ML_SONY

[nickzeff]

Otiasj,

The track number doesn't seem to be a set thing in the db, since it changes depending on what you are playing at the time.

To explain -

When I use Album view on the device, and choose, say, the album "Guero" by Beck, the track number displayed for the tracks are relative to how many songs are in that album. So the song E-Pro would show 1/11.

If I now choose Track view (which shows all tracks on the device in alphabetical order) and then play E-Pro again, the track number has changed to something like 347/4128.

So the track number is dynamic on the playing context.

So perhaps you don't need to get a track number, you need to see in Winamp what the user is playing in the current playlist, and calculate the track number from that.

Cheers

Edited April 26, 2006 by nickzeff

[otiasj]

I don't think the "correct" track number is used on the device.

meaning if you send a few songs from an album, then the rest of it the order will be the order in which you sent the tracks...

It's kind of stupid because if you start by sending a playlist then send a whole album the track order will be wrong...

So in winamp I have 2 choices :

-read the track tag from the file, in this case ml_sony won't be fully compatible with mp3fm,

-create the track number = track sent order

[bergmarmot]

Hi Otiasj,

I tried following:

First I send a file from an album with track nr 2

Then pressed apply

Second I send from the same album track nr 1

Then pressed apply

After I unplugged the device and went into the album mode I saw the follwing sequence order:

Track 2

Track 1

So as you already described, the trach order of an album is the order in which they were send!

EDIT:

I tried the same with SonicStage and this program is sending the track nr to the device. Means that sequence in device is based on Track nr and not on sending order

Edited April 26, 2006 by bergmarmot

[otiasj]

Thank you bergmarmot,

this is sooo lame

[bergmarmot]

No Problem.

Another obervation:

I opened MP3FM and deleted the two tracks again. No I dragged and dropped the 2 track from MS Explorer. The track are added at the end of the Album. So, that is what also happens when the WinAMP is transferring the files I assume. Now the interesting part . You can drag and drop the transferred file (song) to another position in the album. This means MP3FM is able to rearrange the track nr. So I assume we need a procedure in the WinAMP Plugin that is re-arranging the track nr information of the edited albums based on track nr information available in the WinAMP database.

NOTE: I moved in MP3FM the 1st file (song) in the middle of the album list. Then I opened SonicStage and saw that the same song was not on the Second place ?!? Closing SonicStage and Opening MP3FM again the file was on the position where I dropped it ! Checking the album on the device itself showed me the SonicStage Sequence, meaning that the song was on the second position and not on the position where I dropped it.

[otiasj]

I am planning on doing something smart ^-^

meaning the tracks will be sorted by their track numbers, one draw back is that it probably wont be compatible with anything else than ml_sony.

The order in winamp or the transfert order will not matter.

When selecting an album on the device the tracks will be ordered by track number.

I will probably do the same with all tracks/all genre etc...

next release will take a lot of time

[nickzeff]

Otiasj,

I think you've made the right decision there! Don't compromise by making your plugin backwards compatible with inferior Sony software.

I'm guessing you're going to keep your own Winamp db somewhere containing all the extra information which the device doesn't store?!!

Good luck with it all!

Edited April 26, 2006 by nickzeff

[knuckledragger]

Otiasj,

first of all: thanks for the hard work. It is VERY much appreciated. Sonicstage is worthless, and this is proving to be quite the alternative.

Everything is going pretty okay, just one small problem. Every other 256 .OMAs a new folder is created, right? Well, Winamp crashes after the 256th object. I have to remove the non-transferred files from the database, and re-transfer them. The folder (10F0x) is then created without any problems. A possible solution would be to manually create those folders. I'll try that.

Edited April 26, 2006 by knuckledragger

[Guest Stuge]

It is VERY much appreciated. Sonicstage is worthless, and this is proving to be quite the alternative.

Did you try to use SonicStage ver3.4 ?..I didn`t find SonicStage worthless at all..

[knuckledragger]

Did you try to use SonicStage ver3.4 ?..I didn`t find SonicStage worthless at all..

Yeah. It crashes when I try to import some mp3s (around 30% of my collection).

