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Topic: foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod (Read 1325331 times) previous topic - next topic
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foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1000
Thanks so far in helping me understand more about soundcheck and replaygain.  Here's a follow-up question:

If I add replaygain information to my .mp3 files in fb2k, and don't have soundcheck scanning activated in iTunes, that (rg) information should remain untouched, and still play properly on my iPod (when soundcheck is "on"), correct?  Does adding additional information via iTunes, like playcount or rating info change this?

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1001
Quote
If I add replaygain information to my .mp3 files in fb2k, and don't have soundcheck scanning activated in iTunes, that (rg) information should remain untouched, and still play properly on my iPod (when soundcheck is "on"), correct?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=269321"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Nope. iTunes will overwrite the soundcheck field in the iTunesDB when it creates the file. If it doesn't have volume information from scanning the file, it writes zeros. iTunes doesn't actually change a pre-existing file, it simply rewrites the entire iTunesDB file the way it thinks it should be.

In manual mode, iTunes will only modify the information for files that you manually mess with. However in manual mode, playcount and last played and so forth don't get updated.

Basically stick to one or the other. Soundcheck is almost as good as ReplayGain is, really. In terms of how it sounds on the iPod, the two are usually indistinguishable, in most all cases. The normal difference is minimal. Out of 6000 songs, I've only had to manually adjust 3 or 4 with SoundCheck.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1002
First off, I must say that I love this plugin. If iPods were more widely distributed, I would reccomend this plugin come with Foobar in the Special edition pack.

Second off, I was wondering if you have managed to (even notice) fix the "Various Artists" problem when you have a "various=1" tag added. One fix for this may be having foo_pod autocreate a playlist for these albums. (not going to explain interface problems, I'm sure you can find those out for your self.)

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1003
Quote
First off, I must say that I love this plugin. If iPods were more widely distributed, I would reccomend this plugin come with Foobar in the Special edition pack.

Thanks!

The last I heard, there were more than 10 million iPod sold.  I'm willing to bet that number is at least 1000 times the number of Foobar2000 users...

Quote
Second off, I was wondering if you have managed to (even notice) fix the "Various Artists" problem when you have a "various=1" tag added. One fix for this may be having foo_pod autocreate a playlist for these albums. (not going to explain interface problems, I'm sure you can find those out for your self.)

I'm not quite sure what you are asking here or what the "problem" is. ..

foo_pod doesn't do anything with a "various" tag (that sounds very non-standard to me - correct me if I'm wrong).  What foo_pod does do is if the artist is "Various Artists" or there is a COMPILATION metadata tag (also non-standard...), it sets the compilation flag in the database.  This allows you to create smart playlists rules that use this information.  Maybe that is what you are looking for - if not, please reply with more details on what you want to happen.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1004
well, here's the gist of the "various artists" thing from the Foobar2000 formatting: Readme so it's a fairly common tag, should I change the tag to get it to work properly?

edit: the ipod thing was less of an ipod thing, and more of a "foobar + ipod" thing

edit2: I got it, but there's still a bunch of extra steps involved.

1) Components -> Foo_Pod -> Playlist editor
2) Create new smart playlist
3) Album - Is - (Name)

but can I force the ipod to ignore those songs when browsing through the artist directory?

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1005
Quote
Quote
I'm getting this error while transcoding to my iPod (4G):

ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #0 copying d:\Musica\Kyo\300 lesions\Kyo - 12 - L'assaut Des Regards.mp3 to k:\iPod_Control\Music\F36\

this seems to happen while transcoding mp3 higher than a certain bitrate to a lower bitrate via foo_pod to the iPod.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=264993"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I noticed a similar error (with version 0.9.7a).  I also had trouble transferring a huge list of files that included flac, m4a and mp3 files with and without transcoding of higher mp3 bitrates checked.  I would let it run and come back to my computer a day or so later and nothing would be transferred to the iPod and there would be tons of error messages like the one above.

Transferring the files separately by file type allowed me to transfer the files.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=265099"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

FYI, with a fresh install of foobar and foo_pod 0.9.8 this issue went away for me.

Thanks!

