Posted by Charles Russell on 09/03/06 15:57

NRen2k5 wrote:
> Charles Russell wrote:
>> I infer from comments in this newsgroup that many non-Apple players
>> now permit simple drag-and-drop from the Windows file system without
>> requiring any specialized music database. My question is: how do you
>> control the sequence of play after drag-and-drop? Alphabetical by
>> filename? Alphabetical by title in id3 tag? Numerical by track number?
>> Playlist?
>
> My feeling is that the player itself probably automatically reads the
> ID3 tags and generates a database.
>
But which element of the ID3 tag determines the sequence of play?

>> Can you drag-and-drop playlists too? Wikipedia lists several playlist
>> formats. Is there a single format that works with most players?
>
> I doubt that most players would automatically find and load the music if
> you just drag a playlist in, but I can tell you with certainty that M3U
> is the single predominant playlist format.
>

After looking at the M4U format, I see that it specifies actual disk
locations, not just tag contents for the player to look up in its own
database. With the iPod, the sequence of play on the player usually
duplicates the sequence in iTunes, which I can control with alphabetical
names, but in one case (an audiobook with hundreds of files)the only way
I can make the iPod to play in sequence is by creating a playlist.
Clearly the playlist must be converted to some other format for the
iPod. I would be interested in knowing how playlists work with other
portable players, in particular if there is any generic approach.

>
> It helps to have a good tagging program with which to tag your MP3's.
> I use MP3Tag (http://www.mp3tag.de/en/)

I prefer to organize by directory and filename rather than by ID3 tag,
but with the iPod I unfortunately have no choice. I have created tags
that work with the iPod but have no idea how things work with other
players, and know of no way to find out other than asking here. I do
not want to get locked into a sole vendor.

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