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[Wobbley]

Steve,

I apologize up front for the long post.  I've done some testing and here's what I've found (or not found rather):

TEST: Songs w/ ID3v1 tags but no ID3v2 tags play properly on iPod regardless of encoding

method.

DESCRIPTION: Create a temporary playlist.  Select a few songs and remove ID3v2 tags.  

Populate ID3v1 tag info for selected songs.  Add selected songs to temporary playlist.  Sync

playlist with iPod.  Test iPod to see if songs play properly on iPod. Delete Files Not In

List checked, Update Tags checked.

TEST RESULTS:Failed -  Attempted to sync "A Man Called Adam - Duende"; Sync process halted

at track 8, "Wouldn't She"; "Cancel" button did not work; "End Now" attempts fialed.  Media

Center "Not Responding";Ctrl+Alt+Del would not terminate process; iPod screen no longer

displays circle with slash icon, but does still say "Do not disconnect";forced to turn off

PC by holding down power button.Forced to reset iPod by holding down MENU and >|| buttons at

same time (after reboot - iPod frozen until reset).  After reset, iPod recognized. Opened

MC;explored iPod;iPod empty;explored Albums, Artists, Genres, and Playlists nodes under

drive letter representing iPod;Nothing under Albums, Artists and Genres nodes;Playlists

nodes contained 4 empty playlists;each playlist seemed to have a <space> as it's name (name

was blank, but clicking on each playlist seemed to indicate that it was named with a

<space>, i.e. pressing the space bar on keyboard;Attempted to delete the 4 playlists but

playlists could not be deleted;Undocked (using Eject Device in MC)iPod to check song

capacity;No songs on iPod, but capacity at 27.7 gig instead of expected 27.8 gig;Attempted

to resync same playlist, only this time, unchecked both Delete Files Not In List and Update

Tag Info;Sync finished, but only synced tracks 10 and 11 (the last 2 tracks on the album, as

if the other 9 tracks were on iPod);Undocked iPod to see what tracks showed on ipod and if

tracks would play;No tracks showed on iPod;Nothing showed under Artists or under

Albums;Redocked iPod;Closed MC;Performed restore of iPod to ensure nothing on iPod and that

it was back to original state;Made strong batch of freshly ground Panama Hartmann Estate

coffee in anticipatory preparation for long night, no cream, no sugar;Restore of iPod

complete;iPod Manager initiated;Disk Mode enabled;Home application set to blank;Opened

MC;Formatted iPod for MC;Attempted resync of aforementioned playlist;DID NOT check Delete

Files Not in List nor Update Tags;Sync occured correctly;Ejected iPod from within MC;Note:

All tracks burned with LAME.exe at VBR using --alt-preset standard -Z setting (lowest bit

rate of the 12 tracks was 93 and highest bitrate was 179);All tracks appeared on

iPod;Scrolled to album;Highlighted first track on album;Pressed >|| button to play

track;Track showed on Now Playing screen (for about 4 seconds);iPod skipped to track 2 and

began playing track 2;Deleted tracks from iPod by selecting all tracks in iPod track listing

view in MC and pressing Delete key on keyboard;All tracks deleted successfully;Playlist

remained on iPod;Right-clicked playlist and deleted playlist successfully;Selected tracks in

playlist from View Scheme and deleted tracks completely from PC;Re-ripped album using MC's

MP3 VBR Encoder (LAME dll) with --alt-preset standard -Z setting;Only used ID3v1 tags, no

ID3v2 tag info added;After songs re-ripped, added songs to aforementioned playlist and

synched playlist with iPod;Ejected iPod;Attempted to play first song from album on

iPod;Scrolled to Albums and selected album;Highlighted first track on album and pressed >||

button on iPod;Now Playing screen appeared with first track info;iPod waited ~ 4 seconds,

then skipped to track 2 and began playing track 2;Re-docked iPod;Deleted tracks from iPod;Deleted playlist from iPod;Deleted tracks from MC and PC;Re-ripped CD using MP3 Encoder at CBR of 192;Added tracks to playlist;synched playlist with iPod;Ejected iPod from within MC;Browsed through artists and selected album;Highlighted first track and pressed >|| button;Now Playing screen showed selected track;iPod paused for ~4 seconds then skipped to track 2 and began playing track 2;Re-docked iPod;Deleted songs from iPod;Deleted playlist from iPod;Deleted just ripped tracks from MC;Re-ripped tracks using MP3 Encoder at CBR of 160;Added newly ripped tracks to playlist;Re-synched playlist with iPod;Undocked iPod;Scrolled to tracks;Highlighted first track on album;Pressed button in cetner of scroll wheel;highlighted track (first track on album) showed in playing now screen;Track appeared for ~4 seconds without playing, then iPod skipped to track 2 and began playing track 2.  Giving up now...

