Playlists

[spider_darth]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

System -> Information

The Version listed is the firmware version installed.

I upgraded it to the latest version 1.21.03, reformatted it and tried again. But the problem still exists. I'm also running the latest MediaMonkey 3.0.7.1191.

I realised that this problem exists only when I create the playlist in MediaMonkey. When I create the playlist in Zen itself, there is no such problem.

Could it be that my method of syncing is incorrect? Currently, to sync a playlist over, I just right click on the particular playlist in MediaMonkey and click 'Send to' 'My Zen (Synchronise)'.

Also, when I renamed song titles and resync them to Zen, a duplication is created. Did I do anything wrongly or is this how it is supposed to function?

[Nicole]

I'm starting to wonder if there hasn't been a Windows or WMP update from a couple of month ago causing the syncing issues. My problem is very similar to spider_darth's and I believe MM uses some of the WMP files.

It's the only thing that makes sense... I was syncing fine for months; nothing else changed.

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by spider_darth

I upgraded it to the latest version 1.21.03, reformatted it and tried again. But the problem still exists. I'm also running the latest MediaMonkey 3.0.7.1191.

I realised that this problem exists only when I create the playlist in MediaMonkey. When I create the playlist in Zen itself, there is no such problem.

It seems to be a software induced issue then. I'm not sure about MediaMonkey since I've never really used it though. Have you tried it with WMP?

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by Nicole

I'm starting to wonder if there hasn't been a Windows or WMP update from a couple of month ago causing the syncing issues. My problem is very similar to spider_darth's and I believe MM uses some of the WMP files.

I would say that is very possible.

Originally Posted by Nicole

It's the only thing that makes sense... I was syncing fine for months; nothing else changed.

Except for the Windows Updates right?

[spider_darth]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

It seems to be a software induced issue then. I'm not sure about MediaMonkey since I've never really used it though. Have you tried it with WMP?

The problem is that I can't install wmp in my pc. The xp version (wmp 11) doesn't work on vista and I cannot use the vista upgrade pack to install wmp since the xp version hv to be first installed. But when I try it on another pc with wmp, it works.

I also tried winamp. It works. However, as the bulk of my songs are in asian characters, I need unicode support which winamp unfortunately does not support.

I've also reinstalled Mediamonkey. But the same prob still exists.

Are there other media players which I could use? Or any workarounds to Mediamonkey, WMP or Winamp?

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by spider_darth

The problem is that I can't install wmp in my pc. The xp version (wmp 11) doesn't work on vista and I cannot use the vista upgrade pack to install wmp since the xp version hv to be first installed. But when I try it on another pc with wmp, it works.

I also tried winamp. It works.

Well, I think this basically proves that the issue is software and not with the Zen.

Originally Posted by spider_darth

Are there other media players which I could use? Or any workarounds to Mediamonkey, WMP or Winamp?

I've heard good things about J. River Media Jukebox. Thread here. Another you may want to check out is Songbird.

[spider_darth]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

Well, I think this basically proves that the issue is software and not with the Zen.

Thank you BobbyRS!! I set up Zen with Mediamonkey using this method and it works! I've never thought of doing it as it worked fine previously using my current method of syncing.

And, to clear the air, I found out that winamp supports unicode as well after configuring it.

J. River Media Jukebox and Songbird works as well. Just that I prefer using Mediamonkey due to its tagging capabilities

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by spider_darth

Thank you BobbyRS!!

No problem.

Originally Posted by spider_darth

I set up Zen with Mediamonkey using this method and it works!

Could you correct the link? It doesn't seem to be working correctly.

Good to hear!

[spider_darth]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

Could you correct the link? It doesn't seem to be working correctly.

Here's the link.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.php/MTPZen

It's under 'Specific Device Settings'.

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by spider_darth

Here's the link.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.php/MTPZen

It's under 'Specific Device Settings'.

Thank you sir!

[longshanks]

Hi.
I have just read this thread and there are some helpfull tips on it, being a novice and a new mp3 user, I have a Zen 4GB with a 8 GB sdhc mem card. I have created playlists from the internal memory but cannot workout how to create playlists from the mem card.

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by longshanks

I have created playlists from the internal memory but cannot workout how to create playlists from the mem card.

Sorry, you won't be able to make playlists from song on the SD card; only with songs stored in the internal memory storage. You may want to check out this thread.

[Shalooney]

Hello, I just got a Zen. I don't have any problems creating and transferring playlists to it, but I'm just annoyed that I can't seem to navigate the list. The ABC navigational tool isn't there in the side, unlike in All Tracks or Albums.. So if my playlist is very long, I just have to keep pressing the down button for a while.. Also, I want to be able to view the songs by their file names.. Is there a way to do that?
I had a Zen before and I don't think I had this problem. I dunno what I did with the playlists though..
Please reply!! It's annoying the hell out of me.
Thanks.

[MusicUser]

For those having problems with Zen MX and playlists: it's because of the way the filenames written in m3u files by "modern" programs. There are *gasp* spaces and stuff in there the Zen MX can't handle. Anyhow, Mediamonkey has a script for it but I use Winamp. SO I put one together in VBScript. It should work for all ZenMX+Winamp+Windows users having problems creating and managing playslists.

