Kurt,

Thanks. The issue I referred to above would only occur with identically named and not generically with smartlists that include all music as a rule.

The "Following file failed" would indicate that particular files failed for some reason and probably those files were excluded with your additional rule which would account for the subsequent success.

Steve

Aye, sir, but there's nothing wrong with that file. Been synching it for months, and as soon as I modified that smartlist, it didn't fail the next sync.

kiwi · « **Reply #163 on:** October 18, 2003, 06:31:05 pm »

Does the clock on the iPod have to be set for the last played information to work? Doesn't having the clock running, cause the battery to drain much faster? What about having an option where if hte clock is not set, the last played date gets set to the date when syncing?

Kurt Young · « **Reply #164 on:** October 18, 2003, 10:38:59 pm »

Quote from: kiwi on October 18, 2003, 06:31:05 pm

Does the clock on the iPod have to be set for the last played information to work? Doesn't having the clock running, cause the battery to drain much faster? What about having an option where if hte clock is not set, the last played date gets set to the date when syncing?

The clock doesn't drain a significant amount of battery to worry about, mate. Don't stressabowddit.

kiwi · « **Reply #165 on:** October 18, 2003, 11:44:18 pm »

Quote from: Kurt Young on October 18, 2003, 10:38:59 pm

The clock doesn't drain a significant amount of battery to worry about, mate. Don't stressabowddit.

Cool. I remember it being an issue when they first added it to the firmware. When it was first added, I noticed significantly shorter running times.

I take it that it has been dealt with in the 1.3 firmware? Or is it something that was fixed with the 3rd gen models?

kiwi

Iplod along · « **Reply #166 on:** October 19, 2003, 09:54:17 am »

Little green arrows

When I try and play a track from the library it defaults to a track which has agreen arrow next to it. I can play tracks using the windows explore option which is a long way around the problem.

Can anyone enlighten me how this arrow may have occured, what it means and how I can remove it.

David

ashawley · « **Reply #167 on:** October 19, 2003, 12:10:47 pm »

OK, for those of you on the fence about trying iTunes, I think I can tip you over back to the MC9 side easily:

Their Smartlists S*CK!

No boolean support. You can't make a smartlist that has the rule:
Genre=A, B, or C
Rating > 4

Basically, the A, B, or C bit, can happen, but when you try to say, A, B or C and Rating > 4.

I cannot believe that Apple missed this. What a joke.

I won't go into all the other things, but here are some highlights:

1. To me the sound out on my PC through iTunes was way sub-par compared to MC9.
2. No file management capabilities as has been discussed ad nauseum. By this I mean, you have no control over how your files are named. Some of us use other programs to access our music files (I do a lot when creating videos etc) and file naming is important to us
3. No customizable views
4. No Playing-Now
5. Artwork is stored always in the mp3. When you're dealing w/an iPod and your space is limited by its size, you want to keep the files as small as possible, I don't want to add 200K to each of my music files, that adds up when you're talking 3300 songs.

There are really just too many things missing that I can't use it.

The good news for us though is that now that Steve has access to it, hopefully we can get dynamic playlists on via MC9.

Some other thoughts, too Steve: it appears to me that iTunes syncs much quicker. I'm not saying it uploads songs faster, but it does the sync super fast when you just are updating playcounts, ratings etc. I think one of the reasons for this is the dynamic playlists. Since it doesn't have to actually copy over the contents of the new playlist at all...because they are generated on the fly.

One thing about iTunes that's different than MC9, when you click on a smartlist in MC9 it auto-refreshes every time. Not so in iTunes. The only way to get a smart playlist in iTunes to refresh is to add either a Last Played or Playcount rule to it. For example, if I had a list 5 random tunes as a smartlist, its contents would never change unless I added Last Played > 1 day or Playcount > 0. And it will refresh as it's playing. So, if you had the last played > 1 day, and your viewing the smartlist, as the first song is played, it is removed from the list and a new one added.

