I'm currently using iTunes (on OS X 10.8) to manage my music library and to sync an 80 GB iPod Classic. What I currently do is that I have iTunes sync my whole music library to the iPod, re-encoding to 128 kbps AAC all files whose bitrate is higher, so that everything fits (in my iTunes library, everything is in MP3 with various bitrates).
I'd like to switch to Banshee (still on OS X 10.8), and to sync it with my new Sandisk Sansa Fuze+, but I have a lot of questions about syncing the Fuze+. The Fuze+ is rockboxed, and it has both an 8 GB internal memory and a 64 GB micro SD card.
Here's what I'd like to do, in an ideal world :
- Sync my whole music library to the Fuze+;
- Use both the internal memory and the SD card without having to choose manually what goes where (for instance, fill up the SD card first, then use the internal memory);
- Re-encode all files with a bitrate higher than 128 kbps to 128 kbps Ogg Vorbis;
- Make sure that the cover art (currently embedded in the files' ID3 tags) is copied to each album folder on the Fuze+ in a way that rockbox understands (cover.jpg files seem to work)
The Fuze+'s internal memory is recognized automatically by Banshee. I managed to get Banshee to recognize the SD card by adding a .is_audio_player file at its root, with the following content :
name="SANSA FUZEP SD CARD"
audio_folders=Music/
folder_depth=2
output_formats=application/ogg
cover_art_file_type=jpeg
cover_art_file_name=cover.jpg
cover_art_size=320
playlist_formats=audio/x-mpegurl,audio/mpeg-url,audio/m3u
playlist_path=Playlists/
However, after doing some tests, I have the following questions/issues:
- I don't see a way to use both the internal memory and SD card without managing everything manually, since they are recognized as separate devices. Is there a way to do that ? If not, I can live without using the internal memory, though those 8 GB would come in handy until the day bigger micro SD cards are available.
- I can set some options (like the audio folder or the supported file formats) for the SD card in the .is_audio_player file, but this doesn't seem to work for the internal memory. Is there a way to set such options for the Fuze+'s internal memory ?
- I have set the encoding options for both "devices" as Ogg Vorbis, quality = 4. But my MP3 files only get converted to Ogg when I sync to the SD card (whose .is_audio_player file tells banshee that it only accept Ogg files). Also, this probably won't work if, one day, I decide to add some high bitrate Ogg Vorbis files to my banshee library. Is there a way to get Banshee to re-encode all files whose bitrate is higher than 128 kbps when syncing ? Or, failling that, to just re-encode all files when syncing ?
- If I sync the library to the internal memory, cover.jpg files seem to get created in each album folder, and to be recognized by rockbox. However, if I sync to the SD card, I don't get those cover.jpg files and rockbox doesn't show the cover art. Is there more to do besides setting the 3 "cover_art_xxx" options I set in the .is_audio_player file ?
I have tried googling for those issues (that's how I found out about the .is_audio_player file), but I haven't been able to answer all my questions, so if anyone can help me, I'll be infinitely grateful.
Also, I'm a - rather new - developer, with some basic experience with the C# language. If some of the feature I need/want aren't available at all in Banshee, I may try to see what I can do about it (especially since Banshee is supposed to be very extensible). But, hopefully, things like re-encoding synced files or syncing album art should already work and I'm just not doing it right?
Thanks a lot!