Manually creating 10F0x folders seems to work, for now. Just copied 383 files without problems. The weird thing is, I have to restart winamp before I can transfer anything to my NWHD5 again: if I click on "Apply All", the database just vanishes. Maybe a reload database option would be the solution?

Edited April 26, 2006 by knuckledragger

[Auke]

Winamp workes from the harddisk of my HD-3. did not check yet if it works also on a other computer.

I have never worked before with the database of winamp so i have a few questions about winamp. I hope that is not a problem.

-I miss a drag and drop function. So drag numbers from my local media to Sony Walkman

-I miss a Genre selection (like itunes). Searched internet a lot for last night, It is a request of a lot of people. But i have not found a solution.

-I dont know how i can select from one artist one album (when i have more albums of that artist). But than whith CTRL button prest. So that i can select a lot of different artist/albums in one time

I have some more questions, but i have to go to my work right now....

Bye

[Auke]

I have found a way to use drag and drop. It is not ideal. but is works. (EDIT: does not work)

you need te plugin: Dynamic Library

With that plugin you can drag & drop to a playlist. That playlist can be transferred to Sony Walkman.

Another benefit of Dynamic Library is that you see the files as if it was in Windows Explorer.

Hmmm i dont know what now happens. My player is behaving very strange. Its creating a database very very slowly. It also does not connecting to my computer anymore. I will try to restart my computer....

-Ok i have disconnect the battery of the NW-3 (switch). The player connected after that whith te computer. There where 7911 03GINF.... .DAT files. I deleted them start over again... The player works again... PFffff

-Ok i tried i once again with only 10 songs. The same happens. And now i had 500 .DAT files. A database on the player was not reconized. I deleted all DAT en only kept 04CNTINF.DAT. Put a few songs again on the player the 'normal' way. Its OK again.

HMMM its nice that this plugin is getting made, very very nice. But i think that the way MP3filemanager works is better for me. Only MP3filemanager has 2 annoying things. 1: No alfabettic order 2: You can not select more songs while transferring...

Edited April 26, 2006 by Auke

[otiasj]

Hello Everyone!

knuckledragger:

Thank you for the bug report, Indeed I have not fully tested sending 256+ files,

Has you said it's a problem of creating the directory. I will correct that asap

Auke:

Drag and drop will be available for the plugin once I find the time ;-) you will be able to drop mp3 or m3u files

--

if you are new to winamp here are the plugins I use:

- Album list ( to get a full screen of albums covers you can select from)

- toaster (to popup the name and cover of the song when playing)

- Wombat share (to listen to music from work)

- leoslyrics(to get the lyrics automaticaly)

Edited April 27, 2006 by otiasj

[muso]

Sorry if I missed this, Otiasj, just a quick one:

What's your build environment used for the source? Visual Studio?

I'd like to have a play! (I'm rubbish so probably won't provide you any useful help, just interested)

Thanks

Jon

[otiasj]

As said earlier in the thread ;-)

visual studio 6

[muso]

Eek, sorry. Still, I have now learned to tie my own shoelaces!

[otiasj]

Small update :

The all album features works but create other problems :

So you browse to your album menu and you have "all albums" available.

But now if you go to the all track menu you will get every track listed twice and unfortunately there is nothing I can do about that

So I am thinking of a new solution I will add an option in the configuration panel, to automatically create an "all album" "all artist" and "all genre" playlist.

Another thing : the albums are now ordered by track number :-)

Finally I am having trouble with the playlists : it works fine on my NWA1000 but there is no playlist option on my NWE505...

Indeed for the NWE505 when creating a playlist on sonicstage, the only thing it does is create a list of songs and rename the album tag to the playlist name.

That is why if you transfert 3 songs then a playlist with the same 3 songs you will get 6 files on the device (for E505 only?)

So for now only limited playlist support...

[f1rick]

The walkmans that support playlists are the HD5 onwards. The HD1,2,3 and flash players up to the 505 to my knowledge just copied over duplicates of the songs and made a new album. This was the main reason I had not bought a walkman, until the HD5! Someone correct me if I am wrong? Great work on the plugin :-).

