INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: SteveG on October 01, 2003, 02:14:28 pm
-
Hello All,
For anyone who is new to MC, please be sure to get the latest version from our downloads page or from the first thread on this board.
An excellent help file (thanks Adam) on using MC and iPod can be found here:
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=1063306973
For any issues not covered, please post below and someone will respond ASAP. Please copy and paste your system info from MC Help and include the version of the Portable Drive Plugin you use.
Thanks,
Steve
JRiver
-
Just wanted to be the first (in this new thread) to congratulate Steve on continuing to do such a great job: balancing out the ideas he has here with the ideas in his own head and JRiver's strategy.
:)
-=Tim=-
-
I agree, Tim, that SteveG should be continually congratulated for his hard work on the Ipod plugin.
Moreover, I have a question/request. I thought that a few Ipod threads ago, it was mentioned that we would be implementing check boxes for playlist groups in the Sync screen. People seemed in favor of it (I know I was), but I haven't seen it. Steve, can you consider adding this? For me, at least, it allows me to have a different set of playlists for different tasks/days, such as going on a road trip, a workday/weekend day, etc.
-
.264 was working ok for me except for the greyed transfer button after transfer.
Now .2 65 won't let me transfer at all. I place a file in Que to transfer, then under options, select show qued files only, then it reads the ipod, and shows partial info of the files on the iPod, gives me something about a media core error, then the program crashes completely.
-
Hi Steve,
My video card has gone crazy, so I can hardly see the new changes, but what I can see looks much nicer! I really admire how hard you're working on this plug-in. It's a surprise and a pleasure to see this small niche getting so much attention from JRiver and from you. Now to the usual comments from the peanut gallery:
--Why did the action window handheld icon change to the Rio? It's nice and curvy and colorful, but it doesn't fit my lifestyle at all. :P
--Why does the action window handheld icon link to the the drag and drop interface? I was talking to a friend today who uses a Rio 128MB handheld and even he is hooked on syncing smartlists instead of drag and drop. I think smartlists are the best way to manage any handheld, especially with the iPod. Please consider linking to the Sync dialog instead of drag and drop.
--Cosmetic: "Synch data to MC" should be "Sync data to MC". "available after synch" should be "available after sync."
--BTW, is this going to be a general sync dialog for any compatible handheld?
--Please consider adding "handheld" to the title and option text. New users probably don't know what "Synchronization" means, but "Synchronize Handheld" may be little clearer. In the same vein, I'd suggest something like "Select playlists to sync to handheld:", "Delete unselected files from handheld.", "Update file properties on handheld.", "Sync handheld song stats to MC.", " 10 GB available on handheld after sync."
Thanks again, Steve!
-
.264 was working ok for me except for the greyed transfer button after transfer.
Now .2 65 won't let me transfer at all. I place a file in Que to transfer, then under options, select show qued files only, then it reads the ipod, and shows partial info of the files on the iPod, gives me something about a media core error, then the program crashes completely.
The same thing is happening to me. MC9 crashes within 1 second of selecting Syncronize files.
Bill McNair
-
.264 was working ok for me except for the greyed transfer button after transfer.
Now .2 65 won't let me transfer at all. I place a file in Que to transfer, then under options, select show qued files only, then it reads the ipod, and shows partial info of the files on the iPod, gives me something about a media core error, then the program crashes completely.
Hey guys,
Sorry about that. This is what I meant to say: The same thing is happening to me. I had to go down to .264 in order to synch anything. This being said, Steve is doing a tremendous job on this and should be commended.
Thanks,
Chris
-
I want to second the comment about replacing the iPod icon with the Rio. Its outrageous... aggregious.... offensive... and downright indefensible! :0 Pls put back the iPod.
-
I want to second the comment about replacing the iPod icon with the Rio. Its outrageous... aggregious.... offensive... and downright indefensible! :0 Pls put back the iPod.
Is that what the icon is? I just thought that someone was smokin' something one day and forgot.
Ugly. Sinful. Icky.
-
Yah, 265 crashed when completing the sync.
It MUST be the iPod offended by the Rio Icon that causes this!!!
Like the new look but are stilling missing a eject after sync option to set a check mark in
I also support the positve word to steve - keep up the good work..
-
Everyone,
Thanks for the positive comments about the iPod support. It definitely is nice to hear on occassion. We are near a release of MC, so adding new functionality is frozen for now. As an aside, I am leaving today at 3 CST to go visit bear and moose in the boundary waters of MN so I will be unable to make changes/improvements until Monday unless you let me know soon. Hope all is well until then.
Sorry about the new icon. It is a necessary evil for right now. If you squint real hard, it starts to look like an iPod. :D
McLaugh,
Can you try right-clicking on a playlist group and then select 'Select all subitems"? I think this will do what you are after with the checkboxes and hopefully it is good enough for now.
Parranoya, Chris and Bill McNair,
Although the symptom of your problems are similar (i.e a crash) I do not think they are the same. Parranoya is transferring the files without using the syncrhonization feature. Bill and Chris are seeing the crash sometime using the sync feature, but I am not sure where (Bill, where are you selecting 'Synchronize Files"?). I cannot duplicate any of these. Can you try a reinitialize and then try again. If you see a crash, please try to give me as specific steps as you can to duplicate.
BlueGlow,
I added the cosmetic changes for tonight's build. The sync feature is playlist based and is primarily supported for players that support playlsits (i.e iPod, Nomad Jukebox/Zen, Removable drive type players). The action window links to the drag and drop interface because all players support this interface, but not all players can do synching due to lack of Playlist support. This functionality could be expanded, but not right now.
ugilt,
Please try again and try to narrow down the problem if you can.
-
Hey Steve,
My issue seems to be more like Bill's. After I upgraded to .265 I attempted to add 2 new playlists to my ipod and it seemed to work fine (I synched every playlist at once including my smartlist and had delete unselected files, update tags and synch data to MC checked off). Once it was finished I checked the ipod and noticed that it had added the new tracks to already established playlists....so, I figured I must have done something wrong so I attempted to remove those tracks from my ipod and synch again. When I attempted to remove those tracks I received that media core error and then it kicked me out of MC9. I tried it again and the same thing happened. At that point I downgraded to .264 and tried to remove some files from my ipod and had no trouble. After that I reloaded .265 and I went back in and tried to just synch some of my playlists (with the delete unselected files, update tags and synch data to MC checked off and all my playlists selected) and immediately that media core error came up and kicked me out of MC9. This happened a number of times and I was unable to get .265 to synch any of my files. I then switched back to .264.
Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Chris
-
Sorry about the new icon. It is a necessary evil for right now.:D
D'oh! I guess Apple forgot to pay their dues this month! ;)
-
Steve,
I won't be able to initialize and rety till tonight.
Par
-
>>If you squint real hard, it starts to look like an iPod.
I'll leave my glasses off until I can mod the png file myself. <g>
I got an AV after a synch last night with 265 as well. No steps, but I did break from my usual pattern, no delete files, no copy tags, no sync data, just syncing two or three small playlists. No helpful data, sorry...
Have a great time with moose and squirrel!
BG
-
Me Too!
I did a full restore on my ipod with the ipod updater, initialized it for MC9, and Synched every playlist with delete unselected files and update tags checked ON and synch data to MC checked off. It synched that first time fine but every time thereafter it crashes (after sucsessfully completing the task). what happens is this, immediately (1 sec) after a successful sync or iPod data import it crashes giving this message Media Core has encountered a problem and needs to close
Dave
-
<snip!>
>>If you squint real hard, it starts to look like an iPod.
I'll leave my glasses off until I can mod the png file myself. <g>
<snip!>
I LOVE the way this man thinks! :D
-
Everyone,
I found and fixed a newly introduced bug that I think was behind the crash after the first successful sync. I think it could have appeared even after an initialization. Anyway, it should go away with tonight's build. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Steve
-
Steve,
You da man!
-
Hey Steve,
Same thing with .266. It flashes the Media Core error when I try and synch and shuts down MC9.
Chris
-
Same thing with .266 for me as well. MC9 crashes when it trys to import data from the iPod.
Bill McNair
-
Yes, add me as another that crashes when trying ti import data from iPod into MC.
-
Me too, crash when using .266 build and syncing. Fails with Media Core error within the first couple of seconds.
-
Yep, I've got the same problem. Fortunately all the ratings I changed are still there on my ipod though.
-
Everyone,
OK you have me convinced there is a problem :). Anyway, I was able to duplicate it and think I fixed it. It will be in tomorrow's (Friday's)build, but I won't be around until Monday to see how it turns out. Any issues, I will look after them Monday. Have a good weekend all.
Steve
-
Steve:
For what it's worth, I haven't had this problem.
For the folks that are...have you tried rebuilding your iPod Database (right-click the iPod select Rebuild Database) and then trying a sync?
Just wondering...
Adam
-
Steve:
For the folks that are...have you tried rebuilding your iPod Database (right-click the iPod select Rebuild Database) and then trying a sync?
Just wondering...
Adam
I just reinstalled .266 and tried it again, and yes it also crashes after you rebuild the db.
Bill McNair
-
Yep, same here.
Tried to sync iPod data to MC, crashed.
Tried to sync iPod with PC (music), crashed.
Initialized the iPod.
Tried to sync iPod with PC (music), crashed.
Turned off the checkbox to move iPod data to MC.
Tried full sync to iPod - WORKED
Tried sync iPod data to MC - crashed.
So the problem is with moving the iPod data to MC, not with synchronizing music files.
-
I too get crashes when attempting to upload ipod playlists in both .265 and .266. I can reload .264 qnd upload the info fine.
Grant
PS Did a full iPod manager reset before my second attempt with .266 and same iPod synch media core crash.
-
Doh! Just downloaded the new beta version and I'm still crashing.
Bill McNair
-
Hey Steve,
Build .267 did the trick......I can now synch without MC9 crashing. Thanks again.
Chris
-
Well....I spoke to soon. It worked the first time and then crashed each time after....still not fixed.
Chris
-
Me too.
Cannot sync with iPod at all, tried 267 then 265 and 264, no luck. Ripped two CD's yesterday, did a sync using 266 last night, seemed to work fine. Got to work today and two new CD's weren't there and all my playlists evaporated. Now when I right click on the G: (iPod), I immediately get an MC9 dialog box with nothing but a red X and a MediaCore error from MicroSoft. Far as I can tell, I can't sync at all anymore, tried three different builds, all no luck. At this point, don't know if it's something I've done or MC. Help?
-
Still crashing with 9.1.267, only when when I sync iPod data back to MC.
When I uncheck that option, the sync proceeds smoothly.
-
Tried 262, still no luck, what on earth happened? When I right click on G: I can't do anything, I immediately get:
(http://c:\Documents and Settings\Craig Juel\My Documents\Screen Print2.jpg)
And then:
(http://c:\Documents and Settings\Craig Juel\My Documents\Screen Print1.jpg)
-
I dunno, Midpack, that's rough.
I am still on .264 (less adventurous these days; more of a talking head than a tester lately).
I'm one-click-synching using the toolbar button or the right-click-synchronize. My smartlists are being updated, and all is well with the world. (Did I say 'talking head' just then? I meant 'pretty face')
However, Midpack, the problems that you're having don't seem normal this late in development. I hesitate to suggest a restore via updater.exe, it's a bit of a p.i.t.a. but you do not sound like you have a healthy iPod. Anything out of the ordinary happen with it lately? I dunno if MC did anything to it, or is even responsible; your troubles sound like they could go deeper than your interface or your database.
If it was me, I'd restore, re-initialize, and re-sync at some point while troubleshooting this.
-
U da man Kurt!!! ;D ;D ;D
Late last night, after hours and hours of trying to solve the problem myself, I was pretty discouraged having had very few problems with my iPod. I was considering a restore, couldn't think of anything else, but having never done it I was anxious/hesitant. Saw your note this am, all I needed to go for it. You were right, it worked, everything is all better and I love my iPod again (joking).
Can't thank you enough for the quick, patient guidance, this time and every time before. This forum and the lounge have been invaluable to me, especially you and Adam over the 5 months I've owned my iPod. You guys make the iPod and MC far better experiences than they would otherwise be --- Apple owes you. How can we show our appreciation?
-
More confirmation about MC crashing with iPod operations...
1) Crash on Synch with no smartlists selected & only "Update Tags" checked.
2) Crash when looking at root of iPod and deleting files from iPod manually
3) Occasional crash when looking at "Album" node on iPod and deleting files manually (but much less frequently than #2.)
4) Crash after Synch with a couple of smartlists selected & "Update Tags" checked.
One time, I got a memory exception error, but I didn't take any detailed notes on that crash. The normal error is "MediaJukebox.e.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created."
[EDIT: While manually deleting albums via the tree, the memory error happened again: "The instruction at '0x77fcbd36' referenced memory at '0x00200062'. The memory could not be 'read'."]
All behavior noted with Gen3 iPod running 2.0.1 firmware after fresh restore with iPod software.
Portable Drives plugin version 9.0.62
-------
Media Center Registered 9.1.267 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\ Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium 4 1810 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 350 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3700.6705 / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)
Ripping / Drive Z: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive Z: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R1202 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
-
Everyone,
There is a new build posted ( 9.1.268 ) in which a bug in MC was found and fixed that is hopefully the one causing some of you problems. If anyone who is having difficulty can get it and notify me if all is well before the end of the day, that would be great.
Thanks,
Steve
-
Hi,
Thanks for all your hard work. I'm no longer crashing with 268 version, but all the playcounts and last played times aren't working correctly anymore. Still get some very high values, and my ipod's clock is set correctly. Not enough info to get to the problem, but just posting it as an fyi.
-
pufftissue,
Thanks for the post and for the report that all seems good (in regards to crashing). In regards to the Playcounts and Ratings, I cannot duplicate anything here. Please check it out again when you have some time and see if you can give me some reproduceable steps. Also, please clarify where you are seeing the high values, last played time?
Thanks again.
Steve
-
There is a new build posted ( 9.1.268 ) in which a bug in MC was found and fixed that is hopefully the one causing some of you problems. If anyone who is having difficulty can get it and notify me if all is well before the end of the day, that would be great.
I was having a crash on synch with the last builds. .268 has fixed this problem. :D
-
Thanks schwaa.
Steve
-
I seem to not be able to get ratings to synch. That is, when I rate a song in iPod, that info does not change in MC after a simple synch. Do I need to Import iPod Data into MC? I have been leary of doing this, as I am not sure what this now does (as all of the data on iPod came down from MC in the first place).
-
schwaa,
In order to get the iPod data to sync to MC (specifically the Last Played, Play count and Rating info) you must have the 'Import iPod Data' box checked. When this box is checked those three fields will update in MC. All the other fields are not editable on iPod and therefore remain unchanged after this procedure.
Steve
-
Hey Steve,
I am no longer crashing with build .268! As far as the issue that pufftissue reported:
Hi,
Thanks for all your hard work. I'm no longer crashing with 268 version, but all the playcounts and last played times aren't working correctly anymore. Still get some very high values, and my ipod's clock is set correctly. Not enough info to get to the problem, but just posting it as an fyi.
I am not experiencing this at all. Thanks again.
Chris
-
Latest build seems to be working for me. Thanks!
-
Hi,
I'm no longer crashing with 268 version, but all the playcounts and last played times aren't working correctly anymore.
I was having the exact same problem, which for some strange reason went away when I did a restore on my music library. Now everything is working perfectly, or at least appears to be.
Bill McNair
-
Solid as a rock with .268
Sync went off quickly without a hitch, last played & playcount data is exactly accurate.
This is sooooo awesome... I'm going to build some Smartlists that use the playcount info.
Congrats to Steve and everyone at JRiver - this is now the best iPod solution on any platform.
-
Solid as a rock with .268
Sync went off quickly without a hitch, last played & playcount data is exactly accurate.
Congrats to Steve and everyone at JRiver - this is now the best iPod solution on any platform.
Totally agree. It's getting there!
Only thing I miss is a sync option "Eject after sync" - but that will come in next build, right?
-
Hi guys!
I have some questions about to (new) support of the iPod. With an older version of the iPod-plugin the files where transfered to the iPod without renaming. But the new plug-in renames the files to a name consisting of some digits. The first question is WHY? Is this the apple standard? And the second is: Is this the final format, or will there be a further change in the format of the name? Because obviously when you transfere a file which is allready on the iPod but with a different name you have it then twice there.
The second question which worries me is why does the plug-in now rename sometimes (when the album tag is empty?) the artist tag from the correct (and stored in the library as well as in the file tag) artist name to "multiple artist"? This is quite annoying.