I'm not asking for MC9 to do this, but I believe the dynamic lists on the iPod work in the same way. Which would tell me that you wouldn't have to reupload all the playlist information w/each sync, which I'm guessing is what makes the sync in MC9 take longer.

OK, enough blabbering, I'm happy to be back w/MC9 fully after 4 days of iTunes garbage. Would you believe that I even re-rated all my tunes in iTunes before I realized the smartlist (lack of) feature? Ugh!

Adam

ashawley · « **Reply #168 on:** October 19, 2003, 02:13:32 pm »

can anyone else confirm that w/2.1 firmware ratings aren't coming over from MC9 anymore? And if you try to set one, the iPod freezes(but eventually comes back to life).

Adam

Kurt Young · « **Reply #169 on:** October 19, 2003, 02:19:24 pm »

Quite honestly, I've been toying around with the idea of downgrading back to 2.0.1 -- I like my iPod Manager and its ability to unmount/mount/unmount without plugging. This post of yours, Adam, I think has just made my decision. I haven't seen this bug, and am in no hurry whatsoever to encounter it.

I think I'll be fine without the Music Quiz game and the neat new battery meter. 2.0.1 was bug-free and worked great for me.

kiwi · « **Reply #170 on:** October 19, 2003, 05:58:01 pm »

where does one get iPod Manager?

kiwi

ashawley · « **Reply #171 on:** October 19, 2003, 06:19:48 pm »

It's part of the setup file for the 2.0.1 firmware. You'd have to just install the 2.0.1 firmware again.

If you don't have it anymore, you're out of luck as Apple doesn't keep old copies posted.

Adam

Kurt Young · « **Reply #172 on:** October 19, 2003, 06:42:29 pm »

Ya know, Kiwi, that's what I just did.

1. Uninstall iTunes
2. Uninstall 2.1 software.
3. Install 2.0.1 software.
4. Reboot.

I've got my iPod Manager back. I went the extra step and restored my iPod to 2.0.1 -- I was happy with it, and 2.0.1 allows access to the iPod's menus after unmounting but before undocking. Dunno why they went back a step in 2.1.

iPod OS 2.0.1 and Media Center 9.1.280. It's all to the good.

kiwi · « **Reply #173 on:** October 19, 2003, 08:13:25 pm »

Quote from: ashawley on October 19, 2003, 06:19:48 pm

It's part of the setup file for the 2.0.1 firmware. You'd have to just install the 2.0.1 firmware again.

If you don't have it anymore, you're out of luck as Apple doesn't keep old copies posted.

Ahh.. .well, I'm SOL anyway... i have a G1 iPod. So no 2.0.1 firmware... and probably no iPodManager

I wish my iPod would stop working so I could justify getting one of the nice new ones.

@Kurt Young
Interesting. I really wonder why some people have been successful with 2.1 and others haven't. I wonder whether it's a combination of having both 2.1 firmware and software installed. i.e. if you have both, it doesn't work, but if you have just the 2.1 firmware and 2.0.1 software it works.

kiwi

bspachman · « **Reply #174 on:** October 19, 2003, 09:17:58 pm »

I've been following the new iPod/iTunes/MC9 threads with interest. I've been a long-time Mac user and was depressed for a while when I realized that to get a full-featured jukebox/music server I would have to go the Windows route.

MJ8 (& MC9) helped alleiviate my depression over the past year.

I was very happy when the iPod became Windows compatible and MC9 became the best iPod management tool. Nonetheless, I was very happy this week to see iTunes come out--competition is good. I personally haven't seen problems after upgrading my iPod to v2.1 firmware, but I'm not a huge power-user of my iPod.

I have run across a couple of things that would help me out in MC9/iPod-land:

1) I have yet to see how synching information from the iPod back to MC9 works. I'm primarily interested in the last-played and number of plays information. If you right-click on your iPod, and choose the "Synch iPod info w/MC" option, you're told that the iPod info will overwrite what's in MC. My question is how much info? All the tags? What happens if my MC files are a different format, like APLs? I have all my APL files converted to MP3 for use with the iPod. When I am going to work with the iPod, I turn on a view filter that shows all the MP3 versions. When I'm working normally, I hide all the MP3 versions. What happens to the tags if I have the wrong (or all) versions showing? I'm very hesitant to try it....

