INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: SteveG on August 18, 2003, 02:08:10 pm
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Hello All,
For anyone who is new to MC, please be sure to get the latest version.
If you want to read an excellent help file (thanks Adam) on using MC and iPod please go to....
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/
For additional information, please check the previous help thread at...
http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=MediaCenter;action=display;num=1058463517;start=0#0
For any issues not covered, please post below and someone will respond ASAP. Please include in your post your version of MC, version of the Portable Drive Plugin and Operating System.
Thanks,
Steve (JRiver)
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Everyone,
MC 9.1.234 includes a rough ability to transfer filecount and rating information. There is more work to be done on this. One limitation seems to be that iPod does not remember modifications to the ratings that are made on the iPod. I do not have a solution for this yet.
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Steve:
First, let me say this:
WOOT!!!!!! :D :D
When I tried that "Starlist" program that I sent you I was able to Rate a song on the iPod and then connect the iPod, run Starlist to see the Ratings and it indeed reflected the updated rating.
Not sure what the problems are, but I'm sure I was able to see the changes.
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Aye, Adam... but did the ratings transfer back to MC9 or just to Starlist?
Steve: I love you, man. I can't WAIT to go play!!
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Oh, no Kurt. They didn't go to MC9. Of course not. Because Steve hadn't built that part yet.
What I simply meant was the changes to ratings on the iPod were getting written to the playcounts file and were accessible from starlist.
Adam
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Just installed .234, and now it won't load my iPod info. Everytime I click on the F: under Handhelds, I get an error message with just the letter "h" in it.
Handheld plug-in version 9.0.44
Media Center 9.1.234 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1001 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 392 MB, Free - 168 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
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: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: C:\WINDOWS\Media\chimes.wav
Burning / Drive E: SONY CD-RW CRX160E Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:12 MaxSpeed:12 BurnProof:No
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: No / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
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Just installed .234, and now it won't load my iPod info. Everytime I click on the F: under Handhelds, I get an error message with just the letter "h" in it.
I got the exact same error. Also, when attempting to use the new "sync ipod information" option, the program became non-responsive, with CPU usage pegged to 100%. I had to kill through Task Manager.
Also, when the sync window popped up, at one point it reported that I'd have "-4.1GB" free after the sync (which would correspond to having roughly 2 of everything on my iPod).
Here's my info...I had to revert to .233 after doing a restore on my iPod to sync back up.
Media Center Registered 9.1.233 -- D:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 1791 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 785 MB, Free - 534 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / 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: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive F: SONY CD-RW CRX175E Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:24 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
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Everyone,
MC 9.1.234 includes a rough ability to transfer filecount and rating information. There is more work to be done on this. One limitation seems to be that iPod does not remember modifications to the ratings that are made on the iPod. I do not have a solution for this yet.
I don't know if you'll be able to work around that one either. From what I remember of the discussion over at the lounge (http://ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4803), the Play Counts file is wiped clean after you disconnect from the computer. Unless you know some voodoo to get the file over after we've disconnected, you're SOL.
In any case, I don't think that would be a huge concern not having the info on the iPod itself. You can still create a smartlist of unrated songs to accomplish that task.
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Just installed .234, and now it won't load my iPod info. Everytime I click on the F: under Handhelds, I get an error message with just the letter "h" in it.
I'm having a similar problem. I can see my iPod but if I try to upload files to it, it'll sometimes work, it'll sometimes say that upload doesn't support that file type, and other times it'll transfer the file then the little "h" window opens up and the transfer window hangs. I have to restart MC to get rid of it. I'm pretty sure it has to do something with whether I've rated a file or not but I haven't pinned down the pattern yet.
All I know is I can't update my iPod at all anymore.
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Well, I reverted to .233 to synch back up. I'll probably steer clear of .234 until things get ironed out.
I really hope someone can find a way to get ratings from the iPod to MC...since I do most (99%) of my rating on the go, not in MC.
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For those of you having problems
You can get the old version of the iPod Plugin w/o having to go back to .233. Just download the Portable Drive - 9.0.43 (http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/downloads/mcplugins.pl?type=8) from the Plugins page.
Do NOT download the iPod plugin that's listed. That's for 9.0.180.
Download the one w/the text: Portable Drive - 9.0.43
Adam
Steve:
I've had similar problems. Tried the Update PC Sync and it just bombed. I've sent you my itunesdb and Playcounts file.
I'm wondering if the size of our playcount files are what's slowing things down. Mine is from 1 full day of playing. What are you testing with.
Anyway, I can't seem to sync either anymore. I was able to do one sync, but the status bar did some weird things. It looked like it was syncing, but it would show a song, the counter would jump 30-40 songs then it would show another.
In the end, although it looks like the tunes are on the iPod, the playlist data isn't.
Also, the next time I tried to sync, I got the error message w/just an "H" in it (and my iPod drive is I:\ not H:\).
Not sure what that error's about.
On a related note. I'm not sure if you plan on the methodology you have in place for the final version or if this is just for testing things out. But, my 2 cents on how this should work....
Syncing the iPod's data w/the MC9 library should be tranparent during a sync. Meaning, that when you sync tunes, MC9 should automatically update playcounts and ratings in MC9's library.
Now, you might want to make this an optional checkbox that appears on the sync dialog. Similar to Update Tags and Delete Files. But, it shouldn't be a 2 step process the way you've got it now.
Adam
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Like some others here, I also could not sync my iPod after the 234 upgrade. As per Steve's instructions, I installed the 9.0.43 Portable Drive plug-in and could once again sync.
I noticed that after the update, the cut off song issue seemed to have been "reduced." At first I thought this was due to the update, but I later discovered that the tags had inadvertantly been updated, which (as I already discoverd) can "fix" this issue. Unfortunately, this now means that I no longer have any files avaible that I know have this issue. I'll have to do some listenning in order to find some more cut off songs.
Steve, I tried the .dll file you emailed me, but I couldn't sync the iPod as long as I used it -- I kept getting an error. I tried it with both the 9.0.43 and the 9.0.44 Portable Drive plug-ins. I had to revert to 9.0.43 AND go back to the previous .dll to get the sync to work at all. Let me know if you want me to try it again with a new version of MC.
Larry
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Everyone,
I am not at the office today, so sorry for whatever problems you are having. It will be until tomorrow before I can do anything about fixing them.
Steve
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For those of you having problems
(snip)
I'm wondering if the size of our playcount files are what's slowing things down. Mine is from 1 full day of playing. What are you testing with.
The playcount file shouldn't be that big. IIRC, according to the Play Counts structure posted on the gtkpod site, you're looking at 0x10 (2.0.1 firmware) or 0x0c (1.3) bytes per song, plus 0x60 bytes in the header. So, for my 1500 song library, the playcounts file should be kinda of small...much smaller than the iTunesDB.
On a related note. I'm not sure if you plan on the methodology you have in place for the final version or if this is just for testing things out. But, my 2 cents on how this should work....
Syncing the iPod's data w/the MC9 library should be tranparent during a sync. Meaning, that when you sync tunes, MC9 should automatically update playcounts and ratings in MC9's library.
Now, you might want to make this an optional checkbox that appears on the sync dialog. Similar to Update Tags and Delete Files. But, it shouldn't be a 2 step process the way you've got it now.
Well, you could maybe conceal things a bit, but you basically would need two channels of communication:
1) iPod -> MC in order to add in the new playcounts/ratings/last played to the MC library (you would need to load the iTunesDB and the Play Counts files for this)
Then, MC9 would need to update its smartlists accordingly (which should happen automatically, although it might require a second or two to parse and complete the updates)
2) MC -> iPod to sync over updated smartlists. Same as it does now.
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bdjohns1:
Yeah, I started thinking about that last night. The size isn't the issue, I just thought parsing it might be.
Regarding my example of the methodology. I totally understand that it needs to be a two step process, but from a UI perspective, it should be a one step process.
I'd be totally happy if the Sync Status Dialog told you what was going in. For example:
"Importing Playcounts & Ratings from iPod" (w/a progress bar)
"Updating MC9 Library and Smartlists" (w/a progress bar)
"Syncing iPod" (with the songs being sync'd as it is today"
But to initiate this process it should be one action by the user--i.e. Synchronize.
Adam
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Does the 235 build fix the iPod syncing failures that 234 had?
Thanks,
Larry
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My suspicion is no, since Steve said he wasn't in the office today.
Try downloading it, if it doesn't work get the 9.0.43 plugin from the link I posted.
Adam
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I just tried 235 and it synched the iPod without having to go back to the 9.0.43 plug-in -- I guess that whatever was wrong, it's been taken care of.
Larry
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I'm trying out MC9 because I thought that it was suppose to support the bookmarks for Audible files. I've tried several different ways and each time all bookmarks get wiped out.
I'm using MC9 version 9.0.180 with IPOD plugin 9.0.38.
My IPOD is a 20 gig 2nd gen version with the new 1.3 update.
My first mistake was...I loaded all of my music files to the IPOD with MC9 and then loaded my Audible files using AM. That really screwed things up. I had to use the 'Rebuild IPOD DB' function in MC9 for all of my files to show on the IPOD again.
So I figured that MC9 and AM couldn't be used together.
So I then completly restored the IPOD with the IPOD 1.3 restore/update. Then went through the MC9 format process and sync'ed all my MP3's and Audible files using just MC9. All files uploaded just fine but the bookmarks still continue to be lost every time I upload any new files using just MC9.
The only thing that I use AM for is to do the actual download of the Audible file from their website. And when I do that I do NOT have the IPOD connected because I know that it will try to sync.
Is there something I'm doing wrong or am I using the wrong version of MC9 or wrong IPOD plugin?
Or is MC9 just not capable of saving the bookmarks yet?
I'm using the 30 day trial version and don't want to buy until I get this figured out.
Thanks to anyone that can provide some insight into this problem.
*******************************************
8/20 - update. I upgraded to MC9 v.233 and Audible bookmarks still don't work. Can anyone tell me if this feature is planned in the near future? I really like MC9 but I to buy without this feature since that was the main reason I was trying it in the first place. I realize MC9 has a whole lot more to offer and is a great media tool but it's just a pain losing my bookmarks every time I upload new files. Makes me not upload very often. Which kind of sucks.
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Everyone,
I will try to make some progress on the Playcounts/Ratings stuff this morning.
thtv01,
I would like to get to make the experience of using Audible files better with MC and plan to do so, but must take care of the Playcounts/Ratings issues first.
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Everyone,
I will try to make some progress on the Playcounts/Ratings stuff this morning.
Rock on!
Your next mission...should you choose to accept it... :)
...allow MP4/M4A (AAC) files to be tagged in MC9's database (although you don't have to tag the file itself to avoid messy license issues!). That way I can load in the files at least.
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Just wanted to make sure you know that your efforts are very much appreciated. I use Media Center for listening to my library at work, for streaming through my home stereo via Tivo, and for my iPod. I can't imagine having to use anything else. The two issues you mention below are really the last ones that I'm interested in for the iPod (particularly the audible stuff!). If the Media Server updated the playcounts I would be more interested in that. (I rarely use media center at home interactively, instead i use the tivo functionality.
Thanks again!
Chris M
Everyone,
I will try to make some progress on the Playcounts/Ratings stuff this morning.
thtv01,
I would like to get to make the experience of using Audible files better with MC and plan to do so, but must take care of the Playcounts/Ratings issues first.
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Everyone interested in Playcounts/Ratings,
I am unable to create a situation where iPod remembers the Rating or does not reset the Playcount after a reconnect to the PC.
In the following test.
1) On a clean iPod, transfer 1 file.
2) Delete the Play Counts file on iPod.
3) Disconnect the iPod and set the Rating to 5 and play the file 2 times.
