Sorry I was unclear there. Yes I meant iPod disk space. What's TAGZ? Nevermind I get it. Yeah I couldn't find any functions in the foobar2000 documents I read.

I don't know of any way to get the free disk space in TAGZ (that is name for the formatting strings, like %__bitrate% or %__samplerate%). Since it isn't a property of an individual song, it may not be possible - but I don't really know.

I'm not sure if this is possible, but here goes:

I have a lot of album in high bitrate ogg/mpc. I transcode these to lowbitrate AAC useing Nero + foobar then load them into my Ipod. This works great for me.

I know the ipod keeps track of play counts, and that foobar can read these. Is there someway to have foobar read in the playcounts on the ipod, and then increment the play times on the orginal high bitrate files as well so that they keep sync?

I realize this is a PITA since you'd some way to keep track of plays between syncs on both copies of the song, but its worth a shot.

Hmmm...it sounds pretty tough. I could write the original filename into the transcoded file. Then when doing an update, it could write the playcounts and rating back to the original file. Except a lot of people probably don't want their original files modified like this, and some formats might not be able to be tagged (like WAV or AIFF).

So while it can be done, I will have to make this a pretty low priority. I have almost completed XML importing, and I have been considering adding functionality somewhat akin to iPodder, except it would also have some Notes support and ideally I would like to hook up with something along the lines of StreamRipper.

It might be best to keep those as separate applications, and when they output to the iPod, have foo_pod wait for such files and automatically add them to the database. Anyway, I have a lot of plans, so I really need to prioritize what I am able to work on.

This sounds like something that should be handled by foobar's internal database and not hacked in by a plugin then. I'll ask in General if theres someway to link multiple files together into some sort of meta entry that represents the same song stored in two or more formats.

Hmmmm I don't know exactly if this is the right place, but I have a feature request.
I'm using foo_pod now, and very happy about it, great work
But I'm mainly using foobar for it's handling of mp3's+cuesheets.
Then I have 1 big mix, and cuesheet cuts it up with correct tags etc.
When I try to copy those files to my iPod trough foo_pod, it's not working, maybe you could implement some feauture which can handle the mp3's + cuesheets
It'll be r0x0ring

thnx in advance,

r00tie

I've had a few requests to add support for cuesheets and similar formats. It would be a really nice feature to have and it will work on the iPod, but Foobar doesn't have very good programatic support for cue sheets, so I have to do custom parsing of the cue sheets.

I'm actually about 50% complete on adding cue sheet support - I wrote a parser, and now I just need to add the code the manages the individual songs.

Hi, I would certainly like that You can always make it optional (and not default obviously) so if you want it: turn it on

Anyway, my girlfriend just buy me an Ipod (20GB, 3 gen) and I'm playing with your plugin. I love foobar and I love it even more if I can use my Ipod with it, so just this: THANKS A LOT! Really.

Good work guys.

Ok, I got my first straneg behaviour

I'm using latest version of foo_pod (0.9.4) with foobar 0.8.3. When I try to send playlist (whatever I selected some files or an entire playlist) I get the following error:

ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #3 copying d:\MP3\Electric six\Fire\Electric Six - 13 - Synthesizer.mp3 to j:

If files are non mp3 I get another error with some sort of transcoding failure (I can reproduce it if you wish).

The Ipod is unmounted and I can't mount it again directly with foobar or in Itunes (it just isn't there anymore). I have to reinitialise the Ipod, disconnect it from the PC and the reconnect again, and then I can mount it again. The files are there but only the first file on the playlist seems to play (completely), other are skipped.

I've reeboted several time the PC (windows Xp pro SP1) but didn't work

I'll try to reformat again the Ipod, I'm surely missing something.

How are you ejecting the iPod - from foo_pod or from the Windows "Safely Remove Hardware" systray thing?

If you use the "Safely Remove Hardware" method, you need to physically undock/disconnect the iPod from your computer, then hook it up again (and wait about 15 seconds for it to be recognized by Windows). If you can't see the iPod drive in your My Computer window, foo_pod won't be able to write to it.

foo_pod's eject is a little different. If you have the iPod Service installed (if you have iTunes installed, you have iPodService...), then foo_pod can do a "soft" eject. That is different in that you can mount the iPod again without having to physically disconnect it from your computer. If iPodService isn't available, foo_pod just does the regular eject and then you would have to disconnect it.

Apparently the problem is that, once my iPod is recognised by the computer (I can see the tray icon (device) in the task bar) and I send several files via foo_pod, the process start but after some seconds the error message pop up and the device is unmounted immediately after that. The tray icon dissapear and foo_pod can't unmount it no matter how many times I try. Nevertheless, the files appears on the iPod, but they're all skipped.

