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More => Old Versions => Media Center 12 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: lalittle on August 24, 2006, 01:04:16 am

Title: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: lalittle on August 24, 2006, 01:04:16 am
Will MC12 be offering any additional "Audible" capabilities, such as

1)  The ability to show the "extra info" (i.e. description details) that is viewable in Audible Manager, but that is NOT available on the Audible site.

2)  The ability to customize the default location/naming of Audible downloads.

These are things that were originally brought up in the earlier MC11 days, and in the case of #1, in the MC10 days.  It was suggested that a future release might include these features, but I don't see them in MC12 yet.  Is it possible that we'll still see these things added?  I could see the "extra info" being potentially difficult, but it seems like the default location/naming conventions of Audible downloads would not be "that" hard to implement (although I'm admittedly no expert in this regard.)

Thanks,

Larry
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: lalittle on August 30, 2006, 02:36:02 am
Any thoughts or reactions on these additions?  Are these suggestions still "on the table" for possible additions to MC12?

Thanks,

Larry
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: SwellGuy on August 30, 2006, 09:34:53 am
lalittle,

For non-iPod devices...

We have added 'Audible Path' to the options and we do a better job populating metadata (including naming) for Audible content. (That was part of "Improved capabilities for transferring Audible files..." in 11.1.194 [which you asked about] - those changes also applied to MC 12.)

The Audible Path will take fields like other paths so the path 'Music\Audiobooks\[Album]' will copy the files to 'Music\Audiobooks\Audible'.

Additionally, new Audible tracks will get populated with the following information:

Genre: 'Audiobooks' (this may have been 'Audiobook' in the past but 'Audiobooks' appears to be more correct/common)

Album: 'Audible' (this is what AudibleManager does - this was blank by default)

What device(s) are you using with Audible?

Regards,
Rick
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: lalittle on August 30, 2006, 05:00:28 pm
lalittle,

For non-iPod devices...

We have added 'Audible Path' to the options and we do a better job populating metadata (including naming) for Audible content. (That was part of "Improved capabilities for transferring Audible files..." in 11.1.194 [which you asked about] - those changes also applied to MC 12.)

Unfortunately, I use iPods, which apparently is why I don't see the "path" option for audible files.  This of course brings up the question of "why" this feature isn't available for iPods.  I know that these files CAN be moved -- I do it manually after every audible download -- and I know that other programs (Audible Manager) allow you to choose the base path for where the files are stored.  Given this, I'm curious why this is not an option in MC when using iPods.  Is it still possible that this option will be added?

Regarding the "extra" information that Audible Manager gives you when you hit "enter" while highlighting a file, do you know if this is being looked into as a possible addition to MC?  This feature is really helpful with "magazine" type downloads since it gives you date and content information that is otherwise not viewable.

Thanks again for the information,

Larry
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: dcwebman on September 02, 2006, 02:28:48 pm
I am totally new to iPods and recently got a Nano. I just signed up with Audible to try that out and am finding it very confusing. It appears without MC, I have to use the Audible Manager to activate either the program or each title on my computer or both and then use iTunes to transfer to the Nano. Is that right?

I want to use MC though so I let MC download a couple titles which actually worked great. I saw on another thread that Audible Manager still needs to be used to activate the files (I guess?). I made sure they all worked in Audible Mananger and then went back to MC 12.