4) Reconnect iPod to the PC. ( At this point the Play Counts file is visible witih Windows Explorer, obviously created by iPod without my interference because MC has not been run).
5) Disconnect iPod and recheck the rating.
Every time I run this test, the rating is not remembered on iPod, even though it is stored "correctly" in the Play Counts file.
With this as iPod's behavior, I will be able to show the rating and modify the rating, but you will not be able to see it on iPod when disconnected.
Also, everytime you disconnect the iPod, the PlayCount will be reset. I could write code to correct for this, but it is at odds with the way the firmware seems to be designed and arguably the way PlayCounts are designed to be handled on iPod.
Please chime in with any info that supports or refutes this.
Steve
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Are you saying that you'd be able to update the ratings in the MC DB, so that smartlists could utilize them, but when looking at the iPod (disconnected), we wouldn't be able to see what the rating was?
Interesting...
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Macavity,
How I implement it is being driven by what the iPod is capable (or not capable ) of.
thtv1,
The good news is that I figured out where the bookmark setting needs to go for it to be remembered. The bad news is trying to get to the bottom of how iPod remembers and applies this setting.
Everyone,
I know that I saw iPod remember the bookmark and the rating info one time today after a disconnect and reconnect from the PC. I do not know how to reproduce this with any consistency because I have seen the information not saved many many times. Does anyone know the magical combination of circumstances that allows this information to persist ( not in the PlayCounts file, I know the information is there, but on the iPod itself so that the data is applied and visible)?
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I'm totally swamped at work, so mebby I missed this, but...
...is the PlayCounts file the only place you're looking? Is there per-song data in the iTunesDB that holds ratings and whatnot?
Example/theory/hypothesis:
Ratings data in MC -> data goes into iTunesDB -> data from iTunesDB displayed on iPod's display screen -> user adjusts ratings on iPod's screen -> adjusted data goes to Playcounts file -> (adjusted data from playcounts file now displayed on iPod's display screen... iTunesDB is NOT updated on the fly) -> upon sync, adjusted data goes to MC
A similar theory could be formed for playcounts/playdates. iTunesDB is populated with the "initial" info, but after being modified, is stored in the "cache" that is the PlayCounts file -- iTunesDB is never adjusted on the fly. Upon sync, the "cache" is fed into MC and deleted upon dismount. Makes sense to me, given what you've said... is it true though?
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Everyone,
It now appears that the Playcount/Ratings stuff is not only stored in Play Counts but also some data is stored in iTunesDB but not in a documented or expected way. This will make the learning curve steeper, but I am getting closer.
I will be out of the office tomorrow, so I will be unable to make progress on this but with luck, back on Friday.
Steve
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Steve
Thanks for the quick reply on the Audible bookmark issue. That is good news as far as I'm concerned.
I have no doubt that you guys will figure it out eventually. It definitely sounds like it can be done from what I've been reading over in the IPODLounge. Because it sounds like xplay already handles this problem. But MC9 offers far and above what xplay has to offer. I just started using it so I have a lot to learn.
You guys support in this forum is top notch. So thanks!
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I have recently upgraded my PC and have yet to load Norton anti virus.
I seem to recall reading in the past that Music Center did not run properly with Norton.
Does anyone have any experience running the two applications?
::) ::)
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Works fine for me with Norton installed.
Adam
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Norton here as well. No probs for me!
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Works fine for my two computers... one is running McAfee VirusScan 7 (recently upgraded from 4.51) and the other one is running a widely-used antivirus program called I Hope Nobody Sends Me A Virus.exe.
Both systems are good to go with MC9.
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Many thanks for your feedback guys.
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Same here.
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I can't initialize my iPod in v. 9.1.237
When I right-click on the iPod (which MC assigns the I drive) I can only see menu choices like "Play" , "Add to Playing Now," "Send To", etc.
Can anybody help me?
p.s.
I did a restore using ipod updater prior to connecting the ipod.
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MrVegas,
What is your iPod Volume Label name? Try naming it "IPOD" or go to Tools->Plugin Manager->Handheld->Portable Drive->Configure and change the Volume Label name to whatever your iPod is named.
Steve
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Doh!!!
I was right-clicking on the wrong iPod!
There are actually two places where the ipod shows up in the tree view of MC9, I was attempting to initialize via the ipod listed under "My Computer"
I did not realize that the iPod also shows up under "CD, DVD and Handhelds." That's the answer. Geeez.
Thanks for your help.
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Adam, Chris, and crew,
What's the most recent, most iPod-stable build of MC9? I'm on dialup for another week and want to upgrade, but don't want to do so at the peril of using a version that's iPod-broke, heh.
I'm on .218 now... is .238 stable? For iPods?
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i can no longer access my ipod in MC. every time i go to "CD, DVD, & Handhelds", and click on the IPOD drive, i get a media core error and MC shuts down, Is this a known Bug? How do I fix?
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D/L'ed the .238 build just to realize that sync again simply is returning a popup with a "H" :'(
Reverting to portable 9.043 driver didn't resolve
Any suggestions ?
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I'm on 226 and havent upgraded for the same reasons Kurt. I think 226 is pretty stable.
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Here's my endeavors with attempting to use the latest build of the software (.238 ):
I already have all my music on my iPod. I rip a couple new CDs.
I plug in the iPod and select "Synchronize files". After pressing OK it seems to work just fine... until when it seems to be done:
(http://da-Man.com/h.jpg)
I decide that I want to see what's on there now, so I decide to "Unmount" it via the iPod Manager app. It gives me a "Failed to unmount" message, so I try to MC "Eject" option. That doesn't work either, although it gives me this again:
(http://da-Man.com/h.jpg)
I had a similar problem a couple MC builds ago (probably 235 or 236) and when I did get it out of the cradle I had to reset it and found that the only thing on the iPod's system was the stuff I newly transferred, even though from the hard disk space indicator it showed it still was on there, just not showing up on the menus.
The only way I got it back was to reformat (I think it's not called "initialize") the iPod and re-transfer it all. (And man, that was a pain, it was only going at USB1 speeds, for some odd reason; I thought I had the right drivers working.)
Hope you can get this back into working order soon, Steve!
Thanks,
Dan "da Man"
P.S. - If you have time, try working on making the errors a bit more descriptive. It would help everyone out.
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Everyone,
I would like to update everyone on the status of the iPod connectivity with MC. I have just retested MC 9.1.238 on a cleanly initialized iPod on XP and everything seems OK. In the last few versions I had to modify the MC code to include the transfer of the Playcounts and Rating information. Some stability issues for people may have resulted from this change if you are using the latest MC syching with an older (pre 9.1.232 ?) version of MC.
The rating and playcount stuff is still a work in progress and will require more time to solve. I hope to get back to it this week, but have a project that requires all of my time right now. In the meantime, either stick with the version you have, or get 9.1.238 and if you are having problems, intialize your iPod from within MC and hopefully you will be set for now and you will have some limited Rating/Play count functionality.
Thanks,
Steve
PS
CDRMaker,
Try formatting iPod from Windows and then Initialize from MC and use 9.1.238.
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I went with .238 and had some problems that, while frustrating, I'm not certain were MC's fault.
Synching my whole pack of playlists (~2000 songs, though over 7000 reported in sync dialogue) would tank MC and produce write-behind errors from XP, "ghost" dismounts of my iPod's volume, etc.
After a restore, I was able to fully load my iPod by synching one playlist at a time with the "delete" and "update" options disabled (I also disabled my Antivirus software, though dunno if that was a factor or not). Once they were all loaded, I could check both options, select all of the playlists and do a "maintenance sync".
I've had this trouble before, ever since I got my new system, and think it may have something to do with my setup, but I can't figure out what it could be... Nice, healthy P4 and an Adaptec 4300 (I think) card. Figured it'd be worth reporting anyhow.
On another subject, MC9 reports my internal IDE ZIP-100 drive as a handheld. Is this planned? I think it's kind of silly, m'self.
I'm anxiously awaiting the playcounts and ratings, Steve... you know me, I've been hoping for 'em for a long time. I know you'll come through, bro.
:)
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Kurt,
MC9 does the same with my internal ZIP 100. I almost sync'd a bunch of songs too it, then I relized my iPod and a lot more than that on it.
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Everyone,
I would like to update everyone on the status of the iPod connectivity with MC. I have just retested MC 9.1.238 on a cleanly initialized iPod on XP and everything seems OK. In the last few versions I had to modify the MC code to include the transfer of the Playcounts and Rating information. Some stability issues for people may have resulted from this change if you are using the latest MC syching with an older (pre 9.1.232 ?) version of MC.
The rating and playcount stuff is still a work in progress and will require more time to solve. I hope to get back to it this week, but have a project that requires all of my time right now. In the meantime, either stick with the version you have, or get 9.1.238 and if you are having problems, intialize your iPod from within MC and hopefully you will be set for now and you will have some limited Rating/Play count functionality.
Did a fresh Initialize with the .238 build and can now sync without the "H" popup.
Can hardly wait for the playcount stuff - gimme gimme gimme ;D
Well, just keep up the good work ::)
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All was going well today, then I decided to upload 1000 tracks to the iPod, now I just get this window when trying to access the iPod in MC:
Two big red X's, an OK button, half a letter in the dialog title, and that's about it. (don't know how to paste a jpg in this forum)
Any idea what's going on and how to fix it? ?
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Kurt (and Steve),
Saw your earlier post--239 appears to be working great--just imported a bunch of tunes I downloaded from Emusic, and synched--2 minor, but not critical bugs:
1. The amount of available space after downloading is incorrectly displayed on MC9; It's fine on the ipod though. Maybe MC9 is counting files in more than one playlist twice or something by the looks of it.
2. I can't eject my ipod from my 'puter if MC9 is open. I can do it with no problem if I close MC9, and eject the ipod with my system tray hot icon.
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Been using MC with my iPod for quite awhile now. I'm runnning the latest beta release and 238 plugin.
Just lately noticed that some of my uploaded mp3 song's when played on my iPod would sound different when I turn on the sound check setting. Actually they sounded better. But I'm wondering why it only happens on some of my mp3 file and not all. All of my mp3's are MC analysed.
As some of the posts suggested, I've formatted my iPod and uploaded all my mp3's with apply replay gain enabled. But still the same, some would react to sound check but some would not.
Does anybody notice the same problem ? Or anybody have the suggestion to have this problem corrected ?
Appreciate any feedback.
Thank you very much.
-Neil
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Steve,
Is it possible that the inconsistancy in the sync dialogue is causing problems? I'm talking about how if a song is on two playlists, it will be "recounted" -- counted twice towards the "Synching file x of y" total.
The only reason I say this is that, for quite some time now, when I do a "full sync" of all my smartlists and playlists, the total number is around 5300 when I'm in reality only putting about 2000 songs on my iPod. Doing a full sync onto an empty iPod will normally tank MC, cause write-behind errors, and general havoc. Doing a full sync on an already populated iPod goes off without a hitch.
To recover from this, I will usually restore, initialize, and then sync one playlist at a time, until they're all on. After the files have been loaded, I can do a full sync with no problem.
One of the smartlists that I'm loading has 1965 songs on it, so that makes my logic rule out the theory that the havoc is caused by the volume of data being transfer -- this smartlist has like 90% of the 2160 total files on my iPod and it transfers fine... by itself.
But at least 650 songs are on that and another smartlist. Of those, 146 are on another TWO smartlists, and of those, 42 are on yet another. In tonight's full sync, I have 3145 recounts, hehe, more recounts than actual songs loaded!
This behaviour has been going on for a while, is present in MC 9.1.238's included plugin and also in the downloaded 9.0.38 plugin. It's totally recreate-able.
