Revealed: m3u Playlists in MSC/UMS mode do work...

[robdean]

After finding no answer to my struggle with self-edited m3u playlists on the iAudio 9 here on this forum, and not wanting to bother with 'MTP mode', I've now figured it out.

The iAudio 9 (and I guess iAudio 10) are a bit fussy about m3u playlists, but they can be made to work fine.

The iAudio 9 seems to insist on elements of the 'Extended' m3u format, so just a list of files won't work.

All you seem to need to do though is to start each playlist with the line:
#EXTM3U
then, before every line which lists an mp3 insert the following line:
#EXTINF:

Here's a two track example which works on my player:
===============================
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:
\Music\Robin Trower\1974 Bridge of Sighs 320\01 Day of the Eagle.mp3
#EXTINF:
\Music\Robin Trower\1974 Bridge of Sighs 320\02 Bridge of Sighs.mp3
===============================

I've been creating the playlists with a full file path (minus the drive letter). These work wherever you put them in the 'Music' Directory.

I found free software called 'Playlist Creator' (made by 'Oddgravity') which automates playlist creation and can be used to create playlists right on the player itself when it's connected to a PC (and you can drag'n'drop the mp3s). Sadly it's PC only. I went into the 'Playlist Creator' setup and set it to use 'full path minus drive-letter' when creating playlists. The program adds additional data to each "#EXTINF:" line but this seems to be ignored by the iAudio 9 and not to be required by it.

An example of the full Extended m3u syntax is as follows:
===============================
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:300,1974 Bridge of Sighs - 1 - Day of the Eagle
\Music\Robin Trower\1974 Bridge of Sighs 320\01 Day of the Eagle.mp3
#EXTINF:301,1974 Bridge of Sighs - 2 - Bridge of Sighs
\Music\Robin Trower\1974 Bridge of Sighs 320\02 Bridge of Sighs.mp3
===============================
The '#EXTINF:' line apparently consists of the track duration in seconds, followed by a text string of track data after a comma. That's data which some players (but not this Cowon) might require, or possibly use instead of ID3 data.

Peace y'all!

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