foo_pod - Foobar2000 meets the iPod, iPod -> Foobar2000 0.8 Options

[Aero]

I recently started using foo_pod and I'm psyched about it, but I'm having some trouble.

I tried to transcode a playlist, and foo_pod says it's complete, but I don't see the songs on my iPod.  However, when I look at the disk via Windows explorer, I see the files with weird names, e.g. e17b6ff9004ae3153.mp3.

I used the customer encoder setting, so I must have screwed something up.

When I try to use one of foo_pods built in transcoders, iPod complains that the file is already transcoded and on the iPod.  When I load the iPod list into foo_bar, those previously transcoded files don't show up, so I can't delete them.

That is normal - the weird names are a file hash of the original file. By storing the hash of the original file, I can determine when a duplicate file, which has been transcoded, already exists on the iPod.

You saw that working when foo_pod complained that the file was already on your iPod when you attempted to resend it using the LAME or FAAC encoders. I'm not sure why you aren't seeing the songs on your iPod, but in general, transcoding works as expected (I use it on a daily basis and have never had a missing file).

I guess try using one the LAME settings to send a new file, and see if that works. If it does, maybe your custom encoder or the settings are the problem? Post them or email them to me if LAME works.

[ReD-BaRoN]

I recently started using foo_pod and I'm psyched about it, but I'm having some trouble.

I tried to transcode a playlist, and foo_pod says it's complete, but I don't see the songs on my iPod.  However, when I look at the disk via Windows explorer, I see the files with weird names, e.g. e17b6ff9004ae3153.mp3.

I used the customer encoder setting, so I must have screwed something up.

When I try to use one of foo_pods built in transcoders, iPod complains that the file is already transcoded and on the iPod.  When I load the iPod list into foo_bar, those previously transcoded files don't show up, so I can't delete them.

That is normal - the weird names are a file hash of the original file. By storing the hash of the original file, I can determine when a duplicate file, which has been transcoded, already exists on the iPod.

You saw that working when foo_pod complained that the file was already on your iPod when you attempted to resend it using the LAME or FAAC encoders. I'm not sure why you aren't seeing the songs on your iPod, but in general, transcoding works as expected (I use it on a daily basis and have never had a missing file).

I guess try using one the LAME settings to send a new file, and see if that works. If it does, maybe your custom encoder or the settings are the problem? Post them or email them to me if LAME works.

Thanks Aero for the information and a great plugin. I'm not saying transcoding doesn't work, I'm just trying to figure out where I went wrong .

Is it safe to just delete the file from the F## directory and try transcoding again? I'm presuming that's what I have to do to get foo_pod to try again.

[Aero]

Is it safe to just delete the file from the F## directory and try transcoding again?  I'm presuming that's what I have to do to get foo_pod to try again.

You can delete it, but it will still be in the iTunesDB database. If you don't mind losing any normal playlists and dynamic information like rating and play counts, you can delete the file(s), then use the foo_pod/Maintenance/Rebuild iPod Database feature to recreate a database based on the files on your iPod.

[TomGroove]

I'm deeply impressed by this work !!!

I always made a big round around combining foobar with my ipod/itunes, but now..... I did jump forward, and I am fascinated, works great !!!!!!!

THX

[ReD-BaRoN]

Hey guys,

I have a few questions on ReplayGain/Soundcheck.

When I have ReplayGained music put onto the iPod via foo_pod, they seem too quiet (I know this isn't foo_pod problem, but SoundCheck in general). What I mean is that I have to turn the iPod volume all the way up before it's LOUD. Now I wouldn't listen to it this loud with headphones, but I like knowing that I have a little buffer room on turning up the volume, say, if I'm playing it in the car.

Now, I thought that was what the preamp stuff did for me in foo_pod, but I'm not sure I'm getting it to work right. It sounds like the preamp stuff bumps up the base-level volume when SoundCheck is off, but not when SoundCheck is on. I used the preamp for songs with SoundCheck data slider, so I figured that would pump up the volume of all the songs when using SoundCheck, while keeping them all at relativley the same volume.

Anyway, it seems like when the SoundCheck is on, if I turn the volume up past half way, there is no effect.

Does this make sense? Do other people think ReplyGain/SoundCheck makes the music too quiet?

Thanks!

[ReD-BaRoN]

Me again,

Why the heck does it take so long to mount my iPod? I'm hoping it's not a USB1.0 vs USB2.0 thing. Just trying to open foobars preferences take forever due to foo_pad trying to mount the iPod.

Maybe windows is doing something, since the Autoplay dialog box pops up and a flashlight quickly searches all the directories, then I'm back to waiting mode.

I have forced foo_pod to F:, which is where the iPod winds up.

