Mp3 player - head hurting now...

[Diflower]

I was doing ok. I downloaded a free album from amazon, and got it onto my mp3 player, and have listened to it on a little speaker and on our stereo.
I'd also put a cd of ours onto the pc, and from there to the mp3.
Then I did a cd but chose only certain tracks to rip. Also fine.

Then I thought I'd got clever. I ripped several cds onto the pc, then chose tracks to create a playlist, in windows media player (and called it 'happy'). Plugged in the mp3 and helpfully the pc said 'drag a list to sync', so I dragged the name of the list and clicked start sync.
But when I then went to the mp3, it's actually got all of those albums on, and no list called Happy, as far as I can see.
Anyone any idea what I've done wrong??

[Workingman]

Di, what sort of mp3 player is it and what files does it support - mp3, wav, flac, ogg, mid, cda, wma? Does it support imported m3u or only its own creations?

[Diflower]

This one

The formats are obviously ok as they've loaded, but the list I created hasn't...

[Workingman]

Quite a mixed bag of reviews Di.

It does the main audio formats, mp3 and wma, and a video format, wmv. It does not support imported playlists, m3u, which are nothing more than a text file anyway, so unless it can make its own you are stuck with shuffle play. As it is generation 4 it should do.

I was just off to bed so I'll do some digging for you tomorrow - but not the snow digging - and I'll talk you through getting music on to it if you need help.

[Diflower]

My head's now too full to do any more tonight...
I know the reviews are mixed but a lot of them are very good...and anyway it was a birthday present from Bb and he picked what looked like a good buy for his budget so I'm thrilled with it

I have got music onto it...but for instance it has on its menu 5 playlists - numbered 1-5. All blank, and when you click on one it says 'no file'.
A bit confused as to how the whole cds have gone on, which I didn't ask to happen, but not the simple 20-track playlist I lovingly created (ok, randomly picked tracks just to see if it worked).
Thanks for any help you can offer, I keep saying what I need is someone just sitting here saying 'do this, now do that...' but haven't got anyone. Except Bb, who could say those things but without any clue

[Workingman]

Morning Di,

The tracks you downloaded from the free album will be in mp3 format and I am taking it that the tracks you ripped from your own CDs are in either mp3 or WMA format. I also expect that you can find all the tracks you copied to the mp3 player and listen to them individually, sequentially or on shuffle play.

The playlist is different, it is in m3u format and is basically a text file to tell a player where to find a track - it is little more than a tag (you can see) in a wrapper (you cannot see). The tag part is the track info eg: Beach Boys - Pet Sounds. Track 4. God only Knows; the wrapper contains this track's location and a checksum/digital ID. Your player cannot use this information because it does not support the import of m3u playlists, it uses its own system.

Tech info is impossible to come by as it is a generic make, but it looks as though your player comes with 5 pre-loaded empty playlists (it can read) for you to use. There must be a menu system on the player to help you to do this, though you might have to rummage around a bit.

Hope this helps. Come back when you need more help and I'll have another look-see.

[Diflower]

Thanks so much WM, although I'd kind of worked that out this morning, lying in bed, your explanation
a) makes me feel better that I'd got it about right
and b) I don't think I'd actually done anything wrong although still unsure why it put all the albums on...

I'll have another look later and see if I get anywhere.

Also, is Windows media player ok for doing all this stuff, or is itunes better - both are on the pc.
And if I switched, would that be all right?
I was a bit perplexed by an entry in the windows media player help, which said that any item, once deleted from your device or library, won't sync again. So I've got all these albums on there now, but if I delete any, I won't be able to put them on again??

[Diflower]

Cover your ears...GrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRR!!!!

Guess what I've found? An online instruction manual. Which says 'do not sync with windows media player'...
http://www.asianfonesforum.com/showthre ... ross-style

Ok, so it says I should delete the file windows mp will have made. Erm, not sure how - plug player into pc and click on it??
What do you reckon? Will I break it??

[Workingman]

Windows MP is bad iTunes is worse!. The reason it will not sync, or syncing can cause problems, is down to what I said about playlists. Win MP playlists are in the .WMP format and your player cannot read them. It does not support iTunes.

Reading throught the instructions it looks as though your mp3 player plays.... mp3s, so all your music should be in mp3 format before you put it on the player. The FreeRip software mentioned in the instructions is pretty good. I have used, it along with CDex and EAC, and it does the job. http://www.freerip.com/

Same with video. It only plays .AMV files so they have to be converted first.

As for the stuff you already have on there, and some of it is not readable by the player, I would start again. The player should have some software to allow you to format the public part of memory. Doing that should clear all user added files and leave the player in out-of-the box state.

The player can hold about 4000 tracks. That's not bad! However, if you are going to be putting that many files on from your computer you will probably need to set up a files system on your computer dedicated to it and to music, but using Windows (My Computer/Explorer) instead of Windows MP or iTunes.

Something like this on your C:\ drive:
Di's Music mp3(root folder)
\Soul
\Punk
\Classical (music styles folders)
\Four Tops
\Supremes
\Temptations (groups/bands/singers folders in the styles folders)
\Don't walk away Renee
\Baby I need your lovin' (individual tracks)
If you wanted to find Don't walk away Renee it would be in:
C:\Di's Music mp3\Soul\Four Tops\Don't walk away Renee

Using Windows you can copy and paste these folders or individual files to the mp3 player.

[Diflower]

I think we're getting there

I've deleted the wmp.info file it had created.

The manual says it supports .mp3 and .wma formats, so I've gone into the player via 'computer/removable disk'. All the cds I ripped are .wma format which is fine, and as you said anything from amazon I've done via their mp3 downloader so they're fine too
At the moment don't want any films etc so am ignoring that bit for now.

In a while I will start it playing and so long as everything plays then it may as well all stay on there.
I think I can then create playlists by literally dragging the titles I want into a playlist folder, but will have a play with that later...

Thank you, thank you again
Di
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