iTunesDB to Tag Cache converter

[Adam]

http://hcs64.com/files/itdbtc00.zip

Here's a bit of C that takes an iTunesDB file (found on an iPod in /iPod_Control/iTunes) and generates a Rockbox Tag Cache database for it.  I've done some simple testing and it seems to work OK for me, let me know of problems.
You'll need libgpod (and the associated development files, in libgpod-devel, for instance) to build it, perhaps later I'll implement the iTunesDB reading myself.

[RaeNye]

Why not put it on flyspray?
More chance of people seeing/improving it there.

[Llorean]

I'd say this would qualify as something that could be included in /tools/, though it may be better if the dependencies were lessened.

[Adam]

Yeah, it's sort of tied into libgpod, which is tied into glib, didn't think I could get away with throwing up a patch.  Perhaps when I have it a bit more standalone.  Should I put it up on flyspray as is?

[lowlight]

I'd suggest putting it on the wiki with build & usage instructions.

[Adam]

Ok, well here's what I have now:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/ConvertiTunesDBtoTagCache

Should I put a link to it from the IPodFAQ page, under the other suggestion involving foo_pod?

[Llorean]

That would be a good idea.

[mikeage]

At the risk of asking a really stupid question... what good is this? TagCache itself is quite good at scanning the disk and creating it's own DB.

foo_pod is useful because it allows the creation of an iTunesDB file, without moving around files. This seems like it would only help by saving a little bit of battery life.

Or am I missing something really obvious?

[Llorean]

If you have a small capacity player, like the Nano, and use iTunes to manage it, you could potentially replace the entire contents of the player while resyncing it for a trip or something. The program could regenerate TagCache much more quickly without Rockbox having to deal with a massive change in the file contents, or reinitializing. As well it'll be much faster than TagCache Initialization I imagine.

[Adam]

I've been asked a lot about why, here's some of my reasons:

• Many of my files aren't tagged
• It takes too long to scan everything
• I'm happy with how everything is set up in the iTunesDB

Pretty much I want something that takes a few seconds to run, leaves me with the same interface to my files as I had with the Apple firmware, and doesn't change anything that doesn't need changing.

[mikeage]

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

I actually should probably apologize for the original mail... I didn't mean to imply that it was worthless or a waste of time. I just didn't what use(s) it had

Good work

[xlarge]

Does it transfer rating?

[Adam]

No, at the moment it does not transfer rating, playcount, etc., but it could (I even have a note in the source to that effect).  If you're interested I'll see about implementing it.

[xlarge]

I think people would like that... and perhaps the other way around aswell... to sync playcount/rating with itunes software.

[Adam]

Hmm, I just looked into it, while I can directly transfer over playcount, the rating is not stored in the tagcache, rather it is calculated from the playtime, length, and playcount of the track.  I'm going to try to set the playtime value to mimic iTunes' explicit rating system.