And finaly I have a suggestion: when you want to transfere a playlist to the iPod you have to create first of all a playlist in the playlist folder of the iPod. Then you can transfere the files to this new playlist, right? But I think it would be easier when you just drag a playlist from the playlist folder of the jukebox and drop it to the playlist folder of the iPod. When you want to tranfere a number of playlist it would be much more comfortable. Maybe you would suggest to use the auto-sync function but my database is to big for my iPod so I have to do the file transfere manually
Thanx
Moose
-
.268 worked when synching and also when importing playlist databack!
Happy,
Grant
-
Here's one thing I noticed in .268
1) played 1 song to test if I could synch back data to mc - success
2) played 1 song from the ipod from within mc and this is what happened:
2a) neither playcount or play time were updated on pod
2b) restarted mc
2c) Only the song I'd played to test the info synch "1" showed as being played - not the one that I played from the pod "2" from within mc
4) unmounted (ejected) ipod and then reconnected ipod
5) again, only track "1" registered
Just a quirk I noticed, other than that .268 going a-ok
Grant
-
Moose,
Don't worry about the names of the files. The tag information (i.e Name) is important but the actual filename is not important to iPod. There is no Apple standard because they have not documented anything relating to iPod. What is important is that if you use MC to manage your iPod, each file in your MC database has a unique ID number. That is the number assigned to your files on iPod. By doing this, you will not have duplicates on iPod unless you have multiple copies of the song in your MC database. The tag information is irrelevant.
The 'Artist' rename is by design to assist users who have compilation CDs. The default behavior is to use the 'Multiple Artist (auto) field for 'Artist' on iPod. You are "quite annoyed" by this, but don't worry because you can easily turn this behavior off. Right click on your iPod drive letter and choose 'Select Artist Field' and then select 'Artist'. After this, the Artist field on iPod will only be filled with what is listed as 'Artist' in MC.
In regards to the Playlist stuff, you have many options available to you.
1) Use the auto-sync. You do not have to transfer all your playlists. Simply select the ones you want to transfer and let MC create the playlists for you. You can always add more later. If you want the playlists to be additive, do not select the "Delete files not in transfer" checkbox. A more elegant solution is to use smartlists to assist in limiting your selections to a size that is appropriate for your iPod.
2) Drag and drop a playlists on the iPod drive letter. When you transfer, the playlist will be automatically created.
3) Use the action window for drag and drop for a simple file transfer.
Steve
-
Moose
I noticed in your post that you said you didn't want to use synching to put music on your iPod because your music library was larger than your iPod. I think this situation applies to almost all of us so I thought you might find it useful to know how I manage my 9.2Gb iPod to get best use of my 20Gb music collection.
First I have created three playlist groups. These are called:
iPod
Not on iPod
Smartlist templates
The "iPod" group contains all the smartlists I synch to my iPod. The "Not on iPod" group contains the smartlists I don't want on my iPod at the moment. Finally the "Smartlist templates" group contains smartlists that are used by other smartlists.
When I click on the "iPod" playlist group, MC 9.1 shows how many files are in the group and how much space they take up. When the total space gets up to 9.2Gb I know I have to amend the smartlists in the group so that there will be enough room on the iPod for a successful synch. If I want to remove a smartlist from the synch I move it from the "iPod" group to the "Not on iPod" group. When I carry out a synch, I make sure that all the smartlists and playlists in the "iPod" group are ticked and the ones in the other groups aren't ticked. I also make sure that I have the three check boxes on the synch dialog checked. The synch automatically synchs the smartlists with my iPod, giving me a new selection of music on the iPod each time I synch.
Smartlists are extremely useful tools for managing the music on your iPod. Here's a typical example of how I use smartlists.
In my "iPod" group I have a smartlist called "Random Female Albums" which has the following query:
Playlist: Female Vocalists Random Albums Track 1 Modifier: Full Albums
This smartlist contains complete albums based upon the contents of the smartlist "Female Vocalists Random Albums Track 1". This is in the "Smartlist templates" playlist group and has the following syntax:
Playlist: Female Vocalists Not Artist: Stevie Nicks,Sheryl Crow Limit: 22 tracks Track#: =1 Not Playlist: Essential Albums, New Albums
This smartlist selects the first track from 22 random albums by artists in the "Female Vocalists" smartlist. I have excluded Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow because they have their own smartlists so their albums will already feature in the synch. I have also excluded albums on my "Essential Albums" and "New Albums" smartlists. The "Essential Albums" smartlist contains a list of albums I always want to have on the iPod. The "New Albums" smartlist contains my new albums. I manage these smartlists manually and always include them in the synch too.
The "Female Vocalists" smartlist has the following syntax:
Artist: A Camp, ABBA, Alanis Morissette....T'Pau
I used the smartlist wizard to select all the female artists in my collection. If I add a new female artist, I edit this smartlist. That automatically has a cascading effect on the other two smartlists that depend on this master smartlist.
I have a similar set of smartlists for male vocalists as well as artist specific smartlists for my favourite artists.
Since Steve implemented last played and play counts, I have started to make use of these in my smartlists too. I have a smartlist called "Random Female Vocalists" that has the following syntax:
Playlist: Female Vocalists Limit: 120 minutes No Duplicates: Name Sort: Random [Last Played]=>=20160
This selects 120 minutes of random tracks by artists in the "Female Vocalists" smartlist. It makes sure that no track name is repeated and that the tracks haven't been heard for the last 2 weeks (14 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes = 20160 minutes).
I'm going to produce a few more smartlists based on the last played time and the play counts now that they are working properly. I may also use ratings although, since I have a Gen 2 iPod, I don't make much use of ratings at the moment.
-
Re Phil's post regarding the use of Smartlists to manage the iPod:
As he points out, managing libraries larger than the iPod is a common problem for many of us. He gives us an example of a very good approach.
Would it make sense to collect more examples and build some "best practice" examples? A well-defined set of Smartlists is key to making MC the best iPod solution in the world, and yet there seems to be a bit of a steep learning curve...
I do something quite similar to what Phil does, albeit less sophisticated: I also created an "iPod" playlist group, and have a number of smartlists that for recently imported music, favorites, and then random selections within dance, ambient & world genres. These latter use a modifier to keep them within 1.5GB each.
Recently I'm building smartlists using the info from Audio Analysis, eg. intensity <=2 and BPM <=60 for a collection of mellow tunes, and the opposite for some high energy stuff!
I really like the template idea, however, I can see how powerful it might be.
I'm going to go think about this now...
-
Phil,
Thanks for taking the time to post such a detailed and useful suggestion.
gpvillamil,
It would be good to try to compile these suggestions in a way that would be useful for all. Perhaps we can do this in the future. For now, postings such as Phil's may be a useful tool for others who are iPodders and check this thread.
Grant,
The correction for this may be worse than the problem. I will look at it in the future.
Steve
-
Wow guys!
Thanks a lot for this broad variety of hits and tips, I will try them as soon as possible
-
And moose...I also outline that process w/step by steps and screen shots (albeit somewhat old) in my little help guide (http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/). It's under the sync and smartlist section.
Adam
-
I have benefitted in the past from the smartlists posted by other Ipod users, so the least I can do is pass some knowledge down.
-->The ipod smartlist group is key, as mentioned earlier, b/c if you left click and give it a minute, it will "gather files" and tell you the total amount- this allows you to budget your space on the ipod accordingly.
-->There's a smartlist primer that's referenced constantly- it was written by ashawley- it's at the beginning of all the Ipod threads. He answers questions regarding smartlists (and all else) directly, either here or at the MC forum at Ipodlounge.com.
--------------------<smartlists>------------------------------------
(I'm at work, so I don't have the exact smartlists in front of me- just bear with me, and if you have specific questions, I can cut and paste from home one evening)
Most start with genre lists, bounded by time (in minutes) or total size (in megabytes)
-rock, 4 hours
-blues, 1gig (1000 megabytes to MC)
-jazz, 40 tracks
Next, people will get into ratings, using those to include/exclude songs. Playcounts (which the Ipod now syncs w/ MC) can also play a part here
-singles, 1gb (I have singles rated as songs >=4)
-I have one "IpodPrerequisite" list that weeds music for the Ipod- it disallows songs rated=1, songs with genre or comment =xmas, etcetera
All my other ipod playlists reference this IpodPrereq playlist.
-You can make one to play all songs rated greater than 3 that you haven't heard in a month.
SteveG has allowed us to right click on smartlist groups in the Ipod sync screen and choose Select/Deselect all playlists. I'm now in the process of making smartlist groups for all the different things that go on- I've got one for Workday, Weekend, Family Road Trip, and so on.
I know this is a long post- here are the playlists I have on my Ipod today-->
+1 Random Album (this http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=MediaCenter;action=display;num=1052332509;start=18#18link will help with this)
+2003 Best of (this is a playlist)
+AlbumsNow (it's a 1gig smartlist that choose randomly from 100 or so albums I've selected using the Album= in the wizard screen)
+CDChanger (it's like 1 random album, but 6 random albums, to simulate my car's cd changer)
+Classic (albums where comment=classic)
+Essential 2gb (2gigs of albums/songs sort=random that I select from the masterlist of albums)
+Fo5 (I select five albums/EPs each week to listen to)
+Indie 4hrs (4hrs of music sort=random, comment=indie)
+Itrip NYC (Itrip station frequency mp3s for NYC- I eliminated the major NYC stations from the master list)
+Jazz 4hrs (4hrs of jazz sort=random)
+Never Heard (40 tracks that have number plays=0, sorted randomly)
+Racquetball (60 minutes of music sorted randomly with intensity set to 4 or higher)
+Recent Adds, 200 (200 most recently added tracks to MC's library)
+Rock 4hrs (4hrs of genre or comment=rock)
+Singles 1gb (1gb of songs rated 4 or higher, sorted randomly)
+This Week E:rip (E:rip is where I store my ripped cd's, it grabs 100 tracks that were ripped in the last week, time in minutes)
+Workday Mix (9hr smartlist sorted randomly that excludes hiphop & vocals genres)
----------------------------------<>---------------------------------
One final thing- I use the comment field extensively, and have pasted a list of little tags to use down the side of my monitor. When I rip my CDs, i consult the list and enter the applicable comments, which I can then have my smartlists search for stuff by. It's good for a band/song that is really two genres, for splitting up a computer music library between multiple users (such as my wife and i), and for putting music rereleased/remastered into its proper decade. Here are some I use:
earlystuff, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80, 90s, 00s
twang, r&B, roots, rockin, indie, chill
famtrip, jen, onlyjen, jenjoe, party
classic, live, soundtrack
WOW- I wrote a novella. HTH.
-
runnin' .270. very nice....
at first i thought i was nuts, but now I've seen this enough to know somethings wrong.
When i import new Audible files, the first time I try to play a file, it will not play, and the iPod skips forward to the first track that has been already played. Then, I can navigate to that file a second time, and it will play. I've seen this happen at least six times now on newly imported files, and always will play on the second attempt.
everything else is grand so far.
-
It would be good to try to compile these suggestions in a way that would be useful for all. Perhaps we can do this in the future. For now, postings such as Phil's may be a useful tool for others who are iPodders and check this thread.
Here's an idea - how about an iPod setup wizard, that runs during setup or whenever the user wants, that sets up an initial set of Smartlists implementing some of the basic functions?
eg:
1) Builds an "On iPod" playlist group
2) Sets up lists for:
- Recently imported
- Never played
- Favorites
(all of these with media type = mp3, limited to 1500 megabytes, etc.)
3) Asks about the "Upload volume adjustment", explains difference between Replay Gain and fixed adjustment, prompts the user and sets the option
4) Asks about the artist field: Album Artist vs. Artist
5) Sets up the synchronization dialog correctly:
- delete files not in sync (explain and ask)
- update tags
- set default view to only show the "On iPod" playlist group
6) Explains about the need to initialize the iPod for MC and does it
7) Creates a set of sample smartlists prefixed "iPod:" with things like automatically created genre samplers, using ratings, playcounts, etc.
I think this would go a long way towards getting new users up the learning curve.
-
McLaugh,
Thanks for the novella :).
parannoya,
Your nuts ;). Just kidding. You were right, there was a bug in regards to .aa files. It is fixed in what will be tonight's build. I will post it under the Portable Drive Plugin in case you want to test it out before then.
gpvillamil,
Thanks for the suggestion. Perhaps in the future.
Steve
-
Hey,
I have had my pod and juxebox for like a year now. But I updated and everything. Then I initilized the pod so I could start from scratch. Then I uploaded a batch of albums. This went fine. Then I went back today and was going to upload some more albums but it wont upload. Like I will send them to the pod, and on MC9 it will show that they are in fact on the pod, but when I disconect the pod and check, they do not show up. So I have no idea what to do now. Can anyone help out? Also, I have never been able to get playlists to show up. Do you just right click and send them to the pod?
Thanks much,
Tupacwe
-
Steve:
Think I found a bug or at least something that is confusing to some folk. Here's how to reproduce:
- Start w/a clean iPod
- Sync a smartlist that has the rule Limit=10 Tracks.
- Note smartlist on iPod, specifically first and last track
- Sync again without Delete Files checked.
- Note smartlist: it still has the first 10 tracks from the first sync, but it now also has 10 additional tracks from the second sync.
It works fine w/Delete files checked (i.e. only 10 tunes on the smartlist)
I don't know if this is possible to fix or not, but w/the Delete File option not checked, the playlist on the iPod should still only have 10 tracks on it.
Make sense?
Adam
-
Hi, this has been a bit of a long running thred in ipodlounge, thought i drop in here too.
The issue is a random amount of files will not transfer each time i sync.
I have tried all the different MC9 builds and get the same problem.
My last action was to clear library, re-import files, restore ipod and sync. From a playlist of 1760 files only 603 transfered. Previuosly all these tracks have been on my Ipod so they are all 'clean' MP3 files.
Any suggestions on what to do?
Thanks
- Here's the system info.
Media Center Registered 9.1.268 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2000 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 522 MB, Free - 245 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:ModeSynch 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 D: QSI DVD/CDRW SBW-081 Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:8 MaxSpeed:8 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
<<from the iPodLounge>>
Three of us have observed a reproduceable error related to mass tagging directly on the iPod. via a playlist or category.
If I attempt to update more than ONE tag (GENRE) on the iPod directly, I am immediately booted out of MC9. This is 100% reproduceable for me.
I can retag single files on the iPod with no problem.
I can make mass tag changes on the library directly (on the PC) with no problems...
Note: Not a critical bug for me; I have never needed to re-tag many (or any) files directly on the iPod before. Not a common use model.
http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10622
-
Tupacwe,
Then I went back today and was going to upload some more albums but it wont upload. Like I will send them to the pod, and on MC9 it will show that they are in fact on the pod, but when I disconect the pod and check, they do not show up.
I am having trouble following this. Do you see the files progress through the upload? It sounds like you do and that MC shows the files as present. Check the path of one of the files and make sure it is physically on the iPod. You could also try to play a file on iPod.
Adam,
This is by design. If you have a smartlist in MC that is created dynamically (i.e Limit rules or Random, etc) each time you go to the smartlist in MC the files in it are recreated. If you sync with iPod and you want to have smartlists retain their structure but change files, you should check 'Delete files' so that MC will automatically erase and readd new files. If you leave 'Delete files' unchecked, MC treats the iPod playlist like a MC Playlist which has new files in it and thus adds the new files.
rupertn,
Do you get any error messages on the files that don't transfer? Can you find a file that does not trasfer and email it to me? (steve @ jriver.com)
markp99,
This bug is verified and fixed in tonight's MC build.
Steve
-
Steve:
Rupert's error code is:
E:\ipod_control\music\f19\21076.mp3 -23C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\Music\Death in Vegas\The Contino Sessions\Death in Vegas - Aisha - The Contino Sessions.mp3 -23
Thought I'd take the liberty of posting it for him.....
Regarding the smartlist/limit/delete files thing. OK, I thought that it might be by design. Don't agree with it personally, but who am I? ;D
One thing that is still cropping up on the 'lounge boards is the All Music smartlist. Anytime that is checked forlks aren't getting playlists at all.
I really don't know how it's happening, but it's still there and I haven't been able to reproduce myself.
I'll test more tonight. I've been doing it with a small library. I'll try w/a bigger one and see what happens.