Open notepad, copy and past what's below (where I say "here's the code"). Save it in your "send to" folder (google it, easy) name it ZenMX Fix.VBS or whatever so long as give it the .vbs extension (notepad will try to default to .txt)

So go ahead and create a playlist on the Zen MX in Winamp. Then go to the device in Windows Explorer(My Computer or whatever you want to call it). Windows will mount your MX as a drive, the letter doesn't matter. Winamp puts the .m3u in the root of (e.g. d:\myplaylist.m3u) not in the "Playlist" folder.

RIGHT click your playlist (in Explorer) go to Send To, select the script. It will create a new playlist with the 8.3 (old style) file names, with 83 appended to the playlist name.

You'll have two playlists on the device, the 83 will work the other will not.

If you change the playlist in Winamp, do it (just right click-> send to) again.

So this PLUS the lack of format compatibility is I suppose why the MX, which is newer, is less expensive on amazon etc than the older version of this player... oh well I don't do much playlist making anyhow.

Here's the code:

' ================================================== ====
' ~~~~~ LONG TO 8.3 FILENAME MP3 PLAYLIST CONVERTER ~~~~
' ================================================== ====
'

' ===============HOW TO USE THIS THING ==================
'
' Only works in Windows
' 1. Add this file to your "Send To" folder (google it if you don't know, it's easy)
' 2. Plug in your Zen MX it will show in Winamp as a usb drive letter (at least for me it does)
' 3. Create your new playlist on the Zen using Winamp
' 4. Open Windows Explorer, go to the drive your Zen shows as
' 5. Find the new playlist (Winamp creates it in the root of the drive for me)
' 5. Right click, send to ZenMX Playlist Fix
' 6. Now the playlist will work on the Zen MX (the one with 83 in the name)



' ===============SOME OPTIONS FOR THE PROGRAM===========

' change the following to FALSE if you don't want to hear about
' missing files in your playlist when the script is done
' missing files are ALWAYS skipped though!!(this could be worked around I guess)

MISSING_FILE_MESSAGE = TRUE



' change this to whatever value if you're doing huge playlists
' the reason I have this is because it seems like anything more
' than 50000 lines would be not a playlist, even though this
' script only runs on .m3u files
' I doubt our players would handle them anyhow

MAX_PLAYLIST_ENTRIES = 50000



'ok why don't we...
DoIt

Sub DoIt()

Set fso=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If fso.FileExists(WScript.Arguments(0)) Then

'check it's a playlist (has .m3u extension at least)
If right(WScript.Arguments(0),3) <> "m3u" Then
MsgBox("Not a playlist file, must have .m3u extension. Aborting!")
Exit Sub
End If


' ok looks good enuf, let's do it then, error handling sux in vbscript so
' we'll make sure along the way things aren't getting out of hand
' like if user hands this script a 500mb file which happens to end in m3u? dunno anywho...

' the existing playlist, the one which a program written in this millenium output
' (winamp, foobar, mediamonkey etc)
sInFile = WScript.Arguments(0)
Set fInFile = fso.GetFile(sInFile )
sDrive = fInFile.Drive
Set tsIn = fInFile.OpenAsTextStream(1)



' Create the new file
sOutFile = fInFile.ParentFolder & "\" & fso.GetBaseName(fInFile.path) & "83" & ".m3u"
Set tsOut = fso.CreateTextFile (sOutFile,true)


do until tsIn.AtEndOfStream or iNumEntries > MAX_PLAYLIST_ENTRIES

sPLEntryIn = tsIn.readline
iNumEntries = iNumEntries + 1

'if a line is rediculously long, this is probably some other kind of file, likely binary
'I'd say abort, even though it had .m3u extension
if len(sPLEntryIn) > 1000 then
MsgBox "This doesn't look like a playlist file, aborting!"
Exit Sub
end if

'somtimes there are remarks which start with a # but noticed my player just lists the playlist entries
'so I'll just output the lines which start with a \
if left(sPLEntryIn,1) = "\" then

On Error Resume Next ' to handle possibility of a missing file
Set fPLEntry = fso.GetFile(sDrive & sPLEntryIn)

If err.number = 53 then ' file not found
err.clear
iNumMissing = iNumMissing + 1
else
sPLEntryOut = fPLEntry.ShortPath
'strip out drive letter
sPLEntryOut = right(sPLEntryOut, len(sPLEntryOut)-2)
tsOut.writeline sPLEntryOut

end if
On Error Goto 0

end if

loop

if iNumMissing > 0 AND MISSING_FILE_MESSAGE then
msgbox "Finished, but " & iNumMissing & " file(s) missing."
end if

tsOut.Close
tsIn.Close


End If

End Sub

[chrisjj.]

> 3. Yes. Just resave, and confirm that you do want to overwrite the existing playlist.

Not quite. One has to reenter the playlist name, and get it exactly right which may not be easy since it is not shown on screen during reentry.

[chrisjj.]

Originally Posted by Nicole

I seem to have a different playlist problem. ... The solution, again, is reformatting the Zen, which takes several hours.

Anyone have any other ideas? This is a huge pain.

I can only say that having tried many programs inc. WMP, MediaMonkey and JR Media Jukebox for uploading tracks with playlists on four ZENs of various firmwares, the result has always been wonkiness of one or another sort, unless like you I first reformat the ZEN. I haven't tried Creative Centrale becuse I cannot find a way to get it to accept external playlists e.g. M3Us.

If anyone knows wether the ZEN MX is better in this regard, I would love to hear.