You should just be able to set the RATING metadata to a number from 0-5 (corresponding to 0-5 stars). I think it works. Other foobar addons that do ratings use this same RATING metadata.

just in case someone wants to downgrade his firmware and has not got older iTunes and iPod_updaters, you can get the older updaters here and older versions of iTunes here.

I have a question since I think my iPod hd is suffering from bad blocks or such (getting the folder + ! symbo. can't format etc.),.
I was told I'd have to send it to be replaced.

My question is if using foo_pod voided the warranty, and if it is even traceable or is foo_pod's components identical to iTunes.

foo_pod just writes files to the iPod's hard drive as a hard drive. It doesn't void the warranty.

But it also writes and compiles the database, my question is if the functions it uses are identical to iTunes, and if the code written on the iPod is thus identical to what would've been written by iTunes.

Also,
I noticed other people had this issue in this topic, could it be connected to a bug in foo_pod, or is it coincidential. Also, is this a common iPod issue or something rare?

If you're worried, just format your ipod before you send it in.

I've just had the same problem. Sent it back a few days ago. I find it difficult to see how foo_pod could possibly have caused our problems.

I have been trying to catch up on this new firmware/database stuff for the sake of updating my documentation, but I want to make sure of a few things.

-- only foo_pod v0.9.9k supports iTunes 4.9 databases, but even then it can only read them.
-- only foo_pod v0.9.9k can see an iPod using firmware 2005-06-26.

So does this sound right?

The best combination:
- foo_pod 0.9.9k (or earlier)
- iTunes 4.7/4.8 database
- iPod firmware 2005-03-25 (or earlier)

Should work:
- foo_pod 0.9.9k
- iTunes 4.7/4.8 database
- iPod firmware 2005-06-26

Does not work:
- foo_pod 0.9.9j (or earlier)
- iTunes 4.9 database
- iPod firmware 2005-06-26

Does anyone have a copy of iTunes 4.7? I am <thomasreardon +at+ hotmail.com>

Consider reading back 8-10 posts in this thread.

The answer is no, the file is not identical to what iTunes would write. Pretty close, but there's enough differences that I could tell whether or not foo_pod or iTunes wrote any non-trivial example.

But "compiles" is a bit of strong term. It's just a file. You can read/write it like any other file. Nothing that you write to that file will cause damage to the iPod in any unrepairable-by-yourself manner. It might cause the exclamation mark folder issue if the file is written badly, but lots of things will cause that. Deleting the file, for example, causes the same thing.

If you can't format the thing, that's not a mere badly written file error. Formatting it is a lower level function than any higher level file stuff. Formatting it doesn't care what the contents of the database is. So if it won't format, that's not something foo_pod could cause. Foo_pod only works with it at the file level, formatting it is at the drive level.

Hi guys, I'm using

03-23-05 ipod firmware
latest version of foo_pod
foobar 0.8.2
and itunes v4.8

and I have a couple of LONG questions, been wrestling with this for the greater part of the evening and I'd greatly appreciate any help:

1) Is there anyway to make "Sync All Playlists" SKIP playlists that have been flagged as "ignore this playlist"? I can "Send all playlists to ipod" and foo_pod will obey and skip the ignored playlists, but "sync" tries to synchronize every playlist in foobar, even these ones that hve been flagged as ignore.

2) are ipod databases supposed to be comptaible between foo_pod and iTunes? I'm getting some werid behavior between the two programs. I'll add playlists with songs to an empty ipod in foo_bar, go into itunes, and everything will show up in iTunes just fine. But if i later go back into foopod and add additional playlists, then fire up iTunes, all the songs have disappeared in iTunes. The playlists are still there, but they are empty as well is the root where all the songs are consolodated. (Interestingly, "the number of tracks" and "size" totals at the bottom of iTunes are still accurate). The playlists still work fine on the ipod, but in iTunes they are empty. If I rebuild the DB in foo_pod the songs return to iTunes, but that deletes all the playlists.

Long question short: are users supposed to be able to go back and forth between iTunes and foo_pod, and if so, any ideas what's wrong with my setup?