Adam
-
Something I've noticed is that it is really important to initialise your iPod when you upgrade to a new version of MC. I synched my iPod using 9.1.269 a couple of days ago then upgraded to 273 and synched the iPod again. The last played times for a whole load of tracks in MC went completely screwy. I had to restore a backup of the MC database, initialise my iPod and reload my music to get things working again properly. Fortunately I can't see any problems with 273 at all so will stick with that for a while.
Anyway the moral of this story is synch your iPod and backup your MC database before upgrading and initialise your iPod after the upgrade before you synch it again.
-
<snip!>
Anyway the moral of this story is synch your iPod and backup your MC database before upgrading and initialise your iPod after the upgrade before you synch it again.
<snip!>
Please understand that, although this is what I currently do, I do not believe that "normal" users should have to do this any more than is absolutely necessary. Not just for installing a new build (especially when it's uncommon to not have a new build on any given day). There's some stiff competition looming on the horizon, and it's got a reputation for being super-freakishly-user-friendly.
-
I just installed 9.1.269 over 9.0 and after synching my iPod I find that the Composers menu hierarchy is missing an awful lot of items. And MC agrees, in that after a synch, the display of the iPod's contents show the Composer field blank in nearly half of the 1700+ files. Even more striking, when I first hook up the iPod (i.e., *before* a synch), *no* files have a Composer field.
The corresponding files all have Composer fields in MC's Media Library, they're just not making it to the iPod.
Or do I need to do like the previous poster and reinitialize my iPod?
p.s. I wish we didn't have to combine all these diverse posts inside a single thread. Does the iPod developer not read any other? Not even if we put "iPod" in the subject?
-
bvm:
If you're moving from 9.0 to 9.1 you really should Restore the iPod. At a minimum, you can first try "Rebild iPod Database" (should only take 10 minutes or so), then do a sync to get the playlists on there.
There are a number of changes in 9.1. Among them the iPod Toolbar icon is now your quick one-stop shop for syncing.
Steve:
OK, things are pretty stable now...so, your next challenge: What about getting dynamic playlists on? You know, where if I change a rating on the iPod and have a Top 4 or 5 playlist that list will get updated without a sync?
Hm??? ;D
Adam
-
At a minimum, you can first try "Rebild iPod Database" (should only take 10 minutes or so)
Where's that? My iPod menu has a "Rebuild Database from iPod", but that sounds like the opposite of what I'd want (like building the MC database from what's on iPod).
Among them the iPod Toolbar icon is now your quick one-stop shop for syncing.
By which you mean it's an accelerator for the "Synchronize" command on the right-click ipod menu? ("One-stop shop" for me usually means I can do *many* things there.)
-
I guess I'm behind here, but the link to the old Ipod topics doesn't work with the new boards, so a quick question:
Ratings - I usually rate on MC, not on the Ipod, but I'd like the opportunity to do both. At the moment Syncing seems to take the ratings from the Ipod and overwrite MC ratings. Is this a restore/reinstall job, or is this how it's designed? Can someone point my to a post that sums up how the new sync functionality works?
(I'm on the "production" version of MC 9.1,.269, with plugin 9.0.62)
-
Rupert,
For anyone following Rupert's issue, here is the scoop. Error code '23' (thanks Adam) is a Windows error that means 'Data error (cyclic redundancy check)". This is somewhat of a generic error that implies a problem with the memory to which the data is being stored. I have seen it before on occassion and the best solution is to try to reformat the iPod drive. Typically this is not an error related to MC and once it appears, it can be reproduced using any other application (including Windows).
Adam,
In regards to the smartlist/limit/delete, why not leave the delete checked to achieve what you need? I ask because I think it is valid to provide the additive functionality of the playlists with that box unchecked. Because of this, I would prefer to leave it as an option. In regards to the All Music problem, I am still unable to reproduce (and therefore fix)this. I will run some more tests today to see if I can come up with a reason why this happens for some.
Kurt,
I do not believe that "normal" users should have to do this any more than is absolutely necessary.
Agreed. This should not be the case in the current version. There was some weirdness in the 9.1.26x series, but this should now be resolved. The reinitializes were at times a necessary evil to add functionality. I am freezing new functionality for the time being so this should cease.
bvm,
Yes, the iPod developer (me) reads other threads. It is the preference of the owner of JRiver that iPod issues are consolidated in one thread so that users can gather information from others and save time on redundacy of information. 'Rebuild Database from iPod' is in the right-click menu on the iPod drive letter. This feature will recreate the iPod database from the files on the iPod and in the process should fix any problems in the iPod database.
("One-stop shop" for me usually means I can do *many* things there.)
You can elect to synchronize data from iPod to MC as well as decide what to sync from MC to iPod and how to sync(i.e delete files not in the sync and update tags).
dallardice,
I would suggest getting the latest build of MC. In the Synchronization dialogue if you check 'Sync Portable info to PC' you will when you synchronize, Rating, Playcount, and Date last played info from iPod will overwrite the data in MC before then synching MC data to iPod. Without this box checked, MC data remains unaffected by iPod.
Steve
-
Thankee, Steve. :D
-
I've been holding off on upgrading my beta of MC since I saw posts about the Ipod icon being removed in favor or a Rio or something.
Since then, has some "Ipod Icon Order" been restored in the program? It may sound sad, but I don't want to upgrade if it means I'm going to lose that cool little icon- and considering the Ipod is easily the #1 selling mp3 player out there, I can't think of any other reason to remove that icon.
-
'Rebuild Database from iPod' did indeed repopulate my Composers menu. Briefly. But then the next time I synchronized, half my Composers menu vanished again.
So I did 'Initialize iPod' and synched again. Looks like it's okay now. I'll let you know if it flakes out again.
-
Steve:
While I understand (somewhat) your reasoning behing the additive nature of smartlists w/o delete files checked, I'm just posting it because others are confused about it.
Me, I always leave it checked as I want my playlists/smartlists to drive what's on the iPod.
But what is confusing to people is that if they have a smartlist with a limit in it and they sync once and then sync again, the next version in their mind should only have the new values in it (so the count of songs on the iPod playlist sould be whatever they set the limit to in the smartlist).
It just makes it appear to be a bug. I know why you're doing it this way..just trying to make it simpler for folks, and I personally can't think of a reason why anyone would want to make the playlists themselves additive.
But that's just me....;) we'll handle it by instructing people as they run into it.
Adam
-
I tend to agree, naturally, (me and Adam are really one person. You, too, will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.) that additive playlists/smartlists are rather weird. Y'all know that I would just as soon have the "delete files not in sync" option enabled by default and removed as an option. It seems to go against the logic of synchronization in a way -- I would use the manual upload if I wanted to achieve this effect, ya know? When I sync, I want the data on each end to mirror one another.
Besides, with this option unchecked, it would be very easy to stuff your iPod to capacity and not even realize it.
-
And to add on to what Kurt (I mean me, er wait that is me) just said, I also think Update Tags should be removed.
When in the world would you not want this checked. Can someone give me a use case where your wouldn't want it checked?
I guess what Kurt and I are saying is this: make it more user friendly. ;)
Adam
-
Yesterday I said
'Rebuild Database from iPod' did indeed repopulate my Composers menu. Briefly. But then the next time I synchronized, half my Composers menu vanished again.
So I did 'Initialize iPod' and synched again. Looks like it's okay now. I'll let you know if it flakes out again.
Sure enough, it flaked again, and this time I didn't have the excuse of running a new version (still on 9.1.269). After synching, I lost some Composers menu entries (some would have been newly synched, some old), though it seemed like it was a much smaller fraction missing this time. I did another synch, and my Composers menu was completely wiped!
Furthermore, next time I put my iPod in the cradle (or maybe it was the time before the menu got wiped -- the details blur a bit at this point), when I clicked on the drive letter for my iPod, MC responded with a tiny error popup with the title "h." and no actual error text in the window. Very informative ?
So I again did a "Rebuild Database from iPod", and got my composers back.
I'm not really relishing having to do this Rebuild step after every (or at least many) synchs.
-
And to add on to what Kurt (I mean me, er wait that is me) just said, I also think Update Tags should be removed.
When in the world would you not want this checked. Can someone give me a use case where your wouldn't want it checked?
I guess what Kurt and I are saying is this: make it more user friendly. ;)
Adam
The views of this member do not always reflect the views of Kurt Young, or of Razool Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. They do this time, though, ;D
-
I have a question about synchronizing playlists. When I sychronize the playlists the song order is never the same as the original. I have tried multiple different ways, including reinitializing the Ipod and starting from the begining without any luck. I have never had a problem actually copy the songs over and playing them on my Ipod. It is only a problem with the order within the each playlist.
I am using MC 9.1.274.
Thanks.
-
Haven't been on these forums in a while and I was suprised and impressed to read that the playcounts/rating functionality is now working.
Should I assume (without having to go back and read all the old iPod threads) that this is only true for the "new" iPods? Or is the "playcounts" file actually being updated on the 2nd gen iPods these days?
I can certainly understand if this functionality doesn't work on the 'older' pods, since Apple never got around to making the firmware upgrade some of us expected from the time we bought our Apple products.
Just thought I would ask....
-
Haven't been on these forums in a while and I was suprised and impressed to read that the playcounts/rating functionality is now working.
Should I assume (without having to go back and read all the old iPod threads) that this is only true for the "new" iPods? Or is the "playcounts" file actually being updated on the 2nd gen iPods these days?
I can certainly understand if this functionality doesn't work on the 'older' pods, since Apple never got around to making the firmware upgrade some of us expected from the time we bought our Apple products.
Just thought I would ask....
I believe that playcounts and last-played data will work on a Gen1 or Gen2 iPod, so long as it has firmware 1.3 installed on it. Ratings won't, naturally.
-
I believe that playcounts and last-played data will work on a Gen1 or Gen2 iPod, so long as it has firmware 1.3 installed on it. Ratings won't, naturally.
Cool!
I've read that you can transfer the updated values from the iPod to MC, during a "sync". Is it possible to differentiate what is transferred?
Since I can only change ratings within MC, I would like to just transfer the playcounts and last played information, without over-writing any changed ratings.
Is this possible with the current version of MC? If not, I'd like to request this as a change/feature.
-
Just did the "Sync data to MC" option on the Synchronize screen and got a bunch o' weird minus numbers like "-20390271.4 minutes ago" in the "Last Played" dates in MJ and on iPod. I'm reverting to last night's backup library. Any ideas?
Thanks!
-=Tim=-
-
mclaugh,
I can't think of any other reason to remove that icon.
I know it seems ridiculous, but there really is a reason. It has to be this way for now.
bvm,
I found a bug related to 'Composer'. The data in the iTunesDB was storing correctly but not being displayed correctly. Anyway, it is fixed in the next MC build. If you want it sooner, download the Portable Drives plugin from the website.
Zeke,
I am guessing you are referring to Smartlists and not Playlists. Playlists should always preserve the order. If order is important, either use Playlists or you can add a 'Sort' rule to your smartlist which will be respected when you transfer the smartlist.
IDSmoker,
Since I can only change ratings within MC, I would like to just transfer the playcounts and last played information, without over-writing any changed ratings.
You can change ratings from within MC on iPod, or on the iPod itself. If you do not want iPod info to go to MC, uncheck the 'Sync data to PC' checkbox in the Sync dialogue. Are you saying you want to have songs rated one way on iPod and another way in MC?
KAudratm :D,
Some people organize their music with Playlists and not Smartlists. For those people, there was a time when some people told me they wanted the ability to create a new playlist and an easy way to add it without parsing through all the files. For those people, they can check only the one new playlist and sync and they will add just the new playlist. I know that seems crazy to you, but I am not making that up. In regards to the Update Tag checkbox, again, there was a time where a user wanted to tag his files differently on the iPod so that checkbox was included to allow the possibilty to not overwrite files on the iPod (and their modified tags) when synching.
I agree it would be easier and simpler to remove these options, or bury them, but my hunch is that if I do, I will hear about it. Lets try to get more feedback. Does anyone out there deselect the 'Delete files on sync' checkbox or the 'Update Tags' checkbox? If so, please comment or I will soon give in to the combined wills of Kurt and Adam. Resistence is futile........
Tim,
Please verify that the time and date on your iPod are correct.
Steve
-
Tim,
Please verify that the time and date on your iPod are correct.
Steve
Doh!
Thanks Steve. :)
-=Tim=-
-
Tim,
Please verify that the time and date on your iPod are correct.
Steve
Doh!
Thanks Steve. :)
-=Tim=-
I guess I'm glad I caught this after "only" 25% of my 12,000 files were messed up by my screwup! :o
I understand that setting the dateisn't an MC function but as this is CRUCIAL to last played working is there a way to check this when MC first loads up the iPod data and advise the dopey user (ie me) of impending doom and maybe give 'em a chance to fix it? :)
-=Tim=-
-
<snip!>
For those people, there was a time when some people told me they wanted the ability to create a new playlist and an easy way to add it without parsing through all the files. For those people, they can check only the one new playlist and sync and they will add just the new playlist.
<snip!>
Can these people not just drag-and-drop the updated playlist onto the iPod or the Action Window? Or perhaps use a right-click-send-to?
Again, I'm maintaining that a synchronize should make the two points mirror one another. If we just want to put new files on the iPod, we can use the plethora of manual upload methods.
-
I'm new to MC9 and iPod. I can't for the life of me figure out how to do Audible files with MC9.
I have file association checked for *.aa, I have searched for new media, there are *.aa files on my HD in the default Audible Manager location, I can use Audible manager and put them back on my iPod.
But.........I cannot figure out where this is in MC9. Using 9.1 271.
Feeling pretty dumb.
-
thosj,
After importing the .aa files into MC, you can move the files to iPod in many ways. Try selecting 'Handheld' in the Action window and then drag and drop the files on the window. You can also right click the file and select 'Send-To' followed by the drive letter for your iPod. After you do this, click on the iPod drive letter and you will see the option for 'Transfer'. Finally, if you start using Playlists and Smartlists, try clicking on the little iPod in the task bar to synchronize playlists to iPod.
Kurt,
A good point. Lets see what others say.
Tim,
I will try to make this safer in this situation.
Steve
-
IDSmoker,
Since I can only change ratings within MC, I would like to just transfer the playcounts and last played information, without over-writing any changed ratings.
You can change ratings from within MC on iPod, or on the iPod itself. If you do not want iPod info to go to MC, uncheck the 'Sync data to PC' checkbox in the Sync dialogue. Are you saying you want to have songs rated one way on iPod and another way in MC?
Steve
No, I want the ratings to match between the PC and iPod... The problem is probably with the methodology I've been using...
You see, I have to use MC to change the ratings, but I really only listen to my music through my iPod (at work and in the car during my commute).
When I add music/books to my MC library, I use the "Unrated" smartlist to set the rating of all new music/books to "2".
Among the smartlists I use to sync my iPod, there is a rule to only include music/books that have a rating of 2 or higher.
While listening, I make notes about music I don't like (REMOVE), music I like (BUMP), music I love (FAVORITE), books that I've finished (REMOVE), and music/books that need attention (FIX) because they are being chopped off, they skip, have the wrong tag info, or have some other sort of technical issue.
When my pile of notes gets high enough, I take them home, fire up MC and churn through them. Mostly changing the song/books rating... REMOVE = Rating 1, BUMP = Rating 3, FAVORITE = Rating 5, FIX = Rating 1 (until resolved). This may happen 2 or 3 times a week or once a month, it just depends on what I've been listening to.
In the meantime, I've gotten into the habit of going quite a while between syncs of the iPod. Partly, this is lazyness, partly this is because of a problem my system developed that makes it difficult to get the iPod to stay connected to the computer (I'm pretty sure it's related to my adding an additional external HD, but I haven't had any luck solving it). As an aside, the only way my iPod will stay connected is if I keep the iPod Updater running in the background! This really hasn't been a big deal, since my 20gb holds enough to last me for more than a month!
So you see, with my methodology, the older song ratings on the iPod will over-write the changed ratings I've put in MC since my last sync, if I enable the new "Transfer data to MC" function. Not really a big deal... I've never had a working playcounts function, so I won't really miss it, but I've always wanted to try using that info to create the "Never Heard" and "Most Heard" smartlists.
BTW, since my iPod has never kept accurate time (even with FW 1.3), I've never bothered to set the Date/Time on it, so the "last date/time played" data is pretty worthless to me, and I would never bother to transfer it, given a choice.
-
I found a bug related to 'Composer'. The data in the iTunesDB was storing correctly but not being displayed correctly. Anyway, it is fixed in the next MC build.
