Posted by NRen2k5 on 09/04/06 02:30

Charles Russell wrote:
> 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?

%tracknumber%

>>> 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.

You're looking at an M3U playlist with "absolute addressing". It is
possible to do them with relative addressing.

>> 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.

Do the tags as well as possible with something like MP3Tag. That's the key.

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