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

[Pootle_1]

foo_pod doesn't transfer ID3 data to iPod if APE tags exist in source file

Edit:  This thread explains some of the problem:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....5964&hl=mp3gain

This thread also has further information, and a reply from Snelg (the author of
MP3Gain and a foobar fan) explaining why MP3Gain was coded in that way

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....opic=21730&st=0

This post has been edited by Pootle_1: Aug 23 2004, 10:17

[=trott=]

Hey all,


I think I've managed to read through most of this thread, but haven't yet found how to delete files from the ipod, without using the sync feature.

• send playlist to ipod : will not delete files
• sync this playlist: will delete files but this prevents using multiple playlists
• sync all playlists: i would think the reverse would be what is desired: instead of syncing all playlist _except_ the ones you mark as 'do not want to sync', it would be easier to 'sync all selected playlists' or 'sync all playlists marked for synchronisation'.

As a side remark, when you use smart playlists is it normal that randomization always seems to randomize in the same way? I have created 2 smart playlists. When I play either of them, they successfully select only the songs matching the criteria, but though my ipod is in shuffle mode I always seem to hear the same songs...

Otherwise a great job on the plug-in!

[Lew_Zealand]

I'm not at a computer with foo_pod loaded right now, but I believe you can just right click the song, choose the foo_pod menu and choose "remove from iPod".

[Aero]

I think I've managed to read through most of this thread, but haven't yet found how to delete files from the ipod, without using the sync feature.

As Lew_Zealand mentioned, just Load the iPod playlist, then you can select the file(s) you want to delete and select "Delete file(s) from iPod".

As a side remark, when you use smart playlists is it normal that randomization always seems to randomize in the same way? I have created 2 smart playlists. When I play either of them, they successfully select only the songs matching the criteria, but though my ipod is in shuffle mode I always seem to hear the same songs...

That is the iPod's fault - foo_pod is just telling it to randomize the songs included in the smart playlist, and it is up to the iPod to do the randomization. I (and others) have noticed that the iPod's randomizer is fairly repeatitive.

[metamorphoise]

hi, new ipod/foo_pod user here

one thing that irritates me about ipod is the handling of various artist albums, because i browse by genre>artist on the ipod theres like a bazillion artists with just one song from a VA album.
my tags are like this: %various%='rebirth of cool', %artist%='smoke city' %title%='underwater love'

i wonder, would it be possible to give foo_pod the option to parse the tag info like this....?
if %various% exists, write %various% to the artist field in ipodDB and write %artist%~%title% in the title field in ipodDB

anyway, thanks for the great plugin, soo much better than having to deal with itunes

[Aero]

one thing that irritates me about ipod is the handling of various artist albums, because i browse by genre>artist on the ipod theres like a bazillion artists with just one song from a VA album.
my tags are like this: %various%='rebirth of cool', %artist%='smoke city' %title%='underwater love'

i wonder, would it be possible to give foo_pod the option to parse the tag info like this....?
if %various% exists, write %various% to the artist field in ipodDB and write %artist%~%title% in the title field in ipodDB

anyway, thanks for the great plugin, soo much better than having to deal with itunes

Thanks!

I have, as a long term subproject, to add scripting support to foo_pod, so you could dynamically change the metadata stored in the iPod database, as you are suggesting.

foo_pod currently does support an alternate set of metadata, mostly to support people with tags in non-Latin based languages (that don't display well on the iPod).

In the preferences, there is an item called "Alternate Metadata Prefix". What that does is instructs foo_pod to look for metadata starting with that value (POD_ by default), and use that instead of the regular metadata. So for example, if you have a song with ARTIST set to "The Artist" and POD_ARTIST set to "Various Artists", foo_pod will write "Various Artists" to the iPod database, and the song will show up as Various Artists on the iPod.

So all you need to do is find a program that you can transfer the tags to POD_* (foo_pod supports TITLE, ARTIST, ALBUM, GENRE, COMMENT, COMPOSER, and TRACKNUMBER for use with the alternate metadata prefix). I think Foobar's MassTagger can do this, but I only have limited experience using it, so I'm not sure.

[Lew_Zealand]

Aero,

Any news on the Playlist Generator front?

[Aero]

Any news on the Playlist Generator front?

Unfortunately, I haven't had any free time in the past 3 weeks in order to seriously work on foo_pod. I'm close to finishing up a contract, so after that is complete, I'll hopefully have some cycles to put into foo_pod.

But before this latest rush, I was able to get a really good start on CUE sheet parsing and some work on the Playlist Editor. I was able to get playlist renaming, adding, and deleting hooked up, but I had some problems adding support for dragging Foobar songs to build a playlist.

