Leo's Tips: I-pod With Hdd File-structure, Freedom from Tag-based I-tune Options

[amitnaha]

My first experience with I-Pod was, well, at best, a disaster.
I tried to set up my I-pod, mostly to carry my RD collection always with me, and to play at my leisure, but the way those songs ended up in my I-pod, is simply horrible.
Luckily, I didn't mess up my master song collection in HDD itself with I-Tune, (as many 'more unfortunates' do in first-try ).
I keep my RD songs film-wise. And those songs have been collected from many sources, so there is no question of systematic tagging in those.
I-Pod rearranged many songs under artists.. hundreds of orphan songs together, as it went clueless with their tags.
In plain english.. I had no way to find and play songs of 'Shaan' or 'Aznabee'.. as those songs were buried under.. hmm.. god knows where:)

I googled, and checked with regular I-Pod users.. and their reaction was chiefly along these three routes:
- Please no complaints about I-Pod.. if you have any problem, it is your fault, not I-Pod's.
- Tag your files properly, there are so many tagging software. That is the trend and future.
- You are not techy enough to use I-Pod, forget it.

I chuckled. Is there someone to tag my 72,000+ songs.. and what's the charge.

So I picked up the most reasonable advice, the last one, and kept my I-pod in a storage box and simply forgot the whole episode, at least for the time.

After a few months, I was casually discussing about it over lunch, when one of the Italian guys commented with a smile.. you Indian guys have so many dance music, we don't have those..

Voila.. I came home, picked my I-Pod and stuffed it with english numbers.. Oh it's a dream..
My 27 Roger whittaker folders fell into slot perfectly.. Christian gayle.. click.. Celin Dion.. clack.. John Denver.. perfect..

So that is the catch.. I-Pod was conceived by westerners.. and most of their musics are released as singer-album-title format.. and I-Pod structure is exactly suitable for that. And surprisingly, I found that most of my english titles are already properly tagged, though I paid no extra attention in that regard. Probably it happened as most of those mp3s are originally CD-rips, and english CDDB is near perfect (whereas even official hindi releases are mostly ignored in CDDB).

That solved the I-Pod mystery, but not my problem with RD film-musics to put into.

The solution came one day.. and what a solution..

ROCKBOX.

Rockbox is a free software I found when googling about I-Pod. It allows you to dual-boot your I-Pod both as 'I-Pod player' (that I never used again) or as 'Rockbox player'. It supports most of I-Pod versions, including my 20Gb 4th gen (sorry folks.. if your model is not yet supported).
In rockbox player mode you can copy your HDD folders 'AS IT IS' retaining the structure unchanged. Now I have RD folder with subfolders like HFilm, BngFilm,Puja,Other_Misl.. and under HFilm alphabetically all his films.

I'll sing about a few key features only.. as you can google and go to Rockbox homepage for details.
-Rockbox actually turns your I-Pod into an external USB HDD, which also plays music. And its' multi-page settings for playing music is a dream.. with every frequency controllable through parametric equalizer to get the most out of a player like I-Pod (whose tonal quality is admittedly not-so-good in comparison to other players in market)
-Rockbox is an open project.. people adding new features/plug-ins to make it more interesting. You are no more confined in I-Pod fixed menus. Imagine having a analog view meter showing channel output levels.. it is also there. There is a plethora of add-ins/plug-ins.
-And now you are free to keep all your music.. Ravishankar.. RD.. Lata.. the way you like and play in I-Pod.

Tips from First Hand User :
-For new I-Pod users, one can happily go for a 20gb 4gen Ipod (it has become much cheaper nowadays) and if you want bigger capacity, just change the I-Pod HDD to 60Gb.. that will make a much cheaper solution.
-You can play music in Rockbox in traditional I-Pod way also, but if you don't want that don't touch that option, it will gobble up precious I-Pod memory.. (and only full re-install will free up that memory).
-I-Pods, in some computers, don't show up as external drive. Load I-tune and I-Pod will show up. You don't have to use I-tune though.

Happy I-Pod'ing..

[deewani]

Most of the Hindi music are OSTs, they are album based, not artist based as you mentioned, hence if you mark your albums as compilations, they are treated as such by iTunes and iPOD.

A warning to new iPod users, if you use Rockbox you run the risk of not only "bricking" your iPod, but also you void the warranty.

[amitnaha]

Deewani is right in pointing that using Rockbox (or any other software) is not supported by Apple, they want you to use I-tune only. If need arises, whether you'll tell apple that you were using other software, may even be a moral issue, and I won't delve into that subject, for my 4G 20Gb I-pod is older than a dinosaur.
But thanks to Deewani for highlighting this issue.

