[REQ] Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

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mavhas
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:13 am
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

[REQ] Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by mavhas »

BACKGROUND
iPod: Classic 7th gen (modified by swapping the 160 GB HD for a 480 GB solid state disk).
MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
PC: Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)


I have hundreds of gigabytes of audiobooks, radio plays, audio dramas, documentaries, interviews, et cetera.
I listen to these exclusively 'on the go', i.e. on my iPod.

From all the information I found and tests I did, it seems that 'bookmarking' (remembering the place in an audio file you left off and want to start listening from again next time) will only be carried over to a portable player if the file type is set to audiobooks.

ISSUE
Problem is that doing that (changing the file type) will cause all audiobooks files to be shown in one huge list (which is known and seems to be the default behaviour, if I read all the documentation correctly).
That is horrific as some of my audiobook consist of well over a hundred files per book...so it makes any convenient scrolling or searching an absolute nightmare.

Changing the Genre to 'book' or 'audiobook' or anything else with 'book' makes no difference at all.

HELP!
Am I doing something wrong, or missing something?

* If so, help!
I can't find the proper option to carry over bookmarking to my iPod without resorting to the 'audiobooks' file type change described above.

* If not, can I make a feature request to either
  • enable (carry-over) bookmarking based on genre OR
  • an option to enable/disable (carry-over) bookmarking on any file type OR
  • an option to display audiobook files as album to avoid these 'one huge list' headaches.
Many thanks for any help!
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by Lowlander »

Is the display issue of Audiobooks in MediaMonkey or on the iPod?
mavhas
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:13 am
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by mavhas »

It's on the iPod proper, LowLander!
Not_tech_savy
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:32 pm

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by Not_tech_savy »

mavhas wrote: Sat Oct 23, 2021 9:51 am BACKGROUND
iPod: Classic 7th gen (modified by swapping the 160 GB HD for a 480 GB solid state disk).
MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
PC: Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)


I have hundreds of gigabytes of audiobooks, radio plays, audio dramas, documentaries, interviews, et cetera.
I listen to these exclusively 'on the go', i.e. on my iPod.

From all the information I found and tests I did, it seems that 'bookmarking' (remembering the place in an audio file you left off and want to start listening from again next time) will only be carried over to a portable player if the file type is set to audiobooks.

ISSUE
Problem is that doing that (changing the file type) will cause all audiobooks files to be shown in one huge list (which is known and seems to be the default behaviour, if I read all the documentation correctly).
That is horrific as some of my audiobook consist of well over a hundred files per book...so it makes any convenient scrolling or searching an absolute nightmare.

Changing the Genre to 'book' or 'audiobook' or anything else with 'book' makes no difference at all.

HELP!
Am I doing something wrong, or missing something?

* If so, help!
I can't find the proper option to carry over bookmarking to my iPod without resorting to the 'audiobooks' file type change described above.

* If not, can I make a feature request to either
  • enable (carry-over) bookmarking based on genre OR
  • an option to enable/disable (carry-over) bookmarking on any file type OR
  • an option to display audiobook files as album to avoid these 'one huge list' headaches.
Many thanks for any help!
So is it just the memory you upgraded or the OS too? I don't think their is a lot of customisation that can be done for an Ipod classic. Can it actually read the additional memory?

I was in the same boat. Not sure which generation it was but I was using a 160gb ipod classic, had to put a new battery in it then everything else started to fail and couldn't find affordable parts, so beginning of 2021 I upgraded to an android s21 ultra 500gb and am quite happy with it.

- text searching is awesome
- battery doesn't last as long, but depending on settings can last a full day
- doesn't support adding memory and would've preffered 1tb but I can work with it.
- Also no headphone jack, which nearly made me get something else but I found I actually prefer wireless earphones, even though they need to be charged regularly. But I now have about 6 pairs of my $10 preffered wired headphones just sitting around lol.

