Tips related to Database (iPods)

[hhannah]

What would you recommend for the questions below, considering someone that ONLY wants to run Rockbox on a 80GB Video iPod 5.5 Gen? I know it probably depends on the user's interest... but based on your experience, I kindly ask for your advice!

1. Method (sofware) for transfering songs from PC to iPod
2. File naming (for songs)
3. Directory structure for songs
4. External (PC) playlist creation method (software) considering 2 & 3

I just bought an 80GB iPod, am a new Rockbox user, and would like to make things right from the beginning, so I really appreciate your answer! Thanks

[Chronon]

1) I just drag and drop.
2) I tend to use: Disk#-Track# Title
  e.g. 2-01 The Song Remains the Same.mp3
This way the tracks get listed by track number, but grouped by disk.
3) Artist\[Year] - Album\
  e.g. Nirvana\[1991] - Nevermind\
This way the albums get listed in chronological order.
4) Many applications will work just fine.  I often use Winamp, but have considered trying out Foobar2000.

[hhannah]

Thanks Chronon!!! 

[fuzzyhair]

For file organization, I prefer something like

folder_name/initial of artist/artist name/album/songs

[mnhnhyouh]

I keep all my music in a folder called, strangely enough, Music. In that folder I have about 10 folders, grouping the artists by letter.... so it looks something like this...

/Music/ABC/Artist/(year) Album title/01 - Song title.mp3

This lets me quickly get to any artist or album or song. It also groups albums under artist in chronological order (because of the (year) in brackets at the beginning of each album name, and the tracks in the correct order because of the number at the beginning of each track filename.

I use drag and drop, but did use Microsoft's SyncToy for a while to keep the music on my iPod and an extra external HD sync'd with my mastercopy. This provides me with three copies.

I am also anal enough to keep another external HD in another location. I put them together periodically and sync them to provide yet another copy, though it might be a month or two out of date.

h

[hhannah]

The initial for the artist is a good idea, it has to work great. What about compilations, I guess that like in iTunes, you would have a folder dedicated to that. Regarding the album year in that case, I guess you could, depending on the number of compilations from a certain compilation series (like Buddha Bar, Now thats what i call music, etc.) and how you would like to browse them, do:

a) ...C/Compilations/(album year) album title/...
b) ...C/Compilations/Compilation series name/(album year) album title/...
c) ...C/Compilations/Compilation series initial/Compilation series name/(album year) album title/...

[mnhnhyouh]

I have a folder called Various. It only has about 20 albums in it, so browsing isnt too hard. I have another, about the same size, for soundtracks of movies. I guess if you had more than that it might be harder to work with. But your system should work.

h

[GodEater]

Not that is matters really, but my Various Artists folder contains nearly half my music collection =/

I can't really think of a decent way of organising it either.

[hhannah]

Regarding 1)... OK drag & drop is simple and works great, but what about syncing, transfering efficiently only new/changed stuff?

[bascule]

You could try this:

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/RockboxSync

Not that it's much use to you, but I have a modified version of the above app (really a Windows batch file) that I'm happily using regularly and it works a treat, even dealing with my own particular podcast listening/syncing habits. I've never had time to put it on the Wiki, though

[GodEater]

Regarding 1)... OK drag & drop is simple and works great, but what about syncing, transfering efficiently only new/changed stuff?

I use rsync for that. Works like a charm.