Unofficial but very helpful iPod/iTunes/MediaMonkey Hints

[Wotan]

Any news on auto-conversion to AAC for syncing with an iPod? I have just set up sync with a new 8Gb nano. Worked perfectly but I'd like to sync my FLAC library to AAC on the iPod rather than MP3s.

The AAC input plugin also works fine so MM can play AACs but I can't auto-convert to AACs from anything else. I found an output plugin for winamp http://www.rarewares.org/aac-encoders.php but either it doesn't work or can't work or MM doesn't know how to apply it. Any ideas?

Simon

Simon, why bother with AAC at all? AAC is just Apple's own flavor of MP3, and has no advantage whatsoever over plain vanilla MP3. All iPods play MP3's just fine, as long as you don't exceed around 128 bitrate. I found out that 192 bitrate MP3's won't play at all, even though they play just fine on my Samsung MP3 player. The vaunted iPods can't handle it.

So if you keep to MP3 format as much as possible with your iPod, you won't get stung with incompatibilities down the road. All players and all PC's/MAC's play MP3. Not so with AAC.

[Marquis]

ok, I had previously posted a comment about syncing ratings modyfied on ipod back to the ratings for the files in the library... it works well for me on my ipod classic 160 gig. Just make sure you you got ipod syncing set to "auto-synchronize". On the toolbar, click on the arrow to show the submenu for the ipod device, and choose auto-synchronize.

Now, my next concern is this:

I use auto-playlists in MM to group songs together using a plethora of tags. For example:

Genre: house
Rating >= ***
include: comment CONTAINS partymix
include: comment DOSEN'T CONTAIN skip

this way, when I have certain songs, in most cases different mixes of the same song that I don't want in my party playlist they don't show up.

Here is my question:

When I change tags in my songs my library playlists will change accordingly, however when I auto-sync, changes are not reflected on my ipod.

Is there anything I must do to get this to work properly?

Thanks.

[drjboulder]

When I change tags in my songs my library playlists will change accordingly, however when I auto-sync, changes are not reflected on my ipod.

Is there anything I must do to get this to work properly?

Thanks.

Guess that I will ask the obvious question...
Do you have those playlists checked in your auto-synch options, under the playlists tab?

[guest]

How do i do this part? What is the Device letter? Device Label? or the USB Device ID?

[Marquis]

When I change tags in my songs my library playlists will change accordingly, however when I auto-sync, changes are not reflected on my ipod.

Is there anything I must do to get this to work properly?

Thanks.

Guess that I will ask the obvious question...
Do you have those playlists checked in your auto-synch options, under the playlists tab?

OMG, I never even saw that option. Must have missed a step. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[drjboulder]

When I change tags in my songs my library playlists will change accordingly, however when I auto-sync, changes are not reflected on my ipod.

Is there anything I must do to get this to work properly?

Thanks.

Guess that I will ask the obvious question...
Do you have those playlists checked in your auto-synch options, under the playlists tab?

OMG, I never even saw that option. Must have missed a step. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Glad that I could help.

[Andy2008]

15. Click on the iPod icon in the right window pane of Media Monkey. Browse and see if it looks like you iPod has the stuff on it you really want, and make sure that you didn't end up with duplicates 'two copies of everything'. If you did get two copies of 'everything'...then you need to sync again, and this time let the Monkey 'delete' things that are not in the sync list.

I refer to point 15. i get the 2 copies of everything senario. this is not what i want to happen. MM is trying to get rid of my playcount and lastplayed info which is attached to the original files on the ipod. I do not wish to sync again as i know when it is asking to delete files from the ipod, it is wanting to delete the tracks with the info on them and leave me with the 'new' mp3s that do not contain this info.


what am i doing wrong that is stopping the playcount and lastplayed info being transfered to the files on the pc, and therefore mirroring what i have on the ipod?

hope this makes sense. please help, its driving me nuts.

[Guest]

[/quote]

Simon, why bother with AAC at all? AAC is just Apple's own flavor of MP3, and has no advantage whatsoever over plain vanilla MP3. All iPods play MP3's just fine, as long as you don't exceed around 128 bitrate. I found out that 192 bitrate MP3's won't play at all, even though they play just fine on my Samsung MP3 player. The vaunted iPods can't handle it.

So if you keep to MP3 format as much as possible with your iPod, you won't get stung with incompatibilities down the road. All players and all PC's/MAC's play MP3. Not so with AAC.[/quote]

Man you must not have used AAC much. In equal size files I'll take Nero or Itunes AAC vbr any day over even lame MP3. I'd normally agree that Itunes isn't the best but not when you compare AAC to Mp3. Check out any of the audio forums, there are many blind tests proving this. Try out the Nero AAC encoder, I think you'll like it. I use it and ogg on my Rockboxed Nano and they both rock.

