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

[fenningenarius]

Has anyone been able to get foo_pod and iTunes to both work with a Nano?

I'd like to be able to use iTunes occaisonaly with my Nano, but use foo_pod exclusively to transfer music to the Nano. I want to use foo_pod because of the replaygain->soundcheck translation. I want to use iTunes whenever I play music on my ipod while connected to the computer because then my ratings/playcounts will work correctly.

I have tried many combinations of firmware/itunes/foo_pod versions including firmware versions 1.0 and 1.1, itunes 4.8, 4.9 and 6.0. I've only ever used foo_pod 0.9.9m. I've also tried changing the foo_pod options to use 4.7/4.8 databases as well as 4.9 databases. I've tried pretty much every combination possible of these firmware/software versions/options.

I can get foo_pod to successfully transfer songs to the ipod and play them, but the only way I've been able to play these songs on the ipod from within iTunes is to use the 'rebuild database' feature. After rebuilding, iTunes can play the files until anything new has been transferred with foo_pod - if something new is transferred with foo_pod then 'rebuild database' must be performed again in order for iTunes to be able to play any files on the ipod (not just the new ones). I wouldn't mind just rebuilding the database after each transfer except that it resets all my ratings/playcounts each time I do this.

Anyone got any ideas or is this something that just isn't possible? Thanks for any help.

PS: Anyone know of a program like iVolume for Windows?

[bobbobbob]

Why wouldn't you want to add tracknumbers to the original tags?

Because I don't have all the songs on my PC.

Why not iTunes?

Edit: BTW, what you are suggesting is probably not possible. Most ipod software mangles filenames, in which case you won't have the original tracknumbers anymore.

Because I don't have iTunes installed and wish to avoid it (heard horror stories of it altering MP3 files from just running it), and from what I can tell it likes to have files on the HDD at the same time as on the iPod. And if there was an easy way of doing it by hand it would be okay too

Edit: Just found Anapod can do what I want. Woo

This post has been edited by bobbobbob: Feb 8 2006, 18:19

[m1abrams]

So Aero you still supporting/developing foo_pod? I hope now that they fixed the annoying smart playlist bug you are. I know you mentioned that you feel that any new features would require a full rewrite.

I have read through a good bit of the thread almost all 77 pages. However correct me if I am wrong.

foo_pod does NOT support the following.
syncing of rating,last played, play count
and AlbumArt.

Is this correct?

Are their any plans to add support to any of the above items?

Thanks.

[david_dl]

Add CD Images/Files with subsong indices to that list.

[Ice Devil]

I don't know if someone has posted this before but I discovered a bug in the latest version. I got an iPod color and it seems that long songs that are more then 12 or 13 minutes long get skipped. This has nothing to do with long file names as all my files are encoded with the latest iTunes and iTunes by default keeps their file names to a maximum of 36 characters. So this problem only occurs during very long songs. I discovered this problem with listening to Pink Floyd "Animals". Track two is over 17 minutes in length, so as the first track played through, it ended then my iPod started playing track Three, totally skipping track two. However, I was able to play track two just by skipping back a track, so long songs are still playable.

So I decided to test my iPod out, to see if this was just a small glitch that happed, and this time watching the display. What happed was after playing track one through again, the display momentaraly showed track two's information and then immediately skipped to track three again, never playing track two. I've also tested this on other long songs that I have on my iPod and the results are the same. Long song gets skipped. Thankfully, not allot of my songs are very long, but it's still rather frustrating to have to reach for my iPod to skip back to a song because it gets skipped from song length issues.

[My name is Mud]

I've been using foo_pod (v. 9.9m) for two days, and it's great, except I can't transcode on the fly. The .dll's are in the 'components' file, and I've got the LAME.exe in the main foobar folder. I set the foo_pod transcode preferences for LAME. I right-click on a file to sent to the 'pod, and get the following error message in the console -

ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Error opening transcoder exe
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #5 copying C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape to e:\iPod_Control\Music\F34\15f06b5e910672496.mp3

There's a msvcp71.dll still in the foo_pod folder, but the readme says nothing about it. Is this my problem? I read thru this thread (well, mostly) and went thru tinkafoo's page looking for info, but no luck. I've tried putting just the LAME.exe in the folder, and I even dumped the whole LAME folder in. All I get are error messages like the one above. I downloaded FAAC v1.24, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to place (nothing looks like an "FAAC.exe").

Anyone have suggestions?

