Speeding up Bolero SD, possible solution

[stuartm]

Do I need a header in the *.m3u files?

[john999boy]

Added the first slash and made the slashes backwards. Still just hangs.

some further info

root on card

1

80 artist name folders/*.m3u (some with 5 playlist s(one per album))

...

I was hoping it would read the m3u files and allow me to have artist names showing on screen with inner m3u files, giving me album lists.

I am assuming I still need 9 folders before the artist/album/*.mp3.

Maybe I haven't sussed out what you mean here but I'll try and help....

Going to basics - if you have just one album on your SD card (nested 9 folders deep for future proofing though) and want to have it via a playlist then in the root you will see:-

1 <--folder name

song.mp3 <--default mp3 track

album.m3u <--album playlist text

So ALL the playlists go in the root dir (for convenience). If you put them ANYWHERE ELSE then the path would need to be altered as the album location is relative to where the playlist is and not to the root. Remember, if you put playlist in, say subfolder 3, then the Bolero will still have to scan it as it's within the 8 subfolder level that it looks at. In other words - don't do it!

This means when you insert the SD card it will auto play song.mp3 and from there you can move up and look at all your playlists (only one at the moment though - called album.m3u)

The artists names etc are taken from each tracks ID tag and not from the playlist.

No header is required in the m3u file as that file is just a text list of tracks and locations.

[john999boy]

I am assuming I still need 9 folders before the artist/album/*.mp3.

You don't need to go any further than the 9 levels down before you can have your actual album folder such as David Bowie - Best Of as opposed to David Bowie/Best Of which would be yet another level down.

[stuartm]

1 <--folder name

song.mp3 <--default mp3 track

album.m3u <--album playlist text

bugger...

@john999boy

my sd card is setup like

root

>1 (containing 2>9) after 9 you get a folder artist \ album \ first.mp3

>one.mp3

>air \ moonsafari.m3u (path is \1\2\3\4\5\6\7\8\9\air\moon safari\first.mp3)

I did this try to get a folder structure in the bolero screen once it has loaded, showing artist folders, then album named playlists.

Sounds like I can't do that :-(

[john999boy]

bugger...

@john999boy

my sd card is setup like

root

>1 (containing 2>9) after 9 you get a folder artist \ album \ first.mp3

>one.mp3

>air \ moonsafari.m3u (path is \1\2\3\4\5\6\7\8\9\air\moon safari\first.mp3)

I did this try to get a folder structure in the bolero screen once it has loaded, showing artist folders, then album named playlists.

Sounds like I can't do that :-(

You appear to be trying to 'housekeep' your files too well as you'll only be able to see the housekeeping on a computer and not via a m3u.

You should have only got 80 m3u files for the Bolero to read so it will zip through them in seconds.

By the way, shouldn't air \ moonsafari.m3u be just moonsafari.m3u?

[stuartm]

@john999boy

ta, cracked it when I got back home. Job done. You were correct I was over-egging it.

3000 tracks and about as fast I need. i ended up with all the playlists in root, the name of which are all artist-album.m3u. One mp3 in root, 1-9 folder with the actual music in folder 9. I had to reverse the order in the m3u to get increasing numbers for some reason.

Bit of fettling never fails. Liking the bolero more now ;-)

Stu

>By the way, shouldn't air \ moonsafari.m3u be just moonsafari.m3u?

air was a folder in root with moonsafari.m3u in it - didn't work. your method did.

Edited 14 April, 2010 by stuartm

[john999boy]

Glad that you've got it sorted.

Just Warren that needs to get jiggy now then!

[Evening Star]

Nope, I'm not going to go down the playlist route. I've had enough faffing about with the damned thing. It's a 2nd Ipod for me. More expensive - Yes, but not a playlist in sight.

Also remember that I don't have my music in Album folder anymore, it's just pure music now. Artist Folder - Tracks, no mess, no fuss, just muz!

Edited 14 April, 2010 by Evening Star

[Raglits]

Nope, I'm not going to go down the playlist route. I've had enough faffing about with the damned thing. It's a 2nd Ipod for me. More expensive - Yes, but not a playlist in sight.

guess that just leaves me...

[Evening Star]

Actually I'd even consider doing MP3 CDs, how many does the Bolero take? 6?