[Otto42]

When I have ReplayGained music put onto the iPod via foo_pod, they seem too quiet (I know this isn't foo_pod problem, but SoundCheck in general).  What I mean is that I have to turn the iPod volume all the way up before it's LOUD.  Now I wouldn't listen to it this loud with headphones, but I like knowing that I have a little buffer room on turning up the volume, say, if I'm playing it in the car.

ReplayGain/SoundCheck/any good volume levelling mechanism usually will lower the volume of most music quite substantially. The music was recorded/mastered too loud to begin with. Not really any good way around it.

Now, I thought that was what the preamp stuff did for me in foo_pod, but I'm not sure I'm getting it to work right.  It sounds like the preamp stuff bumps up the base-level volume when SoundCheck is off, but not when SoundCheck is on.

Nope. The "preamp" volume slider thing is adjusting the volume field, which applies all the time. Even with SoundCheck on, if you have the volume slider jacked up, it'll be louder.

I used the preamp for songs with SoundCheck data slider, so I figured that would pump up the volume of all the songs when using SoundCheck, while keeping them all at relativley the same volume.

I'm not entirely sure what the "preamp for songs with SoundCheck data slider" is. Could you be more clear and specify exactly what you turned on/did?

Anyway, it seems like when the SoundCheck is on, if I turn the volume up past half way, there is no effect.

Is this a US iPod or a European one? European iPod's have a volume limiter. You can find software to remove the limitation in the firmware with a little searching.

Does this make sense?  Do other people think ReplyGain/SoundCheck makes the music too quiet?

Too quiet? No. Quieter than normal? Probably, yes. Most CD's that come out nowadays are overamplified to the point where you lose all the dynamic range, but it "sounds louder". It probably wouldn't sound wrong to you if the album was mastered correctly in the first place.

This post has been edited by Otto42: Apr 18 2005, 16:42

[ReD-BaRoN]

Nope. The "preamp" volume slider thing is adjusting the volume field, which applies all the time. Even with SoundCheck on, if you have the volume slider jacked up, it'll be louder.

OK, I thought that's how it should work. I'll continue to play with it.

I'm not entirely sure what the "preamp for songs with SoundCheck data slider" is. Could you be more clear and specify exactly what you turned on/did?

This is a -100-0-100 slider that Aero has in the latest version of foo_pod. I moved it to 100%. He's also has a -100-0-100 slider for songs without Soundcheck data as well.

Is this a US iPod or a European one? European iPod's have a volume limiter. You can find software to remove the limitation in the firmware with a little searching.

That's a good point, however, given that I bought the iPod (4G) at BestBuy in Mass., I'd be quite pissed if it were a European one . That said, without SoundCheck on, the volume adjustment works normally.

Too quiet? No. Quieter than normal? Probably, yes. Most CD's that come out nowadays are overamplified to the point where you lose all the dynamic range, but it "sounds louder". It probably wouldn't sound wrong to you if the album was mastered correctly in the first place.

Thanks for the information Otto, I'll continue to play with it.

[pnjman]

Version 0.9.9g is crashing foobar when any writting to the ipod database occurs resulting in loss of all music on the ipod. No error messages appear in either foobar or windows (XP Pro and Home). Reproduced using both an 3g and a 6gb mini on two computers. Reverting back to 0.9.9d fixes the issue, couldn't find 0.9.9e to test.

[FreydNot]

Version 0.9.9g is crashing foobar when any writting to the ipod database occurs resulting in loss of all music on the ipod. No error messages appear in either foobar or windows (XP Pro and Home). Reproduced using both an 3g and a 6gb mini on two computers. Reverting back to 0.9.9d fixes the issue, couldn't find 0.9.9e to test.

I am having a similar problem but I assumed it was just a bad song that I was trying to upload.

I'll revert back to 0.9.9d and see if that fixes it.

[cynix]

When I send a .cue to iPod, foo_pod tries to transcode the whole .wav (or whatever the .cue goes with) instead of transcoding individual tracks like foo_clienc does. Would a future version correct this behavior?

This post has been edited by cynix: Apr 20 2005, 03:48

[Bonzi]

Hi, I'm having a lot of problems with the latest foo_pod. It seems whenever I upload anything to my 4th gen iPod the songs get uploaded but are not accessible. That is to say that they never appear in my iPod after they are uploaded. I am using iPod Updater 11-15. If you need more information just ask and I will provide it.

[ReD-BaRoN]

Is it possible to transcode to m4a directly from an audio CD using foo_pod? I tried this last night without success. So, either my settings were incorrect or it is not possible. Your help is most appreciated.

Thanks!

