Maybe if it was something like

ie check meta, if not present use techinfo

Its just that quicktag sql saves all its data into techinfo rather than meta

I am new to Foopod. Foobar + Foopod seems better than Ephod. Any way, I've got a problem.

I'm using the 30gb version of the newest Ipod (had a 3rd Gen 15gb version before). The transfer with foopod is working fine, but foopod doesn't seem to create a playlist. At least it isn't accessible.



Windows XP SP2
Newest foobar version
Newest foopod version
Via USB

did I forget anything?

Is it possible to use the sync function but also transcode files of a different type? The sync function works best for my huge collection but I've got a few albums which I've been unable to find in mp3. I can't add them to the iPod manually because when I sync again it will just delete them. Is my only solution to this transcoding all the non-mp3 files manually before syncing?

No, sync doesn't work with transcoding.

interesting things happen from time to time.... loaded some fresh created mp3 to Ipod. While using "loading Ipod playlist" there was the error message cannot parse Itune DB.

Than I could just see the newly loaded files on the Ipod and in foobar...and Itunes could not load Ipod at all ???

Rebuild itunes DB on Ipod solved most of my problems than, except that I had recreate some tags on a very limited number of files, which may be were created with Itunes before... don't remember.

Anyway glad it works again not sure what happend there...may be latest Itunes software created that problem.

ok, i've recently decided that, as i never really listen closely to my music when i'm on the go, and i can't tell the difference in most cases between lame 3.97b2 -V2 --vbr-new and itunes 160 kbps aac, i'd like to replace all of my transcoded-to-mp3 flac files which are now on my ipod to itunes 160 kbps vbr aac. this will save a lot of space on my ipod (which is good, as i'm running out, it's a 15 gig 3g). of course, this means that i have to install itunes 6.0, while i now have 4.8 to keep the good database on my ipod for use with foo_pod. i

'd like to just use itunesencode to transcode my flacs to aac while sending them to the ipod, but if itunes 6.0 were open at the same time as foobar, what would happen to the ipod tranfer, knowing that the ipod was formatted to use the 4.8 and older database?

Hi

I was wondering if there is any trick or workaround to allow me to use ipod album art with foo_pod. In my testing, the ipod just doesn't recognize that files have the embedded artwork when I transfer them with foo_pod (whereas the same file transferred with itunes does display the album art).

I fear this might be the deal breaker that forces me switch over to itunes - having the album art come up with every track would just be too cool. The main advantage of foo_pod as I see it is the replaygain functionality, but I guess I can accomplish the same thing with mp3gain and itunes.

New Transcoding feature request:

ReplayGain values calculated on flac files are different from the RG value calculated on the associated trancoded mp3 file. This different is non-negligible.

Aero, can you add functionality to the transcoder to run ReplayGain *after* you transcode, for example, a flac file to mp3? Of course you would have to add some intelligence around buffering up an album, and then running RG on the album so you can support both album gain and track gain. If the user only wanted Track RG, then you wouldn't have to do this.

Example empirical data:
3 Doors Down - [Away From The Sun #01] When I'm Gone:
flac RG Track Gain = -8.83 dB
mp3 RG Track Gain = -6.02 dB

Thanks!

anybody have an answer to how this might work?

i've been having problems with my ipod 4G 40Gb i transferred alll my songs using foo_pod (roughly 7,500 or so) to begin with they seemed to play fine however recently i've noticed that there are many tracks which just won't play, my ipod just skips them entierly (fast fowarding through the song doesn't help), this seems to have happened to at least 500 probably more of the songs. I tried formatting then resending them but only to get the same issue. What's weird though is that if i load the songs on foobar2000 i can play them without any problem on my computer through foobar2000.

Why don't you just try it? First go through all the ipod settings in iTunes 6 and make sure auto transfer and the like are turned off.

Also, you might try ABX'ing 128k vbr aac. You might be able to save even more space.

i just bought a new ipod nano 4g for my girl. As a long time critic of iTunes the first thing i did was download the foo_pod plug. My music is all in .mpc format so i also installed the transcoder plugin.

it almost all works, Foobar transcodes the file and writes it to the ipod with a long numerical name that has all tags complete, the only problem is that the ipod does not "see" the file and therefore it cannot be played.
can anyone give me some clue as to what i have not done or what i am doing wrong?
thanks

It takes a little while to figure out all the nuances with foo_pod, especially with transcoding. Try to rebuild the database from the foo_pod menu. If that doesn't work and if you don't have much on there already, delete the DB and try again with just one song and see if that works.

hey Red thanks for your reply,
i couldnt find the option to rebuild the database so i deleted it from the iTunes folder on the iPod, i then sent an mpc file and although the file was correctly transcoded and written the iTunesDB file was NOT re-created, so i tried sending an mp3 to take transcoding out of the equation and again no joy.
there must be something i am missing.

Don't play too much with the files on the iPod directly.

What version of foo_pod do you have? I'm presuming the latest.

I'm not at home right now, so I don't have the menu mapping in front of me, but if you go here http://www.tinkafoo.com/log/foo_pod.html you'll find out how to do it. First thing I would do is to delete the DB entirely, transcode one file to the Ipod and see if it shows up (btw, are you getting any errors from the transcoding process in the foobar console?). If the file doesn't show up, then rebuild the DB and then see if it shows up. If that still doesn't work, then I'm out of options .

Ok,
looks like we've had a breakthrough, i enabled disk mode in iTunes before closing it for the last time, and then found the foo_pod under the COMPONENTS menu in foobar, after rebuilding the ipod dB everything works 100%.

Ipod nano Ver1.0
iTunes Ver 6
foobar v0.8.3
foo_pod 0.9.9m

Thanks again for your help Red Baron

I am having quite the time trying to get foo_pod to work correctly.

iPod: 4g 60gb iPhoto
iTunes: 4.7.0.42
iPodSoftware: 1.1

iPod is freshly formatted
iTunes has no files
iPod is set up for disk mode

FooBar2000 .83
foo_pod.9
7990 Flac Files

I have read all of the post here as well as other help guides. I have everything installed in the compnets directory of FooBar. When I go to the foo_pod preferences I can see the iPod and I can update the database, but I can only see maitenance and under the components menu/foo_pod. I dont se anything else. Also I get transcoding errors when I try and send a file to the iPod.

Any help will be greatly appreciated...

Mark

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?

First let's start with the transcoding issue, can you copy&paste the error you're getting here?

Awesome!

I will gather all information and generate screen captures to fully illustrate my problem in a few days.

In addition, I am correct in assuming one can successfully revert to an older version of iPod updater by editing the iPod's sys file and re-installing the correct iPod updater for use with Foo_Pod?

Thanks for your help and expect to see my posting of screen captures and error generations.

Mark

I don't know about that, maybe someone else can comment. Have you tried to downrev without messing with the iPod's sys file?

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!

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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!

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

Didn't work

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.

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

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).

That is great news Aero, thank you!!

Cheers,
Pete

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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?