PS - heyas Matt, any chance of getting the handheld plugin's version number included in the system info? That'd be sweet.
Media Center Registered 9.1.238 -- P:\Software\Installed Programs\J River\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 1773 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 360 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: No / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav
Burning / No burners found.
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
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i have two pcs, (one at school and one at home) and i store music on both. However, the music content on both these computers is contnually changing as i add and delete songs on both.
does anyone have any tips as to how best to manage this situation, vis-a-vis syncing in particular ( i dont want to sync my music on my other computer and lose all the music i had just put on it from the first computer)
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i have two pcs, (one at school and one at home) and i store music on both. However, the music content on both these computers is contnually changing as i add and delete songs on both.
does anyone have any tips as to how best to manage this situation, vis-a-vis syncing in particular ( i dont want to sync my music on my other computer and lose all the music i had just put on it from the first computer)
[shameless plug]
Check out the MC9 forums over at iPodlounge.com (http://ipodlounge.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=20) for more information about this issue. I'm sure I've seen it there before.
[/shameless plug]
You could sync with the "Delete files not on portable" unchecked... but this could result in an overfilled iPod pretty quickly.
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Don't mean to nag or anything but I've as I've just paid my 40 dollers, how is the iPod playcount and rating stuff coming along? :)
I had a play around at the weekend and was able to read the file to extract the play count and the star rating but couldn't work out how it was related to a specific song in the DB. :(
I dont care about seeing my song ratings on the iPod, I just want the ratings and playcount from the iPod to be imported to MC when I do a sync so my smartlists update...
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First, I'm just a user, not a developer. I have no idea what most of the chatter around here means, but I assume it's all going to the creation of an even better product. Thank you all.
And, while I have seen that the favorite answer to questions is that the answer is already answered somewhere else, I have checked the iPod instructions, and have been unable to find the answers to these questions there.
Now my questions. (FYI, I'm now using .239, but I think my last version was 224(?).) Not completely sure.
1. When I synch a playlist, it doesn't show up on the iPod as a playlist, just as a collection of songs.
2. When I synch, and the new upload includes a song that's already on the iPod, it asks if I want to uplicate or erase the old version. What I really want is for the song to appear on both the playlist that I've already synched, AND the new playlist that I'm adding.
3. Why does MC quasi-freeze when syncing? I can't minimize it, or get to my desktop, but can only access other apps either through the start menu or the taskbar.
4. What's with the "various artist" thing? When I rip a compilation of artists, each artist shows up as "various artists." When I try to change them individually, they all disappear from the CD list, and migrate to their own little world. For instance, now I have a single song by an artist, isolated off to itself, but that song no longer appears on the list where it originated.
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MC 9.1.240 equipped...
i have a BUG, when i download a mp3 from my Pc to the iPod, i have a problem when i eject my iPod (right click eject device)
On my iPod my playlist was erased and the new mp3 unexiste on the iPod...
Sometimes it's works and sometimes no :'( :'(
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I'm having a problem w/ the newest Ipod plugin- it was putting the music files in the playlists folder, instead of the f00 folders.
I have to downgrade to 9.0.36 plugin to regain the ability to listen to music again.
Here's what I did:
-Upgraded to 9.1.238, then 239, then 240
-Found that it wasn't downloading properly, and couldn't eject using MJ
-Formatted Ipod using Windows
-Used MJ to re christen Ipod
-Tried uploading again
-Looked at file structure of Ipod using Windows Explorer, noticed f00 folders were empty, and music files were located in folders that were named with playlists.
-Formatted Ipod again
-Figured I would repair Ipod using Apple Updater
-Uploaded- still couldn't see music- but noticed I had only 1.35GB available on a 10gig ipod
-Manually deleted all folders from Ipod
-Downloaded older Ipod Plugin from website, and then uploading of Ipod went fine.
Did anyone else have a similar problem? I noticed that some posts on page 1 of this thread had similar problems.
Also, I'm writing this down the morning after my problems (from work)- I may have missed a step, or put them out of order.
WinXP, 10gig, 9.1.236/8/9/40, etc.
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1.) Are you checking the boxes in the playlist area in the synch process or are you going to the playlist, highlighting the songs and choosing send to ipod? Unless you specifically check a playlist in the synch screen you will not get the playlist added.
2.) This will work if you choose to synch via the method described above. Check the playlist(s)
3.) Don't know the answer to this one. It slows my system down but doesnt freeze completely
4.) There are a number of threads which explain this...I don't know the exact answer but it has something to do with albums which are compilations of songs by multiple artists (i think) refer to other ipod threads.
First, I'm just a user, not a developer. I have no idea what most of the chatter around here means, but I assume it's all going to the creation of an even better product. Thank you all.
And, while I have seen that the favorite answer to questions is that the answer is already answered somewhere else, I have checked the iPod instructions, and have been unable to find the answers to these questions there.
Now my questions. (FYI, I'm now using .239, but I think my last version was 224(?).) Not completely sure.
1. When I synch a playlist, it doesn't show up on the iPod as a playlist, just as a collection of songs.
2. When I synch, and the new upload includes a song that's already on the iPod, it asks if I want to uplicate or erase the old version. What I really want is for the song to appear on both the playlist that I've already synched, AND the new playlist that I'm adding.
3. Why does MC quasi-freeze when syncing? I can't minimize it, or get to my desktop, but can only access other apps either through the start menu or the taskbar.
4. What's with the "various artist" thing? When I rip a compilation of artists, each artist shows up as "various artists." When I try to change them individually, they all disappear from the CD list, and migrate to their own little world. For instance, now I have a single song by an artist, isolated off to itself, but that song no longer appears on the list where it originated.
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Running MC 9.1.240 ..
Restored my iPod then sync'd it with the iPod...upon attempting to sync again, MC estimated I'd have 5.5 gigs of space left (which is basically what I'd have left if I had 2 copies of all the music on my iPod)...I sync'd it anyway for the hell of it and was pleasently surprised when MC did NOT re-transfer all my files...seems it just estimated incorrectly. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not...I just know 9.0.180 did not function in this manner
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Everyone,
I will attack the Playlist and Rating again tomorrow. Sorry for the delay, but I was working on something else. The progress so far is that I can now create the Play Counts file in the correct way, but there seems to be some elusive setting in the iTunesDB that I must figure out to get the iPod to read the file correctly. Will try again tomorrow.
Steve
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Excellent news!
If the elusive setting remains that way, is there any chance you could just update the Media Centre library with the playcounts and ratings from the iPod? At least then the smart lists would update in media centre even if the ratings were not visible on the iPod. Currently when I select the "Synchronize iPod Info With PC" option media centre just locks up and I have to kill it with the task manager.
Does the iPod show the rating correctly when running on a mac with iTunes? Is it possible that it is a one way system, it's only possible to rate songs on the pod, not view the song's original rating?
Keep up the good work, its an excellent piece of software! :)
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Grimmi,
This was a bug and is fixed in tonight's build of MC.
Everyone,
Please get tonight's build (MC 9.1.240 plugin 9.0.47)and report any continuing problems. I did a bunch of work on this today.
In regards to the Playcount/Rating, the ability to send this information to MC is now implemented. The drawback is that the information does not always get written to the PlayCounts file correctly by iPod. There may be some kind of flag that needs to be set to get this to work consistently and finding that is difficult.
Jonny5, your request should work now. Try right clicking and select "Synchronize iPod information with PC"
PS If anyone is running XPlay and is having success with iPod remembering Rating information (i.e. when a change is made to a file and the file is sent to iPod, iPod reflects the change when detached from the PC), please email me the files in your iPod_Control\iTunes folder. This would be a help to solving this. Also, if XPlay is remembering Ratings, does it remember bookmarks, where the file was last playing when stopped?)
Steve
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Steve,
Is the ratings thing a two way street--ie can I send my ratings from my PC to the ipod? I've already rated most of my tunes in MC9--if I were to do the "Synchronize ipod info with MC9" thing I'm afraid I'll lose all my ratings done on MC9...Otherwise I'll just stick with doing ratings in MC9. Not a big deal--the playcounts is what I REALLY want...
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cct1,
Is the ratings thing a two way street--ie can I send my ratings from my PC to the ipod?
This should occur automatically. Going from iPod to PC is buggy so if you do not want to lose your MC settings, do not use that option yet.
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Steve,
Where can I download the 9.0.47 plugin?
I have MC version 9.1.240 but my Portable Drives plugin is 9.0.46
I'm really looking forward to playing with this :D
Never mind, I'm sorted now.
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cct1,
This should occur automatically. Going from iPod to PC is buggy so if you do not want to lose your MC settings, do not use that option yet.
Ahh!!! Thanks!!
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Chris... Fear not...
I have a bit of extra hard drive space these days. So, I...
1. Copied about 18 albums from my main music folders (Windows Explorer, mind you) to a new folder, C:\Moosic.
2. Fired up MC9. Added a new library. Called it "Ratings test". Loaded it. Imported media from C:\Moosic.
3. Formatted iPod. For the duration of the tests, I'll not have a fully loaded pod... just 18 albums. But my main library and my real files are safe. Bring it on, baby!!
(Course, 28.8 is a slow download to start at 1:00 AM. Prolly won't actually follow through with step 3 till tomorrow, heh.)
Can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait
:D Listening to: 'Who Am I? (Animatrix Edit)' from 'The Animatrix' by 'Peace Orchestra' on Media Center 9.1
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Anybody could provide the link to plugin 9.0.47 ?
I'm still getting the older 9.0.38 with this URL: http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/downloads/mcplugins.pl?type=8
Thanks.
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Updating MC with the data from the iPod
It's working!! (sort of)
When I select the "Sync iPod Info With PC" nothing (visible) happens. I then selected one of my playlists and it displayed the "Saving Tag Info" box while it updated two tracks. They then showed correctly that they had both been played once and one had been given 4 stars. I'll keep trying but just to make sure I've got the process correct:
1. Mount the iPod after playing/rating some songs
2. Select "Sync iPod Info With PC" to update the MC library
3. Select "Sync Files" to update the iPod with the updated playlists.
After some more playing, if after selecting "Sync Info with iPod" I then select the top level playlist item in the tree view MC updates the library with the iPod data. It seems to over write any data that was in the library with what was on the iPod. Since the iPod only stores data since the last sync you quickly loose your info in MC. It would work better if the data from the iPod was added to the data in MC rather than replacing it. Also, the last played info from the playcount file is not being imported into MC.
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Anybody could provide the link to plugin 9.0.47 ?
I'm still getting the older 9.0.38 with this URL: http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/downloads/mcplugins.pl?type=8
Thanks.
Download the latest beta build (9.1.241), it comes with the latest plugin.
Jon.
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In regards to the Playcount/Rating, the ability to send this information to MC is now implemented. The drawback is that the information does not always get written to the PlayCounts file correctly by iPod. There may be some kind of flag that needs to be set to get this to work consistently and finding that is difficult.
For myself, there are only two features that I really want to see work between MC9 and the iPod.
1) I want MC9 to be able to use the iPod data to supplement it's playcounts. In other words, if the iPod says that a song has been played twice, then MC9 should automatically increase the total times that the song has been played by 2. I don't need the iPod to keep a total number, since there's no way for the PC formatted iPod to do anything with that number. This seems like it should be pretty simple to implement at this point, since it doesn't require understanding how the iPod retains the data, if at all.
2) I want MC9 to be able to detect changes in star ratings on the iPod. In other words, if I rate a song 3 Stars on the iPod, I would like MC9 to reflect that new rating. If the rating is blank on the iPod, then MC9 should just leave the rating at whatever it currently is in the MC database. Once again, I don't really care if the iPod displays the current rank of the song, since it can't do anything about it.
Sincerely,
Rob
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Still having convert-and-sync problems:
Using build 241 with plugin 47.