3) Anybody know what happens to my on-the-go playlist when I add a new playlist in foo_pod? It just disappears, its not on the ipod anymore after I add the new playlist. If I fire up iTunes after adding the new playlist in foo_pod, then the on-the-go will reappear as "On-The-Go #x", but otherwise the playlist vanishes. Am I doing something wrong here or is that intentional (or just a bug)? This workaround (using itunes to "recover" the on-the-go) is acceptable but it'd be cool if there was a way to do this within foo_pod.

4) Whats the best way to clear playcounts within foo_pod? I think syncing playlists does the trick, but thats not an option because of #1, and I can't just go into iTunes and do it manually because of #2. Right now im exporting the iTunesDB as XML, using textpad to do a find and replace of <PLAYCOUNT>X</PLAYCOUNT> to <PLAYCOUNT>0</PLAYCOUNT>, then importing the DB back, but if there was a more convient way to do it that'd be awesome. EDIT: Just found out this method doesn't seem to work, after importing the edited XML file, my computer locks up when I try to use iTunes, and won't work properly again until disconnecting the ipod! Fortunately I restored to a backup of the DB and all is all right again.


Whew that was a mouthful! Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Not entirely, no. I don't recommend switching back and forth. Doing so will cause odd behavior, as you may have noticed.


Unless foo_pod reads the On-The-Go playlists and converts them to normal playlists, the iPod will remove them itself, after any changes to the contents of the iPod are made. This is because of the way that the OTG playlists work, and explaining it is a bit detailed and boring. Short version is that foo_pod doesn't read the OTG playlists, to the best of my knowledge. The capability is there though, I just don't think it's been added yet.

Feature Request: Add random album. Ottofill now adds random songs. It would be nice if it had a feature to add random albums.

Great idea, I second that.

I am having this exact same problem (transcoding FLAC to mp3), except that I know the transcoder should be set up correctly because it used to work. I have no idea what might have changed. Same component list, same location of lame.exe, flac.exe, and foobar2000, same transcoder settings, everything.

Curiously, if I try that once (and it fails), and then I try it again, I get this console warning (but no transcoder error):

Unsupported file 'C:\Documents and Settings\Cody\My Documents\My Music\BT\BT - 2001 - Rare & Remixed (CD2)\01 Sunblind(Rare And Remixed US CD Version).flac' has already been transcoded and is on the iPod

which I assume means that foo_pod went ahead and put a FLAC on the iPod even though the iPod can't play it? This is doubly upsetting because it's not showing up on the foobar2000 iPod song playlist, so I don't know how to get rid of it.

I have been pulling my hair out over this!

foobar2000 0.8.3
foo_pod 0.9.9k
windows xp sp2

No, foo_pod must have already put the file on the iPod in mp3 format at sometime. How many songs do you have on the iPod? Can you experiment? If so, try to rebuild the database and see if the song(s) show up. If not, delete everything off it and try again.

What am I doing wrong?

I blank my iPod.
I create a foobar playlist
I add an album to this foobar playlist
I click on Components->foo_pod->Send Current Playlist To iPod

I get the process dialog that the files are being transcoded (from FLAC to mp3) onto the iPod.

Process dialog completes, I unmount the iPod from XP, naviagte on the iPod, and the playlist doesn't exist.

The songs, however, do exist on the iPod.

Can someone help here?

OK...how about this one...

Wipe the iPod clean via Components->foo_pod->Delete All.....
Add a Normal playlist (call it blah) to the iPod via Components->foo_pod->Playlist editor
Import this new playlist into foobar via Components->foo_pod->Load iPod Playlists As Tabs
Add a song to the "blah [iPod]" playlist in foobar
Right click on this playlist and select foo_pod->Update this Playlist on the iPod
The song in the playlist is successfully transcoded (from FLAC to MP3) and put on the iPod, the playlist is on the iPod, but the song is not in the playlist on the iPod.