Sorry I can't help you guy. If you need a second opinion on testing things out though. I'll see if mine still works and try implementing what you're trying to do.
Also why so many files for audiobooks, is it a new file per chapter?
MMW5 - 2690 beta Gold
MMA2 - 1073 beta Pro
Phone - S23 Ultra - liked the S21 Ultra more
mavhas
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:13 am
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by mavhas »

Not_tech_savy wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:59 pm

So is it just the memory you upgraded or the OS too? I don't think their is a lot of customisation that can be done for an Ipod classic. Can it actually read the additional memory?
It's a classic, so no memory: just a hard drive. I had it swapped out for a much larger solid state disk (which is both faster and more energy-efficient). But yeah, aside from battery and hard drive there is nothing much you can do to meaningfully update an iPod Classic. (So no updating the OS or anything).
android s21 ultra 500gb


Interesting. It may well be I need to switch over at one point.
Thing is that I really, really, really love the iPod MP3 player. It still is hands down the very best designed MP3 player ever. Especially the click/scroll wheel is absolutely genius. There is no player I know that comes even close.
- battery doesn't last as long, but depending on settings can last a full day
That's not very long at all though!
Or do you mean on continuous play? For standby mode I think it's actually awful: the iPod can last in standby mode for well over three weeks!
- Also no headphone jack
I hate that so much as well!
I hear ya on the zillions of wired headphones laying about. Same here!
What really bugs me is that I can get a really good sound with some $10 - $40 wired in-ear phones, but a similar experience with wireless will easily set me back three to four times that amount!
And indeed the continuous charging is a pain.

I know, I know...way of the future. And I'm sure I'll get used to it.
But still...
If you need a second opinion on testing things out though
Well, actually I'd be really interested to learn whether or not something like my problem happens also on YOUR mobile player (i.e. your android one).
Do audiobooks also just appear as a list of files?
Or do you see them as folders/albums?
(And do you have bookmarking enabled?)
Also why so many files for audiobooks, is it a new file per chapter?
Can be.
Sometimes it makes no sense to me either: I have some Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish, and especially in the older versions some "scenes" are just a minute long! So you get one story that is cut up in 40-70 "chapters"!
Didn't really bother me, but it IS a nightmare when you have to scroll through (which is the problem right now).
Last edited by mavhas on Fri Oct 29, 2021 5:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
iPod: Classic 7th gen (modified by swapping the 160 GB HD for a 480 GB solid state disk).
MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
PC: Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)
mavhas
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:13 am
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by mavhas »

Lowlander wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:25 pm Is the display issue of Audiobooks in MediaMonkey or on the iPod?
Hopefully this screenshot shows what I mean:
So this is a screenshot of the music list , showing albums (in folder view) the way I really want.
Image

This is how syncing through iTunes my "spoken word" albums were displayed on my iPod as well, including bookmarking.
(In iTunes there is/was an option to enable bookmarking on file level.
So it didn't matter what genre or type the file would be classified as).

But this is what the audiobooks list look like...just an endless list of files.
Image

So right now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place:
  • * either I do get bookmarking working on the iPod, but accept I just need to scrol through thousands of files to find anything
  • * or I get the nice album view, but have to forget about bookmarking.
:-(
iPod: Classic 7th gen (modified by swapping the 160 GB HD for a 480 GB solid state disk).
MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
PC: Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)
Not_tech_savy
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:32 pm

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by Not_tech_savy »

My bad
Last edited by Not_tech_savy on Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
MMW5 - 2690 beta Gold
MMA2 - 1073 beta Pro
Phone - S23 Ultra - liked the S21 Ultra more
Not_tech_savy
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:32 pm

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by Not_tech_savy »

