Is there any viable alternative with ratings and smart playlists?

[Илья Коновалов]

I started noticing some degradation some time ago. Isycnr stopped working via wi fi (requiring some kind of password), I switched to sync via usb. It worked up to a point, though it was unstable. I ran into the same problem as many people - constant library rescanning, although it didn't really interfere with using the app. But in the last month, I started noticing that some of the ratings were being lost when syncing. I rely a lot on ratings and smart playlists. Is there any alternative to itunes + rocket player?

[Daniel Faigin]

I'm interested as well in alternatives to iSyncr+RocketPlayer. I've got iSyncr working through USB, but Rocket Player is now too unstable. I had looked at GoneMad a while back, but it won't update metadata in a way that iSyncr can see it. I depend on iTunes as I use it with an iPod Classic; the phone is a backup.

Let me know if you find anything.

[Kevin Palm]

I don't know if it'll do everything you need it to do (I just need a basic player), but I've been really happy with PowerAmp since I switched to it after Rocket Player became useless.  Maybe give it a try?

[Daniel Faigin]

I may be honing in on a solution.

I've been looking at GoneMad Music Player for a while. It has really robust smart lists and a great interface. The big problem was the synchronization of the metadata. But I was so fed up with Rocketplayer crashing, I went ahead and downloaded GMMP yesterday. Works well, but none of my playcounts. 

But then I got to thinking. The iTunes library is an XML file. GMMP allows me to save and restore stats from an XML file. I can write a script to bring the two in sync. The process would then be to use iSyncr USB (currently working, but I might switch to something else) to bring down changed files*. I then have GMMP scan for new files, and then save the stats. I then run the script and update the stats, and restore the stats.  (*: There seem to be numerous programs that can synchronize the files in the directories, although I might need to do a one time reset of everything to get away from the syncr directory)

If you're curious, here's a comparison of the formats:

In the stats file produced by GMMP:

<File><Uri>/storage/9C33-6BBD/syncr/1944 Original Cast/Mexican Hayride (1944 Original Cast)/01 Sing To Me, Guitar.mp3</Uri><Rating>0.0</Rating><Playcount>0</Playcount><LastPlayed>0</LastPlayed><DateAdded>1670729645589</DateAdded><DateUpdated>1670729657187</DateUpdated><SkipCount>0</SkipCount></File>

In the Itunes Library XML:

        <key>47481</key>
        <dict>
            <key>Track ID</key><integer>47481</integer>
            <key>Size</key><integer>4005520</integer>

            <key>Total Time</key><integer>180166</integer>
            <key>Disc Number</key><integer>1</integer>
            <key>Disc Count</key><integer>1</integer>
            <key>Track Number</key><integer>1</integer>
            <key>Track Count</key><integer>8</integer>
            <key>Year</key><integer>1944</integer>
            <key>Date Modified</key><date>2010-05-01T18:31:17Z</date>
            <key>Date Added</key><date>2010-05-01T18:27:49Z</date>
            <key>Bit Rate</key><integer>160</integer>
            <key>Sample Rate</key><integer>44100</integer>
            <key>Play Count</key><integer>14</integer>
            <key>Play Date</key><integer>3692248296</integer>
            <key>Play Date UTC</key><date>2020-12-31T16:31:36Z</date>
            <key>Release Date</key><date>2019-12-11T02:15:10Z</date>
            <key>Rating</key><integer>80</integer>
            <key>Rating Computed</key><true/>
            <key>Album Rating</key><integer>80</integer>
            <key>Album Rating Computed</key><true/>
            <key>Artwork Count</key><integer>1</integer>
            <key>Persistent ID</key><string>FF5292DF4D2AE609</string>
            <key>Track Type</key><string>File</string>
            <key>File Folder Count</key><integer>5</integer>
            <key>Library Folder Count</key><integer>1</integer>
            <key>Name</key><string>Sing To Me, Guitar</string>
            <key>Artist</key><string>Corinna Mura, Chorus</string>
            <key>Album Artist</key><string>1944 Original Cast</string>
            <key>Composer</key><string>Cole Porter</string>
            <key>Album</key><string>Mexican Hayride (1944 Original Cast)</string>
            <key>Genre</key><string>Soundtrack</string>
            <key>Kind</key><string>MPEG audio file</string>
            <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/M:/Music/iTunes/Music/1944%20Original%20Cast/Mexican%20Hayride%20(1944%20Original%20Cast)/01%20Sing%20To%20Me,%20Guitar.mp3</string>
        </dict>

I just need to figure out how the dates convert between the two, the ratings conversion, and figure out how to get the file names to match up as keys, and the script should just fall into place.

[Илья Коновалов]

Thanks for the suggestions. 

For now I ended up using mediamonkey. Import from itunes was quite smooth (though i'd need to reconfigure smart playlists and there some problems with album covers). And android app is allowing 2-way sync. Actually, in less than a day I managed to restore my "workflow" for music listening. The only feature it doesn't have - full lock screen player. But I found workaround - media monkey widget on lock screen.

Initially I tried musicbee with poweramp, but it seems that after Android update something broke with permissions and musicbee developer not working on 2-way wifi sync anymore. 

воскресенье, 11 декабря 2022 г. в 22:04:02 UTC+3, cahw...@gmail.com:

[Daniel Faigin]

And I got my script working to download the metadata into Gonemad. Next will be looking for a suitable replacement for iSyncr, but for now the USB sync is working.

Daniel