Status: Release Candidate Software (full release 1-2 weeks)

Safety:
The first time Sveta is run on your iPod the database will be backed up so there should be no risk to your collection on the iPod

Notes:
When uploading files through 'Sveta Explorer' - Sveta Explorer must be closed before unplugging the iPod, this is so the database can be updated.

Install -

First you need Sveta Portable Audio:

Click Here To Download
2.3MB

then the mp4 codecs for dBpowerAMP (encode and decode):

Click Here To Download

1.17MB

and finally the Sveta iPod driver:

Click Here To Download

213KB

After installing the last item, connect your iPod to Computer let Sveta Configuration find it.

Then you have two choices - send existing .mp4 or .m4a audio files with 'Sveta Explorer' (iPod Icon on Desktop), or convert existing files - right click on files >> Convert To >> Apple iPod - set the Compression to mp4 and click Settings for the first time. Or even Rip an Audio CD stright to the iPod - Audio CD Input >> Rip Menu >> Rip To >> mp4 set compression with Rip Menu >> Set Compression - set it to mp4 and click Settings.

Thanks to everyone at www.hydrogenaudio.org who helped with creating this!

===================================
Beta 2 Changes:

New mp4 Input Codec Created, full tagging supported
Now Possible to Rip and Convert To 'On the Fly'
Encoding no longer leaves temp file
Shows some kind of percentage whilst converting
Tag Editing within Sveta Explorer
Auto Connects and Auto Disconnects (NT/2000/XP only) on program exit (displays 'Ok to Disconnect')
Faster upload speed

Beta 3 Changes:

Returns 200KB less free space so will always have room to save database
If a playlist is empty (after deleting files) then it is removed
When a playlist is viewed, deleted items are just removed from playlist - not tracks on iPod
Auto saves database every 5 minutes + 10 files transferred
Master Playlist is rebuilt every save
CRC checking on database write, also optional verify on file write
Smart playlist creation [option] - searches for and creates playlists based on 'Artist - Album' name, existing playlists with those names are overwritten. Playlists are only created for Albums with 3 or more tracks present
Looks for iPod in a new more compatible mannor
Foobar TRACKNUMBER compatibility
Can create playlists from Sveta Explorer - type name and do a 'Create Folder'
New Command 'Delete Playlist' (select playlist and right click on track listing >> Extra Commands)
New Command 'Add Tracks to Playlist' (select playlist and right click on track listing >> Extra Commands)

Release 3 Release Candidate 1 Changes:

Option to restore older database.
Better handling of databases not in propper state, it will warn the database is empty and ask to create new.
Fixed bug that would stop certain tracks from playing on iPod
Fixed bug that would cause Sveta Explorer to crash if iPod not detected (then Properties, Ok)

WOW! Amazing news.

Congratulations, Spoon. And thank-you.

Very cool!

I followed your instructions but keep getting the following error when encoding the MP4s - "Unable to run encoder 'C:\Program Files\Music Players\Illustrate\dBpowerAMP\AACEnc_MPEG-4\aacenc_mpeg4.exe'"

Any ideas? I did not see a solution your FAQ page (I made the effort before posting). And yes, the aaenc_mpeg-4.exe, is where it is looking for it.

You may have just solved your own problem, there. You cite two different filenames, first aacenc_mpeg4.exe, then aacenc_mpeg-4.exe. I wasn't sure if that was a typo or not, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Nice job spoon. This is pretty nice software. I'm curious though ... after I have sent my mp4s to my iPod, I can start up ephpod and fix the tag it has in the iPod, but is there some way I can avoid this hassle? Also, this is my first foray into AAC and so far it seems, dare I say it, "good enough" at 128 even compared to my --alt preset extreme -z -m s mp3s. I've only tested it with two songs though, so obviously this is just an intial impression. Is the encoder being used a pretty decent one? I hear people raving about the Nero and the Psytel encoder but I also hear that Psytel encodes have problems on the iPod? Sigh... so many questions. Still ... NICE JOB SPOON!

Since I believe the demand for aacenc_mpeg4 will now increase (for a good reason), I decided to upload it to RareWares again. Get it here if you need only it and don't want to download Spoon's full MP4 package.

http://www.inf.ufpr.br/~rja00/files/aacenc_mpeg4.zip - 273Kb - Psytel v2.15

This link won't be listed at RareWares.

Regards;

Roberto.

It needs to be

C:\Program Files\Music Players\Illustrate\dBpowerAMP\mp4 (CLI)\aacenc_mpeg4.exe

Click the 'Locate' button on a compression option page.

ephpod should be able to edit the tags after it has been uploaded.

It is using the psytel encoder, I think Nero have gone one better with AAC+?

rjamorim: People would still need to download my mp4 package, even if they have already created .mp4 files, when uploading to the iPod my program needs to get the mS length of the track.

Here is my schedule (in order):

Fix the Playlists of ' ' on iPod,
Fix the iPod driver so it can encode and send on the fly,
Add Tag editing to iPod on Sveta
Add Playlist Creation to iPod on Sveta
Add Tags to .mp4s

Talking of the normal AACEnc, perhaps someone could figure out why it was not working on the iPod, these were the commands I was using:

aacenc -if a.wav -of a.aac -profile 2 -normal
mp4creator60 -create=a.aac a.mp4

Thanks to everyone helping in increasing the already chaotic situation to sheer anarchy...

http://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?m...?msg_id=2008746

HTH.

Welcome to distributed standards it will take awhile for things to converge and settle. I think the decoders just need to be made a little more forgiving.

Thanks Spoon. Really a great job!

Needed : support for mp4-tagging within Sveta Explorer
Or a suggestion : could we name the mp4 files as following artist - album - track - title - genre.mp4, so that your ipod plugin would recognize all these tags (the only ones, that the Ipod really uses) and we would'nt have to use Ephpod to retag the files

This scenario would never happen if Apple picked Ogg Vorbis.
But nooo, they had to use AAC (Anarchy Audio Coding).

That actually sound cool, Anarchy Audio Coding could be the new AAC-nickname...

I know. But maybe people would rather wait for the official apple tool to upload MP4 files to iPod, and would like to start encoding right away.

Profile 2 is the LTP profile. I believe the iPod can only decode LC.

Zealot, are we?

I'm wondering about the direction of .mp4. I'm currently in the process of ripping all my CDs to my computer at --alt preset extreme -z -m s and I'm thinking I should really switch to what appears to be a superior form of compression. However, given the chaos surrounding AAC and mp4 I'm not sure what I should do.

rjamorim: since the mp4 encoder that spoon is using is no longer compliant, is it worth archiving my songs using this non-compliant encoder? It sounds like it is non-compliant only in some header data? Would this mean that it would be possible to adjust the resulting files to be compliant at a later date without having to reencode? Sorry for being very ignorant, I am certainly not experienced in this sort of thing... a mere noob

Only the AAC files generated by it are non compliant. Once you convert them to MP4, they become compliant with everything that plays back MP4.

But the mp4 convertor demands AAC compliancy. Therefore, I recommend you keep an old version of mp4creator (like the one Spoon is distributing) handy.

The MP4 files generated by this old version have no compliancy issues.

Regards;

Roberto.

Do you think Anarchy Audio Coding is a misguiding name?
There's prolly a reason why I can be such a zealot at times.
Could it be....well....... vorbis is good?

Could it be that your post was completely uncalled for. Actually, it was quite trollish, IMO.

If you want to zealot away, go to irc.xiph.org, #vorbis channel. That thing is packed with zealots.

Heh.. I thought we had already talked about this MadiZone...

And no, Anarchy Audio Coding does not fit, in fact it sounds quite stupid and childish. Please stop trolling this thread. In fact, stop trolling this board, period (this goes for your recent -- similarly childish and uninformed -- SARS related post too). I've given you plenty of chances already, I'm not going to give you any more.

Oh, and btw, great work Spoon

I haven't been following this situation too closely because I don't use AAC that often and I don't have an iPod, but I don't understand why you are blaming the people here for what is happening. From quickly reading your post, it appears the problem is on the side of either the people revising the standards and creating confusion (the bit about the flags being changed) or the people creating the encoders and decoders not coordinating well enough to make sure everything interoperates well.

I think your comment about Apple users wanting their MP4 files to work now, and then implying maybe that is foolish or stupid (maybe this is not exactly what you meant, but your comment certainly seemed cynical), is completely misguided. It should be expected that if a technology is presented to be mature enough for widespread use, that it actually does work well enough and the compatibility issues have been ironed out well enough to where it's accessible to end users. As it stands right now, it appears the situation is even difficult for people who do understand this stuff pretty well. In the meantime, some people here, like Spoon, are trying to create something to help people use the technology, but it's apparent that there are other problems (seemingly beyond their control) which are interferring with this.