[JC]

Wobbley,

My head hurts after that post ... what firmware version do you have on your iPod? Factory firmware is 2.0 ... if you updated, it's 2.0.1.

Thanks!

[crowfan]

I have not the willpower to read that whole post....but I think I'm having a similar problem.

Nothing appears on my iPod after syncing.  I have MC 9.1.209, iPod plugin 9.0.36, and iPod firmware 2.0.1.  I've resynced a couple of times -- each time, All Music was selected, once I had Update Tags selected, another time I didn't.  MC will scan through all songs, but noting will get fixed.  All of the music is on the iPod, it's just not in the navigation lists (Artist, Album, etc are all blank). I can't get to any of it.  Is there any way of me getting out of this without Restoring the iPod and waiting the 75 or so minutes to re-download everything?  I have a sinking feeling the answer is no....

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

[Wobbley]

Sorry, to just to be clear, I have the most recent (and will always have, because I'm anal about things like that, for future post reference) everything....MC version, iPod plugin, iPod firmware, etc.

I discovered that my problem (I', 99% sure at least) was that I had made changes to the files in MC (either tag changes or file renaming from within MC) after the files were added to the playlists that I sync, but I had not run an "Update Library" process.  Upon several syncs, MC would lock up on one song and I would have to literally hold the power button on my PC for 10 seconds to turn it off because nothing (and I mean nothing) worked to end MC ro the sync.  I would then have to reset the iPod (while still docked).  Out of curiosity, once my PC rebooted, I dug around the /iPod_Control/Music folders and discovered that in folders F02, F05, F07, F15 and F19, there was, in each of said folders, one track that did not have any tag info (and each track's name, i.e. 15260.mp3, 15261.mp3, etc. was a consecutive number).  If I right-clicked said tracks, unlike the tracks that did display tag info in Windows XP explorer, the properties summary (and advanced info) had no information about the track other than it was 2 channels and 44.1Hz.  Because of no tag info, and because it was at 5:30 this morning, I could not figure out a way to determine what the actual tracks were (I tried to compare file size of tagless tracks with file size of tracks in synched playlist, but couldn't seem to find matches...or maybe I'm just blind...hmmm unintentional archane reference to 3 Doors Down lyric).  Anyway, I just said f__k it and cleared my library, did a re-import, created my playlists again (didn't want to import saved playlist for fear it would hold corrupt info and was too lazy to examine playlist in notepad), synched w/ ipod and everything worked fine.

I wish to God that MC would auto update the d__ned library after tag and/or file info changes instead of making me remember to "Update Library" everytime.  Maybe once I get all tags and filenames in order it won't be a big deal, and maybe that's what they assumed when they didn't make auto update a standard feature, but right now it's a pain in my a__.

Hope this helps others with similar problems...

Wobbley

[Wobbley]

By the way, JC, kudos for reading my post.  I got too lazy to make it more readable because I was focusing on getting all the testing steps down...

Sorry for those now permanently damaged from the post...free beer at 605 for those damaged souls that can find it...

Wobbley

[Wobbley]

Oh yeah, crowfan, the answer is no...Sorry, chap, now you know what I've been through 6 times in the past 12 hours...

Suicide is not an option, remember that...

Wobbley

[Kurt Young]

Had a little oddness last night; lost my playlists.  No worries, I was in a formattin' mood anyhow.

Big request:

Rather than abending if I'm trying to sync a .jpg or .avi, could you build the plugin to just "ignore" image/video filetypes?  It can be kind of a pain tracking down which smartlist that .jpg snuck into or, conversely, adding "mediatype=audio" to all my smartlists.

