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

[Aero]

Regarding foo_pod development:

Just looking at the release dates, it is no secret that foo_pod development has (considerably) slowed down. Due to time constraints, I don't really have a lot of time to work on foo_pod. Also, the code has reached a state where adding new features is troublesome. Any future development really needs to start from scratch; starting with the current feature set and doing it right, rather than hacking on the current code.

Development also depends on my motivation level. Honestly, foo_pod works pretty well for me, and there isn't too much more I need it to do, or do better. I was pretty excited when the podcasting features were added to the firmware, but since Apple botched the dynamically updating smart playlists feature and hasn't bothered to fix it in over 3 months, that has pretty well killed off that enthusiasm.

I'm also not particuarly interested in Foobar 0.9 at this point. If there were an SDK available, I'd see how much work would be involved in updating foo_pod. Admittedly, I haven't followed the 0.9 beta progress, at all, but the last feature set I saw didn't look like it would be worth the trouble of updating foo_pod along with ALL of the other components I use.

As for the foo_pod source code, the most important piece is already open source - the iPodDB library. I have submitted all of my changes back to Otto, and I will gladly send my working version of iPodDB to anyone who requests it. The rest is really just the glue that hooks up iPodDB with Foobar. If someone is interested in starting clean, I am happy to provide any assistance and advice. Otherwise, any future foo_pod updates are going to be dependant on firmware changes from Apple, major bug fixes, and interesting feature requests.

[binkgle]

any possibility of fixing how foo_pod intereacts with the itunes 4.9 database? that's my only real concern right now

thanks for getting back to us on the true state of things. i'm sure there are people here who know enough code (is it c++?) to take on the project if you'd like to pass it on.

i hope 0.9 becomes a really big thing (i still use 0.8.3), it'd be cool to have a big fat update, and hopefully inspiring for you and the other coders of the most popular plugins

thanks again for all you've done

[Aero]

any possibility of fixing how foo_pod intereacts with the itunes 4.9 database?  that's my only real concern right now

As soon as Apple fixes their firmware and I start using it on a regular basis, it is very likely that I'll add full 4.9/5.0 support. There has been a lot of work done by myself and others in figuring out the new database format, so it should be fairly easy to implement.

I forget to note in the release notes, but I did add one significant 4.9 related fix in 0.9.9l, so you might want to try it again and see if it works a little better than 0.9.9k.

[kl33per]

ReplayGain defaults to a target of 83dB which some people find too quiet.  If you would rather have a level of 89dB, you could adjust the slider to +6dB.

Actually IIRC, the original ReplayGain spec targets 83db, but current ReplayGain implementations target 89db.

[Aero]

ReplayGain defaults to a target of 83dB which some people find too quiet.  If you would rather have a level of 89dB, you could adjust the slider to +6dB.

Actually IIRC, the original ReplayGain spec targets 83db, but current ReplayGain implementations target 89db.

Yeah, 89dB sounds right. Thanks for the correction.

In any event, move the slider in the positive direction if you want louder SoundCheck songs.

[binkgle]

i'm having trouble transcoding my flac files to mp3 with foo_pod

i decided to test out the transcoding feature with foo_pod by sending the dire straits song brother in arms.flac to the ipod. foobar gave me the following error message:

ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Writing to encoder failed
ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Error writing to pipe
ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Encoding failed - transcoded file does not exist
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Conversion failed.
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Music\Lossless\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms - 09 - Brothers In Arms.flac
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #0 copying C:\Music\Lossless\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms - 09 - Brothers In Arms.flac to d:\iPod_Control\Music\F05\ab7d56a6dcfea7c3c..mp3

what's going on?

[Aero]

i'm having trouble transcoding my flac files to mp3 with foo_pod

i decided to test out the transcoding feature with foo_pod by sending the dire straits song brother in arms.flac to the ipod.  foobar gave me the following error message:

ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Writing to encoder failed
ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Error writing to pipe
ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Encoding failed - transcoded file does not exist
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Conversion failed.
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Music\Lossless\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms - 09 - Brothers In Arms.flac
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #0 copying C:\Music\Lossless\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms - 09 - Brothers In Arms.flac to d:\iPod_Control\Music\F05\ab7d56a6dcfea7c3c..mp3

Are you using one of the MP3 presets? And do you have lame.exe in the same directory as Foobar2000.exe, or somewhere else in your system PATH?

