Get iTunes onto your Axim

Tyborg · 02-25-07, 10:20 PM

I created a simple batch file to help sync iTunes playlists including podcasts to my axim. I have looked forever and not been able to find anything that would do it. There are a lot of playlists exporters, but nothing actually syncs. The batch file will generate an m3u playlist of any playlists you select including your podcasts and copy all of their tracks to a user specified location. I have it sync to a folder on my hard drive and then use mobsync to keep this folder updated with my storage cards in my axim.

I added a second batch file that is basically the same as the first but it uses your previous sync preferences to sync automatically with no user input. Now I schedule this one to run at 4am every morning so all my podcasts will be sitting in the specified folder as well as any modifications to the music playlists that are also syncing. Mobsync then puts them on my storage card on my axim and when I am ready to go in the morning all my podcasts are up to date. If I want to add another music playlist I run the first batch file and select the new playlist to add to the rest of the playlists that update nightly.

Its no fancy program and the user interface of a batch file is blah, but it gets the job done. Also I use QT Fairuse to convert all of the music I buy from iTunes. It is easy to use and free. It will scan your library and convert any protected AAC files to regular AAC as well as store a back up of them. After you use it all you see in your library is the unprotected music. Your iTunes store ID is still retained in the track though so not a good idea to share with friends and good incentive to keep it legal.

If you want to give the batch file a try here it is hosted at a new site
http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/73...sSynclists.zip

Update: I use Juice now for my podcasts since iTunes always stopped downloading new podcasts when I only listen to them on my axim. Juice ties into iTunes well and will create playlists of my Juice podcasts in iTunes. I then export these playlists with my batch file.

davidtm · 02-26-07, 09:51 PM

Holy Moley!! I love you! (Actually, it's not that personal . . . :-)

For months, I have rued the day I ever bought music from the iTunes store until now. Fortunately, I only had 39 protected files to convert, but they are now on my SD card ready to be appreciated again! Ironically, this gives me incentive to go back there and buy more music, as it's now accessible on my Ax.

Thanks for the link to QTFairUse!!

02-27-07, 09:57 AM

Awesome. Thanks for the heads up.

chess83 · 03-19-07, 11:32 AM

Just a general FYI, iTunes charges $0.99 per song...
AllofMP3.com is about $0.10 per song.
It is legal as it simply takes advantage of digital import laws concerning Russia. There is a downloadable program that works in conjunction with allofmp3.com called "alltunes" I believe there is a link from their site to the program.

The catch is that your have to purchase credit to download music. Your account is charged upon completion of downloaded software. No hassel like you get with iTunes.

03-19-07, 02:07 PM

Wouldn't it be easier to just copy the files from the folders on you PC that iTunes saves them to?

I've been meaning to write a Perl script to do that in my free time

.

SolSie · 03-19-07, 02:11 PM

Originally Posted by Tyborg

I created a simple batch file to help sync iTunes playlists including podcasts to my axim. ...

Actually, there is a free utility called Playlistmgr. In addition to create normal playlists, it has an option to read your podcast library on your PocketPC, it creates a playlist and sorts the contents from newest to oldest.

It has a shortcut called Podcast too.

Everytime, you click on the Podcast shortcut (stored in Start menu), it scans the Podcast folder, creates new playlist and launch the player (assigned to asx playlist)

I explain HERE!

Tyborg · 03-19-07, 05:28 PM

Thanks Solsie I actually read your explanation of how to sync podcasts and I am sure that works great for podcasts. I would have used your explanation except I want to get music on my axim as well. My storage cards can't hold all of my music library so I can't just tell mobsync to sync the whole library. This solution only puts the playlists from iTunes that I want on my axim into a separate folder on my PC that I then sync with mobsync. This way it only copies some of my music to my storage cards and not the whole library. I can choose to sync different playlists and remove them as I please. Podcasts are always up to date as well. The only time that I see the batch file run is if I run it and want to add a new playlist of music. Otherwise it runs every night and my podcasts are always up to date too.

