Version 0.9.7 is now available.


This build just contains couple little things that I have wanted to add to make loading Podcasts easier and better. This version adds the option of sending (aka transcoding) any song to the iPod as a .m4b audiobook. There are several good reasons for doing this, since the iPod handles audiobooks special even though they are just regular AAC files with the .m4b file extension.

Just to give you an idea how I use foo_pod with Podcasts, I first have Foobar set up to append newly enqueued files to the end of a "Command Line" playlist. Then when I download a podcast, I set it to open automatically in Foobar. Then I use foo_pod to send the podcast to the iPod as an audiobook. Finally, I create a Podcasts playlist on the iPod, load the iPod playlists in Foobar, and from the [Default] [iPod] playlists, I scroll to the bottom to see the newly added podcast, and drag that into the Podcasts [iPod] playlist and update it. It sounds more complicated that it really is...


As a reminder, Foobar 0.8.3 doesn't understand .m4b songs, so if you are going to be using them with foo_pod, make sure you download my modified foo_input_std.dll file and replace your current foo_input_std.dll.




From the Readme:

One quick question, as an "outsider" (I have no ipod) - if you transfer normal M4A/MP4/AAC file to the ipod, will they be transcoded or simply renamed to M4B?

Currently, it will be transcoded. There are a couple of reasons for this - first, it makes it easier for foo_pod to find matching songs on the iPod. Secondly, since the Audiobook transcoding parameters are customizable, it is possible to compress the audio even further, if you want.

If you already have AAC files, just rename them to .m4b and send them to the iPod normally and they will appear as audiobooks.

Okay, great, I was just curious Thanks

is there the possibility for any kind of support for Apple Lossless. I understand that transcoding for example FLAC to Apple Lossless is unlikely, but it would be great if foo_pod allowed you to transfer apple lossless files to the the ipod.

Until Foobar has some support for ALE, foo_pod can't do anything with that format. The last time I checked, you couldn't put a ALE song in a Foobar playlist or even load it in Foobar.

As soon as someone adds ALE support to Foobar, it should work with little or no changes in foo_pod.

Hi everyone,

first of all, you did a great job on iPodDB and foo_pod.
I recently got my first ipod (4G), installed iTunes and it didn't convince me.
One reason is that I use flac for all my audio-files. I hate to maintain everything twice, so I guess foo_pod and transcoding on te fly would be the way to go.

But with this I have some trouble.
Sending files to the ipod works well as expected, but sync wont.
Here is what I do:
- I create a playlist with all the songs (flac) I want on the ipod
- then I select foo_pod->sync current playlist

Result:
A progress window is popping up and closing instantly, a playlist "ipod (foo_pod)" appears and it is empty. On the iPod are no files or playlists.
There are no error-messages or warnings. Not even in debug-mode.

When i repeat the same steps as above but use mp3 instead of flac everything works as expected: The files are transferred to the iPod and a playlist (with the same name as the foobar-playlist) is created on the ipod.
This is what i would expect from sync regardless of the file-format.
In a mixed playlist containing mp3 and flac only the mp3-files will be transferred.

What I could do, to work around this, is to select all the files I want on the ipod and use foo_pod->send files to ipod. Then everything works fine (transcode/transfer) and I could create the playlists I want using the files in "ipod (foo_pod)".


There seems to be another problem with sync and transcoding:
- foo_pod->load ipod playlists as tabs
- add a flac that is not on the ipod to one of these playlists
- foo_pod->update this playlist on the ipod

Result:
The flac will be transcoded and transferred successfully. It is present on the ipod, but it won't appear in the playlist that I added it to.
When I repeat the above steps foo_pod notifies me that the file is already there and skips transcoding/transferring, but the entry in the playlist will still be missing.
With mp3 again this works as expected.

foo_pod is probably one of the most useful plugins for foobar, but these few problems I have are a bit annoying and using it could be more efficient. Sync would make it a lot easier.

happy new year
jug

[Edit: just some additions - without my explanation was misleading]

I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some basic foopod usage... I've looked through this monster thread as far as i could.. tried looking at the wiki as well.. I just brought an ipod for my sister for christmas.. I used foopod to transfer all the songs i wanted to onto it for her.. This took some figuring out.. I was hoping to not have to install ANY apple software, but it quickly became obvious that i'd need to install the "drivers" as such so that it could work at all.. before doing this, windows would find the hdd of the ipod but when you tried going onto it it said it was unformatted..

