MP3 Music Playlist creator needed

[jfheath]

What I was meaning in my last post - if you use the Zumo to create a playlist then access that from wherever it has stored it, you get something like this. Well - exactly like this, becasue I have just done it.

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF: -1, The Boys of Summer.mp3
3:/MP3/Don Henley/The Boys of Summer.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, Viva La Vida.mp3
3:/MP3/ColdPlay/Viva La Vida.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, Someone I Knew.mp3
3:/MP3/Gordon Haskell/Harrys Bar/Someone I Knew.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, The End
3:/MP3/The Beatles/Abbey Road/The End.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, Hallelujah
3:/MP3/Various Artists/Acoustic Love/Hallelujah.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, Sultans of Swing
3:/MP3/Dire Straits/Alchemy- Dire Straits Live Disc 1/Sultans of Swing.mp3

No there is a definite format to that - it actually mirrors the folder structure of the mp3 files that I have placed on the XT - so providing from your media player you can create a list that contains a folder, an album and a song, you could make a playlist on your computer and see how the text file has to change in order to match up with the Zumos format.

THe MP3 player on the XT does not take any notice of the folder structure - it uses the tags within the MP3 file for its information and sorting - so providing the mp3 files are the same name and the titles are the same - you could reconstruct this however you wanted.

I guess the EXTINF is a flag to indicate what the title of the song is.
The 3:/MP3 etc is where the mp3 file is located to play that song.

At present my Windows Media player cannot create a playlist.

But thinking about it - I could create a spreadsheet that allowed you to build up play lists of this format quite quickly from the information that is in you MP3 folder on your Zumo.

I'll see if the idea works. Do you have Excel ?

[lkraus]

I've verified that this method using VLC and the card reader to create a playlist for the folder on the card does work when the card is replaced in my XT:
Create M3U Playlist in VLC Media Player

I've also verified that MediaMonkey (MM) can also create the playlist, though the method to to create the playlist from the folder on the card may not be obvious and I don't currently have time to provide a step by step procedure. It's not difficult, but it may take a little time to be comfortable with the many options. Creating new playlists from a MediaMonkey collection on the PC and sending it to the XT is even easier, but you are apparently trying to work with files already on the card.

The XT does recognize both .M3U and .M3U8 formats.

There is no need to edit the .M3U files manually, or resort to spreadsheets. (Would you do that to create a route, or would you use Basecamp?)

Yes, Windows Media Player is garbage.

Even the free version of MM is a much better tool (database) to manage your music. Keep the collection on the PC, create the playlists there and just "Send To..." your device. (sound familiar?) MM will send the music and the playlist to the folder(s) of your choice on the device. It's easy to create a new list - select and drag by title, artist, album, genre, or any other criteria you like. Automatic playlists can update themselves if you add new music that fit your criteria, and then synch to the XT to update the files and the list. I use one that generates a playlist of about 20GB for my Zumo which selects random songs from my 90GB collection, excludes anything tagged "Christmas" or "Classical", includes only songs played more than once (new stuff needs review before I travel with it), and generates a new list every time I sync so I have fresh music.

[jfheath]

There is no need to edit the .M3U files manually, or resort to spreadsheets. (Would you do that to create a route, or would you use Basecamp?)

I got the impression that @VeeBee had exhausted all of the options like that that were available to him !

It worked though, but not straight forward - except running into problems with file names with weird characters in them.

[VeeBee]

Update:
using the card reader I’ve now created a playlist with VLC. When I open the playlist with notepad to check its contents, the paths to the respective mp3 files refer to drive D: which is the card reader.

I dont think the xt2 will work with this but I copied the m3u playlist file to the XT2 internal storage MP3/playlists folder.

When I restarted the Xt2 the playlist name appeared but when I touch it, there’s nothing there, it’s blank.

TBH I didn’t think this would work because the Xt2 doesn’t use drive letters and thus doesn’t find the files.

So this confirms that playlists created with vlc media player with the card reader will not work when transferred to the zumo.

It seems so far the only way to create a working playlist using a card reader is to manually edit each entry of an existing playlist into the expected garmin file format. But with thousands of files this could take ages.

[VeeBee]

What I was meaning in my last post - if you use the Zumo to create a playlist then access that from wherever it has stored it, you get something like this. Well - exactly like this, becasue I have just done it.