Anyway, this seems not only a foo_pod problem, since it also happens with iTunes (I have it installed along with the Ipodservice). The only difference is that no error message pop-up and the program displays that the iPod was updated. The iPod still show in iTunes but the tray icon dissapear. Weird.

So, sorry to bother you since it doesn't seems at all a problem with foo_pod. At the same time, if someone knows something about this and can point me to the right direction I will really appretiate that

I had a similar experience when I started using my iPod a couple of months ago.

The first thing I tried was iTunes and it was awful: file xfer was slow and after loading a handful of songs the connection was failing with an error (which I don't recall at the moment).

Besides, I had problems disconnecting the iPod: I remember once I even had to wait for the battery to exhaust because I couldn't reset the device.

So I decided to completely remove iTunes (the iPod Service is still here, though... don't ask ), updated the firmware (using 3.0.1 ATM) and installed foo_pod: works like a charm!

It goes without saying that I'm no expert at all. Also, my usage is really basic: only mp3s, no fancy playlists, nothing else.

Reviewing my message, I realize it will be of little or no help, after all...

Oh well, my 2 cents

Good luck with your new toy.

Alessandro

PS: I confirm I can successfully disconnect the iPod, both when closing foobar and through the systray (yes, I also use it as external disk); after disconnecting, you can unplug it (you should see the iPod main menu) and if you plug it back you should see the device (both in Windows and in foobar).

PPS: please ignore all mistakes, that's just my ignorance.

Good to know I'm not the only one experiencing that, nor that I'm glad, but I feel less dumb


Same here, I've just removed iTunes, and updated the firmware to 3.0.1. iPod service still there and running...

What I really find weird is that I still can't get foo_pod to recognize the iPod. I can see it on the taskbar, and under My computer as a external device. But in foo_pod, under 'iPod service' it won't show anything, just blank.

I've used a program called vpod and I just have to select the drive letter for the Ipod and it works. I can transfer to the iPod

But even when the iPod is mounted in vpod, foo_pod still doesn't recognize it

Well, that's it. I don't know what it's wrong, if anyone is also experiencing this, but apaprently there's no reason it shouldn't work as mobyduck seems to have same configuration as me (no iTunes, just ipod updater, latest firmaware installed and ipod service running) and it works for him Computer are crazy (or humans are just so dumb)

Wait: it's blank here as well. Have you tried sending a file regardless? I have just checked and foo_pod also reports (incorrectly) 0 GB as available disk space (drive letter is correct, though): still I can transfer my mp3s.

HTH.

Alessandro

You're right I can transfer files, and even transcoding them, wow! Thanks a lot! I guess that the problem was caused by the old firmware...I don't know. I was confused since the iPod service tab on the foo_pod plugin was blank and I thought that it didn't recognize it and will again give me an error when transferring files. So, for sure foo_pod doesn't need ipodservice to be running to work

The iPodService is also installed with the iPod firmware updater program. It's not just included with iTunes. So if you have, basically, any Apple software on the machine, you get the iPodService. It's not a big deal though, foo_pod can work with it and use it.

But yes, it'll work fine without the iPodService as well. The iPod appears to Windows as a normal external hard drive, if you don't have the iPodService installed. When you have the iPodService installed, it recognizes the iPod attached and starts up some program like iTunes, as well as providing an interface for programs to do things like discover the ipod's drive letter and mount/unmount the iPod. But it's not absolutely critical or anything. It's not like a driver. Just a minor convience that is kinda unnecessary.

In case of any doubt, remove iTunes, remove the firmware updater, and disable the iPodService in the Services Control Panel (if it's still there). foo_pod will work fine.

Ok, now I understand why playcount isn't updated on my HDD files from iPod played files played. AFAIK there's no way of not writting play_counter tags into the file itself unless you block tag updated (and that means every tag operation ). So, there's no way to link files between iPod and HDD since (ex.):

1) Let's take file bip.mp3 on HDD with play_counter=20. I transfer it to iPod. Aparently (from what I've read around here) this tag isn't transfered on the iPod.

2) I play this file 3 times on the iPod:

2a) bip.mp3 on HDD has not been played since so file size remain the same (no tag write). File should be updated with next sync with iPod and show play_counter=25 (on HDD).

2b) bip.mp3 on HDD has been played since so file size isn't the same (tag has been wirte). File can't be updated (on HDD) because for the iPod isn't the same file that was transfered.

Am I right or totally missing the point?

