What is the best combination of Player and Ipod (5thG) & Rockbox

[Touelmeris]

Hello,

I am new to rockbox find it impressive. Like many here would not mind getting rid of Itunes. In particular I am fed up with Itunes hiding the files in the Ipod, messing with my folders, and not being able to handle many formats.

I would like to use Rockbow in conjunction with a PC based player such as Winamp for instance. I want to be able to handle the library from the PC, use podcast etc and then transfer it easily to the PC using the player

For the moment I used Itunes + Rockbox but I'd like to be able to use various formats etc.

Would it be better with Winamp? I believe it can read everything with the proper codecs, handles postcast, manages a playlist properly etc. Or Media Monkey? It seems pretty good.

Many thanks for sharing you experience,

Best Regards,

Touelmeris

[LambdaCalculus]

Use whatever makes you feel comfortable. There's no right or wrong way to sync your music.

[Zardoz]

Winamp (classic) works well for me, the Library function is simple, clear and fast/responsive, although you would have to add codec support for things like musepack if needed. Like LambdaCalculus379 says there's a wealth of options out there. Are you using Windows? Songbird is cross platform anyway and has some nice features. There are so many non-itunesy managers!

peace

[vsl2005]

This doesn't have much to do with Rockbox really - the software doesn't really care what you use to sync. That said, I've been using MediaMonkey for a couple years to sync by playlist. It's eminently tweakable and has a great user community. Be sure to do a search on their forums about Rockbox and MM. The trick is in making your ipod behave like a standard USB device rather than an ipod for purposes of device recognition and synching. Took a few tries, but I eventually got the hang of it. I really detest apple's proprietary filing system. I'd love to have a conversation with one of their developers about their thought process in scrambling all the file locations.

[GodEater]

I'd love to have a conversation with one of their developers about their thought process in scrambling all the file locations.

It's memory efficient, and a nice first effort at stopping your sharing your music with your buddies by copying back off your ipod and onto theirs. Any other questions ?

I am not now, nor was I ever,  an Apple developer.

[astro2]

i agree with the poster, i'm sick of itunes, i have whine and b*tched about it for AGES, especially since i got use to the simple drag'n drop for all mp3s or my psp, or my NDS, but for some reason i'm use to it now.....hmm (weird)

i'm finding it hard to get use to rockbox, but i suppose i'm just still a noob to rockbox so thats why it feels weird

i.e i want to boost the volume for certain mp3s, I want to be able to put lyrics easily into each song

and i think finally (i think) the problem i'm finding hard to get use to is i have to GET into file options to be able to search for my mp3s everytime just to play a song, not a big deal unless you use the musical device for the car.

btw is watching mpeg movies to tv a simple matter of plugging it to the tv with a ipod av able?

p.s i'm reading the manual right now

[Chronon]

I don't know why you want to boost the volume for certain mp3s.  Is it because they are quieter than the others?  If that's the issue then you can look into applying replaygain to your files to normalize the apparent volume between albums (or between tracks).

You can't do video out in Rockbox because we don't know how to use the Broadcom chip.  You're better off doing this with Apple's firmware.

[bascule]

and i think finally (i think) the problem i'm finding hard to get use to is i have to GET into file options to be able to search for my mp3s everytime just to play a song, not a big deal unless you use the musical device for the car.

What do you mean by that?

You have to navigate to the song you want to listen to with any type of music player. Rockbox gives you the choice of browsing by directory/folder (Files...) or by tags (Database...).

Do you mean you want to resume playing at start-up? Because that's an option as well.

[Daveybaby]

IMO the best music player for the PC is foobar2000. Really minimalistic UI but it's small, fast, tidy and it just works really really well. A world away from the invasive bloatware that most of the other players have become.

However, I can't speak for how well it works w.r.t. syncing with an iPod, cos i've got a Sansa and use drag and drop to copy files over.

[Chronon]

Foobar2k also boasts the best performing replaygain scanner I have seen so far -- the main reason I use it.

[Elias_Maluco]

Foobar2k also boasts the best performing replaygain scanner I have seen so far -- the main reason I use it.

Foobar kicks ass in so many ways. Best player for windows, IMHO.

[Touelmeris]

Guys,

Wow, many thanks for these many answers! How did people do before forums? whining in unfriendly shops?

So I tried Winamp first. I scraped all my mp3 from the Ipod by unticking the music sync opition under Itunes. Then I ran Winamp and found two ways of putting my music into the ipod:
- through the sync function, but it looks very unfriedly to highlight the music I want to sync in a small window when I got about 6000 songs...
- Or just hitting "send to Ipod" by right clicking on the albums in the main media library. that looks good and easy.

There is also a third way, the drag and drop in the windows (actually opus directory) file explorer but it looks unpractical with many folders and I like the idea to send the files through the player.

So I used the "send to Ipod" solution and encountered the following problem: the files I added with Winamp are still wearing the odd scambled names in stupid "FO48"-like folders! 

How comes???

I will try Foobar and audiomonkey but setting up properly the media library in each software being quite a pain, I'd rather go through the possibilities of a player before trying another one!

Again, many thanks for your answers so far and I hope for the coming suggestions to these problems
 

[karashata]

So I used the "send to Ipod" solution and encountered the following problem: the files I added with Winamp are still wearing the odd scambled names in stupid "FO48"-like folders! 

How comes???

I would guess that Winamp's iPod syncing plugin is probably structured very similarly to the way iTunes syncs to the iPods.  I would also guess that it's plugin for the "Plays For Sure" compatible players (such as the Sansa and iriver players) syncs similarly to Windows Media Player (ie. dumping them in a hidden "Music" folder -> Artist -> Album -> [files]).

[AlexP]

In order for the original ipod firmware to play the files, they need to be organised in the same manor as itunes does it and the itunes database written.  Therefore if you transfer your files to an ipod for use with the original firmware, it doesn't matter what program you use to sync, all will do this renaming.

[Touelmeris]

Arrgggh! then if I understand properly
- either I use a player to send the music to the Ipod and I'll get the odd file names
- or I use the drag and drop?