2) I've made changes to tags and file info within MC and want those changes to propagate to the iPod. I choose to "Synchronize" my iPod (it has ~6700 files on it). I de-select all my synching smartlists and have only "Update Tag Info" checked. Nothing seems to carry over to the iPod. Do I actually have to re-synch the files to get the tag info to update?

3) A feature request... I normally use smartlists to transfer music to the iPod. These translate wonderfully into iPod playlists. However, there are some files I send to the iPod manually (using the Send To... command). These files are naturally not associated with any playlists. What I would like to do is associate files (or change existing associations) with existing iPod playlists.

It could work a little like the Tagging Mode...possibly?

Best,
Brad

Kurt Young · « **Reply #175 on:** October 19, 2003, 10:05:29 pm »

Brad,

I think you're saying something that I've been thinking for a while. Like have a field on each song that works like "If this box is checked, make sure it goes to the iPod."

I was thinking, one day, of making a custom field. But rather than a string, integer, decimal, percentage or list, I would like a yes/no data type. It would show up as a checkbox in MC's list view, eh? Then, I could just build a smartlist that included songs where the box was checked.

A field like that could be used for more than just marking a song for transfer, too. But that's talking about introducing a new data type, which might not be hard. Come to mention it, I'd like to build custom fields that work and display like the Rating field does, heh.

gpvillamil · « **Reply #176 on:** October 19, 2003, 10:07:30 pm »

Why not use a regular playlist for this?

I just have a playlist called "stuff I want to listen to" and drop the songs I like into it.

Then I select this when syncing the pod, together with all my automatic smartlists.

ashawley · « **Reply #177 on:** October 19, 2003, 10:50:44 pm »

bspachman :

1. You're doing it the "old" way.

Thing move quickly around here. Just click on the iPod toolbar icon. It will bring up the sync dialog. You can then check the Sync iPod info w/MC option. This will do what you think it will do: It will update last played in MC9 (if the iPod's last played date is more recent than MC9's version of it). It will increment Number Plays and it will update any rating changes you've made. When you first sync to your iPod, the ratings you've made in MC9 get copied to the iPod, so nothing will get overwritten unless you change it on the iPod.

Regarding the APL deal, there is an option in MC9 to "force convert" songs. You can set this option by clicking on the "Options" button on the Sync dialog box (the one where you select your playlists and check the "sync iPod info w/MC". This way you don't have to keep 2 versions. Do note, that that first time you upload these songs it will take longer as they get converted and copied to the iPod, but after that, MC9 knows that there's already a converted version on the ipod and it doesn't need to "reconvert".

2. You're doing everything right except your unselecting your smartlists. You have to select the smartlists you want sync'd. Even though they are there on the iPod already. When you do this, it will go VERY fast, like 200+ MB/sec as MC9 doesn't reupload the songs, it just updates the tags and regenerates any smartlists. As a general rule, leave all 3 checkboxes checked: Update Tags, Delete files not in sync (this just makes sure your smartlists are always accurate on the iPod and any files that you remove from your smartlists or playlists actually get removed from the iPod) and the Sync iPod info to MC9. Always leave these checked.

3. Not sure what you mean on this one. What a lot of us do, is make a Master iPod Smartlist. This is a list of rules that contains all the Artists (and/or Genres, Albums etc.) that we want on the iPod. Other smartlist that we also want on the iPod start off w/the rule "Playlist=Master Playlist". This way you're ensured that these lists will be comprised of tunes that are already on the iPod. Get it?

Might want to check out the forums at www.ipodlounge.com (shameless plug). We've got a great board over there for MC9 and a lot of these things are discussed in Sticky threads. Could be of assistance for you.