[Guest Stuge]

My HD3 & E505 does support groups or playlist .

[otiasj]

Stuge: Are you sure that the files don't get copied twice?

Personnaly I have tried on my E505 and ss3.4

Each time I send a new playlist all the files in the playlist are resent even if the files are already present on the player...

As I said earlier I send 3 files. Then I send a playlist containing the same 3 files. I go to the OMGAUDIO/10F00/ directory, I have 6 files (twice the same files)

On NWA1000 + connectplayer with the same operation I get 3 files + 1 playlist as expected

[Guest Stuge]

Stuge: Are you sure that the files don't get copied twice?

Personnaly I have tried on my E505 and ss3.4

Each time I send a new playlist all the files in the playlist are resent even if the files are already present on the player...

Not sure what are you saying but same Playlist is not copied again & again ..until is i do that manually.

I don`t use Auto transfer ..

Edit #1->Do you have the mp3 as well as Atracfile of same song in SonicStage ??

Also ,I just checked my E505 & HD3 folder no double files of the same playlist .

[otiasj]

No I don't use auto transfert either

Do this:

1) choose 3 files in ss and send them to the device

2) choose the same 3 files and create a playlist in ss

3) send the playlist from ss to your device

4) check how many files you have on your device

Anyway maybe I am doing something wrong I don't know...

Tell me how you do it if there is another way plz!

:-)

[Guest Stuge]

No I don't use auto transfert either

Do this:

1) choose 3 files in ss and send them to the device

2) choose the same 3 files and create a playlist in ss

3) send the playlist from ss to your device

4) check how many files you have on your device

Anyway maybe I am doing something wrong I don't know...

Tell me how you do it if there is another way plz!

:-)

In that case you will definately have double files copied onto the device b`coz you asked SonicStage to transfer those files ..Basically i never cared about this b`coz it`s not annoying for me .

But i think i understand you what you mean .

[otiasj]

Well I think It's a little annoying especially for small device like the E505. you don't have a lot of memory so having twice the same song just to have some playlist seems like a waste of space

Anyway I will try another solution for those player

[choccieman]

Hi, just found what seems to be a bug. I've just updated to the latest version and now whilst I was ok transferring a bunch of stuff initially, whenever I try and add to it it just seems to disconnect the player (in winamp still lists the used/free space at the bottom but 0 artists and 0 albums).

I guess the db could've got corrupt so I'll try removing everything and doing it again this afternoon (I'm using an NW3000 btw).

Keep up the excellent work, anything is better than ss (which couldnt index my mp3 collection), or connect which takes ages to transfer stuff

[choccieman]

Just to confirm (deleted everything and tried again to be sure). First time putting tracks onto it is fine, but if you disconnect and then reconnect the player (and restart winamp), sending new tracks just resets the artists and albums list to 0 (nothing appears to change on the player itself).

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Ficklefinger]

Hi everyone,

I have been following his thread for some time but felt unable to assist in any way due to my lack of knowledge. However I am aware of what you are trying to achieve and I applaud you.

I have tried your plug in for winamp 5.21 but could not get it to work. I have a sony nwa1000. It recognised my mp3 player as a device but I could not figure out how to get any tunes onto it. Most of the talk on this thread is assuming a technical knowledge of this stuff which I do not have. Perhaps a more basic instruction manual would help idiots like me. I emptied my mp3 player using Connect (the very latest version) but could not get any tunes onto my device using ML_SONY.

Thanks in advance

[otiasj]

Hello everyone,

choccieman: Sometimes the db get's corrupted I am trying to find out why at the moment. Apparently the new version seems to be less stable than the first when it comes to reading the db.

I will post a fix as soon as I can.

Ficklefinger: Just go to your media library,

select the files you want to send to your device,

right click on one

select send to then the name of your device,

Then go to your device and click the apply button (bottom right corner)

[wisvawa]

Hi otiasj,

GREAT WORK!!!

Thanks a lot! Your work is very helpful.

One of the best tools I found, ever!