[binkgle]

i'm having trouble transcoding my flac files to mp3 with foo_pod

i decided to test out the transcoding feature with foo_pod by sending the dire straits song brother in arms.flac to the ipod.  foobar gave me the following error message:

ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Writing to encoder failed
ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Error writing to pipe
ERROR (foo_podclienc) : Encoding failed - transcoded file does not exist
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Conversion failed.
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Music\Lossless\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms - 09 - Brothers In Arms.flac
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #0 copying C:\Music\Lossless\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms - 09 - Brothers In Arms.flac to d:\iPod_Control\Music\F05\ab7d56a6dcfea7c3c..mp3

Are you using one of the MP3 presets? And do you have lame.exe in the same directory as Foobar2000.exe, or somewhere else in your system PATH?

i'm using a custom encoder setting, which is pointing to the lame.exe in my EAC folder (3.97b1). here's a screenshot of the custom encoder settings window:



the encoder parameters are the recommended ones in the recommended settings thread for lame 3.97b1

This post has been edited by binkgle: Oct 9 2005, 06:33

[Aero]

Are you using one of the MP3 presets?  And do you have lame.exe in the same directory as Foobar2000.exe, or somewhere else in your system PATH?

i'm using a custom encoder setting, which is pointing to the lame.exe in my EAC folder (3.97b1). here's a screenshot of the custom encoder settings window:



the encoder parameters are the recommended ones in the recommended settings thread for lame 3.97b1

See if it works with one of the LAME presets. You should also remove the ID3 tagging parameters - they aren't necessary and are probably causing the problem (your recommened parameters are for use with EAC, and aren't completely applicable to foo_pod).

BTW - using LAME 3.97b1, foo_pod's highest quality MP3 preset (--preset fast standard) is the exact same setting as '-V 2 --vbr new'. If you really want to do a custom preset, use "-V 2 -vbr new - %d" (no quotes) for the parameters.

[ReD-BaRoN]

Aero,

I'm interested in your thoughts on these recently posted issues:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=327406

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=327408

[Bachi-Bouzouk]

Could someone upload the plug-in on his website or send it by e-mail (if so contact me by PM), because when I try to download it from the link in this post (I have tried several times already ), I only get a file of 1ko unusable.. Many thanks

Edit: problem solved It came from mozilla and a plug in

This post has been edited by Bachi-Bouzouk: Oct 9 2005, 20:44

[Aero]

I'm interested in your thoughts on these recently posted issues:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=327406

This is a well known bug in foo_pod (check the archives), and while I fixed it at one point, the fix caused worse problems. Basically, it is too hard to fix at this point, which is a good indication that foo_pod needs to be rewritten from scratch.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=327408

The way you tell uniqueness of a file to is hash that file after it's been transcoded. The problem that I'm having is that when foo_pod is trying to determine if a file is already on the iPod, it has to transcode the file just to get the hash, and then compare the hash with filenames that are already on the iPod to determine if it's unique or not.

Is there a way you can store the hash (after the initial transcode to put the file on the iPod) with the file, preferably in some foobar2k database, or suboptimally in the comments tag of the file, so that you don't have to transcode the file everytime you want the hash of the resulting transcoded file?

An alternative to that may be to hash the pre-transcoded file, but I think the above would be faster.

foo_pod determines the uniqueness of a file that is to be transcoded by computing a MD4 hash of the original file, and using the hash value as the filename on the iPod. Note that the hash is of the original file, not the transcoded file...

This is a pretty clever approach (if I may say so), because it doesn't change the metadata of the file on the iPod, you don't need to don't something as heavyweight as a database, and since the hash is the filename it is very fast to find matching files on the iPod since you don't have to open every file on the iPod to get the hash.

As far as I can tell, this works fairly reliably. For example, if you transcode a file onto the iPod, then try transcoding it again, it won't be duplicated. If you are getting duplicates, then either your original file is changing or there is a bug in foo_pod.

[binkgle]

but why is transcoding not working for me (see above problem)?

[Aero]

but why is transcoding not working for me (see above problem)?

Did you see my above reply?

[SNAG]

Thought I may want to update you guys with the latest developments in the iPod foray:

The 5G iPod (supporting video playback) is out, and so is iTunes 6.0. Supports internet video downloads.