I know you wouldn't want to "ignore" other music formats, what with transcoding, but could you set it to "ignore" the images and video?  Pweeease?

[ashawley]

Wobbley:

Er, I'm a little confused.  What is this Updating library business you're doing?  I mean, I know how to do it, but my question is why are you doing it?

MC9 automatically updates your tags for you (as long as you have it configured that way, which is the default)

The only reason you should have to update your libary is if you remove tunes from your computer and do it outside of MC9.

As a rule I do all my management of my files through MC9.  Such as renaming etc.  That way my library is always in sync.

Just curious....

Adam

[Wobbley]

Adam,

I do all of my music management from with MC as well, and until very recently, I thought that MC (the DB) kept up with all the changes I made while in MC.  But, I had some serious problems with synching my iPod and the only thing I could think of was that I had made some change IN MC and it somehow did not get propogated to the DB and that I had not run the Update Library process because the sync that failed worked fine the day before (the sync, and all related settings, was the exact same, i.e. same playlists, same songs, etc.)...I didn't necessarily believe my hypothesis, but it was the only thing I could think of that had changed (the tags and filenames) since the last successful sync.

Wobbley

[SteveG]

Everyone,

A plea for help. Please when reporting bugs, try to be as brief as possible and eliminate as many variables as possible.  The more specific a problem you can report and the more specific you can be in finding a way to tell me to reliably replicate the problem, the more you can help me resolve things as quickly as possible.


Adam,

The soundcheck/replay gain is getting closer. The other issues are not resolvable because the data I need is not saved by the iPod firmware (i.e. playcounts) This data must be saved while the player is disconnected for me to have a chance to access it.  Currently it is not saved.

Crowfan,

You could try the "Rebuild Database from iPod" option. This will try to reconstruct your database from the files that are on the iPod. You will lose your Playlists, but hopefully they can be recovered on a subsequent synch.

Kurt,

Your request is in the next MC build.

_K_C,

Please try again with tonight's MC. I hope I fixed it this time.

Wobbley,

I appreciate the time you took in posting your problem and the detail that you went in. Can you try to make the issue a little smaller and clearer to save me some time. Please don't take offense, I am just short on time and can't sift through all you threw out.

[Wobbley]

Steve,

No offense taken.  I'm a developer myself, and if one of my clients submitted an error report that was anything similar to my verbose posting to which you undoubtedly are referring, I would promptly tell them to "!@#$ off", so thanks for being polite!  I will attempt to summarize my findings (note: it is in my nature to ramble on):

- I still have the problem of the iPod skipping to the next track when I select a song to play.  But to clarify, I can skip back to the song I initially attempt to play and it DOES play, but only after it's been skipped.  No one else seems to have the problem, so maybe there's something wrong with my iPod.

- That huge post was mainly this:

- While trying to test the problem above, I created a playlist with one album's worth of tunes.  11 tracks from the "Duende" album by an artist called "A Man Called Adam".

- The sync started, and at track 8, "Wouldn't She", the sync window stopped showing sync progress and MC locked ("Not Responding").

- The "Cancel" button on the sync dialog box brought up the "End Now" program termination dialog box, but that didn't work, and neither did Ctrl+Alt+Del and trying to end the process in the Windows Task Manager.

- The "Do Not Disconnect" message was on the iPod's screen, but the circle/slash icon was not blinking.

- I had to manually shut down my PC by holding the PC's power button in for 10 seconds AND reset the iPod (Menu+>|| buttons) to get the iPod to act normal again.

- After rebooting and redocking, I "Restore"d the iPod with the new firmware updater (2.0.1), then formatted iPod for MC. Note: the iPod had firmware 2.0.1 when the sync bomb first occured.

- I tried syncing with a different playlist, with about 1500 songs (which included the aforementioned album), and the sync bombed again.

- repeated reboot/reset steps mentioned above, but DID NOT restore, then examined iPod_Control/Music/Fxx folders. A total of about 30 files made it to the iPod before the sync crash.

- Of those 30, 5 files, each file in a different Fxx directory, did not have any tag info displayed in Windows Explorer (the other 25 did).  The filenames of the 5 files were something like 15260.mp3, 15261.mp3, etc. (consecutive number names). Note: the 5 files did have tag info in MC and in Windows Explorer when viewed on my harddrive.

