New J3 user looking for suggestions

[bpratt]

I have a new J3 on order and it should arrive tomorrow. My music was originally built for a Creative Zen touch and playlists were simply directories. On my D:\music directory I have directories like the following: 50s music, 60s music, 50s collection, classical, piano, country, my favorites.

When I listen to music, I like to select one of those directories and listen randomally to all the music in that folder. There are many duplicate songs mainly in my favorites because I simply copy songs from one of the directories into my favorites. There are also some duplicates in 50s music and 50s colection and some other directories.

Can I copy these directories directly to the J3 and then play randomly within a directory? Is there another way I should copy the music to the J3 and should I then create playlists? Are the duplicate songs going to create a problem?

I'm new to the J3 and would appreciate any suggestions.

[DSperber]

Originally Posted by bpratt

My music was originally built for a Creative Zen touch and playlists were simply directories. On my D:\music directory I have directories like the following: 50s music, 60s music, 50s collection, classical, piano, country, my favorites.

When I listen to music, I like to select one of those directories and listen randomally to all the music in that folder. There are many duplicate songs mainly in my favorites because I simply copy songs from one of the directories into my favorites. There are also some duplicates in 50s music and 50s colection and some other directories.

This is perfect for the J3 as well. Each of your "music folders" is actually a "playlist"... but having the advantage of no limit in size. The J3 has a built-in limit of 400 music files for M3U playlists, or 250 music files for its "favorites".

Can I copy these directories directly to the J3 and then play randomly within a directory?

Yes, you can do exactly this.

To get the type of playback you want you simply need to set the "playback control" values to (a) FOLDER, and (b) random/shuffle. And then you initiate your playback using "physical" (i.e. [Folder]) mode, to navigate to whichever of your music folders This will do exactly what you want... keep playback within one folder (i.e. one of your "music folder playlists") and also play in random/shuffle mode from the music files within that folder.

Is there another way I should copy the music to the J3 and should I then create playlists?

No. You've come up with a very excellent workaround for the built-in limitations of the J3 as far as "playlists" go.

Are the duplicate songs going to create a problem?

No, as long as you remain in "physical" browse mode and stick to [Folders] navigation.

This does present an issue regarding album art, since this approach can't use the very simple "cover.jpg" method (where there is a single "cover.jpg" image in a single physical folder that corresponds to the music files for a single album). But if you have your album art imbedded into the tags of each music file, then the J3 can handle that method as well, and your duplicate music files will not be an issue.

Yes, if you have duplicate music files, then if you ever did browse "logically" (i.e. by the internal tag field values like album, artist, song title, genre or year) you WOULD see duplicate entries. But as long as you stick to playing music "physically" (i.e. with [Folders] through your "music playlist folders" as you described above) you will never be bothered by the effect of duplicate music files.

[bpratt]

Thank you so much for your reply. I noticed that firmware V2.29 is now available. Should I install this new firmware before I start loading music?

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by bpratt

Thank you so much for your reply. I noticed that firmware V2.29 is now available. Should I install this new firmware before I start loading music?

Fully charging it and installing the latest firmware would make sense.

Edit: BTW your music folder genre makes sense to me too, I did this with my latin music for a party once