Of course, I could be wrong about a lot of this since I'm not familiar with the intricacies of the situation, but I think you're taking the wrong approach.

I have to give major kudos to Spoon. Here's a guy that single-handedly brought out an easy to use tool for us PC users wanting AAC on our iPod. I've seen some of the posts on how to get AAC/MP4 onto an iPod the "hacked" way, but it's just not for me. I've got better things to do. Now, I can concentrate on listening to the two formats on my new 30GB iPod and decide which is better for me.

Thank you Spoon!!

ops "~dmcout.mp4.aac" must have forgotten to set the encoder to delete it

GREAT JOB spoon............

This software is awesome! While I'm still encoding externally (I like to see the progress in realtime and DBpoweramp seems slower than Ivan&Menno + aacenc_mpeg4 + MPEG4ip v0.9.8.4 (which I obtained from DeXT, which is linked by Rarewares at the bottom of the MPEG-4 section). Currently, I'm using Sveta explorer to copy the files, then I'm using Ephpod to add tags to them (fortunately, the track names are read from the file). It's working great!

Yeah I'd say the same if it worked for me. But unfortunately when I add a file through the explorer or with dbpoweramp music converter it doesnt "really" upload the file. The file gets in a Fxx directory, and an entry is added to the itunes database, but the file doesn't show on the iPod, and in Ephpod I get a file entry in recent, but all the fields are blank, even the filename one, and when I try to edit the tags it says "altered id, not saving".So the only way I managed to upload my mp4 is through the ephpod and hexeditor method.
I hope that a new beta will be out soon, because it would be great! Otherwise I'll wait for the ephpod release suporting aac, which will also convert .mp4 to .m4a itunes compatible files.

What happens next time Sveta Explorer is run, does it show the file added?, what was the filename of the file being added?

>.mp4 to .m4a

These two are basically the same.

The file is called "pc2 - qt-64hi.m4a"
The next time Sveta is run the files shows among the others, normally and:
pc2 - qt-64hi.m4a is in F02, and it is mentioned in iTunesDB however the filename seemed wrong so
then i tried uploading the same file, renamed 8888.mp4 so as to have no spaces and 4 numbers like other files on my ipod. It became 8888.m4a in F15 . I started ephpod,and there it was, with 8888 as song name, retaged it, disconnected my iPod and then it played fine.

Thanks a lot this software is great!!!!!!!!



I know, except that regular mp4 files won't play in iTunes, which could be a pain when itunes for windows is available. More info there: http://www.ephpod.com:8000/listserver-arch...hives/4635.html

I too think the problem of Pierugg could be the name of the files he tries to upload. Are they in the form : artist - title.mp4?

I'm very staisfied, but I'm experiencing some problems though : some tracks are skipped by the Ipod. It won't read the files. I've tried with both Psytel- and with FAAC-encoded files. The same problem. I really can't understand what I'm doing wrong, cause the other files (encoded the same way) play fine.

>pc2 - qt-64hi.m4a

Was it called this before uploading? from the PC, I ask because the mp4 codec for dBpoweramp currently cannot read .m4a files (using faad2), it will have the file as 0 mili seconds in length, it should do by next week though I am sure.

I don't think it is anything to do with filename (if the files have .mp4 extension before uploading), I just tried 'pc2 - qt-64hi.mp4' and it went in fine.

For encoding AAC you need to use aacenc_mp4, the other ones will not work.

====================
BTW A request, anyone who has a MAC, PC and has purchased a track from Apple please send:

The .m4p file before uploading to the iPod, and the resulting .m4p file as uploaded to the iPod (Sveta Explorer will allow it to be copied back to the PC), this is so these files can be examined by the open source world for compatiblity reasons. Email: dbpoweramp@dbpoweramp.com
====================

Hi, I've downloaded and used this tool yesterday, and it was fantastic. Today I tried it again and when I get to the Svete tool to send the files to the ipod, it says "ipod not connected", even though the computer I'm using recognises it, as does Ephpod. I've deleted and redownloaded the program but encounter the same problem. Can anyone help me with what may be wrong, or what I may be doing wrong?

Many Thanks.

I got the same problem, and even MMJB software that comes with it can't "see" ipod, although it was shown on a taskbar that it was connected.