Adam

Kurt Young · « **Reply #178 on:** October 19, 2003, 11:08:13 pm »

If we could make yes/no custom fields, then my "Master" iPod smartlist could look like this:

[MyNeatYes/NoCustomField]=1

If I'm synching this smartlist, I could just go thru my library, and if I saw something that I know I wanted to be on my iPod, I'd just tick the box that is visible when this field's column is shown in list view.

One click = I'm guaranteed it's on my iPod.

gpvillamil · « **Reply #179 on:** October 20, 2003, 12:26:06 am »

SteveG, I've collected iTunesDB files that illustrate the problems I've been having. Let me know what e-mail address to send them to.

bspachman · « **Reply #180 on:** October 20, 2003, 12:57:34 am »

Quote from: Kurt Young on October 19, 2003, 11:08:13 pm

If we could make yes/no custom fields, then my "Master" iPod smartlist could look like this:

[MyNeatYes/NoCustomField]=1

Kurt,

You can do this with custom fields already. Just create a basic text field and assign whatever value you want to it. Because I have a hodgepodge of APLs, APEs, their derivative MP3s and some unique MP3s, I created a field called "Duplicate". All of my derivative MP3s are given a value of "y" in that field.

For you, call it "PutOniPod" and give those songs a "y" in tagging mode. I don't think it needs to be a specific boolean data type--it's the results that count, right?

Adam,

Thanks for the pointers. I think a lot of my problems stem from having too much music! I'm trying to manage the equivalent of ~40GB MP3s and fit them onto a 30GB iPod. I don't like synching more than needed. I only do it about once every 2-4 weeks.

1. I have found the "one-click synch" option. Again, since I actually download music to the iPod so infrequently, I'm more interested in updating MC's DB with the iPod's playcounts, times, etc. That's why I use the contextual menu.

As for the convert-on-the-fly functionality... I love that it's there, but since I have the storage space for both the APE & MP3 versions of my files, I'd rather preconvert everything instead of waiting even longer during my infrequent synchs.

However, when the iPod info gets copied back and there are 2 versions of the file (APE & MP3), which one gets the rating/playcount info updated? I'd assume the MP3 version, since that's the one actually on the iPod, but I think it might be better to match based on Artist/Album/length/etc., so those of us keeping multiple versions can have everything updated...maybe...?

2. Aha! Thanks! I always uncheck my smartlists because of the amount of stuff synched with my iPod. What usually happens is that I synch 3-4 smartlists, which fills up my iPod. I then navigate to the iPod directly and delete tracks that I didn't want included. I clear out enough space to synch up 1-2 more smartlists, and so on.

It's not very efficient, but I hate managing playlists/smartlists.

If I keep the lists checked in order to update tags, I get "full iPod" errors because MC tries to restore the songs I deleted.

3. Yep. I've seen and tried the "master" method of synching. I found it really wasn't for me, but that's not so much the point here. My suggestion is that for folks who do NOT exclusively use playlists/smartlists to synch can have a way to assign tracks on the iPod to playlists already on the iPod.

For example, I synch 2 smartlists, one with the rules "Genre=Rock/Pop; Sub-Genre=Rock/Pop" and the other with the rule "Genre=Soundtrack". I have all my Rock/Pop songs tagged with that genre, and all my soundtrack songs tagged with "Soundtrack", but some of them with the sub-genre "Rock/Pop".

This way, when I play my iPod playlist "Rock/Pop" I not only get all my Rock/Pop songs, but also my soundtrack tracks from albums like "Dazed & Confused" or "The Blues Brothers" that have a sub-genre of Rock/Pop. Works great.

The problem is that if I find a track in the library that isn't already synched to the iPod, I use "Send To.." to put it there. Once that track is on the iPod, I have no way of associating it with my "Rock/Pop" iPod playlist, so it will never play unless I find it specifically.

