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Author Topic: Creative ZEN related problems  (Read 2480 times)

ZaxonXP45

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Creative ZEN related problems
« on: November 17, 2003, 12:25:28 pm »

BUG 1:Copy from the MP3 player to HDD:

I try to copy some files from the Creative ZEN player back to the PC. I select
the directory where the files should be copy and a whole process went through
"ok", but the files weren’t copied on the HDD. Also the time of completion this
task was susspicious (too short comparing to the upload time).

This looks like a bug.

BUG 2:Playlists made by "Nomad Explorer" are empty:

When the playlist is created after uploading files using RedChair Nomad
Explorer, the MC9.1 shows no any MP3 file on such playlist.

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/empty_playlists/empty_playlists_1.jpg

When the such playlist is opened in the ZEN or Nomad Explorer it shows the
files and is able to play them:
   
    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/empty_playlists/empty_playlists_2.jpg

I susspect that the "\" character makes this problem for MC9.1 because when I
renamed the playlists the problem dissapear:

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/empty_playlists/empty_playlists_3.jpg

But comparing the first two links you can see that MC9.1 didn't display the
propar name of the playlist:

            MC9.1:  Karma (Limited Edition - Disc 1)
    Nomad Explorer:  Delirium\Karma (Limited Edition - Disc 1)

This looks like a bug.

BUG 3:Creating a playlist from the files which are queued to copy on the MP3 player

When adding some files to upload on the MP3 player (Creative ZEN) and try to
save these files on the playlist on MP3 player, the MC9 says:

    "To add files to a Playlist that are not on the NOMAD, please drop them on
    the correct playlist"

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/empty_playlists/playlist2.jpg

When it happened I had to click "OK" button so many times as the number of the
selected files which I wanted to have on the playlist (in my case 274 times).

Moreover, the empty playlist file is created on the MP3 player!!! ~:|

This behavior should not be like this. The MC9 should:

    a) pop-up one window with a message where it could say that "<nr> files are
    unable to be saved in a playlist". The list of these files should be
    displayed in the scrollable window.

    b) The MC9 should mark these files and remember the playlist name which
    should be created automatically on the MP3 player after the uploading of
    these files will be done.
   
    This will allow to have a clear view which files were last uploaded on the
    MP3 player (because the names these files will be available on the
    playlist) without a necessity to mark them one by one, then save the
    selection as a playlist.

    When the portable player already have a lots of the files, where are many
    artists and many albums it is REALLY IMPOSSIBLE to find the new uploaded
    files on the MP3 player.

BUG 4:CD-Audio track --> MP3 player - ripping, encoding and uploading on the fly:

When I try to rip the CD directly to the MP3 player the file names are not
created correctly.

I insert the new CD-Audio to the CD-ROM, got the correct names from CDDB
database, then I select all tracks and send them to the MP3 player (Creative
ZEN). I the NOMAD options I selected "Force file conversion during upload",
selected "Encoder: MP3 Encoder VBR", "Quality: Normal/Low", pressed "OK"
button, then "Transfer".

What was happen it was quick uploading (maybe 5-10 seconds) and after that the
files appeared on the MP3 player. BUT:

    a) the file names were in syntax "Track01, Track02, ..."
    b) the files were completely EMPTY - no way to listen them from the MP3
    player.

Some pictures are here:

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/encode_on_fly/encode_on_the_fly_1.jpg
    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/encode_on_fly/encode_on_the_fly_2.jpg

I also try to play this file from the MC9.1, but it refuses to do this:

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/encode_on_fly/play_from_portable.jpg

It would be a nice to extend a future version of MC9.1 about possibility to
play the tracks from the portable players as well (the Nomad Explorer currently
can do it).

BUG 5:Transfer buttons are wrong:

When some files are added in the MP3 player queue for uploading the "Transfer",
"cancel" and "options" buttons are not present. Instead two big sqares are on
the sides:

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/no_buttons/no_buttons.jpg

Fortunatelly the "left" sqare doing a "transfer" and "right" the "cancel", but
there is no "options" button anyway.

BUG 6:No files in the right pane when the Handheld group selected:

When the MP3 player is initialized, and when some group of files are selected
(artists, albums, genres, etc) the MC9 does not display all files which in the
selected group in the right pane (file list) even if it display the files when
only the Handheld is selected (from the root node of the handheld):

  http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/no_files/handhelds1.jpg
  http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/no_files/handhelds2.jpg

This is also not consistent with the rest of the tree element (library, My
computer, CD's, playlists, etc.). Normally it should be unified, that all files
should be visible also from the handhelds.

