[ImMersion]

This software program....and i presume the OS on the creative zen xtra is, is the biggest piece of $*%) i have EVER seen.

I just got the zen xtra 40gb and i thought it would be a simple drag and drop from windows, allowing me to preserve the folder architecture i have created over the years for my mp3's.
But noooo, we have to dump EVERYTHING onto the one and only folder in the player, then try to hunt for files from a specific folder, and put them all into a new playlist which we must create..........

If it werent midnight I would be returning this thing!

 

[UAndy]

Hi Imersion,
Maybe try this link
http://www.redchairsoftware.com/
They offer an additional software-part that is added to the windows-explorer. Takes some time for the explorer to open but then it´s quite convenient to operate with drag ´n drop. Only disadvantage can be the use of the conversion of the entire player´s content´s listing (for creating a text file) with some simplified SQL naming. Hope it helps. Otherwise there might be some help from
http://www.nomadness.net/
Check it out - it will give you something to play with over the holidays. Don´t forget to enjoy the great music that comes out of your JB.

 

[GSTom1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ImMersion This software program....and i presume the OS on the creative zen xtra is, is the biggest piece of $*%) i have EVER seen. I just got the zen xtra 40gb and i thought it would be a simple drag and drop from windows, allowing me to preserve the folder architecture i have created over the years for my mp3's. But noooo, we have to dump EVERYTHING onto the one and only folder in the player, then try to hunt for files from a specific folder, and put them all into a new playlist which we must create.......... If it werent midnight I would be returning this thing!

Create a playlist on the player itself. I find it much easier!

BTW, The Zen Xtra is not a folder based mp3 player. Everything is dumped into a central music area and sorted by it's id3 tags. The same goes for the Apple iPod, Rio Karma and other popular players. If you mp3 files are properly tagged, browsing for your music should not be a problem.

If you want folder navigation, then try something like the iRiver H-series.

 

[john_jcb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GSTom1 Create a playlist on the player itself. I find it much easier!

Here I am again wondering how come I don't get it. I have a Zen Xtra and have been making playlists using their software in the Music Library then transferring them to the player.

If you don't mind would you explain how to do this on the player.

Thanks

 

[audiomortis]

I've had my Xtra for a couple days now, and I don't get all the problems people have with the software and interface. All my files are tagged well and in the same format (using MMJB), and I drag them over to the folder, and BAM! it's all right there. I can go to artist or album or anything and find what I want without problem. when I want to make a play list I find the album I want, press in on the wheel, and select "add to play list" and there it goes. If I like it and want to save it I go to "Selected music" and press in the wheel, and select "save as playlist". I can't imagine it being easier.

 

[clemens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audiomortis I've had my Xtra for a couple days now, and I don't get all the problems people have with the software and interface. All my files are tagged well and in the same format (using MMJB), and I drag them over to the folder, and BAM! it's all right there. I can go to artist or album or anything and find what I want without problem. when I want to make a play list I find the album I want, press in on the wheel, and select "add to play list" and there it goes. If I like it and want to save it I go to "Selected music" and press in the wheel, and select "save as playlist". I can't imagine it being easier.

I agree. I don't see why one would want to preserve folder structure (most players don't do this) when you can have proper ID3 tags for browsing by Artist/Album/Track (which you can't do in a folder setup).

 

[dffman2001]

I think every mp3 player uses IDE tags and ignores any folder structure that you have given it. This is a pain for me because my older music doesn't have tags and was sorted into folders. Try MP3tag - its a freeware program that makes renaming tag much much easier - especially with batch naming and converting file names into tags. MP3tag

I also found that the creative explorer was absolutely useless. It would crash and was horrendously slow. I gave up after half a year and bought a copy of notmad explorer. It was much much better, but was pretty expensive. You can look into that at the link above - red chair software

 

[BRBJackson]

Couldn't agree more. Nomad Exploder is reason #1 why I returned my Zen Xtra 2 days after purchasing it. People can bitch and moan about the iPod's lack of gapless playback and tweakable EQ all day, but at least iTunes WORKS...

 

[audiomortis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BRBJackson Couldn't agree more. Nomad Exploder is reason #1 why I returned my Zen Xtra 2 days after purchasing it. People can bitch and moan about the iPod's lack of gapless playback and tweakable EQ all day, but at least iTunes WORKS...

well, I've not had it long, so I can't comment on it crashing, but it's pretty fast on my USB2.0, and again, everything else works great for me.

 

[ImMersion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clemens I agree. I don't see why one would want to preserve folder structure (most players don't do this) when you can have proper ID3 tags for browsing by Artist/Album/Track (which you can't do in a folder setup).

Its quite simple. Because not every one of the THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of songs have ID3 tags, and most wont want to spend a whole weekend checking to see which ones do have tags and which dont

 

[MDDrew]

all mp3s that come from ripping groups will have tags tho even some from filesharing networks

 

[Rangers34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ImMersion Its quite simple. Because not every one of the THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of songs have ID3 tags, and most wont want to spend a whole weekend checking to see which ones do have tags and which dont

Well then I suppose this just isn't the player for you. I myself have around 8000 mp3s on my computer right now... and every one of them has an appropriate ID3 tag.

 

[Head Creep]

Well, the majority of MP3 players on the market use ID3 tags. Your best bet is to get some kind of mass-tagging software and invest some time into working on the tags.

As for transfering software, I just started using Winamp 2 with the Zen plugin last night, and it works very well. Full playlist support, searching the database, uploads from and downloads to Zen's, etc. And it's free, which makes it good if you're not ready to put out the money for Notmad Explorer.

 

[dffman2001]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MDDrew all mp3s that come from ripping groups will have tags tho even some from filesharing networks

Not always. I recently ripped a telarc version of Berlioz's requiem. All the db info gave was the producer and the picture of the cd cover. No names or titles anywhere.

 

[timberwolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ImMersion Its quite simple. Because not every one of the THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of songs have ID3 tags, and most wont want to spend a whole weekend checking to see which ones do have tags and which dont

The OP was complaining that his folder heirarchy method doesn't work with his nomad zen. Just like the nomad zen which employs the id3 tag database system, if he won't bother fixing his id3 tags, they won't work with the ipod as well.