Chess83 I know that allofmp3 is technically legal, but I don't think it is right so I don't support it. I would rather give the extra money to somebody that worked for it than to somebody that is exploiting a loophole in a different country. Don't get me wrong I am not a huge fan of the DRM music industry here in the states, but DRM is joke to get around and I would rather keep my money here at home. I use iTunes because it is great at managing my music and I need it for my iPod. Most of my music was ripped from CD, but I have purchased some from iTunes.

Uzziah0 it would be better than storing a duplicate set for syncing, but I don't mind using 2 gigs of the 100s of spare GBs on my PC so I didn't worry about it. If you write the script let me know and I will definitely use it.

03-19-07, 10:10 PM

do you leave the files as AAC for your ax or convert them to MP3 and suck up the fidelity loss? I am still debating as I would like to put them on my RAZR too which only plays MP3s

Tyborg · 03-20-07, 01:20 AM

I leave them as AAC and play them in Coreplayer. The compression is better so I can fit more on my storage cards.

03-20-07, 10:13 AM

I rip everything from CDs to mp3s, and I don't notice any appreciable loss of quality.

I mostly listen to podcasts on my Axim, but I do listen to a little music (yesterday I listened to Supertramp).

03-20-07, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by uzziah0

I rip everything from CDs to mp3s, and I don't notice any appreciable loss of quality.

I mostly listen to podcasts on my Axim, but I do listen to a little music (yesterday I listened to Supertramp).

MP3 @ 192 or greater + Axim or Zune + HD555 Headphones = One Happy Grentz :approve:

03-27-07, 01:54 PM

OK, I have a little Perl script that copies files from the folders where my podcasts get save (parsing through sub-directories) and copies them to my CF card (all in the same directory, with no sub-directories).
I have created a shortcut that launches the script with a command window with all the right options.

I am going to make 2 modifications:
1) allow From and To paths as command line options (which could be added to the shortcut) - so the script itself would not need to be modified to select different directories
2) I haven't been deleting the files from the From directory, and I am considering adding that

You would need to have Perl installed, I am using Active State Perl.

Just wanted to send an update, and I'll see if I can finish this by next week.
Let me know if you are interested.

03-27-07, 10:39 PM

OK, here is a little Perl script to copy podcasts (mp3s and mp4s) from your pc to your memory card to play on your Axim.

First, if you don't already have Perl on your computer, get it, and install it (I am using Activestate Perl: http://www.activestate.com/products/activeperl/),

download the attached ZIP file, and unzip it on your computer into a directory,

right click on the icon for the file from the ZIP (move_file.pl) and click Send To->Desktop (create shortcut),

right click on the shortcut, and select Properties,
in the Target box enter the following:
C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe C:\perl_scripts\move_file.pl c:\podcasts\podcasts j:\podcast

where
C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe is the installed Perl executable (from "First" above)
C:\perl_scripts\move_file.pl this program
c:\podcasts\podcasts root directory where podcasts are saved
j:\podcast drive where your memory card is located, and directory to save podcasts to

(update paths as needed)
set the Start in: to the directory where you saved the script
in my case C:\perl_scripts

You can also just run this from a command window and use the same information.
If you don't enter the paths the script defaults to the ones I have listed, or you can edit it to use whatever you want.

---If you have questions, please send me an IM.

Although this is my script, I got bits and pieces from a Perl book I have, and from searching on the internet (especially how to use File::Find and File::Copy)

Enjoy:)

Tyborg · 03-27-07, 11:58 PM

I gave it a shot and it worked for me, but only from the command line. I double checked all the settings in the shortcut that you indicated, but no dice. From the command line it worked as explained, but it doesn't create a playlist for me that I can open in Coreplayer and it also can't transfer my music playlists for me. It does work though and does just what you said it will, but since my batch file will do both music playlists and podcasts I will stick with it. Thanks for sharing!

03-28-07, 08:10 AM

open the file (with something like notepad),
about 28 lines into the file are these lines:

## file types to copy - use "mp3" or "mp3|mp4"
my $file_types = "mp3|mp4";

you can add more file types to this list, to the "mp3|mp4|xxx" to have them moved too, just add your playlist file type.