I now come to wanting to set up my sister's laptop for long term usage of her ipod.. I just wondered what are the required steps..

Do i have to install itunes etc to get the drivers needed for foopod to work?

In the initial installation if itunes is installed will it delete the current files on there from foopod?

How can i stop itunes loading as default when the ipod is connected?

Is there a way for itunes and foobar/pod to live together.. ideally i'll set up my sister using EAC and lame to encode her music and then foopod to upload to the ipod, but its possible that i may have to relent and let her use itunes for easyness sake... if i turn off syncing in itunes is it happy to leave foopod uploaded files on the ipod and happily add itunes encoded (or EAC/lame) files via itunes on top?

I've done the whole ipod music as playlist option in foopod.. what is the best way of getting these files back off the ipod onto the computer.. surely using diskwriter isn't the right way for this although technically it would work!??

Does the auto chart stuff where an ipod lists the most popular tracks, albums etc still work when using foopod.. I'm sure i read somewhere that every time you upload these tags with foopod have to get overwritten or something... sorry i've never used an ipod before so i've not had chance to properly test this yet (and besides since she's started using it its yet to be reconnected to any computer) .. this kind of stuff is quite a neat feature of ipod.. I imagine my sister would like it.. if its not possible with foopod yet then that will be another small reason to use itunes instead.. if it IS possible then that reason will be removed and i'll feel even easier about forcing her away from itunes

In fact in short what features are different for the worse/better on the ipod when using foopod as oppossed to itunes!?

Thanks for your time.. great plugin!!

If these questions do get answered, perhaps a newbie section in the WIKI would be a good place to put those answers.. questions like "what do i need to install to use foopod" would of been great to have read before i'd managed to get it working... for complete fresh installed (or not as the case maybe) ipod users..

Hi jrbamford,

first of, i'm new to this whole ipod, foo_pod, itunes - stuff, but i could try to answer some of your questions :-)


Be careful with laptops.
As far as i understand it, you need a high-power usb 2.0 port or a firwire port to get the iPod to work properly. Therefor the laptop needs to have external power supply when the ipod is connected. The battery won't be able to do this...
If the laptop has neither there might be a problem. Have a look at this small(ish) sort of reference/manual that came with the ipod and look for system requirements. Or check the apple/ipod website. Also Check the laptop specifications to check if the ports are available.


No, as you already noticed, when you connect your iPod, windows will recognize it as external hd and foo_pod could use it. Updating the ipod is just a bunch of file-system operations on this external hd. You don't need any apple-software installed, except for the initial setup (ie formatting the ipod-hd).


In the preferences, there is an ipod-tab. There is a checkbox, whether or not to load itunes when an ipod is connected. Uncheck it.


When you have done "load ipod songs to foobar2000 playlist" the you could simply rightclick on the "ipod (foo_pod)" playlist and select "foo_pod->save ipod files to disc"


erm... well. I try to break it down to what i know for sure.
pro itunes:
- itunes of course understands the ipod-technology entirely and thus provides the best and most complete implementation of all the features.
- it will respect the playcount and rating data on the ipod and merge it into its own local database

contra itunes:
- uses a lot of resources
- its closed source

pro foo_pod:
- the classes foo_pod relies on are open source
- it's possible to download the media-files from the ipod without any trouble
- almost all the main features of itunes are present (updating/syncing, playlists, smart playlists)
- it is faster and needs less system-resources than itunes
- it allows transcoding of media-types ipod/itunes does not understand, that means you don't need to keep and maintain a copy of your music collection. For me this is the ultimate itunes-killer-feature
- still in development -> there will be more new features in the future (hopefully)

contra foo_pod:
- still in development, there are features missing, incomplete or may not work as expected
- it won't respect playcount/rating on the ipod and will not merge these data into foobars database or the local files. but it adds local values to the ipod-database if there are any available


These are just the info that i could figure out myself, testing and reading this thread. If i'm wrong in some points please correct me, i'm just trying to understand this all myself.
There might also be a language problem, because i'm not native to english, but you might have noticed that already...

cheers
jug

Thanks Jug..

So having already set it all up i wont need to install itunes at all on my sisters machine.. or any apple software.. i guessed it could of formatted it when it first ran stuff..

I assumed something of apple was required to be installed to get the "iPod Service" stuff all working.. it was this that didn't work until i installed everything..