Ipod loses previously-synced files each time it converts 10 files. Process is this:
Launch Sync of roughly 6600 files.
Converts 10 files to 160.
Syncs 39 files - the first 29 which don't need conversion, plus the 10 converted
Converts 10 files
Syncs 40 files - the next 30 which don't need conversion, plus the second 10 converted
After this point, only the 40 files from the second sync are on the Ipod - the first 39 have been deleted.
Repeatable (every time), 30G 3G Ipod. Syncing without converting works perfectly.
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SteveG-
Regarding Playcounts:
Will those with Ipod OS 1.3 be able to have their playcounts updated on their PC?
I know that the rating songs part on your Ipod is 3G Ipods only, but are the older Ipods able to have their playcounts transferred over?
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Is the ratings thing a two way street--ie can I send my ratings from my PC to the ipod? I've already rated most of my tunes in MC9--if I were to do the "Synchronize ipod info with MC9" thing I'm afraid I'll lose all my ratings done on MC9...Otherwise I'll just stick with doing ratings in MC9. Not a big deal--the playcounts is what I REALLY want...
This should occur automatically. Going from iPod to PC is buggy so if you do not want to lose your MC settings, do not use that option yet.
1. For me this is a one way street. I have no ratings at all on my 15Gig doing nothing than syncing from MC.
2. If I rate on the iPod, the new ratings are updated in MC, but not only the rated ones but also all unrated (see pt. 1 above). So all my existing ratings in MC are overwritten as unrated.
By the way: It's great to connect a brand new iPod without problems to MC. Great work. Thanks Steve.
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dallardice,
Is it possible to intialize your iPod and start clean? If not, have you transferred files to your iPod using other software?
The conversion and skipping files is based on a unique file ID that MC assigns. If you transfer files with other applications, MC does not know about the file's ID and you can see the behavior you are describing. I did the following:
1) Synched 40 files to a clean iPod with conversion set from 128kbps to 32 kbps. - Result - All files converted everything worked great.
2) ReSynched - Result - All files skipped.
3) Added files to the playlists I was synching. Result - New files added, everything else remained as expected.
Rob,
Your requests should be in the next build of MC, but that won't be until next week.
Fex,
Your concern is addressed in the fix for Rob which will be available next week.
McLaugh,
With firmware other than 2.0, I do not see iPod recording anywhere the changes to the Playcounts, so I do not think this will work.
Everyone,
In regards to the 'incorrect synch number' issue, when doing synching x of y, where y is the total number of files synching, the number you see for y, is a total where the definition of a file is any single file residing in a playlist. When you have 1 physical file in multiple playlists, the file is counted again because during the synch each virtual playlist file is sent individually. I can see how this is confusing, and I can doctor the numbers to reflect physical files, but it would affect the accuracy of the progress which is based on sending the virtual playlist files in the current version of MC. For version 10 this will be totally revamped.
Steve
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OMG, no no no... please don't go down that path.
Fex, Rob, Steve, I wholeheartedly disagree with the "I don't care if my iPod can display the existing data, I just want the changes to flow" logic. It should be a two-way street, unless it's 100% impossible to do so. And Apple can do it, so we can too, eh? ;)
Examples:
1. You hear a song on your pod. You like it. You say "I wonder what I've rated this song" and tap twice and see it's rated 3. You change it to 4. Upon sync, MC now has it set at 4.
2. You hear a song on your pod. You like it. You say "I wonder what I've rated this song" and tap twice and see it's rated 0. Oh yeah, MC didn't give the iPod the existing data. So you try your best to remember how you rated this song... Oh well, you rate it 5.
Example 1 rules. Example 2 is so much less cool.
Also, factor in this: You can tap twice and set a song's rating to 0. So, let's say that MC doesn't tell the iPod that your song is a 3. You tap the song twice. You see 0 stars on the screen, and, in the background, your iPod sets the song's rating at 0. Then you sync and the song gets rated at 0 in MC. Bogus. It could happen, though.
Some may not care about seeing the existing data displayed correctly on the iPod. I do. Very strongly.
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Kurt,
I think you misunderstood me. I only reported that it don't works yet as it should (not as a "two way street"). I absolutely agree with you.
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Re convert-and-sync problems:
Whenever I try this, it's with a newly-initialised Ipod. I have no other sync software installed and have never used any.
I just tried syncing my smallest playlist (82 files) down to 32k to match the test you just performed. At the end of the sync I had only the last two files on my Ipod - the previous 80 were deleted in batches of 10 each time a new batch conversion started.
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OMG, no no no... please don't go down that path.
Fex, Rob, Steve, I wholeheartedly disagree with the "I don't care if my iPod can display the existing data, I just want the changes to flow" logic. It should be a two-way street, unless it's 100% impossible to do so. And Apple can do it, so we can too, eh? ;)
Just to clarify, I have no problem with MC eventually being able to store those things on the iPod... I just don't want that feature to hold up being able to actually use it now....
Sure, it would be nice to be able to see the rating before you change it, but the facts don't change that the ratings and playcounts being on the iPod don't inherently allow you to do anything different right now. Smart playlists still have to be made in MC9 to have those features have absolutely any affect on what song is played.
I'm just saying don't delay these things by only looking at keeping the data on the iPod... which seems much harder to do. It seems everything is already known in order to accomplish my two requests.... Then start concentrating on the rest...
Rob
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dallardice,
For version 10 this will be totally revamped.
Steve
DID I JUST SEE A FLEETING REFERENCE to VERSION 10?!?!? ;D
And I agree with Kurt's last post 100%--it really should (if possible) be a two way street; point number one was exactly the scenerio I was contemplating--but it looks like everyone else does to. And I'm even more glad Kurt is able to test it--can't wait to see the results.
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This is an iPod / MC 9.1.241 question, in my music library there are a few albums with Multiple Artists, in the library they seem to be handled correctly, that is albums under Multiple artists are stored under Artist / Album, however when I sync my lib to my 3G 30gig iPod, they are listed as (Multiple artists) this Multiple artists thing is not browseable via the iPod directly (using the artist view), but can be seen when viewing the contents of the iPod under MC (the albums with multi artists are available directly only under genre / album views) I've tried going into my iPod and changing the artists directly and have optained mixed results...this isn't something I want to do every sync though, as I have 300 some files listed under this category right now. Any help would be appreciated.
Edit: I just checked again and u can browse Multiple artists directly from the iPod...it's just under M instead of at the top where I figured it'd be...I'd still really rather have these songs listed under their respective artists rather then listed as Multiple Artists, as I normally browse via artists, not via albums. Anyway to achieve this?
NM....figured out how to fix this
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Steve,
I'm sorry to say that 9.1.242 crashes whenever I try to click on my Ipod - the "K" drive appears in the tree and Action Window OK but whereever/however I try to click on it MC crashes out completely.
The error message points to the handheld.dll :-
AppName: media jukebox.exe AppVer: 9.1.242.0 ModName: hh_portable.dll
ModVer: 1.0.0.0 Offset: 0001d560
If I can't left or right click I can't do anything to solve the problem like reformat. Can you advise?
Many thanks. John.
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Copied 18 albums' worth ofsongs to a new folder, imported them into a new, empty MC9 library called "Rating Test"
Made a smartlist called "Load 'em up!" ([File Type]=[mp3]). Synched it. Unmounted iPod.
Played "Who Am I?"
- Original rating 3, playcount 1
- Tapped twice, noted 0 stars, tapped out.
- Let song play through to next song
Played "Got My Mind Made Up"
- Original rating 4, playcount 0
- Tapped twice, noted 0 stars, set to 5 stars, tapped out.
- Let song play through to next song
Paused iPod. Docked it. Did "Sync iPod info with MC" and selected something else... "Updating tags, xx of 288" popped up.
Went to Media Library and checked songs:
- "Who Am I?" now has a rating of 0 and 1 playcount. It's last played time is set to "35.5 hours ago" -- which was when I played it in MC.
- "Got My Mind Made Up" now has a rating of 5 and 1 playcount. It's last played time is set to "Never Played".
- EVERY OTHER SONG has a rating of 0 now.
Listening to: 'Got My Mind Made Up' from 'All Eyez On Me - Book 1' by '2Pac' on Media Center 9.1
Media Center Registered 9.1.242 -- P:\Software\Installed Programs\J River\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 1798 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 214 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: No / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav
Burning / No burners found.
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
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... EVERY OTHER SONG has a rating of 0 now.
You should have read the other posts above ;). For example:
...2. If I rate on the iPod, the new ratings are updated in MC, but not only the rated ones but also all unrated (see pt. 1 above). So all my existing ratings in MC are overwritten as unrated...
Listening to: 'Can't Make Up My Mind (Extended)' from 'Can't Make Up My Mind (CDS)' by 'Sonique' on Media Center 9.1
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Steve,
As you recall I was getting the same problem dallardice is getting with syncs and conversion. Now I do not sync a playlist unless I am sure that ALL songs are already on the ipod, or none of the songs on the playlist are on the ipod. This way I don't encounter this problem. I know that the test you have run did not show this problem... You stated that you synced 40 files with conversion then added some files to that playlist and synced again. Where those files added to the end of the playlist or somewhere in the middle? I tend to have a problem when it encounters a song not on the ipod in the middle of a playlist, not near the end.
dallardice, If you really want to load up your ipod without any problems I would try the following work-around: If you are syncing large playlists, create smaller ones (of about 500 files) then use the external encoder option to sync and convert one playlist at a time. Whatever you do, do not cancel an sync in progress... For some reason this will occasionally make MC start to do that "repeat thing" on my machine.
I've finally synced all my songs on my ipod and I'm not going to try to do things differently (or get a new version..still using 226) untill I am sure that everything is working OK.
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I wonder if the temp folder where the files are stored during conversion could be set wrong. It's under options somewhere. Might be worth a look.
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the temp folder might have something to do with it. It is set correctly when I check, but I do notice that the temp folder does not delete files when it should sometimes... the files that get converted over and over stay there even after MC uploads them to my ipod
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Steve:
Been away on vacation, and I see a lot of great work has been done. Good news. Bad news is I'm back w/more work for ya. ;)
OK, backed up my library and took the plunge. Here's what I did, everything was as expected at this stage of the build:
Restored iPod
Loaded 3K tunes
Disconnected.
Rated one song, played it throgh
Updated MC9 w/iPod info.
It wiped all my ratings out in MC9 but the one song I played. It did update the playcount info.
So, here's where I think we have a problem in the way things are architected now.
Proposed UI/Architecture
What you're doing now it seems is reading the entire database for rating changes when that's not necessary. The Play Counts file is really your "history" file. It indicates to you all the songs that should be read for changes. Seems to me that those files and only those files should have their playcounts and ratings adjusted. If it doesn't exist in the Play Counts file, as far as you're concerned it wasn't touched by the iPod.
Now, this might not be the case as it could be possible that a rating was changed but the song wasn't played all the way through, in which case it wouldn't be updated in MC9. But, I'm willing to bet that iTunes would function in just the same way, namely, that if a tune didn't make it into the Play Counts file, it doesn't get updated during a sync w/iTunes. Maybe a Mac user could check this out for us. Could be wrong (have been before). If I am wrong, then iTunes is using some other indicator to determine which songs have had their ratings changed. Because there's no way that iTunes is retagging an entire library on each sync. It's just way too fast.
So, that would solve the problem we have now where your entire library has to be updated during each sync which just takes too long. It should only update played and/or rate-changed songs.
Now, I said this before and I know it's a work in progress, but I hope we can revamp the UI so that we have one sync command that does both the updating and the actual syncing.