[mj-barton]

I have to suggestions that would signifcantly increase my use for the iPod.

1. Allow foo_pod to have an Auto-Update function where it compares the music files stored on iPod to those in the Album List database. I think would be a very simple function to create.

2. I like the idea of browsing my audio collection on my hard-drive with the album list. An "album list" for the iPod it makes managing my iPod a lot easier then scrolling through a huge playlist.

[Lew_Zealand]

1.  Allow foo_pod to have an Auto-Update function where it compares the music files stored on iPod to those in the Album List database.  I think would be a very simple function to create.

Why not just create a playlist of your album list, and sync with that?

[infrared]

2.  I like the idea of browsing my audio collection on my hard-drive with the album list.  An "album list" for the iPod it makes managing my iPod a lot easier then scrolling through a huge playlist.

Is this what you're looking for? http://www.foobar2000.org/foo_albumlist.zip

[hermit22]

First off, many thanks for a great product. It does almost anything I can think of.

I did run into a really weird problem recently, though. I looked through the past 5 pages or so of this thread and didn't find anything on it.

A majority of my music is full albums FLAC'd and then Matroska'd. With iTunes, I would just transcode it to mp3, load those files and copy them over. I figured that the transcode feature of foo_pod would allow me to skip this step. However, when I highlight such an album and select Send Files to iPod in the right context menu, it only transcodes the first song and then quits as if it was all done.

Is this expected behavior? Am I doing something wrong?

Any help would be appreciated.

This post has been edited by hermit22: Aug 31 2004, 19:01

[Aero]

A majority of my music is full albums FLAC'd and then Matroska'd.  With iTunes, I would just transcode it to mp3, load those files and copy them over.  I figured that the transcode feature of foo_pod would allow me to skip this step.  However, when I highlight such an album and select Send Files to iPod in the right context menu, it only transcodes the first song and then quits as if it was all done.

Is this expected behavior?  Am I doing something wrong?

I'm not very familiar with Matroska, but I believe it is a container format that bundles up an entire album as a single file and has something like a cue sheet to present individual songs, correct?

The problem is that Foobar doesn't do a very good job with such formats, and it looks like a single file to components like foo_pod. I was/am working on support for cue sheets, but for right now, you will just get a single song.

So you aren't doing anything wrong, and I'll need to add support for such formats in the future.

[nchase]

I really like foo_pod. Whenever I use it however, I have to go into iTunes and delete the playlist that is created in order to be able to view my songs on the iPod. If I don't delete that playlist, nothing is visible. As soon as I delete it, everything works. Perhaps someone could point me in the right direction? I'd appreciate it

[Aero]

I really like foo_pod. Whenever I use it however, I have to go into iTunes and delete the playlist that is created in order to be able to view my songs on the iPod. If I don't delete that playlist, nothing is visible. As soon as I delete it, everything works. Perhaps someone could point me in the right direction? I'd appreciate it 

That's pretty weird...I can't ever recall seeing that or hearing someone else report it. Apparently you can reproduce it, so the next time it happens, please select the "Export iTunesDB As XML" option in the foo_pod menu, zip up the XML, and email it to me so I can see if I can see what is going on.

[FreydNot]

I've just finished reading through this entire thread. Whew, that was long but very informative.

First off, I'd like to say a big thanks! to Areo (and Otto42) for all of the hard work. I've almost completely replaced iTunes on my 4thGen 20GB.

I record talk radio on my PC and transcode the shows into M4A format. I would like to "convert" these to M4B so I can use bookmarks and faster playback. Unfortunately the stars aren't quite in alignment for this to work with FooBar+foo_pod.

I am currently using iTunes to load the M4B files onto the iPod. Once they are there, foo_pod does a great job with them.

What I would love to see is a command in foo_pod that would convert an existing M4A file into M4B. To do this it would rename the filename on the iPod and then update the ipod database to reflect the file name change. This would allow me to use foobar to place the files on the iPod and switch them over to M4B without having to involve iTunes.

I've tried to do it manually, but there doesn't seem to be any way to re-import an XML export so I'm kind of stuck.

Thanks again.

[Aero]

I record talk radio on my PC and transcode the shows into M4A format.  I would like to "convert" these to M4B so I can use bookmarks and faster playback.  Unfortunately the stars aren't quite in alignment for this to work with FooBar+foo_pod. 

...

What I would love to see is a command in foo_pod that would convert an existing M4A file into M4B.  To do this it would rename the filename on the iPod and then update the ipod database to reflect the file name change.  This would allow me to use foobar to place the files on the iPod and switch them over to M4B without having to involve iTunes.