- Performed restore of iPod, cleared Media Library, reimported all mp3 files, created new playlists with same names and tracks as the playlists that incurred the sync bomb, and the sync went fine.

I feel I've been too long again, so I'll end it here.

Wobbley

[SteveG]

Wobbley,

Does the crash occur everytime you try to synch teh "Duende' playlist at track 8? If so, what happens if you just send that one track? If it fails, check that the file is playable and if you can, send it to me.  The fact that the reimport fixed things tells me that something may have been screwed up with your file paths but there is no way to know for sure.

Thanks,

Steve

[Wobbley]

Steve,

No, that entire album was part of the last sync which was successful.


Wobbley

[crowfan]

Steve,

THANK YOU....the Rebuild Database function worked!!!

Wobbley,

I made it without Restore!  Yay!

crow

[jgourd]

If you reconnect your iPod and MC reports the files as being on MC, this information is being reported from the database on iPod. To know if the files really are there, check the file path from within MC and then browse to this location from Windows to see if the file is actually there. If you see this behavior, please give me some instructions on what you are doing to create this situation. Also tell me what version of MC you are running and what version of the Plugin. What OS as well.

Media Center Registered 9.0.178 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

Microsoft Windows XP 5.1  (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1813 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1048 MB, Free - 597 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2600.0000 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpclient.010817-1148) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2600.0000 (xpclient.010817-1148) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2600.0000 (xpclient.010817-1148) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Ripping /   Drive F:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:IDE   Read speed:8
 Drive G:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Drive H:   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 F: SONY     CD-RW  CRX210E1    Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:48  MaxSpeed:48  Use MJ Engine:Yes
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None


Portable Drives Plugin - 9.0.22


What I do is copy a new album to the iPod. When I undock the iPod, I cannot access the files, they just do not show up anywhere. If I reconnect the iPod, they show up in the list in MC9. The only way I can get them to appear on the iPod is to rebuild the database and lose all my playlists.

[SteveG]

Everyone,

I am taking off in an hour and will be out of contact until Sunday.  Until then, if you have any problems or questions you will have to help each other out and I will pick up on Monday. Have a good 4th.


Wobbley,

In your first post, everything went south after the failure of track 8 to transfer. After a restore, everything went fine. It is hard to say what caused the problem originally. I am reluctant to believe it is an inherent problem with the plugin or you would be able to replicate the problem. Please let me know if you see it again and we can troubleshoot it from there.

jgourd,

Please try getting the current version of the plugin (9.0.36) and a new version of MC ( at least 9.0.180) but preferably 9.1.209. If you go with 9.1.209, please read the caution on the download)

[ashawley]

Wobbley:

Just so you feel in good company, the skipping track issue has been around since the first gen iPods.  I still experience it from time to time.  Might want to post feedback to Apple and see if they can fix it.  I'm convinced it's a firmware issue.

The other issue that I'm not convinced is firmware related that you might experience is tracks ending before, well, they should end.  Like halfway or less than halfway through the track.  Seems like this was introduced recently.  I know it happens on my 1.2.6 gen 2 and my 2.0.1 gen 3.  So, I'm inclined to think it's related to MC9 somehow.  

I know Steve, you don't think so, but if I get some time, I'm going to play around w/Xplay to see if I can duplicate it there.

Adam

[crowfan]

Can anyone help me?

I have MC 9.1.210, iPod plugin 9.0.37, and iPod firmware 2.0.1....

-- I've just Restored and formatted my iPod for MC.
-- I downloaded all of my music.
-- I ejected the iPod and removed it from the dock.
-- I look at the playlists, and one of them is blank.  There is a blank space where the playlist should be, and there is an arrow next to it. There is no music in there if I click that one.
-- I plugged the iPod back into the dock, thinking that I could just resync that playlist.
-- The iPod appears in the tree at the left of MC for about 10 seconds then disappears. The same thing happens in Windows Explorer.

As a net result, I can't access my iPod on my computer. I can remove it from the dock (I don't have to Eject it because it's already been "ejected" after the 10 seconds) and plug it in again and it will reappear, but only for the 10 seconds again.  What can I do?  Has anyone seen this before and offer me some advice?  I don't want to have to format and re-download every time I try to sync.

