Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 24402 times)

SteveG · « **on:** February 05, 2004, 04:48:31 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://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=17798;start=0

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

lalittle · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2004, 06:20:24 pm »

Quote

The new iPod code bases file matching on an Artist, ALbum, Genre, Name matching system which necessitates the removal of the option to name files by 'Filename' and Artist by anything other than 'Artist'.

Forgive me, but what does this mean? I'm unclear if this implies that I'm supposed to do something different, or if I need to change something in my existing files. Could you explain this issue in more detail?

Thanks,

Larry

PS. Are there any special precautions for going back to the previous version if this one doesn't work properply with the iPod, or do I just run the .60 installer right on top of the .62 installation?

lalittle · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2004, 06:21:41 pm »

Does this build potentially take care of the Audible file issues?

Thanks,

Larry

canaro99 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2004, 06:23:42 pm »

Steve,

Thanks for the input; it's what I suspected. I look forward, O mighty Oz

to future changes!

Keep up the good work.

lalittle · « **Reply #4 on:** February 05, 2004, 06:51:21 pm »

I'm trying to re-initialize my iPod in order to try this version, but MC crashes every time I try to do this. When I click on the iPod, I get the message saying that I'll have to reinitialize, so I hit "yes" and the menu comes up. I select "initialize" and the initialize screen comes up, pauses for a little while, then the MS error message screen comes up. When I close this screen, I drop back to the desktop.

I'm currently doing a full iPod "restore," after which I'll once again try to initialize.

UPDATE: I did an iPod "restore" with the iPod software, and the MC initialize worked this time. MC was unable to initialize the iPod without first doing a restore.

Larry

lalittle · « **Reply #5 on:** February 05, 2004, 07:06:51 pm »

My first sync with this version is taking place. My first reaction is that syncing speed is over 50% faster than before. My average speed on the same system using 9.1.316 was right around 5MB/s. At this moment, the sync speed is hovering at around 7.80MB/s.

Larry

RemyJ · « **Reply #6 on:** February 05, 2004, 07:22:20 pm »

Quote from: lalittle on February 05, 2004, 07:06:51 pm

My first sync with this version is taking place. My first reaction is that syncing speed is over 50% faster than before. My average speed on the same system using 9.1.316 was right around 5MB/s. At this moment, the sync speed is hovering at around 7.80MB/s.

Larry

I noticed the speed increase as well. Synching 200 files started at about 14MB/s then gradually dropped off to about 8. Usually it quickly dropped to 5.

RemyJ · « **Reply #7 on:** February 05, 2004, 07:27:24 pm »

If you do a sync and there are no new files to sync, there is a couple of quick flashes of an unreadable dialog box and the AW with no indication of exactly what's happening.

lalittle · « **Reply #8 on:** February 05, 2004, 07:33:51 pm »

Can anybody tell me what "necessitates the removal of the option to name files by 'Filename' and Artist by anything other than 'Artist'" means?

Thanks,

Larry

JimH · « **Reply #9 on:** February 05, 2004, 07:40:03 pm »

Just copying Steve's last post in the old thread:

"Tonight's MC build (10.0.62) includes the new iPod code. In order to use it you will have to reinitialize your iPod which means losing your existing files and playlists on the iPod. The new iPod code bases file matching on an Artist, ALbum, Genre, Name matching system which necessitates the removal of the option to name files by 'Filename' and Artist by anything other than 'Artist'. Please use with caution at this point, because this is a major rewrite of the iPod code and there is more testing to do. If you are feeling bold, give it a whirl and let me know of problems and I will begin addressing them immediately. "

serf · « **Reply #10 on:** February 05, 2004, 08:31:13 pm »

I had to restore with iPod software, initialize & it appears to have transferred al 5k plus files, but no playlists.

Disconnect & reconnect in order to resynch - MC10 can't find any files under "artist" or "album", but shows them in root directory. Resynch start shows "-25.7" GB would be left - this is when trying to resynch the same roughly 26 GB on a 30 GB iPod. In other words, it is not "seeing" the files it had transferred moments before.

No time left tonight to initialize again and try another synch.

10.62 working for anyone?

lalittle · « **Reply #11 on:** February 05, 2004, 10:12:19 pm »

This release causes numerous serious issues with my iPod (rendering my iPod effectively useless.) Going in the order I discovered these various issues:

1) After the sync, I had a message that one of the songs couldn't be transferred due to error code "80." I searched the forum, but I couldn't find any information on what this means. This songs has been in my library for months with NO changes made to it, and has always been synched to the iPod without issue (in fact, this is the first sync error message I've EVER received.)