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1006
Quote
but can I force the ipod to ignore those songs when browsing through the artist directory?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=269849"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

No, but you could force the songs to have a different "artist" on the iPod or what have you. In the foo_pod options, change the Alternate Metadata prefix to "POD_". Then add metadata to your various artists songs of "POD_ARTIST = Various" or something like that. You can use the Masstagger to do this more easily.

Anyway, foo_pod will use the POD_ARTIST if it's there or the normal ARTIST if it's not. That's what the alternate metadata prefix is for, to provide different metadata to be used on the iPod on a per song basis. Just add "POD_", or whatever you put in the config screen, to the front of the metadata field you want to override.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1007
edit: hi

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1008
I'm trying to catch on to the full functionality of foo_pod, but 48 pages is a lot to scan through, so I'll just present my problem outright.

I would love to be able to have synchronous playcounts, ratings, and playdates, but I'm not sure how to do that.  I think it has something to do with syncing the iPod, but I don't know what that entails.  I thought syncing meant that the libraries are also synchronized, and I don't want that.  I don't want any file transfers to take place unless I copy files manually, but I would like a quick way for playcounts, ratings and playdates to be uploaded from my iPod to my foobar lib.

So first of all, is this possible?  How do I do it?  How does it work?  How does it recognize songs in my foobar lib for a match?  If I've moved some files on my HD since putting them on my iPod, will it be able to find them to update the playcount, etc. data?

Thanks.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1009
Quote
edit: hi
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I liked the one where you offered to have my children better.  Good thing [a href="http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:LUiNm-WBx7AJ:www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php%3Fshowtopic%3D19156%26st%3D1000+foo_pod+log&hl=en]Google[/url] never forgets!

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1010
Quote
I'm trying to catch on to the full functionality of foo_pod, but 48 pages is a lot to scan through, so I'll just present my problem outright.

This was recently discussed (check the on the previous page).

Quote
I would love to be able to have synchronous playcounts, ratings, and playdates, but I'm not sure how to do that.  I think it has something to do with syncing the iPod, but I don't know what that entails.  I thought syncing meant that the libraries are also synchronized, and I don't want that.  I don't want any file transfers to take place unless I copy files manually, but I would like a quick way for playcounts, ratings and playdates to be uploaded from my iPod to my foobar lib.

So first of all, is this possible?  How do I do it?  How does it work?  How does it recognize songs in my foobar lib for a match?  If I've moved some files on my HD since putting them on my iPod, will it be able to find them to update the playcount, etc. data?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=271555"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Many people have expressed a desire to have the playcount & ratings synchronized between Foobar and the iPod.  Currently, I have no idea how to make this work, as there really isn't a good way to associate a file on your computer (which may or may not be currently in a playlist, thus unknown to foo_pod) with a file on the iPod.  I do have a way to match up files in a playlist with files on the iPod, but the problem is that components that set the rating, played date, or play count modify the original file by adding/updating metadata.  This completely breaks the file matching algorithm, so it turns out that this is a terribly complex problem to solve.

Foobar does have a database feature, which (I'm told) can be configured to save metadata without modifying the file.  So it is theoretically possible that this can be made to work, but I have much higher priority tasks on my plate, such as iPod Shuffle support (almost ready, just adding the "Otto"Fill feature).

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1011
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I liked the one where you offered to have my children better.  Good thing Google never forgets!
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=271560"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


oh snap, google got me busted. and yes, if you could make a txt file that lists
a) features
b) a how-to for morons
I would be eternally grateful.

the how-to is for my sister who got all frustrated when she couldn't send files fast enough.

edit: I've got a friend with foobar ratings, not sure how he gets it done but I might be able to help you figure out how to sync the two if he can figure out how the ratings he uses works. because it does rating and play count, not sure if it edits metadata or holds it's own database though.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1012
Hi, when I send files to the iPod and the foo_pod playlist does an automatic update, the files in the playlist are displayed partially out of order.  Is there something I'm doing wrong?  There doesn't seem to be any problems on the iPod itself, but it would be much easier to tell what I've put on the iPod if the playlist appeared in order on foobar.  Thanks!

