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

[Aero]

Yes, the iPod just skips those song. If I load the iPod songs to the iPod Playlist in foobar, they all play fine in foobar.

Yeah, that sounds like the iPod just can't read certain filenames. It will be easy to convert those to something safer.

[ronyzyz1]

I'm looking forward to testing the new version when I get home. Meanwhile, I think I've supplied you with enough ideas for 0.6?

Oh yeah,I forgot to mention, but I tested the idea of implementing a directory browse mode, and the results weren't encouraging. I was able to build the directory structure and have it appear under the Composer browse option, but the next level down from Composer is album view.

So you would see:

CODE

dir1/
   ------> All
              Album 1
              Album 2
dir2/
   ------> All
              Album 3

That's not to say that it is impossible to do a directory structure, but I can't think of a way to make it work on the iPod at the moment. However, it seems likely that the iPod is just too hardcoded to make it doable.

Well the iPod does not read tags from the files, right? So just write the next directory level as the Album field in the database...

[Aero]

Well the iPod does not read tags from the files, right? So just write the next directory level as the Album field in the database...

Even if I did modify the Album field (which would mess up the display for the Browse/Artist and Browse/Album), I don't see how you can do support more than 1 level of directories.

The order goes like this:

CODE

Artists:            Artist->Album->Song
Albums:         Album->Song
Composers: Composer->Album->Song

If you had a file like c:\mp3\the_artist\the_album1\disc1\01 - song.mp3, you could set {Composer} = MP3/, {Album} = the_artist/, and then what?

[ronyzyz1]

I don't know, but I bet it's possible.

[Otto42]

I don't know, but I bet it's possible. 

Not using these fields it's not.

The correct way to do this would be to use the notes reader feature. It's more or less designed for creating semi-custom interfaces for the iPod.

Here's the gist of it:
-You have text files. These files contain a semi-fakey form of HTML. Basically, you can define links, titles, some very minor formatting, etc.
-Links can point to either other text files or to songs or playlists or whatever.

So you create a series of text files and link files and things in such a way as to provide the structure you want.

Here's a complete rundown of everything the notes format supports: http://developer.apple.com/hardware/ipod/ipodnotereader.pdf

It's more than enough to build any type of hierachial interface you like.

It even supports a "museum mode", where if you want that to be the *sole* interface to the thing, you can make it so. Not that most people would want that, but still...

Note that this will only work on newer iPods, running 2.0 software and up.

This post has been edited by Otto42: Apr 14 2004, 00:51

[Otto42]

Hey Aero, any possibility of supporting the Play Counter plugin for syncing purposes? I can help with describing how the playcount works on the iPod's files in greater detail if needs be.

[Xecter]

I don't know, but I bet it's possible. 

Not using these fields it's not.

The correct way to do this would be to use the notes reader feature. It's more or less designed for creating semi-custom interfaces for the iPod.

Here's the gist of it:
-You have text files. These files contain a semi-fakey form of HTML. Basically, you can define links, titles, some very minor formatting, etc.
-Links can point to either other text files or to songs or playlists or whatever.

So you create a series of text files and link files and things in such a way as to provide the structure you want.

Here's a complete rundown of everything the notes format supports: http://developer.apple.com/hardware/ipod/ipodnotereader.pdf

It's more than enough to build any type of hierachial interface you like.

It even supports a "museum mode", where if you want that to be the *sole* interface to the thing, you can make it so. Not that most people would want that, but still...

Note that this will only work on newer iPods, running 2.0 software and up.

wow.....


thats awesome.


With that text browser you can make anything, including the playlists to go with them. Thats awesome.


That's about as close as we are gonna get to it. Unless apple releases a SDK for the ipod. THen we could do whatever we want.

[somasatellite]

It's a shame that it's only for the 2.0 firmware. I suppose foo_pod could make it available depending on the ipod's firmware. I'm very pleased with this plugin so far. A wonderful collaborative work which I will use many-a-time. Quick question - is there a way to select tracks to delete instead of deleting them from the playlist then syncing? Also, in the future it would be great if foo_pod would be able to edit the info of the songs via masstager.

[Aero]

Hey Aero, any possibility of supporting the Play Counter plugin for syncing purposes? I can help with describing how the playcount works on the iPod's files in greater detail if needs be.