Would that be .275, announced 85 minutes after you wrote this, or do I need to wait one more?
I'll try it out, but I'm not sure your characterization of the bug matches what I'm seeing -- not only is the Composer not showing up in the Content Pane when I'm pointing to my iPod drive, but the entries really aren't in the Composers menu when I look at the iPod itself.
-
I've recently had a problem for the first time that hadn't occurred before.
Basically, on a sync, I lose all the playlist information. The Playlist menu on the iPod shows a single chevron, but there's nothing there. Also, though the iPod shows 2700 songs and 36MB free, the number of songs that is reachable is much smaller.
When plugged in, however, the iPod tree in MC looks correct.
This has happened whenever I synchronize after making a change to the set of playlists I synchronize to the iPod. Both times this has happened has been after I've deselected a Smartlist and added a new one to the synchronization set.
If I initialize the iPod and do a synchronization from scratch, everything is fine.
-
After importing the .aa files into MC, you can move the files to iPod in many ways. Try selecting 'Handheld' in the Action window and then drag and drop the files on the window. You can also right click the file and select 'Send-To' followed by the drive letter for your iPod. After you do this, click on the iPod drive letter and you will see the option for 'Transfer'. Finally, if you start using Playlists and Smartlists, try clicking on the little iPod in the task bar to synchronize playlists to iPod.
If I could find the aa files, perhaps I could move them to the iPod!! I see no aa files. Where are they?
I imported with aa set as file association. I see no aa files.
Perhaps they won't import from C:\Program Files\Audible\Programs\Downloads?? Perhaps I should copy the aa's somewhere else?
Thanks for your patience, this has me stumped!!
Tom
-
IDSmoker:
Since you have a 2nd gen iPod that doesn't support ratings, there will not be any rating information to update MC9 with. So, your ratings will always stay what you set them in MC9.
BTW, you need to upgrade to a 3rd gen. It'll let you get rid of all those pesky notes. ;) Want to change the rating on a song? Just do it while it's playing. It's a nifty feature.
Steve: what Kurt said. ;D
Adam
-
IDSmoker,
Adam's advice is on the money. (Thanks Adam)
bvm,
Yes, .275 should fix your issue.
gpvillamil,
It sounds as if the intialize fixes the problem. Are you seeing the problem reappearing? If so, please email me the iTunesDB file from your iPod so I can see what is wrong (steve @ jriver.com). Did you recently reimport files into your MC library that already were on the iPod?
Tom,
What happened when you imported the .aa files, did MC say it succeeded? If you look in Media Library and sort by 'File Type' you do not see any aa files? There is no limitation that would prevent MC from importing files from the Audible directory.
-
Can't sync
I just d/l the newest version (9.1.274). Did a full Restore and initialized my ipod for mc9. Synced all my lists/music to the IPOd no problem. Made some changes in mc9 and did another sync. I got an error message (which can't be read, it's only half visible, just the exclamation mark) And now every time I synch it crashes.
I started again from scratch... restore via ipod manager, initialized, synched all my music to IPOD. Worked great. Tried a 2nd synch, crahsed my computer. So in order to synch past the initial one, the only way it works is to restore/initialize/sync all. ?
This didn't happen with the version I first had, which was whatever I downloaded as the trial version - 9.0...
Is this a known bug with the 274 build? Is there a newer one on the way? On these boards I've seen this problem, but it's with the older builds...
Thanks
Windows XP
Ipod 15g (new)
MC9 9.1.274
-
Tracey,
This is not a known bug with .274. We have to try to narrow down what is happening for you. When you are synching, what options are checked (i.e. 'Delete Files not selected','Update Tags',etc)? What happens if after the first sync you don't do anything and sync again? If this causes a crash, save a copy of your iTunesDB from your iPod before the 2nd sync and after the second sync and email me them at steve @ jriver.com so I can try to sort this out.
iTunesDB is on your iPod in the iPod_Control\iTunes folder.
-
Steve,
I sent an email with the database. And yes, the 2nd try I synced immediatly after the first synch, without adjusting/changing anything in the library....
Tracey
-
Since you have a 2nd gen iPod that doesn't support ratings, there will not be any rating information to update MC9 with. So, your ratings will always stay what you set them in MC9.
Ahhhh, so the 2nd Gen doesn't even store any Rating info in it's database... what about the "Date/Time Last Played" information? Same deal?
That's what I get for assuming that the database structure is the same between the different iPod generations.... of course, my last assumption, made when I bought my iPod after the winiPods first came out, was that Apple would come out with a firmware upgrade to support on-the-fly playlists and ratings on the $500 device I had just purchased.... silly me.
BTW, you need to upgrade to a 3rd gen. It'll let you get rid of all those pesky notes. ;) Want to change the rating on a song? Just do it while it's playing. It's a nifty feature.
Yes, I do like the added functionality of the 3rd gen pods, but I really don't like what they did to the buttons (both repositioning them and making them touch-sensitive), the battery life, or the goofy proprietary connector.
What I really want is the functionality of the 3rd gen iPod combined with the form factor of the 2nd gen iPods.
Of course, since Apple has already shown their contempt for the people who have already given them money (as opposed to the people they are still trying to get money from), I'll have to wait for someone else to make my dream device, since I will never buy another Apple product.
Sorry, I guess that last comment really belongs in a different sort of forum... ;)
-
IDSmoker,
The last played information will sync with MC if you have the 'Sync Portable info' option checked. If the last played is more current than what is in MC, it will replace this field.
Steve
-
I am successfully synching last played and play count data from my 10Gb Gen 2 iPod with MC 9.1.273. Since everything is working perfectly for me I'm going to wait a few builds before I upgrade again.
-
Tracey:
Something to try...it's been known to cause issues in the past:
Uninstall iPod Manager. I've seen folks have problems syncing and uninstalling this has solved those problems.
If you need to restore your iPod, you will still be able to by going to Start>Programs>iPod>Updater
Adam
-
Tom,
What happened when you imported the .aa files, did MC say it succeeded? If you look in Media Library and sort by 'File Type' you do not see any aa files? There is no limitation that would prevent MC from importing files from the Audible directory.
OK, they were there, took me some doing to find them, being new to MC9. Wow, if this software could brush my teeth, it'd do everything. I'm getting there!!
Now I might have to get HMO for my TiVo and try that!!
-
I have just seen a recurrence of a problem I first saw several months ago. I reported it at the time, but no-one else was able to corroborate.
I am using a 20Gb Series 2 iPod, with the 1.3 Updater installed (last time I saw this I was using 1.2).
I do a full upload of 2000-odd tracks from Media Center on my desktop computer (probably about 9.1.263? - it's in Australia and I'm not). Beautiful - All Composer tags present and accounted for on the iPod.
Later I rip a new CD on my laptop (Build 9.1.274) and then synchronize those tracks (and just those tracks) to the iPod by means of a couple of new Playlists. Zippo - all the previous (good) Composer info in the iPod has gone, and only the Composer for the new tracks is visible. The old tracks are still accessible by Album or Artist - just not by Composer.
Any ideas, because it's a pain in the a**. :-X ;)
-
Hi Steve,
Good news for me. I just did a nice clean sync using .277 with data flowing both ways and everything looks good. I think this is my first sync where all the data features were turned on and there were no glitches. Ratings flowed both ways, last played was just right, and all my playlists made it to the iPod.
Thanks!
BG
-
I'm using build 277 with a 15gb 3g iPod, and everything is working well except for one tiny glitch: after I start synchronization, and the Sync Progress opens ("syncing file xx of xx") the total number of files reported in this box is about 900 or so more than the actual number of music files on my iPod. Any idea what is happening here?
BTW, the iPod support of MC 9.1 is frickin' AWESOME! No one else even comes close.
Media Center Registered 9.1.277 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 2001 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 492 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: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.60 (1021)
Ripping / 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: No
Burning / Drive E: ATAPI CD-RW 52X24 Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:24 MaxSpeed:52 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
I'm using build 277 with a 15gb 3g iPod, and everything is working well except for one tiny glitch: after I start synchronization, and the Sync Progress opens ("syncing file xx of xx") the total number of files reported in this box is about 900 or so more than the actual number of music files on my iPod. Any idea what is happening here?
Any songs that are in multiple playlists will appear in the count multiple times. Only one copy of the song actually syncs.
-
Hi there, I just thought I'd share my feelings about the "Delete Files" check box on the sync dialog.
I have a 15Gb iPod wich is easily big enough to keep all my music on at the moment. To ensure I get all my songs onto the iPod I have a "My Music" smartlist which has every song in the library on it. I never ever listen to this playlist, the only reason I have it is to ensure all my music is on the pod. I only have a few playlists and most of the time I just play music by browsing the artist/album options on the iPod. At the moment I sync with the delete files option selected and include my "My Music" playlist. I also have a smartlist for new tracks (imported in the last two weeks). If I sync the iPod with "delete files" selected and I only choose the "New Stuff" to sync I'd expect to only have the files in the "New Stuff" playlist on the pod, which is how it currently works. If I had all my music on the pod though and synced just the "New Stuff" playlist with the "Delete Files" option turned off I'd expect the playlist to sync again and mirror the playlist in media center but I'd also expect all my other music to remain on the iPod. If I understand correctly with the current functionality the "New Stuff" playlist would get added to rather than replaced if I do not select the "Delete Files" option.
I'm not sure I explained that very well but to sum up:
1. Playlists should always match between the pod and MC after a sync.
2. If the "Delete FIles" option is selected then files not in one of the playlists should be removed.
3. If the "Delete Files" option is not selected then all files should be left on the iPod but removed from the playlists.
Top product though. :D
-
Copied post by TJobbins....
Hi,
Bug: When syncing a playlist, MC crashes when it is skipping files that have already been synced to the ipod.
I started with MC 9.1.275. I named my iPod as IPOD (as per a user guide I found on this forum - don't know if that's still necessary), then Initialised it in MC.
I then created a Smartlist containing 3100 tracks, right clicked on my pod, and selected Sync. Under options I chose 'Force conversion', telling it to convert my .APE files to 'Normal/High' quality VBR MP3. I told it to skip any file already of type MP3.
I then clicked go, and off it went, no problems. Eventually, 14 hours later, I needed to use MC to rip a CD. So I waited until just after it had synced a batch of files to the pod, and clicked Cancel. By this point 1,700 of my 3,100 files had been uploaded.
A little later I then tried to restart the resync- I went through exactly the same procedure as above. When starting to sync I noticed it was saying something like 'Skipping XXX.APE', which I assumed was because that file was already on the pod. It did a few of these, then MC disappeared completely - no crash or debug message, it just went.
I repeated this many times, every time with the same result. I then upgraded to MC 9.1.279, but the problem exists there too.
Eventually I have been forced to create a new smartlist which doesn't have any of the music that's already on the pod, and that now seems to be syncing ok again.
Any help much appreciated!
Tom
PS. The method I used to create the smartlist of stuff not on the pod, was pretty crap - I simply noticed that the files on the pod had been uploaded and that the last artist was 'L', and therefore manually created the new smartlist for all artists with a name starting with M onwards. What I Really wanted to do was create a smartlist that said 'exclude any file copied to ipod' - is there a way to do that?
-
I'm not sure I explained that very well but to sum up:
1. Playlists should always match between the pod and MC after a sync.
2. If the "Delete FIles" option is selected then files not in one of the playlists should be removed.
3. If the "Delete Files" option is not selected then all files should be left on the iPod but removed from the playlists.
Jonny5: YES!!!! ;D
That's my belief too. Essentially, the way it works now is if Delete files is left unchecked, the existing playlists that are on the iPod are left as is and any new songs are added to them. So, the playlists become a sum of previous playlists plus the new playlists you sync.
This doesn't make sense to me, personally, but Steve said it was by design. IMO, regardless of delete files being checked, playlists in MC9 should always match Playlists on the iPod. The songs on the iPod (that were part of previously sync playlists) should stay on the iPod, just not as part of a playlist.
'Course if Kurt and I got our way, all three options (delete files, update tags and sync MC to PC) would be gone and we wouldn't have to have this conversation. ;D
So, c'mon people, what's your vote?
Adam
-
Any songs that are in multiple playlists will appear in the count multiple times. Only one copy of the song actually syncs.
That makes sense now that you explain it. However, imho it is confusing and looks like an error when on one screen it says that there are 2982 files on the iPod and then the Sync Progress box says that it is syncing 3861 songs. I know that this is a very minor cosmetic thing compared to the really cool stuff that works well like ratings and playcount syncing, but my vote would be to change the Sync Progress window so that it reports the actual number of files it is syncing.
-
I'm not sure I explained that very well but to sum up:
1. Playlists should always match between the pod and MC after a sync.
2. If the "Delete FIles" option is selected then files not in one of the playlists should be removed.
3. If the "Delete Files" option is not selected then all files should be left on the iPod but removed from the playlists.
I'm with Jonny5 and Adam. This is how I wish it worked...
Mac
-
This isn't a question more of a comment....
I just love my MC9 ;D
At first I had a few problems but that was only because of my dumb mistakes. I've been using it a couple of months now with my iPod and couldn't live without it. Smarlists are the best thing since sliced bread.
So thank you Steve and everyone else involved for doing such a great job and helping us out at the forum.
-
the ashawley help guide really needs updating, if he has the time - there have been a lot of changes since he wrote it.
The 'add to playlist feature' really needs updating. Admittedly I haven't reinitialised with a recent build, which may be whats causing it to not work properly, but here's what went wrong just in case:
I uploaded several files using the drop target (Action window).
After uploading, take a look which files are on my iPod. Usually I upload files by synchronising with my 'all music' smartlist, so most files have 'all music' in the playlist field - all apart from the ones I just uploaded. Having all the music on my iPod is an advantage to me because I just play that playlist on shuffle.
Right clicking one of these empty files, I see 'add to playlist'. I try to add it to my 'all music' playlist - no success. I type some other name see if that works, 'iPod'. A playlist called iPod is created in the playlist group in the iPod directory. (note, none of the files in the general view register as being on the iPod playlist - even though i supposedly added them).
The one file in the iPod playlist has no name, artist or album. It is rated 1 star, every time ( i tried add to several new playlists). Track #1, length 1h 48 min 23 secs, bitrate 13769928, no file type.
What's going on, unless I just need to reinitialise?
-
mcphzgig,
Build .275 or later should fix this. Sorry.
BlueGlow,
Thanks for the good news.
maxl311,
Thanks for the compliments. I will look to modify the count to be less confusing.
tjobbins,
I fixed something today that may take care of this for you. It is not in tonight's build, but if you want to check it out, download version 9.0.66 of the Portable Drives plugin or get tomorrow's MC.
ddaro,
Thanks.
ph_bradley,
I cannot duplicate this. Perhaps it sounds like your iTunesDB is messed up. If you are running a version from more than a few days ago, try getting the latest and do a Rebuild Database from iPod or Initialize. If you had files on your iPod and then deleted them from your MC database and then reimported them and tried to sync, this could be your problem.
Everyone,
I will look to remove the sync checkboxes soon.
Steve
-
bvm,
Yes, .275 should fix your issue.
Thanks, Steve. Since I installed it (.276, actually), I haven't had any trouble with my composers menu.
HOWEVER, I have had a repeat of some earlier woes. I took notes this time, so here's how it went....
I've been synching to some smartlists of my own. Last night I added some more of them, plus an ordinary playlist. After synching, there were no playlists on my iPod (or more precisely, I had one playlist whose name was blank and whose contents were empty).
So I plugged in my iPod again and clicked the synch button. MC gave me a warning "Some portable files are not in MC database and could not be updated." It then proceeded with the synch, after which the content pane for my iPod drive reported fewer files than in the master smartlist I was synching from. I wish I could tell you exactly which files were allegedly missing from the iPod, but "Export Playlist" doesn't work for the iPod drive (is that a bug I should report?) In a cursory examination of the iPod, I found one album missing (it wasn't in the Albums menu, it wasn't in the Composers menu). Coincidentally or not, a subset of that album made up my one ordinary playlist.
So I plugged the iPod in again and clicked on the iPod drive in MC. MC responded with an error dialog titled "h." with no error message inside, just as it had in one of my earlier bouts. Clicking the Synch button gave the same error dialog.
So I did a "Rebuild Database from iPod", after which the content pane reported the right number of files. Finally, another Synch restored my playlists, and I seem to be okay at the moment.
-
It's nice to see the iPod picture instead of that purple thing...
But can we get a picture of the newer version?
Thanks.
