INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Major limitation and erratic behaviour on data CDs track burning sequence  (Read 1738 times)

shahrukh

  • Guest

In trying to burn a data CD to play on an MP3 player, I find that
the sequence of the playlist is not preserved. Finally, I see in the
help file some fine print that says that for data CDs, track order
cannot be changed and is always recorded in alpha order by directory
and filename. Two problems with this:

1. It is an absurd limitation. If one wants to play a data CD on
an MP3 player, one wants it in the order of the playlist, not in
alphabetical order.

2. It isn't even true. In fact, it appears that the record sequence
in the Burn CD window is close to the "original" version of the
playlist when I first created it, i.e., before I dragged and dropped
a fair amount to create the sequence I really wanted. It's
neither alphabetical nor is it random, but rather a partially mangled
version of the playlist. I made a copy of the playlist, trying to
create a "fresh" playlist on which no drag and drop operations had
been donw, hoping that would get around this bug, but to no avail.

The playlist always looks fine in the playlist window, but just not in
the create CD window for data CDs. For audio CDs, sequence is
preserved just fine.

This bug makes the Burn Data CD feature useless for all but music file backups onto data CDs, and there are plenty of other utilities for
that. Major disappointment ...
Logged

KingSparta

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 20063
RE:Major limitation
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2002, 07:21:44 am »

>> In trying to burn a data CD to play on an MP3 player,
>> I find that the sequence of the playlist is not preserved.
I Thought It Allows This Option In MJ8.0.327

also MP3 players (i have 2 Diffrent Models) and they both re-sort the files on the cd
Logged
Retired Military, Airborne, Air Assault, And Flight Wings.
Model Trains, Internet, Ham Radio, Music
https://MyAAGrapevines.com
https://centercitybbs.com
Fayetteville, NC, USA

shahrukh

  • Guest
RE:Major limitation and erratic behaviour on data CDs
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2002, 11:13:23 am »

I have 8.0.320 (the latest "official" version). If this has truly
been fixed in 8.0.327, and I just have to wait until that is
Beta tested, that's fine. However, this fix was not included in the
list of new & changed features with the 327 announcement 2 days ago.

I too have noticed that MP3 players (I have RioVolt) play in a
different sequence from that recorded by Media Jukebox or Real
Jukebox. The first several tracks appear in the correct sequence
but the ones at the end are mixed up.

Is there any "standard" that one should look for to ensure that
it plays in the same sequence, e.g., some keyword on the packaging
of the MP3 player that suggests that it uses the same algorithm
for ordering of tracks?
Logged

Callithumpian

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Subvert the Dominant Paradigm
RE:Major limitation and erratic behaviour
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2002, 02:54:32 pm »

Problem is not with the way they are recorded.
Problem is with the way they are read by the device.
I have two MP3 CDR players.
Imagine this:
I burn a track called ZZ Top - Roughboy.mp3, then close the session and take out the disc.
Then I put the disc back in and add another track - "ABBA - Dancing Queen.mp3"

Both my mp3 players will play ABBA first then ZZ Top because they read alphnumerically - as does your PC by default and most other devices.

Hence it matters not a whit in which order they are burned.
MJ cannot supply a fix for your hardware, sometimes I wish they could but they can't.

There are viable workarounds for your problem and you should search the board for keywords like "burn" "order" "playlist" "data" "CD" 'cos I'm frankly sick of reposting the same solutions over and over.
Logged

shahrukh

  • Guest
RE:Major limitation and erratic behaviour on data CDs
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2002, 03:14:02 pm »

Actually there is a problem with BOTH the way they are recorded
and the way they are played back. If you are saying that there's
no point fixing the first problem, because the second will get you
anyway, maybe you're right, at least in the short term.

But WITHIN RJ, if I go to the Burn CD dialogue and choose "Data CD"
it will display my playlist scrambled (in the semi-random fashion
I described earlier). This part has nothing to do with the hardware.

My MP3 player may well further scramble the order or alphabetize it,
or whatever, but until the RJ problem is fixed, it wouldn't matter
if I did find an MP3 player that respected the playing order.
Logged

JohnT

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 4627
RE:Major limitation on data CDs track burning sequence
« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2002, 07:48:20 am »

This may not be acceptable to you, but if you turn off "data folder creation" in MJ, it will write the files in the order of your playlist.
MJ writes all files for a particular data folder on the CD before moving on to the next data folder. The data folders are written in the order that they first appear in the playlist.
To turn off folder creation, click on Options in the CD burning dialog, select "Rearrange CD folders" and choose "None". Then drag (or send) your playlist to the burner.
If your player supports an "m3u" playlist, MJ always writes one into the root directory on the CD with the exact order of your playlist.

- John T.
Logged
John Thompson, JRiver Media Center

Ubae

  • Guest
possible workaround
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2002, 11:09:38 am »

I have a Soul mp3/cd player (which is remarkably similar to the Rio Volt). Once I upgraded the firmware for the device, I was then able to load the playlist.m3u file that MJ burns to the CD. That allows me to play tracks in the correct order.

Hope that helps someone out there.
Logged

Callithumpian

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 487
  • Subvert the Dominant Paradigm
RE:Major limitation and erratic behaviour
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2002, 08:18:46 pm »

From an old thread

One solution:
Before burning, copy the files to another directory (anywhere).
Import the copies and sort them by date. This should put them in the order in which they were copied.
Goto the properties dialogue box and under tools, "fill track numbers from list order".
Then, again under tools, "rename files from properties". As a template use say track#-artist-album or something of your choosing so long as track# comes first.
Now burn the tracks to the data CD and even when they are sorted alphabetically by a player/device they will still be in the order that you wish.
After burning delete the copies from you HD.
I do this all the time and while it may sound complex, I can do it for a CD full of say 10 folderised playlists in about 10 minutes.
Logged

Anon

  • Guest
RE: Data CDs track burning sequence
« Reply #8 on: August 30, 2002, 10:58:00 am »

I have confirmed that no matter what sequence, or track order that you specify in Media Jukebox, when you burn a cd with the data folder creation option enabled, it comes out with the tracks reordered alphbetically. You confirm this with an MS-DOS boot disk with CD-ROM drivers on it. This lets you look at the directory in the old fashioned unsorted DOS manner.

This occurs even when your playback list is in the same exact order that the sorted Artist\Album folder creation order would be.

Imagine how fun it is to listen to "Dark Side of the Moon" with the tracks sorted alphanumerically.

Media Jukebox does not need to do this in order to function.

This is in my opinion a BUG!
Logged

Dangerous

  • Guest
Major limitation and erratic behaviour on data CDs
« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2002, 01:36:45 pm »

I have a RioVolt SP100 and a 250.  The Alphabetic sorting is performed by the RioVolt itself.  If I play the same dta CD on a TDK Mojo it plays in the order the files were burned.  So I think the issue is with the MP3 CD player.

"Dangerous" Dave
Logged

Anon

  • Guest
RE: data CDs track burning sequence
« Reply #10 on: August 30, 2002, 05:58:03 pm »

Dangerous Dave,

you need to pay more attention to the facts. In above messages, it is stated explicitly that even though the track order on the CD is incorrect, the playlist that is created and the ID3 tags are correct.

Your TDK Mojo can use the playlist and/or the tags. That is why it plays the order correctly.

The order as burned by Media Jukebox is INCORRECT, as we have all been saying.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up