Is that data stored in iPod_Control\iTunes\Play Counts?

I saw the posting for the Play Counter component, but I haven't downloaded it or done any more than just scan the forum. From the initial post, it looks like all it would take is some glue that reads the play count from the iPod, and writes some metadata tags in the iPod files.

I haven't done anything with non-iTunesDB file data so far, but I'll consider adding the Play Counter support. I'll hit you up for details when I'm ready to work on it!

[Aero]

The correct way to do this would be to use the notes reader feature. It's more or less designed for creating semi-custom interfaces for the iPod.

Here's the gist of it:
-You have text files. These files contain a semi-fakey form of HTML. Basically, you can define links, titles, some very minor formatting, etc.
-Links can point to either other text files or to songs or playlists or whatever.

So you create a series of text files and link files and things in such a way as to provide the structure you want.

Interesting - thanks for the info!

I actually had a passing thought about the Notes feature, since I remember reading about someone who is selling games that use it, but I had no idea that it could interface with the songs. I'm doubly surprised that there is actually official documentation for it!

I'm feeling inspired after reading that PDF file. Now I just need some spare time to do something with that inspiration!

[Aero]

Quick question - is there a way to select tracks to delete instead of deleting them from the playlist then syncing?

Nope. The best way to delete songs from the iPod is to do the following:

1. Do the "Load iPod Songs to foo_pod Playlist" command from the foo_pod menu.
2. Delete and/or reorder the songs in the foo_pod playlist to your satisfaction.
3. Run "Sync Current Playlist" on the foo_pod playlist.

What you are doing is syncing the files that are already on the iPod, minus the ones you deleted. foo_pod will notice that songs are already on the iPod, and simply delete the ones that are no longer in the list.

This isn't the fastest operation in the world, but I have done some post-0.5 work that will speed this up considerably. My goal for 0.5.1 (or whatever the next version) is to optimize foo_pod's slowest parts.

Syncing in this case is slow mainly because it has to rebuild the whole database. I could provide a way (context menu item) to remove the individual songs without having to rebuild the database. I'll add it to my "features to add" list.

Also, in the future it would be great if foo_pod would be able to edit the info of the songs via masstager.

I'm not sure what you mean by having foo_pod edit the song info via masstagger. Could you provide a little more info about what you are asking?

[neomoe]

sorry, perhaps I did not get something, but is there a way to copy songs from the ipod to the hd similar/equal to ephpod's?

[ronyzyz1]

Yay! Thanks Otto!

[somasatellite]

Also, in the future it would be great if foo_pod would be able to edit the info of the songs via masstager.

I'm not sure what you mean by having foo_pod edit the song info via masstagger. Could you provide a little more info about what you are asking?

For example, yesterday I wanted to change the genre of a few bands on the ipod, loaded them into masstagger, and changed the field. But when I disconnected my ipod nothing was changed. I suppose I should've synced the playlist before disconnecting. I thought it was directly editing the songs/db on the ipod. I'll give it another try today

[Aero]

sorry, perhaps I did not get something, but is there a way to copy songs from the ipod to the hd similar/equal to ephpod's?

You should be able to access the iPod files just like any others in Foobar. For example, you can drag a file out of the playlist and drop it in a folder. Or right click and drag it to a folder.

That will simply copy the file with the same filename as on the iPod. foo_pod doesn't directly have any support for building directory structures, like Ephpod and what you are probably asking for. You might be able to use DiskWriter to create directories to your preference - I believe there is a null DiskWriter component that will just copy the file from one folder (the iPod) to another (your hard drive). I might be wrong about that, but it wouldn't be too difficult to create a little program that would just accept DiskWriter input and write it out to a file.

If no one has written such a program and you can't get it working some other way, let me know and I can whip something up.

[Aero]

I'm not sure what you mean by having foo_pod edit the song info via masstagger.  Could you provide a little more info about what you are asking?

For example, yesterday I wanted to change the genre of a few bands on the ipod, loaded them into masstagger, and changed the field. But when I disconnected my ipod nothing was changed. I suppose I should've synced the playlist before disconnecting. I thought it was directly editing the songs/db on the ipod. I'll give it another try today

Masstagger should work on the iPod files - if not, it really is a Masstagger problem.