As I said in a previous post it would be great if we sould have the sync dialog box come up when you select sync, add a checkbox there to enable updating MC9 w/iPod's data. If that's checked the following steps happen:
1. Progress bar w/"Reading iPod Data"
2. Progress bar w/"Updating Tags and Smartlists"
3. Progress bar w/Syncing Tunes (the normal sync progress bar
Ideally, this would be the same progress bar for all three w/different titles or whatnot, but it sure would look better that way and would be nice to have it all in one step.
Sorry to be such a pill. These are just my thoughts. Others will probably disagree, but I wanted to get 'em out there to think about.
Adam
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Welcome back, Adam!!
Guess who got broadband today? :D :D
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It seems I'm not the only one encountering this problem - Right click on ipod icon in order to synch and it pops up with 'media core error'.
I've been using mc9 for about 4 months with no problems, but I tend to use the latest beta version.
Tried re - installing mc9 but no luck. There must be something odd happening here as others are having problems. Any ideas?
Using xp by the way.
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Woobag:
When that happens it means you have a corrupt iPod database usually.
Try restoring the iPod w/the Updater program, then reloading your tunes on.
Before you do that, could you send your iTunesDB file to Steve? I think he asked before that folks do that so he can improve the error handling. Not sure why it happens myself.
steve @ jriver.com (remove the spaces)
(hope you don't mind Steve ;))
Kurt: Welcome back to the world of broadband!
Adam
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Thanks Adam, I'll give it a try
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Steve,
Spent last evening restoring my Ipod and then testing out the Ipod links in 9.1.242 using a completely fresh install of that build and a completely fresh Ipod configuration.
It's a 2nd gen 20GB Ipod which may be important.
Using about 3,000 tracks in playlists ranging in size from 2 to 2000+ tracks, all 128 MP3s.
Results:-
1. Whether using playlist synch or upload (drag 'n' drop to the action window) I got a similar 1% failure rate. Every time a track didn't transfer to the Ipod, it was accompanied by a whirring/clicking sound from the Ipod - don't know which was cause and effect!
2. Re-synching once or twice after that got all the tracks on to the Ipod.
3. The "failed" tracks were random - sometimes from one playlist sometimes another. Sometimes 2 or 3 quickly together - other times the transfer would go for minutes without a failure.
4. On 3 occasions the failure placed a very strange "track" on the Ipod - bitrate very odd, track length over 100 minutes etc. This "track" couldn't be deleted - this caused MC9 to hang and then crash. A reformat of the Ipod was the only way forward.
5. After each unsuccessful synch/upload I got a small box with a red cross in the top left hand corner - but no text at all. Obviously a warning of a failed synch/upload but not very informative.
6. All the tracks without excpetion successfully transferred have strange lengths when viewed in MC9. They range from 0.01 seconds to 29 seconds (real track lengths from under 2 mins to 25 mins). They play fine and show the correct times on the Ipod - so this must be an MC9 issue.
Hope this helps the development of the Ipod link.
Best,
John
-
After getting my 3rd gen pod i prepared the 2nd gen 20GB pod for my girlfriend (after setting it up new - formatting and initializing). Synced over 3300 tracks (on the same machine as my new pod). And did three or four syncs lateron to transfer a few albums I "forgot" ;) but my girlfriend wanted to have (not the best ones ::) ). All whithout any problems (besides my girlfriend...).
-
All,
I have the latest build of MC (9.1.242) and I cannot sync with my iPod. When I right click and select "Synchronize", I get the screen where I can select my playlists. If I select "All Music", it seems to want to add all the files on my iPod instead of skipping the ones that are already there. (My library is about 22 gig -- If I select "All Music" playlist it says that after the sync there will be -16 gig space left on the iPod, where it should be about 5).
If I click OK to sync, I get an empty error message. It just says "h" in the title bar, and nothing else except for red X graphics. I click the OK button and it goes away without syncing.
If I unselect the "All Music" playlist, I won't get that strange calculation, but the "h" error message still appears if I try to sync.
Thanks
crow
Media Center Registered 9.1.242 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2252 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 272 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / 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
-
Crowfan:
I personally don't recommend the "All Music" playlist as I don't believe it will let you bring over any of your other playlists.
I'd make your own smartlist. Just use one rule, File Type=mp3. Then sync with that list and any other's you've made.
I'd reinitialize the iPod (right-click it and select this option) and start from scratch just to be sure everything's nice and clean.
Adam
-
Dallardice and Digitaltrapper,
I found and fixed a bug with the conversion during synch which I think will take care of your problems. Look for MC 9.1.243.
Kurt,
Check out 9.1.243, I made improvements last week that will help this that are not in the current build. iPod playcounts will be added to MC playcounts rather than overwriting them. Ratings will only overwrite if they are other than '0'.
Adam,
Thanks for your thoughts. At this point the architecture is less of a problem than deciphering what iPod is doing. I am pretty confident I am putting info such as Playcounts, Ratings and Track Bookmarking in the correct place, but figuring out how to get iPod to recognize the data is a 'needle in a haystack' kind of proposition. I am still looking.
Woobag,
Adam's advice is good. Also be sure you get 9.1.243. I made changes in 9.1.241 and higher that should have curtailed the media core problems.
John (sirshambling),
Can you isolate any of the failing files? If so, can you email one to me? (steve @ jriver.com)
Fex,
Tell your girlfriend to not be so picky about her music. You have to lay down the law on who loads the iPod in the relationship ;)
Crow,
Try a reinitialize. Did you transfer files with another program? If you do, MC will not recognize them when it comes to skipping duplicates.
-
<snip!>
Kurt,
Check out 9.1.243, I made improvements last week that will help this that are not in the current build. iPod playcounts will be added to MC playcounts rather than overwriting them. Ratings will only overwrite if they are other than '0'.
<snip!>
Right on, sir. Does this mean that if I have a 4-star song, and I want to make it a 0-star song, that the change will not flow back to MC? Is there a way you could work in some kind of "HasBeenModified?" bit during the down-sync so that the iPod will overwrite MC if it's a 0 on the iPod but is not a 0 in MC?
Did that make sense?
PS: Don't forget about Last Played Date[/color] data!
<snip!>
Fex,
Tell your girlfriend to not be so picky about her music. You have to lay down the law on who loads the iPod in the relationship ;)
<snip!>
ROFL!! That's great advice!! ;)
-
I found and fixed a bug with the conversion during synch which I think will take care of your problems. Look for MC 9.1.243.
Awesome!! I knew there was a bug somewhere that was hard to track down! See-- I'm not crazy ;-) Can't wait to try it out... finnaly going to upgrade and try out this new action window gizmo :-)
-
Check out 9.1.243, I made improvements last week that will help this that are not in the current build. iPod playcounts will be added to MC playcounts rather than overwriting them. Ratings will only overwrite if they are other than '0'.
I was lurking and snagged .243 quickly, as I just got back from a week and a half of vacation and wanted to update the library with what I actually listened to. I observed the following:
* Play Counts flowed correctly from iPod to MC9 (incremented, not overwrote play count)
* Change to rating worked correctly (although I didn't verify the 0-star case)
* Last Played information was not transferred
* "Negative space remaining" in sync window is gone. Now showing currect amount of free space
Great progress made!
--Ben
-
Pardon my ignorance ::) but do the playcounts increment automatically when you reconnect your iPod AND does this work on Gen2 iPods?
Thanks!
-=Tim=-
-
.243 worked great for me this evening, updating playcounts (and not overwriting them) on a 15gb ipod.
Immense kudos ;) to all involved for making this possible.
Grant
(a virgin poster) ;)
-
When you synch the ipod to the pc library, the ipod count doesn't clear. So if you do this multiple times (like I accidentially did), the ipod's info gets reapplied.
Other than that, stable as a rock so far.
Grant
-
I was unsuccessful in updating MC from my iPod last night. Here's what I did:
Listened to song all the way through (does it matter?)
Changed song rating from nothing to 5
Mounted iPod and clicked Synch Info from iPod
Nothing happened (no dialog box or anything (should there be?))
Checked song in MC database and no change to either rating (still zero) or playcount
So then I thought I'd 'initialize iPod' from within MC and re-download all songs. Did that and tried above again. No difference.
FYI, I'm running .243 on XP Home.
Eugene
-
Eugene :
I was unsuccessful in updating MC from my iPod last night.
Yeah. I'm having problems too. I'm wondering if I'm missing something really obvious.
Running with 9.1.243 and plugin v9.0.48 and a freshly initialised iPod, I don't seem to get my MC info (i.e. rating and play count) transfered to and from the iPod (I synch with 'Update Tags' checked)
So, a track rated 5 stars in MC, has no rating on the Ipod after synching. If I then rate it as 3 stars on the iPod, it still has it's original rating of 5 stars when plug the iPod back into it's cradle and check the contents via MC.
I'll post more detailed info if it helps.
A question -- when viewing the Ipod playlists via MC, should I be able to change the rating directly through MC ? Because I can't. If I change a 1 star track to 5 stars, when I refresh, it changes back to 1 star.
Media Center Registered 9.1.243 -- J:\J River\Media Jukebox\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1544 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 240 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: Internal ASPI Layer
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeSecure CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:ModeSecure 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: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: C:\WINDOWS\Media\notify.wav
Burning / Drive D: HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8160B Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:16 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Just to add some more information (someone in the .243 thread mentions the same problem):
One time last night when I tried to Synch info from iPod, MC just disappeared. No errors, just closed on me.
Eugene
-
Eugene, Bob007, Kurt
I will look into these issues tomorrow.
Tim,
It does not increment automatically, you must use the 'Synchronize iPod info with PC' option, but this still needs some work.
-
Steve:
Can you check out this thread (http://ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=47791#post47791) over at the 'lounge?
It looks like the Composer tag is all of a sudden not getting populated on the iPod.
****EDIT: Never mind, it's working fine. I was using it on an older iPod and hadn't initialized it for MC9 in a while....
Adam
-
Using .244 and ratings are being transferred. Unreal!
Grant
Media Center Registered 9.1.244 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1535 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 246 MB
-
Unsuccessful updates of rating / play counts to & from iPod
EDIT - BOB007 : Ignore the following...I don't think it's an appropriate example...
I've upgraded to 244 and tried this again, with no success. MC information is not being transfered to the iPod.
I did the following (anyone spot any mistakes?) :
1. Created new playlist, "iPod Test" containing 2 tracks as follows :
Her_Majesty | The Beatles | No. of Plays : 3 | Rating : * * * | Duration : 0:23 |
| Jets | Blur | No. of Plays : 0 | Rating : * * * * * | Duration : 6:25 |
[/size]
2. Inserted iPod into cradle ; Selected "L:" (my desiginated iPod Drive), right clicked on "Initialised iPod" and waited for format to complete.
3. Right clicked on "L:" and selected "Synchronise Files"
(I only have checked the "Ipod Test" Playlist. Additionally, "Update Tags" is checked and nothing is selected via the "options" menu)
4. I OKed this and watched the 2 files being synched.
5. The MC view of iPod corresponds with 1. above EXCEPT the song durations are incorrect i.e. :
Her_Majesty | The Beatles | No. of Plays : 3 | Rating : * * * | Duration : 0:00 |
| Jets | Blur | No. of Plays : 0 | Rating : * * * * * | Duration : 0:06 |
[/size]
6. Ejected the iPod and from iPod itself, selected "Browse"->"Songs"->"Jets" ; Rating displays as no stars. Same result for the other track.
7. Plug Ipod back into its cradle. MC view of iPod still corresponds with 5 above i.e. ratings are as were originally.
15 Gb, 3rd Generation iPod with latest Firmware
Media Center Registered 9.1.244 -- J:\J River\Media Jukebox\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1543 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 204 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: Internal ASPI Layer
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeSecure CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:ModeSecure 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: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: C:\WINDOWS\Media\notify.wav
Burning / Drive D: HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8160B Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:16 MaxSpeed:16 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
[/color]
-
Bob,
Steve hasn't integrated iPod -> MC dataflow for ratings and playcounts into the main file synchronization process yet. I think he's keeping it separate until it works perfectly.