-
I have stuck with the 273 build for the last week or so and have synched my iPod with it 4 or 5 times. Tonight after my synch I had lost all playlists just like bvm described. I have backed up my database, upgraded to 280 and initialised my iPod. I have resynched my music and am currently performing a second synch. Hopefully the smartlists and one playlist will still be there. I'll keep an eye on things to see how they go.
Edit: still no playlists. I wonder what's happening?
Edit 2: playlists are back. I restored my iPod using the updater and can now synch with playlists. At least I have been able to synch 1 smartlist and 1 playlist to my iPod. I am currently synching all my iPod play/smartlists now so will report back in 20 minutes.
Edit 3: wow, after restoring my iPod I am getting a file upload speed of 13.9Mb/s, a new record :D. Hope all the smartlists will be there.
I have a Gen 2 10Gb iPod with firmware 1.3 on it.
PS installed iTunes, had a quick look, got an error message to say that it didn't have the software for my iPod installed properly and decided to stick with MC :D
-
Update on my crash: seeing the similar problems posted by others on this thread, I downgraded to .264 - and that has fixed the problem, I am now syncing fine, files already on the pod are skipped ok.
So I guess I was having the exact same problem as others - except I never got a 'media core' exception, MC just stopped running
I might try .280 soon, see if that still shows the problem.
-
Last played data seems to be broken in 9.1.280. I worked from a freshly restored and initialised iPod. I then uploaded a full synch. I then played 1 track and synched again. The last played time for half my library was set to a stupid number. The clock on my iPod was set 2m 54s slower than my PC clock. I'll try again with the clocks set closer together and report back.
PS I've just discovered all my playlists have disappeared again too to be replaced by a single blank playlist. This is getting frustrating.
Edit: OK, I'm trying the database rebuild function to see what happens. BTW, the GUI screen locks and MC is reported as not responding during the rebuild.
Edit: After the rebuild and a synch I got the playlists back on the iPod. I was then able to do another synch which successfully updated the last played time for one track. Everything seems to be working but I'll be keeping a close eye on things.
Edit: I spoke too soon. After disconnecting my Ipod there are no playlists on it. This is really frustrating.
Edit: Playlists are back after a rebuild and synch.
-
Me too, same as Phil. After initializing things are back to normal.
-
I just thought i'd let everyone know that MC9 works with ipod2.1 as long as you don't install itunes. i successfully did a 2.1 restore then full sync with my 3g 30gb. ;D its nice to have the on-the-go playlists functioning properly. ;D now we need to figure out how to sync the on-the-go back to mc9 like you can in the new itunes. cool stuff. i would also sure love to get aac support eventually though. even if i have to pay extra.
thanks for the continued hard work everyone at jriver, it really shows when a 3rd party developer with no help at all from apple can by far outdo them at their own game. ;)
-
Hmm...well, here's how things seem to stand on AAC "support" right now:
* Playback works in MC9 using WinAmp in_mp4 plugin, regardless of extension (MP4, M4A, AAC)
* Tags can be entered, although it gives an error when I click out of the file and it tries to save the tags
* File will not sync unless the extension is .AAC (which is incorrect - all songs that iTunes creates have the MPEG-4 wrapper, and should have the M4A extension - conceivably, M4P and MP4 should be allowed by the plugin)
* File will not play back on iPod, regardless of what created it (I tested fastenc and iTunes-Windows) - when I load, it appears that the song is 0:00 in length
-
Willmrc:
What exactly was fixed with On The Go? I don't notice any difference...
Steve, and anyone who's interested in m'opinion:
I despise iTunes, and will not be using it again.
Pros: The radio is well-populated with a great variety of stations. Also, I LOVE the Explorer iCons it comes with for MP3 files. iPod sync is nice and streamlined, going on almost in the background, and going very fast. I love the two buttons on the bottom: One for your iPod options dialogue (and it's a GREAT options dialogue) and one to eject. They should have a button to start sync like we do, though, hehe!
Cons: Well, I'll be nice and say that I just prefer MC9. I like having a couple choices here and there. I like flexibility, I like smartlists that refresh themselves, I like having a "Playing Now" and being able to browse my library and listen to music at the same time. There is no way in hell that I will consider for another moment replacing MC9 with iTunes for my at-the-desk music needs. Thus, I will never use it for my iPod needs.
Which means, Steve my friend, that I'm still here for ya, and still counting on you to keep up the good work. Your iPod software outshines the manufacturer's iPod software any day of the week, and you have my thanks and my hopes for the future of my pod.
So, here's to the future:
I'm looking forward to AAC. Someone said that "As of today, AAC is a mainstream format on Windows" and I hope that it'll be here soon. Cutting my file sizes in half is very desirable.
I'm hoping that the more intricate features of iTunes-prepared iPods will be able to be worked into MC9 now that you have non HFS+ examples to use. Things like "dynamic" smartlists which update themselves while on the go (eg the default iTunes "Recently Played" and "Top Rated" smartlists). Also, while volume leveling works to an extent (I didn't like it much) in MC9, it's not tied to the "Sound Check" option in the iPod; I hope that it can be one day, since this will allow it to be toggled.
In the near future, I think the "All Music" smartlist problem and the eventual removal of those checkboxes me and Adam are on ya about are both important. And get that iPod back in the Action Window!
One last thing... While in iTunes, I renamed my iPod to "Lil' Geisha" -- it's been "IPOD" since I started with MC9. Well, I launched MC9 and it works with my Lil' Geisha just fine! Neat! No manual editing of the plugin, hehe!
-
Looks like I spoke too soon.. actually my problem wasn't fixed by downgrading :)
Steve, thanks for the fix, haven't had a chance to try it yet. However I have managed to diagnose exactly what the problem is, so I'll post it here in case this is different to what you fixed:
My sync was always crashing at the same place, at the point where it was trying to skip two songs called 'Friday I'm In Love'.
Basically when I did the sync it was skipping a whole bunch of files already on the pod, eventually it would get to a point in my Smartlist where there were two copies of Friday I'm In Love next to each other. Their configuration was:
First in list
Name=Friday I'm In Love
Artist=Cure, The
Album=Misc
Track No=<empty>
Format=APE
Bitrate=930
Second in list
Name=Friday I'm In Love
Artist=Cure, The
Album=Wish
Track No=7
Format=APE
Bitrate=930
As soon as it reached these two files (I'm not sure if it happened when it hit the first, or the second), MC would stop running.
I worked around the problem by deleting these two files from my iPod - therefore next time I synced, it uploaded them both again rather than skipping them, and the sync worked fine.
This problem has occurred on all versions of MC from .274 up to .280
I've looked through my playlist, and I have many other occasions where there are two files next to each other with the same name. So I'm not sure what's different about 'Friday I'm In Love'
Let me know if you'd like any more debug.
Thanks
Tom
-
I have a quick question. When sync'ing my iPod, I have the options to "Delete unselcted files from portable" I would really like to be able to have it "manage it's playlists" so that I could have a random 1 hour long playlist that would be updated with random music every time I sync.
This seems to work alright if I don't but any files on elsewhere, however, I want to use iTunes to manage my Audible files because it seems to be a bit more integrated. I'd really like to have the option to have MC only delect files that were in selected playlists, but have been replaced in those playlists.
Sorry, that was a bit confusing.
Basically, I'd like to have MC handle syncing of iPod playlists. Any file that was in a playlist that I'm syncing that is no longer in that playlist (and I'm still syncing that playlist), should be removed. Any files that aren't in playlists should be left alone. Is that possible?
thanks,
kiwi
-
Hey,
Just discovered two new bugs:
1.
When syncing with 'Force Convert' on, some files have large amounts of silence added to the end. Bug present on .279 and .280 (not tried any other versions)
Most of my library is in Monkey's Audio APE format. So when I sync I choose 'Force Convert', selecting 'MP3 VBR' with quality set to 'Normal/High'. After syncing most of my library, I found that around 50 tracks (of 2000) were much longer than they should be. A 5 minute track was 17 minutes; a 12 minute track was 1 hour. I listened to these on my iPod and found that the song was there, followed by a huge
period of silence.
I deleted those 50 tracks and ran the sync again, to re-upload those plus upload the rest of my library.
I then ended up with about 20 tracks showing the problem - a few were the same as the original 50, the rest were different. So it does not
always happen on certain tracks.
I thought this might be a problem with the MP3 encoder rather than the iPod plugin - I tested this by choosing 450 tracks of my collection,
including 5 or so that had ripped with silence to the iPod. I chose Library Tools->Convert Format, and selected the same settings I used
when syncing. They all encoded with no problem. I took one album and repeated the test twice more with that album, and each time it was fine.
I therefore assume the problems lie with the ipod module rather than the encode module.
Note that my original sync was done on .279, the update on .280, so the problem exists for me in both versions.
2.
Also I found that after sync I had at least one track that had been syncd twice - I confirmed that it was only present once in my library.
Both copies of the file were identical on the ipod.
Tom
-
Which means, Steve my friend, that I'm still here for ya, and still counting on you to keep up the good work. Your iPod software outshines the manufacturer's iPod software any day of the week, and you have my thanks and my hopes for the future of my pod.
So, here's to the future:
I'm looking forward to AAC. Someone said that "As of today, AAC is a mainstream format on Windows" and I hope that it'll be here soon. Cutting my file sizes in half is very desirable.
I'm hoping that the more intricate features of iTunes-prepared iPods will be able to be worked into MC9 now that you have non HFS+ examples to use. Things like "dynamic" smartlists which update themselves while on the go (eg the default iTunes "Recently Played" and "Top Rated" smartlists). Also, while volume leveling works to an extent (I didn't like it much) in MC9, it's not tied to the "Sound Check" option in the iPod; I hope that it can be one day, since this will allow it to be toggled.
That "AAC is now mainstream" comment was me. :)
There was a comment over in another thread that I saw to be rather interesting - if I was reading it right, other applications can play back protected AAC files through the QuickTime 6.4 install that's provided with iTunes. Presumably, the resident geniuses at JRiver could use QT's API to do all the magic with AAC files (and maybe even give us access to the protected stuff!)
That said, I agree - MC9 still kicks iTunes butt. This just gives us an opportunity to get more enhancements into MC and make it even better.
-
bvm,
My best guess is that you removed files from MC that were on the iPod. Reimported them into MC and then synched them without cleaning the iPod. This may cause problems possibly corrupting the database. It sounds like you are all set. If you see the problem again, email me your iTunesDB file and I can try to prevent the crash. (steve @ jriver.com).
Sam,
Maybe.
Phil and gpvillamil,
Sounds like you are OK for now. If you see the problem again, please try to isolate what is going on so I can replicate what you are seeing.
willrmc,
Thanks.
bdjohns1,
Thanks for the update. I added the ability to sync M4P and MP4 even though playback will not work for now.
Kurt,
Thanks for the feedback and for all your suggestions along the way.
Tom,
Not sure about those particular two files. I would be curious if you reinitialized your iPod and then focused on those files to see if the problem goes away.
I could not quickly reproduce the silence on conversion problem. I will try again. When you say a file was synched twice, my best guess is that you either deleted and reimported the song, or you have two copies of the song with the same tag info.
Kiwi,
Basically, I'd like to have MC handle syncing of iPod playlists. Any file that was in a playlist that I'm syncing that is no longer in that playlist (and I'm still syncing that playlist), should be removed. Any files that aren't in playlists should be left alone. Is that possible?
Currently if you check the 'Delete unselected files' you will get your desired behavior during sync for playlists. Is your further request that files that are unassigned to any playlist remain on iPod?
Steve
-
Basically, I'd like to have MC handle syncing of iPod playlists. Any file that was in a playlist that I'm syncing that is no longer in that playlist (and I'm still syncing that playlist), should be removed. Any files that aren't in playlists should be left alone. Is that possible?
Currently if you check the 'Delete unselected files' you will get your desired behavior during sync for playlists. Is your further request that files that are unassigned to any playlist remain on iPod?
Very succinctly put. Exactly what I was trying to explain.
I'd like to have a way for MC to manage the Playlists that it has put on the device, but not touch data that other programs have put on the device. Sure, the device could get out of sync, or the playlists could get deleted in a rebuilding of the DB, but if it worked most of the time, it would be great.
Further, I'd like to be able to add songs to the iPod with MC, without adding them to a playlist and have it not remove those songs.
I don't know how much work something like this would take... especially since managing it manually is inconvenient, but certainly not hard to do.
I was thinking about it, and what I really want is to have MC only manage files that are in the playlists that are to be synced. It's easy to delete a whole playlist if I don't want it on the iPod any longer, it much more of a pain to have to put back multiple files that weren't in playlists that got deleted.
Just throwing out ideas.
kiwi
-
Steve, I'm not OK. I can reproduce the problem I'm experiencing every time. The sequence is as follows:
1. Initialise iPod in MC
2. Synch iPod. All music is transferred and playlists are shown on the iPod.
3. Play a track on the iPod.
4. Synch the iPod again. MC play count and last played info is updated.
5. Music is still on the iPod but no playlists are present.
I am currently at stage 3 with my iPod. I have both music and playlists on it. When I next synch the iPod I expect all my playlists to disappear from it. I have gone through this process 3 times and it has behaved in exactly the same way all 3 times. Rebuilding the database and resynching does not recreate the playlists. The only way to get them back is to initialise the iPod.
I am using MC 9.1.280 with the handheld plugin that came with that version. I have a Gen 2 10Gb iPod using version 1.3 of the firmware.
-
Yep, I'm showing exactly the same behavior as Phil.
The sync dialogue said it was transferring 3092 songs to the iPod - however, MC reports 2865 files on the iPod, and the iPod itself reports 577 songs. Playlists are gone, replaced by a single blank playlist.
Playcount and last played info is OK and accurate.
I've saved the iTunesDB file and will e-mail it shortly.
Cheers, and keep up the good work!
Media Center Registered 9.1.280 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Unknown 196 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 654 MB, Free - 412 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:ModeSecure CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / No burners found.
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Oh, I'm using a 2G iPod with firmware 1.3.
Also, I'm now using a playlist management scheme identical to Phil's, with the same Smartlist groups.
About half the time, I get a dialog coming up at the beginning of the sync that says that some files no longer exist on MC and will not be updated. This is understandable, as I usually move & rename files between syncs. I will try to verify if this comes up everytime I have a failed sync.
So far, re-initializing and doing a full sync repairs everything - it's just inconvenient and time consuming.
-
OK, after going through this fiasco with iTunes (I've uninstalled it) I had to clear and re-import my entire library. But I lost all of my playlists. They're still on the iPod (haven't sync'ed yet), but so far I've found no way to move them back to my PC... Is there any way to move the playlists back to the PC?
Thanks!
Eddie
-
bdjohns1,
Thanks for the update. I added the ability to sync M4P and MP4 even though playback will not work for now.
Great...don't forget M4A either. That seems to be the extension most people are using for self-made AAC/MPEG-4 files.
I think what playback needs to work on the iPod is having the track length computed. Since it's a read-only tag in MC, I'd need to dive into the iTunesDB by hand to see if it would work.
--Ben
-
Ben,
M4A is in as well.
Eddie, gpvillamil, and Phil,
The lost playlists are due to the reimport of files as best as I can tell. In synchronization, your playlists are populated based on an ID assigned to files in MC. After a sync, when you delete and reimport files into MC this ID changes. Until you reinitialize, the files are not recognized by MC in regard to the sync. After an initialize try not importing files that are already on the iPod back into MC and hopefully you will be all set. New files are no problem. The problem only occurs when you delete a file from MC and then reimport while the file is still resident on the iPod.
kiwi,
I will try to modify this soon.
Everyone,
I think I may have found what the All Music problem may be. In MC it is possible to have multiple playlists with the same name (i.e. All Music) but in different places in the tree. When these sync only one gets populated on iPod because the iPod does not support nested playlists. I will fix this, but for now make sure all your playlist names are unique.
Steve
-
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the response on the lost playlists. And please forgive my ignorance, but I'm not sure I understand what you're saying... I want to retrieve the playlists that are on my iPod into my Library. If I initialize the iPod, I'll lose all data on it, right? Just FYI, I CAN see all of tracks and playlists on the iPod from within MC9.
So what are the steps I need to take to get the playlists from the iPod to the MC Library? Or, if it can't be done, then let me know that... Also, if there is some other tool that will retrieve playlists from the iPod and save them on a PC, that would be helpful!
Thanks!
Eddie
-
eddiea:
There sadly isn't a way to get iPod playlists off of the iPod. They are stored in the database and not anywhere as files. You'll have to manually recreate them.