BUG 7:Transfering DVD tracks leads to the reboot:

When the DVD track is send to the MP3 Player (Creative ZEN) and after that the
transfer button is pressed from the Handheld item on the left panel tree, the
MC9.1 makes an instant reboot of the computer!

By my view the MC9.1 should either:

    a) pop-up the message that the file can't be send to the portable player or
    b) send the file as a data file, which will not be visible from the player
    (it the portable player allow for uploading a data files, like Creative ZEN
    can do)

BUG 9:Removing the files from the MP3 player, tree window:

When I want to remove one of the albums/artists from the left panel (tree
window) pressing the "Delete" key the message window pop-up:

    "Are you sure you want to delete the selected track(s)?"

Pressing "Yes" caused only the refresh of the right file window and none of the
file (neither whole album/artist) wasn't deleted. (bug)

The only possible way to delete the album/artist is to delete all tracks from
the album then the album will disappear from the tree window.

BUG 10:Drag & dropping/sending from "My computer" to Handheld:

When dragging the directory from the tree panel from the "My computer" and drop
it on the Handheld tool, the MC9 freezes forever (wn98se). Before that the
"Real Player warning" pop-up on the screen:

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/send_from_pc/send_from_pc_1.jpg

I just wonder why the MC9.1 need Real Player for uploading WMA files to the
portable player??

When selecting the folder from "My computer" and send it to the MP3 Player,
then look what is in the queue I saw that nothing was there, even if normally
the files inside the folders should be found and added to the queue.

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/send_from_pc/send_from_pc_2.jpg


My system Info is here: http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/system_info.txt
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SteveG

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Re:Creative ZEN related problems
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2003, 01:29:38 pm »

Zaxon,

Which Zen do you have? What drivers? What version of the Nomad Plugin?

Steve
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ZaxonXP45

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Re:Creative ZEN related problems
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2003, 02:44:27 pm »

Which Zen do you have?
20GB FireWire
http://be.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?prod=369&page=6
Quote
What drivers?
Nomad Explorer shows the version 3.0.0.1. From the Creative web page I took the 1.20.04b but I see that there is a new version 1.20.04c. But the Nomad Explorer has no problem with thew version b.
Quote
What version of the Nomad Plugin?
Name: NOMAD Jukebox   Version: 9.0.27
Copyright: Copyright (c) 2003, JRiver, Inc.
Supported OS: Win9x Win2000 WinME WinXP

Regards,
Zaxon
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SteveG

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Re:Creative ZEN related problems
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2003, 03:35:31 pm »

Zaxon,

Bug 1 -  I can duplicate this with a Zen Xtra and will test with the Zen. What I see happening is that the files are created on the PC but they are 0 kb. This is a problem with the Zen SDK that I have. I will get the latest and see if it fixes it.

Bug 2 - MC does not allow '\' as a character in a playlist. One solution is that I can rename the '\' to a '/' on the Nomad and then all will be well for MC but it may not be the desired result for other apps.

Bug 3 - This is fixed in the next build of the Plugin (9.0.29) which is not yet available. Proabably tomorrow.

Bug 4 - This should be disabled in MC 9.1.306

Bug 5 - I cannot duplicate this. It sounds like you see this sometimes and sometimes not. Any clues?

Bug 6 - This can be changed in the future, but not now.

Bug 7 - This should be disabled in MC 9.1.306

Bug 9 - This should be disabled in 9.1.307 when it becomes available.  Sometime tomorrow probably.

Bug 10 - Do you have files other than .wma in the folder you were dropping? My best guess is that you had files that we require Real Player for playback. In this case, when you import we will show the message you see.




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ZaxonXP45

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Re:Creative ZEN related problems
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2003, 04:43:48 am »

Bug 1 -  I can duplicate this with a Zen Xtra and will test with the Zen. What I see happening is that the files are created on the PC but they are 0 kb. This is a problem with the Zen SDK that I have. I will get the latest and see if it fixes it.

For my case there was no files at all. :|

Quote
Bug 2 - MC does not allow '\' as a character in a playlist. One solution is that I can rename the '\' to a '/' on the Nomad and then all will be well for MC but it may not be the desired result for other apps.

You can rename them like this. The Nomad Explorer should be able to read these characters as well

Quote
Bug 3 - This is fixed in the next build of the Plugin (9.0.29) which is not yet available. Probably tomorrow.

OK. I will try it when it will be available.

Quote
Bug 4 - This should be disabled in MC 9.1.306

Is there a chance that this feature will be implemented correctly in the near future?