To test the ratings and playcounts, right-click your iPod and select "Synchronize iPod data with MC" (or words to that effect, not in front of MC right now) and it will be transferred.
-
Kurt Young :
Steve hasn't integrated iPod -> MC dataflow for ratings and playcounts into the main file synchronization process yet. I think he's keeping it separate until it works perfectly.
I thought the 'Synchronise Files' process was one way i.e. MC -> iPod only. At any rate, I cannot get this to update Ratings or Playcounts on the iPod itself.
To test the ratings and playcounts, right-click your iPod and select "Synchronize iPod data with MC" (or words to that effect, not in front of MC right now) and it will be transferred.
The "Synch iPod data with MC", I assume, was for data transfer from ipod to MC -- this I can appreciate not being fully implemented for fear of screwing users MC settings.
But, at any rate, if I select it, nothing appears to happen. No update to the iPod, at any rate.
I think I'll go back and read through this thread to make I'm not missing anything obvious.
Thanks for your help.
-
Bob007:
I think what you're confused by is what syncing is working and what isn't.
Right now, Steve is able to transfer playcounts and ratings from the iPod to your PC.
But, adding the rating info from MC9 to the iPod isn't working yet.
Make sense?
Adam
-
Bob,
Works for me, using 15 Gb, 3rd Generation iPod.
Amazing. Never thought, Steve would make this ever work.
-
Adam :
I think what you're confused by is what syncing is working and what isn't.
Right now, Steve is able to transfer playcounts and ratings from the iPod to your PC.
Ok. I apologise - I may have misunderstood/misread this thread in my haste to get things working...
BUT
...I am definitely not able to transfer iPod information (ratings, playcounts) back to MC9 no matter what I attempt.
Another example :
I have an MC9 track with a playcount of 1. I synch this with the iPod (I expect no information to be transferred, as you said).
I play this 3 times on the (now ejected) iPod.
I re-insert the iPod back into its cradle. The MC9 view of the iPod gives a playcount of 1 (the original value). I perform a "Synch Ipod Info with PC" (nothing appears to happen) ; the playcount value in MC9 is updated to "2" (not "4" as expected)....which, I assume is the original count ("1") plus what MC9 is still seeing as the (not updated) value on the iPod ("1", again)
But, adding the rating info from MC9 to the iPod isn't working yet.
...my mistake on that front. Again, apologies
Perhaps I'll take a back seat on this until others can confirm similar issues.
Eugene - Can you confirm you're experiencing the same problems ?
Thanks for your time, Adam.
-
Bob007
Are you getting strange duration readings when you upload a track to your Ipod? Your first post seemed to indicate that you were.
I'm having that trouble myself and thought I was the only one!
John
-
Bob,
Yes I am seeing the same problem. I cannot get ratings or playcounts to synch from my iPod to MC via the Sync iPod with PC option. Either nothing happens at all or MC closes (w/o error message).
Eugene
-
Posted by: sirshambling
Are you getting strange duration readings when you upload a track to your Ipod? Your first post seemed to indicate that you were.
I'm having that trouble myself and thought I was the only one!
Yes. That was something I had spotted during my Ipod woes. I've not noticed it before. Example : My test Ipod playlist has 4 tracks with the following durations ([m]:[ss] format) :
00:23
06:25
02:57
10:06
Synching this playlist to the Ipod, the MC view of the Ipod playlist shows the durations as :
0:00
0:06
0:02
0:10
As you can see, the minute field seems to become the second field when going from MC playlist to iPod playlist.
-
I too am having problems guys. Not sure what's going on. It worked the first time I tried it. Then Steve changed something and I'm not seeing the Playcounts/Ratings getting updated in MC9 from the iPod.
Not happens when I select that option...
Quite strange..
Steve? You must be really busy. ;)
Adam
-
Bob007
I'm not sure it's minutes becoming seconds. I have 3,000 files approx which range from 0.01 to 0.30 and they seem to be proportional to the actual length of the track.
Sorry you're having trouble too - but relieved it's not my imagination/config!
I think it's tied in to the work Steve's doing on playcounts etc as I noticed this effect when he started making those changes.
Absolutely certain he'll fix it!
John
-
I'm not sure it's minutes becoming seconds. I have 3,000 files approx which range from 0.01 to 0.30 and they seem to be proportional to the actual length of the track.
Hmmm. I've just upload a 43 minute track. It registers as having a duration of 43 seconds in the MC view of the Ipod tracks. It appears to be cosmetic. If I play the track in MC (by selecting the it from the Ipod list) or, indeed, from the iPod itself, the duration is correctly shown on the progress bar.
Adam -- You'll forgive me for finding some relief in your new found problem. I thought I was doing something REALLY stupid (the jury's still out though, I guess)
-
Everyone,
You all are indeed correct, there was a bug in the Duration field which I stomped and all should be better in tonight's build.
Now, about Ratings and Playcounts.....
What should work now is the ability to transfer Rating info to the iPod although the Rating will not be visible on the iPod. If you change a Rating on iPod and select to update the PC, these changes should go across (except for when they are set to 0 stars so as not to overwrite what exists in MC)
The big hurdle to cross is now figuring out how to get iPod to recognize the Ratings. I know it can be done. I also know that the solution is something in how the iTunesDB is written. There must be some setting somewhere in that morass that alerts iPod to read the Play Count data. Trying to find it without any documentation involves hunting through the file byte by byte. It is frustrating and time consuming. Please be patient, I am working on it whenever I have free moments.
Steve
-
*Really* looking forward to trying tonight's release! Thanks for your efforts. I'll provide feedback later tonight.
On the MC ratings to iPod issue, maybe this is a silly question but isn't there some sort of developer support available from Apple?
Eugene
-
Everyone,
You all are indeed correct, there was a bug in the Duration field which I stomped and all should be better in tonight's build.
Now, about Ratings and Playcounts.....
What should work now is the ability to transfer Rating info to the iPod although the Rating will not be visible on the iPod. If you change a Rating on iPod and select to update the PC, these changes should go across (except for when they are set to 0 stars so as not to overwrite what exists in MC)
The big hurdle to cross is now figuring out how to get iPod to recognize the Ratings. I know it can be done. I also know that the solution is something in how the iTunesDB is written. There must be some setting somewhere in that morass that alerts iPod to read the Play Count data. Trying to find it without any documentation involves hunting through the file byte by byte. It is frustrating and time consuming. Please be patient, I am working on it whenever I have free moments.
Steve
Steve-O, I feel your pain. Good luck, I know you'll find it. Take a breather from time to time... sip some chai tea and do some tai chi. :)
The progress that you've made is superb and very much appreciated, bro. I'm going to ask again just to make sure that you're planning on implementing last played date data to flow down to MC with the ratings and playcounts. We use "playcounts" as a catch-term for both Last Played and Number Plays, and I've been feeling lately that one's getting overlooked in favor of t'other.
Get some rest tonight, bro... Friday's almost here! I said 'Woot!' uh-huh!
-
Aye Kurt
Ye are poet
Chai Tea
Tai Chi
Say after me
Chai Tea
Tai Chi
Faster now
Without haste
-
*Really* looking forward to trying tonight's release! Thanks for your efforts. I'll provide feedback later tonight.
On the MC ratings to iPod issue, maybe this is a silly question but isn't there some sort of developer support available from Apple?
Eugene
I think Steve tried contacting Apple way back and there's no support for third party applications and the iPod.
-=Tim=-
-
And I googled through 15 pages today and found nothing that Steve doesn't already have (the linux stuff).
Alas, it's needle in the haystack time.
And to echo Kurt's remarks (though not as poetic), we are esctatic with the work so far Steve. Keep it up, don't get down, Jim said that raise was coming soon.
Didn't you Jim? :D
Adam
-
Hey SteveG,
When MC is open, the iPod tray icon fails to unmount the iPod. It did it a month or two ago.
When I "Eject Device" in MC, it does get rid of the "Do Not Disconnect" screens, but the iPod tray icon still has the option of "Unmount iPod".
It would make more sense if it said "Mound iPod" in that situation.
Thanks,
Dan "da Man"
-
Well I installed .245 tonight and unfortunately I get a 'media core' error when I try 'synch iPod with PC'. I see vestiges of the right mouse click list and my cursor goes to a cursor w/hour glass. Then I get the error. Clicking OK exits me.
I am fine with regular iPod synching though.
Eugene
PS - I also got this after a reboot too.
-
Aye Kurt
Ye are poet
<snip!>
Yessir! And I feel more at home now that someone else's sayin' "Aye" around here!
Though I try not to perform on demand, I realize that if I don't lay down a Haiku with the swiftness, my fans'll be upset again (like that one time in Detroit... sorry bout the microphone stand, Kelly).
Media Center:
More control than iTunes has.
Playcounts coming soon.
-
Eugene and all,
Sorry for the problems with ratings and playcounts. Hold on until a new version next week for Playcount Rating etc. issues.
Have a good weekend.
Steve
PS Dan, I am not sure on that. that code has not been modified in a long time.
-
Hmm, am I not understanding something?
I would LOVE to synch my iPod playcounts with MC9. I listen to music almost exclusively on the iPod.
I have a 2nd Gen 10GB iPod.
Just downloaded and installed 9.1.246 and I'm still getting the same error -- whenever I right click on the iPod in MC9 and pick "Sych iPod info w/PC" I get a Windows Media core error.
The "Error Signature" is: AppName: media jukebox.exe AppVer: 9.1.246.0 ModName: media jukebox.exe
ModVer: 9.1.246.0 Offset: 001b6651
Media Center Registered 9.1.246 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1865 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 130 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: 4.71 (0001) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0001)
Ripping / Drive G: 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: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive G: PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W4012A Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
I believe right now that it only works on gen3 iPods. At least that's my understanding....
Adam
-
I believe right now that it only works on gen3 iPods. At least that's my understanding....
Adam
Playcounts? Really?
::pout::
-=Tim=-
-
I'm going to take that back. I tried it on my 1.3 Gen2 iPod and it worked fine. I didn't verify if playcounts actually went up though. But it didn't crash.
Ratings won't work because, well, 1st & 2nd gen iPods don't support Ratings.
Adam
-
Everyone,
Tonight's build has some major internal changes with the iPod. Please do not get it unless you are willing to perhaps need to reformat.
The good news is, I made some major progress on Playcounts and Ratings today. More info tomorrow.
Steve
-
Steve,
Here's the steps I took tonight:
1. Downloaded and installed .247
2. Performed 'Initialize iPod'
3. Performed 'Synchronize Files' to send All MP3's to iPod
4. Selected 'Eject iPod'
5. Listened to one song and rated it 5 stars (zero in MC)
6. Tried 'Synchronize iPod info with PC'
I no longer get the Media Core error. However it's like previous versions, where nothing happened. I went and check the song in MC and no rating and no play count increment.
Running Windows XP Home w/iPod 3G 30gig.
Eugene
-
Steve:
Didn't have any problems with the new build and my sync. It appeared to update ratings, not so sure about playcounts. It only updated like 10 songs which were the ones I changed ratings on. Not sure if playcounts is working.
Can't wait until tomorrow. The tease is too great. Just want to throw out there not to forget Last Played date updating. I want to be able to add that "haven't heard in 2 weeks" rule and the wait is killing me! ;D
Adam
-
Couple questions:
re playcounts on the iPod, this must be a value kept on the iPod but not displayed? I only ask as I've never seen this value displayed by my iPod anywhere.
re Ratings, the last time I tried syncing my iPod with my library info all my ratings were wiped out and replaced by the couple songs I had changed on the iPod (that is all songs returned to no stars except the few I had rated on the iPod) can someone confirm this is no longer the case?
