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#259796 - 06/07/2005 13:45 Playlist question
SonicSnoop
addict

Registered: 29/06/2002
Posts: 531
Loc: Triangle, VA
I was wondering, I have my playlists basicly setup root - artist - albums and thats how I store my mp3s on my network drive. now what I am wondering is I also have a (favorites) playlist that I currently have like 144 songs on that I pull from random albums and such.. currently as I find songsand add songs I have to go through both empegs and make sure to add the same songs so the favorites is the same on both. Is there some way to save this playlist and load it to the other empeg easily with out duplicating the mp3s I already have on my drive? Is there some kind of shortcut/pointer file that could be used?
_________________________
-D Modifying and Tweaking is a journey, not a destination................................ MKIIa : 60gig - 040103286 - Blue - v2 + PCATS tuner MKIIa : 20gig - 040103260 - Blue - v3a8 + Mark Lord Special Edition Cherry Dock

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#259797 - 06/07/2005 14:00 Re: Playlist question [Re: SonicSnoop]
pgrzelak
carpal tunnel

Registered: 15/08/2000
Posts: 4859
Loc: New Jersey, USA
Well, if I read this correctly, you could always use Empeg Clone or netcat or rsync to keep the empegs completely syncronized with each other. I use the rsync approach to keep the content on my players identical.
_________________________
Paul Grzelak
200GB with 48MB RAM, Illuminated Buttons and Digital Outputs

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#259798 - 06/07/2005 14:14 Re: Playlist question [Re: pgrzelak]
SonicSnoop
addict

Registered: 29/06/2002
Posts: 531
Loc: Triangle, VA
Does it matter that my v2 player has 2 drives and my v3a8 only has one, and the fact they are 2 differnt software vers. Could rsync still work for that?
_________________________
-D Modifying and Tweaking is a journey, not a destination................................ MKIIa : 60gig - 040103286 - Blue - v2 + PCATS tuner MKIIa : 20gig - 040103260 - Blue - v3a8 + Mark Lord Special Edition Cherry Dock

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#259799 - 06/07/2005 14:29 Re: Playlist question [Re: SonicSnoop]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5680
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
Does it matter that my v2 player has 2 drives and my v3a8 only has one


No, with one (rather large) caveat. I'll explain:

Using rsync to synchronise empegs assumes that you have a "master" empeg, which is the one that you upload new content to, and one (or more) "slave" empegs, which get the new content using rsync.

The way that the document is written (I wrote it) implies that it'll only work if both empegs have the same number of drives. Specifically, this bit:

Quote:
Do the same, but for drive1.


...implies this.

Now, if you use the 2-drive empeg as the master, then, theoretically, you can issue the following commands on the slave, and it'll merge the content of the two drives to the one drive:

Code:
dest-empeg:/drive0# rsync -auv --delete rsync://source-empeg/drive0/fids .

dest-empeg:/drive0# rsync -auv --delete rsync://source-empeg/drive1/fids .



This would cause the two source drives (drive0/fids and drive1/fids) to be merged onto one drive (drive0).

Except for the '--delete' line. The problem here is that you issue the first command, which copies half of the updated content onto the slave empeg, but also deletes any files that weren't in that half. Just in time for the second command to copy those files over again, and delete the content that isn't in that half.

Not good. What you could try is replacing those two commands with this one:

Code:
dest-empeg:/drive0# rsync -auv --delete rsync://source-empeg/drive0/fids \

rsync://source-empeg/drive1/fids .



With a bit of luck, that'll cause rsync to merge the two file lists before it starts. What it does is give rsync two source directories and one destination directory on the same command line.

Note that I've not tried this: both of my empegs are two-disk, and neither of them are next to me at the moment.

Quote:
2 differnt software vers. Could rsync still work for that?


Yep. If you're using the rsync instructions, then the player's not actually running, so the player version is a moot point.

Note that this isn't for the faint-hearted, so make sure you've got a copy of everything just in case. Once you get the hang of it, though, it's a pretty slick way of keeping your empegs synchronised.
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-- roger

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#259800 - 06/07/2005 14:39 Re: Playlist question [Re: Roger]
SonicSnoop
addict

Registered: 29/06/2002
Posts: 531
Loc: Triangle, VA
Thank you, I will give that a try
_________________________
-D Modifying and Tweaking is a journey, not a destination................................ MKIIa : 60gig - 040103286 - Blue - v2 + PCATS tuner MKIIa : 20gig - 040103260 - Blue - v3a8 + Mark Lord Special Edition Cherry Dock

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#259801 - 06/07/2005 14:51 Re: Playlist question [Re: SonicSnoop]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Quote:
Is there some way to save this playlist and load it to the other empeg easily with out duplicating the mp3s I already have on my drive?

YES, I do this. I bugged Mike Schrag enough so that he wrote me a Java utility to synchronize playlists between the Empeg, the Central, and the Karma. I did a long post on it a while back and I'll see if I can find a link to it. Either that or I'll do a writeup on it here. Gimme a little while and I'll get back to this thread and update it with the information.
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Tony Fabris

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#259802 - 06/07/2005 15:55 Re: Playlist question [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Okay...