Hmmm...I have never used bookmarking on the iPod, but this article seems to back up what you are saying about just changing the file extension to "m4b " (with a space on the end). I'll look into it more tonight, but since you mentioned that you are already transcoding, try this:

Go to the foo_pod Preferences, Transcoder tab. Then select custom encoder, and (assuming you are using FAAC), set it as follows:

Encoder: faac.exe
Extension: m4b (remember the trailing space(?))
Parameters: -q75 -w - -o %d
Format is: lossy
Highest BPS: 24
Tag: default

(you can put whatever you want for the -q (quality) setting, but -q 75 or lower would seem to be appropriate for voice recordings).

Now when you transcode your recordings, use the custom encoder and it will write out m4b songs and database entries. I can't test it right now, but it if the article is correct, this method should work. It won't change the recordings you already have on your iPod, though, so I might still do a context menu function where you can select one or more m4a songs on your iPod and convert them to m4b. The only problem is that Foobar isn't set up to treat m4b as audio files, so you won't be able to play them back in Foobar.

I've tried to do it manually, but there doesn't seem to be any way to re-import an XML export so I'm kind of stuck.

Yeah, I have been meaning to implement that. Originally, I was just going to do it so you could import smart playlist settings, but I decided it might be useful to have a complete import functionality.

[rexy]

Hey Aero. Can you include in the next version a transcoded file processing abilities similar to the diskwriter's like passing files through the DSP and, more importantly, imposing ReplayGaining (dock line out doen't have Sound Check in the 3G as you know)? I bet you can just borrow that code from the diskwriter source like you borrowed code (the whole code even ) from the clienc file writer.
I plan to retransfer files to my iPod, transcoding them all so I figured I'd wait for these features first.

So how's that contract going? Profitable? I don't wanna sound pushy, but when do you think you would resume work on foo_pod? I understand that paying programming jobs would be way up higher on the list, but I'm just wondering if you have any foresight into how long it would be.

Thanks again for all the work you put into this wonderful plugin. Not a single iPod interfacer even comes close to it. Apple ought to get a contract with you before they loose you to those other guys who have a contract with you.

[Aero]

Hey Aero. Can you include in the next version a transcoded file processing abilities similar to the diskwriter's like passing files through the DSP and, more importantly, imposing ReplayGaining (dock line out doen't have Sound Check in the 3G as you know)? I bet you can just borrow that code from the diskwriter source like you borrowed code (the whole code even ) from the clienc file writer.
I plan to retransfer files to my iPod, transcoding them all so I figured I'd wait for these features first.

Actually, there is already a DSP filter that is applied by default - Advanced Limiter. So I really just need to hook up a GUI to control the DSP filters applied during transcoding. I considered it for the last release, but other than a limiter, there aren't many DSP filters that are useful (maybe EQ or Crossfeed being the exceptions). So maybe I'll hook just those up, for simplicity. ReplayGain could also be hooked up without much trouble, although a ReplayGain -> Volume conversion might be more useful, since it would be effective on both transcoded and normal files.

So how's that contract going? Profitable? I don't wanna sound pushy, but when do you think you would resume work on foo_pod? I understand that paying programming jobs would be way up higher on the list, but I'm just wondering if you have any foresight into how long it would be.

I'm actually just wrapping up a contract, so I'm enjoying a little extra free time right now. But for what it is worth, stepping back from working on foo_pod has given me some different insights needs to be done.

As for a timeframe, I can't really say - although next week is looking promising. I'd like to get a few more features in, then call it a 1.0 release and decide where to go next.

Thanks again for all the work you put into this wonderful plugin. Not a single iPod interfacer even comes close to it. Apple ought to get a contract with you before they loose you to those other guys who have a contract with you.

Heh...that would be fun. I'm sure I could hang out with Steve Jobs, tell him all of the deficiences in the iPod, how I would do it better, and get fired - all in the same day!

[FreydNot]

Aero, thanks for your reply about using the transcoder to turn an m4a file into a m4b. Also interesting that the article you referenced suggests using "m4b " and not "m4b". I've been using "m4b" with i tunes for a few days already and its worked just fine.

I didn't want to transcode the files again (they've already been from wav to mp3 to aac) so I decided to take a short cut:

Encoder: xcopy.exe
Extension: m4b
Parameters: %s %d
Format is: lossless
Highest BPS: 16
Tag: default

For those following along at home, this ends up simply copying the temp file to another temp file with the magic m4b extention. No transcoding needed and its very quick.

Now I only need to make sure I don't accidently leave transcoding aac files enabled when I do a big sync/copy.