MC9.1 is coming along nicely btw...great work
-
Couple questions:
re playcounts on the iPod, this must be a value kept on the iPod but not displayed? I only ask as I've never seen this value displayed by my iPod anywhere.
<snip!>
Ye haven't seen it, but aye, it's there. Trust me. It's there, and the iPod knows it's there, and one day we'll be able to take advantage of it.
On a related note, have any of you ever gone to http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html and asked them to release some form of SDK for the iPod? If one existed, Steve wouldn't have to bang his head against the wall as much as he does now, and third parties in general would be able to take full advantage of the amazing things that this device's CPU can do.
-
So I downloaded the latest build last night and synched. Just a quick "maintenance sync." This morning, on the way to work, guess what I saw on my iPod's screen, looking right back at me?
Stars.
:D
It's the truth! I swear! I'm looking at them right now!
Edit to add system info:
Portable Drives plugin 9.0.49
Media Center Registered 9.1.247 -- P:\Software\Installed Programs\J River\
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 1796 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 271 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
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: No / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: chord.wav
Burning / Drive E: PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W8432T Addr: 0:1:0 Speed:8 MaxSpeed:8 BurnProof:No
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: No / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: Yes / Normalization: None
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Not me Kurt. As I stated over in the 'lounge.
Did what Kurt did by the way Steve. Just did my normal sync and didn't have any stars on the iPod.
I did NOT do a restore first in case that's going to be needed.
Should I see Stars? ;)
Adam
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Everyone,
Tonight's build will feature what I hope is the fully implemented functionality of the Playcounts, Ratings, Last Played Date information.
Here is the way it should work (for now)..
Whenever you upload files, the iPod should reflect the appropriate Rating and Playcount as MC reports it. After disconnecting the iPod any changes to the Rating and Playcount will be shown when you reconnect. The Playcount will be a reflection of how many times you played the files on iPod.
If you right click and select 'Send iPod info to PC' then the Playcount in MC will increment by the number of times played on the iPod. The Last Played date and ratings will be updated as well.
Let me know how this is working for you and then I can address the cosmetics of making this more automated.
I must leave now and may not be back before the end of the day so it may be until tomorrow until I can answer questions.
Steve
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Frikkin WOOT!!
My request for the INTERACT community at large:
Someone with a Gen1 or Gen2 iPod, running 1.3 -- please test this out and tell us all if the playcounts and last played dates work with your 1.3Pods. I know ratings wont, but my "usually too scared to upgrade when everything's working properly already" friend wants to know.
:D
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Everyone,
Tonight's build will feature what I hope is the fully implemented functionality of the Playcounts, Ratings, Last Played Date information.
R E S P E C T ! ! !
I really appreciate all the efforts you have put into this. Can hardly wait for the build :D
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Kurt:
I'll break out the wife's iPod tonight and see how it works on 1.3.
Steve, great work man. This is awesome. Now for the fun cosmetic stuff. :D
Adam
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Steve,
Docked 3G iPod using new verison of MC (.248) and when iPod appeared, song list pane showed no filed on iPod even though I've got over 1300 on there from a sync I did last night using MC .247. Against my intuition, I performed a sync anyway (with new songs on an existing playlist), nothing checked, and after the sync, which appeared to go fine, iPod song list only showed new songs I had added to playlists since my last sync. Ejected device, and now there's nothing on the iPod. Well, there is because the drive size shows there's data there, but there's nothing in any of the iPod menus. What gives?
Wobbley
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Bad things for me as well...
After synching...everything looked good in MC9, but my iPod didn't show any songs at all...
BTW - I did reformat after this happened the first time...
Guess I'll be heading back to a prior build...bummer...since the ratings seemed to be working!!!
Media Center Registered 9.1.248 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1002 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 392 MB, Free - 129 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 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: Yes / Play sound after ripping: Yes Soundfile: C:\WINDOWS\Media\chimes.wav
Burning / Drive E: SONY CD-RW CRX160E Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:12 MaxSpeed:12 BurnProof:No
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: No / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
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Just to add to the other posts:
Had the same problem with .248 tonight (blank iPod after first synch). *However*, I then chose to do an 'Initialize iPod' and sync again.
After synching I saw all my music *and* 5 stars on a song rated via MC.
After that I listened to a song on iPod and changed rating from zero to 5. Then I did synch. The ratings and play count did not show in MC database.
So it looked like it was working MC->iPod but not other way around.
So then I thought I'd make a new rating change in MC (from zero to 5) and synch again to iPod.
After synch, I'm back to blank iPod (no songs at all showing).
There's a glimmer of hope here...right...?
Thanks for your persistence Steve. I can't wait to see this all fall into place!
Eugene
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Seems a bit buggy, I initialized my iPod using MC9.1.248, then sync'd my collection, everything went ok, playcounts were there, as were ratings. After a few tests (playing tracks on iPod / pc) and syncing, I ejected my iPod and to my dismay it was as if there was no music loaded on it. I guess I'll be reverting to 247 until this is fixed
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Kadish (and others):
In order to get the iPod info uploaded from the iPod to the PC, you have to select the "Update iPod info to PC" option (or something like that).
Right now it's a two step process. Hopefully Steve'll get it to a one step process once the bugs are worked out on the updating MC9's database from the iPod.
Adam
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I was doing just that, after initializing my iPod, I sync'd my lib to it, then ejected and played a few songs on the iPod...as well as changed some ratings around. After that I synced IPOD with PC, then played some songs on MC, and sync'd PC with IPOD. After the last sync I ejected, and was looking at an empty iPod.
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Here's what I've found..
1. At first I thought that I wasn't suffering from the disappearing songs issue, but I got it. What I did was:
- Connected iPod, Sync'd iPod info w/PC
- Sync'd iPod..everything OK
- Initialized iPod, reuploaded..everything OK
- Played some tunes, connected iPod, Sync'd iPod into to PC, all data was lost in MC9 and on the iPod. I'm guessing the iTunesdb got corrupted.
- I then did a rebuild iPod database from iPod and all seemed to be OK.
- Did another sync, and all is OK. I'll try and reproduce it again
2. Ratings are working fine in both directions.
3. Playcounts seems to be working fine.
4. Strangeness abounds with the Last Played. I've done a few tests, my results are:
- It seems pretty critical that your iPod clock be set to at least an earlier date than your PC clock. I had a number of entries that had negative values in them after the sync.
- I updated the MC9 library so that all my songs where "never played" to do my tests. I noticed that a lot of songs are coming over w/a Last Played date of 33.7 years ago. This seems to be the default for songs that haven't been played on the iPod. Perhaps that's stored in the iPod's database, either way, that should probably be translated to "never played" I'm guessing
- Even though my iPod clock is set correctly, I still get strange readings w/negative values. Not sure what that's about. For example, most of my tunes have -19149701.2 minutes ago. The value after the decimal changes (it tends to go down by one) if that's any help.
*EDIT* After doing a rebuild of the iPod database these have disappeared.
- Some songs were correct though, maybe it's all a matter of starting off w/a clean iPod database?
5. I tried to do an update w/a 1.3 formatted iPod and the sync iPod info to PC produced a crash of MC9 (Media Core error)
6. If you play a song in MC9, then sync, the Last Played information isn't updated on the iPod. The result is that the next time you sync iPod w/the PC, your Last Played values in MC9 are overwritten (with 33.7 years ago) even though you haven't played the song on the iPod.
**UPDATE**
OK, I did another sync of the iPod w/the PC to test Last Played. This was after I did a rebuild of the iPod database in MC9. The songs that were played all had the correct last played time. The songs that weren't played all had 33.7 Years Ago. So, it looks for sure that this value should be translated to "Never Played".
P.S.: I'm amazed at the speed w/which it syncs to MC9. Really so fast that you can't even tell it did its work.
All in all, some AWESOME work Steve!
;D ;D
If I get more I'll send it to ya!
Adam
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OK,
Here is my experience with.248:
1. I marked some songs with 5 stars that were not marked in MC9 at all.
2. I docked the ipod after loading .248 and then chose "synchronise ipod info with PC" but when i checked on the media library view I got the dialog box saying saving tags for about 1038 songs (turned out is was all the songs that were marked with any stars on MC9). So when that finished, the 3 songs that I had marked on the ipod were the only ones that were marked on MC9, lost all the ratings but I have a backup.
Also all the last played dates were wiped completely.
3. I then did a synch and gor the same problem that has been mentioned previously here, i.e. it synched and then there were no sings on the ipod when I undocked it, even though it showed there were songs in the MC9 view.
4. I initialised the ipod again and re-synched all the songs. Some of the songs that I had rated in MC9 now transferred the ratings to the ipod and showed up there.
5. I played a few in the ipod, rated some new ones and then uploaded files again from ipod to pc. This time it recognised the playcounts, but not last played date or the new ratings.
In summary:
Playcounts are going from ipod to mc9.
Ratings are going from mc9 to ipod
last played date is not going from ipod to mc9
ratings are not going from ipod to mc9
I will keep experimenting and let you know.
Cheers,
Paul
System info as follows:
Media Center Registered 9.1.248 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 3 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium 4 1693 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 334 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2600.0000 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2600.0000 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3502.5436 / wnaspi32.dll: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.60 (1021)
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeSecure 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: IOMEGA CDRW19202EXT2-B Addr: 2:0:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
UPDATE
I now managed to play some songs on the ipod and rate them and they have transferred to the ipod. I did do what Adam said and changed the ipod clock to be a minute behind the pc clock which seemed to help.
I have the same thing as Adam, however, with all my songs saying the same as he stated with different decimals that seem to fluctuate for different songs.
However, after I managed to get lasy played and ratings to upload and then changed a few songs in mc9, when I synched again, I have the disappearing songs syndrome again. I have now re-initialised the ipod again and will try again.
Cheers,
Paul
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Paul:
If you're still working, check out my updated post. Instead of reinitializing the iPod, select Rebuild iPod Database, much faster and it cleaned up a lot of stuff for me.
Adam
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Second Update
I finished re-initialising the ipod and tried again.
I played 4 songs on the ipod and rated them. They had not been played on MC9 at all.
I then uploaded file infomration from ipod to PC and all information was uploaded, lat played date showed correctly for all songs, all ratings showed up and all playcounts showed as one.
However, when I now rate some songs on MC9 and then snchronise with the ipod, the same thing happens. all songs disappear.
I am now reverting to .246 as I know this one works and will wait for this one to be fixed. I hope this has been of some help.
Cheers,
Paul
Note: same settings as before
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THIRD UPDATE
OK,
Following Adam's suggestion, I tried again.
I put on .248 again and did it all over again, played and rated on ipod and uploaded data. All data uploaded perfectly.
Synched again and soings disappeared again
I rebuilt the database as Adma said, but it had the songs on there, but when synched again, effectively loading the playlists on, it wipes everything again.
I have now gone back again to .246.
Steve,
In summary, everything seems to work from the ipod to the pc, however when synching back again I presume that something with the changes in mc9 trying to update the ipod is wiping everything.
Notwithstanding this, I must say this is awesome, Steve, excellent work.
I play mostly on the ipod and so this is the best feature of mc9 about to be realised.
I will try again with the next update.
Cheers,
Paul
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Played music all the way home, installed .248, docked, synched iPod info to PC. Dig:
(http://www.pimpin-seattle.d2g.com/images/mc/playcounts001.jpg)
(Note to self: next time, test with songs that don't have naughty titles)
Ratings and Number Played increments went perfectly!
