[Tfug] ffmpeg:iPod Shuffle

[Bexley Hall]

> On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 12:36 PM, Charles R. Kiss
> <charles at kissbrothers.com> wrote:
> > Does anyone know how to convert a .wav to an .m4a and dump 
> > it into a iPod Shuffle and listen to it?  Apparently, conversion
> > can be done with ffmpeg, but I dont' know the command and 
> > couldn't find it.
> >
> > I mount my new iPod Shuffle, and can see all the files.
> >
> > On the old iPod Shuffle, I used to be able to cp files
> > directly into it, and they'd play.

<frown>  Are you sure about that?  I have a 1st gen shuffle and
I need to rebuild the playlist whenever I copy files onto it.

Of course, Apple likes to dick with their implementations
(usually to lock people out of things that they had been
able to do previously) so...  <shrug>

> > Now, with the new one, I guess I can't, for whatever the
> > reason: format, binaries, etc. don't know.
> > Is it hopeless trying to get my iPod to play without
> > iTunes, do I reformat it, somehow?

I plug my shuffle into a W2K PC.  Drag songs onto it.
Then, run this *tiny* little application that resides *on*
the iPod which rebuilds the playlist based on whatever it
sees on the drive.

I started to rewrite the application as it, of necessity,
is pretty naive in how it goes about its business.  E.g.,
I think it just arranges the titles in alphabetical order.
This works fine if you've named your songs in the form:
   <track> <title>
I was hoping to add some smarts to it that would give it
more flexibility (though I have recently been busy hacking
my Jornada to support songs "in the wrong folder")

> > I did take a short look at the iPodLinux stuff.
> 
> I've successfully used gtkpod with our shuffles. 
> I'm sure there are other apps, but that's where I stopped searching.
> 
> As you've found, simple copying doesn't work.  A catalog has to be
> generated and must exist on the fs.  That's where gtkpod came in
> handy.

--don