Nonreality

[stell81]

I previously lost my ipod and just purchased a new one. However, I am unable to sync my new ipod with my current version of itunes. Now, I tried to update my itunes (as much as I hate because it slows down my computer so much) and am having trouble properly installing it. At this point, I have given up dealing with itunes and am happy to try out Media Monkey. I have had this program for a few months, mostly for ripping cds and unzipping RAR file, but now I would like to use it to sync music with my ipod. So the question is.... Since I am currently unable to sync my ipod to my current itunes in order to disable any and all auto-mount and auto-sync functions, what other option do I have to getting around this first step and be able to sync my ipod with MM? I previously sync'd it, and even transferred music, but the ipod didn’t recognize anything and stated it hade no music. Can I just uninstall Itunes? I am so sick of Itunes, I actually would prefer.

Please help. Thanks!

[sannyD]

How do I get this thing to play music? It has music, but none of it plays or is listed in the ipod. It says there is 99gb left on it. This thing sucks so far. This classic is a classic piece of shit. I'm so frustrated. Apple are a bunch of assholes. i run windows 2000 and I can't add the latest itunes. So I'm screwed there. Mediamonky seems to load some things onto the ipod but I can't play em. For the amount of money this cost, it's a rip off. There's no freedom to load it with what you want.

[Nonreality]

How do I get this thing to play music? It has music, but none of it plays or is listed in the ipod. It says there is 99gb left on it. This thing sucks so far. This classic is a classic piece of shit. I'm so frustrated. Apple are a bunch of assholes. i run windows 2000 and I can't add the latest itunes. So I'm screwed there. Mediamonky seems to load some things onto the ipod but I can't play em. For the amount of money this cost, it's a rip off. There's no freedom to load it with what you want.

Do you have it set to use Itunes format for your Ipod. That has to be set unless you are running Rockbox which I don't think works on yours. Make sure that is checked in the options or it may be copying music to your Ipod but it won't be able to see it.

[logley]

I've just got a new 8Gb Nano.

I transfered 4 Albums + Covers to it using MM3, the iPod then shows it's got 40Mb of 'Other' data. I added another ~10 Albums, using MM3. The 'Other' data then grew to around 130Mb.

I reset the iPod and then used iTunes to sync around 14 albums to the iPod, this time the 'Other' data was only around 20Mb.

It appears that for every album transfered using MM3, you get approx. 10Mb of 'Other' Data on the iPod per album, whereas if you use iTune you get around 0.1mb per album.

Is MM3 writing badly to the iPod database, or is this a design feature of MM3???

Regards

Lee

[Kevinino]

Is MM3 writing badly to the iPod database, or is this a design feature of MM3???

Did you have the force i-tunes folder style option selected. Which is at:

tools->options->Portable/Audio Devices->ipod->configure->Device Configuration

[Wotan]

Simon, why bother with AAC at all? AAC is just Apple's own flavor of MP3, and has no advantage whatsoever over plain vanilla MP3. All iPods play MP3's just fine, as long as you don't exceed around 128 bitrate. I found out that 192 bitrate MP3's won't play at all, even though they play just fine on my Samsung MP3 player. The vaunted iPods can't handle it.

So if you keep to MP3 format as much as possible with your iPod, you won't get stung with incompatibilities down the road. All players and all PC's/MAC's play MP3. Not so with AAC.

Man you must not have used AAC much. In equal size files I'll take Nero or Itunes AAC vbr any day over even lame MP3. I'd normally agree that Itunes isn't the best but not when you compare AAC to Mp3. Check out any of the audio forums, there are many blind tests proving this. Try out the Nero AAC encoder, I think you'll like it. I use it and ogg on my Rockboxed Nano and they both rock.

Nonreality

Yes, I'll have to admit that I avoid AAC like the plague, for the reasons I've mentioned above. And yes, MP3 is not my preferred format, but Apple doesn't support anything but MP3, AAC, and WAV if I recall. So given those 3 choices, I'll go for MP3. I'd be willing to try AAC if there was an AAC output plugin for MM. No way am I going back to iTunes.

I love OGG, as you mentioned, and I'd install Rockbox in a heartbeat, but it may be years before Rockbox is ported over to the 2nd and 3rd gen Nano's.

So we're back to Simon's question: is there an AAC output plugin that will work with MM?

[nohitter151]

So we're back to Simon's question: is there an AAC output plugin that will work with MM?

MM3 supports .aac natively.