Do we know if its possible to get itunes and foopod coexisting.. I have all the files i uploaded but its about 10gig and i'd rather not reupload if at all possible

Thanks for the laptop warning... i'll have a look.. it does have a charging PSU.. i can tell her to always have her laptop plugged in whenever she is going to do anything with it.. its hard to believe that the ipod has that much of a power requirement.. i'd of thought an unpowered firewire port to just have the ipod run of batteries when uploading... fair enough not great.. but do able if you wanted to do a couple of albums and you knew it was on full enough charge..

Cheers.. Happy New Year!!

It turns out that i'm going to have to wait to play with this some more anyways.. sisters laptop, and mine for that matter has the smaller 4 pin firewire connector... 4G ipods don't come with the adapter for it in the box.. as for your power related query, it does seem like an issue.. there are a couple of adapters that take one firewire lead (from your mains power adapter) and the other from your unpowered 4 pin laptop and combines it into 1 powered 6 pin port ready for the ipod.. getting hold of these at all and especially in Europe is looking like a difficult one.. until then my foopod fiddlings will have to wait

Well, the Wiki's up and running but people are needed to update and maintainers for it. Aero: How do you feel about moving updates and the changelog there?

Is there any objections about the Wiki?

Trying to transfer flac and wma files to ipod by transcoding, however I get this error:

ERROR (foo_pod) : Transcoding failed!
ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #0 copying E:\Mikey's Music\Main Library\Albums\311 - 311 - 01 - Down.flac to d:\iPod_Control\Music\F84\

I am using v0.8.3 foobar and 0.9.7 foo_pod.

I have followed the readme file and have transfered both foo_podtranscoder.dll and foo_podclienc.dll to the Components directory.

I have transfered lame.exe 3.96.1 to the foobar main directory. In preferences I have selected the lame best wuality setting.

Any suggestions on why it will not transcode?

Thanks

That looks like foo_pod wasn't able to find lame.exe. A couple things to try:

1. Make sure that the LAME executable is named 'lame.exe' and it is in the same directory as foobar2000.exe.
2. Copy lame.exe to c:\windows
3. Copy faac.exe to the Foobar directory, select one of the FAAC transcoder settings.

If none of those work, let me know.

Sync is almost unsupported in foo_pod. I don't use it, so it get the kind of testing it needs. I strong recommend using Send Files/Delete Files to manage the files on the iPod, at least until I get some time to get sync working as it should.


This is a general problem with transcoding and playlists, not just with sync. The best workaround right now is, after transcoding, go to the "[Default] [iPod]" playlist and find the transcoded file (it should be at the end of the playlist), then add that to the iPod playlist. I'll work on a better fix for this problem.

Still not working and the same error with FAAC

I have a 4 g ipod with latest firmware but im assuming the ipod has nothing to do with it. I am using windows xp service pack 2 as well.

OT a little here, but a little observation.

I was attempting to reproduce a bug that I had encountered sometime back (on corrupted DB with foo_pod), and I had did a backup copy of the DB file in the /Ipod_Control/iTunes folder.

When I plugged out my iPod, I realised that there were double entries in my DB, and this was because of iPod reading the 2 DB files simulteneously.

Moral of the story? Don't place 2 DB files in the iTunes folder, and if you do, give an extension to the file.

Hmm...that is very odd. I typically have several DB files in my iTunes directory, and I have never seen the duplicate database thing.

Are you sure that you just didn't end up with an iTunesDB with multiple entries? If not, what did you name the DB files in order to see the duplicates?

Hmm.. such strange things are always happening to me...
I just did an copy and paste of the file, without giving it any file extension whatsoever (unlike foo_pod, where its backup function adds an extension). The duplicate file was called "Copy of iTunesDB".

EDIT: The problem that I encountered with 2 DB files was that the DB entries were largely duplicated, and they were no longer sorted alphabetically. Even full albums were not sorted according to tracknumber.

If you want, I still have the duplicate file on my HDD, and I can email it over to you..

my sister just got an ipod photo for xmas. i have been using foo_pod for a while now with my own ipod and have had no problems. i tried to put all my songs onto her ipod photo, but something wasn't working correctly. the transfer conpletes fine, but when i select a song on her ipod, some of the songs play, while others just skip over. i have tried many things, hoping i could find the problem (formatted, applied latest ipod software, and rebuilt the database) but nothing worked. does foo_pod support ipod photo?

@aero: i searched the thread to find your post about your ipod photo. are you having any difficulties?

