Confused about playlists

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Re: Confused about playlists

by moatmai » Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:47 am

I spent a couple of hours analyzing the problem with the Creative Zen MX based on forum reports here and on AnythingButIpod. Doing a clean-up using recovery mode doesn't help, neither does a firmware update.

I posted a workaround here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 90#p230790

Also, a kind user wrote a JavaScript which can truncate playlists directly (without needing the workaround). Haven't tried the script yet, but the workaround described in the first post does work (even if it's a bit ugly). Use either one or the other to solve your playlist woes.

P.S.: Of course this does not resolve the problem that mobile playlists can't be synced back to MediaMonkey.

Re: Confused about playlists

by chrisjj » Fri Oct 02, 2009 2:20 am

OK Nyn, but same conclusion applies.

Re: Confused about playlists

by nynaevelan » Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:43 pm

Chris:

I do not think that is the latest number for the Zen MX, according to Creative's website 1.02.04 is the latest for the MX which is the player that danny62 has.

Re: Confused about playlists

by chrisjj » Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:44 pm

> 1.02.04. I think it's the latest version of the firmware.

Well, that's a new version sequence if not also codebase - ZEN's near-latest is 1.21.03e.

Thanks.

Re: Confused about playlists

by danny62 » Sun Sep 27, 2009 2:19 am

chrisjj wrote:> The issue in my Zen MX is shown also if filename's lenght is longer than 8 characters.

This suggests there has been a much wider change to the ZEN firmeare, maybe even a swicth of a codebase. I wonder what other hazards are there are...

Could you report the formware version number please? On ZEN this is under System, Information.
1.02.04. I think it's the latest version of the firmware.

Re: Confused about playlists

by chrisjj » Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:40 am

> The issue in my Zen MX is shown also if filename's lenght is longer than 8 characters.

This suggests there has been a much wider change to the ZEN firmeare, maybe even a swicth of a codebase. I wonder what other hazards are there are...

Could you report the formware version number please? On ZEN this is under System, Information.

Re: Confused about playlists

by nohitter151 » Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:18 am

I guess a workaround would be to trim each field to only 8 characters, example:

$Trim($Left(<Title>,8))

So each time you have a mask, surround it by
$Trim($Left(<>,8))

Hopefully it won't cause too many duplicate filenames on your device.

Re: Confused about playlists

by danny62 » Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:10 am

nynaevelan wrote:I cannot confirm or deny this with my Zens because I do not have any paths that exceed the 8.3 DOS format, but this weekend I will do some tests and see if my Zen's have this limitation.
The issue in my Zen MX is shown also if filename's lenght is longer than 8 characters.

Re: Confused about playlists

by chrisjj » Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:37 am

> I renamed a file in MM in a way that it's had <8 characters in every subfolder of
> its path, created a playlist with that file inside and trasferred the playlist to my Zen and... it worked!!

I'm amazed. Well done!

Re: Confused about playlists

by nynaevelan » Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:03 am

I cannot confirm or deny this with my Zens because I do not have any paths that exceed the 8.3 DOS format, but this weekend I will do some tests and see if my Zen's have this limitation. Do you think it might be a setting in your OS??

Re: Confused about playlists

by danny62 » Wed Sep 23, 2009 4:19 am

chrisjj wrote:> since the Zen MX don't recognize the paths with more than 8.3 characters.

Very unlikely. The ZEN MX is a slight update to the ZEN on which I have used long names many times.

> it's a my own direct knowledge: after export the playlists on Zen I go tu MyComputer,
> open them whit notepad and look at their content: all track have the path written in the old DOS 8.3 format

That may mean only the writing software chose short names, not that long filenames are disallowed.
I've made some other experiments which I believe confirm my opinion.
I renamed a file in MM in a way that it's had <8 characters in every subfolder of its path, created a playlist with that file inside and trasferred the playlist to my Zen and... it worked!!

Playlist with paths >8 characters didn't work, anyway.

I posted a message about this issue in Creative forum and in the Anythinbutipod forum but so far i get no answer.

Re: Confused about playlists

by nynaevelan » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:30 pm

Same here and I thought it is unusual for Creative to create this limit on the MX, I've noticed that they are in fact not very creative at all. They will change the body of the player but they all seem to have the same limitations. At least that is my experience with the last 5 that I have had.

Re: Confused about playlists

by chrisjj » Tue Sep 22, 2009 12:51 pm

> since the Zen MX don't recognize the paths with more than 8.3 characters.

Very unlikely. The ZEN MX is a slight update to the ZEN on which I have used long names many times.

> it's a my own direct knowledge: after export the playlists on Zen I go tu MyComputer,
> open them whit notepad and look at their content: all track have the path written in the old DOS 8.3 format

That may mean only the writing software chose short names, not that long filenames are disallowed.

Re: Confused about playlists

by nynaevelan » Tue Sep 22, 2009 6:53 am

Have you tried posting your question on Creative's forum? They are not as helpful as here but sometimes you get lucky.

Re: Confused about playlists

by danny62 » Tue Sep 22, 2009 6:07 am

I have the latest version of the firmware.
I don't see this info nowhere, but it's a my own direct knowledge: after export the playlists on Zen I go tu MyComputer, open them whit notepad and look at their content: all track have the path written in the old DOS 8.3 format while the playlists created with MM are written in regular Windows format.

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