(Sonic Satge is really boring)

I had a few difficulties to get it running (quite a long thread), but at least it works perfect!

Greetings from Mainz (Germany).

[Heinz343]

Really good stuff otiasj!

I hoped i could find somewhere a decent software to use my walkman even since i first installed connect, and your plugin is the best, thank for your hard work!

Anyway i report some kind of a bug i think... it happens when i try to transfer a playlist (not necessary a .m3u, the ones winamp stores in his db): the files are transfered correctly, but after the last file transfer the plugin writes loads of DATs files on the devices, all blank it seems(nearly 10000 before i ended the process). Then the files are unreadable and i need to cancel all OMGAUDIO.

The odd thing is that if i transfer the same files selecting them in the main ML window, using audio search, they are OK!

[otiasj]

Hello everyone!

Next release should be available soon :

It will add playlist support (hopefully if I can find the bug)

for the hdd devices only...

drag and drop should also work now

The atracforum administrator contacted me and they will create a forum for ml_sony very soon :-)

edit:

Wohoo received my first donation today!

thanks a lot!

Edited May 2, 2006 by otiasj

[Guest Stuge]

I`m wating for the next release ..I hope it will not crash .

[knuckledragger]

Hi Otiasj,

thanks again for the hard work. Do you have any idea if the database issues are fixed? Because I don't feel like re-transferring 3000+ files if I run into the same problems

Edited May 2, 2006 by knuckledragger

[otiasj]

hi knuckledragger, hi stuge:

I am working on the crash issue.

However since the track numbers are not stored on your device (if you used MP3 file manager), the tracks number might be wrong.

The tracks number will be equal to the order in which you transfert your song to the device.

So if you added whole albums at the same time you should not have any problems.

seeya

[choccieman]

Hi again,

I just transferred a whole bunch of tracks (all whole albums) - I'm using ratings in winamp so it's easy for me to re-transfer the songs when I want to. Found that some tracks were put onto the player as track number 999, also the player would often report being unable to play a track (please connect compatible software blah blah). I thought it might be bad tags but can't see anything obvious in the files affected, unless perhaps the transfer went 'funny' after hitting a file or files that do have bad tags but I haven't yet found them.

I re-tried after making sure track number was set for every file but this doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Roll on new version

[Heinz343]

Hi again,

I just transferred a whole bunch of tracks (all whole albums) - I'm using ratings in winamp so it's easy for me to re-transfer the songs when I want to. Found that some tracks were put onto the player as track number 999, also the player would often report being unable to play a track (please connect compatible software blah blah). I thought it might be bad tags but can't see anything obvious in the files affected, unless perhaps the transfer went 'funny' after hitting a file or files that do have bad tags but I haven't yet found them.

I re-tried after making sure track number was set for every file but this doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Roll on new version

I've had the same problem with some songs. I've checked them using "View file info" in winamp, many are VBR. The other have strange bitrate, like 193 or 175, and in the same album each song has a different bitrate. I believe they are too VBR, but it's not written in the info window.

Good job on 1.02!

[monkeychild]

Will there be a way of transferring music from the NWA-3000 before the modification of the file structures??? I ask this as I have 13GB of music most of this is not in my SS music library

[otiasj]

Hello Everyone

The new release is available at source forge

This version (1.0.2) add :

-playlist support (for hdd devices)

-drag & drop on the window

-bug corrected : 256+ file directory

-bug corrected : track numbers for MP3FM users

-others small bugs...

Some files with strange frame header are not supported yet, I will correct that asap

Enjoy!

[bergmarmot]

Hi Otiasj,

I was looking forward to this release and as soon as I saw it was released I installed it. There is only one problem. It is crashing my winamp again. As soon as I select the device it crashes.

Error:

AppName: winamp.exe AppVer: 5.2.1.497 ModName: kernel32.dll

ModVer: 5.1.2600.1560 Offset: 0001a6d3

I hope you can use this info to solve the problem. If you need any further information then please dont hesitate to ask for it!

Cheers

[otiasj]

Hi bergmarmot,

Can you send me the log file : c:\ml_sony.log ?

thank you