MSC playlist converter for e200/V2 with SD support

[ger]

Last week i got a sansa e260v2. I couldn't find a working tool for creating playlists in MSC mode for both internal memory and SD. Therefore I created this little application. It's tested under winxp/sp2 and vista.

What does it do?
- does conversion of standard m3u playlists into e200/v2 dual memory playlists
- does not support creation of m3u files, or syncing/copying of mp3 files, use your favorite tool (like winamp) for that
- does support a single playlist that contains titles from both memories


How to use it?
- copy (or sync) your mp3 files to the e200 (internal memory, SD or mixed)
- copy all wanted m3u playlist files in a directory of your PC
- copy the tool (playlist.exe) also into this directory and run it
- select the drive letters for your e200 and SD memory (or 'none' if not applicable)
- click the button and wait until finished
- thats all


The m3u playlists may contain titles that are not in the player (e.g. if you have multiple SDs). Only the files that are actually found on the e200 appear in the created e200-playlists. So if you exchange your SD, simply do a new conversion and you playlists are up to date with the e200. Every run, all of your playlists (found in the m3u directory) are converted again.


There is one (known) restriction!
The TITLE format in m3u MUST be the same as the format of the mp3 FILENAME.
So if your m3u format is <album> - <title>, then the format of your filenames must also be <album> - <title>.

But I believe this is the default setting for most syncing tools (?).

[CrowdAds]

[ger]

Sorry

[r1ch1]

the first tool that works on my v2, thx, great job, love ya

[Tapeworm]

[quote]

Originally Posted by ger

How to use it?
- copy (or sync) your mp3 files to the e200 (internal memory, SD or mixed)
- copy all wanted m3u playlist files in a directory of your PC
- copy the tool (playlist.exe) also into this directory and run it
- select the drive letters for your e200 and SD memory (or 'none' if not applicable)
- click the button and wait until finished
- thats all

Ger -

I was able to create a playlist in SaCaster, but I cannot add songs on my SD card. For some reason, the files won't show up.

I tried your program using the instructions provided. Made a .m3u playlist with M3uEdit program. Tried to convert it with your playlist.exe. Ran for a few seconds, then got a pop-up "Run-time error '9': Subscript out of range."

What did I do wrong? I REALLY wanted this to work. This playlist thing on the v2's is a royal pain-in-the- !

[markus61265]

Thanks a lot for developping and posting!!

[joshuatate]

Great tool!!! Thank you so much!!!

Going to elaborate on the instructions b/c I had to play around before I got it working, since I don't sync my device with a media player. I just use the mass storage features to copy/paste my mp3s.

How I got it to work:
1. In USB 'MSC' mode connect your Sansa to PC.
2. Navigate to the Sansa music folders.
3. Now add the mp3s you will want in your playlist to Windows Media Player 'Now Playing List', like you would any other mp3 on your PC.
a. Right click and select 'Add to Windows Media Player List'
b. Highlight and open the mp3s in Medea Player
c. or what ever other means you may use.
4. In Media Player, save that "Now Playing List" as an M3U playlist in a local folder of your choice.
5. Copy the playlist.exe in that same folder and run it.
6. Select the Sansa drive letter and run it.
7. The tool converts the m3u playlist you created with your Sansa mp3s to the Sansa .pla lists.

Great job!!! Thank you

[ger]

Thanks for explaining joshuatate. I realized my description was not excellent. Another try.

- In fact the tool can be used stand alone, without winamp, WMP or any library manager.
- Copy your mp3 files to the e200's internal memory, SD memory or mixed with windows explorer or similar.
- You could create your m3u files with NotePad or any plain text editor.
- Simply type/copy the filenames, like "03-This is MySong.mp3"in a note, not more then one title per row.
- Save the note as the name of your playlist, e.g. "YourPlaylistName.m3u". No need to add rows that start with #. Also no need to add any fysical path (such as C:\MyMusic\") to the filenames.
- Put all your playlist files plus playlist.exe in a single directory.
- First connect the e200 in MSC mode. When detected, run the program, choose the driveletter(s) and start conversion.
- Every run, ALL of your playlists are converted!

No problem if the mp3-files in your memory do not agree with the titles on your playlists. Files that where not found in the e200 are simply skipped.

I made a few small corrections
- "Subscript out of range" if playlist only has one title (don't know if this was your point, Tapeworm)
- When renewing, existing playlists where not deleted
- When renewing playlists, some of them could be empty or titles where missing. This fix should correct that.
- Put a progress bar on it (can take some time to convert)

I'm sure there will be more bugs.