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1013
Quote
Hi, when I send files to the iPod and the foo_pod playlist does an automatic update, the files in the playlist are displayed partially out of order.  Is there something I'm doing wrong?  There doesn't seem to be any problems on the iPod itself, but it would be much easier to tell what I've put on the iPod if the playlist appeared in order on foobar.  Thanks!
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=271966"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

When you use the "Load iPod Songs To Foobar2000 Playlist" feature, foo_pod automatically (and unalterably) sorts the songs by artist/album/tracknumber/title.  If you use the "Load iPod Playlists As Tabs" feature, foo_pod will show the default hidden playlist, which contains all of the files on the iPod.  This is more or less in the order you added them, although if you delete songs, foo_pod will reuse their positions.

If you want a true chronologic order of songs added to your iPod, I suggest creating a Smart Playlist like this:  create a new smart playlist, don't change the artist/contains defaults, but check the Limit To checkbox, set the limit count to 9999 songs, then Selected By Least Recently Added(*).  Then you can open the smart playlists as tabs, and you will see all of your songs, in the order they were added.  This is also nice to have on the iPod, since you can see all of your songs in one list, and remember the latest songs you have added.


(*) Most Recently Added will also work, except it will sort from newest to oldest songs.  This is actually more useful on the iPod, so you could either use this, or create 2 smart playlists.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1014
Gidday Aero.

Just wondering how foo_pod support for the shuffle is going?

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1015
iPod Shuffle Update

I picked up an iPod Shuffle today (and I didn't even ask for any donations... ).  I have been working with Otto, along with the author of GNUPod and others to reverse engineer the new database formats, and I already had the code in place to create the necessary database file.  So the development version of foo_pod was able to load songs onto the Shuffle right out of the box, on the first try. 

Edit: Fixed awkwordly worded sentence to make it clear that Otto is not only Perl illiterate, but also not the author of GNUPod.

There are still a few unknowns, but more than basic support is already in place.  I am hoping to get the "Otto"Fill feature implemented soon, but I might release foo_pod 0.9.9 before it is complete.


Some notes on the Shuffle:

* It does not appear to play any non-iTunes encoded AAC files.  Both FAAC 1.24 and Nero's AAC encoder (as of Nero 6.3) create files that play fine in iTunes and other iPods, but don't play at all on the Shuffle.  I haven't really investigated this yet, but it is somewhat discouraging since I often transcode to .m4b format, since that is the only format which uses bookmarking.
Edit: This may be, in part, due to the way Foobar tags M4A files.  I had a working iTunes encoded file which I then applied the ReplayGain in Foobar, and from then on, it wouldn't play on the Shuffle.  However, a plain FAAC encoded M4A file didn't work either...


* iTunes doesn't seem to play well at all with other applications and the Shuffle.  I have been unable to get it configured so that it doesn't wipe out the non-iTunes uploaded content every time iTunes is started.  Again, I have only used it for a few hours so there might be a solution, but it isn't as easy as with normal iPods.

* File transfers to the Shuffle are much slower than with regular iPods.  Using USB 2.0 High Speed, with a regular iPod I typically see transfer rates around 10MB/s.  But with the Shuffle, typical transfer speeds are more like 1.5MB/s.  If you go into the Windows Device Manager and set the "Optimize for performance" write caching policy, transfer rates go up to around 3.5MB/s.  But this might require one to use "Safely Remove Hardware" to avoid corrupting the disk.  Also, on one computer, the Shuffle didn't show up at all on the front panel USB ports, but worked fine on a hub attached to the rear ports.

* Overall, it seems like a nice little player, at least for the types of situations that you would want to use it.  Audio quality is very good - it sounds similar to a regular iPod with the Latin EQ setting enabled (i.e. a little extra bass and treble).  The controls are dirt simple, and I actually like have a real on-off switch, which hopefully will prevent the Shuffle from drawing down its battery when off (unlike regular iPods).  And no, I don't miss having a screen at all...  If you accept that this is player that you turn on and forget about while you workout or whatever, the lack of the screen isn't a big deal.  A lot of otherwise smart people seem to completely miss this point.