It would be amazing to be able to type (or select) existing iPod playlist names in the "Playlist" column when looking at the docked iPod in MC. Make sense? It is kind of odd....

Best,
Brad

Kurt Young · « **Reply #181 on:** October 20, 2003, 01:10:39 am »

Brad,

True, it is technically possible to make a smartlist like that today. However, I'm going for something that has a bit more ease-of-use than a string-based field with y's and n's. Selecting-to-edit and typing a y versus just putting a tick in a box with one click.

I love what they've done with graphical ratings, one-click and it's set. If I could have a field which was represented by a checkbox in list view... which could be mass set like ratings are (select a bunch of files, put a tick in one of their KurtsCustomField boxes and have them all get ticked)... that'd be sweet. I could make all sorts of checkboxes and do tons of cool stuff.

This rant is a bit off topic, and I'm sorry 'bout that, Steve. You know me, I like to act out from the whole moderator thing from time to time.

I'll put it up in the main forum.

Endymion · « **Reply #182 on:** October 20, 2003, 03:50:49 am »

1) I'd like a way for MC9 to collect AAC files (protected and unprotected) into the library for syncing with the IPOD even though MC9 doesn't have the ability (yet) to encode or play AAC files? I want to use AAC files on my IPOD instead of mp3s due to the better size (my 30G IPOD is full and I want more

).

2) Currently my HTPC music library is in APE format (and will stay in that format). I convert the APE files to MP3 and then sync the mp3 library to the IPOD. I'd like to instead convert the APE files to an intermediate format that retains the tag info and then use ITunes to convert those files to AAC. Ideally this intermediate format would be lossless so that I wouldn't be going through 2 lossy converters to go to AAC but WAV is the only lossless format that MC9 will generate that ITunes will recognize and WAV files don't appear to have the tag info. Are there options to create mp3 files that do essentially no lossy compression that I could use?

sub-24 · « **Reply #183 on:** October 20, 2003, 04:38:57 am »

I have just blown up my IPOD and started to re-load everything again.

If a select 100 CDs to copy over to the ipod every few CDs it prompts me saying upload complete. If you clieck okay it then carries on and converts another few then does the same again.

Problem is i have to be sitting at my PC all the time as it wont continue on its own. I want to be able to select 300 CDs and just go to bed and let it convert and copy without intervention.

Any way to switch this off.

Jonny5 · « **Reply #184 on:** October 20, 2003, 06:50:59 am »

I've had this problem for a while now but after playing with iTunes I now know for sure its a real problem.

I have a very short track on one of my soundtrack cd's (12 seconds long) and when I play it on the iPod it always cuts off about 1/2 a second early. The file plays fine in MC and when I transferred it to the iPod using iTunes it played it perfectly on the iPod.

Any ideas?? I can email you the file if it helps, its only 175Kb (VBR encoded in MC).

thosj · « **Reply #185 on:** October 20, 2003, 09:13:14 am »

Can someone help me with Audible files?

iPod 3G 15, 2.0.1, MC 9.1.281. I have aa files imported to MC9. I cannot get them on my iPod!! I have restored 2.0.1, initialized in MC9, made playlists and smartlists containing aa files. Sync and the aa's do NOT load. It does, however, screw up playlists loaded with MP3's on the same sync. I have tried checking/unchecking delete files and all the other checkmarks in sync. I have just tried syncing one smartlist/playlist with ONE aa file, NOTHING!!

If I restore iPod, and use Audible Manager, I can load them from there, but then when I try to sync my music back on the iPod, my audible files are gone.

I posted over on ipodlounge, too. I really need to get MC9, my tunes, and audible content to work. It all worked fine with MMJB last week before I started using MC9 (paid, btw!). I have gotten my tunes, playlists, everything, working GREAT in MC9, but NOT Audible files, no way.

I have NOT tried to install iTunes!!

I don't know what else to try short of MMJB/AM again, which worked. I uninstalled MMJB before even trying MC9, so it's not that. I have restored/reinitialized at least 20 times and tried different combinations to get my audible content and my music on with MC9 to no avail.

