Vbr, library indexing and tags. issues from a new user

BKeeper · 08-20-2007

Hi,
I just started using my new M6 player. :D

So far I'm very satisfied except for a few things, I hope they are not real flaws but just user related hope you can help me.

1) Media Library.

Some of may files are not indexed at all. Currently the library reports 990 indexed files. But there are almost 1400 files.
(which still far from the reported hard limit of 2000 files)
It's not that I've reached a max in the index. Cause I can just add new albums and these get indexed.

I have to access my files trough the browser which is a bit inconvenient.

Also when loading with the browser the M6 reads tags just fine, which leads me to believe that the problem is not tag related.
I even thought there was a problem with the library indexing long file names. But it indexes other files with long names just fine.

is this a known bug? Has anybody experienced similar problems

2) Tags

Some of my tags are not properly read and the library generates duplicate albums with spelling mistakes.
my tags are fine and I don't use exotic custom tags. I checked them with both MediaMonkey and foobar without troubles.
Which versions of id3 tags does the library support.

3) vbr

player hangs while trying to FF 20 min+ vbr tracks. The files are just about 10MB. So it's not file size.
Files are recorded lectures small and very low vbr but its just impossible to lisen to them without FF.
Does this have anything to do with bat vbr support?

Anyway, thanks!
I'm happy to be a new member here and hope some of the more experienced users will be able to help me.

BKeeper

DChronos · 08-20-2007

If I remember right, the problem with the M6 not showing all files you have IS a known bug reported here at the site. No idea on if or when that will be fixed, and that also includes the hard limit being set. No idea if they will change that so users using 8GB M6's don't have to leave free space because the M6 can't see all of their files... I mean, comeon, I have some folders that take about 3000+ files and aren't quite at 8GB.

There is some problem with tags, and I think the M6 works best with ID3 tags... though I'm not sure. I haven't had a problem, though I hardly check. Only 1 song I had was labeled just "R" instead of the whole name. It's something that probably won't be fixed, as far as I can tell. They just recommend using the newer tags, and re-saving them.

The M6 does seem to have some issues with VBR. It never reads the bitrate right, and has some issues playing them, one that is something that needs fixed... although, some say they experience the end of somg skip on CBR files as well that have no closing silence. Your problem might just be another one to ad to the small list of sound bug and playing issues that may or may not be fixed. We all hope they at least take care of these, but things aren't sounding to good lately. Keep checking back here for updates.

Sorry if I wasn't too much help, but I gave what I could! Welcome to the site, and enjoy! Someone else who experiences these will probably help you out soon.

BobbyQ · 08-21-2007

There seems to be a "per artist" limit of 128 songs. Additional tracks from the same artist will still be listed in the file browser, but not in the library.
Also I found that placing .flac files under /MUSIC/subfolder makes the m6 not showing them under "artist" but still showing them under "album", while everything working perfectly when placed into "/MUSIC". The firmware has a clear problem with too many songs and subfolders.

BKeeper · 08-21-2007

Well, thank you very much both of you. Feels good to know that most of my issues are "known bugs".

I can totally confirm that 128 tracks per artist limit. It's exactly what's happening. I must say its a pretty lame bug. Anyway there is obviously an easy workaround.

(I suppose from now on I can't expect great things from their indexing algorithm)

In my book lousy vbr support is a terrible mistake for a DAP. Audio playback should be priority #1.. But hey at least I can always play that box game.

But on the bright side, this is poof that there is still a lot of ground for improvement.

Again thank you.

DChronos · 08-21-2007

If anything, you can just do what I do... If you got winamp, it'
s really easy. Make playlists out of the albums, and they will all show up in the playlist directory. You can name the playlist files by "artist-album", and have them all grouped alphabetically together in the list be artist. Then you just have to select a playlist and play it. If you want to have all from the same artist in your playlist, you can either make another playlist called "artist-all" or, if you got your albums separated by folders named "artist-album", you can use the browser entirely and just highlight a folder and select play (same solution as playlists, but more cumbersome), and in the browser, you can highlight a folder and add the whole folder to an on the go playlist, and just add any folder you want into the list. Once you're done, you can save the on the go playlist by going to it, and selecting save.

Hope that helps as a solution! Too bad it doesn't work right going through the artist and album options, though.

BKeeper · 08-21-2007

Already tried that thanks.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but accessing a file from a playlist takes much longer than trough the library. The player freezes for like 7 secs.

The playlist format sould be m3u right or is it m3u8?

BobbyQ · 08-21-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by BKeeper

accessing a file from a playlist takes much longer than trough the library. The player freezes for like 7 secs.

yes, that is another known bug. No solution to it.

DChronos · 08-21-2007

I never noticed any difference between choosing a playlist file and any other in my TP version. It took longer going through the browser to find a song is all I noticed, and that's just because there was more to go through.