iPlay testers needed

[linuxstb]

It's still in the early stages, but "tagcache" is now in CVS.  Bugs are being fixed constantly, so if you want to try it, make sure you download the latest CVS build, not a daily build.

More details are here:

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

Basically, tagcache is the new Rockbox tag database and it automatically indexes all the music on your iPod - both the files transferred via itunes, and files you have just copied manually.

[SilleeString]

It sounds good, maybe I'll try it tonight when I get home, although I've already pretty much ditched itunes (except for videos).  A quick question though for anybody who may know, referring to the building of the db: Do you have to rebuild it from scratch when you add a new file?  Or will it just be in the db already?

[Llorean]

When you reboot the DB updates, and will add new files. Doesn't take long at all, and it's in the background.

And, if you've ditched itunes, don't worry. The db itself has *nothing* to do with itunes. It reades the tags, and lets you show your files by Tag instead of by Filename, essentially.

So, this handles all the garbled /XYCF/JLRE filenames that itunes makes, because they still have the tag information in them. That's what linuxstb was really saying, rather than any implied association with the actual iTunes Database.

You force a tagcache update in the playback menu, wait for quite a while on the first one (there's an icon in the upper right corner that represents disk use, near the clock. Wait for that to go away) and then reboot the unit. It will say "Committing Tagcache" for a while, and then when you're back at the file tree you can switch to ID3 view in the General Settings > File View (both of these are covered on the TagCache page, but I'm summarizing for skimmers who don't like links). Then your file browser is replaced with a Database Browser that lets you browse by Artist, Album, Genre, or simply all Songs, and has a search choice.

[pixeldotz]

zappajoe

since the database was originally created with itunes; all the filenames where thus named as itunes saw fit. F09 etc..blahblhablhadumb.

foo_pod had no problem 'repairing/rebuilding' the database this way.

i haven't tried it yet with regular a regular naming convention. which is the reason i stick to rockbox (about 1.5 wks old on my nano now). it allows me to name my files the way i want.

artist/album/track# - title

i hate itunes very much, and loathe the fact that my bro uses it on my pc to load stuff onto his 5g.

[SilleeString]

Sounds good Llorean, so basically what we're looking at is an alternative to the file tree, that is to say all the features (such as queue next, dynamic playlists, randomize all) work exactly the same, you're just browing your music differently?  Actually, now that I think about it randomizing all would be even easier this way, since you don't have to create a root playlist first, correct?

This sounds great for anybody who wanted to have their cake and eat it too (be able to see your music in apple's firmware AND rockbox), so to speak.

I'll try this out tonight if I have the time and will post any and all noteworthy impressions tomorrow.

[Llorean]

Silleestring: That's the idea, yes. There's still a bug here or there, but yeah, if you go to view by Song, then you'll see a list of all your songs, and can play your whole collection right there.

[gummbah]

This is great news!!
Now if saving the bass and treble settings start to work, I can permenantly switch to using rockbox!

[SilleeString]

Well I don't know if this is much to mention since the album art patch isn't in cvs anyway, but I tried to force the tagcache to update with my build with the patch applied and it froze up, nothing responded for several minutes.  I had to reboot.  Getting a regular ol' CVS build from the site fixed the problem.  So uh...I guess if you have the album art patch and want to use this, you're going to have to go patchless.

Edit:  It doesn't appear to be known, but I found a bug.  I have almost 3000 songs in total on the pod, but when I click on shuffle and go to "songs" and hit play, only 399 "load up" so to speak, that is to say I see 1 in 399 under the song title.  And yeah, the songs aren't in order by track #, but that's a known bug...

ok, done

[linuxstb]

Edit:  It doesn't appear to be known, but I found a bug.  I have almost 3000 songs in total on the pod, but when I click on shuffle and go to "songs" and hit play, only 399 "load up" so to speak, that is to say I see 1 in 399 under the song title.  And yeah, the songs aren't in order by track #, but that's a known bug...

The ID3 browser depends on the "Max files in dir browser" configuration option - which defaults to 400.  You just need to increase that.  I added the details earlier today to the TagCache wiki page, as I agree that it's not obvious.

[f0x]

If I choose for example 'Genre' - rock, it will show couple of albums. It would be great to have an option to play All the Albums from this 'Genre'.

Sorry for my English.

[SilleeString]

Edit:  It doesn't appear to be known, but I found a bug.  I have almost 3000 songs in total on the pod, but when I click on shuffle and go to "songs" and hit play, only 399 "load up" so to speak, that is to say I see 1 in 399 under the song title.  And yeah, the songs aren't in order by track #, but that's a known bug...

The ID3 browser depends on the "Max files in dir browser" configuration option - which defaults to 400.  You just need to increase that.  I added the details earlier today to the TagCache wiki page, as I agree that it's not obvious.

Thanks muchly

[goemon4]

is sthere anyway to view things in order? because all of my songs are out of order...

[SilleeString]

I set it to show 10000 files in the limits, and the amount of songs I can see/play when I go to "songs" has risen so I know it worked somewhat, but there's still a problem.  I can only see up until the G's of my songs, then there's an arrow "------->" which I guessed would allow me to move onto the next set of songs, but when I click it it does nothing, and only those songs are queued up when I "play all."  This description kind of sucks, sorry, but I don't know how to explain it really.  Hopefully you understand.

[JoshPowell]

Sorry to double post.. but since this seems to have turned into a Tagcache thread..

Its acting weird on my iPod with a CVS build.. no AA patch.

After about 1 minute, it froze with "Prefetch abort at 86AD43D8"

Any ideas? I tried resetting all settings and tried it again, same error. Tried it 4 times. :/

Josh

[Llorean]

Are you using a CVS build? I know there were data alignment errors at first, that have been cleared up since tagcache was first put in, so are you using the absolute *newest* version and getting these errors?