2) After the sync, the statistics were all screwed up. For example, the playlist I use to sync has 5605 songs, 660 artists, and 444 albums. After the sync, the MC showed the iPod having 5503 songs, 228 artists, and 444 albums. Note that while the songs and artists was way off, the album number was correct.

3) On top of this, as I was trying to compare differences between what was "supposed" to be on the iPod and what was actually on it, MC kept crashing. For example, I highlighted the iPod, and when I highlighted the original playlist for comparison, MC crashed. Simply highlighting various items in certain orders causes crashes. I had to keep restarting MC in order to look at different items. Highlighting the "playlist" group under the iPod also causes an MC crash.

4) The playlist is not on the iPod -- only the "on the go" playlist appears.

5) Perhaps most important is the fact that so far, I only ended up with 1 or 2 songs from each album on my iPod. I checked about 2 dozen albums randomly, and none of them had more than 2 songs -- random songs from the middle of the albums. It seems like about a third had 1 song, and two thirds had 2 songs. None had more than this.

6) Of my dozens of different Audible files organized as numerous "albums," only a SINGLE Audible "album" was transferred over, and only ONE of the two tracks of this album transferred. In other words, out of the roughly 50 Audible files that were supposed to be transferred, only ONE actually did.

7) The one Audible files that DID transfer does not play.

There may be other issues as well, but I figured these were enough to stop and report what I was seeing.

Larry

RemyJ · « **Reply #12 on:** February 06, 2004, 12:35:33 am »

62 stopped recognizing my iPod as an iPod.

After realizing that the playlists and counts were off, I tried to eject the device but MC hung. After killing MC, stopping the iPod, and restarting MC, it treated the iPod as an ordinary portable. Tried formatting and restoring the iPod to defaults but that didn't help. I finally had to go back to 60 to get the iPod to be recognized. I tried going up to 62 again after getting it working again on 60 but 62 still recognizes the device as an ordinary handheld.

tlongacre · « **Reply #13 on:** February 06, 2004, 10:24:13 am »

Quote from: SteveG on February 05, 2004, 04:48:31 pm

Hello All,

For additional information, please check the previous help thread at:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=17798;start=0

BTW, this link just takes you right back here, not to the previous help thread.

Penfold · « **Reply #14 on:** February 06, 2004, 03:18:39 pm »

Well I'm getting the same as lalittle mostly:

Quote

1) After the sync, I had a message that one of the songs couldn't be transferred due to error code "80."

Aye, I got 2 but the files had never caused a problem before.

Quote

2) After the sync, the statistics were all screwed up.

I was approx 1000 songs lighter after sync apparently

Quote

4) The playlist is not on the iPod -- only the "on the go" playlist appears.

Me too

Quote

5) Perhaps most important is the fact that so far, I only ended up with 1 or 2 songs from each album on my iPod. I checked about 2 dozen albums randomly, and none of them had more than 2 songs -- random songs from the middle of the albums. It seems like about a third had 1 song, and two thirds had 2 songs. None had more than this.

This may or may not help, but I sync'ed with .60 last night, this morning tracks were missing from albums that were played not days before with no problem also playing order was mixed up. Checking MC & Winamp confirmed tags were unchanged.

Sync speed ranged from 14-12.9MB/s throughout (same as 10.0.38) but sync process certainly seemed faster. (Maybe it was the missing 1000 songs though)?

Microsoft Windows XP Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1990 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 261 MB

3G 40GB iPod, approx 20GB used

SteveG · « **Reply #15 on:** February 06, 2004, 04:40:45 pm »

Everyone,

10.0.64 will resolve the issue that some were having with MC not recognizing the iPod. The shortage of files that some are reporting, is a result of the new design. What I mean by matching based on Name, Artist, Album and Genre is that MC when synching will treat any files on your Portable as duplicates if these fields match. If you have multiple files that are different files but share this same data, multiple entries will not be created on the iPod. Based on what I am seeing, I may need to make improvements on this to accomodate many apparant multiple matches for these fields. Audible issues are not resolved yet. Speeds will be reported as faster because only the actual files transferred are being reported during the sync, not all the playlist entries.

