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

[ReD-BaRoN]

I've got an iPod Mini with the latest firmware installed. I've been using iTunes 6 to sync it, but I'm interested in trying foopod. I'm a little worried because back when I was following this thread there were issues with newer versions of the firmware (am I using the right word here?). I used ephpod with my mini a few times and it completely fucked a lot of things up, causing me to have to revert the pod back to factory settings and start from scratch. So before I install foopod I just want to know what I should expect and if there are any issues with newer firmware and such. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Why do you want to move from iTunes?

Curiousity, trying out new things.

That doesn't answer my questions though.

foo_pod should work fine if you have the 4.9 database option checked. However, there is always a risk. You need to determine if you are willing to take that risk. I don't think foo_pod is necessary unless you are doing transcoding. If you are not doing transcoding, then I would just stick with iTunes.

This post has been edited by ReD-BaRoN: Dec 17 2005, 16:47

[ReD-BaRoN]

Hey, i've got a problem, i've been trying to get these smart playlists to work on my iPod but they just won't.. When I look for playlists on my iPod, the SPL's show up, but they're completely empty. They do show up with their respective content in foobar when i choose [components --> foo_pod --> load ipod smart playlists as tabs] however.
I think I tried everything possible, so i'm basically at loss here. Can anyone explain how i can get these smart playlists to work on my ipod?

I have a 3g iPod (v2.3) and use the latest version of foo_pod (iTunes 4.9 compatible).

Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated!

If you go back in this thread a few pages, you will see that SPLs are broken with certain versions of iPod firmware. I'm not sure if that means the latest version is broken, but they were broken at some time. I'm on an old release of firmware 3-23-05 on my 4g iPod and SPLs work fine. I suggest reading back a few pages to see if you have the problematic firmware.

[Sandman2012]

foo_pod should work fine if you have the 4.9 database option checked.  However, there is always a risk.  You need to determine if you are willing to take that risk.  I don't think foo_pod is necessary unless you are doing transcoding.  If you are not doing transcoding, then I would just stick with iTunes.

Thanks.

[.zolder]

If you go back in this thread a few pages, you will see that SPLs are broken with certain versions of iPod firmware.  I'm not sure if that means the latest version is broken, but they were broken at some time.  I'm on an old release of firmware 3-23-05 on my 4g iPod and SPLs work fine.  I suggest reading back a few pages to see if you have the problematic firmware.

Thanks for replying. I tried to install the firmware you mentioned, but I couldnt install in on my iPod.. I did try to use iTunesDB v4.7 in foo_pod's prefs though and that did solve the problem looks like i didnt try everything..

[ReD-BaRoN]

If you go back in this thread a few pages, you will see that SPLs are broken with certain versions of iPod firmware.  I'm not sure if that means the latest version is broken, but they were broken at some time.  I'm on an old release of firmware 3-23-05 on my 4g iPod and SPLs work fine.  I suggest reading back a few pages to see if you have the problematic firmware.

Thanks for replying. I tried to install the firmware you mentioned, but I couldnt install in on my iPod.. I did try to use iTunesDB v4.7 in foo_pod's prefs though and that did solve the problem looks like i didnt try everything..

Cool!

[mdhare007]

Hello-

With foobar2000 v0.8.3 and with the latest version of foo_pod (0.9.9m), when I click the "3G Ipod Line Out Mode", the option doesn't stay checked when I save the options.

I'm trying to apply this option for a new Ipod Video to be able to normalize audio on the dock.

Is this option no longer supported, or does this method not work on this generation of ipod? I'm trying to avoid using mp3gain.

-Michael

[Aero]

With foobar2000 v0.8.3 and with the latest version of foo_pod (0.9.9m), when I click the "3G Ipod Line Out Mode", the option doesn't stay checked when I save the options.

I'm trying to apply this option for a new Ipod Video to be able to normalize audio on the dock.

Is this option no longer supported, or does this method not work on this generation of ipod?  I'm trying to avoid using mp3gain.

As the name is supposed to indicate, 3G iPod Line Out mode is *only* necessary for 3G iPods. All subsequent iPods correctly apply SoundCheck corrections to the dock line out port. So you shouldn't enable it for your iPod.

[mdhare007]

Aero-

Thanks for the reply. On my new 30Gb Ipod video, toggling the soundcheck option makes an audible difference in sound output on the headphone jack, but does nothing once the ipod is docked to my griffin roadtrip (which connects via the bottom dock of course). I was using an older rock album and a new rock album with very different peak RMS values, so there was a large delta in DBs here. When I listen to these same tracks via headphones, things sound more equal.