[ReD-BaRoN]

I've been using foo_pod (v. 9.9m) for two days, and it's great, except I can't transcode on the fly.  The .dll's are in the 'components' file, and I've got the LAME.exe in the main foobar folder. I set the foo_pod transcode preferences for LAME.  I right-click on a file to sent to the 'pod, and get the following error message in the console -

ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Error opening transcoder exe
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #5 copying C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape to e:\iPod_Control\Music\F34\15f06b5e910672496.mp3

There's a msvcp71.dll still in the foo_pod folder, but the readme says nothing about it.  Is this my problem?  I read thru this thread (well, mostly) and went thru tinkafoo's page looking for info, but no luck.  I've tried putting just the LAME.exe in the folder, and I even dumped the whole LAME folder in.  All I get are error messages like the one above.  I downloaded FAAC v1.24, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to place (nothing looks like an "FAAC.exe").

Anyone have suggestions?

Are you doing one of the preset transcoding selections? Can you try a customer encoder and specify the path the lame.exe and see if that helps?

[Demonanya]

First of all many thanks for this wonderful plugin, ITunes has been uninstalled and shall never darken my PC ever again.

Anyway, just got a quick question with regards to Replay Gain. All of my music on the PC has been ran through the Replay Gain scanner, does this mean that when I transfer songs over to my iPod, the Replay Gain information will go over as well or will it need re-applying on the actual iPod?

[ReD-BaRoN]

First of all many thanks for this wonderful plugin, ITunes has been uninstalled and shall never darken my PC ever again.

Anyway, just got a quick question with regards to Replay Gain.  All of my music on the PC has been ran through the Replay Gain scanner, does this mean that when I transfer songs over to my iPod, the Replay Gain information will go over as well or will it need re-applying on the actual iPod?

It will use the ReplayGain values you already have in foo_bar.

[Demonanya]

First of all many thanks for this wonderful plugin, ITunes has been uninstalled and shall never darken my PC ever again.

Anyway, just got a quick question with regards to Replay Gain.  All of my music on the PC has been ran through the Replay Gain scanner, does this mean that when I transfer songs over to my iPod, the Replay Gain information will go over as well or will it need re-applying on the actual iPod?

It will use the ReplayGain values you already have in foo_bar.

Many thanks for the reply ReD-BaRoN

[My name is Mud]

I've been using foo_pod (v. 9.9m) for two days, and it's great, except I can't transcode on the fly.  The .dll's are in the 'components' file, and I've got the LAME.exe in the main foobar folder. I set the foo_pod transcode preferences for LAME.   I right-click on a file to sent to the 'pod, and get the following error message in the console -

ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Error opening transcoder exe
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #5 copying C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape to e:\iPod_Control\Music\F34\15f06b5e910672496.mp3

There's a msvcp71.dll still in the foo_pod folder, but the readme says nothing about it.  Is this my problem?  I read thru this thread (well, mostly) and went thru tinkafoo's page looking for info, but no luck.  I've tried putting just the LAME.exe in the folder, and I even dumped the whole LAME folder in.  All I get are error messages like the one above.  I downloaded FAAC v1.24, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to place (nothing looks like an "FAAC.exe").

Anyone have suggestions?

Are you doing one of the preset transcoding selections? Can you try a customer encoder and specify the path the lame.exe and see if that helps?

Tried that - same message.
- edit - I just discovered that I can't convert a file in fb2k, either. Is there a connection here?

This post has been edited by My name is Mud: Feb 26 2006, 07:21

[Aero]

Version 0.9.9n is now available.


Yeah, it has been awhile since the last release, but foo_pod development is (slowing) progressing. Since Apple finally got their firmware situation straightened out, I have been wanting to get foo_pod's iTunesDB support up to snuff. Unfortunately, it still isn't there yet...

But the good news is that there are some nice new features that I was able to get working. These are mainly Podcasting related features - Bookmarking and Shuffle Skip.

Previous to this version, if you wanted to be able to make a song bookmarkable (meaning that you can play a song, switch to a different song, and return to the first song and pick up playback), you had to use the "Send To iPod as Audiobook" feature. This transcoded the file into AAC format and wrote it out as a .m4b file. This worked, but the drawbacks were that transcoding took a lot of time and it degraded the audio quality. You can now specify a TAGZ formatting string in the Podcast tab of the foo_pod preferences to determine which songs will be bookmarkable.

Also under the Podcasting tab is another TAGZ format string called Shuffle Skip. As the name implies, this feature allows you to specify a group of songs that will not be played in shuffle mode. You might use this ensure that only songs are shuffled.

There is also a Podcast TAGZ string on this tab, but until better iTunesDB format support is available, this doesn't do anything very useful.