No difficulties in general, although I have seen the skipping problem you describe. I have seen it happen on 3G, 4G, and especially on the iPod Photo. If they never play, that could be a foo_pod problem. But if it takes 2-3 selections to get them to play, then it is almostly definitely an iPod problem.

I seem to remember that early 3G firmwares especially had this problem, but it was fixed in later releases. The problem seems to occur when the disk doesn't spin up or seek fast enough before something times out and moves on to the next song. Too bad Apple's firmware release schedule is so slow, and they do such a horrible job supporting their older players...


As an aside, as someone who has owned a 3G, 4G, and iPod Photo, the quality of the firmware appears to be going down as time goes on. Mostly little problems, but with the iPod Photo in particular, I have been disappointed by the quality of the overall design (the new databases and iTunes' lackluster support for moving photos to the iPod).

It isn't an iPod or XP problem. Can you try the following?

1. Go to the foo_pod preferences, and for Console Debug Mode, set it to "All Debug Messages".
2. Open up the Foobar console (Components menu, Show Console), and click Reset to clear it.
3. Find a FLAC/WMA file, double click on it to make sure it plays, then right click and select "Send File To iPod".
4. Send me or post the entire contents of the Console window if the transcoding fails.


Thanks.

This is something I always wanted to ask: suppose I have a relatively large playlist (~1000 songs) and I change its content (add/remove files, change MP3 tags, replaygain, etc.), what am I supposed to do to keep the iPod playlist "in synch" with it? Do I have to select all the files on my PL and Send them over to the iPod? Wouldn't it produce duplicates or unwanted (not removed) files on the iPod?

Alessandro

Well then i'll keep doing it that way, it's just annoying, because foo_pod could do most of that already, it just needs to be "automated".
- determine which files to send or delete * that's the tricky part i guess
- transcode if needed
- use the same send/delete functions that are already working
- create/remove playlists if needed
- add/remove entries to/from playlists
Most of these steps are already implemented and working. The only problem is that first step. I don't know much about programming in C, or whatever it is you use, but i don't consider this a big effort. Ok, thinking about it, i have to admit, that "what to compare?" is harder than the comparison itself.
You use the filesize as one criteria, but that is weak for transcoded files - All files will be deleted, transcoded and sent all over again. This is really time-consuming.
Istead you could store the size of the local file on the ipod using a tag (e.g. POD_FILESIZE). Thus transcoding would not affect this comparison. Just a thought...


Great

cheers
jug

It should already work that way, it just appears that some bug was introduced and since I don't use the sync functions, I didn't spot it.

Also, I don't use filesize for transcoded file comparisons - when a file is transcoded, its filename on the iPod is changed to the original file's MD4 hash value. So when looking for a matching song, I only have to hash the source song and look for a matching filename on the iPod.

Alright then, i stop complaining and look forward to see it fixed some day.
Keep up the great job!

cheers
jug

I'm having the same problems, I can't seem to transcode files when sending them to the ipod. Using faac 1.24+, foo_pod 0.9.7 and foobar 0.8.3 special fresh install. I placed faac.exe in both the foobar and windows directories.

When I try to transfer a file i get this message:

Playcount Question:

First, thank to all contributors for this great plugin. Second, apologies if this has already been answered in the thread...

I'm trying to use foo_pod to manage my audioscrobbler submissions for music played only on my ipod. I'm following this procedure:
1. Start up foo_pod.
2. "Load iPod Songs to foobar Playlist".
3. Run Extended Playlist Generator on the foo_pod playlist to get songs played in a date range.
4. Play the generated playlist while foo_audioscrobbler is running.

This seems to work fine, but I am noticing one bad behavior:
5. Eject iPod and use normally.
6. Reconnect iPod and start up foo_pod.
7. "Load iPod Songs to foodbar Playlist".
8. Now the %IPOD_PLAY_COUNT% has been removed for all songs except those played in step 5.

I notice upon exporting the iTunes db that the <HTMI><PLAYCOUNT> element is maintaining the correct playcount, but for some reason it's not being re-read and set to the %IPOD_PLAY_COUNT% metadata when I perform step 7.

What am I doing wrong here? I've set foobar to "block tag update operations", and I've also removed my foo_quicktag and foo_playcount components.

Thanks,
Steve

This might be a bug in how I'm handling play counts. I haven't tested it on an iPod yet, but from looking at the code, when you load the iPod playlist I am replacing the database's playcount value instead of appending to what is already there.