Anyway, what I don't understand is why when I 'load iPod songs to the foobar2000 playlist' counter still empty, should I enter an specific string in the column to display it?

A little request and a question for/and about Smart Playlist Editor :

- Request: Could it be possible to add custom tag use in the Smart Playlist Generator? But I guess it will break compatibility with iTunes. So it should if possible be an option and not default

- Question: What tag/info uses SPE for the 'Date added' value? Does it use this foobar plugin or anything else? And does it refer to the date the file was added to the iPod or to foobar/HDD?

Thanks a lot.

Ultimately, whatever I do needs to work on the iPod. Since it wouldn't understand any custom tags, the Smart Playlist wouldn't work on the iPod. What I mean by that is while I could add anything to the database, the iPod is designed only to look at certain values.

Note that foo_pod already does support some additional Smart Playlist features that work on the iPod, but aren't supported in iTunes (such as the "Is Not Greater Than" rule).



Date Added is whatever is in the database. I'm not sure how iTunes fills in the date, but foo_pod uses the creation date of the file, not when it was added to a Foobar playlist (no way to get that info) or from any third party component.

Hmmm, I'm having some issues with foo_pod and iPod. When I try to transfer (Sync or send playlists command) a lot of songs to the iPod and if this require a lot of transcoding (from musepack and vorbis to mp3), the transfer process can take hours.

The problem is that after a while (let's say an hour) the console window pop-up a message with error #55 saying that there's no available disk space on the iPod. Of course, there's disk space available, what happens is that the iPod seems to have been ejected and therefore foo_pod can't send the songs to the iPod. I've checked and the hard drive power settings of my Windows (XP pro SP1) isn't to stop spinning when I'm not using it.

Is someone experiencing this?

Another thing, I guess related to the Ipod service (that I have installed and running) is that when i check for 'iPod free space' is always showing 0.00 GB. Not a big deal since I can check it on explorer

When transcoding from mpc to mp3, the filename is changed to something with number and letters, I thought by reading this topic that this only happens when foo_pod have a non-supported character (like ë, î...), and only for this specific character.

This happens to me with regular characters, and on every transcoded file via foo_pod:

ex. original filename: Offspring - 13 - Not the one.mpc
trascoded filename on the ipod: 262bdb9804c4646d1.mp3

BTW, is possible to have some documentation about the errors that are shown in the console relatives to foo_pod? It will prevent users to bother developpers about an error if there's an easy explanation to it For ex. I have a #23 and #25 error sometimes and don't know what it's....

I'm not sure about the second problem, but as for the first, is there any chance that your iPod's battery is dying halfway through the extended transfers? I know that with heavy access, my iPod - on battery power alone, can be drained in an hour or so.

When transcoding, foo_pod always changes the name of the song to the original song's md4 hash value. This makes finding duplicate songs much easier and much much faster, since I can just compare the song's hash value against the list of files on the iPod.

Non-transcoded song filenames are only escaped if they contain characters that are illegal on the iPod.


For the most part, those are standard Windows error codes - foo_pod doesn't have any error codes of its own. I'm sure the list is on Microsoft's MSDN site, but I found this site after a quick search. Error 23 is "ERROR_CRC" and 25 is "ERROR_SEEK". Both of those sound very suspicious, as in your iPod's drive might be unreliable. If you want to do a quick test, copy several gigabytes of MP3s to your iPod using Windows Explorer and see if there are any errors.

Thanks for the doc. It seems to cover all errors displayed by foo_pod.

You're right. I've done an HDD SCAN (diagnostic mode via iPod) and it give an error. It's only a 15 days old iPod so time to send it to Apple for a repair...

Sorry to hear about your bum iPod, but at least you figured out the problem (good idea to use the diagnostics...I had forgotten about that) and you can send it in and get a replacement.

Or better yet, take it into an Apple Store and talk to someone at the Genius Bar. Often they will swap you iPods on the spot. This just happened with my sons 60 day old mini and we didn't even buy it from Apple (we got it at CompUSA). Walked out of there with a brand new mini.

Well, sorry to go OT.
Here in Europe (at least here in Belgium) stores are only there to sell products, they don't do 'post-selling' support. I've phone them and they send me directly to the service support via internet Kind of sad, since it's a really expensive toy. Normally monday I receive a box to send them my iPod.

Back on topic. It's there some way to sync play_counter in foobar (via tags that change size of the file itself) and iPod? AFAIK, right now you can send PC to iPod, but not the other way.

On the next update, could play count be added on the foobar end for songs, and not just the iPod?

If not, the plugin still rules.

Is there any way to create iPod playlists from items in foobar?