Tlongacre,

That link seems to work for me.

lalittle · « **Reply #16 on:** February 06, 2004, 05:18:32 pm »

It seems like taking the full path/filename into consideration would be the only sure way of making sure every file that was SUPPOSED to get transferred actually did. Everything else could be duplicated, but not the path/filename -- this is always unique for every song.

I can tell you that the missing files on my iPod definitely don't have all those fields in common -- the "name" fields were completely different, yet I only got 1 or 2 songs for each album. There was definitely a pattern in this regard. I didn't look at every album, but of all the ones I DID look at, none had more than 2 songs.

Thanks again,

Larry

PS. Has there been any progress on the Audible issue?

lalittle · « **Reply #17 on:** February 06, 2004, 05:51:24 pm »

As with .62, I cannot initialize over a previous sync with .64. I'm currently doing an iPod "restore" in the hopes that this will allow me to initialize.

Larry

PS. What's the reason for the "initialize" in MC? I was just curious since MC is the only synching program that seems to need this extra step.

lalittle · « **Reply #18 on:** February 06, 2004, 06:36:15 pm »

A friend of mine just asked me what app I would recommend for use with an iPod. I want to tell them MC, but given the Audible issues (which is important to them) I can't help feeling tentative about this. Is there any prognosis on how long this issue might take to resolve, or is it completetly up in the air?

Thanks for any information on this,

Larry

mclaugh · « **Reply #19 on:** February 06, 2004, 06:43:32 pm »

Quick Question, not related to the present discussion.
I've had my Gen1 10 gig Ipod for some time now, and I was surprised by my wife tonight with a brand new 40 gig!!!!
I'm on .60 right now, and I plan to install .64 before I plug my new Ipod in. I did a search and didn't come up with much, but I have two questions:
-anyone else that's upgraded Ipods, what did you have to do to have Media Center recognize them both?
-also, does it continue to register play counts of both, etc?
Thanks in advance.

RemyJ · « **Reply #20 on:** February 06, 2004, 08:20:32 pm »

Build 64 now recognizes my iPod but I'm confused about initialization.

When I connected the iPod, MC gave me the message about how the device would need to be initialized but then proceeded to show all the tracks, playlists, etc. that were on it. So did I need to initialize it or not? I did anyway but if it's required you shouldn't show the data currently on the device.

RemyJ · « **Reply #21 on:** February 06, 2004, 08:30:06 pm »

Bad news....

Playing the the "Delete unselected files from handheld" option causes the iPod itself to become inconsistent. Mine now reports 0 songs when it should have 510 but only 11.5gb free out of 18.5 available. The only solution is to reinitialize the device.

Once reinitialized and resynched, the counts are still off. The device reports 510 tracks but MC reports 791 in the track list (no dups). I can identify specific tracks that show in MC but are not on the device.

A sync only syncs the first playlist checked in that "session". I.E. Open the sync dialog and check 5 new playlists. The space tally onlt accounts for the first (plus any existing). Press start. Only the existing and the first new playlist checked is synched. Open the sync dialog again and all 5 new playlists are checked and the space is calculated correctly. Press start and all are synched.

Madcow · « **Reply #22 on:** February 06, 2004, 08:57:10 pm »

Quote from: SteveG on February 06, 2004, 04:40:45 pm

What I mean by matching based on Name, Artist, Album and Genre is that MC when synching will treat any files on your Portable as duplicates if these fields match. If you have multiple files that are different files but share this same data, multiple entries will not be created on the iPod.

Could you change this to include Track Number as well? I have several albums that for one reason or another have more than one track with the same name (a few as untitled, and in one memorable case two tracks called Baader Meinhof on the album Baader Meinhof by the group Baader Meinhof!) Including track number would differentiate all of these just fine.

lalittle · « **Reply #23 on:** February 06, 2004, 08:59:00 pm »

With the .64 build:

1) After the sync, I had a message that one of the songs couldn't be transferred due to error code "80." This song has been in my library for months with NO changes made to it, and has always been synched to the iPod without issue. The only difference with this sync compared to the .62 sync was that the error was reported for a different song.

2) After the sync, the statistics were all screwed up. For example, the playlist I use to sync has 5605 songs, 660 artists, and 444 albums. After the sync, the MC showed the iPod having 5503 songs, 228 artists, and 444 albums. Note that while the songs and artists was way off, the album number was correct. Note also that the numbers are EXACTLY the same as the .62 sync I did yesterday.