Thanks,

crow

[Sam]

Would it be possible to use both MC9.1 and MoodLogic2.5 to load songs and create playlists on the same iPod?
It looks like MoodLogic can see the songs loaded by MC9.1 on the iPod fine.

[Wobbley]

Crow,

When you dock the iPod, before the 10 seconds has elapsed, open the iPod manager and make sure that Enable Disk Mode (or whatever it's called) is checked (turned on).  Also, if you know how, disable the iPod Manager from starting up as you don't need it (not the iPod Service, the iPod Manager).  In addition, you may try deleting the registry entry added by the plugin (the one that is entry "7" that adds Media Center to the list of iPod Manager startup programs.

I had the problem you're having and one ar all of the things I just mentioned fixed my problem and I haven't had it since.

Let me know how it goes.

Wobbley

[Wobbley]

Adam,

Thanks for the post.  I also have a 1Gen 5 Gig iPod w/ 1.2.6 firmware and don't have any problems with it what so ever (it's one of the first 100 iPods ever sold in the US, so it is really 1st Gen)...

I've never had the problem of songs being cut short, I just have the problem I've mentioned before.

Maybe there's something wrong w/ my iPod internally...who knows really, I guess I'll just have to deal with it

Thanks again,

Wobbley

[wanderso11740]

I have an G2 Ipod and I am trying out MC9.  I send files to the handheld (which is set up to enable local drive). and when I try to sync, I get the message that the device doesn't support ogg format, enable file conversion.  The files are in mp3 format already which the ipod supports.  I can enable conversion and it works, but it slows the download up significantly and I don't want to convert anyway.  Why does it think it needs to work in ogg format.  I have looked in device options and the there are options for cd coversion but none for handheld.  How do I configure this.  I am ready to go back to ephpod as it at least downloads the mp3s.
thanks

[ashawley]

wanderso11740:

Are you absolutely sure the files aren't .ogg files?  What you might want to try is deleting all the tunes from your MC9 library, then reimporting them and when you do, click the Advanced tab and only import .mp3 files.

Then try it.

I've never seen this before and can only imagine that some .ogg files got in there.  If that works, go ahead and import the rest of your files.  Then, when you sync, sync off of a smartlist.  And add to the smartlist (or smartlists) a filter for: file type=mp3.  You can use the smartlist wizard to add that, don't have to type it in manually.

Adam

[crowfan]

Wobbley,

I tried your suggestions (all but the registry one, I couldn't find that key/entry) and it seems to have cleared up, but then the information was missing from the iPod (the music was there but the tag info was gone).  I did a Rebuild Database from MC and that brought the info back, but now I have mulitple entries for the same artist, and blank entries under some artists that contain songs....ever heard of this one? Anyone else for that matter?

Thanks for all help given,

crow

[wanderso11740]

Deselecting all but mp3 did work.  I did however search the directories for type file of ogg and I didn't have any so I am not sure why this was occuring.  How do I add a filter=mp3.  I have gone through the helps and guides and the directions are completly confusing.  Do I click on the handheld or on the now playing.  Is it a right click or from the menu to put in a custom filter.  I can see how they might be useful.  Please forgive my ignorance, but the helps aren't all that clear, although it is clear that MC9 is a powerful tool.
thanks

[molarman]

I'm stumped.  Am hoping someone can explain this.  Steve??

I just received a 2nd gen 10 gb iPod acquired from ebay.  It is in "like new" condition.  I already own a 20 gb model.  Wanting to do a quick check, I restored the iPod using Apple's Updater.  I then fomatted with MC9.  Lastly I synched 1 (rather small) playlist.  

The iPod shows "0" songs in the "About" screen and my playlist is not listed.  Any guesses as to what I have done wrong?  This is the same PC I use to sync with my 20 gb iPod with no problems.

=============
Edit:

The files are apparently on the iPod.  Using MC9, I can explore the iPod and in the "iPod Control" folder there is a "Music" folder which contains a number of sub-folders (F00 - F19).  Most of these have an MP3 file in it.  I can double click on the file and the MP3 begins to play with Windows Media Player.  So the files appear to be on the iPod's HDD, but do not show up on the iPod screen.

