Guides. Create Bookmarking Files (Mac&PC), Cassette Tape, LP & CD(PC)

[robert]

Reply to pm in italics in quote. Posting in thread for mp3 guide conversions as well so that all the resources of forum can address your problem as it develops.

Regards.

Robert

homerjay78 wrote on 01-02-2006 03:52 AM:
Hi:

I was looking at the posts for audiobooks and I see that you seem to the one with the most information on audiobooks on iPods. I followed your tutorial for converting MP3's to MB4's and transferring them over, however I am having some difficulties.

1) The first time I transferred files to iPod, not all of the files made it into the 'Audiobooks' folder. Some were only showing up as Songs. I deleted everything on the iPod and put it all back on, and that seems to have fixed it. Didn't do anything differently at all. Don't know if that is just a glitch, or if maybe I'm doing something incorrectly.

I have never had this problem, so perhaps it is an anomoly. Hope so, anyway. How did you xfer -- drag and drop? If so, perhaps you accidentally missed some.

2) No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get the *.mb4 files to show up ONLY in the Audiobook folder. They are all still showing up in the general folder, and come up when I shuffle music.

Any *.m4b file (and iTMS and audible.com audio books) should show up in audiobook main menu folder and will also show when you look at all "songs" on your iPod. That doesn't mean the files are on your iPod twice as the audiobook main menu folder is an index that does not duplicate the files. Smart Playlists and Playlists are a possible solution to what you may want. See first link in signature below for links to smart playlists.
Any *.m4b file should skip in main menu shuffle. Are you using main menu shuffle or another?
Do all the files show *m4b extension?
Go to one of the files and r click and choose info and then options tab. Are the checks for Remember Playback Position and Skip When Shuffling greyed out? They should be for *.m4b file.

I am working with my new 60G 5th gen iPod, and noticed that your tutorial was written prior to the 5G release. I didn't know if you had heard of any changes in the software that might cause this issue.

Works fine on my 5G, so should on yours.

Thank you very much in advance for any help you might be able to offer on this subject. I have been working on this for about 6 hours now, and am going just a bit crazy at this point :-D

Thanks very much! and have a great day!

Sorry you are having difficulty. I can sympathize when I think back to how many little nagging problems of this sort this forum had as it jointly discovered how to make mp3s and CDs bookmarkable.
Try the free trial, full function MarkAble shareware (also linked below) and see if that automated process does something you missed or I failed to adequately explain in guide.
I plan to update the two main guides to incorporate the new mp3 bookmarking capability in the r click info process described above as soon as I have the time.

[javabird]

1. Yes, this actually is a problem, not an anomaly. At least in my experience, since upgrading to iTunes 6 and on a Mac, some files with the .m4b extension still don't show up in Audiobooks. I have posted several times on this (see books in iTunes 6 library- weird behavior). There are different solutions, depending on whether you are Mac of PC.

2. One workaround that works for me is to UNcheck the "skip when shuffling" option in iTunes. If you're using a Mac, you can run the "Set Selected Tracks Shuffle" script on the tracks.

The guides are helpful, but I wish there were separate guides for Mac and PC.

[robert]

Since I am pc, this is hearsay: *.m4b doesn't get it for macs. macs require running an applescript to change the tags so that iPod will recognize them as audiobooks. See signature below for link.

the poster was PC and has now used MarkAble successfully he tells me in pm.

[Legolover]

My way of making single file m4b audiobook files from multiple mp3 files:

Only tested on (Win) PC.
0 - You'll need: Basic PC and Unix skills
1 - cygwin 'cygwin.com' (free)
2 - your source on this format:
<Harry Potter 4>\HP4 CD1\*.mp3
\HP4 CD2\*.mp3
|
|
\HP4 CD20\*.mp3
iTunes6 has a file length limit of 24hours, roughly 20CDs. More than
that, devide it. (HP5 I had to devide into 2x13CDs)
3 - From a cygwin bash shell, execute this script, edited to your fit you system: (call the script whatever you like, remember chmod +x, and ./<scriptname> :-) )

#!/bin/bash
#
echo "Welcome to the ipodifizer"
echo

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
echo "Usage: <top dir to concatenate>"
exit
fi

odir=/cygdrive/q/iPod
ofile="$1.mp3"

if [ ! -d $odir ]; then
echo "$odir does not exist"
exit
fi

if [ -f "$odir/$ofile" ]; then
rm "$odir/$ofile"
fi

topdir="$1"

echo "Top dir is : $topdir"
echo "Output file is: $ofile"

declare -a dirs[]=( $(ls -1Q "$1") )

echo "${#dirs[@]} directories found"
echo

touch "${odir}/${ofile}"
cd "$1"

for i in $(seq 0 $((${#dirs[@]} - 1)))
do
echo "${dirs[$i]}"
cd "${dirs[$i]}"
cat *.mp3 >>"${odir}/${ofile}"
cd ..
done

4 - import the resulting single huge mp3 file in itunes and convert to AAC (spoken word setting)
5 - When done (could take a few hours for a 24 hours file) remove mp3 file from itunes lib.
6 - rename m4a file to m4b
7 - reconnect to library by trying to play it
8- Get a book picture off internet an assign to file
9 - sync to ipod
10 - enjoy

[moriond]

Originally posted by Legolover
My way of making single file m4b audiobook files from multiple mp3 files:

Only tested on (Win) PC.
0 - You'll need: Basic PC and Unix skills
1 - cygwin 'cygwin.com' (free)
|
|

Yes, if all the mp3 files share the same format you can basically use cat and redirect the output into a single file to merge. This will work for folks on dual-boot machines who can access the Windows file from the "other" side, too.