I don't get it.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

I'm sorry I don't have a proper solution, but here's a workaround: Once the tracks are copied to your iPod (either after a transcode operation or after you manually copy them over with Explorer), try the "Rebuild iTunesDB Database" function.

OK, I'll try that. I'll also play around to see if it's a transcoding issue, since this is pretty basic functionality that should work fine.

To add on to the confusion, iTunes 5 is out, and so is the new iPod nano (2/4GB flash based players).

Anyone has managed to try the new iTunes out (and not break compatibility with foo_pod)?

I tested iTunes 5.0 (briefly) just to see if anything major had changed.

There are a few new data fields, but nothing important looking. Since foo_pod was able to read an iTunes 5.0 created database, and since there were no new firmware releases for existing iPods, I suspect that foo_pod is compatable with iTunes 5.0.

As for the iPod nano, I haven't heard from anyone with one. My email address is in the foo_pod Readme.txt in case anyone wants to send me one for testing...

ok, i am reripping my entire collection in flac so i never have to rip again (hopefully), but i want to use foo_pod's transcoder feature to put aac on my 3g ipod 15gb. i want to use itunesencoder with itunes 5.0 and aac 160 vbr (i find that completely transparent). however, to do this i'll need to have both itunes and foo_pod open at once with the ipod connected. how would the ipod react to two diff programs trying to access it at once?

i'd like to not have to reencode everything to aac, then put it on the ipod, then delete it all if i didn't have to.

thx,
jack

Tested foo_pod 0.9.9k, it works OK with iTunes 5 on my iPod Photo 1.1 and iPod Shuffle 1. However it does not work with the Nano. The file transfer seems to work, and the free disk space reports that the files are there, but they don't show up in the menus on the Nano itself.

Were you transcoding?

No, transferring files already encoded. I also tried the maintenance options like "fix skipped songs", "rebuild database etc."... it seems like the database may be a different format on the new Nano.

Would you please send me your iPod nano so I could check it out...

Failing that, could you load up about 5 songs using iTunes 5.0 and send me the contents of your iPod_Control folder?

Hi Aero, I won't send you my Nano (I'm in Hong Kong and I'm enjoying my Nano too much), but I'll for sure send you the iPod_Control folder. The Nano also will not work with previous versions of iTunes. I tried re-installing 4.8 and the Nano is not recognised atall.

I've uploaded iPod_Control in a zip file here:

http://www.at-sea.com/iPod_Control.zip

Thanks for the files. I didn't see anything too unusual in the iTunesDB, so I bet that the nano is just refusing to load older databases (there is a version flag in there, and it was changed for iTunes 5.0).

If you aren't already doing so, you could try writing iTunes 4.9 compatable databases (foo_pod Preferences, Advanced tab), and see if that helps. But even that is one version behind iTunes 5.0, so it still might not work.

Hi Aero, I already tried the setting to write 4.9 databases, and it doesn't work.

Aero,

I think I'm hitting a bug with transcoding and playlists.

If I add files into a playlist in Foobar that has not already been transcoded and put on the iPod, it will go through the process of transcoding them and putting them on the iPod, however the songs do not show up in the playlist (they do show up in the iPod, just not on the playlist).

On the other hand, if I select some songs, tranfer them to the iPod, then add them to the playlist and then update the playlist it works fine. Too many steps though .

Some Qs:

Any chance this is a bug and not a problem with my setup?

When is the next release slated for?

Any more thought on releasing the source?

Thanks!

Aero,

Another question/problem if I may.

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.

Curious about your thoughs on this....

Thanks!

I want foo_pod for foobar 0.9 really badly!

You're not the only one

The SDK will be available when it's ready and Aero will port if and when he's in the mood.

Small Problem:
foo_pod works great, but now iTunes doesn't recognize the content inside the playlists, meaning i can see the playlists but can't see what's inside playlists, i can upload songs into playlists though...

Specs:
foobar 0.8.3
foo_pod 0.9.9k
iPod mini [ firmware 1.3 ]
iTunes 5.0.1 [5.0.1.4]

Any tips or suggestions on how i can fix that...?

Thanks in advance...