3) When I tried to compare differences between what was "supposed" to be on the iPod and what was actually on it, MC kept crashing. This is the same behavior I reported above with the .62 sync.

4) The playlist is not on the iPod -- only the "on the go" playlist appears.

5) Perhaps most important is the fact that I only ended up with either 1 or 2 songs from each album on my iPod -- none of the albums has more than 2 songs. It's probably important to note that as far as I can remember, the songs that transferred are the same ones that transferred before.

6) Of my dozens of different Audible files organized as numerous "albums," only a SINGLE Audible "album" was transferred over, and only ONE of the two tracks of this album transferred. In other words, out of the roughly 50 Audible files that were supposed to be transferred, only ONE actually did. This is the same one that transferred with the .62 build.

7) The one Audible file that DID transfer does not play.

8 ) (This is a new one.) I ejected the iPod, and when I plugged it in again, MC now reported FAR fewer songs, artists, and albums then it had before I ejected it. The numbers were completely different from what MC had just reported a moment ago.

Larry

lalittle · « **Reply #24 on:** February 06, 2004, 09:07:38 pm »

Quote

Including track number would differentiate all of these just fine

Not if you don't happen to be using track numbers. I'll admit that track numbers will "usually" be included, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case (i.e. you aren't forced to use track numbers) so from a programming point of view, this isn't a very robust approach to solving the issue. It would be better to TRULY solve the issue by relying on something that absolutely DID differ between every song -- i.e. something like the full path and filename. If you used the path/filename, you would NEVER run into this issue, since these absolutely CAN'T be duplicated on any single system.

Any "solution" that doesn't absolutely eliminate the possiblity of further issues arising is only a workaround.

Larry

RemyJ · « **Reply #25 on:** February 06, 2004, 09:11:01 pm »

Going back to .60.

After adding Top Hits and Recently Played playlists to the sync, MC again goofed up the iPod itself. It now reports only 128 tracks (those in the 2 new playlists) but shows the space used of what it should have (over 600).

bvm · « **Reply #26 on:** February 06, 2004, 10:27:53 pm »

Quote from: Madcow on February 06, 2004, 08:57:10 pm

Quote from: SteveG on February 06, 2004, 04:40:45 pm
What I mean by matching based on Name, Artist, Album and Genre is that MC when synching will treat any files on your Portable as duplicates if these fields match. If you have multiple files that are different files but share this same data, multiple entries will not be created on the iPod.

Could you change this to include Track Number as well? I have several albums that for one reason or another have more than one track with the same name.

That's true for me as well.

Steve can respond authoritatively to the "why not use the full filename" for uniqueness question, but I'm guessing that doesn't work because it isn't a tag! Nothing on the iPod says where the file came from on your PC's disk.

By the way, Steve, when you said "Artist", I'm hoping you meant the actual Artist field, not whatever field (e.g., Album Artist) that I told MC to put in the Artist slot on the iPod.

Whatever set of tags ultimately Steve decides to use for uniqueness, I'm hoping that one of you smartlist experts can come up with a smartlist that will expose which files I have that Steve's going to consider duplicates, so that I can do something to them to make them unique.

lalittle · « **Reply #27 on:** February 07, 2004, 01:53:44 am »

How do programs like Ephpod do it (i.e. what do they use)? Do you "need" to use tag information for this task?

Larry

Ken Brookings · « **Reply #28 on:** February 07, 2004, 04:07:35 am »

Can't download iPOD plug in. Get this message:
"Invalid Package File - Can't Continue"

Help Please

Ken Brookings · « **Reply #29 on:** February 07, 2004, 04:09:30 am »

Sorry, here is my system info

Media Center Registered 10.0.64 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2252 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 225 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1400 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:IDE Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:Normal CD Type:IDE 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: HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8400B Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:32 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: 100 %

lalittle · « **Reply #30 on:** February 07, 2004, 04:22:51 am »

Quote from: Ken Brookings on February 07, 2004, 04:07:35 am

Can't download iPOD plug in. Get this message:
"Invalid Package File - Can't Continue"

Help Please

I'm not sure it really matters at this point -- iPod support seem pretty much broken with this release.

That aside, MC comes with the correct plug-in for the iPod by default, so you don't need to download another one. The "portable drives" plugin is apparently the correct one for the iPod -- this was recently confirmed on this forum.