For me it would be a very useful thing to rip the CD-A tracks directly on the portable player, in which case I could do this by "one step" instead "two steps" as it has to be done now (first ripping on the HDD, then upload on the player).

Quote
Bug 5 - I cannot duplicate this. It sounds like you see this sometimes and sometimes not. Any clues?

Hard to say. This only happen on the Win98se on my DesktopPC, but it was ok on the Win2k on the laptop.

Quote
Bug 6 - This can be changed in the future, but not now.

It is not so important but it would be nice to have such thing in the future. :)

Quote
Bug 7 - This should be disabled in MC 9.1.306

Will it be a chance in the future to upload/download some other files than multimedia files (MP2, WMA, etc) on the portable devices, like for instance "Creative File Manager" can do? I'm talking about using the portable players as a portable HDD's, which makes a sense since the MC9 supporting the images library and other types of the files (for ex. WAV files).

Quote
Bug 9 - This should be disabled in 9.1.307 when it becomes available.  Sometime tomorrow probably.

ok, the small one

Quote
Bug 10 - Do you have files other than .wma in the folder you were dropping? My best guess is that you had files that we require Real Player for playback. In this case, when you import we will show the message you see.

No, in fact the directory structure was as below:

    Delirium:
      |-> Karma
      |      |-> 1.track_1.wma
      |      |-> 2.track_2.wma
      |-> Semantic Spaces
             |-> 1.Track_1.wma

and I drag the "Delerium" directory and "drop" it on the portable player (Why "iPod" image, not "ZEN" ?? ).
Then I wondered why MC9.1 wanted to use RealPlayer for this?

Also the MC9 should not hang when it was done.

Sorry about finding these bugs, but I'm a nasty user which in work testing a software. ;)

Regards,
Zaxon
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SteveG

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Re:Creative ZEN related problems
« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2003, 10:54:33 am »

Bug 1 - Upon further review, I can only duplicate this if I am transfering protected files which the Zen disables (i.e. the files that ship with the Zen). What happens if you try to transfer unprotected files?  If you have a problem I will test on 98SE. The SDK Creative provides does not provide any error messaging for this scenario that is why I do not report anything.

Bug 2 - This change is in the next plugin build.

Bug 4 - Not right now.

Bug 5 - If you can replicate a pattern, let me know.

Bug 7 - This should work in the next build of MC and Plugin

Bug 10 - What happens when you import that one of those files from MC (not using anything related to Zen)? If RealPlayer still fires up, can you email me one of the files? (steve @ jriver.com)
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ZaxonXP45

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Re:Creative ZEN related problems
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2003, 06:11:05 pm »

Bug 1 - Upon further review, I can only duplicate this if I am transfering protected files which the Zen disables (i.e. the files that ship with the Zen). What happens if you try to transfer unprotected files?  If you have a problem I will test on 98SE. The SDK Creative provides does not provide any error messaging for this scenario that is why I do not report anything.

How to distinguish the "protected" files from "unprotected"? I try to upload some file using MC9.1.308, and also these uploaded by Nomad Explorer. In every case downloading back to the PC was not possible. :(

If you can, please do some tests on the Win98SE? Or maybe you have some "debug" modules (as the "CDManager.dll" which I got from johnt @ jriver.com) which could display more messages and which I could use on my system?

Quote
Bug 2 - This change is in the next plugin build.

Currently (MC9.1.308) i can confirm a playlist name change from '\' to '-', but now the files attached to such playlist are not visible from MC. Looks like I have to wait for the new plugin. :-\

Quote
Bug 4 - Not right now.

Will you add this to the TODO list or do I have to ask about this again later on?

Also I noticed, that dissabling this you might also dissabled the "Show only queued/all files" in the tree panel (handheld element), which now didn't do anything. :(

Quote
Bug 5 - If you can replicate a pattern, let me know.

The pattern is the same for each build I got:

 - 306 - the buttons are in the different places:

     http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MJ9/MC9-Transfer.jpg

 - 307, 308 - and here are in the different as well:

    http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/no_buttons/no_buttons.jpg

What is more "funny" that I can acces them if I click first on the below text window (the one with the text "Click the "Transfer" button...") using the TAB key. The missing "Option" button is accessible when the TAB key is pressed and when the selection of the button nor text window is visible. All this happen on the Win98se and everything is OK on the Win2k.

Quote
Bug 7 - This should work in the next build of MC and Plugin

Indeed. Now it is not possible to send anything like DVD track in the handheld queue.

But I found that MC.9.1.308 crashes when the DVD tracks are send to the Creative ZEN.

The Creative Zen was not connected and not detected from the MC9.1.308 when the
sending operation was performed (unpluged cable).

