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

[binkgle]

sorry to reiterate my quesiton from earlier on, but it's been lost in the conversation that has arisen since.

which firmware is best for 3g ipod owners (i have the 15gb 3g version) who want to use foo_pod? does anyone have a link to it?

also, does anyone have a link to itunes 4.8 so i can have the ipod organized so that it will work best with foo_pod?

This post has been edited by binkgle: Oct 30 2005, 05:39

[Aero]

sorry to reiterate my quesiton from earlier on, but it's been lost in the conversation that has arisen since. 

which firmware is best for 3g ipod owners (i have the 15gb 3g version) who want to use foo_pod?  does anyone have a link to it? 

also, does anyone have a link to itunes 4.8 so i can have the ipod organized so that it will work best with foo_pod?

In general, the last good updater was the 2005-03-23 Updater, which has firmware version 2.3 for the 3G. That looks like that is the same version contained in the latest firmware, so I guess the 3G is probably not affected.

[binkgle]

sorry to reiterate my quesiton from earlier on, but it's been lost in the conversation that has arisen since. 

which firmware is best for 3g ipod owners (i have the 15gb 3g version) who want to use foo_pod?  does anyone have a link to it? 

also, does anyone have a link to itunes 4.8 so i can have the ipod organized so that it will work best with foo_pod?

In general, the last good updater was the 2005-03-23 Updater, which has firmware version 2.3 for the 3G. That looks like that is the same version contained in the latest firmware, so I guess the 3G is probably not affected.

k thx

anyone have itunes 4.8? i can't find it on google, onl links to version 6 on apple site

[Aero]

anyone have itunes 4.8?  i can't find it on google, onl links to version 6 on apple site

Why do you want iTunes 4.8? iTunes 4.7 is the most compatable with foo_pod (or vice versa), so if that is what you want, you want version 4.7. Otherwise, I don't know why you wouldn't want the latest version of iTunes.

You will have to look pretty hard to find old versions of iTunes - Apple actively discourages 3rd party sites from distributing any version of iTunes (e.g. OldVersion.com).

[ReD-BaRoN]

Smartplaylists that use ratings....can someone give me a quick tutorial on what I need to do this in foobar and foo_pod?

Thanks!

Edit: Made the request more specific.

This post has been edited by ReD-BaRoN: Nov 1 2005, 01:52

[macfly]

sorry to reiterate my quesiton from earlier on, but it's been lost in the conversation that has arisen since. 

which firmware is best for 3g ipod owners (i have the 15gb 3g version) who want to use foo_pod?  does anyone have a link to it? 

also, does anyone have a link to itunes 4.8 so i can have the ipod organized so that it will work best with foo_pod?

In general, the last good updater was the 2005-03-23 Updater, which has firmware version 2.3 for the 3G. That looks like that is the same version contained in the latest firmware, so I guess the 3G is probably not affected.

i did a little bit of hunting, and found this french driver download site which hosts all of the old updates for Windows iPods (including 2005-03-23).

still trying to find a link to download iTunes 4.7.1...

[Storm]

Wasn't there a 4.7.2? Then anyone who wants to host 4.7 will probably only have 4.7.2...

What's your problem, deleted the uninstall files and can't get rid of the old version? Or you just wanna downgrade?

[macfly]

Wasn't there a 4.7.2? Then anyone who wants to host 4.7 will probably only have 4.7.2...

What's your problem, deleted the uninstall files and can't get rid of the old version? Or you just wanna downgrade?

hm, i guess i didn't know there was a 4.7.2. i wanted to downgrade, so that i could safely use both iTunes and foo_pod to add songs to the iPod. this way i wouldn't have to show my girlfriend another set of instructions on how to put her mp3s on there, since she already knows her way around iTunes a little bit.

[binkgle]

i guess 4.7.1 is what i want then, not 4.8 i'll look for that, too

[toddyarling]

Hi

foo_pod isn't adding the genre's at all AFAIK to teh ipod Music - Genre section and also, in the playlist section of the ipod, are a whole bunch of playlists called "Podcasts" for every file I copied over.

I'm using latest itunes and also have ran yamipod, which might have something to do with it.