In otherwords, if I use foo_pod and load the entire grouping of songs, can I then select certain items and tell it to create a new iPod playlist of just those songs?

Even better, can I automate it and have it create new iPod playlists for every album?

There are some technical issues that make it difficult to sync the play counts back to the PC files. For example, what if a song on the iPod isn't in one of your Foobar playlists? Would foo_pod just not update that song's play count, or can the Foobar database help out here? I really haven't looked into it enough to say.

Another issue is how to how to resolve the different play counts. Say Song A has been played 10 times on the iPod, and 3 times in Foobar (as reported by the play counter component). If you sync up (which really means Load iPod Playlist in the foo_pod menu), does foo_pod write that Song A has been played 10 times or 13 times? I would guess that should write 13, but again, I don't know for sure.

When you use Send Playlist To iPod, foo_pod not only copies the files that aren't already on the iPod, but it also creates the playlist on the iPod. So to create a new playlist, just create the playlist in Foobar, and select Send Playlist To iPod (assuming you have the Create iPod Playlist option in the Preferences set - this is the default).

In addition, in the Preferences, there are two options that can create additional iPod playlists based on the playlist - random and a custom format. The random playlist is just that - it takes the songs in the playlist and shuffles them (and does a better job randomizing them than the iPod's shuffle feature). Custom means that you can use a standard Foobar TAGZ string to sort the playlist. For example, you could have the playlist sorted by artist.


You can't directly do this in foo_pod at the moment, but if there is some way to create those album playlists in Foobar, you can use the Send All Playlist feature to make all of the iPod playlists.

Why do you need that? When you browse your music on the iPod, just go to album>name of album and hold select button. It'll play the entire album.

Maybe you can do this:
1) Check if song is on a playlist. If it's then update count. If not:
2) Check if song is on database. If it's then udpate. If not:
3) Don't update.

Maybe you could skip 1) because normally, songs on playlists are auto added to the database. But it will work for people that don't have database enabled, in this case, playlist should be useful.

Just guessing...


I would go for 13.
But a question here: Would this work for transcoded files? I mean, files transcoded from PC to iPod, then: will the original files (non supported format) be updated with counts from iPod?

Because the iPod doesn't handle various artists albums well at all.

See, here's my sort string:

I want it sorted by Artist - Year - Album, unless it is Various Artists, at which point I want it Album - Year. I've got all of my music tagged properly, but the ipod is stupid and doesn't understand VARIOUS=1. It puts songs from soundtracks into artist folders based on the song artist. Now, I could browse by album, but I don't necessarily remember all of my album names - I tend to think of "ok, 3rd album released by artist X," so I browse for artist X and then I want a listing of albums. Can't get this with Album mode - it mixes all the albums up. If I browse in Artist mode, I have all of these extra Artists listed who have a single song on a VA album... I don't want to see those as "Artists" in the iPod sense.

My solution was to create playlists for each album, and title them Artist - Year - Album, or Album - Year for VA stuff. I had a bunch on here that I had transferred with Anapod, but I rebuilt my iTunesDB to add Soundcheck info and didn't realize it would kill my playlists. Now I have no easy way to put them back. I could put all the albums back on with Anapod, but I'm assuming it will tromp on my Soundcheck info...

That's a good question - writing the playcount metadata back to the original file will change the file's hash. As I pointed out earlier, the hash is used to help associate the original file with the transcoded file. So that is an additional complication that will need to be addressed.

Not to go too far off topic here but...

When did the iPod start supporting HighEfficency encoded AAC files? I was always told AAC's must always be LC to play on the pod.

I was doing some low bit rate encoding tests using foo_nero and I accidentally uploaded a HE files to the pod. I was quite suprised when it played just fine (and sounded better). This was on a 4G with the latest firmware.

Have I just been living under a rock or something?

PS, I would like to see some kind of playcount integration solution also. All I need it to do is maintain the play count on the iPod after a sync all operation. I use the PC for smart playlists.

No such thing!


Are you sure? I just did a quick test using NAACEnc and the latest version of Nero AAC. I encoded the same file as a HE-AAC (-streaming) and a LC-AAC (-streaming -lc). Both played on the iPod, but the HE-AAC file was unlistenable, due to severe high frequency distortion (it seemed to be playing back only the non-SBR part).

Maybe NAACEnc was causing the problem, but the HE-AAC file played back fine in Foobar, and FAAD correctly identified it as a HE-AAC, so I don't think NAACEnc/Nero is to blame. BTW, for those who don't know, HE-AAC is a version of AAC that is somewhat similar to MP3Pro. It processes the high frequencies in a way that the file can be much smaller (2x) and still retain execellent quality.