P.S.: i don't want to upload/manage songs using foo_pod, cause i still addicted to iTunes interface, but hate the quality of iTunes' sound, so basically i want to use foo_pod for viewing/playing only, but still would like to use iTunes as manager for my iPod's music...

I finally got foo_pod to work with the Nano using this configuration:

foo_pod 0.9.9k
set to iTunes 4.7/4.8 compatibility in preferences
iTunes 4.9 installed

Used iPod updater to reload firmware beforehand.

Everything now works fine!

Wow! foo_pod works great! Thanks for all your hard work!

I have a couple feature requests. Yes, never entirely happy we users be...

When transcoding, the output filename isn't human readable - would it be possible to get it to something similar to what it does for the other files - some kind of truncate of the original filename (replacing the extension in this case)?

Would it also be possible to specify a destination directory - I wouldn't mind having the music files in a more intuitive directory like \music rather than hidden under Ipod_control (but this might be ipod restriction...) This would also let the filenames be longer before getting truncated

Thanks again for the great program!

Is there another place to find Otto's ipodDB code?

http://otto.homedns.org:8888/itunes/iPodDB.zip seems to be down every time I try.

EDIT: http://home.midsouth.rr.com/ottootto/iPodDB.zip

I'm still hopeing for a .9 version of foo_pod. Its currently the only componet I need thats not on .9.

I'm hopeing Aero has reconsidered his previous decision about not wanting to do the .8 => .9 porting.

Or release the source.

aero, any news on the next version of foo_pod? will it be for 0.8.3 or 0.9? what bugs are you working of fixing righ now?

anyone?

Basic rule: don't nag developers of free stuff. Aero made his feelings clear earlier, he'll reconsider if he feels like it and if you don't like what he decides or his lack of response about the issue then go write your own plugin.

I think that's fair too. My exclamation earlier, that was before I knew Aero had already talked about it...

I disagree. If development is going to cease, the right thing to do is release the source so someone can pick up the development from where it left off.

It's not in the best interest of the community to have yet another foobar/iPod plugin, effectivley wasting the work Aero/Otto42 have already done.

www.sourceforge.net - maybe it's time.

It's Aero's code and his decision. Annoying him does not seem the best way to get him to do what we'd like.

I think Aero's done all that he can do at the moment. The issue here is that the 0.9 beta has been out for a long time now, and users are getting antsy to bring their new plug-in configurations up to the standards of version 0.8.3. The problem still lies in the fact that a very select few of plug-in developers were given access to the new SDK in the beginning, while most plug-in developers were told that they'd have to wait until the official release of version 0.9. I had a feeling back when that happened, that this clamoring for new updates before the official release would happen. All I can add is to be patient. Hopefully, the beta testing period is near an end.

Agree 100%, it's up to Aero what he wants to do, he doesn't have to do any development or release the source code if he doesn't want to, after all none of us have paid a single cent for foo_pod. We should thank him for the excellent work he has done so far, and be done with it.

Version 0.9.9l is now available.

This is mainly a maintenance release, which fixes a very serious problem with long metadata strings which would cause the iPod to continously reboot until either the battery died, or the user put the iPod into Disk Mode and removed iTunesDB. There appears to be a buffer overflow in the iPod firmware where long strings would cause the crash. I believe this is the problem that clunsey was experiencing, but until I couldn't track down - until today. I downloaded a podcast that had extensive show notes in the Comment metadata, and this caused the reboot problem.

If you have a database where this is occurring, install the new foo_pod, then run the Maintenance->Update iPod Database command to fix the metadata.

I also included a feature that I promised to ReD-BaRoN way back in July - a slider to adjust the ReplayGain level. This slider is found on the Advanced tab, and its value is simply added to a song's RG value (e.g. -9dB from the song + +6dB from the slider = -3dB). If you find that ReplayGain/SoundCheck songs are too quiet, try setting the slider to +3 or +6, and run the Update iPod Database menu item (you just have to do that once to change the songs already on the iPod - future songs will get the adjustment automatically).


From the Readme: