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[aatreya]

Hi,

I have a Windows Mobile 6 device and I'm using MC to sync a bunch of wma files to the device.  I'm using windows media player on the device to play the music and set ratings, but when I sync with the computer again, nothing is updated in MC.  I'm using MC 12.0.365.  What am I doing wrong?

[aatreya]

Still having this problem.  Any ideas?

[SwellGuy]

We don't sync back data from Windows Mobile devices. Communicating with them is so slow that reading the metadata for every file to see if the ratings or play count has changed would be far too slow.

[aatreya]

I know Windows Media Player on the desktop can sync back ratings and play counts from the device.  I may be wrong, but I think it uses the media library file stored on the device to get this info (in the MSMETADATA folder), which I believe is updated by the media player on the device as the files are played/rated.  Could this be used to get the info into MC?  Maybe WMDM could even be used as a conduit to parse the file automatically.

[aatreya]

Any thoughts?

[aatreya]

*bump*

[aatreya]

hello??

[SwellGuy]

We are using WMDM and it is very time consuming to walk the device and poll the storage objects for change. So much so that we use another approach to determine if we are still in sync with the device. Unfortuantely, this approach doesn't allow us to check for rating or play stat changes.

[aatreya]

I know what you're referring to, but I don't think you have to walk through the whole directory tree to see what's changed.  As I mentioned above, Windows Media Player is able to obtain play counts and ratings and sync them back to the desktop, and it does so in a very short period of time.  This leads me to think that the XMEMEDIALIBRARY file stored on the device, which is updated by WMP Mobile, contains the play count/rating information.  Since Windows Media Player is able to sync back these ratings/play counts, shouldn't MC be able to as well? 

[aatreya]

hello?

[JimH]

Microsoft doesn't always share their own methods.

[aatreya]

Ok.  If that is not possible, I'll try using WMP to sync.

What's the best way to keep play counts and ratings in sync between WMP and Media Center?

[aatreya]

Microsoft doesn't always share their own methods.

Turns out this time they did.  Here's what WMP uses to sync with devices, allowing for hot unplug as well as ratings/play count sync.  Is this how MC syncs with WMDM devices?

Media transfer protocol:
http://www.redcomm.com/sample/DOMIS/update/2004/10oct/1004mpumsf_sb.htm

The specification is located at:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms867188.aspx

Can you consider adding ratings/play count sync and hot unplug capability for wmdm devices?

[SwellGuy]

MTP is the layer between WMDM and the device. This specification informs the device manufacturers how to map requests and operations to and from the application (via WMDM) and their device.

[lowjoel]

Sorry for raking up such an old topic, but I was experiencing this as well and perhaps I can ask if things have changed since then?

I do also hypothesise that WMP does read the library file in the MSMETADATA folder, which is a consolidated database for the device. If that file can be accessed by MC, and the format reverse engineered (is this legally allowed?) or if it is some open format, then we can do syncs of such metadata.

Alternatively, a plugin can be written to update the JRInfo.xml file, if one is using a different media player (such as Conduits) on the mobile device. Does the JRInfo.xml file contain sufficient information for external applications to write to it or if its schema has provisions for storing the said metadata? If MC's devs can confirm that this approach is plausible, and if time permits (difficult currently) I may get my hands dirty to write a plugin (for my mobile device) which does this. Ratings and play counts are useful statistics to see which files should be synced to a portable device as I probably may not want to carry my full media library with me (only those I listen to most often, for example.)

Having said that, WinMo users are a dying breed...

[lowjoel]

Anyone has got hints?