How to play iTunes 7 tracks gaplessly in Rockbox?

[zlp]

Just to clarify, Rockbox DOES NOT parse the itunes db...

Thanks for the clarity. I assumed iTunes mangled the tags as well.

And thanks to soap for reminding me to investigate the uneasy territory between iTunes and LAME, which I gave up a few years ago due to problems with the only elegant OS X solution I could find, the "iTunes-LAME" script:
http://blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/
Here's a crucial guide for anybody attempting installation: (It's crucial because the developer's download page links to an outdated version of both his own script and the lame lib.)
http://alpharuin.blogspot.com/2006/01/guide-itunes-lame-correct-way.html
I now use the "iTunes-LAME" script along with the newest LAME source. None of my existing tracks will be gapless on Rockbox but at least my new ones will!
Thanks all.

[zlp]

In response to my own original question (How does iTunes7 store gapless data?)
It's in the ID3 tags and here's the best conjecture about their meaning that I could find:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=48231&view=findpost&p=430949

and:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=48231&view=findpost&p=430981

and:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=48231&view=findpost&p=440456

Other notes from that looooong thread:
1) If iTunes7 encodes the file, it writes the tag (and no LAME header).
2) If you import a gapless LAME MP3 then it skips the analysis and honors the LAME header (no tag is added).
3) If you import an MP3 with no LAME header, it analyzes the file and stores the gapless info in the database without adding any tag.

So the gapless data may be in 3 different places! That throws a significant wrench into the Rockbox playback of iTunes7 tracks, eh?

[robin0800]

Where does gapless info need to be for rockbox to work,
embeded. or taged or somwhere else?

[saratoga]

Other notes from that looooong thread:
1) If iTunes7 encodes the file, it writes the tag (and no LAME header).
2) If you import a gapless LAME MP3 then it skips the analysis and honors the LAME header (no tag is added).
3) If you import an MP3 with no LAME header, it analyzes the file and stores the gapless info in the database without adding any tag.

So the gapless data may be in 3 different places! That throws a significant wrench into the Rockbox playback of iTunes7 tracks, eh?

iTunes is a horrific encoder, easily the worst modern MP3 encoder.  You shouldn't be using it all, so gapless is probably a secondary concern with #1.  #2 is no big deal either, since we can already read the LAME tag.  #3 only applies if you've not used LAME.

IMO the solution is to use LAME if you want MP3, and use iTunes only if you want AAC (it's AAC encoder is on par with LAME).

Though we don't have a way to read the iTunes gapless info for AAC either.

Where does gapless info need to be for rockbox to work,
embeded. or taged or somwhere else?

I think it depends on the format.  For MP3 I believe only the lame tag is supported (since its the only way to store gapless info until iTunes started doing it too).

[mightybrick]

*Flameproof suit on*

I use iTunes to look after my music, and always have done - even before I actually owned an iPod.

By "look after" I mean :

I, put my shiny new CD into my PC. I push the "rip" button in iTunes.
iTunes does the following : Goes off to cddb and grabs all the info about the CD. Extracts the audio from the CD. Encodes it to mp3 at the encoding level I've chosen, and writes all the id3 tags for me. It then writes all those files into a nicely organised folder on my PC.

I've still yet to find another application that does the same with the minimum of fiddling.

Check out J River Media Center.  It does all this and more...  Plus it comes with the LAME encoder. 
http://www.jrmediacenter.com/

[GodEater]

But it's not free....

[FrankieF]

EAC and CDex will do all this for you after the inital set up.

Not quite, what EAC doesn't do is create automatically the directlry structure based on the ID3 tags, or at least I haven't found out how.

[PaulJam]

Not quite, what EAC doesn't do is create automatically the directlry structure based on the ID3 tags, or at least I haven't found out how.

In EAC under "EAC Options" -> "Filename" you can use something like "%A\%C\%N %T" as naming scheme to cerate subfolders.

[FrankieF]

Not quite, what EAC doesn't do is create automatically the directlry structure based on the ID3 tags, or at least I haven't found out how.

In EAC under "EAC Options" -> "Filename" you can use something like "%A\%C\%N %T" as naming scheme to cerate subfolders.

Great, I hadn't understood this worked. Even better then, my main gripe with it is gone now!

[mightybrick]

But it's not free....

It's not.  But you know, I don't like to buy software.  I prefer freeware, and open source stuff.  But buying J River Media Center was money well spent.  It was worth every penny.

[GodEater]

But buying J River Media Center was money well spent.  It was worth every penny.

IMO so is iTunes

[michael.conner]

I suspect the setup is maybe five minutes if you're familiar with it.

I'm not.

I'd have to read up on CD-Ex, dig through all the command line options for LAME etc. etc.

It's not that I couldn't - it's just I fail to see the point when iTunes already does what I want.

EAC also can rip to pretty much any codec that Rockbox supports... Lame MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC and ALAC via itunesencode (check google or hydrogenaudio), Nero AAC, etc.  

I use it generally w/test-and-copy mode -- as long as the CRC's match, you've got a perfect rip.