Making Playlists...

[deadacres]

...with a computer. How do I do it?

I'm using an iPod video (30gb), I've made .m3u playlists and put them on rockbox, but there's no playback.

I've read the manual, i've searched the forums, and still no answer.

The only thing i've found out is that I need to somehow change the directories on the playlists to the way it is on rockbox, or something along those lines.

So could someone help me somehow get the many playlists I have onto rockbox without having to make them in rockbox?

Thanks.

[Didgeridoohan]

A little more info might be needed to help you here. How do you go about making your playlists, for example?

The only thing i've found out is that I need to somehow change the directories on the playlists to the way it is on rockbox, or something along those lines.

This leads me to another question... Do you make your playlists with the songs on your actual player or of a collection of songs on your computer?

[deadacres]

How do you go about making your playlists, for example?

I use Mediamonkey. I just create a new playlist and go to the songs and put them in.

Do you make your playlists with the songs on your actual player or of a collection of songs on your computer?

It's a collection of songs on my computer.

[Llorean]

So, out of curiosity, if the songs are on your player, and the playlist points to songs on your computer, how were you expecting them to play if it's not pointing to the real songs?

[deadacres]

So, out of curiosity, if the songs are on your player, and the playlist points to songs on your computer, how were you expecting them to play if it's not pointing to the real songs?

Because I wasn't exactly sure if that's what the playlist did, maybe it just found the songs based on the tags and played them, or something like that. I read something similar to this somewhere on the forums.

And because if it pointed to the songs on the iPod, then the directory would read like F:\Music, and I don't know if Rockbox can read it like that.

Basically, what i'm expecting to hear is either that it's not possible to do what i'm asking (Making playlists on the computer and import them onto my iPod), or that I should just make it point to the directory on the iPod.

And one more thing, I wasn't wholeheartedly thinking that it would work, only that it's worth a shot before I come asking for help. And now before I spend more time trying something else, I'd rather just know how to what I'm trying to do.

And one last thing, judging by how you asked your question, you know the answer to the question I'm asking. Would it hurt to have told me in your post? Can you maybe help me out now that I've answered you unnecessary question.

Thanks.

[Llorean]

A playlist is simply a list of filenames. Point it at the song files on your player, and it should work.

If for some reason it doesn't, just remove the F: from the beginning of each line (use a find and replace in a text editor) so that instead of reading F:\Music\ACDC\Back in Black\Back in black.mp3 it simply reads \Music\AC... and things should be fine.

Sorry for asking the question the way I did, but we've covered this topic many times and in many places on the forums, and many times has it come up that "A playlist is simply a list of files, and must point to those on your player."

[deadacres]

A playlist is simply a list of filenames. Point it at the song files on your player, and it should work.

If for some reason it doesn't, just remove the F: from the beginning of each line (use a find and replace in a text editor) so that instead of reading F:\Music\ACDC\Back in Black\Back in black.mp3 it simply reads \Music\AC... and things should be fine.

Sorry for asking the question the way I did, but we've covered this topic many times and in many places on the forums, and many times has it come up that "A playlist is simply a list of files, and must point to those on your player."

Thank you very much.
This forum really needs more stickies.  
Since the same questions get asked a lot, and are hard to search for. I searched "playlists computer" and didn't find anything on how to make playlists on the computer.

[Llorean]

The forum does not need more stickies. The forum is not where you go to find static information, it's where you go to ask questions that aren't answered in the knowledge base that is the wiki.

M3U playlists though, being a major format, are for the most part considered common knowledge. Information about what they are and how they work can be found all over the internet.

[deadacres]

The forum does not need more stickies. The forum is not where you go to find static information, it's where you go to ask questions that aren't answered in the knowledge base that is the wiki.

I was just kidding. Hence the ":P".

M3U playlists though, being a major format, are for the most part considered common knowledge. Information about what they are and how they work can be found all over the internet.

But how they work in relation to rockbox isn't.

[Llorean]

They work exactly the same in Rockbox as they do in say, Winamp or Foobar2000 or any other program that uses M3Us though.

I will admit though that if the manual doesn't cover it, it should at least explain that they are simply a list of filenames and if created on the computer need to point to the files on your device.

[Febs]

Writing a more comprehensive playlist section for the manual is on my "to do" list.  It may be a while before I can get to it, though.

[LinusN]

Rockbox attempts to guess the real path to the files by stripping the drive letter and the leading directory names one by one until it finds the file.

It should work fine as long as you create file playlists from the collection on your player when it is connected to your PC.

[Llorean]

It sounds like it'd work fine as long as you never rearrange the files relative to each other, and as long as you don't add any folders to the tree.

Does this mean if I have C:\Blah\De\Foo\Bar\Music on my host PC filled with stuff, made a playlist off that, moved the Music folder over, it would strip the C:, the \Blah, the \De, \Foo and \Bar and then find my music?

[LinusN]

Does this mean if I have C:\Blah\De\Foo\Bar\Music on my host PC filled with stuff, made a playlist off that, moved the Music folder over, it would strip the C:, the \Blah, the \De, \Foo and \Bar and then find my music?

Yes.

[Llorean]

I just have to say "nifty".

Even though all my playlists were created on-device anyway.