No other windows/mac app exists to do this either.
Adam
-
That's really unbelievable. It took me DAYS to get all of these playlists set up. Now I've got to go back to sqaure one?? This was the first time I bought an Apple product, but I guarantee it'll be the last. And these guys are supposed to be good at user-friendly solutions??
-e
-
Eddie,
Do you have comparable playlists and smartlists set up in MC or did you do them all in iTunes?
Steve
-
I did, until I had to clear the library and update it after the iTunes problem... I didn't realize clearing the library would remove the playlists... I thought it would only remove the tracks from the library, not the playlists...
eddie
-
Steve,
All my playlists are uniquely named. I had some trouble with an "All Music" playlist yesterday. I made a smartlist called "All my mp3s", just file type = mp3. Got a "Following file failed" message. So, I put a not album = <blank> in it, and it worked.
-
Kurt,
Thanks. The issue I referred to above would only occur with identically named and not generically with smartlists that include all music as a rule.
The "Following file failed" would indicate that particular files failed for some reason and probably those files were excluded with your additional rule which would account for the subsequent success.
Steve
-
Thanks for the info on the playlist problem, I will test under the conditions you described. In effect, you are saying that I should not sync the iPod when I have removed and reimported files that are on the sync playlists? This suggests that when doing this, I should:
1) sync the iPod
2) delete files from MC (usually through Update Library)
3) sync again
4) reimport the files
5) sync as usual
This should keep the IDs consistent, I will try testing this.
Another note: the confirmation box when doing "Initialize iPod" says that all data will be cleared - it should really say that all *music* will be cleared, right? Contacts, Calendar and files copied via Explorer are retained.
Thanks for all the hard work
-
Hi all.
Having toyed with iTunes for a day or two, I can safely say that although it will stay installed, it won't replace MC9 for my iPod management.
I'd like to echo Kurt's comments about the sound check feature, however before I can even consider using it, it needs to support an album gain option whereby all the tracks on an album are given the same replay gain value. After ripping in MC9 I have to use MP3gain (http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net), which is great but it'd be nice to have the functionality built-in to MC9. I can explain why an album gain option is required if necessary.
Dynamic play-lists would be a nice addition, again mentioned by Kurt (am I a 3rd iteration of this character ;)).
Finally, the change to on-the-go playlists is that they are not cleared when the iPod is connected to a computer - Steve, is there anyway you can retrieve this playlist and import it into MC9?
Before I go, Steve, thanks for making the iPod support in MC9 so good, I know it'll only get better and while I'm not the most "vocal" contributor on here your work is very much appreciated.
-
kiwi,
I will try to modify this soon.
Thanks, I look forward to trying it out.
kiwi
-
I am having major problems with iPod/MC/iTunes.
I updated iPod software to version 2.1, then installed iTunes.
When I installed iTunes for the first time, it scanned for my library, and I deselected the option to have iTunes automatically organize my music. MC would open, but I could not touch the iPod. All I got was an error message, an empty box with the letter "h" and nothing else. iTunes also messed up my iPod DB. As per kiwi's advice, "Enable disk mode" was checked (on) the whole time.
So I uninstalled iTunes, Restored my iPod, Reinitialized in MC, and re-transferred all my music. All was well.
Foolishly, I decided to try installing iTunes again. This time, after install, it didn't scan for my library, it was just there. "Enable disk mode" was still selected. But this time, MC wouldn't even open. I just got the "Media Core has encountered a problem...." error message. So I uninstalled iTunes, and reinstalled MC. MC works now, but when I try to access the iPod from MC, it crashes. I'm sure I can Restore the iPod again and re-transfer my music again, but I don't have the energy tonight.
I want to be able to browse the iTunes Music Store, and I want to use MC for all music management, and all iPod syncing.
Any ideas? Thanks so much.
Media Center Registered 9.1.281 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2249 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 329 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 2, 0, 0, 0 , ASPI for WIN32 DLL, Copyright © Adaptec 1995 / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0001)
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive E: LITE-ON LTR-40125S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Hi there,
Actually I have the same crashing problem.
After I updated my iPod to 2.1 firmware, MediaCenter (.278) didn't accept the iPod anymore and opened an error window with a red circle and an X in it (but no error message).
Then I got version 281, which was even worse in combination with the iPod, since MediaCenter always crashes when I right-click on the iPod.
So may I assume we have to wait a bit until the new iPod firmware works with MediaCenter (or other way around I guess)? Do I have to go back to 2.01 on my iPod? :(
Cheers,
Mighty A-MAN
-
Guys,
It's iTunes that causes the problem, not the 2.1 update. As soon as iTunes syncs with the iPod or transfers files, I think it does something to the iTunesDB file and Media Center can't handle that. I initialised my iPod in MC9 and started from scratch and everything is ok now.
It will be a problem if you were hoping to use the music store as I think you can only use iTunes to add those songs. Maybe Steve can find something with your help.
-
I'm still having the problems with disappearing playlists, and missing songs.
Here's what I did: after the last time I had the problem, I initialized the iPod (via the Initialize iPod option on the right-click menu), and then did a full sync.
I imported a few new albums into MC.
I did another sync.
...and all my playlists were gone, replaced by an empty chevron >
They do show up in the MC tree when I plug it in.
I've initialized, and am doing a full sync now. I'll save that copy of the iTunesDB. I'll then try to replicate the problem, and save the iTunesDB where the playlists don't appear, and I'll e-mail them to Steve!
I appreciate all your efforts - keep up the good work!
-
I have having a similar problem to what Tom described. Much of my music is in MP3 format but I have been trying to replace it with APE rips. I set the iPod to synchronize and have "Delete unselected files from Portable", "Update file info", and "Sync data to MC" checked. Under Options I have "Force file conversion during uploads" checked and the File Conversion set to "MP3 Encoder" Quality 192. It synchronizes the MP3 files and part of the APE files but after a few, MC will just quit. No error message, nothing, just closes. If I uncheck "Force file conversion during uploads" all but the APE files sync without any problem. If I then go back and have it convert the APE files, it will unexpectedly quit during sync. My iPod is a 2G 20 MB model running 1.3. My MC configuration is listed below:
Media Center Registered 9.1.281 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2812 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 702 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive F: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive E: PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W4824A Addr: 0:0:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Drive F: SONY DVD RW DRU-500A Addr: 0:1:0 Speed:24 MaxSpeed:24 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
Any help you could suggest would be greatly appreciated. I really didn't want to convert my APE files to MP3 if at all possible.
Jeff
-
It's iTunes that causes the problem, not the 2.1 update.
Hi Martin,
That sounds cool - I will check it out immediately. Thanks a lot anyway.
Cheers,
Mighty A-MAN
-
Eddie, gpvillamil, and Phil,
The lost playlists are due to the reimport of files as best as I can tell. In synchronization, your playlists are populated based on an ID assigned to files in MC. After a sync, when you delete and reimport files into MC this ID changes. Until you reinitialize, the files are not recognized by MC in regard to the sync. After an initialize try not importing files that are already on the iPod back into MC and hopefully you will be all set. New files are no problem. The problem only occurs when you delete a file from MC and then reimport while the file is still resident on the iPod.
Steve, I have never reimported files into MC. The sequence of events I reported were done one after the other. I initialised my iPod, synched to it, played a track then synched again. This caused the playlists to disappear. No music was imported or reimported whilst I was playing the track.
-
Ok, Steve I recommend a new ipod thread because i forsee all kinds of problems moving forward with co-existence with iTunes.
Questions: Are the playcounts and ratings maintained in the actual library or at the files level in tags? I can set ratings within itunes and they do not propagate to MC9 and vice-versa.
Additionally, how about support for the euqalizer settings? As I mentioned in another thread, I couldn't find any info within the tags themselves so it looks like it is stored within the library and in the iTunesDB. Would be GREAT to have this support.
As of right now I cannot seem to gt the two products to live happily together for iPod usage and I REALLY want to be able to make use of the iTunes music store. But I most definitely want to continue using MC9 for pretty much everything else.
As far as I can tell iTunes has just a single area where it does something better than MC9 and this is in the smartlist creation (though i really like being able to use checkboxes for artist/album selection). Otherwise I think that MC9's handling of the iPod is better and I prefer the overall design and organization behind MC9.
-
I'm using build .281 and a 2nd gen 10GB iPod. I completely rebuilt the iPod using the 1.3 updater from Apple, then initialized from MediaCenter. I removed all the last played and play count data from my library. I synchronized with the ipod. I played two songs on the iPod and synchronized again, making sure to "sync data to MC". My play counts are all 0 and my last played dates are all garbage. (e.g., 9404029.5 minutes ago).
Is this something that's supposed to work? Is this thought to be working?
-
I'm using build .281 and a 2nd gen 10GB iPod. I completely rebuilt the iPod using the 1.3 updater from Apple, then initialized from MediaCenter. I removed all the last played and play count data from my library. I synchronized with the ipod. I played two songs on the iPod and synchronized again, making sure to "sync data to MC". My play counts are all 0 and my last played dates are all garbage. (e.g., 9404029.5 minutes ago).
Is this something that's supposed to work? Is this thought to be working?
The first thing you should do is check the clock on your iPod. It is probably set a little bit fast.
-
Kurt,
Thanks. The issue I referred to above would only occur with identically named and not generically with smartlists that include all music as a rule.
The "Following file failed" would indicate that particular files failed for some reason and probably those files were excluded with your additional rule which would account for the subsequent success.
Steve
Aye, sir, but there's nothing wrong with that file. Been synching it for months, and as soon as I modified that smartlist, it didn't fail the next sync.
-
Does the clock on the iPod have to be set for the last played information to work? Doesn't having the clock running, cause the battery to drain much faster? What about having an option where if hte clock is not set, the last played date gets set to the date when syncing?
-
Does the clock on the iPod have to be set for the last played information to work? Doesn't having the clock running, cause the battery to drain much faster? What about having an option where if hte clock is not set, the last played date gets set to the date when syncing?
The clock doesn't drain a significant amount of battery to worry about, mate. Don't stressabowddit.
-
The clock doesn't drain a significant amount of battery to worry about, mate. Don't stressabowddit.
Cool. I remember it being an issue when they first added it to the firmware. When it was first added, I noticed significantly shorter running times.
I take it that it has been dealt with in the 1.3 firmware? Or is it something that was fixed with the 3rd gen models?
kiwi
-
Little green arrows
When I try and play a track from the library it defaults to a track which has agreen arrow next to it. I can play tracks using the windows explore option which is a long way around the problem.
Can anyone enlighten me how this arrow may have occured, what it means and how I can remove it.
David
8)
-
OK, for those of you on the fence about trying iTunes, I think I can tip you over back to the MC9 side easily:
Their Smartlists S*CK!
No boolean support. You can't make a smartlist that has the rule:
Genre=A, B, or C
Rating > 4
Basically, the A, B, or C bit, can happen, but when you try to say, A, B or C and Rating > 4.
I cannot believe that Apple missed this. What a joke.
I won't go into all the other things, but here are some highlights:
1. To me the sound out on my PC through iTunes was way sub-par compared to MC9.
2. No file management capabilities as has been discussed ad nauseum. By this I mean, you have no control over how your files are named. Some of us use other programs to access our music files (I do a lot when creating videos etc) and file naming is important to us
3. No customizable views
4. No Playing-Now
5. Artwork is stored always in the mp3. When you're dealing w/an iPod and your space is limited by its size, you want to keep the files as small as possible, I don't want to add 200K to each of my music files, that adds up when you're talking 3300 songs.
There are really just too many things missing that I can't use it.
The good news for us though is that now that Steve has access to it, hopefully we can get dynamic playlists on via MC9. ;D
Some other thoughts, too Steve: it appears to me that iTunes syncs much quicker. I'm not saying it uploads songs faster, but it does the sync super fast when you just are updating playcounts, ratings etc. I think one of the reasons for this is the dynamic playlists. Since it doesn't have to actually copy over the contents of the new playlist at all...because they are generated on the fly.
One thing about iTunes that's different than MC9, when you click on a smartlist in MC9 it auto-refreshes every time. Not so in iTunes. The only way to get a smart playlist in iTunes to refresh is to add either a Last Played or Playcount rule to it. For example, if I had a list 5 random tunes as a smartlist, its contents would never change unless I added Last Played > 1 day or Playcount > 0. And it will refresh as it's playing. So, if you had the last played > 1 day, and your viewing the smartlist, as the first song is played, it is removed from the list and a new one added.
I'm not asking for MC9 to do this, but I believe the dynamic lists on the iPod work in the same way. Which would tell me that you wouldn't have to reupload all the playlist information w/each sync, which I'm guessing is what makes the sync in MC9 take longer.
OK, enough blabbering, I'm happy to be back w/MC9 fully after 4 days of iTunes garbage. Would you believe that I even re-rated all my tunes in iTunes before I realized the smartlist (lack of) feature? Ugh!
Adam
-
can anyone else confirm that w/2.1 firmware ratings aren't coming over from MC9 anymore? And if you try to set one, the iPod freezes(but eventually comes back to life).
Adam
-
Quite honestly, I've been toying around with the idea of downgrading back to 2.0.1 -- I like my iPod Manager and its ability to unmount/mount/unmount without plugging. This post of yours, Adam, I think has just made my decision. I haven't seen this bug, and am in no hurry whatsoever to encounter it.
I think I'll be fine without the Music Quiz game and the neat new battery meter. 2.0.1 was bug-free and worked great for me.
-
where does one get iPod Manager?
kiwi
-
It's part of the setup file for the 2.0.1 firmware. You'd have to just install the 2.0.1 firmware again.
If you don't have it anymore, you're out of luck as Apple doesn't keep old copies posted.
Adam
-
Ya know, Kiwi, that's what I just did.
1. Uninstall iTunes
2. Uninstall 2.1 software.
3. Install 2.0.1 software.
4. Reboot.
I've got my iPod Manager back. I went the extra step and restored my iPod to 2.0.1 -- I was happy with it, and 2.0.1 allows access to the iPod's menus after unmounting but before undocking. Dunno why they went back a step in 2.1.
iPod OS 2.0.1 and Media Center 9.1.280. It's all to the good.
-
It's part of the setup file for the 2.0.1 firmware. You'd have to just install the 2.0.1 firmware again.
If you don't have it anymore, you're out of luck as Apple doesn't keep old copies posted.
Ahh.. .well, I'm SOL anyway... i have a G1 iPod. So no 2.0.1 firmware... and probably no iPodManager :'(
I wish my iPod would stop working so I could justify getting one of the nice new ones.
@Kurt Young
Interesting. I really wonder why some people have been successful with 2.1 and others haven't. I wonder whether it's a combination of having both 2.1 firmware and software installed. i.e. if you have both, it doesn't work, but if you have just the 2.1 firmware and 2.0.1 software it works.
kiwi
-
I've been following the new iPod/iTunes/MC9 threads with interest. I've been a long-time Mac user and was depressed for a while when I realized that to get a full-featured jukebox/music server I would have to go the Windows route.
MJ8 (& MC9) helped alleiviate my depression over the past year. :) I was very happy when the iPod became Windows compatible and MC9 became the best iPod management tool. Nonetheless, I was very happy this week to see iTunes come out--competition is good. I personally haven't seen problems after upgrading my iPod to v2.1 firmware, but I'm not a huge power-user of my iPod.
I have run across a couple of things that would help me out in MC9/iPod-land:
1) I have yet to see how synching information from the iPod back to MC9 works. I'm primarily interested in the last-played and number of plays information. If you right-click on your iPod, and choose the "Synch iPod info w/MC" option, you're told that the iPod info will overwrite what's in MC. My question is how much info? All the tags? What happens if my MC files are a different format, like APLs? I have all my APL files converted to MP3 for use with the iPod. When I am going to work with the iPod, I turn on a view filter that shows all the MP3 versions. When I'm working normally, I hide all the MP3 versions. What happens to the tags if I have the wrong (or all) versions showing? I'm very hesitant to try it....
2) I've made changes to tags and file info within MC and want those changes to propagate to the iPod. I choose to "Synchronize" my iPod (it has ~6700 files on it). I de-select all my synching smartlists and have only "Update Tag Info" checked. Nothing seems to carry over to the iPod. Do I actually have to re-synch the files to get the tag info to update?
3) A feature request... I normally use smartlists to transfer music to the iPod. These translate wonderfully into iPod playlists. However, there are some files I send to the iPod manually (using the Send To... command). These files are naturally not associated with any playlists. What I would like to do is associate files (or change existing associations) with existing iPod playlists.