I wasn't able to find anyone reporting being able to play HE-AAC files on an iPod, so maybe you accidently loaded regular LC-AAC files instead of the HE-AAC ones? Try using FAAD or the Properties menu in Foobar to verify the AAC type. Being able to play HE-AAC songs on an iPod would be huge, especially for using with foo_pod's transcoder.


The play counts on the iPod should be maintained - if not, that is a bug in foo_pod. Now that i think of it, I can believe it doesn't work if you use sync...I should fix that.

BTW, does anyone here have (or is going to buy) one of the new photo iPods? I'd be interested in seeing the new database format and see how they are storing the photos/album art. Along the same lines, if someone has $500 - $600 laying around, I'd be happy to add album art support to foo_pod...

A solution using foo_pod would be to open the preferences and put "POD_" in the "Alternate Metadata Prefix" field. Then for all your various artist albums, add some metadata that looks like POD_ARTIST="Various Artists" or something along those lines. Then when you sync using foo_pod, the tracks will all get the "Various Artists" name in the Browse menu and on the display, and won't have all those extra artists listed. All those albums will be listed under the "Various Artists" Artist name.

The iPod doesn't care about metadata in the file in any real way. It doesn't even read it. All the iPod cares about is what is in the iTunesDB file, and that's the file that foo_pod is creating.

You can use the MassTagger to create the POD_ARTIST metadata based on the existence of your VARIOUS=1 metadata.

If you also want to change the Album display to include the year, then set POD_ALBUM=2000 Albumname or similar. Again, use the Masstagger and such.

Well, false alarm on the iPod playing AAC HE correctly.

I was testing recordings from FM talk radio. I had already applied a 7khz low pass filter to the audio source. I did sucessfully make both LC and HE versions, and they do both play on the iPod. In fact for my application (voice only radio recordings) the HE sounds better then the LC on the iPod (even though it is not being decoded properly).

I did a second test with some real music. Wow what a difference. I had no idea HE would sound so good. I made a 32kbit HE file from a FLAC 44.1 source and played it in foobar. It sounded very close to the origional. Not exactly, but damn good for something that you could stream through a 56k modem connection. When I played it on the iPod, it sounded like a low pass filter had been applied. All mud and no highs.

Sorry if I got anyone hopes up.

I think I ran into a small issue with foo_pod. When filenames contain a semicolon, they cannot be uploaded to the iPod. Renaming all of the files fixed the issue.

OMG, <3. I didn't know this was possible. Now I know what the "alternate prefix" option does. This will work fine for my purposes. Thanks a ton Otto! I'm assuming that if foobar doesn't find any metadata with the prefix, it just uses the standards, right?

Right. It uses (prefix)ARTIST if it's around or ARTIST if it's not. Same thing applies to all metadata that foo_pod uses when creating the iTunesDB file.

Thanks so much for foo_pod, it is great. I have one question though.

When syncing all playlists with my ipod, all songs are transfered, but one playlist always seems to be left out. Is there a way for me to get all of my playlists listed in the playlist menu on my ipod?

Thanks!

Thanks!



Is it always the same playlist? foo_pod can be told to ignore specific playlists, based on the playlist name. Select the playlist that doesn't get transferred in Foobar, then right click on one of the songs and go to the foo_pod menu. Does one of the menu items say "Ignored Playlist"?

Any progress on the disappearing smart play lists? They disappear each and every time I preform a sync operation. They do not diappear when I do a simple Send File to iPod or Remove File from iPod operation.

Great plugin, but I have one problem with it and one suggestion...

The problem is that it doesn't seem to correctly ignore playlists for sync all - I have one playlist that has every file in my database, and have it set to ignore. The problem is that all the songs end up getting transfered anyway. I'm not sure if the playlist ends up getting created because the errors popping up in the console slow down the process so much that I just click cancel.

The suggestion is that there be an option similar to the ipod tag prefix that is generated on the fly from a tagz string. For example, ALBUM could be set as "%album%$if(%disc%, (Disc %disc%))" to add in the disc number without having to run the masstagger on all multi-disc albums.

I have never been able to reproduce the ignore playlist problems, but several people have reported them so something must be going on. I'll try to figure it out.


Hmm...this is a pretty good idea. I'll make sure to implement this in the next version.

Best ipod plugin i ever seen!!
Thx for your job.....

btw..would the transfer window add the data transfer bitrate?

Anyone here (Otto or Aero?) know anything about this issue?

AAC tagging & binary fields:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=29120

+Reardon