What do I need to do to get this to work?

thosj · « **Reply #186 on:** October 20, 2003, 09:57:57 am »

Quote from: thosj on October 20, 2003, 09:13:14 am

Can someone help me with Audible files?

iPod 3G 15, 2.0.1, MC 9.1.281. I have aa files imported to MC9. I cannot get them on my iPod!! I have restored 2.0.1, initialized in MC9, made playlists and smartlists containing aa files. Sync and the aa's do NOT load. It does, however, screw up playlists loaded with MP3's on the same sync. I have tried checking/unchecking delete files and all the other checkmarks in sync. I have just tried syncing one smartlist/playlist with ONE aa file, NOTHING!!

Now I've tried to remove my aa's from MC9 and reimport, can't do it, no matter where I copy the aa's to, or how I try, I can't re import them. I even tried re-downloading them from Audible.com, copying them out of the C:\Program Files\Audible blah, blah, location, can't import them.

What is it about this I don't understand?

Do I need to uninstall, reinstall 9.1 stable or something?

Or what?

Man, do I feel stoopid!

thosj · « **Reply #187 on:** October 20, 2003, 11:26:31 am »

Quote from: thosj on October 20, 2003, 09:57:57 am

Man, do I feel stoopid!

Well, uninstalled MC9.1.281, installed 9.1 stable. Imported my stuff. Same thing!! No audible files.

Now....I notice when trying to import the aa's, it wants me to download RealPlayer. Why is that? I don't want anything to do with Realplayer, and I don't have it installed.

Now I get to go setup all my options again and stuff!!

What IS this audible thing I'm having here?

JimH · « **Reply #188 on:** October 20, 2003, 11:50:07 am »

Check the FAQ thread on this board for a link to RealPlayer 8. It must be installed to play audible files. MC may have direct support in the future.

ashawley · « **Reply #189 on:** October 20, 2003, 01:07:39 pm »

Steve:

Just a thought on something if we get rid of the Sync iPod info to MC checkbox. As I recall, you said at one point that Rating changes on the iPod always overwrite ratings in MC9.

This is quite problematic and really shouldn't be done this way of you think about it.

If I go through my libary in MC9 and change a bunch of ratings. Then do a sync, the iPod should reflect those ratings. Only if I've listened to a song on the iPod should its rating be updated (assuming I listened to it prior to changing the rating).

The ultimate way to handle this is by a "last modified date". Not sure if that's available in MC9.

Adam

sirshambling · « **Reply #190 on:** October 20, 2003, 03:52:02 pm »

Steve,

I'm sorry to say I'm having strange synch problems with build 281. Used a fresh initialisation and tried synching my playlists. All fine excpet for any track over 10 mins long - none are received by the Ipod, progress stops between 40% and 60%, then the message that the transfer is complete followed by the error message saying the file didn't go through.

Tried uploading - same result sadly.

John

SteveG · « **Reply #191 on:** October 20, 2003, 04:07:02 pm »

Everyone,

MC 9.1.282 is now available with some changes that will affect iPod.

1) Upload Tags, is removed from the sync dialogue and is always on. This will always update tags on iPod to be like MC whenever you sync.

2) Delete files is still a checkbox, but if it is unchecked it will sync files but playlists will not be additive.

3) Playlists will now be named by the Name followed by the path to avoid any confusion between multiple playlists that are duplicated.

Adam,

Quote

you said at one point that Rating changes on the iPod always overwrite ratings in MC9.

The rating on iPod will overwrite MC only if you have the 'Sync iPod info to MC' checkbox enabled.

Quote

Only if I've listened to a song on the iPod should its rating be updated (assuming I listened to it prior to changing the rating).

I disagree. One can change ratings without listening to a song. Because it is possible that a user has the same song on iPod and in MC with different ratings, I think it is important to have the checkbox to give the user control over which rating should sync.

thosj,

I think you will be OK if you follow JimH's advice.