That would explain the behavior you are seeing - basically the play counts are wiped and only songs that have been played since the last load iPod playlist are present. It is a one liner fix, so I'll test it tonight and put it in the next version.

Edit: Yep, that was it. It was a dumb mistake on my part, but it is fixed now.

Can you open up g:\iPod_Control\Music\F69 and see if there is a .m4a file there, dated when you did the transcoding? It looks to me, from the error messages, that the transcoding might have actually worked, but foo_pod thought it didn't...

I just checked, there's only mp3 files there, and all older . So its not gettng that far.
Using the custom encoder option seems to work with faac.exe, so it's not something directly wrong with the exe I guess.

It doesn't work with lame (3.96 from rarewares) either.
The Error # changes from #0 to #5 sometimes, although I can't tell what circumstances cause the switch.

Any other ideas?

Aero:

Thanks for fixing this! Your prompt bugfix is really appreciated.

Good detective work in figuring out that the custom encoder setting works!

What did you put in the encoder setting in the custom encoder setting? Is it just "faac.exe", or is it the full path like "c:\program files\foobar2000\faac.exe"?

Since both the preset Lame and Faac settings didn't work, but the custom one did, I'm thinking that the problem might be related to using a relative path vs. the absolute path. If you have the full path in the custom encoder, try changing it to just faac.exe and see if it fails.

It happens here too. I didn't change anything in the transcoder settings and it was working with previous version of foo_pod.

Version 0.9.7a is now available.

This is just a bug fix release, fixing the playcount and transcoder problems that have been recently reported. The playcount problem was long standing, but the transcoder error was just introduced in version 0.9.7 (it turns out that I wasn't retrieving the LAME/FAAC default settings correctly, so only the custom encoder settings option worked...).


From the Readme:

Is it available for download?

Alessandro

[Edit]Ooops! Sorry. [/Edit]

Regarding the Syncing issue. When I click on "sync playlist" it syncs the playlist files to the entire iPod database instead of the equivalent playlist on the iPod. It's a quick and easy test just press "no" when it asks you if you want to delete all those files.

Am I missing the purpose of this feature?

Hey thanks aero! Its working great now .

I was able to reproduce the file skipping problem tonight on my iPod Photo, and was able to figure out what was going on.

It turns out that the iPod Photo (only) is sensitive to filename length. For example, I had a song that played fine on my 4G but was skipped on the Photo. I was able to determine that song filenames longer than about 37 characters (including file extension) are not played on the Photo, but work fine on older iPods. iTunes limits the filename to 31 characters, so I have also changed foo_pod to this limit as well, and this fix will be in the next version.

Actually, older iPod's have the same issue. That's one reason programs like EphPod default to changing the names to shorter ones using numbers or some other kind of scheme. Lot of people encountered this initially because they had silly naming schemes like tracknumber-artist-album-genre.mp3 sort of filenames, and these were naturally huge and caused issues until they figured the problem out. Later iPod firmware revisions reduced the problem, but did not cure it entirely.

Basically, when the iPod is searching for a track, if it takes too long to find it, it'll skip it. Well, in some cases, when the filename is too long, there's too many fake LFN entries in the directory index, and in skipping over those it takes too long for it to seek the thing. Result is skipped files.

Long filenames in FAT32 work by putting fake directory entries in the directory index that immediately precede the normal entries. Each LFN entry can only hold 13 characters, and if it's longer, it takes more entries, and so forth. After a certain length, any iPod will have issues. Make a whole bunch of 200 character filenames on an older iPod and you'll see the same impact.

You might consider including a "compatibility" mode where you rename all the files to short 8.3 names, if you're not basing anything on filename alone. In order to not produce any LFN entries, and thus achieve maximum compatibility, the filenames have to fit into 8.3 format, and be all uppercase or numeric. This would totally prevent skipping due to excessive directory index read time.

This directory index searching time is also the same reason that later iTunes versions have been adding more music directories. It used to be f00-f29, but now it's up to what, f60 or so? More directories means less files per directory means less sequential searching time through the structure. That's the only way they could get it up to 40 or 60 gig. They can't figure out how to solve the problem, so they took steps to reduce it instead.

Oh, the reason it's probably happening more on the iPod Photo is that the iPod Photo is searching for more stuff, most likely. It has to find the album art in the artwork db and so forth. This could be causing more disk read and more searching, which causes the problem to manifest more easily.