Oh yeah, and now iTunes doesn't see any music on the iPod, altho it does see the playlists, but they show up on the Ipod itself.

This post has been edited by toddyarling: Nov 3 2005, 17:54

[Aero]

foo_pod isn't adding the genre's at all AFAIK to teh ipod Music - Genre section and also, in the playlist section of the ipod, are a whole bunch of  playlists called "Podcasts" for every file I copied over.

I'm using latest itunes and also have ran yamipod, which might have something to do with it.

Oh yeah, and now iTunes doesn't see any music on the iPod, altho it does see the playlists, but they show up on the Ipod itself.

foo_pod is not currently completely compatible with iPod databases created by iTunes 4.9 and higher (mainly due to the fact that I don't have an iPod that works well with the new firmware). You can try setting the database format to 4.9 (Advanced tab of the foo_pod Preferences) and see if that helps.

[binkgle]

foo_pod is not currently completely compatible with iPod databases created by iTunes 4.9 and higher (mainly due to the fact that I don't have an iPod that works well with the new firmware).  You can try setting the database format to 4.9 (Advanced tab of the foo_pod Preferences) and see if that helps.

so, why isn't 4.8 the best version to use with foo_pod, then, instead of 4.7.1?

[Aero]

foo_pod is not currently completely compatible with iPod databases created by iTunes 4.9 and higher (mainly due to the fact that I don't have an iPod that works well with the new firmware).  You can try setting the database format to 4.9 (Advanced tab of the foo_pod Preferences) and see if that helps.

so, why isn't 4.8 the best version to use with foo_pod, then, instead of 4.7.1?

You're correct - I thought the database changed between 4.7 and 4.8, but in fact, they are identical. 4.9 is when things changed.

[binkgle]

i now have itunes 4.8 installed, i've formatted the ipod with the latest firmware (my ipod is 15gig 3g, so it's firmware 2.3), opened it in itunes to give it the old database format, and then i closed itunes and opened the ipod with foo_pod.

i still cannot transcode my flac files when they are sent to the ipod. i get the following messages in the console:

CODE

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\Various\O Brother Where Art Thou\04 - Alison Krauss - Down In The River To Pray.flac
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #0 copying C:\Music\Various\O Brother Where Art Thou\04 - Alison Krauss - Down In The River To Pray.flac to d:\iPod_Control\Music\F92\154a7b8f187d42436..mp3

what settings should i have in the foo_pod preferences? i want to use lame 3.97beta1 with -V2 --vbr-new.

This post has been edited by binkgle: Nov 6 2005, 22:39

[nonchalant]

hi... i have a 5g video ipod and have been using foo_pod for the past couple of days... its great (both of them)! i had a couple of problems with it though, im guessing because of the new model. the first one is with sending playlists; sometimes they become unsorted on the ipod even though its in order on foobar. and the second is copying mp3's directly onto the ipod: i can get foo_pod to rebuild the itunesDB so its visible on the ipod but when it attempts to play, it just skips through each song in the playlist as if it was 0 seconds long (although the correct song length is shown). am i doing something wrong here? thanks!

[binkgle]

ok, so i got a lame encoding profile for foo_pod (at least, it works with diskwriter).

whenever i try to send a flac file to the ipod with foo_pod, though, a second process of foobar opens in the task manager and both of these processes stop responding. what's wrong with foo_pod? i use foobar 0.8.3, foo_pod 0.9.9m, and have a 3g ipod with itunes 4.8 installed (foo_pod is using the 4.8 databse mode) and ipod updater 2005-10-12 installed (ipod firmware 2.3 for me)

[Aero]

hi... i have a 5g video ipod and have been using foo_pod for the past couple of days... its great (both of them)! i had a couple of problems with it though, im guessing because of the new model. the first one is with sending playlists; sometimes they become unsorted on the ipod even though its in order on foobar. and the second is copying mp3's directly onto the ipod: i can get foo_pod to rebuild the itunesDB so its visible on the ipod but when it attempts to play, it just skips through each song in the playlist as if it was 0 seconds long (although the correct song length is shown). am i doing something wrong here? thanks!