Jonny5,

Send me the file and I will see if I can duplicate the problem.
(steve @ jriver.com)

mikeh,

Quote

If a select 100 CDs to copy over to the ipod every few CDs it prompts me saying upload complete. If you clieck okay it then carries on and converts another few then does the same again.

What file type are you starting with and converting to? How are you doing the uploads, through synchronization or drag and drop?

Endymion,

We are working on the AAC compatibility. Let us work that out and then revisit your item 2.

Brad,

I think Adam covered most of your points (Thanks Adam)

Everyone,

The list of comments has grown huge. Today's changes may affect many of these. If you can, please get MC 9.1.282 and test any issues you had and then repost if you are still having problems, that would be great. Feature requests have to hold for a little until any new kinks between iTunes and iPod and MC are ironed out.

Thanks,

Steve

sirshambling · « **Reply #192 on:** October 20, 2003, 04:48:08 pm »

Steve,

Build 282 still gives big problems synching/uploading tracks over 10 mins - sometimes it works, most times it doesn't.

Also uploading a track loses all the playlist info on every track on the Ipod which has to be synched again.

John

thosj · « **Reply #193 on:** October 20, 2003, 04:55:39 pm »

Quote from: JimH on October 20, 2003, 11:50:07 am

Check the FAQ thread on this board for a link to RealPlayer 8. It must be installed to play audible files. MC may have direct support in the future.

I don't want to PLAY 'em, I just want to sync 'em to my iPod!!

Sigh.........I'll try installing Real Player 8, but ANY previous runs at Real have left a baaaad taste in my mouth.

Why can't I just have MC9 IMPORT the audible aa files and sync 'em, forget playing them in MC9??

crowfan · « **Reply #194 on:** October 20, 2003, 05:41:05 pm »

Just thought I'd check in to let Steve and everyone know that the latest build (283) seems to have fixed everything for me, iPod/MC9.1/iTunes is now all good.

However, after installing iTunes again, I made sure NOT to let it touch my iPod. I'm just never going to open iTunes with the iPod docked. Only iTunes for shopping. Especially now that MC supports the AAC files from iTMS.

Thanks,

crow

bvm · « **Reply #195 on:** October 20, 2003, 05:45:12 pm »

Sigh, a new failure....

MC isn't seeing my iPod as an iPod. Its drive letter shows up in "CD, DVD, & Handhelds", but when I click on the drive letter, there is nothing in the content pane. The right-button context menu has no iPod-specific entries in it (no "rebuild database" etc.). If I click on the "+", it shows me folders on the iPod drive, just like in My Computer.

(I'm still running 9.1.276. It was behaving just fine before.)

cct1 · « **Reply #196 on:** October 20, 2003, 05:47:37 pm »

Steve,

Thanks a million--AAC support is HUGE. There is only one thing that Itunes has got on MC9--dynamic playlists on the ipod. But the addition of AAC support makes MC9 the hands down best Ipod application. Thanks a million for this one.

I don't want to sound ungrateful, but are the dynamic playlists a possibility? If not, it's not the end of the world, it's not even remotely enough to make me want to switch to Itunes, but it would be sweet to get those...

Again, thanks for all the hard work--it's really paid off. Now, I can't wait to get some AAC tunes on my ipod--but if you guys do partner up with a nonWMA online music store, I'll be a loyal customer. Man, I can't believe how awesome MC9 is....

Phil Lee · « **Reply #197 on:** October 20, 2003, 05:48:14 pm »

Steve, massive problems here with build 282 I'm afraid. Here's what I did:

Backed up library
Installed 9.1.282
Connected iPod and synched music. A large number of tracks had their last played time set to -19090516.9 mins. The iPod clock was set 1m 43 s slower than my PC clock. I had adjusted my iPod clock between the time I last played a track and the time of the synch.
I disconnected my iPod and looked at the playlists. I had two playlists, one with a name corresponding to a smartlists in the synch but with no tracks in it, the other with a blank name and no tracks in it.

