UMS/MSC Mode Playlists

[LastDavid]

I started with an e280, and I really liked it, but for reasons I am too ashamed to admit, I now have an 8 GB View.

I was all set to return it when I could not connect in non-MTP mode, but then AnythingButiPod saved me the trip. (Thanks GumbyX84)

When I had the e280 I wrote a script that would look at new podcasts and music that I had added and create tailored playlist everyday, something that WinMedia was not able to do (I am too picky). I have to say that this was the most useful feature of the e280 over other players.

So now with the View I can connect in UMS/MSC mode and copy music, but the playlists are not recognized.

Has anyone written or seen code that builds Playlists for the View?

[CrowdAds]

[GumbyX84]

What type of playlist are you using?

[LastDavid]

With the e280 I used the .pla format. With the view I tried them all (pla, wpl, mu3, asx, txt, xml). I copied each to the playlists directory as I did with the e280, but when I disconnect the player, it does not add them to the available list of playlists.

I also noticed that the View does not store the GO playlist the same way.

My guess is that while UMS/MSC data transfer is supported, the View has gone to the darkside (MTP) for much of its media needs.



Have you had success adding your own playlists with UMS/MSC, or do you use MTP?

[GumbyX84]

I actually don't use playlists on my View. After switching to linux while I had my e250, I stopped using them. Has anyone been able to get playlists working using UMS?

[LastDavid]

If you do not use playlists how do you organize your content?

I have music, daily and weekly podcast, audio and print books and recordings and playlists seem like the easiest way to keep them grouped.

Is there a better way

[GumbyX84]

Originally Posted by LastDavid

If you do not use playlists how do you organize your content?

I have music, daily and weekly podcast, audio and print books and recordings and playlists seem like the easiest way to keep them grouped.

Is there a better way

I actually don't have anything but music on my player, so I don't need it organized ATM. To be honest, I probably won't use playlists again till the View gets Rockbox-ed.

I believe you can separate your podcasts from your music by using the new podcast feature they have on the view. Believe there is a folder (once you format the player) called "podcasts" that you can place them into. They should be listed under the Podcast option when you select your music.

[LastDavid]

The podcast feature uses the ID tag info, which is nice, however many podcasts do not tag there files correctly.

Thanks for all the feedback, for now I guess I will have to limp along with Media Player, I am rolling back to version 9 as version 11 cannot truly sync. It only adds, it will not remove old media, but version 9 does.

Hope you all had a good Harvest holiday and enjoy the New Year.

[timmyjoe42]

How do you actually make a playlist?
Can you do it with the Sansa software that converts the video files?

I want to make a playlist for podcasts, a mix of my favorite songs, and favorite albums.
If I can't make playlists, I might not buy one.

[LastDavid]

To make a playlist running windows you can use Windows Media player, or any program that can generate PLA playlist files.

I wrote a VBA script in Excel that searches my podcast directories to create a couple of PodCast specific playlists, then it searches my music directories an creates a couple of Music Mix playlists.

Once the playlists are updated, I use the Auto Sync function of Windows Media player to sync the Playlists and files.

It has been a while since I used linux, so I am not sure what MTP media programs are out there. And the VBA script is not yet fully OpenOffice compatible.

I can sent you the script if you would like, however this is just a little tool for my own use, so it my not be very userfriendly to anyone but me.

[timmyjoe42]

Windows Media Player can make a .pla?
It's only letting me save to .wpl files.
I'm using WMP 11.

Help

[Stormhound]

Making the playlists with WMP is pretty simple: create a playlist in your own library, then sync the playlist to your View. The playlist works quite well on the View, so whatever format it's using, the View can handle.

[LastDavid]

timmyjoe42 - Windows Media Player can make a .pla?

No it cannot, as far as I can tell, however I as mistaken in my post previous. (I was still thinking of my e280) With the View, my code creates WPL playlists, then I use Windows Media Player to sync them to the view.

While creating playlists with Media Player is easy, it also lacks all but the very basic logic to create dynamic playlists.

One huge draw back, at least for me, is the way MTP stores files. It uses the ID tag to create folders by artist and album. If these fields are filled with strings that cannot be used for folder names, those files are skipped.

[timmyjoe42]

I just made a playlist of 943 songs and it only shows up as 500 tracks on the player.
What gives?

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by timmyjoe42

I just made a playlist of 943 songs and it only shows up as 500 tracks on the player.
What gives?

Are all you ID3 tags in order?

[mistawright]

Windows media player can transfer playlists to the view and the e200's its just retarded the way media player does it. To sync a playlist to a player in media player you need to go into the sync setup and change it to an automatic sync. Once the automatic option has been selected you will also select the playlists that you want transferred. once you have the playlists selected and the autosync option selected confirm it and media player will sync it. dragging playlists to the sync list only transfers the contents of the list and not the list itself. so you can transfer playlists through media player 10 and 11.

[timmyjoe42]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Are all you ID3 tags in order?

All ID3 tags are meticulously maintained.