Link to file?

[hunterX]

Hi,

Can someone help?

I've got this file structure on my M3L:

- Artist (Folder)
- Album (Folder)
- Song1.mp3
- Song2.mp3
- Song3.mp3
...
- Single1 (Folder)
- SongA.mp3
- SongB.mp3
- Single2 (Folder)
- SongX.mp3
- SongY.mp3

Since "SongA.mp3@Single1" often turns out to be "Song1.mp3@Album" and "SongX.mp3@Single2" turns out to be "Song2.mp3@Album", is it possible to replace them by some kinds of link/playlist to save some space?

Final result:

- Artist (Folder)
- Album (Folder)
- Song1.mp3
- Song2.mp3
- Song3.mp3
...
- Single1 (Folder)
- SongA.m3u? pointing to Song1.mp3@Album
- SongB.mp3
- Single2 (Folder)
- SongX.m3u? pointing to Song2.mp3@Album
- SongY.mp3

Thanks for helping

PS this site is great :) keep up the good job

[Ciaran]

I don't think the M3 will read m3u files that are outside the playlist folder.

But I'm sure exity will correct me on this ;)

[Martinp]

To be honest I am totally confused at what you are talking about. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I need bed.

There are a lot of smart iAUDIO users here - I'm sure youw ill have something figured out by the time I wake up.

[Ciaran]

It took me a while to.

Basicly he wants to create a folder for any singles an artist releases. So e.g. if he bought The Eminem Show he would create a folder for the song "Without Me" becuase it was released as a single. But instead of having the song "Without Me" in the album folder and in the single folder he just want to put a m3u in the singles folder.

At least thats what I think he's saying.

[andy]

maybe that issue hunter is talking about has been covered with the latest firmware (1.30) if you don't got that one, try to update to it

[floam]

It's not very complicated, he wants it to respect symbolic links (AKA "shortcuts") for cases such as a song being on both a single and a full album, so he could save space by not having the same file on the hard disk twice. The current firmware doesn't do this. Maybe you should email cowon and ask?

[ecb5]

Excellent question!
I was thinking about the same thing.
My mp3 structure is by artist then song name.
But what to do when its a duet?
I want no song twice in my player.

[Freexe]

I cant even focus on the question!

[ecb5]

The question is very simple.
Exity can you ask cowon about this?

[Vlad Tepes Drac]

ahh after reading floam's explanation i finally understand the question. At first i was like WTF?!?!?

And ecb5 brings up a good point, like with a duet, i was also thinking about that previously and deciding that having a duet in just one artist folder will make it less efficient later if i need to find it!
For example if i had Eminem and D12, and i didnt remember whether i put it into D12 folder or Eminem, then i have to scroll thru both folders (and i have LOTS of artist folders) to find it!

So this shortcut thing would actually be a really great feature :D

[Martinp]

I've never heard any other commpany implement a feature like this and to be honest - how should it be done?

Windows shortcut files? No support for Mac and Linux - we can't have that can we.
m3u files? Nah, because then my M3 would play my m3u playlists that I have located in my folders for when I want to play them on the PC ...

If anybody has a goo technichal and easy idea of how to implement this across all operating systems and an easy way of creating these links, then it would be a good idea to post this idea.

[Terry]

i would have thought you could create a file with the text:
<REDIRECT>"File Path"</REDIRECT>

It could be a text file with the file type *.rdc (i made it up but it could be anything)

Then the M3's firmware would have to be changed so it:
-read .*.rdc
-Displays *.rdc as a normal .mp3 file (possible a different symbol)
-read the file path inside *.rdc
-redirect to file and play it
-play next song in original folder where the *.rdc

Thats how id say to do it but hey .. i have no knowledge in programming.

[c3p0]

Terry: I think that might very well be a plausible way of implementing links. Then it would only be a matter of doing a small shell-hack for windows, and most users wouldn't even have to edit the .rdc-files themselves.

[Vlad Tepes Drac]

or you could just program the M3's firmware to read normal shortcut files .lnk and then u just place the shortcut into whatever folder you need, and the m3 reads it and it points to the file you want.

Easy as that...dont even need to create a new filetype :p

[andy]

sounds easy, but what if you got a mac or linux as your primary os? (there'd be a way to do this *.lnk files via a shell script, but i'm not such a shell-guru...)

[Terry]

does mac and linux use some sort of file as a shortcut? you could incorporate all of them. unless they are different and have some weird non file shortcut.

[andy]

yeah, afaik theres some file thing doing this, and that should also be the same on mac os X. (for the non-darwin macs i don't know, as only the X has the unix-like way of operation)