Now using Roxio & Gracenote to do all my music with tags. (Wish me luck, I maybe gone some time!)

Edited 14 April, 2010 by Evening Star

[john999boy]

Actually I'd even consider doing MP3 CDs, how many does the Bolero take? 6?

Here begins a whole new set of problems lol.

After all, I'm sure all the music you have via MDI won't be enough!

[Evening Star]

Just kidding!!!!

[Chaosdarkknight]

Which program are people using to create playlist on their SD cards, I am rather stumped....I mean a playlist file in the root of the SD card isn't actually the sorce of the music is it, the playlist file is just there to tell the bolero what the playlist is called and for our sake what is in the file, the music it self is like 9 folders deep, right.

Some one help me out please.

lol

[john999boy]

It's just done via dos and a cmd line input at the moment.

Check out the beginning of the thread for more info.

[Chaosdarkknight]

It's just done via dos and a cmd line input at the moment.

Check out the beginning of the thread for more info.

Yeah my point exactly, dos is over my head, can't you just manually create folders on the SD card, or is this just not the same, or am I missing the point and being thick?

[Evening Star]

That means there's a few Dossers in here for the long term...

Roxio & Gracenote are slowly getting through the tracks as I type, so they should all be tagged in the next hour or so.

[Evening Star]

Yeah my point exactly, dos is over my head, can't you just manually create folders on the SD card, or is this just not the same, or am I missing the point and being thick?

I agree with you, I lost how to do the MS DOS thing years ago, I've long considered it to be redundant. The only time I use it now is when following instructions on how to format large capacity SDHC cards in FAT 32 in Vista 64.

[ChrisRs]

Can somebody please explain what the hell you are talking about??

Whatsa root?

I just assign a folder for each album and paste the tracks into them

Is this wrong?

Please advise

[kprida77]

I will be looking at manually copying the mp3 files to the directory structure that's 9 levels deep and then writing a script that will create the playlists for me (one for each album/artist and a master playlist will all tracks) and put those in the top level of the SD card along with a single mp3 to stop the Bolero from thinking I'm dumb and put a card in with no music on it....

I use Mac OS and Linux apart from my work laptop... so any script I write is not going to be of any use to Windows users... Sorry

Go on Raglits, you know you want to go the playlist route. Page one of the thread has the quick script I knocked up as a starter for ten.

Am getting tempted to try knocking something up in Windows if I can find my old VC++ and XP discs. Unless someone beats me to it :-)

[Evening Star]

Do you mean to say that you could write a small program that would do it all for us!!!!

[kprida77]

I'll see if I can locate the required software and see what can be done. Been a few years since I've done any windows (cough,spit) programming.

[ChrisRs]

Can anyone answer my question?

[john999boy]

Can somebody please explain what the hell you are talking about??

Whatsa root?

I just assign a folder for each album and paste the tracks into them

Is this wrong?

Please advise

The 'root' is the top most directory on the device. The equivalent of a 'C' drive on a computer.

As for pasting your tracks into each folder - that's right but only if you don't mind the Bolero going slower and slower.

[Raglits]

Can somebody please explain what the hell you are talking about??

Whatsa root?

I just assign a folder for each album and paste the tracks into them

Is this wrong?

Please advise

That's what I have currently and I get (really) annoyed by the delay when the Bolero decides it has to rescan the card to see what music is on there. By going 9 folders deep, the Bolero won't scan the tracks but will happily play them if you've created a playlist telling the POS exactly where the tracks are.

Mind Boggled yet?

You need at least one mp3 (or unprotected wma) in the top level (although I guess anywhere in the first 8 levels would do) otherwise the Bolero throws it's toys out of the pram and claims there is no music files on the SD card even though the playlists exist.

If you can live with the sloth like progress the Bolero makes when scanning for tracks, keep everything the way you currently have it, otherwise myself or some other kind soul (I'm not kind by the way) may be able to help you speed things up. I am not a programmer before anyone asks, but have enough shell scripting experience (from previous jobs) to make a ham fisted effort on a Unix based OS for automating the creation of the playlists

Now I think I need to go have a Guinness in the hotel bar to calm down

[Evening Star]

Anyone up for the task of doing playlists for 1200 folders?