mavhas wrote: Fri Oct 29, 2021 5:26 am
Not_tech_savy wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 8:59 pm
If you need a second opinion on testing things out though
Well, actually I'd be really interested to learn whether or not something like my problem happens also on YOUR mobile player (i.e. your android one).
Do audiobooks also just appear as a list of files?
Or do you see them as folders/albums?
(And do you have bookmarking enabled?)
Also why so many files for audiobooks, is it a new file per chapter?
Can be.
Sometimes it makes no sense to me either: I have some Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish, and especially in the older versions some "scenes" are just a minute long! So you get one story that is cut up in 40-70 "chapters"!
Didn't really bother me, but it IS a nightmare when you have to scroll through (which is the problem right now).
I prefer audible for audiobooks. And I searched all over my phone and can't find where they're stored. But on laptop I think it's just one file. The one I'm looking at says it's 327mb. I assume that's the whole thing. Tried to get MM to read it, but I think audible has drm.
As far as I can tell MMA doesn't do bookmarking. It'll remember where you are if you don't change the song, but if you change and comeback you're starting over. I tried bookmarking on MMW on an hour long comedy special and it remembered my place when I came back to it. Idk if that helps you though.
Actually where are you getting your audiobooks from?
Idk if it sorts the same way but on MMA if I go into album artist and pick someone it shows them by album in a picture (grid?) View or I can change over to track listing and it'll list all of the tracks by that album artist.
Also you can text search for what you want. A lot better than scrolling in my opinion.
Last edited by Not_tech_savy on Sat Oct 30, 2021 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
MMW5 - 2690 beta Gold
MMA2 - 1073 beta Pro
Phone - S23 Ultra - liked the S21 Ultra more
mavhas
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:13 am
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

[REQ] Bookmarking on any file type (to carry over to iPod)

Post by mavhas »

Hi!
As per the issue I mentioned in this forum topic viewtopic.php?f=33&t=100433 I would like to ask if it's possible to implement/enable the Bookmarking option to carry over to a mobile device (iPod) on syncing

a) for all or any file types (so not just audiobooks)

-or-

b) on a genre rather than a file type

Background can be found in the link, but in summary:
bookmarking carry-over to iPod on syncing only works on filetype 'audiobook'.
However the specific audiobook subcategory/menu (which is separate from the music or genres menu) on an iPod shows separate files only. Not an album view. This is a nightmare to manage and scroll through.

Screenshots here: viewtopic.php?p=489396#p489396
iPod: Classic 7th gen (modified by swapping the 160 GB HD for a 480 GB solid state disk).
MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
PC: Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)
mavhas
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:13 am
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by mavhas »

I have opened two Requests in the appropriate forum, as this particular thread, interesting as it is, is getting a bit off-topic and a bit hard to read. :D

I'll be happy to take the conversation on audio books, gear and quoting on forums to the Off Topic forum in a separate topic, Not_tech_savy! I'll tag you there (if I can), so you can find it.

My feature requests can be found here:
iPod: Classic 7th gen (modified by swapping the 160 GB HD for a 480 GB solid state disk).
MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
PC: Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)
Not_tech_savy
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:32 pm

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by Not_tech_savy »

mavhas wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 10:16 am I have opened two Requests in the appropriate forum, as this particular thread, interesting as it is, is getting a bit off-topic and a bit hard to read. :D

I'll be happy to take the conversation on audio books, gear and quoting on forums to the Off Topic forum in a separate topic, Not_tech_savy! I'll tag you there (if I can), so you can find it.

My feature requests can be found here:
My bad for getting off topic. I was asking where you get your audiobooks, because mine are one file and if I get one from where you do in your multi file format. I can put it on my classic ipod and see if I can work some magic to get you album view set up. Also I can add it to MMA and see if that does what you want, if you're interested.
MMW5 - 2690 beta Gold
MMA2 - 1073 beta Pro
Phone - S23 Ultra - liked the S21 Ultra more
mavhas
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2021 10:13 am
Location: The Hague, The Netherlands

Re: Bookmarking on portable media players (iPod)

Post by mavhas »

Not_tech_savy wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 3:28 pm My bad for getting off topic.
No worries, man! :D
I was asking where you get your audiobooks, because mine are one file and if I get one from where you do in your multi file format. I can put it on my classic ipod and see if I can work some magic to get you album view set up.
Ohhh, I see!
To be honest, I doubt it: it seems endemic to how iPod reads the damn things.

Hmmm....I don't think I have any links available for free downloads. But I will send you a direct message through the forum to work something out. To be continued!
Also I can add it to MMA and see if that does what you want, if you're interested.
YES!
I'd be VERY interested what happens there! (both on how the tracks show up and whether it keeps the 'bookmarking')
iPod: Classic 7th gen (modified by swapping the 160 GB HD for a 480 GB solid state disk).
MediaMonkey 5.0.1.2433
PC: Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)
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