No this, won't work, since foobar2k is not a ripping program, which you need to rip the file off the CD into wav format, then transcode to m4a.

[ReD-BaRoN]

If anyone feels up for a test, I did some playing around and recompiled foo_pod using the Visual Studio .NET 2003, instead of Visual Studio 6. 

There shouldn't be any functional change, but at least on my computer, foo_pod feels noticably faster when compiled with VS 2003.  I also have a few little fixes in there, like the Idle priority setting for the transcoder and a possible fix for the iPod Browse Menu problem (where the songs in an album would previously be out of order).

Download foo_pod 0.9.9h_VS2003_Test

FYI, if you're going to try this, you'll need the MSVCP71.dll, which I didn't have and found at dll-files.com

[drbeachboy]

Is it possible to transcode to m4a directly from an audio CD using foo_pod? I tried this last night without success. So, either my settings were incorrect or it is not possible. Your help is most appreciated.

Thanks!

No this, won't work, since foobar2k is not a ripping program, which you need to rip the file off the CD into wav format, then transcode to m4a.

Hi,
Thanks for your response. Aero had addressed this question when I first posted it and he thinks he may be able to address this when he returns from his travels. Actually, foobar2000 can rip a CD using Case's CLI encoder. So, possibly when transcoding directly from the CD foo_Pod will call the CLI encoder to rip to wav, then convert to m4a then send to the iPod. This way everything can be done in one step. Aero's the man! So far, he's done a terrific job meeting most everyone's needs & wishes. Here's hoping that he will tackle this request upon his return.

This post has been edited by drbeachboy: Apr 22 2005, 03:23

[FreydNot]

Version 0.9.9g is crashing foobar when any writting to the ipod database occurs resulting in loss of all music on the ipod. No error messages appear in either foobar or windows (XP Pro and Home). Reproduced using both an 3g and a 6gb mini on two computers. Reverting back to 0.9.9d fixes the issue, couldn't find 0.9.9e to test.

I am having a similar problem but I assumed it was just a bad song that I was trying to upload.

I'll revert back to 0.9.9d and see if that fixes it.

I tried again with 0.9.9e and didn't run into the same problems I did in 0.9.9f. You can find 0.9.9e here
http://www.loodi.com/foo_pod_0.9.9e.zip

[ReD-BaRoN]

Hi, I'm having a lot of problems with the latest foo_pod.  It seems whenever I upload anything to my 4th gen iPod the songs get uploaded but are not accessible.  That is to say that they never appear in my iPod after they are uploaded.  I am using iPod Updater 11-15.  If you need more information just ask and I will provide it.

I'm having the exact same problem and it's driving me crazy. Do you also have problems with mounting, i.e. it takes LONG time (i.e. on the order of minutes) and does it for every little thing I do in foobar, i.e. open preferences, save preferences, open foobar, etc.?

Does the Windows "What do you want to do with this device" window pop up with nothing in it when mounting?

Does "no disk can be found in X:" come up sometimes when mounting?

Does windows explorer open the iPod contents sometimes when mounting?

Does a search for autoplay.inf (with flashlight) come up sometimes when mounting?

One of these things (randomly from what I can tell) happens to me every time I mount the iPod and I'm at the end of my rope. I did an over night transcode, only to find out nothing was on my iPod. Tons of lkjdslfkj.mp3 files if I look at the drive however via windows explorer but that does me no good. I just continue to "Delete all songs and playlists" and try again when I have a few hours to kill/waste.

Sorry to vent, but I had to get it out . Maybe someone here can help.

Thanks!

P.S. Just for debugging purposes, iTunes 4.7.1 works fine, albeit it does take a long time to mount as well.

[Otto42]

Instead of continually trying to send lots of stuff to the iPod, try sending just one song. For one thing, it's faster. And for another, if one song won't work, lots of them sure as heck won't.

[ReD-BaRoN]

Instead of continually trying to send lots of stuff to the iPod, try sending just one song. For one thing, it's faster. And for another, if one song won't work, lots of them sure as heck won't.

Yeah I tried that, no dice .

Anyway, I was looking at it again, and it looked as if there was no iTuneDB on the Ipod from what I could tell in explorer and foo_pod. So I went to do a restore just to start from the beginning (since I didn't have any music on it anyway) and wouldn't you know it, my PC crashed in the middle of the restore D'OH. Now it's off to Best Buy tomorrow with my protection plan or whatever they sold me to get a new one.

This post has been edited by ReD-BaRoN: Apr 30 2005, 04:36

[neomoe]

hey guys!

it's been a long time since my last post in this thread... so, maybe this questions has been answered already, but anyways - I don't really get how to handle playlists with foo_pod's playlist-editor. I tried to drag some files from a foobar playlist onto it, but those files weren't added... can anyone provide a short how2?

and, another one: what does the menu-speedup thingy actually do? well, I know - speed up the menu, but I did not experience any speed increase..