Aero, any chance you could add another logic grouping to the transcoding section. I'm thinking "Transcode AAC files below xxx kbps". And maybe have it trigger a seperate script...

Or maybe adding "convert to m4b" action somewhere is easier?

Thanks again!

[FreydNot]

What is the state of maintaining "ratings", "number of plays", and "date last played" data when using foo_pod?

This thread has discussed it, but I'm not clear where it stands now. Am I correct that these values are read from the iPod and added to the Foobar database, but not written out to the iPod on a sync?

Slightly OT...
What are the proper TAGZ codes to get "ratings", "number of plays", and "date last played" data in Foobar? I'm using the Columns UI and I've added a column for %rating% which seemed to work okay, but I can't figure out the others. Is there a big list of these somewhere? I couldn't find one searching with goodle.

[BoneJazz]

Firts: Kudos for developers of this great plugin!

Then my little issue; in the Smart Playlist Editor once I've pressed the Add Button, I cannot see any choice in two of the drop-down menu: I mean if I try to change "Artist" or "Contains" no drop-down choice is showed ("All", "Songs" and "Random" are working...).
Am I wrong in something or what?

I'm running foo_pod with f2k 0.8.3 on a wk2 SP3 machine

Thanks in advance for your support and I'm sorry for my bad english.

BoneJazz

[rexy]

there aren't many DSP filters that are useful (maybe EQ or Crossfeed being the exceptions).  So maybe I'll hook just those up, for simplicity.  ReplayGain could also be hooked up without much trouble, although a ReplayGain -> Volume conversion might be more useful, since it would be effective on both transcoded and normal files.

The EQ would be just fine. Figured it would be better to make it so you can just make your own DSP stack or to pass the files through the DSP stack configured in the DSP manager for personilization's sake, but if it's too time consuming to do it that way, just drop it and do only those DSPs which are important.
Apart from that, I'm not sure I understand this concept you talk of: "ReplayGain -> Volume coonversion." I don't know what you understood from what I wrote in my last post, but what I was thinking of is simply hard-encoding the RG calculations on the transcoded file's volume like diskwriter can do if you tell it to use RG in processing.

[Aero]

Apart from that, I'm not sure I understand this concept you talk of: "ReplayGain -> Volume coonversion." I don't know what you understood from what I wrote in my last post, but what I was thinking of is simply hard-encoding the RG calculations on the transcoded file's volume like diskwriter can do if you tell it to use RG in processing.

There are 3 ways (in general) to get ReplayGain corrections onto the iPod:

1. Permanently modify the audio file so that its volume is changed. The advantage of this is that it will playback at the correct volume level on all players, even if they don't support ReplayGain. The disadvantage is that the file is altered, and you can't switch off the ReplayGain adjustments on the iPod.

2. Use the SoundCheck database field in the iPod database. This is nice because it is already implemented in foo_pod and it can be switched on/off as needed on the iPod. The downside is that the SoundCheck adjustment isn't available through the Line Out port on 3G iPods (it does work on 4G iPods, though).

3. Use the Volume database field in the iPod database. The major differences between SoundCheck and Volume is that Volume can't be turned off, but it is effective through the Line Out port on 3/4G iPods.


I don't currently have a way to map ReplayGain values to Volume values, but it shouldn't be too hard to work something out. Once that is ready, it would just be another choice in the Preferences - to either apply ReplayGain corrections to the SoundCheck or Volume fields in the database. Most people would want to use the SoundCheck entry, but if you have a 3G iPod and want ReplayGain through the Line Out, you would choose the Volume option.

[Aero]

I did some experimentation with iPod bookmarks tonight, and had some interesting results.

First of all, I cleared up another entry in the iPod database (Otto, if you're out there, mhit::unk6 is the bookmark time, in milliseconds). The really weird thing this database field is only used if the filename ends in ".m4b". The exact same file, named ".m4a", with the exact same database entries doesn't make use of the bookmark. Technically, this could work for any supported iPod audio format, but for whatever reason, Apple is restricting it to their "protected AAC" audio book format.

So while the good news is that I can create bookmarked in foo_pod, the bad news is, like I mentioned before, that Foobar isn't set up to handle .m4b files. So my earilier suggestion to transcode to file extension "m4b" won't work, since Foobar can't update the metadata after transcoding, so the transcoding fails. I added a temporary workaround in foo_pod to make this work for testing, but the real solution is to get Peter to add m4b to the list of supported file extensions in mp4_parser.cpp, or at least find someone to rebuild foo_input_std.dll, and add M4B to the list of extensions.