I bought the iPod 30GB Windows version about 2 months ago and it has been pretty much a headache ever since. Besides MMJB not working on my PC (it would crash the system) and a PCMCIA non-powered Firewire card which lets the iPod battery drain while transferring songs...I have been most confused about the whole "Playlist" concept and am seeking advice.
To wit: I have a large collection of CD's and have been steadily ripping them to a large external drive. Each of the CDs is being ripped into subfolders. For example, in the My Music directory, I have subdirectories broken down by genre and in each genre subdirectory, the individual album, with its directory name being the album and artist. So, you might find My Music\Bluegrass\Gillian Welch - Revival. I also have collections of random mp3s in various subdirectories that are my "mixes", some of which have ID tags and some of which dont' - but they are all within a subdirectory named for that "mix".
My hope was to have this entire collection of CD's transformed into a "virtual" CD collection on my drive. Then, when I was ready to load the iPod and head out the door, I would just choose which "CD's" to take with me on the iPod, including the mixes.
But no! It turns out that the iPod must sort everything by playlist. That apparently means that I have to turn each subdirectory into a playlist. And then I would just load those playlists each time I want to load the iPod and head out the door.
Yet, I cannot seem to find any software (MC9 and EphPod included) that can easily turn a giant collection of directories into a giant collection of playlists, at least without tediously going through and manually creating these playlists.
Does anyone who has run into this problem have any suggestions for how to deal with turning albums/directories into playlists? If I decide to manually create a giant pile of playlists using MC9 or something else, should they be in the album subdirectory itself or should they sit in a separate directory, for example broken down by genre?
You are my last hope before I give up and sell my iPod to someone else who can figure out how to use it without losing hair or spending hours managing their music.
Thanks,
Debris
To wit: I have a large collection of CD's and have been steadily ripping them to a large external drive. Each of the CDs is being ripped into subfolders. For example, in the My Music directory, I have subdirectories broken down by genre and in each genre subdirectory, the individual album, with its directory name being the album and artist. So, you might find My Music\Bluegrass\Gillian Welch - Revival. I also have collections of random mp3s in various subdirectories that are my "mixes", some of which have ID tags and some of which dont' - but they are all within a subdirectory named for that "mix".
My hope was to have this entire collection of CD's transformed into a "virtual" CD collection on my drive. Then, when I was ready to load the iPod and head out the door, I would just choose which "CD's" to take with me on the iPod, including the mixes.
But no! It turns out that the iPod must sort everything by playlist. That apparently means that I have to turn each subdirectory into a playlist. And then I would just load those playlists each time I want to load the iPod and head out the door.
Yet, I cannot seem to find any software (MC9 and EphPod included) that can easily turn a giant collection of directories into a giant collection of playlists, at least without tediously going through and manually creating these playlists.
Does anyone who has run into this problem have any suggestions for how to deal with turning albums/directories into playlists? If I decide to manually create a giant pile of playlists using MC9 or something else, should they be in the album subdirectory itself or should they sit in a separate directory, for example broken down by genre?
You are my last hope before I give up and sell my iPod to someone else who can figure out how to use it without losing hair or spending hours managing their music.
Thanks,
Debris