Confused - iPod 5G Video (30Gig) & shuffle - Files vs Database

[brain21]

OK, I copied all of my songs off of my ipod, converted it to FAT32, installed rockbox, etc. and all seems to be well.  I am trying to decide whether I'll use the File mode or DB mode.  I copied several albums to the iPod via iTunes, and some via the Mac Finder (as if it were a portable drive).

My understanding/experience is this:

If you copy via iTunes, you can play those files via file mode, but it's a pita since you have to go into your ipod_control directory and look at the Fxx directories and find the MP3s, which no longer have the long dcescriptive titles, and seem to be scattered about w/o rhyme or reason.  IOW, that's useless.  In file mode you wnat to browse the songs that you copied manually, and that's it.  

If you use DB mode, when you update or initialize the DB, it will only find the files that you added via iTunes (I guess the DB only looks in the ipod_control dir. and it's subdirs?).  It certainly didn't find the files that I had added  using the Finder.

SO the problem here is the shuffle function.  With the original Apple FW I often put it on shuffle and just had it shuffle my whole iPod.  This is how I used it 90% of the time.  W/ DB mode I can pull up the menu where I can select to view via artist, album, genre, etc.  One of the options is All Songs.  If I select thins, and use the shuffle mode, it shuffles ALL of the songs on the iPod.  Good!

I can't seem to get such an option in File Mode.  Say I have my directories like so:

(Root)
-Music (dir)
--Artist (dir)
---Album (dir)
----songs (mp3 files)

When I put it in shuffle mode, I have to drill down to the songs, and I can only shuffle those.  IOW, using the above file hierarchy, I can only shuffle songs within a single album.  There doesn't seem to be an All Songs option like in the DB mode.  I can only shuffle files w/i the current directory.  :-(

Is there a way around this?  I would much rather use File Mode, but I want to be able to shuffle all of those songs that I copied to the iPod.  Maybe the music needs to be in a special directory or have a special directory structure for this to work?  I assume that when I update or reinitialize the DB there is no way for it to find the files that I copied to the iPod w/o iTunes is there?

OK, I am also confused about the Repeat modes.  I have read some of the explanations after searching the forums, but I am still not clear.  For the repeat mode we have the following options:

off
all
one
shuffle
A-B

It seems like "one" just repeats the same song over and over.  How do the others differ?  

My personal preference is to never have the songs repeat until I turn shuffle of and then on again (in which case the list would start over).

Otherwise, VERY cool app!

Thanks,

Brain21

[Llorean]

1) The database will find all songs on the iPod. Try reinitializing it.
2) To shuffle all songs on the iPod, you must use the playlist creating functionality, with recursively insertion enabled. This is described in the manual.
3) The repeat options are also described in the manual.

[brain21]

1) The database will find all songs on the iPod. Try reinitializing it.
2) To shuffle all songs on the iPod, you must use the playlist creating functionality, with recursively insertion enabled. This is described in the manual.
3) The repeat options are also described in the manual.

1) I'll try again.  I tried twice and rebooted, but it only seemed to find the iTunes-added ones.  I'll just power it off and on and try.  Thanks.
2) Aha!  That's 2 sentences in the entire manual.  I missed it, and wouldn't have known what to search for.  Thanks.
3) Reread the shuffle options.  Makes sense.  Not sure why when I read (admittedly glanced) it didn't quite make total sense.  

Thanks for the help!

Brain21

[Febs]

2) Aha!  That's 2 sentences in the entire manual.  I missed it, and wouldn't have known what to search for.  Thanks.

Well, to be fair, those two sentence are in the section of the manual that describe the "Shuffle," option, which I think is where you would logically expect them to be.  But if you have any suggestions for how to make that part of the manual more clear, please let us know.  We're always looking to improve the documentation.