After this I decided to start from a clean slate. I restored my MC library then initialised my iPod using 9.1.282.

Next I synched 3 smartlists containg 270 tracks. I ejected the iPod. The playlists were shown correctly on the iPod.

Next I played 1 track on the iPod. I then waited 3 minutes and synched the iPod, adding 1 smartlist to the synch. I ejected the iPod. It contained the correct music and playlists. Unfortunately serious damage was wreaked in my MC library. The following problems occurred:

107 files have their last played time set to -19090493.4 mins
11 files have number of plays set to between -1145988787 and -1147028280
5 files have number of plays set to 208284801
1 file has number of plays set to 208284802
2 files have number of plays set to 208284804
1 file has number of plays set to 208284807
25 files have number of plays set to 60
17 files have number of plays set to 2082844800

The clock on my iPod was set to 45 seconds slower than my PC.

As it stands things are going horribly wrong with playcounts and last played data.

Also when I browse to my Ipod under CD, DVD and Handhelds the playlist data is not displayed correctly for any of the tracks. For example a track is in the playlist "New Albums". On the iPod through MC this is shown as "New Albums (iPod (9.251Gb)-New Albums)" "iPod (9.251Gb)" is the playlist group that contains the New Albums smartlist. The same problem occurs for all the other tracks. This naming problem is also shown on the iPod itself when you view playlists.Edit: Doh!! I should have read your post Steve. I see this is a feature of the plugin.

I have now restored my iPod using the 1.3 Updater. I initialised the iPod when prompted then synched 2 smartlists. The corrupted smartlist name problem is still happening. I will now test the last played problem and report back. Reporting back: I played 1 track, waited a few minutes then did a synch. This synch didn't change any music on the iPod. It only changed the play count/last played data. The data for the track I played was updated correctly. The data for 104 tracks was corrupted however. I am now going to try removing these tracks from the library, reimport them and repeat the process to see what happens.

OK, I removed the 104 tracks and reimported them. I initialised my iPod and synched the same 2 smartlists as before. I played one track then synched again, this time updating the play info. This time the synch went OK. The pla data was updated correctly in MC and no data was corrupted. ~~Unfortunately the playlists on the iPod are still named incorrectly but that is a minor problem compared with the corruption of play data.~~ I will upload some more music, listen to it tomorrow at work and see what happens when I synch tomorrow evening.

Here is my system info:

2 Gen iPod, 10Gb capacity, 1.3 firmware

Media Center Registered 9.1.282 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1674 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 136 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive G: Copy mode:ModeSecure CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive G: SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-348B Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

sub-24 · « **Reply #198 on:** October 20, 2003, 05:54:05 pm »

Steve G

I am doing drag and drop. I only copy whole albums - no playlist to sync etc.

Most of the albums are .ape some .wma(lossless) and some mp3-320

I convert to mp3-192 and apply replay gain at +12db

I am currently on build .281 and use a 3G ipod 15Gig

Any ?

thosj · « **Reply #199 on:** October 20, 2003, 06:51:01 pm »

Quote from: thosj on October 20, 2003, 04:55:39 pm

Quote from: JimH on October 20, 2003, 11:50:07 am
Check the FAQ thread on this board for a link to RealPlayer 8. It must be installed to play audible files. MC may have direct support in the future.

I don't want to PLAY 'em, I just want to sync 'em to my iPod!!

Sigh.........I'll try installing Real Player 8, but ANY previous runs at Real have left a baaaad taste in my mouth.

Why can't I just have MC9 IMPORT the audible aa files and sync 'em, forget playing them in MC9??

Sho' 'nuff...installed Real Virus 8 and now audible files work fine. Oh, well, I learned a lot about MC9 in the two days it took to figure this out.

I think MC9 should let you IMPORT the aa's just so you can sync 'em, give me a dialog box telling me to get Real if I want to PLAY them in MC9. That way I wouldn't need Real on my computer.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 43130 times)