From the Readme:

CODE

Version 0.9.9n - February 26, 2006
*  Added podcast features, which work with newer versions of the iPod firmware - Podcast, Bookmarkable, and Shuffle Skip.  

  Podcast is a special designation which displays show notes and causes the song to appear in
  special Podcast menu (these features are not fully implemented in foo_pod yet...).  

  Bookmarkable feature allows the position within a song to be saved so if you switch to a different song,
  when you return to the original bookmarked song, the playback will resume from the last played location.

  Shuffle Skip allows you to designate a category of songs that will not be played by the iPod while in
  shuffle mode.  This is useful for preventing audiobooks and podcasts from being played during shuffling,
  for example.

  These features are found under the Podcast tab in the foo_pod preference.  You will have to specify TAGZ
  format strings to control how these are used.  See the tab for further information.

*  Disabled the iTunes 4.9 compatible format database writing.  Support for this format has always been marginal, and it causes more problems than it is worth.  Eventually, iTunes 6+ format databases will be supported.

[ReD-BaRoN]

I've been using foo_pod (v. 9.9m) for two days, and it's great, except I can't transcode on the fly.  The .dll's are in the 'components' file, and I've got the LAME.exe in the main foobar folder. I set the foo_pod transcode preferences for LAME.   I right-click on a file to sent to the 'pod, and get the following error message in the console -

ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Error opening transcoder exe
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #5 copying C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape to e:\iPod_Control\Music\F34\15f06b5e910672496.mp3

There's a msvcp71.dll still in the foo_pod folder, but the readme says nothing about it.  Is this my problem?  I read thru this thread (well, mostly) and went thru tinkafoo's page looking for info, but no luck.  I've tried putting just the LAME.exe in the folder, and I even dumped the whole LAME folder in.  All I get are error messages like the one above.  I downloaded FAAC v1.24, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to place (nothing looks like an "FAAC.exe").

Anyone have suggestions?

Are you doing one of the preset transcoding selections? Can you try a customer encoder and specify the path the lame.exe and see if that helps?

- edit - I just discovered that I can't convert a file in fb2k, either. Is there a connection here?

I'm pretty sure that foo_pod leverages fb2k's transcoding support. I would work on getting transcoding to work in fb2k first, and then come back and try it in foo_pod.

[My name is Mud]

I've been using foo_pod (v. 9.9m) for two days, and it's great, except I can't transcode on the fly.  The .dll's are in the 'components' file, and I've got the LAME.exe in the main foobar folder. I set the foo_pod transcode preferences for LAME.   I right-click on a file to sent to the 'pod, and get the following error message in the console -

ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Error opening transcoder exe
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #5 copying C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape to e:\iPod_Control\Music\F34\15f06b5e910672496.mp3

There's a msvcp71.dll still in the foo_pod folder, but the readme says nothing about it.  Is this my problem?  I read thru this thread (well, mostly) and went thru tinkafoo's page looking for info, but no luck.  I've tried putting just the LAME.exe in the folder, and I even dumped the whole LAME folder in.  All I get are error messages like the one above.  I downloaded FAAC v1.24, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to place (nothing looks like an "FAAC.exe").

Anyone have suggestions?

Are you doing one of the preset transcoding selections? Can you try a customer encoder and specify the path the lame.exe and see if that helps?

- edit - I just discovered that I can't convert a file in fb2k, either. Is there a connection here?

I'm pretty sure that foo_pod leverages fb2k's transcoding support. I would work on getting transcoding to work in fb2k first, and then come back and try it in foo_pod.

That's what I was thinking also - I may try a fresh install of v0.8.3 w/the above-mentioned foo_pod new release (it wouldn't surprise me to discover that I buggered up my current version of fb2k, trying various things over the last year or so...).

[My name is Mud]

I've been using foo_pod (v. 9.9m) for two days, and it's great, except I can't transcode on the fly.  The .dll's are in the 'components' file, and I've got the LAME.exe in the main foobar folder. I set the foo_pod transcode preferences for LAME.   I right-click on a file to sent to the 'pod, and get the following error message in the console -

ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : Error opening transcoder exe
ERROR (foo_podtranscoder) : foo_podtranscoder: transcoding failed for file://C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape
ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #5 copying C:\Documents and Settings\Ken.KEN-EG260PCW4NG\My Documents\My Music\Monkey's Audio\Pink Floyd\Pulse\disc 1\Pink Floyd - What Do You Want From Me.ape to e:\iPod_Control\Music\F34\15f06b5e910672496.mp3

There's a msvcp71.dll still in the foo_pod folder, but the readme says nothing about it.  Is this my problem?  I read thru this thread (well, mostly) and went thru tinkafoo's page looking for info, but no luck.  I've tried putting just the LAME.exe in the folder, and I even dumped the whole LAME folder in.  All I get are error messages like the one above.  I downloaded FAAC v1.24, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to place (nothing looks like an "FAAC.exe").