Larry

Ken Brookings · « **Reply #31 on:** February 07, 2004, 10:30:26 am »

Thanks Larry, I thought the integrated iPOD interface was the deal, but couldn'g get it to recognize the iPOD. Now all makes sense.

JimH · « **Reply #32 on:** February 07, 2004, 10:39:29 am »

Lalittle,
Did you start with a clean iPod? You may need to.

We think the iPod should be working in 10.0.64.

Anyone else?

Ken Brookings · « **Reply #33 on:** February 07, 2004, 10:42:37 am »

Hi Jim, it was a brand new iPOD. So new that I'd don't think I am familiar enough to be reliable in using it or the MC iPOD stuff. Lets assume user error until I have a more informed go at it.
Thanks

tlongacre · « **Reply #34 on:** February 07, 2004, 12:07:57 pm »

I am getting the same results (same problems with .64 as I was with .62.

First, I "restored" my iPod with the Updater, then I went into MC and Initialized it. (I tried not to do this afer the .64 upgrade, but when I tried to Initialize in .64, it just got stuck at about 30%).

Then I synchronized, which seemed to go fine.

However,

1) No playlists. None in .62 and none in .64.

2) aa (Audible) files are not playing. Don't think you guys fixed this, but I'm mentioning it. As ever, when I try to play an Audible file, I find the title and press play and nothing happens.

3) AAC (iTunes) files now suddenly will not play. They were fine before. On these, I find the song, press play and it starts to play (that is, it moves to the Playing Now screen and I can see the duration of the file and the bar at the bottom). But after about 1 second, it jumps back to the Main Menu (yes, all the way back).

The playlist thing is the worst. I only have a couple of Audible and iTunes files. But on a 40gig iPod, it's really hard to do anything without Playlists.

- Tracy

lalittle · « **Reply #35 on:** February 07, 2004, 02:15:54 pm »

Quote from: JimH on February 07, 2004, 10:39:29 am

Lalittle,
Did you start with a clean iPod? You may need to.

We think the iPod should be working in 10.0.64.

Anyone else?

Yes, I started with a clean iPod. I did a "restore" with the iPod software, then an MC "initialize," then a sync. I had originally tried an "initialize" without the restore, but it froze at 30% complete and after several minutes I had to end program on MC. After the restore, the initialize worked.

I then did a sync, and all the other problems came up -- i.e.

- error code 80 on one song after the sync (a different song each time)

- only 1 or 2 songs per album showed up on the iPod

- no playlists

- only 1 of about 50 Audible albums showed up

- on the single Audible album that did show up, only 1 of the 2 Audible tracks in this album showed up

- the single Audible file that showed up does not play

- the statistics for the tracks on the iPod dramatically changed when I ejected/reconnected the iPod

Other than the Audible issue, none of these issues existed before these recent builds. Of course, without Audible files working correctly, going back to the earlier builds is rather pointless, but the new builds have rendered my iPod completely useless.

The fact that you say this build "should be working with the iPod" has me quite concerned given not just all the problems it's giving me, but all the other problem reports I'm seeing on the forum. I've yet to see ANY reports saying that this build works fine with the iPod.

I find myself starting to lose faith here -- i.e. if you guys think that this build works with the iPod, how much hope do I have of these issues getting fixed?

Larry

tlongacre · « **Reply #36 on:** February 07, 2004, 03:00:09 pm »

Quote from: lalittle on February 07, 2004, 02:15:54 pm

- error code 80 on one song after the sync (a different song each time)

Oh, I meant say this -- I also have this error code 80 on some songs. They do seem to be different songs each time. But, what does error code 80 mean? I had this with both .62 and .64. And, for some reason, the box that shows the errors is listing all songs on one line across, so I can see about 3 songs and then I have no idea what is happening after that. (In prior versions, each song was listed on a separate line with it's own error code -- like when I had wma files in a playlist, they obvioulsy wouldn't sync).

FCRay · « **Reply #37 on:** February 07, 2004, 05:27:42 pm »

Quote from: JimH on February 07, 2004, 10:39:29 am

Lalittle,
Did you start with a clean iPod? You may need to.

We think the iPod should be working in 10.0.64.

Anyone else?