No problems on a Mac, though

Ivan, your iPod to work on the PC either needs to be converted to a PC iPod: http://www.podtronics.com/ipodupdater.htm or you can get MacOpener and that will allow the MAC iPod to be appear on the PC.

williamgoody: Make sure there is no 'iPod Opener' running (it comes with MMJB, you can end task it, or uninstall it), otherwise you can set an option in MMJB to enable 'firewire' mode for the iPod - either way your iPod should appear as a drive in explorer before running Sveta.

... stupid post removed

Ok, allright - still no luck.

Where can I get proper firmware that would make my PC see this device?

Now Updated to Beta 2, see modified first message for details.

Much has changed, before it becomes final release I have to add Audible Support, Smart Playlist Creation, Playlist editing and a few other nick-naks.

Ivan: If you have updated it to 1.3 the PC version then the next time it is inserted to the PC it should recognize it as a new drive, then PC programs can work with it.

But I didn't I updated it to the 1.3 version found on Apple site, which is MAC archive only Do you know where can I find firmware for 1.3 PC version ?

-- Ivan

http://www.the-midfield.com/ipod.aspx

Good improvements since the first beta like the tag support, though there is no support for international language (My French titles with é or è or letters like that are not supported and replaced by others strings), and the track numbers were'nt recognized either (the main issue in my opinion).

Still a problem : some tracks are skipped on the Ipod : I don't experience this problem with the new Beta of Ephpod (which has nevertheless other bugs like time display not beeing accurate, far from that: 4:07 instead of 3:30 for a song for example).

Tag Editing works well. But I think it would be useful to have a view by artist/album, since an Ipod isn't organized like other mp3 players with the structure : Genre/Artist/Album/Song1.mp3. With many tracks from the same artist, it's really annoying...

Keep up the good work, Spoon, you're on the right way.

Spoon - thanks, I managed to upload few MP4 files, now


the problem #2 is that iPod can't seek with those .m4a files ?! - I tried one file encoded with Nero and other encoded with QT 6.1, and both of them are reported as 0 seconds long?

I guess this is not normal, right?

jerofont:

>and the track numbers were'nt recognized either (the main issue in my opinion).

What created the track numbers, my program? it was in the mp4 id tag and was lost on the way to iPod?

>some tracks are skipped on the Ipod

Is this constant? ie if you upload the same file again is it skipped? if so please send me one such file - dbpoweramp@dbpoweramp.com

ivan:

Please send along a nero created .m4a file I will look into it - dbpoweramp@dbpoweramp.com

what about all my mpeg2 AAC LC files ?


if i "convert" them to to mp4 eith ivna&menno wil lit work in the ipod too ?

You would have to try it, AFAIK there is nothing wrong with the AAC stream, just how it is represented with headers and what not, it is only a matter of time before a mp4 creator is released that can take any aac file.

Songs were properly tagged with Foobar masstagger. I don't know another tagging method right now...



No, I didn't use dMC cause I already had 3 albums re-ripped for testing purpose with the new firmware 1.3 on my Ipod. Songs were encoded with FAAC (MPEG 4 version, LC profile, average bitrate 192 kbits properly recognized by Sveta Explorer), converted to .mp4 with "Ivan and Menno" (mp4creator.exe), and then tagged within Foobar.


Yes, this is constant. I've retried a second time to upload the same album. Still the same tracks skipping. And if I transfer the same tracks with Ephpod 2.70a (other beta I'm testing), the songs wo'nt be skipped by the Ipod and will be read properly, but Ephpod Beta has other problems.

I'll send you a file. And for the characters encoding in the tags : will some specific french letters é è or german ones ß (and there are many specific letters for so many languages) be recognized?

Again, thanks for the great job you're doing on Sveta to support the Ipod B)

Please also send a foobar tagged mp4 file...see the thread here about tagging and currently there are only two programs that tag mp4 files, foobar and dbpoweramp (excluding apple_we_do_it_our_way_but_tell_nobody)...

The sample I sent you has tags created with Foobar, hasn't it?

Question: is the tracknumber-field called "TRACK" or "TRACKNUMBER"? (Foobar proposes "TRACKNUMBER" as "set value", which is the fieldname I've used for the tracknumber tags)

I think Enrico Palmeri (check Audiocoding forum) is working on such tool. (I.E: a patch to select the audio object number of the output MP4 file: MPEG2 or MPEG4)

>"TRACK" or "TRACKNUMBER"?

That will be it then, I can implement a work around and make it compatible with that also.

Don't forget about "GENRE" tag because there is same problem.

Greets.

BTW: Very nice work.