I'm not sure what the playlist sorting problem is - I haven't seen anything like that on my iPods, so it could be something that has changed on the 5G.

As for the rebuilding the iTunesDB, it could be a filename length problem. Different iPod models have different maximum filename length (note that this length includes the filename + the directory name(s)). From my experience, this maximum length has gotten shorter with newer iPods, so it is possible that the 5G can only play songs that have the filename length that iTunes uses.

If you want to do a test, copy a song called "a.mp3" to iPod_Control/Music/F00/a.mp3, rebuild the database, and see if it plays. If that works but your other songs don't, it is probably a filename length issue.

[Aero]

ok, so i got a lame encoding profile for foo_pod (at least, it works with diskwriter). 

whenever i try to send a flac file to the ipod with foo_pod, though, a second process of foobar opens in the task manager and both of these processes stop responding.  what's wrong with foo_pod?  i use foobar 0.8.3, foo_pod 0.9.9m, and have a 3g ipod with itunes 4.8 installed (foo_pod is using the 4.8 databse mode) and ipod updater 2005-10-12 installed (ipod firmware 2.3 for me)

Have you tried any of the MP3 presets?

[Marino13]

sorry to reiterate my quesiton from earlier on, but it's been lost in the conversation that has arisen since. 

which firmware is best for 3g ipod owners (i have the 15gb 3g version) who want to use foo_pod?  does anyone have a link to it? 

also, does anyone have a link to itunes 4.8 so i can have the ipod organized so that it will work best with foo_pod?

In general, the last good updater was the 2005-03-23 Updater, which has firmware version 2.3 for the 3G. That looks like that is the same version contained in the latest firmware, so I guess the 3G is probably not affected.

k thx

anyone have itunes 4.8? i can't find it on google, onl links to version 6 on apple site

http://stuff.techwhack.com/index.php?categ...lities/&paged=2

I found 4.8 at this site after about an hour of searching.

[clunesy]

I have the video ipod also, and you're right it rocks. I didn't think I'd bother watching movies on it because it seemed there was no easy way to rip DVDs to mp4 video and because I thought the screen would suck to watch. - Itunes certainly won't let you rip dvds [can you imagine if the original itunes hadn't allowed you to rip audio cds to an ipod - I don't know wtf apple thinks its doing], but if anyones interested nero recode does a really good job (and fast!) of coding dvds for watching on an ipod (just make sure you tick quicktime compatibility). Also - have you noticed how the 5G ipod SOUNDS better ? It has bottom end in spades !

Anyway. 0.9.9m works just fine for loading music on the 5G, but unfortunately all your songs ALSO appear under the videos section in the ipod. You also can't use foopod to load movies to the ipod (they play back audio only if you try). So as a work-flow, I can load all my music with foo_pod and then afterwards load my movies with itunes 6.0.1 (Anyone know how different the 6.0.1 DB format is from 4.9 - is it just the movies support?). Any plans to update foo_pod so it simply knows what movies are, and how to put them on properly and how not to mess them up in a database rebuild, which it seems to (fair enough !! - I know foobar doesn't play pictures). To be honest I've steered clear of database rebuilding for a while, it was always this that sent my 60gig photo into a perpetual reboot, did I read that this bug was fixed ? (I wasn't really clear whether it was just fixed for database build, or rebuild too). Anyway. Foopod is still rockin'; keep up the good work !

This post has been edited by clunesy: Nov 9 2005, 13:13

[Aero]

Anyway.  0.9.9m works just fine for loading music on the 5G, but unfortunately all your songs ALSO appear under the videos section in the ipod. You also can't use foopod to load movies to the ipod (they play back audio only if you

Thanks for the report. Someone recently documented a flag in the new database format that controls where files appear. Unfortunately, Apple choose the value '0' to mean to put it in both places, and since foo_pod doesn't know what this flag does, it writes a '0'.

try). So as a work-flow, I can load all my music with foo_pod and then afterwards load my movies with itunes 6.0.1 (Anyone know how different the 6.0.1 DB format is from 4.9 - is it just the movies support?). Any plans to update foo_pod so it simply knows what movies are, and how to put them on properly and how not to mess them up in a database rebuild, which it seems to (fair enough !! - I know foobar doesn't play pictures).