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF: -1, The Boys of Summer.mp3
3:/MP3/Don Henley/The Boys of Summer.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, Viva La Vida.mp3
3:/MP3/ColdPlay/Viva La Vida.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, Someone I Knew.mp3
3:/MP3/Gordon Haskell/Harrys Bar/Someone I Knew.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, The End
3:/MP3/The Beatles/Abbey Road/The End.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, Hallelujah
3:/MP3/Various Artists/Acoustic Love/Hallelujah.mp3
#EXTINF: -1, Sultans of Swing
3:/MP3/Dire Straits/Alchemy- Dire Straits Live Disc 1/Sultans of Swing.mp3

No there is a definite format to that - it actually mirrors the folder structure of the mp3 files that I have placed on the XT - so providing from your media player you can create a list that contains a folder, an album and a song, you could make a playlist on your computer and see how the text file has to change in order to match up with the Zumos format.

THe MP3 player on the XT does not take any notice of the folder structure - it uses the tags within the MP3 file for its information and sorting - so providing the mp3 files are the same name and the titles are the same - you could reconstruct this however you wanted.

I guess the EXTINF is a flag to indicate what the title of the song is.
The 3:/MP3 etc is where the mp3 file is located to play that song.

At present my Windows Media player cannot create a playlist.

But thinking about it - I could create a spreadsheet that allowed you to build up play lists of this format quite quickly from the information that is in you MP3 folder on your Zumo.

I'll see if the idea works. Do you have Excel ?

OK, I’ve confirmed that none of the media players can work with the mp3 files on the XT2 when it’s attached via usb as they can’t open the files.

I’ve also confirmed that playlists can be created when the SD card is placed into a card reader and accessed that way, but none of the playlists created work because the formatting is different and the XT2 can’t find the MP3 files because of incorrect paths etc. Editing these paths etc manually would take days, even weeks!

I don’t have Media Monkey yet, only have Windows Media Player and VLC Media Player, the PC isn’t mine so I need to get permission to install MediaMonkey (I only personally use an ipad and iphone) but not sure if MediaMonkey will be able to directly access the usb connected zumo or if it will have the same issues as the others.

@jfheath You asked if I had Excel.. YES I DO Have Excel, but I’m not too well up on it’s usage, I’m more used to using Apple Numbers; is there some way Excel can create playlists?

The biggest hurdle seems to be because garmin changed the way zumo’s work, years ago they just worked, as mentioned previously.

I’ve seen it mentioned somewhere about copying a playlist to the zumo then using Import playlist from the Zumo music menu but I can’t even see anything on the XT2 that says import playlist.

Thanks everyone for all the help and suggestions but after spending days on this issue I’m approaching the stage where I’m thinking I may have to give in.

[VeeBee]

I just tried doing what ikraus suggested, using SENDTO although I can’t see how the xt2 will correct the paths to the files in the playlist.

I copied a folder of mp3 music files to C: drive.
I created a M3U playlist with VLC media
Then used right click SEND TO the XT2.
The playlist appeared in the root of the SD card in the xt2.
I unplugged the XT2 from the PC and restarted the device.

Then using the xt2 device I checked if the playlist was there.
NO.. The playlist did not appear, it wasn’t there.

Next I reconnected the XT2 to the PC and moved the playlist from the root of the SD card to the zumo internal storage music/mp3/playlists folder.

I unplugged the XT2 from the PC and restarted it again.

This time the playlist did show up with the other playlists but when I touched it to open, it was empty. This proves as previously mentioned that playlists created externally to the device do not work.

I then did the same thing again but this time created m3u8 playlist instead of m3u.

Once again, the playlist title appeared on the XT2 but when opened it was empty.

Again proving that playlists created externally to the device do not work without being manually edited.

I then had a thought.. I’ll plug in the XT2 again and have VLC try to open the files directly from the zumo (I’m sure I already tried this before). VLC sees the XT2 device and lists the files on there but when I try to import/open anything it sees null files and gives errors.

So ultimately after days of messing about with this device, it has me beaten.. it is incompatible with a Windows PC.

I now have to go back to creating playlist manually on the XT2 itself, this is going to take months as there is no proper music management facility and adding songs takes ages scrolling through every time.

Thanks everyone who replied, for all your help and suggestions.

[jfheath]

Still working on this - I've had some success with the playlist from VLC, but hit a snag for which I need to use Microsoft Word.

Do you have Microsfot Word ?

Actually - as well as that info - send me a playlist file that you created on VLC. I'll modify it and send it back. See if it works.

I'll PM you an email address.