    EDIA JUKEBOX spowodowa&#313;‚ b&#313;‚Ä…d: nieprawid&#313;‚owa strona w
    module MEDIA JUKEBOX.EXE przy 0197:0060bd89.
    Rejestry:
    EAX=ffffffff CS=0197 EIP=0060bd89 EFLGS=00010286
    EBX=00000000 SS=019f ESP=0098d5e4 EBP=0098d840
    ECX=00725f00 DS=019f ESI=0098d620 FS=438f
    EDX=000000cc ES=019f EDI=ffffffff GS=0000
    Bajt&#258;&#322;w w CS:EIP:
    66 8b 08 40 40 66 85 c9 75 f6 2b 44 24 04 d1 f8
    Stos:
    0040415c ffffffff 010d2c68 028707b4 0098d620 0098d628 00641198 00000000
    004348c4 ffffffff 00000001 010d2478 00000000 ffffffff 00000001 00725f14

Quote
Bug 10 - What happens when you import that one of those files from MC (not using anything related to Zen)? If RealPlayer still fires up, can you email me one of the files? (steve @ jriver.com)

If I try to upload them dragging only files from the "My Computer" wndow (not whole directory structure like previously) and
drop them on the handheld icon. It was OK, the Real Player window didn't pop up.

But when I drag the directory structure (the "delirium" directory, as it was on the drawing) then MC9.1.308 pop-up the Real Player plugin window. When I press "Exit" on this window, the whole MC does not responding, and after some time the crash happen. :(

I also noticed the crash when I try to open the context menu on the tree (handheld element):

    MEDIA JUKEBOX spowodowa&#313;‚ b&#313;‚Ä…d: nieprawid&#313;‚owa strona w
    module KERNEL32.DLL przy 0197:bff9db61.
    Rejestry:
    EAX=c00309c4 CS=0197 EIP=bff9db61 EFLGS=00010212
    EBX=015ffe28 SS=019f ESP=014ffe34 EBP=015000d0
    ECX=00000000 DS=019f ESI=00000000 FS=1337
    EDX=bff76855 ES=019f EDI=bff79198 GS=0000
    Bajt&#258;&#322;w w CS:EIP:
    53 8b 15 e4 9c fc bf 56 89 4d e4 57 89 4d dc 89
    Stos:

The files were created using MC9.1.

Generally, If you have some "debug" libraries, that I could use them to get more debug info it would help to find the problem more easy.

Regards,
Zaxon
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ZaxonXP45

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Re:Creative ZEN related problems
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2003, 07:11:08 pm »

Hi,

I checked the MC9.1.309 with the Creative ZEN plugin v9.0.29. Here my results:

:( BUG-2 Playlist is visible partially:

   In the Nomad Explorer: Delirium\Poem (CD2)
   In MC 9.1                     : Poem (CD2)

Additionally there is no files assigned to this playlist (the MC9.1 didn't display them.

:( BUG-3 The WMA files are not supported on the ZEN

Previously (plugin 9.0.27) they were supported. Now the MC does not allow to upload them:

  http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/wma/wma_not_supp.jpg

Trying with MP3, no joy as well:

   http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/wma/no_mp3.jpg

Can I upload something?

When I added some files from the queue to the playlist, then  the previous message window pop-up:

   http://www.albedo.art.pl/~murphy/MC91/ZEN/empty_playlists/playlist2.jpg

But in fact empty list is created and since BUG-9 is dissabled it effectively refuses to remove such empty playlist. Maybe because I create them with such name:

      my\testing\playlist

MC9.1 allowed to do this, but after that on the ZEN Playlist tree only the "playlist" word was displayed. Looks like the BUG-2 is not fixed too. :(

Uffff... enough for today...

Zaxon
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SteveG

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Re:Creative ZEN related problems
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2003, 12:40:50 pm »

Yesterday's MC build included a bug that would cause transfers to fail. This is fixed in today's builds.


Bug 1 -  
Quote
How to distinguish the "protected" files from "unprotected"?

An excellent question for Creative. They don't provide a way to tell.

Bug 2 - I created a Playlist using Creative's software called Test\One and added 5 files. When I opened MC, MC renamed this to Test/One and the correct files were still in the playlist. Please retest doing this test with today's MC release (9.1.310) and Plugin (9.0.30).

Bug 4 - I will add it, it would not hurt to mention it later. The Show only is fixed in today's build.

Bug 5 - This is a quirk in 98SE. I created a work around in today's build and all should be OK.

Bug 7 - Please retest after today's build.


Bug 10 - Please email me one of the files so I can test here. (steve @ jriver.com)

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