It could work a little like the Tagging Mode...possibly?
Best,
Brad
-
Brad,
I think you're saying something that I've been thinking for a while. Like have a field on each song that works like "If this box is checked, make sure it goes to the iPod."
I was thinking, one day, of making a custom field. But rather than a string, integer, decimal, percentage or list, I would like a yes/no data type. It would show up as a checkbox in MC's list view, eh? Then, I could just build a smartlist that included songs where the box was checked.
A field like that could be used for more than just marking a song for transfer, too. But that's talking about introducing a new data type, which might not be hard. Come to mention it, I'd like to build custom fields that work and display like the Rating field does, heh.
-
Why not use a regular playlist for this?
I just have a playlist called "stuff I want to listen to" and drop the songs I like into it.
Then I select this when syncing the pod, together with all my automatic smartlists.
-
bspachman :
1. You're doing it the "old" way. ;D Thing move quickly around here. Just click on the iPod toolbar icon. It will bring up the sync dialog. You can then check the Sync iPod info w/MC option. This will do what you think it will do: It will update last played in MC9 (if the iPod's last played date is more recent than MC9's version of it). It will increment Number Plays and it will update any rating changes you've made. When you first sync to your iPod, the ratings you've made in MC9 get copied to the iPod, so nothing will get overwritten unless you change it on the iPod.
Regarding the APL deal, there is an option in MC9 to "force convert" songs. You can set this option by clicking on the "Options" button on the Sync dialog box (the one where you select your playlists and check the "sync iPod info w/MC". This way you don't have to keep 2 versions. Do note, that that first time you upload these songs it will take longer as they get converted and copied to the iPod, but after that, MC9 knows that there's already a converted version on the ipod and it doesn't need to "reconvert".
2. You're doing everything right except your unselecting your smartlists. You have to select the smartlists you want sync'd. Even though they are there on the iPod already. When you do this, it will go VERY fast, like 200+ MB/sec as MC9 doesn't reupload the songs, it just updates the tags and regenerates any smartlists. As a general rule, leave all 3 checkboxes checked: Update Tags, Delete files not in sync (this just makes sure your smartlists are always accurate on the iPod and any files that you remove from your smartlists or playlists actually get removed from the iPod) and the Sync iPod info to MC9. Always leave these checked.
3. Not sure what you mean on this one. What a lot of us do, is make a Master iPod Smartlist. This is a list of rules that contains all the Artists (and/or Genres, Albums etc.) that we want on the iPod. Other smartlist that we also want on the iPod start off w/the rule "Playlist=Master Playlist". This way you're ensured that these lists will be comprised of tunes that are already on the iPod. Get it?
Might want to check out the forums at www.ipodlounge.com (shameless plug). We've got a great board over there for MC9 and a lot of these things are discussed in Sticky threads. Could be of assistance for you.
Adam
-
If we could make yes/no custom fields, then my "Master" iPod smartlist could look like this:
[MyNeatYes/NoCustomField]=1
If I'm synching this smartlist, I could just go thru my library, and if I saw something that I know I wanted to be on my iPod, I'd just tick the box that is visible when this field's column is shown in list view.
One click = I'm guaranteed it's on my iPod. :)
-
SteveG, I've collected iTunesDB files that illustrate the problems I've been having. Let me know what e-mail address to send them to.
-
If we could make yes/no custom fields, then my "Master" iPod smartlist could look like this:
[MyNeatYes/NoCustomField]=1
Kurt,
You can do this with custom fields already. Just create a basic text field and assign whatever value you want to it. Because I have a hodgepodge of APLs, APEs, their derivative MP3s and some unique MP3s, I created a field called "Duplicate". All of my derivative MP3s are given a value of "y" in that field.
For you, call it "PutOniPod" and give those songs a "y" in tagging mode. I don't think it needs to be a specific boolean data type--it's the results that count, right?
Adam,
Thanks for the pointers. I think a lot of my problems stem from having too much music! I'm trying to manage the equivalent of ~40GB MP3s and fit them onto a 30GB iPod. I don't like synching more than needed. I only do it about once every 2-4 weeks.
1. I have found the "one-click synch" option. Again, since I actually download music to the iPod so infrequently, I'm more interested in updating MC's DB with the iPod's playcounts, times, etc. That's why I use the contextual menu.
As for the convert-on-the-fly functionality... I love that it's there, but since I have the storage space for both the APE & MP3 versions of my files, I'd rather preconvert everything instead of waiting even longer during my infrequent synchs.
However, when the iPod info gets copied back and there are 2 versions of the file (APE & MP3), which one gets the rating/playcount info updated? I'd assume the MP3 version, since that's the one actually on the iPod, but I think it might be better to match based on Artist/Album/length/etc., so those of us keeping multiple versions can have everything updated...maybe...?
2. Aha! Thanks! I always uncheck my smartlists because of the amount of stuff synched with my iPod. What usually happens is that I synch 3-4 smartlists, which fills up my iPod. I then navigate to the iPod directly and delete tracks that I didn't want included. I clear out enough space to synch up 1-2 more smartlists, and so on.
It's not very efficient, but I hate managing playlists/smartlists. :) If I keep the lists checked in order to update tags, I get "full iPod" errors because MC tries to restore the songs I deleted.
3. Yep. I've seen and tried the "master" method of synching. I found it really wasn't for me, but that's not so much the point here. My suggestion is that for folks who do NOT exclusively use playlists/smartlists to synch can have a way to assign tracks on the iPod to playlists already on the iPod.
For example, I synch 2 smartlists, one with the rules "Genre=Rock/Pop; Sub-Genre=Rock/Pop" and the other with the rule "Genre=Soundtrack". I have all my Rock/Pop songs tagged with that genre, and all my soundtrack songs tagged with "Soundtrack", but some of them with the sub-genre "Rock/Pop".
This way, when I play my iPod playlist "Rock/Pop" I not only get all my Rock/Pop songs, but also my soundtrack tracks from albums like "Dazed & Confused" or "The Blues Brothers" that have a sub-genre of Rock/Pop. Works great.
The problem is that if I find a track in the library that isn't already synched to the iPod, I use "Send To.." to put it there. Once that track is on the iPod, I have no way of associating it with my "Rock/Pop" iPod playlist, so it will never play unless I find it specifically.
It would be amazing to be able to type (or select) existing iPod playlist names in the "Playlist" column when looking at the docked iPod in MC. Make sense? It is kind of odd....
Best,
Brad
-
Brad,
True, it is technically possible to make a smartlist like that today. However, I'm going for something that has a bit more ease-of-use than a string-based field with y's and n's. Selecting-to-edit and typing a y versus just putting a tick in a box with one click.
I love what they've done with graphical ratings, one-click and it's set. If I could have a field which was represented by a checkbox in list view... which could be mass set like ratings are (select a bunch of files, put a tick in one of their KurtsCustomField boxes and have them all get ticked)... that'd be sweet. I could make all sorts of checkboxes and do tons of cool stuff.
This rant is a bit off topic, and I'm sorry 'bout that, Steve. You know me, I like to act out from the whole moderator thing from time to time. :) I'll put it up in the main forum.
-
1) I'd like a way for MC9 to collect AAC files (protected and unprotected) into the library for syncing with the IPOD even though MC9 doesn't have the ability (yet) to encode or play AAC files? I want to use AAC files on my IPOD instead of mp3s due to the better size (my 30G IPOD is full and I want more ;D ).
2) Currently my HTPC music library is in APE format (and will stay in that format). I convert the APE files to MP3 and then sync the mp3 library to the IPOD. I'd like to instead convert the APE files to an intermediate format that retains the tag info and then use ITunes to convert those files to AAC. Ideally this intermediate format would be lossless so that I wouldn't be going through 2 lossy converters to go to AAC but WAV is the only lossless format that MC9 will generate that ITunes will recognize and WAV files don't appear to have the tag info. Are there options to create mp3 files that do essentially no lossy compression that I could use?
-
I have just blown up my IPOD and started to re-load everything again.
If a select 100 CDs to copy over to the ipod every few CDs it prompts me saying upload complete. If you clieck okay it then carries on and converts another few then does the same again.
Problem is i have to be sitting at my PC all the time as it wont continue on its own. I want to be able to select 300 CDs and just go to bed and let it convert and copy without intervention.
Any way to switch this off.
-
I've had this problem for a while now but after playing with iTunes I now know for sure its a real problem.
I have a very short track on one of my soundtrack cd's (12 seconds long) and when I play it on the iPod it always cuts off about 1/2 a second early. The file plays fine in MC and when I transferred it to the iPod using iTunes it played it perfectly on the iPod.
Any ideas?? I can email you the file if it helps, its only 175Kb (VBR encoded in MC).
-
Can someone help me with Audible files?
iPod 3G 15, 2.0.1, MC 9.1.281. I have aa files imported to MC9. I cannot get them on my iPod!! I have restored 2.0.1, initialized in MC9, made playlists and smartlists containing aa files. Sync and the aa's do NOT load. It does, however, screw up playlists loaded with MP3's on the same sync. I have tried checking/unchecking delete files and all the other checkmarks in sync. I have just tried syncing one smartlist/playlist with ONE aa file, NOTHING!!
If I restore iPod, and use Audible Manager, I can load them from there, but then when I try to sync my music back on the iPod, my audible files are gone.
I posted over on ipodlounge, too. I really need to get MC9, my tunes, and audible content to work. It all worked fine with MMJB last week before I started using MC9 (paid, btw!). I have gotten my tunes, playlists, everything, working GREAT in MC9, but NOT Audible files, no way.
I have NOT tried to install iTunes!!
I don't know what else to try short of MMJB/AM again, which worked. I uninstalled MMJB before even trying MC9, so it's not that. I have restored/reinitialized at least 20 times and tried different combinations to get my audible content and my music on with MC9 to no avail.
What do I need to do to get this to work?
-
Can someone help me with Audible files?
iPod 3G 15, 2.0.1, MC 9.1.281. I have aa files imported to MC9. I cannot get them on my iPod!! I have restored 2.0.1, initialized in MC9, made playlists and smartlists containing aa files. Sync and the aa's do NOT load. It does, however, screw up playlists loaded with MP3's on the same sync. I have tried checking/unchecking delete files and all the other checkmarks in sync. I have just tried syncing one smartlist/playlist with ONE aa file, NOTHING!!
Now I've tried to remove my aa's from MC9 and reimport, can't do it, no matter where I copy the aa's to, or how I try, I can't re import them. I even tried re-downloading them from Audible.com, copying them out of the C:\Program Files\Audible blah, blah, location, can't import them.
What is it about this I don't understand?
Do I need to uninstall, reinstall 9.1 stable or something?
Or what?
Man, do I feel stoopid!
-
Man, do I feel stoopid!
Well, uninstalled MC9.1.281, installed 9.1 stable. Imported my stuff. Same thing!! No audible files.
Now....I notice when trying to import the aa's, it wants me to download RealPlayer. Why is that? I don't want anything to do with Realplayer, and I don't have it installed.
Now I get to go setup all my options again and stuff!!
What IS this audible thing I'm having here?
-
Check the FAQ thread on this board for a link to RealPlayer 8. It must be installed to play audible files. MC may have direct support in the future.
-
Steve:
Just a thought on something if we get rid of the Sync iPod info to MC checkbox. As I recall, you said at one point that Rating changes on the iPod always overwrite ratings in MC9.
This is quite problematic and really shouldn't be done this way of you think about it.
If I go through my libary in MC9 and change a bunch of ratings. Then do a sync, the iPod should reflect those ratings. Only if I've listened to a song on the iPod should its rating be updated (assuming I listened to it prior to changing the rating).
The ultimate way to handle this is by a "last modified date". Not sure if that's available in MC9.
Adam
-
Steve,
I'm sorry to say I'm having strange synch problems with build 281. Used a fresh initialisation and tried synching my playlists. All fine excpet for any track over 10 mins long - none are received by the Ipod, progress stops between 40% and 60%, then the message that the transfer is complete followed by the error message saying the file didn't go through.
Tried uploading - same result sadly.
John
-
Everyone,
MC 9.1.282 is now available with some changes that will affect iPod.
1) Upload Tags, is removed from the sync dialogue and is always on. This will always update tags on iPod to be like MC whenever you sync.
2) Delete files is still a checkbox, but if it is unchecked it will sync files but playlists will not be additive.
3) Playlists will now be named by the Name followed by the path to avoid any confusion between multiple playlists that are duplicated.
Adam,
you said at one point that Rating changes on the iPod always overwrite ratings in MC9.
The rating on iPod will overwrite MC only if you have the 'Sync iPod info to MC' checkbox enabled.
Only if I've listened to a song on the iPod should its rating be updated (assuming I listened to it prior to changing the rating).
I disagree. One can change ratings without listening to a song. Because it is possible that a user has the same song on iPod and in MC with different ratings, I think it is important to have the checkbox to give the user control over which rating should sync.
thosj,
I think you will be OK if you follow JimH's advice.
Jonny5,
Send me the file and I will see if I can duplicate the problem.
(steve @ jriver.com)
mikeh,
If a select 100 CDs to copy over to the ipod every few CDs it prompts me saying upload complete. If you clieck okay it then carries on and converts another few then does the same again.
What file type are you starting with and converting to? How are you doing the uploads, through synchronization or drag and drop?
Endymion,
We are working on the AAC compatibility. Let us work that out and then revisit your item 2.
Brad,
I think Adam covered most of your points (Thanks Adam)
Everyone,
The list of comments has grown huge. Today's changes may affect many of these. If you can, please get MC 9.1.282 and test any issues you had and then repost if you are still having problems, that would be great. Feature requests have to hold for a little until any new kinks between iTunes and iPod and MC are ironed out.
Thanks,
Steve
-
Steve,
Build 282 still gives big problems synching/uploading tracks over 10 mins - sometimes it works, most times it doesn't.
Also uploading a track loses all the playlist info on every track on the Ipod which has to be synched again.
John
-
Check the FAQ thread on this board for a link to RealPlayer 8. It must be installed to play audible files. MC may have direct support in the future.
I don't want to PLAY 'em, I just want to sync 'em to my iPod!!
Sigh.........I'll try installing Real Player 8, but ANY previous runs at Real have left a baaaad taste in my mouth.
Why can't I just have MC9 IMPORT the audible aa files and sync 'em, forget playing them in MC9??
-
Just thought I'd check in to let Steve and everyone know that the latest build (283) seems to have fixed everything for me, iPod/MC9.1/iTunes is now all good.
However, after installing iTunes again, I made sure NOT to let it touch my iPod. I'm just never going to open iTunes with the iPod docked. Only iTunes for shopping. Especially now that MC supports the AAC files from iTMS.
Thanks,
crow
-
Sigh, a new failure....
MC isn't seeing my iPod as an iPod. Its drive letter shows up in "CD, DVD, & Handhelds", but when I click on the drive letter, there is nothing in the content pane. The right-button context menu has no iPod-specific entries in it (no "rebuild database" etc.). If I click on the "+", it shows me folders on the iPod drive, just like in My Computer.
(I'm still running 9.1.276. It was behaving just fine before.)
-
Steve,
Thanks a million--AAC support is HUGE. There is only one thing that Itunes has got on MC9--dynamic playlists on the ipod. But the addition of AAC support makes MC9 the hands down best Ipod application. Thanks a million for this one.
I don't want to sound ungrateful, but are the dynamic playlists a possibility? If not, it's not the end of the world, it's not even remotely enough to make me want to switch to Itunes, but it would be sweet to get those...
Again, thanks for all the hard work--it's really paid off. Now, I can't wait to get some AAC tunes on my ipod--but if you guys do partner up with a nonWMA online music store, I'll be a loyal customer. Man, I can't believe how awesome MC9 is.... ;D
-
Steve, massive problems here with build 282 I'm afraid. Here's what I did:
- Backed up library
- Installed 9.1.282
- Connected iPod and synched music. A large number of tracks had their last played time set to -19090516.9 mins. The iPod clock was set 1m 43 s slower than my PC clock. I had adjusted my iPod clock between the time I last played a track and the time of the synch.
- I disconnected my iPod and looked at the playlists. I had two playlists, one with a name corresponding to a smartlists in the synch but with no tracks in it, the other with a blank name and no tracks in it.
After this I decided to start from a clean slate. I restored my MC library then initialised my iPod using 9.1.282.