[cyclon1978]

Hello,

i found an open source project and changed some lines...

short description:

Assumption: all your Music is in "C:\Music"

change "File/Settings - music directory" to "C:\Music"
- you can see all your mp3 files in the tree

move mp3 files to the right side of the gui

choose "File - Save As" and save it for example as test
- The program creates a file with the given name - this is the programs internal playlist format (just a file list)
- The program creates a file test.pla and test.pla.refs

Language is Englisch and German!

Documentation for original program:
http://www.lightdev.com/page/74.htm

if there is some interest i will create a sourceforge project to supply sources...

any comments?

[rothen]

Hi cyclon1978,

finally I've found a tool for playlist generation on the V2. Great!

Thanks!

[ger]

Titles containing extended characters (UTF8) did not appear in the playlist. Playlist converter v1.2 now supports extended characterset .

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by ger

Titles containing extended characters (UTF8) did not appear in the playlist. Playlist converter v1.2 now supports extended characterset .

Hi ger,
I tried your playlist v1.2 and I got 'subscript out of range' error.
This is the contents of my playlist.m3u:
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 01 Forever.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 02 The Heart of Worship.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 03 Draw Me Close.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 04 Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 05 Open the Eyes of My Heart.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 06 Above All.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 07 Breathe.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 08 Let It Rain.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 09 Agnus Dei.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 10 Awesome God.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 11 More Love, More Power.mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 12 Purified [Studio Version].mp3
Michael W. Smith - Worship - 13 Above All [Studio Version].mp3

All the mp3 files are located in the same directory with the m3u file.
And playlist.exe is also in the same directory, when I ran it, I got 'subscript out of range'.

Hope this would help you fix the error.

[ger]

Hi PeterD,

-Does your PC connect to the Sansa in MSC mode?
-Can you see the drive-letter of your Sansa in windows explorer (or 2 drive-letters if your Sansa has a SD memory card) ?

If no, then look elsewhere in this forum how to switch mode or resolve connection problems.

If yes, then try the following:
1. Copy the mp3 files to the MUSIC directory of your Sansa, no matter which drive, no matter which subdirectory.
2. Copy playlist.exe and your .m3u file to any PC-directory, eg. c:\MyPlaylists

Run the program again, this should work.

The converter doesn't copy or sync your mp3-files. You need to do that yourself using your favorite tool, such as Windows Explorer, Winamp, Mediamonkey etc.

[PeterD]

Yes I had it in MSC mode and I had those 2 drive letters shown.

I didn't realize that the MP3 files have to be on Sansa, I had those mp3 files on computer in the same directory.
So that was my mistake, now it works! thans for your help ger!

Peter.

[ger]

No functional changes. just added some error trapping.

Use your favorite tool to manage libraries and m3u playlists.
This tool will convert m3u playlists to a readable format for your Sansa e200/v2

[dragonchi]

OMG!!! it works!!!
thank you soo much!!!!
thanks tahanks thanks!!!

note: thought i might add that when i tried to first use this program i didn't have a 'PLAYLISTS' folder and i was getting error 73.
this is from a fresh format and firmware upgrade. i just got my e280v2 today.

[acidtreat101]

Cool I finally got this to work! I had to use v3 of the tool. I was trying v2 and it wasn't working but I got this to work with the version 3. Thanks!

[melodyman]

at ger: Thanks for your nice tool! It`s very very good :-)

Best regards from Germany

[Hillshum]

Great!

1. I would like it to delete the m3u for me.
2. This will be great as a rockbox plugin (when RB runs on v2s of course)
3. A Rockbox plugin of this sort already exists for irivers
4. script/plugin support for MM/winamp would be sweet.

Clarification: Rather than copy playlists back to the HDD, i find it easier to leave the program on sansa and run it from there

[ger]

Hi Hillshum,

Recently I uploaded v1.5 to another forum. This version can also create playlists for Rockboxed e200/v1 players. Is that what you are looking for?

Other changes:
- Folder names of the Sansa no longer are converted to uppercase.
- Optionally you can create Playlists from m3u files
- Optionally you can create Playlists from the MUSIC (sub)Folders. This will work for both e200/v2 and e200/v1-RockBoxed players.
- Optionally you may skip duplicate entries within a playlist.

Download Playlist v1.5.zip (20K)

Personally I use MediaMonkey to manage my music collection. It's a great program! My own version of playlist snaps directly into the MM database. So I don't need to create m3u files as an intermediate step. It's not ready for uploading yet.

[Hillshum]

No, I have a v2. MM integration would be sweet. Meanwhile, how bout when I select the drive letters, it look there for the m3us to convert?