Hmmmm.

===========================

Media Center Registered 9.0.180 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2410 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 240 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / 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: No /  Copy volume: 32767
 Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: Yes  Soundfile:   C:\WINDOWS\Media\tada.wav

Burning /  Drive E: TOSHIBA  DVD-ROM SD-R5002   Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:16  MaxSpeed:16  Use MJ Engine:Yes
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[Wobbley]

crow,

First, here's the registry entry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Apple Computer, Inc.\RegisteredApps\7.  Delete the "7" key (right-click the "7" and choose "Delete".  Exit the registry. Note:You'll have to do this everytime you install a new version of MC or a new version of the iPod Plugin. I guess it really doesn't matter, because if you don't use (disable the starting up of) the iPod Manager, nothing will be running that looks in the registry anyway...

Second, not sure why your files were like that.  If it's not too much trouble, delete the stuff off the iPod, then do a re-sync and before you sync, make sure you select the right artist info that you want on the iPod (you know, right-click the iPod drive letter under CD/DVD/Handhelds in MC and choose the appropriate artist value to use on the iPod).

I bet this will work, although can't guarantee...

Wobbley

[Wobbley]

molarman,

check out the playlists on the iPod from within MC and see if you have 4 blank playlists that you can't delete.  If so, post back.

Wobbley

[Wobbley]

wanderso11740,

I know you say you have no .ogg, but I assure you that you do somewhere.  I had a friend call me with the same problem a few days ago and he swore he only had mp3s, but sure enough...

If you want a filter like file type=mp3 to ensure that you only try to sync mp3 files, you're going to have to create a smartlist with that filter and sync the smartlist insteead of normal playlist.

Wobbley

[molarman]

molarman,

check out the playlists on the iPod from within MC and see if you have 4 blank playlists that you can't delete.  If so, post back.

Wobbley

Well, I can't explain it, but my problem no longer exists.  I charged the iPod up for a while and then reconnected to the PC.  I then reformatted in MC and resynched.  Suddenly, it works fine - all the songs that were in the playlist I synched showed up on the iPod.  I synched again adding more playlists.  Once again all went well.

Oh well - can't argue with success.  Thanks Wobbley.

[Seviien]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed on these boards...
A few weeks ago, I ran it by Kurt Young, and I figured it'd make sense to air it out now to see if anyone else has any thoughts.

It would be ideal to have the ipod and MC synch playcount data, but this is not possible because winnie pods do not log playcounts.  People have, however, transfered the firmware image of a mac ipod into a winnie pod loader.  The purpose behind this was to make new firmware availble to pc users faster than apple intended.  I've used these images to format my ipod (currently running firmware 1.3), and everything works flawlessly with MC.  Technically, it's mac firmware though, so the ipod reports playcounts just as mac ipods do.

Formating an ipod thusly is no doubt in violation of its EULA, but that fact not withstanding, I was wondering if it would be possible to somehow integrate this functionality into MC.

[ugilt]

People have, however, transfered the firmware image of a mac ipod into a winnie pod loader.  I've used these images to format my ipod (currently running firmware 1.3), and everything works flawlessly with MC.  Technically, it's mac firmware though, so the ipod reports playcounts just as mac ipods do.

Only one comment - Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.
PLEASE give advise on how to make this happen

[Iplod along]

I have recently purchased v9 of MC. I am running on Windows XP with 320 RAM and firewire connection.

I have been suffering from syncing problems which involved a slow file conversion process.

Yesterday MC did not appear to recognise my Ipod. Artists and albums folders appeared under the CD, handheld etc folder but without details of any files.

MC would only permit me to copy files to my Ipod so I had to endure a long conversion process of uploading files. Yesterday SteveG advised me that when syncing to use the option to force the file conversion.

Upon doing this I have lost the full contents of my Ipod. The music library remains full.

Any suggestions of how to restore my Ipod of my music library?

?

[_K_C_]

Bugs
Current build MC9 beta, XP Pro, transcoding and sync'ing APE files.

Where: some ape files have already been transcoded and transferred successfully.

(1) Resyncing with additional files.  Plugin skips files already synced, then generates a "file type not supported" error message at the end of the sync.