So now the big question in my mind is how extendable the Shuffle will be.  One interesting thing is that it uses/requires the same iTunesDB file as regular iPods, along with a bare bones iTunesSD file.  I'm not sure why Apple designed it that way - it seems like they could/should have stuck everything necessary into the simple iTunesSD format...  One thing that I have already extended is adding ReplayGain/SoundCheck support for the Shuffle.  It doesn't appear that iTunes does anything with SoundCheck and the Shuffle, but foo_pod sets it just like regular iPods, which is really nice for a player that one would want to turn on and forget - and not mess around with the volume on every song.


As for the next foo_pod release, I'll post 0.9.9 either tomorrow without the OttoFill feature, or sometime this week.  There are a few bug fixes for everyone, a new dialog that lets you easily choose between multiple iPods, and a repair feature that fixes skipped songs on iPod Photo players due to long filenames.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1016
Quote
I have been working with Otto, the author of GNUPod, and others to reverse engineer the new database formats... [a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=272009"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Just to clarify for everybody else, the author of GNUPod is the very talented Adrian Ulrich, not me. Didn't want anybody to get that confused and think that I actually know Perl or anything.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1017
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To support the new filename length limitation introduced in the iPod Photo, foo_pod truncates filenames to 31 characters.  It just so happens that "Symphony No.5 in C Minor, Op.67" is 31 characters, so you lose the rest of the filename and end up with two identically named files.

foo_pod is supposed to increment the filename so you don't get duplicate names, but apparently that isn't working correctly.  This will also be an intermittant problem, since there are 100 different directories that a song can be in, so you aren't likely to have duplicates unless you have a lot of songs that have the same first 31 characters (which, unfortunately, you do).

It should be pretty easy to fix, now that I think I know what is going on.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=268925"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Just wondering if this has been resolved yet... I'm getting the same issue, but with a majority of my music (filename is normally "artist - album - # - trackname").  Strange thing is, it's mostly just track 2 that's been dissappearing.

If not, is there a place I can download the previous version without the photo ipod change?
Are these Nazis, Walter?
No, Donny, these men are nihilists. There's nothing to be afraid of.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1018
Quote
Quote
To support the new filename length limitation introduced in the iPod Photo, foo_pod truncates filenames to 31 characters.  It just so happens that "Symphony No.5 in C Minor, Op.67" is 31 characters, so you lose the rest of the filename and end up with two identically named files.

foo_pod is supposed to increment the filename so you don't get duplicate names, but apparently that isn't working correctly.  This will also be an intermittant problem, since there are 100 different directories that a song can be in, so you aren't likely to have duplicates unless you have a lot of songs that have the same first 31 characters (which, unfortunately, you do).

It should be pretty easy to fix, now that I think I know what is going on.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=268925"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Just wondering if this has been resolved yet... I'm getting the same issue, but with a majority of my music (filename is normally "artist - album - # - trackname").  Strange thing is, it's mostly just track 2 that's been dissappearing.

If not, is there a place I can download the previous version without the photo ipod change?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=272206"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

This will be fixed in the next version (which I'll probably post later tonight).

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1019
Quote
When you use the "Load iPod Songs To Foobar2000 Playlist" feature, foo_pod automatically (and unalterably) sorts the songs by artist/album/tracknumber/title.  If you use the "Load iPod Playlists As Tabs" feature, foo_pod will show the default hidden playlist, which contains all of the files on the iPod.  This is more or less in the order you added them, although if you delete songs, foo_pod will reuse their positions.

If you want a true chronologic order of songs added to your iPod, I suggest creating a Smart Playlist like this:  create a new smart playlist, don't change the artist/contains defaults, but check the Limit To checkbox, set the limit count to 9999 songs, then Selected By Least Recently Added(*).  Then you can open the smart playlists as tabs, and you will see all of your songs, in the order they were added.  This is also nice to have on the iPod, since you can see all of your songs in one list, and remember the latest songs you have added.