The second issue needs a little discussion. There has been cases where I-pod 'Froze Up' when using other software including Rockbox, and people thought that it has been dead.. hence the term 'Bricking'.

In last three months my Ipod, using Rockbox never froze. But when googling with keywords 'Rockbox bricking ipod' I found two things generally:
- There are many instances when rockbox Froze I-Pod, and users got panic-attack
- It always came back alive, and Rockbox 'NEVER REALLY BRICKED' any IPod. No Instance.

How to unfreeze varies from model to model. Like holding play and menu together.. etc

While googling today I found this classic example of posts highlighting the 'bricking' panic scenario from Rockbox forum
---------------------------------------------------
Post 1: by GRIMMM
Hi im new to these forums and stumbled on rockbox from these forums... i installed and used it for about 2 minutes before turning it off... the only problem is my ipod wont turn on now. Its a 5g 30gb ipod video. i installed everything right because i was using it for a short period of time but now my screen is completley black. I tried to do a restart (menu + select) and that doesnt work and i cant plug it in to my comp because it doesnt recognize it... i've even used different usb ports and none work... is my ipod bricked? what the hell happened i thought rockbox doesnt brick ipods?
ps i didnt know where to post this so sorry if its in the wrong section but please help me

Post 2 by : Llorean Administrator (Rockbox Forum)
Try doing the FULL restart procedure, rather than just holding Menu+Select as described here http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=8205.0 (and try it while the iPod is plugged into the computer).

Post 3 : By GRIMMM
omg i love you thank you so much it worked... it didnt brick! ROCKBOX DIDNT BRICK MY IPOD!

Post by : Llorean Administrator (Rockbox Forum)
Rockbox has never bricked an iPod, or at least nobody has ever told us about a case where one has been bricked. Every single time we've had it reported to us, it's either been fixable by a proper restart, or it's been a case of hardware failure such as the disk drive finally giving out (or in one case, a bad AC adapter damaging a charging circuit, etc).
------------------------------------
Conclusion : The bricking and warranty issues never occurred in my mind as my Ipod didn't involve those. But thanks to Deewani for highlighting these issues.. that is what forum is for.
If you can survive using IPod-ITune combo following Apples laid-out pathway, you don't need to experiment. I just mentioned my personal experience and benefits.. and I don't mind taking small risks to use gadgets my way, but that is strictly my view of life. Google and find what suits you most.
Happy I-Pod'ing

[deewani]

That user's iPod was not "bricked" - when it is bricked such a procedure WOULD NOT revive the iPod. And it really isn't a moral issue if one is worried about their warranty. The geniuses at the Apple bar will know if you've put Rockbox on it, even if you take it off and restore the pod. But why would you go to the geniuses at Apple in the first place - if you have a problem after using Rockbox? Most likely because your iPod is bricked, lol. And well if it's bricked, you can't really remove Rockbox before you take it there, can you? You cannot do anything with it, hence the name "brick" - it becomes an expensive paperweight.

Rockbox can do wonders for older iPods that are no longer in their warranty period, they can make the older ones have more modern interfaces, there are numerous apps that can be added, etc. It also does great things for current models. So I'm not dissing it at all, I've even mentioned this software at HF before. I merely wanted to point out that it's not as risk free as say switching your pc from windows to linux. And most new users buy the iPod because of it's ease of use, installing Rockbox on it may be beyond their "ability". And most people I know in real life do not use the iPod as is to it's fullest capability like some of us do. It seems to be a status symbol for them, rather then a device they use over 12 hours a day like some of us do. The iPods themselves are powerful mini CPUs, they regular use them at the Genius bar to boot up laptops!! That said, people can avoid tagging all they want. But, the iPod is hardly the only unit that functions BETTER with tagging, my Sony car deck mp3 player also recognizes id3 tags from mp3 cds. Pretty much most new applications that play mp3s use the id3 tags and the artwork in their displays from new HD based car stereos to home stereos to dvd players to other brands of mp3 players. And voice controlled devices are also using the id3 tag.

[r&d]

You problem is that you have Microsoft thinking, thus
you need to stick to their solutions. Now that Zune is
such a success. you don't need to buy Apple's products.
Just think if you had bought their laptops or imac.
The amount of rant would be unbelievable.

Complaining about id3 tagging is quite something.
CDDB is their to help you if you actually have
proper CDs. so most of the info gets put into
the id3 from most of the encoders.

It is not Apple's fault that you are not willing to
organize your files via id3. I have advocated
id3 tagging here is HF. most have ignored
this call. So you are on your own.

It is not Apple's fault that Hard drive fails. They
are build to last only year or two. So is the
case for batteries. All the other manufactures uses
the same chips and hard drives as Apple. So
complaining about vagaries of life span of electronics
is quite futile.

id3 is only way to organize mp3 period.