One thing that might have happened is you updated the files on the iPod, but didn't touch your local hard drive's files, then did a sync. foo_pod will notice that the files don't match, and delete the out of sync files on the iPod and replace them with the hard drive versions (I don't check for the case where the iPod files are newer than the hard drive).

I would recommend that you update your local hard drive's files with Masstagger, *then* do a sync to transfer them to the iPod. Otherwise, you will lose any changes whenever you do a sync. foo_pod only currently supports a one way sync (computer to iPod) like iTunes, although I might look into doing full sync (ala a Palm PDA) at some point.

[somasatellite]

Okay, so instead of loading the foo_pod playlist, then masstagging, you're suggesting to use explorer to find the music folder in the ipod, then load into masstager and update those? I'm not sure if i have this right

[Aero]

Okay, so instead of loading the foo_pod playlist, then masstagging, you're suggesting to use explorer to find the music folder in the ipod, then load into masstager and update those? I'm not sure if i have this right

No, that would be doing the same thing.

What you should do is modify the original files on your hard drive - the ones that you transferred to the iPod. Then when you sync them, the Masstagger'ed files will be sent to the iPod.

There is nothing wrong with running Masstagger on the iPod files (say in the foo_pod playlist), but like I said before, when you sync them with your local files, the local files will overwrite your changes.

[somasatellite]

I don't have the original files on my harddisk - they're only on the ipod. You're saying that I can use the masstagger on the foo_pod playlist, which isn't working for me, so I must be overlooking something terribly obvious

[Aero]

I don't have the original files on my harddisk - they're only on the ipod. You're saying that I can use the masstagger on the foo_pod playlist, which isn't working for me, so I must be overlooking something terribly obvious

Huh. Well, it should work, because to Foobar, the iPod is just another hard drive. In fact, I just ran a quick test and it worked as expected.

I did the following:

1. Load iPod to foo_pod playlist
2. Selected a song from the foo_pod playlist, right clicked and selected Masstagger->Edit Tags
3. For my test, I just added a new tag, and clicked Run
4. Checked the file Properties and verified that the new tag was in the file, even after clicking Reload From File.
5. Disconnected the iPod, connected it, reloaded the foo_pod playlist, and verified that the tag was still there.

Are you getting any sort of error from Masstagger, or anything on the Foobar console?

[somasatellite]

That's interesting, I did the same exact thing as you laid out, but when I disconnect the ipod and reload the foo_pod playlist, the files are back to where they were. No error either. It's not a big deal though - I can always take the music off the ipod, retag, then resync.

[ronyzyz1]

That's interesting, I did the same exact thing as you laid out, but when I disconnect the ipod and reload the foo_pod playlist, the files are back to where they were. No error either. It's not a big deal though - I can always take the music off the ipod, retag, then resync.

Maybe you have foobar2000's database turned on, and you have failed to click "Reload info from files" after reloading the iPod songs into foobar2000?

Also, you say "the files are back where they are" - The files aren't supposed to move when using the masstagger? Only the tags are changed...

[somasatellite]

Maybe you have foobar2000's database turned on, and you have failed to click "Reload info from files" after reloading the iPod songs into foobar2000?

The database is disabled.

Also, you say "the files are back where they are" - The files aren't supposed to move when using the masstagger? Only the tags are changed...

I don't remember saying this, and I never expected the files to move. Just tagged. I'll figure this out eventually, I feel as though I'm taking the thread too far off track.

[ronyzyz1]

Also, you say "the files are back where they are" - The files aren't supposed to move when using the masstagger? Only the tags are changed...

I don't remember saying this, and I never expected the files to move. Just tagged. I'll figure this out eventually, I feel as though I'm taking the thread too far off track.

That's interesting, I did the same exact thing as you laid out, but when I disconnect the ipod and reload the foo_pod playlist, the files are back to where they were. No error either.

[somasatellite]

That's interesting, I did the same exact thing as you laid out, but when I disconnect the ipod and reload the foo_pod playlist, the files are back to where they were. No error either.

Sorry, I should've been more specific. I meant the tags were back to where they were. From the foo_pod playlist I changed the genre of an album, disconnected the ipod, reconnected and reloaded the foo_pod playlist, and the tags were back to where they were before.

Edit: Odd, it's working now! Well, at least it works Sorry about the waste of posts.

This post has been edited by somasatellite: Apr 15 2004, 03:01