(*) Most Recently Added will also work, except it will sort from newest to oldest songs.  This is actually more useful on the iPod, so you could either use this, or create 2 smart playlists.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=272003"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Thanks, that helped quite a bit!  I actually didn't have 'recently added' in mind, I just wanted songs in the same album to be grouped together.  Using "Load iPod Songs To Foobar2000 Playlist" created a bit of a jumbled mess in the playlist.  Didn't know about "Load iPod Playlists As Tabs" until you mentioned it, but that seems to keep them all together properly.  However, now that you've brought the "Least Recently Added" capability to my attention, I've set up the Smart Playlist with your instructions.  The only tiny quirk is that some tracks within the album are appearing out of order in the smart playlist.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1020
Can this component support iPod Shuffle ?

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1021
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Can this component support iPod Shuffle ?
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


[a href="http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=19156&st=1000#]Look up.[/url].

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1022
Version 0.9.9RC is now available.

This is the first foo_pod version that supports the iPod Shuffle, including some extras like ReplayGain/SoundCheck support (AFAIK, not directly supported by iTunes) and writing a track and shuffle text file to the Shuffle's root directory, to help compensate for the lack of a screen.

There are also a number of other features and bug fixes that apply to all iPods.  There is an iPod Chooser dialog, which makes it easy to select between 2 or more iPods.

The one bug that I wasn't able to fix (yet) is the one described by Nexus6 (long filenames causing problems).  The fix I had developed causes a huge performance decrease, so I need to find a better way of fixing this problem.  One workaround for now is that if you know are you going to sending files with very long, nearly identical filenames, send them one at a time rather than all at once.  This should avoid the problem until I get the problem fixed for the full 0.9.9 version.


From the Readme:
Code: [Select]
Version 0.9.9RC - February 10, 2005
*  Added full support for the iPod Shuffle players.  foo_pod treats the iPod Shuffle just like any other iPod, with a few iPod Shuffle specific features, including writing two text files, "Track_Order.txt" and  "Shuffle_Order.txt" to the root directory of the Shuffle.  These allow the iPod Shuffle user to determine in which order songs will be played, in either normal or shuffle modes.  Other expected features, such as Play Counts and ReplayGain/SoundCheck are implemented and work just like regular iPods.

*  Added a "Fix Skipped Songs" feature to the foo_pod Component menu.  This can be used by iPod Photo users to fix the issue where certain songs with long filenames are consistantly skipped.  It isn't necessary to do this on other iPods.

*  Fixed a bug in the Playlist Editor where smart playlists with the "In The Last" action selected wouldn't work unless you manually set a time period (such as Days).

*  Fixed a database issue which caused "Date Added" smart playlists to not work as expected.

*  Changed the "Good" quality LAME setting to the latest recommended ~128kbps parameters.

*  Added the iPod Chooser dialog, which opens a small windows and lets the user switch between two or more iPods.

*  Optimized the transcoder to deal with the situation where the transcoder .exe is not found.  Also fixed some transcoder related memory leaks.

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1023
I keep getting an error:

Error: Unable to find iPod

But i see the iPod Shuffle in the Windows Explorer and its properly installed.

Do i need to do something else ?

I installed this component, then i go to the music i want to upload and select SEND FILE TO iPOD...then the error appears....

Damn, i hate iTunes.

PS
I have lots of services disabled, do i need some special service in order to make it work ?

foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod

Reply #1024
Quote
I keep getting an error:

Error: Unable to find iPod

But i see the iPod Shuffle in the Windows Explorer and its properly installed.

Do i need to do something else ?

I installed this component, then i go to the music i want to upload and select SEND FILE TO iPOD...then the error appears....

Try selecting the iPod first (normally you shouldn't have to, but maybe it is a bug).  Go to the Components menu in Foobar, then to foo_pod, and select "Select  iPod To Use".  Then select the drive letter of your Shuffle and click OK.  See if that helps.

Quote
Damn, i hate iTunes.

Me too!   
Edit: Actually, it isn't that bad.  Other than the ultra-cheesy brushed metal look, the GUI is rather nice.  If it could be just a front-end to foo_pod + Foobar2000, that would be the ultimate!

Quote
PS
I have lots of services disabled, do i need some special service in order to make it work ?
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=272394"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

No, foo_pod doesn't require any external libraries or services, other than Foobar2000.