I have considered moving to a completely hash based filename system, like I do for transcoded files. It would simplify a lot of internal details and probably speed things up, but I think a lot of people expect to see the unaltered (as much as possible) filename on the iPod.



I'm sure that is true in general, but the iPod Photo is definitely different than previous iPods. I had only 3-5 songs on the iPod, and the long filename was skipped 100% of the time. I was even able to get it to the point where adding a single character to a filename caused it to be skipped consistantly, whereas the shorter filename always played.



Other than the iPod Photo weirdness, I haven't seen much (if any) song skipping lately. I don't know if it is improved firmwares or the addition of extra fnn directories.



foo_pod goes up to 11 (actually f99) now, for this reason.

Thanks for the info on FAT32! I'll keep it in mind for future changes.

Damn, that is annoying.

Something that you might try is to use the short name in the iTunesDB file but leave the long name in the filesystem. The short name will be something like "long file name.mp3" into "longfi~1.mp3", where 1 increments, sort of thing. That will at least let you see if it's a filesystem bug or if it's something screwy with the way the iPod Photo is dealing with the iTunesDB. Because you should be able to reference it by short name and have it find the file okay.

Aero,

I'm getting this error while transcoding to my iPod (4G):

ERROR (foo_pod) : Error #0 copying d:\Musica\Kyo\300 lesions\Kyo - 12 - L'assaut Des Regards.mp3 to k:\iPod_Control\Music\F36\

this seems to happen while transcoding mp3 higher than a certain bitrate to a lower bitrate via foo_pod to the iPod.

Are you using the latest version of foo_pod (version 0.9.7a)? Also, will you paste the entire foo_pod contents of Console so I can see what is going on before the error?

I noticed a similar error (with version 0.9.7a). I also had trouble transferring a huge list of files that included flac, m4a and mp3 files with and without transcoding of higher mp3 bitrates checked. I would let it run and come back to my computer a day or so later and nothing would be transferred to the iPod and there would be tons of error messages like the one above.

Transferring the files separately by file type allowed me to transfer the files.

Sorry, I didn't have the last version. I did install it sometime ago, but don't know how I must have installed the previous version 0.9.7 by mistake

Everything works fine now

Hmm...I can't see how the source file's codec, bitrate, or the number of files would have any effect on the foo_pod transcoder, since after Foobar decodes it, it is just a stream of audio data that is passed directly to LAME/FAAC/whatever.

I'm transcoding 7,000 songs right now as a test (using the LAME "good quality" preset), and I haven't had any problems so far. If you are able to reproduce transcoder problems, please post the following details:

* Which preset you are using (or if you are using a custom preset, all the data from the dialog). Also post the version of the encoder you are using.
* All foo_pod related output from the Console (you can edit it down to 1 or 2 songs, if you get multiple errors).
* If there are any special steps you did to reproduce the problem.
* If reverting to a previous version (such as 0.9.5 or 0.9.6 helps).

Also, make sure you are updating ALL of the foo_pod DLLs (foo_pod.dll, foo_podtranscoder.dll, and foo_podclienc.dll). For 0.9.7a, they all should have the same date - Jan 7, 2005.

I will be away from my computer until next Saturday. I will try to isolate the issue then.

Thanks!

Version 0.9.8 is now available.

This version has some additional changes to how transcoding is handled, so if you have had problems with the past few versions, try this one and see if it helps.

It also has the fix for long filenames on the iPod Photo, which caused file skipping.

Also, this version adds a feature that smart playlist users will find useful. You can now open up the smart playlists as Foobar playlist tabs, just like with regular playlists. foo_pod reads the smart playlist rules and builds up the playlist with the matching songs from your iPod. I am really enjoying this feature, since I listen to a lot of podcasts, and have a smart playlist rule that groups them all into one playlist. Being able to open up a populated smart playlist in Foobar means it is easy to select and delete old shows.


As a side note, has anyone tried foo_pod with an iPod Shuffle yet? I don't know if it works the same as regular iPod (*cough*I'm open to donations...*cough*), but I'm guessing that it is basically the normal iPod software with a permanent smart playlist that iTunes manages (for file disk space vs. song disk space).


From the Readme:

I've searched and couldn't find whether this question has been asked before: could I place foobar on an iPod, connect the iPod as an external drive, and run foobar (including foo_pod) from the iPod? I'm thinking YES, but before I purchase a Shuffle I want to know how 'portable' my music solution can be.

Thanks in advance.

ps: Many thanks to Aero (and Otto42, and all others) for their work on this project.