Why Are Songs Identified With Four Letters Instead of Their Name?

[albertojedi]

First, let me thank Rockbox developers for their great effort and work.  They are amazing!!

After entering the Playlist menu in the Context Menu I try to see the names of the songs in the current playlist with the "View Current Playlist Option".  However, each song is identified by four letters instead of their track name.  This prevent me from knowing exactly which songs are on that playlist or targeting an specific song, unless I play each one, which is a real pain.  Is there any option for changing this nomenclature into the real song names?

[LambdaCalculus]

Four letters? Let me guess... you're using an iPod, am I correct?

You should tell us what DAP you're using so we know how to help you out.

[albertojedi]

Thanks and apologies.  Yes, it is an Ipod 5.5 (30 gb video version).

[LambdaCalculus]

Ahh, so you're quite possibly looking at the obfuscation of your filenames as so thoughtfully performed by iTunes.

Are all of your tunes tagged properly with their ID3 information?

[albertojedi]

The "thing" is happening on both my iPod Nano (1 GB first generation and iPod Video 30 Gb).  I use Roxio Easy DVD Creator 9 for tagging and embedding the songs names.  No problem displaying the names with Rockbox WSP or when browsing them with the database menu.  Just happens when trying to see them with the "View Current Playlist" option.  Songs are identified somewhat like: GGZJ, GNTW, IFLG, and so on.

Thanks.

[ColdSphinx]

I think you're syncing your DAPs with iTunes and iTunes always gives such cryptic names to the songs on the players. And if you look on the playlist you see this names instead of the tags. If you browse with fileview you can also find these mysic 4 letter names, because thats caused by iTunes and not by rockbox.

[albertojedi]

Hmmm... but why this does not happen when browsing with the Database Menu or when playing the songs with the WSP?

Is there any alternative aside of iTunes to sync song songs to an iPod?

[bluebrother]

Hmmm... but why this does not happen when browsing with the Database Menu or when playing the songs with the WSP?

I don't know what WSP is off the top of my head but the database uses the files' tags for display. So you don't see the real filenames in that case.

Is there any alternative aside of iTunes to sync song songs to an iPod?

The apple firmware needs those obfuscated filenames due to length restrictions. This has nothing to do with Rockbox and if you want to overcome that limitation you might need a hacked AppleOS -- but I have no idea if such a thing exists.

Use the database or stop using AppleOS / Itunes for syncing. Then you can sync using real filenames.

[GodEater]

I don't know what WSP is off the top of my head

WSP = WPS methinks.

Same answer applies though.

[albertojedi]

You are right GodEater, thanks

[robin0800]

Is there any alternative aside of iTunes to sync song songs to an iPod?

If using windows XP
I find Sync Toy from microsoft very quick,fast and free

[albertojedi]

Interesting Robin.  Do I have to erase everything stored on the iPod before re-synchronizing all the music?  

[Gamesoul Master]

You could simply open up a program like MP3Tag, point it at your main music directory (with the "Subdirectories?" option on if you have music deeper in folders), and use the option to rename all the songs from their tags. Of course, to avoid having to do it more than once, you should stop using iTunes and follow the advice given to you. Shouldn't have to erase anything either.

I do believe Winamp has support for the iPod these days, in terms of syncing. I don't know if it auto-renames songs or not though.

[dip]

All the above hints are helpful and correct but, as database only user, in my opinion rockbox should have an option whether in the playlist viewer the file names or the tags, e.g. in a format like "title (artist)", should be displayed. As database only user I would never want to see the file name and if someone is using iTunes for synchronising than he would even end up with the totally unusuable 4-letter file names.

There was previoulsy a patch in flyspray (http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/6084) which was rejected and closed but which I still use in amended form since without the playlist viewer is really not usuable to me. With this patch not the file name but the tag is shown in the playlist viewer. Hower, this patch has some drawbacks and there should probably a complete new solution developed for this problem.

Since there is already an option whether the whole path or only the file name without path is shown in the playlist viewer, I (and I guess all database users) would really appreciate if there was a third option to use the tags instead of the file names. Either a fixed format could be used like "title (artist)" or, as long-term objective a desired display format could be specified in the options (or in a config file) like it is possible for the wps.

[GodEater]

Well if you found a previous patch, then you've found the tracker - and that's where feature requests like this go.