Next I synched 3 smartlists containg 270 tracks. I ejected the iPod. The playlists were shown correctly on the iPod.
Next I played 1 track on the iPod. I then waited 3 minutes and synched the iPod, adding 1 smartlist to the synch. I ejected the iPod. It contained the correct music and playlists. Unfortunately serious damage was wreaked in my MC library. The following problems occurred:
- 107 files have their last played time set to -19090493.4 mins
- 11 files have number of plays set to between -1145988787 and -1147028280
- 5 files have number of plays set to 208284801
- 1 file has number of plays set to 208284802
- 2 files have number of plays set to 208284804
- 1 file has number of plays set to 208284807
- 25 files have number of plays set to 60
- 17 files have number of plays set to 2082844800
The clock on my iPod was set to 45 seconds slower than my PC.
As it stands things are going horribly wrong with playcounts and last played data.
Also when I browse to my Ipod under CD, DVD and Handhelds the playlist data is not displayed correctly for any of the tracks. For example a track is in the playlist "New Albums". On the iPod through MC this is shown as "New Albums (iPod (9.251Gb)-New Albums)" "iPod (9.251Gb)" is the playlist group that contains the New Albums smartlist. The same problem occurs for all the other tracks. This naming problem is also shown on the iPod itself when you view playlists.Edit: Doh!! I should have read your post Steve. I see this is a feature of the plugin.
I have now restored my iPod using the 1.3 Updater. I initialised the iPod when prompted then synched 2 smartlists. The corrupted smartlist name problem is still happening. I will now test the last played problem and report back. Reporting back: I played 1 track, waited a few minutes then did a synch. This synch didn't change any music on the iPod. It only changed the play count/last played data. The data for the track I played was updated correctly. The data for 104 tracks was corrupted however. I am now going to try removing these tracks from the library, reimport them and repeat the process to see what happens.
OK, I removed the 104 tracks and reimported them. I initialised my iPod and synched the same 2 smartlists as before. I played one track then synched again, this time updating the play info. This time the synch went OK. The pla data was updated correctly in MC and no data was corrupted. Unfortunately the playlists on the iPod are still named incorrectly but that is a minor problem compared with the corruption of play data. I will upload some more music, listen to it tomorrow at work and see what happens when I synch tomorrow evening.
Here is my system info:
2 Gen iPod, 10Gb capacity, 1.3 firmware
Media Center Registered 9.1.282 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1674 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 136 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive G: Copy mode:ModeSecure CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: No / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive G: SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-348B Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
Steve G
I am doing drag and drop. I only copy whole albums - no playlist to sync etc.
Most of the albums are .ape some .wma(lossless) and some mp3-320
I convert to mp3-192 and apply replay gain at +12db
I am currently on build .281 and use a 3G ipod 15Gig
Any ?
-
Check the FAQ thread on this board for a link to RealPlayer 8. It must be installed to play audible files. MC may have direct support in the future.
I don't want to PLAY 'em, I just want to sync 'em to my iPod!!
Sigh.........I'll try installing Real Player 8, but ANY previous runs at Real have left a baaaad taste in my mouth.
Why can't I just have MC9 IMPORT the audible aa files and sync 'em, forget playing them in MC9??
Sho' 'nuff...installed Real Virus 8 and now audible files work fine. Oh, well, I learned a lot about MC9 in the two days it took to figure this out.
I think MC9 should let you IMPORT the aa's just so you can sync 'em, give me a dialog box telling me to get Real if I want to PLAY them in MC9. That way I wouldn't need Real on my computer.
-
I spoke too soon :)
I have one song from the iTunes store. I synced my iPod and all seemed to go well. After the sync was done, the list of songs on my iPod appeared in the window, as usual. My iTMS song was there, all looked fine.
But when I undocked the iPod and plugged in my headphones, the AAC song would not play. I navigated to it through Artists (Ataris) > Album ("So Long, Astoria") > Song Name ("The Boys of Summer") and tapped the center button. The song appears as if it will play, then after a split second, it jumps back to the previous screen. Other songs (mp3) play fine.
The song plays fine within MC (from the library). It also plays in MC off of the iPod while the iPod is docked. It is a 3G iPod, 30 gig, using software 2.1.
** EDIT ** One potential complication: when I first imported the song into MC, it thought it was a video file. I changed that. Since it synced fine (a video file wouldn't sync with the iPod, right?), I figured that it was not a problem, but I thought I should include it here.
Thanks,
crow
Media Center Registered 9.1.283 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2253 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 246 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1226 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: 2, 0, 0, 0 , ASPI for WIN32 DLL, Copyright © Adaptec 1995 / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0001)
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive E: LITE-ON LTR-40125S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
-
I've got the same problem--In my media library, the AAC file shows up only in the video portion. It says its a m4p file...
For what it's worth, It plays just fine in MC9, but I can't transfer it over to the ipod--it just won't transfer, no matter what I do.
Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, and it would be a bit much to expect this to work flawlessly right off the bat... ;D
-
For those of you having troubles w/your AAC files, try renaming them to m4a then importing them. I believe .m4p is Apple's DRM'd version.
I read earlier that changing the extension solved the problem.
adam
-
Adam,
I was able to import my Apple store music files without changing the extension with no problem.
They play fine in MC9 but I haven't been able to transfer them to the iPod with MC9.
-
For those of you having troubles w/your AAC files, try renaming them to m4a then importing them. I believe .m4p is Apple's DRM'd version.
I read earlier that changing the extension solved the problem.
Nope, doesn't work.
What I can do: I can now associate AAC-encoded files (AAC, M4A, M4P) with MC9, and I can now import files without one of the "bootleg" AAC codecs installed, and tagging a file no longer results in an error message. It is importing all of those as video files, as well.
What I can't do: However, it still requires a WinAmp input plugin (in_mp4.dll) to be installed. Duration of the track is not calculated (and therefore sending it to the iPod won't work). When I did play a song back using in_mp4, it initially reported a track length of 3:44, but the song played for 3:47.
So, it's a step in the right direction, but we're not quite there yet...
-
Sorry, para, I was reading an earlier post.
What is happening to some (me too) is when you load them (even m4ps) the are getting "registered" as vides file type. Chris, that's why they launched the video player when you played them.
To change the Media type in MC9, highlight the songs, click on Tag Info, then click the Tools icon (in the upper right of the AW). Select Fields To Show>File Info.
Then change the Media Type on all of them to Audio.
It fixes that little problem.
Adam
-
Adam has it right for converting to "Audio" file type.....
I think that the iPod is not playing the file because it was not transferred with iTunes. I have no real idea, but I'm wondering if somehow it won't play it if it wasn't transferred through iTunes. DRM-related stuff. I can get in on there no problem, it just won't play.
I guess we'll have to just wait and see. I'm sure Steve and the guys can figure it out -- they always do.
;D
crow
-
Thanks guys.
changed the file type to audio.
plays fine in MC9 and now doesn't launch the video mode.
then transferred one track to iPod. The file transfered onto the iPod and I could play it off the Pod through MC9 by selecting it to play.
But when I disconect and browse to the track on the iPod, it just skips to the next song.
also, still got no artist /album file tag info so the files are a bit unwieldy.
-
Steve:
2 Bugs hit me:
1. Sync'd tonight w/.283 after adding a CD's worth of AAC files to my library. Sync seemed to go OK, but non of my playlists made it over. Tried moving my smartlists out of the Playlist Group they were in. That didn't do it. Finally had to resort to a Rebuild iPod database and then a sync. Worked fine.
2. AAC files don't play on iPod. My scenario is that only 2 of the 13 AAC songs I moved over even showed up on the iPod and when you try to click into them to play them, the iPod doesn't do anything. These are AAC files that were ripped in iTunes (m4a's).
Adam
-
I have the exact same problem as Adam...Switching from video to audio gets the files over to the ipod, but they don't play.
-
howdy,
after installing iTunes, launching Media Center and clicking my iPod drive gives me a weird error message (attached below).
things i've done before this happened are:
1. installed firmware 2.1
2. installed iTunes
3. double-clicked my .mrj by accident while restoring my license. once i did this, it said my license had expired, even tho Media Center would start up and every time with no problems (it seems to have corrected itself somehow tho).
i have since uninstalled iTunes and reinstalled Media Center a bunch of times.
so i'm out of ideas... i'm running winXP on a P4 1.6mHz with the latest version of Media Center. firmware on the iPod is 2.1.
any ideas? tia.
(http://www.digistruct.com/images/bwalls/jriver.jpg)
-
- 107 files have their last played time set to -19090493.4 mins
- 11 files have number of plays set to between -1145988787 and -1147028280
- 5 files have number of plays set to 208284801
- 1 file has number of plays set to 208284802
- 2 files have number of plays set to 208284804
- 1 file has number of plays set to 208284807
- 25 files have number of plays set to 60
- 17 files have number of plays set to 2082844800
Steve, I have similar behavior. Don't have a lot of time to post the details, but can do so tomorrow. But, I get all the files that haven't been played having their tags messed up similar to the way described above. The ones that did get played on the iPod have their playcounts and last played information synched correctly. My iPod clock is set correctly and is a freshly restored 1.3 Gen 2 iPod.
-
Normal AAC files that I encoded with Itunes work great with Media Center 9 after I specify that they are audio. They play perfectly on my ipod as well. The only problem is the .m4p files which are the protected itunes files. I'm thinking that there is a flag in the Itunes DB that distinguishes the protected and unprotected files. It can't be too restrictive though because my understanding is that you can have unlimited ipods play the .m4p files. Technically speaking, shouldn't all the iTunes enhancements be achievable by simply analyzing the changes iTunes makes to the database?
-
An update... About 10 hours ago I reported:
MC isn't seeing my iPod as an iPod. Its drive letter shows up in "CD, DVD, & Handhelds", but when I click on the drive letter, there is nothing in the content pane.
It appears to have been a Windows problem, as a while later, I noticed that Windows itself was no longer seeing my iPod (earlier it had at least shown up in My Computer), even after undocking and redocking the iPod several times.
I rebooted Windows, after which MC returned to its normal behavior.
-
9.1.283 has modified the playlist naming convention on my iPod.
Note playlist name is repeated in (parens) on iPod in .283. I tried a fresh initialize, same result. Looks strange... Rolling back to 9.1.281, playlists look fine...
<<9.1.283>> vs <<9.1.281>>
(http://home.comcast.net/~markp99/playlists.jpg)(http://home.comcast.net/~markp99/playlists2.jpg)
-
9.1.283 has modified the playlist naming convention on my iPod.
Note playlist name is repeated in (parens) on iPod in .283. I tried a fresh initialize, same result. Looks strange... Rolling back to 9.1.281, playlists look fine...
I believe this is by design to prevent problems people were having because they had two playlists with the same name in different areas of MC.
-
Everyone,
3) Playlists will now be named by the Name followed by the path to avoid any confusion between multiple playlists that are duplicated.
This feature took me by surprise last night. I can understand why you've done this but I don't like the solution to the problem. I think it would be better to follow the same convention as MC does when you create a smartlist/playlist with the same name as an existing one, ie put a (1) after the name. It would look a lot neater to have playlists on the iPod called Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel (1), Peter Gabriel (2) etc rather than Peter Gabriel (iPod-Peter Gabriel)
-
OK, I understand...but new convention is redundant.
"Peter Gabriel (iPod-Peter Gabriel)"
Would presenting *just* the info contained in parens be sufficient to address the dups issue?
"iPod-Peter Gabriel"
[edit] Actually, this would screw up convient sorting of same artist in the playlist-list.
Maybe this would be better:
"Peter Gabriel (iPod)"
Then all playlist instances carrying "Peter Gabriel" would be next to one another. I would prefer this approach -vs- a simple numerical sequence like this:
"Peter Gabriel (1)"
"Peter Gabriel (2)"
Because I'd like to know which list is which...
-
There is a good list of iTunes problems, possible problems, and some solutions at iPodLounge:
http://ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11637&perpage=15&pagenumber=1
-
"iPod-Peter Gabriel"
This would be fine for me...
That doesn't look very nice on the iPod though. My playlist group is actually called iPod (9.251 Gb). If the playlist group had more than 17 characters in its name all the playlists would look the same on the iPod.
-
Phil,
You are correct... Sorting would also be lousy. I retracted that idea in my post, above.
M :)
-
Everyone,
3) Playlists will now be named by the Name followed by the path to avoid any confusion between multiple playlists that are duplicated.
This feature took me by surprise last night. I can understand why you've done this but I don't like the solution to the problem. I think it would be better to follow the same convention as MC does when you create a smartlist/playlist with the same name as an existing one, ie put a (1) after the name. It would look a lot neater to have playlists on the iPod called Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel (1), Peter Gabriel (2) etc rather than Peter Gabriel (iPod-Peter Gabriel)
Yeah, I agree with this 100%--the playlists look very cluttered with the specified pathway. Maybe just have specified pathways for duplicate playlists? Or (even better) have MC9 automatically add a number to duplicate playlists, like Phil was suggesting...
-
ipod_newbie:
You need to rebuild the iPod database by doing a Restore on your iPod (this will wipe off all tunes).
Anytime you switch programs that will happen.
If you can right-click on the iPod in MC9, you can try a Rebuild iPod Database, then do a sync.
If you can't even right-click on the iPod, do a restore.
Any time you're having strange problems the steps to take are:
1. Rebuild iPod Database and Resync (a quick solution)
2. If that doesn't resolve the problem, do a Restore and resync (longer solution).
STEVE:
I believe I found a minor bug the other day, neglected to tell you. I freshly restored my iPod, fired up MC9, then directly clicked on the iPod Toolbar Button. I was not prompted to initialize my iPod. I think maybe you're only doing that check if the iPod is selected. Might want to add the check to the iPod Toolbar button as well.
Adam
-
How about just appending "Handheld" or "Portable" or "HH" or something like that at the end of the playlist? That way, people that don't have an iPod won't have "iPod" at teh end of their playlists, but this will distinguish between those lists that are created for a handheld device and those that are not.
Wobbley
-
How about just appending "Handheld" or "Portable" or "HH" or something like that at the end of the playlist? That way, people that don't have an iPod won't have "iPod" at teh end of their playlists, but this will distinguish between those lists that are created for a handheld device and those that are not.
Wobbley
At the moment the plugin just tags the playlist group name on the end so if you call your group Zen that will be tagged on the end. I prefer the adding of a number since this is consistent with MC.
-
Everyone,
In regards to the new playlist scheme. Lets live with it for a bit. The short name followed by the path is necessary so that when viewing on iPod the relevant information is visible. Renaming the playlists (i.e My Music and My Music1) is also problematic for numerous reasons.
In MC 9.1.284, which is currently available, AAC support should be working. Also, I found and fixed a bug which would have possibly caused a half second or less of VBR files to be cut off. In addition I fixed a specific crashing bug for Jonny, which may have broader healing effects. :)
John (sirshambling),
I cannot duplicate this (10 minute track issue). Can anyone else? I also cannot reproduce the upoad loss of playlist issue. Can you try again after a reinitialize with 9.1.284?
thosj,
Regarding Real Player and .aa, this is, and must continue to be, a requirement for importing .aa into MC. Sorry.
bvm,
Sounds like you are all set.
cct1,
I do not know if dynamic playlists are possible. I have to check more into it. I will do this when I have a chance and let you know.
Phil,
It sounds like you are OK for now.
mikeh,
Your problem is fixed, but not in MC 9.1.284. It should be all better in 9.1.285.
crowfan,cct1,parranoya, bdjohns1,Adam,cualexander
I think aac should be up and running in .283
udeups,
Try a reinitialize and make sure the data is correct in MC for some of the files with funky data.
Adam,
The minor bug is a problem because after a Format, iPod appears only as a removable drive until you disconnect and reconnect it. At that time, the iPod appears as a removable drive but with additional files which the iPod firmware creates. Only at that time do I know it is an iPod and can initialize it as such.
Wobbley,
I am not sure I follow. If I were to append Handheld to the end of the Playlist, one could still have duplicates.
-
I have just carried out another synch after playing a few tracks and once again the play counts/last played data has been corrupted for a large number of files (350/3264 files) in my library. Common play counts include 2082844800, 60 and -1145891135. Last played data for all of these files is set to -19089276.7mins and counting.
I think I will create a new library to see whether this problem happens in that.
-
Thanks for the speedy response Steve, I really appreciate it.
J.
-
Phil,
Please let me know how your next test goes and we will go from there.
Everyone.....
This post is huge. I will close it and open a new thread.