Same problems here. I've been using 10.0.35 with no problems. I downloaded 10.0.64 Friday night and problems started. After it said it initialized the IPod, I could look in the IPod folders through the mapped I drive and see the files still there. I tried to initialize it again and it Media Center would crash before begining to initialize. I restored the IPod and initialized it with Media Center again. Then everything looked okay, but when I synched the IPod about a third of the songs didn't sync, and when I disconnected the IPOD it showed no songs, no playlists, no artists, no albums. I also would get the error code 80 everytime I tried to synchronize.

After a few cycles of this and reading all the posts here, I dropped back to version 10.0.35 and once again I have no problems. So there is definitely something in 10.0.64 that does not play nicely with the IPods.

AV Geek · « **Reply #38 on:** February 07, 2004, 05:46:12 pm »

Let's see if I can explain this:

I've created a smartlist called "Big List" that is compiled from several other smartlists. I use this as the main list to sync with my iPod. I have it limited to 13 GB (for my 15 GB iPod.)

I wanted to create 2 sub-lists based on genre, that only take songs from "Big List." I did so by using the "playlist" rule. No problems so far.

The problem comes in the sync-to-iPod process. I checked "Big List" and both sub-lists ("Alternative" and "AAA".) Those sublists should only contain music that is part of "Big List," thereby adding no additional files, but when I sync with those 2 checked, I run out of space on the iPod.

If anyone understands this, are there any ideas or suggestions?

MC9 9.1.316

serf · « **Reply #39 on:** February 07, 2004, 06:02:06 pm »

I gave up on .62 & have not tried .64. I went back to an earlier known good version for a while, as .62 suggested MC is not there yet & I'm not in a rush. Though I, too, am concerned if they think it works on iPods.

lalittle · « **Reply #40 on:** February 08, 2004, 12:50:32 am »

Quote from: serf on February 07, 2004, 06:02:06 pm

I gave up on .62 & have not tried .64.

I have all the same iPod problems with .64 that I had with .62.

Quote

I went back to an earlier known good version for a while, as .62 suggested MC is not there yet & I'm not in a rush.

Unfortunately, since I need Audible support for my iPod, going back to an earlier version doesn't really help me. At this point, I AM in a rush -- I've been waiting for over a month to get my iPod "fully" working with MC.

Quote

Though I, too, am concerned if they think it works on iPods.

That's the part that really bothers me. If they are under the impression that the iPod is working with this build, they either 1) are not having iPod issues with this build, or 2) they are not testing it very thoroughly, if at all. If it's "1," then I'm in trouble since it will be hard for them to fix issues that they aren't having. If it's "2" on the other hand, I'm once again in trouble since this implies inadequate troubleshooting.

What strikes me is that I've see ZERO posts saying that this build works with the iPod, but several mentioning very serious issues. This begs the question of exactly how they're testing it such that they think this build works. Given that there seems to be a change in behavior depending on the number of files in a sync, I'm wondering if they're just synching a few files at a time. As I mentioned in the previous iPod thread, synching a small number of files made Audible files work.

Larry

Rien van Ham · « **Reply #41 on:** February 08, 2004, 05:45:51 am »

I have found 2 problems when sendings mp3's from a CD/DVD to my Ipod:

1. Files are stored on the Ipod with a read-only-flag: this means that Media Center can't delete a file
2. Many artists are not stored on their real-name, but as <many artists> (or something like that)
3. The field "year" isn't stored on the Ipod.

Thanks and sorry for my poor English,

Rien van Ham

lalittle · « **Reply #42 on:** February 08, 2004, 06:12:49 am »

Quote from: Rien van Ham on February 08, 2004, 05:45:51 am

I have found 2 problems when sendings mp3's from a CD/DVD to my Ipod:

1. Files are stored on the Ipod with a read-only-flag: this means that Media Center can't delete a file

My guess would be that they have a read-only flag because they came off of a CD, and this flag gets transferred over to the iPod.

Quote

2. Many artists are not stored on their real-name, but as <many artists> (or something like that)

This may be a dumb question, but did you check the artist fields in MC to make sure they are tagged correctly?

Quote

3. The field "year" isn't stored on the Ipod.

I'm not sure on this, but I don't think iPods store the year field (I know that they can't access this field), so this would make sense.

Larry

PS. That's 3 problems.

Rien van Ham · « **Reply #43 on:** February 08, 2004, 06:50:09 am »

1. Can't MC reset the read-only flag?
2. Off course I checked the artist-field!
3. I-tunes shurely can!

Sorry about the wrong number of problems!

