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[lindychef]

I spent some time searching for this and I couldn't seem to find any information on it.  I was basically wondering if there was a feature in Media Center that would allow me to sync an iPod to it, but only do it with selected statistics.

For example, if I'm listening to my songs on my iPod, I'd love to be able to rate them and send those ratings back to Media Center, but I don't want to update any Play Count or Last Played information.

Is this a feature that already exists and am I missing it or is it something that doesn't exist (and if it doesn't, is it possible to do?)

[lOth]

For example, if I'm listening to my songs on my iPod, I'd love to be able to rate them and send those ratings back to Media Center, but I don't want to update any Play Count or Last Played information.

I think at this point MC will allow you to sync 'data' with the iPod, 'data' meaning playcounts and ratings together, not separately.

However, I believe (please someone correct me if I'm wrong) this 'data' is kept separately on the iPod: playcounts in \iPod_Control\iTunes\playcounts and ratings in \iPod_Control\iTunes\iTunesDB . If that's the case it would mean that, in theory, MC could do what you're asking for. But to be frank, the iPod sync part of MC is stable and working well at this point and I'm not sure there is enough of a demand to rework the whole thing to make that option possible. Maybe if JRiver decides to introduces new iPod features in MC 12, I'd say that would be the right time to ask again.

[BartMan01]

For example, if I'm listening to my songs on my iPod, I'd love to be able to rate them and send those ratings back to Media Center, but I don't want to update any Play Count or Last Played information.

Can you clarify WHY you would want to do this.  Asking for a couple of reasons:
First - there may be 'workarounds' that will let you do what you want.
Second - I generally find that what people think they want and what they really want are not the same, and even when they are what they say they want is mis-interpreted.

I could be missing something obvious, but I don't understand why you would not want play-count updated unless you are just using the iPod to rate the song and don't want your listening just to rate to count as a play.  If this is the case, what happens when you really 'listen' to a song on the iPod - why don't you want that to get captured by MC?  Also - if you are just rating the song and don't want the play count to accumulate, just skip to the next song before the playing song ends.  When you do this, the iPod does not count the song as listened to.

[lindychef]

I DJ swing and blues music for social dancing and I find it useful to keep track of exactly how many times I have played a song.  I currently use iTunes to organize and keep track of my music library and I have an iPod right now that I use for podcasts and sorting through the music in my free time.

I don't use iTunes for just listening to my music (if I want to do that, I usually just go to a CD) so it's only being used in a DJ environment and the play count on each song is reflective of exactly how many times I have played the songs at my DJing gigs.  I like to know when I've played a song and how many times I've played it - gives me a feel of if I'm overplaying a song.

I don't want iTunes to update these playcounts after I'm finished rating songs on my iPod.  Right now, to prevent a playcount from being updated I currently skip through the end of a song on my iPod so that it doesn't count a song as played.  A few times I have forgotten to do this and in those instances I have flashed my iPod before syncing because I want to protect the playcounts on iTunes.

If Media Center has some way of either preventing last played statistics on a portable media device updating to Media Center or breaking out these statistcs (last played on Media Center, last played on iPod, times played on Media Center, times played on iPod) that would be cool.

If there's a workaround or something for this type of situation, I'd love to hear of it.

[JimH]

If Media Center has some way of either preventing last played statistics on a portable media device updating to Media Center

It's an option in MC11.1.  It's off by default.

[lOth]

JimH,

I believe that if he wants to sync his iPod ratings he'll have to sync his iPod playcounts as well, right? My understanding is that you can only sync both ratings and playcounts or neither.

[BartMan01]

If there's a workaround or something for this type of situation, I'd love to hear of it.

This might be a pain, but...

Looking at the library properties
The default for play count is to not store the data in the file tags.
The default for ratings is stored in the file tags.

Haven't tested this, but here is a thought:
Create a 2nd library for syncing to the iPod. 
Use this to sync to/from the iPod.
After syncing the iPod back, your 2nd library will get the updated playcount and the file will be updated with the new rating.
Then from your primary library, re-read your media directory to update the primary library with the ratings changes stored to the file.

If this works, it would be a slight pain to do but would get you want you want for now.

[razumik]

lindychef,

I think that one way around this would be to create two separate libraries in MC.  One that you sync the IPOD to and one that you use when you DJ.  When you sync to the IPOD library after changing ratings it will update both the rating and playcounts.  The playcounts will only update in the IPOD library, but since the ratings are stored in the tags, you will also see the rating change in the DJ library.  Of course, this is not a perfect solution, and you would have to make sure that you have the correct library open before syncing.

[razumik]

whoops...sorry BartMan01