(2) Resyncing where a large number of files are skipped as they have already been transferred.  Plugin crashes MC when the number of skipped files is large. (Not sure how large, sorry.)

(3) Creating a new playlist/smartlist using files that have already been transferred.  Plugin skips all of the files and does not create the playlist.

Of these, (3) is the most important as the first two can be worked around.  IMHO of course  

[Kurt Young]

Seviien,

My emails to the midfield went unanswered,

[CautionESPN]

I have recently purchased v9 of MC. I am running on Windows XP with 320 RAM and firewire connection.

I have been suffering from syncing problems which involved a slow file conversion process.

Yesterday MC did not appear to recognise my Ipod. Artists and albums folders appeared under the CD, handheld etc folder but without details of any files.

MC would only permit me to copy files to my Ipod so I had to endure a long conversion process of uploading files. Yesterday SteveG advised me that when syncing to use the option to force the file conversion.

Upon doing this I have lost the full contents of my Ipod. The music library remains full.

Any suggestions of how to restore my Ipod of my music library?

?

Try to rebuild your database.  This shoudl retrieve the file information within the iPod
Chris M

[mindracing]

I just can't figure this one out so any help would be appreciated.

I have an 8 CD 'Spoken word' set that I have ripped. Each disc has a seperate Album name.
Each track has a seperate name.
All 8 CDs have the same artist.
The artist has only these 8 CDs.
They play fine within MC.

However, when I attempt to sync them using 'send to' they won't all show in the Queued files window. Some do, some don't.

I have tried to do this from a playlist too woth the same result.

If I Queue one CD it queues up the files twice!

If I upload with the 'duble' list the Plug in hangs on the last file.

It is only this artist/album that gives me this problem.

Any ideas?
Media Center Registered 9.0.180 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Unknown 208 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 383 MB, Free - 111 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping /   Drive D:   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 D: TOSHIBA  CDRW/DVD SDR2102   Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:8  MaxSpeed:8  Use MJ Engine:Yes
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[dcwinton]

Howdy all...

Odd problems here.  

iPod 2.  15 gb.
Updater 2.0.1
MC 9.0.180
Windows 2000

This iPod has worked fine before...Before I got a new computer and changed OS from XP to Win2K.  

Have updated iPod with new Updater.  Have formatted the device through MC 9.  The iPod shows in Win Exlorer as disk L, labeled IPOD.  It shows in my device tree in MC 9, complete with Albums, Artists, Genres and Playlist subdirs.  When I send files to the iPod, all seems to go well, meaning that the songs, etc. appear on the upload menu.  But as soon as I hit "Upload," MC crashes and I get this message:  

"Media Jukebox.e.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows.  You will need to restart the program.  An error log is being created."



Time after time.    And, to add insult injury, I can't find any error log anywhere.

[Wobbley]

First,

Do you have the iPod Manager running?  If so, do you have enable disk mode turned on (checked)?  If not turned on, turn it on.

Second, try the same thing only using playlists and right-clicking on the iPod and syncing from the right-click menu on the iPod drive letter under CD, DVD, handhelds.  Do you still have the same problem?

Wobbley

[dcwinton]

Yes.   Disk mode is enabled.  

No, syncing from the right click menu makes no difference.  

And, FWIW, the iPod subdirs doesn't seem to recognize anything called a "playlist" anyhow.  It's all just songs and artists and albums.

[mindracing]

Steve,

Having investigated further, the problem seems to be that if the track name and track number are the same the queuing gets lost. Definitely either a plug in or MC problem.

The pic below shows the result of right clicking on Dominic O'Brien and choosing send to F: (iPOD).

There should be 80 files in the list but it only queues 11.

It seems like it took tracks 1 to 9, all of the first album, and then looked to the next album for track 10 and then the next one for track 11. As there is no track 12 on any of the albums it stops there.

[SteveG]

Adam,

Please let me know the results of the tests with XPlay or other apps so you can disprove my thinkning that this is firmware/hardware related.


Crow,

You could try a synch with 'Update Tags' and "Delete files not in Synch' selected to try to clean up the corruption in your database. If that does not work, a reformat may be your best bet.


wanderso11740,

Are you all set?