Kinds regards,

Rien

MikeW · « **Reply #44 on:** February 08, 2004, 03:17:07 pm »

First of all, LOVE the product. Compared to the other choices for working with my iPod, this is hands down the best.

Some notes on experiences I've had with 10.64 I applogize for the lengthy post, but hopefully it will help the developer reproduce the problems and/or see a pattern:

1) I tried to initialize my iPod in MC without first doing a restore via Updater, and MediaCenter crashed.

2) Performed a restore via Updater, ran iTunes to let it it copy a handfull (about 40) of m4p files so that my iTunes purchased files would play, and then intialized in MediaCenter -- still crashed.

3) Performed a restore via Updater, than when straight to MediaCenter, and initialized with no problem. Files synched to my iPod (with 1-2 files that wouldn't copy due to error 80). The iPod then seemed fine, except my m4p files wouldn't play (as expected, since iTunes never had a chance to "bless" it.

4) After performing actions in step 3, ran iTunes to copy a m4p file, and then ran MediaCenter -- still no luck: MediaCenter would no longer recognize it, and further attempts to initialize in MediaCenter would result in MediaCenter crashing.

5) Ran Updater to get a fresh iPod, ran iTunes and copied a SINGLE m4p afer telling iTunes that I wanted to manage my iPod manually. Closed iTunes, opened MediaCenter and was able to do an initialize without it crashing. iPod now seems fine, has all my files (except for the couple of duplicates) and is a able to play my iTunes purchased files.

lalittle · « **Reply #45 on:** February 08, 2004, 03:24:08 pm »

Quote from: Rien van Ham on February 08, 2004, 06:50:09 am

1. Can't MC reset the read-only flag?

I was just throwing out a guess -- I've never actually run into this. That said, what version of MC are you using? The newer versions of MC 10 are completely broken when it comes to iPod support.

Quote

2. Off course I checked the artist-field!

Again, what version of MC?

Quote

3. I-tunes shurely can!

Ephpod, another popular synching program, does not show the year field after a synch, but it does have an option to included the year in the title. Is this what you mean when you say that iTunes displays it?

Larry

MikeW · « **Reply #46 on:** February 08, 2004, 03:25:57 pm »

Feature request: As someone who has multiple iPods (my trusty old G1 10gb, and my shiny new G3 40gb) it would be nice to see the name of the attached iPod on the MediaCenter "Drives & Devices" section of the tree. It shouldn't take much -- simply display it the same way it appears in the "My Computer" section of the tree.

lalittle · « **Reply #47 on:** February 08, 2004, 03:56:08 pm »

Quote from: MikeW on February 08, 2004, 03:17:07 pm

iPod now seems fine, has all my files (except for the couple of duplicates) and is a able to play my iTunes purchased files.

I'm trying to figure a pattern as to why some people get all their files after a synch and other don't (I personally am only ending up with 1 or 2 songs per album after a synch.) How many files are in your sync? I know that in the past, MC synching behavior was effected by the number of files in a synch, so perhaps this is the distinction in this case.

Thanks,

Larry

lalittle · « **Reply #48 on:** February 08, 2004, 04:33:42 pm »

Just to update this for troubleshooting purposes, I just used Ephpod to do a full sync of the MC library and everything works -- all the files tranferred over and show up on the iPod, and all of the Audible files play. This is the exact same folder of files that I'm trying to sync with MC.

MC is MUCH more powerful, robust, and intuitive for the synching process so I would MUCH rather use it -- I rely on the smartlists to determine what gets synched to each of my two iPods, and Ephpod doesn't simply doesn't have capabilities that are anything like this. Unfortunately, MC syncs are simply not working for me with these builds, and previous builds don't let me play audible files if I synch more than a certain amount of files.

Larry

RemyJ · « **Reply #49 on:** February 08, 2004, 04:40:57 pm »

Quote from: lalittle on February 08, 2004, 03:56:08 pm

I'm trying to figure a patter as to why some people get all their files after a synch and other don't (I personally am only ending up with 1 or 2 songs per album after a synch.) How many files are in your sync? I know that in the past, MC synching behavior was effected by the number of files in a synch, so perhaps this is the distinction in this case.

Thanks,

Larry

Hmmm. I'm MISSING 1 or 2 tracks per album. Maybe you have them.

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Author Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 24402 times)