[JuG]

Hi,

its been a long time since my last posting too
I just sent 997 files (with transcoding) to the ipod. It worked without warnings and errors, but now there is something odd.

The playlist that I sent states "997 items, total length: 2d 18:26:40"
The plalist on the ipod states "997 items, total length: 2d 18:20:23"
Am I missing 6:17 minutes of music? What could be the cause of this difference?

I compared some random songs but there seems to be no difference in the length of each song. Maybe it's something like 1/10 sec on each song that adds up?

My custom transcoding-settings are the same as for the normal diskwriter. And diskwriter works correct, tested it with one album (6 songs).
original length: 18:56
with diskwriter: 18:56
with foo_pod: 18:53
Yet, the displayed length of each file by itself does not difffer.

Well, guess its not a big problem and the difference will most likely not be audible. It just made me wonder.


Anyways, thanks for foo_pod, keep it up Aero!
JuG

[Bonzi]

I'm having the exact same problem and it's driving me crazy.  Do you also have problems with mounting, i.e. it takes LONG time (i.e. on the order of minutes) and does it for every little thing I do in foobar, i.e. open preferences, save preferences, open foobar, etc.?

Does the Windows "What do you want to do with this device" window pop up with nothing in it when mounting?

Does "no disk can be found in X:" come up sometimes when mounting?

Does windows explorer open the iPod contents sometimes when mounting?

Does a search for autoplay.inf (with flashlight) come up sometimes when mounting?

Yeah, this sounds like exactly what was happening for me. You may need to use the restore tool. That was the only thing that worked for me.

Instead of continually trying to send lots of stuff to the iPod, try sending just one song. For one thing, it's faster. And for another, if one song won't work, lots of them sure as heck won't.

For sure, I tried uploading all my music when I was having this problem once and it didn't work. Boy, was I ever pissed. And I never have made that mistake again. When I was having these problems I just tried with one song . Unfortunately, I never figured out what the problem was. I just figured it was a oddity of my screwing with the iPod too much. But since someone else is having the same problem I guess it may not be.

[TheMile]

I recently started using foo_pod and I'm psyched about it, but I'm having some trouble.

I tried to transcode a playlist, and foo_pod says it's complete, but I don't see the songs on my iPod.  However, when I look at the disk via Windows explorer, I see the files with weird names, e.g. e17b6ff9004ae3153.mp3.

I'm seeing somewhat similar behavior. When I send an entire playlist to my iPod Mini, the transcoded files get transferred correctly, but they don't get added to the iPod's internal playlists. That is, when I send the following playlist:

Playlist "Classic Rock"
Song 1.mp3
Song 2.wv
Song 3.mp3

I get the following on my iPod:

Playlist "Classic Rock"
Song 1
Song 3

(No playlist)
Song 2

The transcoded files get the hash for a file name.

My transcoding settings are the built in AAC standard mode, and I haven't tweaked foo_pod otherwise. The files being transcoded are Wavpack files in the hybrid lossless mode, so there's actually two files, if it matters. Thanks for the excellent program and any help you can give.

[zyrill]

This plugin is just so amazing - thanks a million for making it possible to transfer music to my baby with foobar!
i wanted to know if the feature to transfer covers for the albums on the ipod photo will be implemented. any chance of seeing it in the future?
well, thanks again - you really made my day!

[Aero]

Hey, I'm back from Europe. Fun times, but it is good to be home.

BTW, I picked up a new iPod Photo and camera adaptor for the trip (we took 2,186 pictures, so it got a lot of use...), so I can work on Photo-specific stuff, if I want. In fact, I wrote a little app in about 30 minutes that displays the thumbnails created by the camera adaptor, just as an experiment. Support for things like album art and the regular Photo Library will take longer, since the database format is not completely reversed engineered.

I'm trying to get caught up with the forum posts. I'll take a look at the crash that was apparently introduced in 0.9.9f. I have seen Foobar crash after sending files to the iPod, but I think the problem was added in 0.9.9e, so I'm surprised that e works but f doesn't. Something else might be going on...

As for transcoding and playlists - this is a known bug. For now, you have to transcode first, then add them to a playlist. Speaking of playlists, you can't currently drag songs from Foobar onto the Playlist Editor. To create iPod playlists, first create a Foobar playlist and name it what you wish. Then add/order the songs, and choose the Send Current Playlist to iPod menu item. This will create the playlist on the iPod, and copy any files that aren't already on the iPod.