Let's assume that you've got two players. In my case, the two players are a Central and an Empeg, but it could be two empegs and the procedure would be the same.

Let's also assume that the two players have *roughly* the same song files on them. Not necessarily the exact same songs, but mostly the same.

Let's also assume that you've designated one of the players as the "master", in that you perform all of the playlist edits on that master player, and you want to synchronize those changes over to the other player.

Let's also assume that you only want the *playlists* synched over, and you want to have those playlists hook up to the corresponding songs on the other player. You don't care about transferring the actual song files between the players, you've already done that part.

Let's also assume that you accept the responsibility that if there's a mismatch in the song files between the players, the result will be a few orphaned songs or blank playlists on the destination player. And you're OK with that.

Now... ASSUMING all of the above is true, here is how to transfer the playlists from one player to another:


- Install the latest Java run time engine from http://www.java.com .

- Create a folder for Jemplode. Such as C:\Program Files\Rio\Jemplode .

- Grab jemplode.jar from http://www.jempeg.org/ and save it in your Jemplode folder.

- Go to http://rmml.dev.java.net .

- Navigate to the "Documents and Files" section.

- Grab rmmlite.jar from the "RMML releases" folder at and save it in your Jemplode folder.

- Grab riobackup.jar and riorid.jar from the "Other Karma Apps" folder and save them in your Jemplode folder.

- Hook up both of your players to the LAN and make sure you know their IP addresses and you can ping them and/or navigate to their hijack web interfaces. In the examples below, I will use 192.168.0.5 to represent the "master" player, and 192.168.0.4 to represent the "destination" player.

- Get a DOS prompt going in that Jemplode folder.

- Refresh the RIDs on both players. This is a time-consuming process. This is necessary so that each song has an associated RID and the playlists can be matched per-RID:

java -jar riorid.jar empeg 192.168.0.5 " " missing
java -jar riorid.jar empeg 192.168.0.4 " " missing

(Note: The " " is there because I have no emplode-password set up on my empeg. If you have a password, put it there.)

- After a long long wait (note: This wait is only long the first time you do it. It will get shorter on later synchs since most of the RIDs will already be in place), create a backup file of your master player's playlists:

del "backup.empeg" (to make sure the file isn't there)

java.exe -jar riobackup.jar empeg 192.168.0.5 "" backup backup.empeg


- Once you've got the backup file, "restore" it to the destination player, using the "wiperestore" parameter so that it erases the existing playlists and puts your master set of playlists onto it:

java.exe -jar riobackup.jar empeg 192.168.0.4 " " wiperestore backup.empeg



All done.

This should, in theory, work. But I've only used this procedure in controlled conditions on my own players, so I could envision ways this could trash things for you. Be ready for problems along the way, and please report success or failure here.
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Tony Fabris

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#259803 - 06/07/2005 16:00 Re: Playlist question [Re: tfabris]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Heh, it turns out the FAQ already had the old thread about riorid/riobackup linked.

I'm redirecting the FAQ to this thread because my procedure is updated to fit the newer version of riobackup, including the new wiperestore parameter.
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Tony Fabris

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#259804 - 06/07/2005 16:25 Re: Playlist question [Re: tfabris]
SonicSnoop
addict

Registered: 29/06/2002
Posts: 531
Loc: Triangle, VA
Nice! Much more along the lines of what I was wanting to do.. really its just one playlist I want to update, so copying all the music was a little over kill since I already got that on them.I have a couple albums Im about to add to my players. I will try to do this tonight or tomorrow. Should be interesting hooking them both up at the same time though, I normally use my one dock for them both. Gonna have to find another cable.. but thats minor details Thanks for taking the time to write this all up for me, will let you know how it goes
_________________________
-D Modifying and Tweaking is a journey, not a destination................................ MKIIa : 60gig - 040103286 - Blue - v2 + PCATS tuner MKIIa : 20gig - 040103260 - Blue - v3a8 + Mark Lord Special Edition Cherry Dock

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#259805 - 06/07/2005 17:53 Re: Playlist question [Re: SonicSnoop]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
OH!

If it's just one playlist you want to update, then just refresh the rids and copy/paste that playlist in Jemplode. The newest jemplodes let you copy from one player and paste to another. If you do it in Jemplode, theoretically it'll just link the songs that are already there, and download/upload songs that aren't there yet.

I wonder if you even have to refresh the rids, or if Jemplode will do it for you automatically? Mike?
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Tony Fabris

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#259806 - 06/07/2005 18:04 Re: Playlist question [Re: tfabris]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
How do emplode/jEmplode deal with .m3u files? Maybe it'd be easier to just generate an .m3u file referencing the tracks in question as long as emplode can understand that it already has the tracks uploaded.
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Bitt Faulk

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#259807 - 06/07/2005 19:34 Re: Playlist question [Re: wfaulk]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
It doesn't, unfortunately. It treats M3U files as if they were LNK files: as shortcuts to MP3 files, nothing more.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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