I assumed that the problem was the ipod and not the roadtrip. I assume the roadtrip is incapable of twiddling with the sound levels since it has analog input, and when I manually boosted a file's volume with mp3gain, the perceived playback volume with the roadtrip volume was much louder.

I've read about what 3g out mode does (sets a different field in the itunesdb). I've thought about experimenting by poking around in the itunes db and setting this field for a couple of my songs but probably won't get around to it until this weekend. I'm also unsure of what the field is called (Volume?) and if it's even going to be available, but that's why it's an experiment.

fwiw, this ipod hasn't been connected with Itunes, so I don't think there's anything funky going on there.

-Michael

[Dan Hibiki]

Is there anyway I can use Helix MP3 encoder with foo_pod? I tried to use the "Custom Encoder", but it returned me an error...

Thanks

[ReD-BaRoN]

Is there anyway I can use Helix MP3 encoder with foo_pod? I tried to use the "Custom Encoder", but it returned me an error...

Thanks 

You can use any enoder you like, just make sure the path and the variable are set correctly.

Post the acutal error for more help.

[Dan Hibiki]

Is there anyway I can use Helix MP3 encoder with foo_pod? I tried to use the "Custom Encoder", but it returned me an error...

Thanks 

You can use any enoder you like, just make sure the path and the variable are set correctly.

Post the acutal error for more help.

Error:

ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Error opening transcoder exe

And the settings:
Use Custom Encoder Settings:
Encoder: C:\Arquivos de programas\Multimídia\foobar2000\encoder\hmp3.exe
Extension: mp3
Parameters: - %d -V80 -X2 -HF2 -SBT450 -TX0
Format is: lossy
Highest BPS mode supported: 16
Tag: Default
All other settings unchecked

Using these exact same settings on diskwriter works fine... And using LAME with presets also works fine...

Thanks!

This post has been edited by Dan Hibiki: Mar 6 2006, 17:52

[drbeachboy]

Is there anyway I can use Helix MP3 encoder with foo_pod? I tried to use the "Custom Encoder", but it returned me an error...

Thanks 

You can use any enoder you like, just make sure the path and the variable are set correctly.

Post the acutal error for more help.

Error:

CODE

ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Error opening transcoder exe
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://D:\Audio\Green Day\(1997) nimrod\Green Day - 17 - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).ogg
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #0 copying D:\Audio\Green Day\(1997) nimrod\Green Day - 17 - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).ogg to j:\iPod_Control\Music\F66\6b9cada371b3a8be6.mp3

And the settings:
Use Custom Encoder Settings:
Encoder: C:\Arquivos de programas\Multimídia\foobar2000\encoder\hmp3.exe
Extension: mp3
Parameters: - %d -V80 -X2 -HF2 -SBT450 -TX0
Format is: lossy
Highest BPS mode supported: 16
Tag: Default
All other settings unchecked

Using these exact same settings on diskwriter works fine... And using LAME with presets also works fine...

Thanks!

Use %s instead of the "-" as the first parameter.

[Dan Hibiki]

Use %s instead of the "-" as the first parameter.

Didn't work

[david_dl]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but it is a bug that remains. I have my CDs as single .ape files indexed with a CUE sheet. foobar loads and displays the individual tracks perfectly. I can convert the individual tracks to AAC with diskwriter and NAACEnc and load them onto my ipod with itunes (well, i could until i installed foo_pod and it fucked up the database) perfectly. However when i select the tracks and choose foo_pod->Send to iPod, foobar freezes up. From what i can see in process explorer, foo_pod is trying to load the entire .ape file into memory (This almost definately should not be happening unless foo_pod is very badly designed, and I hope not). Even worse, it is doing this in the main thread, freezing foobar and leaving no way to cleanly abort. As i now have no alternative but to use foo_pod (due to database incompatiblity), my temporary solution is to convert the files with diskwriter, then add them to another playlist and send to iPod from there.

[magnusak]

Since there probably are many out there with iPod 5G (video), I just wanted to share my experience with foo_pod.

My configuration:
--------------------
- iPod 5G (video) 30GB, software version 1.0
- foobar2000 v0.8.3
- foo_pod v0.9.9
- iTunes v6.0.1.3

Why do I want to use foo_pod?
-----------------------------------
- foobar2000 is my favourite music player and music library.
- I have encoded all my music with Replay Gain and want to take advantage of that on my iPod.

Why do I need iTunes?
--------------------------
- I want to transfer videos to my iPod
- I want to syncronize my iPod with podcasts
- I want to syncronize my Outlook contacts to my iPod.

How do I make it work?
---------------------------
First of all, foo_pod must be set to use the iTunes 4.7/4.8 database format. If I set it to 4.9, all artists and albums disappear from my iPod. (They re-appear if this setting is set back to 4.7/4.8.)