P.S. I think you can do the merge in a single command; doesn't have to be shell specific or use bash.

[moriond]

It might be fun to have a timeline of "significant events" for this forum and links to the posts -- like, Podunk's guide to using Audible and the iTMS (that appeared shortly after iTunes for Windows debuted and started carrying audiobooks), Stensvaag's post about making files bookmarkable (Doug Adams' summary can be linked, too), MikeM's suggestion about smart playlists, the original request that led to MarkAble, the introduction of podcastings and mp3 bookmarking -- and subsequent problems with smart playlists and stable playback on newer 4G iPods, creatiion of the podio books threads, etc.

Other things to add here -- time limits (set by QuickTime on single-file audiobooks -- about 13.5 hours for 44.1kHz recording, 27 hours for the 22.050 kHz podcast setting); encoding vs. file-size tables, cross-platform usage issues (iTunes can accept CDs and DVDs written as audio, mp3, or data disks from either Mac or PC systems), backup suggestions (using smart playlists for incremental backups and special-topic backups), what iTunes files store different information (general question, but appropriate here, too).

There have been a lot of good peripheral discussions mentioning software products and sources for various functions -- dordale used to have a lot of good suggestions for PC products, and there have also been some (older) threads discussing the pros and cons of various sound capture programs. Perhaps we could summarize/link some of them here.

I'm reposting here, since I inadvertantly created a new thread.
Edited to fix typo -- it's "kHz" not "MHz"

[Legolover]

You are right moriond.
Linux has several ways of acheiving the same thing :-)
I found that the cat command bombed if presented with full pathnames, hence the script to cd down to all the CD# folders.
Someone are bound to come up with a simpler script too, probably a 1 liner :-)
Cheers

[robrp]

hi,
ive followed all the guidelines, I merged the mp3's together so they were in one file, but when I convert them to aac in itunes, only the first file that i merged appears

little help?

[robert]

Originally posted by robrp
hi,
ive followed all the guidelines, I merged the mp3's together so they were in one file, but when I convert them to aac in itunes, only the first file that i merged appears

little help?

I don't think you are saying this, but are you saying that
you merged several mp3 files into one file and then converted that file to AAC and had only one file? If that is what you are saying, you should have only one file. The iTunes AAC conversion will create one file for each mp3 file that you convert from mp3 to AAC and only one at the time. MarkAble will manage this for you.

Did you place each resulting merged mp3 file (assuming that you created more than one merged mp3 file from merging the originals) into iTunes and then convert each individually to AAC? You have to place each merged file into iTunes and then individually convert to AAC and then rename the extension from m4a to m4b.

[robrp]

thanks for replying,
but isn't the point of merging the files to have as one big file in the audiobooks folder?

if not is there a way to ad sub-folders to the audiobook folder?

[robert]

nope, the point is to have as large a file as will play without problems on iPod. Has been max of 5 hours or so. It is possible that newer iPods and updates will handle larger, but I haven't seen anyone who has recently tested size. In the guide, it is you who controls the resulting merged file size and management of converting all the resulting merged files unless you use MarkAble.

What audiobook folder are you asking about? The main menu iPod audiobook entry carries ALL m4b files, all iTunes audiobook downloads and audible.com files and nothing more. You can "manage" them in that category by naming convention of Book Name 1-3, Book Name 2_3, etc. You can also create smart lists to include only audio books, specific audio books, or specific genre, and playcount = 0.

[robrp]

So I should be using MarkAble?

[robert]

You can get a free full function trial to check it out and see for yourself. I highly recommend it, using it myself to "automate" the process and reduce operator involvement. I leave it working overnight if doing a full AAC conversion.

http://www.ipodsoft.com/index.php?/downloads/markable

Still not sure of your question. No mp3 file will show up in iPod main menu Audiobook category -- only *.m4b AAC/m4b, *.aa audible files, and iTunes audio book downloads. So, if you want to listen at faster speed, skip in main menu shuffle, and to have in main menu audiobook folder, you will have to merge and then convert your mp3's to AAC and rename the resulting m4a file to m4b.

Hope I have answered your questions.

Robert

[robrp]

YES, Thankyou robert
I just didn't understand the merging and converting,
MarkAble is working great

ThANK YOU

[Peggyatwork]

Robert, you seem to be very knowledgeable about all this stuff and I'm very grateful for it. I have benefited greatly from your know-how. I have a question that I am hoping you can answer. I have followed the long drawn out instructions for converting purchased audiobook cd's into bookmarkable files for the iPod. My question is with regards to '.aa' files though. My husband owns a Garmin GPS which will hold '.aa' files (audiobooks purchased from Audible.com) or 'MP3' files. Do you know of a way to convert an 'MP3' audiobook file to a bookmarkable '.aa' file? Is it even possible.

Thanks,