I don't have a 5G iPod, and currently don't have any plans to buy one, so it would be difficult to add support for movies. If I bought one, I would definitely look into adding video support. Although since Foobar doesn't support video, I'm not sure how that would work - it would probably need to be a separate application.

To be honest I've steered clear of database rebuilding for a while, it was always this that sent my 60gig photo into a perpetual reboot, did I read that this bug was fixed ? (I wasn't really clear whether it was just fixed for database build, or rebuild too). Anyway. Foopod is still rockin'; keep up the good work !

Thanks! I fixed the bug that you reported that caused the reboot problem, so the latest foo_pod should be fine to rebuild the database.

[clunesy]

<delete>

This post has been edited by clunesy: Nov 10 2005, 20:29

[clunesy]

I don't have a 5G iPod, and currently don't have any plans to buy one, so it would be difficult to add support for movies.  If I bought one, I would definitely look into adding video support.  Although since Foobar doesn't support video, I'm not sure how that would work - it would probably need to be a separate application.

Movies that you create or download for ipod playback, all seem to have the suffix .mp4. If you load them into foobar, it is quite happy to play the audio track from them. If you tell it to load this file to the ipod, it plays back on the ipod audio-only, but nothing in the file data has changed, so presumably the video data is still there untouched, but the file is not shown in the database correctly for the pod to know its supposed to be looking for video. I can think of two ideas. 1) a tickbox to tell foo_pod that anything with .mp4 suffix is a video file (no good if you have audio only mp4s, although aren't they usually called .m4a ???). 2) You have a right-click menu option that says, 'load selected files to ipod AS VIDEO' - once the video database format is documented, then option 2 should be easy enough to implement, no ? What was the word on an album-art feature for foo_pod too ? Did you say something about paypal contributions at one point ? I'd rather give you my money than Mediafour or the Anapod people !

Anyway just some ideas. Thanks again.

cheers

Clunesy

[Aero]

Movies that you create or download for ipod playback, all seem to have the suffix .mp4.  If you load them into foobar, it is quite happy to play the audio track from them. If you tell it to load this file to the ipod, it plays back on the ipod audio-only, but nothing in the file data has changed, so presumably the video data is still there untouched, but the file is not shown in the database correctly for the pod to know its supposed to be looking for video.  I can think of two ideas. 1) a tickbox to tell foo_pod that anything with .mp4 suffix is a video file (no good if you have audio only mp4s, although aren't they usually called .m4a ???).  2) You have a right-click menu option that says, 'load selected files to ipod AS VIDEO' - once the video database format is documented, then option 2 should be easy enough to implement, no?

Interesting. I'm not sure how to make this work on the 5G without more information about the database. If the file is transferred directly, then it might be as easy as just setting the video flag in the new database. But I bet there is some other data (video length, resolution, etc.) required to make it play on the iPod.

One quasi-related thing is that if you use the WMA Foobar component, you can load .wmv (Windows Media Video files) and transcode them into MP3/AAC audio format for playback on the iPod.

What was the word on an album-art feature for foo_pod too ?

I believe there has been some more information on the album art database format, but I haven't looked into it lately. I'd definitely like to add some album art support (and Photos, as well), and I have gone through and download artwork for almost all of my music, so I have some extra incentive to get it working.

Did you say something about paypal contributions at one point ? I'd rather give you my money than Mediafour or the Anapod people !

There is some information in the foo_pod Readme.txt file, although I haven't really pushed it. I have received a grand total of 2 contributions, so I'm still a little ways away from 5G kind of money...

[rexy]

What was the word on an album-art feature for foo_pod too ?

I believe there has been some more information on the album art database format, but I haven't looked into it lately. I'd definitely like to add some album art support (and Photos, as well), and I have gone through and download artwork for almost all of my music, so I have some extra incentive to get it working.

Feel free to use my album art finder code from foo_uie_albumart to find the image to embed into the file transfered so that there is uniformity between foobar and the iPod. Too bad I'm still with my aged G3 40 gigger, but if I ever get a new iPod, it would be very nice to have an album art feature in foo_pod.
Keep up the great work, foo_pod is invaluable!