Rockbox Technical Forums

Support and General Use => Audio Playback, Database and Playlists => Topic started by: saraj on January 07, 2009, 07:30:45 AM

Title: [solved]Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: saraj on January 07, 2009, 07:30:45 AM
First, I say I'm very impressed by Rockbox. Hats off to all you genius programmers!
Yet there's a still small step to deliver me from Steve Jobs. Perhaps a little nudge will do. :)

Artist=Scientific American
Album=Talk-2008
The files and song titles are both named according date(for example:December to November)

Talk-2008.12.31
Talk-2008.12.24
Talk-2008.12.19
Talk-2008.12.10
Talk-2008.12.03
Talk-2008.11.26
Talk-2008.11.19
Talk-2008.11.12
Talk-2008.11.05

The problem is when I browse by Database->Album->Talk-2008, I get the songs sorted like this:

03. Talk-2008.12.03
05. Talk-2008.11.05
10. Talk-2008.12.10
12. Talk-2008.11.12
19. Talk-2008.11.19
19. Talk-2008.12.19
24. Talk-2008.12.24
26. Talk-2008.11.26
31. Talk-2008.12.31

First I thought they were sorted randomly, then I realized they were sorted by the Days not by Months(I leave the Tracknumber Tag blank). The leading number before "Talk" was made by Rockbox.

If I go like Database->Album-><All Tracks>, then the Sorting is totally fine. Yet I have other albums under the same artist, then I have to listen to all the songs under the albums :(.

Is there anyway I could do to sort the songs correctly under a single album? Any advice will be much appreciated.

Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: MarcGuay on January 07, 2009, 10:50:03 AM
The database is quite flexible.  You might find this page useful: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/DataBase
Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: saraj on January 07, 2009, 09:18:37 PM
Thanx, I read about it before I post(always do research first). But I still read the page thoroughly again. It seems I have to tweak the tagnavi.config, right? I sort of understood some part of it. But not being a coder, I'm afraid when come to actually modify the syntax it would end up with a mess configure file which won't function at all and a more frustrated me(yeah those bad memories).

I know the more powerful tool has more "price/expertise" to pay. But I can't dig it too much. So could it act really simple like apple firmware-just clicking "artist"->"album"->songs sorted alphabetly. I wish I won't have to add Tracknumbers in the song tag. Somehow, isn't the Rockbox automatically adding tracknumber by last two digits weird? Is it because I have dots in the filename/title?

Thanks again.

Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: safetydan on January 07, 2009, 10:43:29 PM
This sounds like the tagcache's automagic track number detection misfiring not a problem with tagnavi.conf. Not sure what the workaround would be though.
Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: Llorean on January 08, 2009, 02:34:03 AM
We probably shouldn't have it try to do track number detection. Core Rockbox doesn't, and it shouldn't either. If people want track number sorting, they should add track number tags.
Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: JdGordon on January 08, 2009, 04:29:44 AM
yep... that makes sense.... tagcache/database has pretty silly track number detection (imvqo :p )

what it does is work backwards from the last . in the filename and using the first number it finds... which is exactly what you are seeing. (edit: only the last 2 digits of that number it finds.... so 123 and 23 will both give 23!)

My suggestion is to fiddle with tagnavi.config so your podcasts are listed by "artist" then by filename instead of track number... I dunno how to do that though
Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: saraj on January 09, 2009, 04:31:13 AM
you know, you three are just like three musketeers who just blew away my hope. :(
Anyway, even though I still wanna keep myself away from messing aroud with tagnavi.config, nothing can beat a tenacious cavewoman. As I always say, if you can't do the smart way, you go the blunt way.

So I tried to rename those files, every time I sync the filename and tag_title.
test 1: change the "." to "_", hoping it will fool the detection. -- failed.
test 2: remove all the ".", hoping a continual number will make the detection not only taking the last two digits. -- failed.
test 3: adding words at the end, like Talk-20081126talk -- then again failed. detection still amazingly(I WAS impressed) picked up the Days "26" as the tracknumber.

So, the detection scores 3, me zero.

Adding tracknumber is my last resort, I can use the mp3tag to batch do it. But since it's a serial podcast, the songs will be bloated from hundreds into thousands. How many leading "0" should I put before the numbers. (yeah, I've read the topic about "8, 9, 10, 100, 101..." sorting problem)

I feel so bad since Rockbox really ROCKS. I don't wanna go back, yet this one is bugging me to death.

UPDATE: I think maybe we should think outside the box? But my brain is as solid as a rock now. Really wish you guys would sparkle.
Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: pondlife on January 09, 2009, 06:47:04 AM
I'd think we should remove the "automagic" code anyway, for consistency if nothing else.

pondlife
Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: MarcGuay on January 09, 2009, 06:49:05 AM
If it's any consolation, I think the file browser would list them in chronological order.
Title: Re: Database Sort Order Problem on IPOD NANO1g
Post by: saraj on January 10, 2009, 07:38:37 AM
I really really appreciate all the helps and advice.

yeah, the file browser is Ok. Yet there're some downsides. (sigh).

I'm already feeling a little bit guilty for bothering you guys with this issue which probably isn't big deal for many people.

Anyway, still hoping it will be improved in the next update. :) Gotta say Rockbox IS really powerful. I like it very much!

Edit: Although it may be make me sound like a ass-kisser :), but I still wanna claim that I wouldn't trade my old Nano to any new gen Nano, really. hehe, you get the idea.
============
GREAT NEWS
============
Tonight, I found out I couldn't transfer songs into ipod by iTunes. (it probably already malfunctioned for days, since I had been playing with Rockbox) So I installed it again, this time fully under windows(last time I run the the mac installer on ibook). To my surprise, the problem gone! I couldn't believe it! So I added songs from PC and from Mac to test it, guess what, no last two digits detection at all, actually no leading selfmade tracknumber tag! I'm just too happy  yet so confused. Are you guys really adding the auto-detection function? Anyway if I want sort other songs, I'll surely add tracknumber id tag. So happy with the result. Sorry for the misreport.