[topdownjimmy]

this may have been asked before, but i don't want to wade through 69 pages of posts.

often i get the message that the file "Play Count" is corrupt, and that i need to run chkdsk. why does this happen?

(i did do a search, but searches don't allow you to go directly to the post that contains your search terms. ...unless there's something i don't know?)

edit: nm, after some more google searching i found that it's a problem with the ipod, not caused by foo_pod.

http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73012

This post has been edited by topdownjimmy: Oct 16 2005, 20:16

[richard123]

(i did do a search, but searches don't allow you to go directly to the post that contains your search terms.  ...unless there's something i don't know?)

Use "Search topic" near the bottom left of each page of the post.

[rectangle]

I've been getting an error copying files to my Shuffle (software version 1.1.2) which is happening totally randomly:

CODE

ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #123 copying C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxxx\Desktop\Slacker Astronomy Extra\051011-slackextra.mp3 to g:\iPod_Control\Music\F06\051011-slackextra.mp3摯

since using 0.9.9l. All was working OK before. I did a brand new install of Foobar2000 0.8.3 (Special installer) but problem persists. It's always Error #123
Can anyone direct me to a previous version of foo_pod to try?

This post has been edited by rectangle: Oct 18 2005, 15:09

[Aero]

I've been getting an error copying files to my Shuffle (software version 1.1.2) which is happening totally randomly:

CODE

ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #123 copying C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxxx\Desktop\Slacker Astronomy Extra\051011-slackextra.mp3 to g:\iPod_Control\Music\F06\051011-slackextra.mp3摯

since using 0.9.9l. All was working OK before. I did a brand new install of Foobar2000 0.8.3 (Special installer) but problem persists. It's always Error #123
Can anyone direct me to a previous version of foo_pod to try?

I saw that yesterday for the first time, and I'll work on a fix for it shortly.

Almost all previous foo_pod versions are online. For example, the previous version is http://www.loodi.com/foo_pod_0.9.9k.zip

[rectangle]

I saw that yesterday for the first time, and I'll work on a fix for it shortly.

Almost all previous foo_pod versions are online.  For example, the previous version is http://www.loodi.com/foo_pod_0.9.9k.zip

Thanks Aero. 0.9.9k is working fine

[Bobjua]

i know this is stupid and i didnt LOOK for an answer, but do i have to have itunes installed?

[Aero]

i know this is stupid and i didnt LOOK for an answer, but do i have to have itunes installed?

No. This is a nice feature of foo_pod - you can throw it and Foobar on any USB drive (or the iPod itself), and run it from any Windows computer without installing Foobar or iTunes.

[Aero]

Version 0.9.9m is now available

0.9.9m fixes a fairly serious and intermittant problem with filename corruption. This is the "Error 123" problem that rectangle was experiencing. This bug was introduced in the previous version, and while it seems to happen more frequently on iPod Shuffles, it will affect all iPods - so you should upgrade as soon as possible.


From the Readme:

CODE

Version 0.9.9m - October 19, 2005
*  Fixed a filename corruption bug, introduced in version 0.9.9l.  For some reason, this bug was more visible when sending files to an iPod Shuffle, but it affects all iPod models.

[2Pacalypse]

im sure this is not a bug but something im doing wrong:

when i add files/playlists to my ipod from foo_pod it all works with no errors and if i bring up the playlist explorer afterwards it shows the new playlists on my ipod.

yet when i eject my ipod and look under playlists there never there. i have to send a file to my ipod using winamp and then eject my ipod and the file from winamp along with the files/playlists from foo_pod and then visible on my ipod.

4g 60 gb ipod with latest foo_pod

[ReD-BaRoN]

im sure this is not a bug but something im doing wrong:

when i add files/playlists to my ipod from foo_pod it all works with no errors and if i bring up the playlist explorer afterwards it shows the new playlists on my ipod.

yet when i eject my ipod and look under playlists there never there.  i have to send a file to my ipod using winamp and then eject my ipod and the file from winamp along with the files/playlists from foo_pod and then visible on my ipod.

4g 60 gb ipod with latest foo_pod

I've seen similar behavior with my 4G 60GB too. I'm pretty sure it's foo_pod, but haven't been able to track down what the issue is. Are you doing transcoding?