DrSheep
Headphoneus Supremus
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- Nov 17, 2012
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Background: Due to complete lack of official guide on how Cowon Plenue series of DAPs handle playlist, I have decided to write this quick guide after quite a bit of searching and trial and error. I have tested the methods with my Plenue V with firmware 1.13, but I can only assume this will work across the DAPs running the same OS. Note that I did started out with my Plenue D3, but it seems firmware 1.0.0 has a bug that fail to correctly handle m3u and cue lists. If you have a D2, then please post and let me know will this work or not. Thanks.
Q1: what playlist formats are supported?
A1: Cue sheets (.cue) and partial extended m3u (.m3u).
Q2: what do you mean by partial extended m3u support?
A2: the Plenue OS is weird, as it does handle m3u coded in the official extended schema. However, it CANNOT read URL style paths (/ and %20 and etc), and you have to use Windows style path reference (e.g., \Folder One\Folder Two\My Music.whatever). Note, spaces are OK in the path reference and no need to use quotes.
Q3: since the path starts with a backslash, does it mean Plenue can handle dynamic path?
A3: not really. If the full path of your music FROM THE SD CARD within windows is D:\Folder One\Folder Two\My Music.dsf, and you use \Folder One\Folder Two\My Music.dsf as the path for the m3u or cue list, then you can put the playlist file anywhere WITHIN THE SAME DRIVE, and the Plenue OS will pick it up, phase it, and put it in the "Playlists" menu. However, if you only use the file name as the path, meaning \My Music.dsf, you will need to have the playlist in the same folder as the music files.
Q4: what if I put my list under \Folder One, and use paths like \Folder Two\My Music.dsf within the list?
A4: nope. This is why the Plenue OS is weird, as this normally will work for the extended m3u scheme.
Q5: what's the schema for m3u??
A5: this turns out to be super simple, just use a text editor and save the file as .m3u:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:
\Folder One\Folder Two\My Music1.dsf
#EXTINF:
\Folder One\My Music2.flac
#EXTINF:
\Folder One\Folder Two\Folder Three\My Music3.aac
Q6: what about cue sheet?
A6: as follows and save as .cue file.
FILE "\Folder One\Folder Two\My Music1.dsf" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "\Folder One\My Music2.flac" WAVE
TRACK 02 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "\Folder One\Folder Two\Folder Three\My Music3.aac" WAVE
TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
Q7: do I need any meta tags from the files like title or artist?
A7: nope, the Plenue OS ignores them when phasing the list, so there is no point to having them in the file, hence why EXTINF: has nothing to follow.
Q8: do I need to use special software like MusicBee or JetAudio to make the playlists?
A8: NO, but it will help when you have a big collection and want them in a list. Although JetAudio is pretty old, it does allow you to make m3u with the correct scheme pretty quickly.
Q9: what about software for cue sheets?
A9: I downloaded CUETools 2.1.6 and it work the very first time.
Q10: how do I know my playlist is working and not due to buggy firmware?
A10: if your m3u or cue files were generated and coded correctly, you will NOT see the playlist files once booted up the DAP, but instead see your playlists within the "Playlists" menu option. The Plenue OS generally ignores all file types that it can't handle and hides them, like pdf for example, which you why you get an empty folder when folder browse to "Manual". For all supported file types, it will either just shows them (like flac or dsf), or handled them then hide the files (like jpg, m3u, and cue). However, if the firmware is bugged, like my 1.0.0 Plenue D3, it will shows my valid m3u lists as browsable under folders, and will not correctly process them (put your lists in the Playlists menu.) This is why making playlists for these Plenue DAPs can be such a pain, if you have no way of knowing whether you did something wrong, or the firmware is just bugged.
Q1: what playlist formats are supported?
A1: Cue sheets (.cue) and partial extended m3u (.m3u).
Q2: what do you mean by partial extended m3u support?
A2: the Plenue OS is weird, as it does handle m3u coded in the official extended schema. However, it CANNOT read URL style paths (/ and %20 and etc), and you have to use Windows style path reference (e.g., \Folder One\Folder Two\My Music.whatever). Note, spaces are OK in the path reference and no need to use quotes.
Q3: since the path starts with a backslash, does it mean Plenue can handle dynamic path?
A3: not really. If the full path of your music FROM THE SD CARD within windows is D:\Folder One\Folder Two\My Music.dsf, and you use \Folder One\Folder Two\My Music.dsf as the path for the m3u or cue list, then you can put the playlist file anywhere WITHIN THE SAME DRIVE, and the Plenue OS will pick it up, phase it, and put it in the "Playlists" menu. However, if you only use the file name as the path, meaning \My Music.dsf, you will need to have the playlist in the same folder as the music files.
Q4: what if I put my list under \Folder One, and use paths like \Folder Two\My Music.dsf within the list?
A4: nope. This is why the Plenue OS is weird, as this normally will work for the extended m3u scheme.
Q5: what's the schema for m3u??
A5: this turns out to be super simple, just use a text editor and save the file as .m3u:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:
\Folder One\Folder Two\My Music1.dsf
#EXTINF:
\Folder One\My Music2.flac
#EXTINF:
\Folder One\Folder Two\Folder Three\My Music3.aac
Q6: what about cue sheet?
A6: as follows and save as .cue file.
FILE "\Folder One\Folder Two\My Music1.dsf" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "\Folder One\My Music2.flac" WAVE
TRACK 02 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "\Folder One\Folder Two\Folder Three\My Music3.aac" WAVE
TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 01 00:00:00
Q7: do I need any meta tags from the files like title or artist?
A7: nope, the Plenue OS ignores them when phasing the list, so there is no point to having them in the file, hence why EXTINF: has nothing to follow.
Q8: do I need to use special software like MusicBee or JetAudio to make the playlists?
A8: NO, but it will help when you have a big collection and want them in a list. Although JetAudio is pretty old, it does allow you to make m3u with the correct scheme pretty quickly.
Q9: what about software for cue sheets?
A9: I downloaded CUETools 2.1.6 and it work the very first time.
Q10: how do I know my playlist is working and not due to buggy firmware?
A10: if your m3u or cue files were generated and coded correctly, you will NOT see the playlist files once booted up the DAP, but instead see your playlists within the "Playlists" menu option. The Plenue OS generally ignores all file types that it can't handle and hides them, like pdf for example, which you why you get an empty folder when folder browse to "Manual". For all supported file types, it will either just shows them (like flac or dsf), or handled them then hide the files (like jpg, m3u, and cue). However, if the firmware is bugged, like my 1.0.0 Plenue D3, it will shows my valid m3u lists as browsable under folders, and will not correctly process them (put your lists in the Playlists menu.) This is why making playlists for these Plenue DAPs can be such a pain, if you have no way of knowing whether you did something wrong, or the firmware is just bugged.
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