Anyone have suggestions?

Are you doing one of the preset transcoding selections? Can you try a customer encoder and specify the path the lame.exe and see if that helps?

- edit - I just discovered that I can't convert a file in fb2k, either. Is there a connection here?

I'm pretty sure that foo_pod leverages fb2k's transcoding support. I would work on getting transcoding to work in fb2k first, and then come back and try it in foo_pod.

That's what I was thinking also - I may try a fresh install of v0.8.3 w/the above-mentioned foo_pod new release (it wouldn't surprise me to discover that I buggered up my current version of fb2k, trying various things over the last year or so...).

Update - both file conversion and transcoding are working fine. Thanks for your help!

[david_dl]

Version 0.9.9n is now available.

Good to see development continuing. Sorry to keep asking this, but is the transcoding of songs with subsong indices (ie. CD Images with cuesheets) working yet? Without this foo_pod is to me little more than completely useless, since I have my albums in lossless CD Image format so that I can choose a lossy format when I put them on my iPod. foo_sendtopod is a less than ideal solution and I would love to delete iTunes for good.

Thanks.

Edit: typos.

This post has been edited by david_dl: Feb 27 2006, 07:27

[Aero]

Version 0.9.9n is now available.

Good to see development continuing. Sorry to keep asking this, but is the transcoding of songs with subsong indices (ie. CD Images with cuesheets) working yet? Without this foo_pod is to me little more than completely useless, since I have my albums in lossless CD Image format so that I can choose a lossy format when I put them on my iPod. foo_sendtopod is a less than ideal solution and I would love to delete iTunes for good.

Sorry, but I haven't worked on cue sheet support recently. If you are going to be transcoding anyway, you could use Foobar's Convert function to save the songs to your local hard drive, then transfer them with foo_pod.

[Raja]

First of all many thanks for this wonderful plugin, ITunes has been uninstalled and shall never darken my PC ever again.

Anyway, just got a quick question with regards to Replay Gain.  All of my music on the PC has been ran through the Replay Gain scanner, does this mean that when I transfer songs over to my iPod, the Replay Gain information will go over as well or will it need re-applying on the actual iPod?

It will use the ReplayGain values you already have in foo_bar.

Right. You just need to turn on SoundCheck on your iPod.

[My name is Mud]

Is the fb2k equalizer 'on' during transcoding? I have the EQ as part of my DSP stack, but don't want those settings used by the files going to the iPod.

[quazi]

Version 0.9.9n is now available.

Sweet! I've been looking for a reason to update the manual!

This post has been edited by quazi: Mar 4 2006, 04:05

[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!

I found out what was causing this problem: it was the path of the encoder. Copying hmp3.exe to C:\ and using it as the encoder worked fine.
I think it's a bug dealing with the spaces in "Arquivos de programas"...

[Dan Hibiki]

Is the fb2k equalizer 'on' during transcoding?  I have the EQ as part of my DSP stack, but don't want those settings used by the files going to the iPod.

I think it uses foobar's diskwriter, so, if you don't want to enable the EQ while transcoding you just have to disable the option "Use DSP" on the diskwriter's settings.

[My name is Mud]

Is the fb2k equalizer 'on' during transcoding?  I have the EQ as part of my DSP stack, but don't want those settings used by the files going to the iPod.

I think it uses foobar's diskwriter, so, if you don't want to enable the EQ while transcoding you just have to disable the option "Use DSP" on the diskwriter's settings.

That makes sense - thanks!

[Aero]

Is the fb2k equalizer 'on' during transcoding?  I have the EQ as part of my DSP stack, but don't want those settings used by the files going to the iPod.

I think it uses foobar's diskwriter, so, if you don't want to enable the EQ while transcoding you just have to disable the option "Use DSP" on the diskwriter's settings.

This is incorrect - foo_pod does not use the Foobar Diskwrite (although the code is very similar), so Diskwriter settings will have no effect on what foo_pod does.

BTW, foo_pod only applies the Advanced Limiter DSP entity when transcoding.

[Neil K]

OK, so for Podcasts I have the following string (in the 'Podcast' box):
$if($stricmp(%genre%,Podcast),1,0)
but when I just synced my iPod, the podcasts were just lumped in with all the other music . What did I do wrong?