Dragged the files to the Nano and tried syncing but got the word Error quickly for each of these audible files and then back to In Queue again. So does the above discussion and these errors mean that I can't use MC to transfer my audible files to the Nano?
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: JimH on September 02, 2006, 02:33:57 pm
I am totally new to iPods and recently got a Nano. I just signed up with Audible to try that out and am finding it very confusing. It appears without MC, I have to use the Audible Manager to activate either the program or each title on my computer or both and then use iTunes to transfer to the Nano. Is that right?
I believe you'll need to use Audible Manager just to activate the device.  After that, you should be able to use MC for everything.
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: dcwebman on September 02, 2006, 03:43:08 pm
I believe you'll need to use Audible Manager just to activate the device.  After that, you should be able to use MC for everything.
From what I understood from reading, I can't use Audible Manager to transfer files, only iTunes, for iPod stuff. That being, when I try adding a device in Audible Manager, there are no selections for iPods. I'm sure I'm missing some step somewhere to let MC work.
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: JimH on September 02, 2006, 03:50:29 pm
Have you tried a transfer with MC?
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: lalittle on September 02, 2006, 05:00:32 pm
From what I understood from reading, I can't use Audible Manager to transfer files, only iTunes, for iPod stuff. That being, when I try adding a device in Audible Manager, there are no selections for iPods. I'm sure I'm missing some step somewhere to let MC work.

This is not correct.  MC supports download, playback and synching of audible files.  You CAN use Media Center to transfer audible files to the iPod, or to listen to audible files.  You do need Audible manager, however, (OR iTunes -- you do NOT need both) to "Authorize" both the computer and the iPod for playback of Audible files.  I don't understand why you cannot seem to authorize your iPod with Audible Manager -- I haven't done it in a while, so I can't remember the process, but when I did it it was very straight forward.

Just to reiterate, you do not need iTunes at ALL for any of this, but iTunes can be used instead of Audible Manager from what I understand -- as far as I know it's an either/or choice.  I have NEVER had iTunes installed on my system -- I simply used Audible Manager to authorize the system (and iPod), and then I use MC from then on to download Audible titles, listen to them, and synch them to the iPod.

The only thing I use Audible Manager for at this point is to create audio CD's from Audible files -- MC cannot do this yet, and the question of whether or not it's going to has not yet been addressed.

Larry
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: dcwebman on September 03, 2006, 12:23:35 pm
Have you tried a transfer with MC?
Yes, that was in my first post.
Dragged the files to the Nano and tried syncing but got the word Error quickly for each of these audible files and then back to In Queue again.

But now it's a moot point because I cancelled my Audible plan. I may get some more Audible files in the future but nothing in the near future.
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: dcwebman on September 03, 2006, 12:29:02 pm
You do need Audible manager, however, (OR iTunes -- you do NOT need both) to "Authorize" both the computer and the iPod for playback of Audible files.  I don't understand why you cannot seem to authorize your iPod with Audible Manager -- I haven't done it in a while, so I can't remember the process, but when I did it it was very straight forward.
I did the authorization for the computer without a problem but never got anything for the iPod, and selecting Add Device didn't get a selection for the iPod. Regardless somehow I must have authorized the iPod because iTunes got the files transferred to the iPod okay. I tried at first just a couple files with iTunes and then tried MC to do the rest but got the Error I described above when trying to sync. That's when I used iTunes to transfer the rest of the files.
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: lalittle on September 05, 2006, 03:43:38 pm
Any further feedback on the 4th post in this thread, which essentially asks:

1) Why the "path" selection capability is not offered for iPods, and if this is going to change (so that iPod users can define the download path for aa files.)

2) If MC will be able to present the "extra" information that Audible Manager provides (hitting "Enter" on a title in Audible Manager brings up info that is otherwise not available.)

Thanks for any additional feedback on this,

Larry
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: park on September 12, 2006, 11:41:57 pm
One other small problem with audible downloads. As soon as you do a "rename file based on properties" to move the files, they get disconnected from their album art and you end up with horrible grey tiles in their place.
Title: Re: Any chance of additional Audible features that were requested a while back?
Post by: lalittle on September 13, 2006, 01:33:59 am
One other small problem with audible downloads. As soon as you do a "rename file based on properties" to move the files, they get disconnected from their album art and you end up with horrible grey tiles in their place.

I'm not seeing this, but perhaps this is because I have MC set to embed cover art inside the file.  I wouldn't think this would make a difference with Audible files, however, since I believe that the art for these files is always embedded.

Larry