Second, as you probably know, iTunes must be set to syncronize music (and videos) manually.

If these two requirements are met, I am able to operate quite normal with foo_pod and iTunes against my iPod. I load all the music through foo_pod and all the videos through iTunes. I am also able to get content off the iPod with foo_pod.

What problems to I have?
-----------------------------
When I copy songs to my iPod from foobar2000, they also appear as videos on my iPod. This is fixed however by simply opening iTunes with my iPod connected. (It seems that iTunes automatically does some DB maintainance.)

foo_pod seems to distroy all smart playlists, by converting them to normal playlists. I have not found the solution to this, but I do not mind, as I don't use much playlists.


I hope that this helps some of the 5G owners out there, and that we soon might get a new version of foo_pod, supporting the 6.0 DB format.

Thanks to the developer (and testers/contributors),
Magnus

[Aero]

Just a quick note: Apple released a new firmware update for many iPod models today - http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/.

As you might remember, the last good firmware update for 4G and Photo iPods was the 2005-03-23 update, since all subsequent updates had broken smart playlists. I installed the 2006-01-10 update on my iPod Photo (version 1.2.1), and dynamically updating smart playlists have finally been fixed.

I'm going to test it off and on today to see if there is any other gotchas, but this looks like it might finally be a useable update. The current version of foo_pod works fine with this update, using the 4.7 database format. If the update turns out to be good, I'll see about adding newer features (like audio bookmarking for non-m4b songs and Podcasting support).

[Yamabushi]

That is great news Aero, thank you!!

Cheers,
Pete

[Yamabushi]

I've been running the latest firmware for a few days and everything seems to be working well for me, including Smart Playlist. :-) I look forward to the new foo_pod features Aero, thanks again!

Cheers,
Pete

[ReD-BaRoN]

I've been running the latest firmware for a few days and everything seems to be working well for me, including Smart Playlist. :-) I look forward to the new foo_pod features Aero,  thanks again!

Cheers,
Pete

Question, what are we losing by running on the old DB? One thing I noticed was that iTunes 6.0 can't read my dB if I'm on the old 4.7/4.8 dB. Therefore, when I have to run iTunes to subscribe to podcasts, iTunes is blank. What other features are we missing?

[Aero]

I've been running the latest firmware for a few days and everything Question, what are we losing by running on the old DB?  One thing I noticed was that iTunes 6.0 can't read my dB if I'm on the old 4.7/4.8 dB.  Therefore, when I have to run iTunes to subscribe to podcasts, iTunes is blank.  What other features are we missing?

Support for iTunes 4.7/4.8 format is almost complete. 4.9 and above support is very weak/non-existent, because I don't have a 5G iPod and until recently, firmware bugs kept me from upgrading to the latest firmware.

As I have time, I will work on improving support for newer formats.

[ReD-BaRoN]

I've been running the latest firmware for a few days and everything Question, what are we losing by running on the old DB?  One thing I noticed was that iTunes 6.0 can't read my dB if I'm on the old 4.7/4.8 dB.  Therefore, when I have to run iTunes to subscribe to podcasts, iTunes is blank.  What other features are we missing?

Support for iTunes 4.7/4.8 format is almost complete. 4.9 and above support is very weak/non-existent, because I don't have a 5G iPod and until recently, firmware bugs kept me from upgrading to the latest firmware.

As I have time, I will work on improving support for newer formats.

Do you need a 5G to test the 4.9 format? I thought the 4.9dB was out once podcasting support started.

[Aero]

Do you need a 5G to test the 4.9 format?  I thought the 4.9dB was out once podcasting support started.

Not any longer. The situation was that for a long time, the released firmware for 4G/Photo iPods was buggy (non-dynamically updating smart playlists), so there was no incentive for me to work on the post 4.8 format databases since none of the new features (i.e. special Podcast support) were usable with the older, but working, firmware.

Now that the latest firmware update has finally fixed the problems (and I'm actually using it), I have some incentive to get the foo_pod updated so that it correctly reads and writes 4.9+ databases.

[schugh]

Does foo_pod work on an amd x64 (dual core) with 64 bit windows?
Or is it supposed to work?
foobar works fine. The Naacenc tool works fine.
But when I use foo_pod set up to use naacenc for transcoding it generates very large temp wav files before encoding to aac. For a 7 minute track it generates a 700MB file before calling naacenc.

[schugh]

Never mind my question above.
I kept digging and found the answer.
I guess foo_pod still does not support cue sheets which for me makes it useless.

-- Sanjay

[nicholas]

Does the database format (ie. 4.7/4.8) directly correspond to the iTunes version? How do I know what database format I am using?