Mp3 player - head hurting now...

[Workingman]

No problemo, glad to help....

One thing; I would seriously consider the file system so that you know where everything is for the future. I can make life a hell of a lot easier.

x

[Diflower]

I already had them filed like that
Partly accident, partly I'm a natural filer

[Suff]

Hi Di,

Being slightly anal I read the Amazon blurb at the bottom and it said

Use windows explorer to drag and drop your MP3 files - acts like a flash drive.

Hence don't use WMP to sync it.

I have several methods of syncing the tunes to my machine but it doesn't support playlists of any format. I used to have a creative Zen. I junked the creative software as it could not deal with the number of files I had, it simply took days just to read them. I used media monkey but had to write scripts to fix the file names and I had to write my own playlists in m3u format and fix the paths relative (no drive letter just \this\that\track).

I would make a very simple m3u file (as WM says, simply a list of songs) and then put it on the device. See if it will recognise it and play it. Do you see a playlists directory on the machine with Windows Explorer when you look at the drive letter? If so it may support them.

This is a real minefield and one of the reasons iPods have done so well. Fortunately there is a rise in Android music players and accessories which may resolve the real issue.

I don't mind as I tend to play on shuffle anyway and I bought my two 16GB devices from ebay for £38....

In this field you really do get what you pay for.

[Diflower]

I'm going to have a play with playlists later or tomorrow and see what happens.
They won't be wasted as I've got some cds I can stick them on

[Diflower]

Just thought I'd update this, partly as you've been so helpful WM and partly it may help anyone else who cones along
And if anyone can add anything helpful, please feel free
Btw Suff as mentioned before, no the mp3-player doesn't 'do' m3u.

I re-formatted the mp3 player, since it had on whole albums I didn't want. I also deleted all the albums that I'd ripped from our own cds, as they were in .wma format. Fine for the mp3, not for the stereo system, which only plays .mp3.

So then started all over again...
Didn't need to use Freerip or anything, as you can choose to save in /mp3 format when you rip via WMP. (NB the only problem with the mp3 player and windows media player is if you actually try to sync it and load directly).

I have a lovely list now on the mp3, but not in 'playlists'. The mp3 instructions say this is done by entering the menu while in playback, and adding to playlist - well, I haven't yet been able to access that and anyway it's a stupid faff.
I did as WM suggested, loaded Cds, created a new folder (in Music) and gave it a name, copied the tracks I wanted into that folder, then plugged in the mp3 and copied that folder into its Music file.

It's there and it plays (hoorah!), but it only appears in the 'Int dir' so next I will try dragging it into the album folder.
There is probably a sensible way to get the same list onto a cd but the way I tried didn't work (it might be a duff cd but no way of knowing that). I tried burning it from Music...didn't work. The cd says it has them on, but it won't play.

I've now gone back to WMP, dragged all the tracks I wanted into a burn list, and got them onto a cd from that - but having spent a nice while deciding on the order, it's not playing them in that order at all!
But it is playing them 50 tracks, it's up to no.26 (Jean Genie anyone?), all singy-dancy-do the housework-to type songs - not that I'm doing any of course, I'm 'busy'

[Workingman]

Di, is the Mini mp3 player able to shuffle play the individual tracks in the folder you created and copied?

The reason I ask is that the instructions say nothing about support for user created folders. If it will not shuffle play the tracks it is probably reading your folder as one big track.

If it does support folders and is playing the individual tracks but not allowing playlists it probably means that the tracks have to be in its own root folder. Try moving a few tracks from your folder to root (int dir) and then seeing if a playlist can be created from there.

[Suff]

Hi Di,

Have you tried creating a playlist of one track and then searching for it with Windows explorer when it's connected? Then you could see the format and, potentially, create your own....

[Diflower]

Where's that head-banging smilie

What I can't do is access the playlist. The instructions (and this may just be in the printed, microscopic ones, not the downloaded ones), say to press 'menu' while in playback mode, but I've done that umpteen times and not found it.
But quite a few people have said the buttons aren't as quoted, so it could mean press anything...Oh and the shuffle function is supposedly in the same place

What I've done is fine, it's a playlist but not called a playlist I'm still investigating and will be trying some of your suggestions too.

In the meantime, quite apart from the mp3, we now have 3 Jools Holland & Friends all on one cd, which is great, we've had it on all evening without having to choose/change to anything else (sometimes you just want 'something' on). And without having the mp3 player I honestly hadn't realised quite what you could do, with the pc and CDs/stereo, etc.
So it's all good really

[Workingman]

Di, Suff said it all when he mentioned that you get what you pay for. These companies mix A and B grade components to produce a cloned product. Where they often fail is with the OS or software, you have to work it out for yourself and get it to work for you - as you have discovered. It will often do all the jobs of iProducts if you work at it.

As for PC music, the world is you oyster if you ditch Windows MP and experiment.

There is a lot of free software out there - WinAmp, XMPlay etc., - which will allow you to get better music sounds from a computer than you will get from a CD/DVD player, and allow you to make playlists, CDs, shuffle lists, fade in/out, normalise...

If your sound card supports them, and if you play around a bit, a 5:1 or 7:1 sound system will amaze you.

[Diflower]

Yes I'm sure you get what you pay for, but it was a pressie and much appreciated
And it's fine, now I've found how to get what I want onto it. It plays just fine with a little speaker in the kitchen, and I can take that upstairs with me when I'm sewing.

As for the other stuff - how do I find what sound card I have?
If you have the time and inclination, would you be able to give me an idea of what free software to look at? Given that our stereo plays only mp3 format I'm really enjoying how you can make up your own cds

I got a spindle of 25 for only £4.25 from Tesco since I was pretty sure some would get wasted, so I really don't mind how many I use having a go
Another question would be is there a make that's particularly good?

Oh, and have discovered something else clever - the stereo has shuffle mode when you're playing mp3 cds
See, without the mp3-player I wouldn't have discovered all this, it's a whole new world