Seviien,

It might be possible, but we are not willing at this point to try it based on the EULA problem you mention.

Iplod along,

Upon doing this I have lost the full contents of my Ipod. The music library remains full.  

Any suggestions of how to restore my Ipod of my music library?

Can you clarify this for me?

KC,

In an effort to duplicate (1) I started with a clean iPod.  I synched a playlist with 5 .ape files and converted them on the fly. I resynched, and they were skipped. I added another file and it converted and was synched correctly. Can you try this test or give me another suggestion on how to definitely duplicate this?

I need to test (2) more. (3) is a bug and I will work on it soon.


Kurt,

My emails to the midfield went unanswered

Midfield who  

Mindracing,

I will have to look into this. In the meantime, what happens if you drag and drop 'Quantum 1' and 'Quantum 2' onto the ipod and transfer?


dcwinton,


Could you retry reformatting from Windows and then format from within MC. I know you mentioned you did this, but If MC always crashes when you upload, how did you get the files on iPod after the format you did before? Also, consider going to MC 9.1 if you can.  Lets pursue this more tomorrow.


Steve

[_K_C_]

KC,

In an effort to duplicate (1) I started with a clean iPod.  I synched a playlist with 5 .ape files and converted them on the fly. I resynched, and they were skipped. I added another file and it converted and was synched correctly. Can you try this test or give me another suggestion on how to definitely duplicate this?

I need to test (2) more. (3) is a bug and I will work on it soon.

Steve

I appreciate the work you're putting into this.

Give me a couple of days and I'll try and narrow down (1) and (2) as best I can.  So far I've been trying to sync my whole collection.  I'll work with some smaller playlists and let you know.  

Kevin

[mindracing]

I will have to look into this. In the meantime, what happens if you drag and drop 'Quantum 1' and 'Quantum 2' onto the ipod and transfer?

Dragging and dropping cues them up nicely but they don't transfer. The upload dialogue opens and runs and then I get an empty Information box and nothing on the iPOD.

I then have to reformat to get it to sync and after synching nothing is on the iPOD. This is my first full sync since installing the latest plug in 3.037 (which displays as 3.036 in Plug in manager).

[mindracing]

Steve,

Got it synched again so no problem there.

I have another album set with similar naming (Track 01, Track 02 etc.). This gets the same result.

Dragging artist or album works fine.

What I do notice when watching the upload in the Upload Files window is that only the first albums status is refreshed. It does this the same number of times as the number of albums being uploaded.

So, for a 5 album set it refreshes the status of album 1 5 times (Queued, Uploading,Finished) and doesn't report the status of the other 4. All are transferrred OK though, but only using drag and drop.

Using 'send to' gets the result in my post above.

In summary, the files can be uploaded by using drag and drop, but I know perfection is important to you and getting 'send to' to work would give the plug in more completeness.

Ash

PS: Send To works fine when sending these albums to Create/Select Playlist - must be the plug in.

[dcwinton]

Steve:  Thanks for your help.  I did download 9.1.210 and it seems to work better.  But it still doesn't recognize playlists as playlists.  I just uploads the songs as individual songs, but they're not organized in any fashion except as Artist/Album.

Also, any idea why MC rips so much more slowly than Musicmatch?  I use Musicmatch ONLY to copy CD's because it does it in about half the time.

Thanks for all your good work.  Great product.

[SteveG]

dcwinton,

We rip slower because we use a higher quality encoder by default than MusicMatch. If you want speed over quality, you can try a different encoder.

To get your playlsits on iPod, either synchronize by right-clicking on your iPod drive letter and selecting 'Synchronize' or drag and drop a playlist on the iPod drive letter. In either way, the playlist should be created and populated on iPod.

Steve

[Iplod along]

Try to rebuild your database.  This shoudl retrieve the file information within the iPod
Chris M

Thanks for the info Chris. Any suggestions or do you mean I should rip the files again?

[Iplod along]

Try to rebuild your database.  This shoudl retrieve the file information within the iPod
Chris M

Thanks for the info Chris. Any suggestions or do you mean I should rip the files again?

[SteveG]

Iplod,

Right click on your IPod drive letter and select 'Rebuild Database from iPod'. No need to rerip the files.

Steve