Songs that I played on my iPod had their Last Played updated perfectly!
Every song in my library that I did not play on my iPod since the last dock had their Last Played set thusly, bwaaaaahahahahahahahahaaa!!
Bring on the next build, bro! :D :D
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Kurt,
Exactly the same thing happened to me as you can see above.
Have you now tried synching again?
What happens? Make sure that you have rated something on MC9.
Cheers,
Paul
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I'm using version 9.1.247 and I've got stars on theiPod too!! :D
It also syncs without any problems. No last played info yet. Think I'll wait a for the next version before I upgrade again...
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Everyone,
Thanks for the feedback. In tonight's build I fixed the 33.7 year problem and I think I got the disappearing database fixed as well. FYI the problem was that if you ejected iPod from within MC one time was OK but on reconnect the database got corrupted.
The large negative values for the Date Played I think will resolve if you start with a cleanly formatted iPod. If your iPod date is set ahead of your PC clock and you play a file, you will get a negative number for date last played, but it should be the correct negative number accounting for the fact that your iPod thinks it is tomorrow already.
For anyone playing Audible Files, a while back someone requested getting bookmarking working for files. This is now working. Enjoy War and Peace knowing that you won't have to start over.
In regards to testing with the older firmware, my iPod with the old firmware is recharging. I will edit this message with more info later.
**EDIT** All seems good with old firmware. Playcounts and Last Played Date seem to work.
I hope all is well after tonight's build.
Steve
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Thanks for all of your hard work on this, Steve! Your dedication to implementing these features is one of the reasons I decided to puchase MC9.
I can't wait to try out tonight's build.
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WOOT!!!!!! ;D ;D Great work Steve.
I do (as usual) have a question/comment though.
Hm, how do I phrase this? Am I right that when you sync iPod info to the PC your grabbing info from every song regardless of whether it was played or not? Meaning, your grabbing ratings and lastplayed from the iTunesDB regardless of whether or not a song shows up in the Playcounts file.
If so, as I stated, did you make sure to write MC9's last played value to the iPod database when syncing? As I stated in my earlier post, it looked like that wasn't happening. And it needs to to make syncing work right.
And now for my comment: is this a wise strategy (to process every song regardless of whether it's in the Playcounts file)? Especially considering that larger iPods coming out?
Also, if we think about this down the road when it's all automated (i.e. say sync is a one step process). You run the risk through user error of folks wiping out their ratings in MC9 on a freshly formatted iPod (where there are no ratings applied.
Not sure how the upload/sync works, but is there a difference for example, between what data you write to the iPod when you sync vs. when you use the "upload" feature. If so, there could be some problems.
It's making my brain hurt thinking about all the scenarios, but I'm basically imagining an iPod database w/no ratings or last played dates getting sync'd w/MC9 and MC9 losing all rating/last played info since you're processing all tunes.
Do you get my drift or am I rambling. Sorry, great work so far, but it kept me up last night. I know, pathetic right. :D
Adam
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For anyone playing Audible Files, a while back someone requested getting bookmarking working for files. This is now working. Enjoy War and Peace knowing that you won't have to start over.
Steve
What's funny as hell is that on my last subscription date for audible I decided AGAINST War and Peace because the bookmarks weren't working! Seriously! Thanks so much Steve.
Chris M
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Adam,
We can't have you losing sleep, we need you sharp to maintain that help file. :) The PlayCounts file contains information about all your iPod files regardless of whether they have been played or not. Whenvever you select "Synchronize iPod data with PC", the Rating and Date Played data will overwrite what is in the MC database. The goal is to get this working perfectly so that when this happens there are no errors resulting in your MC library getting messed up. This has not been working perfectly yet, but I am hopeful for tonight.
In regards to Play Counts, whenever the PC synch is selected, the Play Count in MC is incremented by the iPod PlayCount and the iPod Play Count is reset to 0.
Whenver files are transferred to iPod the Rating is written to the iPod DB and Play Count file.
There is no difference between Upload and Synch as to what data gets to iPod.
I hope that puts your mind at rest. Please get tonight's build and we can work on it more once you see the state of affairs with the progress today.
Chris,
Man, I hope I got the bookmarks right. I can't live with the thought of keeping you from the literary classics. If it works, order your copy of Ulysses today. ;)
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Man, I hope I got the bookmarks right. I can't live with the thought of keeping you from the literary classics. If it works, order your copy of Ulysses today. ;)
And get a tanker truck of Guiness too, so you can follow it.
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Thanks for setting me straight Steve. That now kernel of knowledge (that playcounts has all your songs in it) sets me straight.
On last thing...are MC9 LastPlayed getting written to iPod? So that when I sync back to the PC a song that hasn't been played on the iPod will still have the same last played data?
God, this is confusing.
I'll get on that help file, I've got a ton of work to do on it, but I wanted to wait until 9.1 is out and we get some of the cosmetic stuff done on syncing (you know, one step syncing ;))
Adam
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On last thing...are MC9 LastPlayed getting written to iPod? So that when I sync back to the PC a song that hasn't been played on the iPod will still have the same last played data?
That is how it should (and appears to) work.
I was just kidding about the help file. You have already exceeded the call of duty for that.
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So far this build looks very promising!
I am, for the first time, able to synch iPod->MC (and yes I was using 'Synch iPod info with MC' in previous builds).
Also MC->iPod looks to be working.
If I remember correctly I wasn't having any luck at first until I chose the Rebuild iPod database option. Does that make any sense?
I'll keep testing but so far very promising! Kudos!
Eugene
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Just loaded 249 and I'm still getting an media core error from window xp when I click on sync ipod to pc, and then MC closes. I also had this problem with 243.
Is this just me? Is there a way to fix this?
Thanks
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roadrunner:
I think we need to start w/a clean iPod. Either reinitialize or if you don't want to reload everything, try the Rebuild iPod Database option.
But if you can't get either of those to work, you'll need to do a Restore w/the iPod updater and then reload everything...
Adam
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Steve -
That's excellent news about the bookmarks. I can't wait to give it a try. Many, many thanks to you and your team for all of the great work that you guys have put into this wonderful software. You Rock!
Thanks
Tim
;D ;D ;D
Update: I installed the new version, restored with v1.3 , initialized with MC then synced all files. Then on the IPOD I set my Audible files to the place I left off. Then ripped a couple of new CD's while my IPOD was playing some mp3 files. After the CD's were done I then 'synced IPOD info with PC' and was able to see the 'last played' info was now in MC. Very cool! Then I wanted to test the bookmarks so I did a 'synchronize files' to add the newly ripped CD's. Started the Audible file and was TOTALLY THRILLED!!! The book started right where I left off. This is totally awesome. I can't thank you enough for figuring this out and the speed at which you accomplished it. I just posted my question about bookmarks a week or two ago and you've already got it working. ;D ;D ;D
One quick question though. In order for the bookmarks to work do I have to 'sync IPOD info to PC' first and then 'sync files' Or will if work if I just 'sync files' only?
I didn't know if the bookmark info had to be sent back to MC first so that when you do a sync to the IPOD it would have the bookmark.
Either way is fine I just wasn't sure so I thought I would ask. Thanks so much for your help!
Tim
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Steve:
Looking good! Have two little bugs to report
1. The LastPlayed date is still showing up as 33.7 years ago when you view in Media Library. Here's what I did:
- Restored iPod w/the Apple Updater, initialized, loaded all my tunes.
- Played some tunes, sync'd iPod info to PC
- Checked last played date in iPod view. All looked good, the songs I didn't play said "Never Played" the songs I did had the correct time
- Checked the same tunes in Media Library view, the songs I didn't play had last played dates of 33.7 years ago, the songs I did play were fine
So we still have that last played bug going on. I even attempted to clear all my Last Played dates, sync'd with the iPod and updated PC, same problem. I would have expected that the syncing would have updated the last played date to "never played" but it didn't. It left them at 33.7 years. To clarify, in iPod view they show up fine (Never Played), but in Media Library view (or any non-iPod view) they show up w/the 33.7 years.
2. This one is minor. When you right-click and select Sync iPod info to PC the right click menu persists for a bit until the process is complete. Probably no need to clean this up since you're surely already thinking about that one-step sync deal. ;)
(sorry, I have to throw that in on every post).
GREAT WORK.
Adam
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Steve,
Works like a dream.
I re-initialised the ipod and then loaded all the tracks onto the ipod.
All the stars were there ;D
I then went out to get the morning newspaper and then came back having played a few songs and rated some new ones.
I synched the ipod with the pc, but no data uploaded :-/
I thought about it and then shut down mc9 and re-opened and then synched ipod with pc data again and all was well. ;D ;D ;D
All the information is there, last played, play counts and ratings.
FANTASTIC WORK
As Adam says there is still the minor problem with the 33.7 years, but I am now doing a few more tests on that. I have reset the lasp played to never played and will upload to ipod and then play some more and try again.
Brilliant 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
Itunes...eat dirt ::) ::) ::)
Creating new smartlists that will work properly for me as we speak...
Cheers,
Paul
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Steve, with a Gen 2 iPod:
I loaded the current batch of songs probably under a build between 235 and 242. If I sync the iPod to the PC will it update playcounts or will that only work if I reformat and load the songs under a later build?
Thanks!
-=Tim=-
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I had the disappearing file problem with the .248 build but for the first time, .249 shows me stars!
Really impressed, thanks.
Grant
Postscript
Played a few songs and attempted to synch info back to mc and got a media core error. Rebooted, playcounts & ratings (!) then synched fine, every track that was on the pod updated its mc equivilent recent played time to 19146566.4 minutes ago.
One quirk: as of tonight, when I dock my pod and open mc, the pod is ejected. I have to manually mount through ipod manager.
other than that: brilliant!
win xp, 2.0.1 15gb ipod
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One quick question though. In order for the bookmarks to work do I have to 'sync IPOD info to PC' first and then 'sync files' Or will if work if I just 'sync files' only?
You sould not have to synch the iPod for Bookmarks to work. That info is stored exclusively on the iPod.
Roadrunner,
Adam's advice is great. Please try cleaning reformatting the iPod and start over if you can.
Tim,
I loaded the current batch of songs probably under a build between 235 and 242. If I sync the iPod to the PC will it update playcounts or will that only work if I reformat and load the songs under a later build?
This will probably work, but not entirely sure.
Everyone,
I will recheck 33.7 year issue today.
Steve
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Battery Life
Can anyone tell me whether the usage of the battery is influenced by the number of tracks stored on the Ipod?
At present I have approx 2,500 tracks and the performance of the battery is apprx 3-4 hours. I am virtually recharging it every other day.
I look forward to hearing your comments.
:o :o :o
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Last 20 seconds or so not recorded
Me again with another questio.
Some tracks on various cds are cut short in the last 20 seconds or so. The timer ticks away to the end without any sound.
Has anyone experienced this or is it a case of deleting the old file. If so does one have to check that some of the tracks are not on a playlist beforehand?
?
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Everyone,
Tonight's build will solve the 33.7 year problem. Also, I am going to close this thread and start a new one because this has gotten so big.
IPlodAlong,
I do not know the answer to the battery life question.
Some tracks on various cds are cut short in the last 20 seconds or so. The timer ticks away to the end without any sound.
I assume you mean the tracks are cut off when playing on the iPod. Do the files play correctly in MC without using iPod? If so, can you email me one of the failing files? (steve @ jriver.com)
indevelopment,
Hopefully tonight's build will solve the recent played time for you.
One quirk: as of tonight, when I dock my pod and open mc, the pod is ejected. I have to manually mount through ipod manager.
When you say the pod is ejected, do you mean you do not see the drive letter? If so, can you see it from within Windows Explorer? Sometimes it takes a while for the PC to detect it.