How the heck do you find videos in HTC Album? - Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General

HTC Audio Manager is a fantastic piece of software, so how come their Picture/Video manager is so terrible? Maybe it's me, but I can't find:
1. An "open file" option. How the heck am I supposed to open a file in a specific location?
2. A "sort albums alphabetically option". Okay, fine, I can accept that it's going to scan and include every single album on my device. But how am I supposed to find anything if there is no way to sort the albums?
3. A way to show only picture files or only video files. If I want to watch videos, how the hell am I supposed to find them?
I am a lifelong windows mobile user, but it's this kind of thing that REALLY drives me nuts. You want email? Sure, but you won't get a "mark all as read" button, or the ability to create rules (hence reducing the email functionality to the level of the iFail). You want to watch videos and look at pictures? Sure, we'll give you great codec support but no way to actually get to the videos.....
Am I a total idiot or is this piece of software really that bad?

You'll need to browse to where your video file is. To do this, tap the left soft key "Albums" and navigate accordingly.
However, it doesn't support many video formats. So I use it only to play back video that's taken with my device. All other videos, I use Coreplayer.

For some reason, HTC Album wasn't picking up my "Video" folder that I created on my storage drive. In fact, it still isn't - I just got it to work but only by creating a subfolder within the main "Video" folder. It only sees the subfolder.
This brings me to my next question - right now, the albums list is incredibly cluttered. Is there a way to either sort it alphabetically, or make HTC Album recognize a folder structure? Instead of the vast jumble of random subfolders (all of my pictures and video are organized meticulously), it would be much easier to have a seperate "Pictures" and "Video" folder, with subfolders such as "Movies, TV Shows", etc under each one.
Is this possible?

Anyone know how to make HTC Album rescan? I deleted a bunch of picture folders but it's still showing them.

my albums are seperated into different folders based on what they are and it works great. I just browse into the folder from HTC Album to whatever i want to watch or look at.
Here is how you rescan the library.
under device, application data, htc...there is a .vol file. Delete this, and the music application will rescan your library.

Related

HTC Audio Manager Playlists?

Is there a way to import other playlists (.m3u specifically) into the HTC audio player/manager? I've browsed and searched with Total Commander, and can't find where they are located. I found a folder located at Application Data\HTC\AudioManager_Eng called "playlists". But the folder is empty (I created a short playlist in the HTC player to help in locating the folder).
Anyone know the location, format of the playlists, and if there is a way to import or convert existing playlists from other applications? I have CorePlayer too, which works well. But I like the way the HTC player is integrated into Touch FLO 3D.
I wouldn't be that hard to re-create the playlists manually in the HTC interface. But its bugging me that there isn't an easier way to get it done!
redpoint73 said:
Is there a way to import other playlists (.m3u specifically) into the HTC audio player/manager? I've browsed and searched with Total Commander, and can't find where they are located. I found a folder located at Application Data\HTC\AudioManager_Eng called "playlists". But the folder is empty (I created a short playlist in the HTC player to help in locating the folder).
Anyone know the location, format of the playlists, and if there is a way to import or convert existing playlists from other applications? I have CorePlayer too, which works well. But I like the way the HTC player is integrated into Touch FLO 3D.
I wouldn't be that hard to re-create the playlists manually in the HTC interface. But its bugging me that there isn't an easier way to get it done!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just use the latest S2P it has imporved so much and a lot easier to make playlists
I know this is a semi-old thread, but just found it using a search. Have you figured this out? I'm trying to do the same thing on a Topaz. I did read in one post that the playlist files are .asx. I've tried copying .asx files directly to the HTC playlist folder you mentioned, but that doesn't seem to work. The playlists show up in the Library>Playlists screen, but they appear empy when selected.
yja4us21 said:
I know this is a semi-old thread, but just found it using a search. Have you figured this out? I'm trying to do the same thing on a Topaz. I did read in one post that the playlist files are .asx. I've tried copying .asx files directly to the HTC playlist folder you mentioned, but that doesn't seem to work. The playlists show up in the Library>Playlists screen, but they appear empy when selected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. Originally the playlists will go to Storage Card\playlist. HTC player sees the playlists but come up empty. If I copy the playlists to Application Data\HTC\Audiomanager_Eng\playlists, the playlists are double in my playlist view.
Both will be empty but I can add songs to the playlists which are in the HTC folder. Please help..
Solution
I found the solution in another thread. Install the attached file Playlistmgr.cab on your device. (i hope i attached it correctly) Then run the program and open an existing playlist. Within that program, in the "File" menu select "HTC Audio Manager". Then select "Save Playlist As" and give the playlist a name (i belive it can be the same name). The program should automatically save the playlist to the correct location for HTC to recognize. You will probably have to perform a soft reset before the new playlist will show up in TF3D.
Hope this works for you.
View attachment PlaylistMgr.CAB

Album art with HTC sense

It s been very difficult for me to add the album arts to the HTC music player..
But it's done
I write this post if someone else is concerned by this issue, juste do this:
- I found that it's hard for the player to read the "Albumart.jpg" file in the directory so you will have to add the picture in the tags of the mp3 (media monkey is very good for that)
- The most important: Even with the previous step the pictures didn't appear.. I found the solution by chance..
If you want your pictures to appear you have to rename in the directory Music>Artist>Album the album names with a name different from the name of the album in your mp3 tags.
I really can't understand that but anyway it works!
OMG Thank You!! works on HTC Evo
I use MediaMonkey too and have the album art embedded in the tag rather than as a separate file. I just copied everything over manually using explorer and all the art work showed up immediately - maybe I just got lucky....
Just tried this with some albums where the art wouldn't show up and sure enough, it works. Why on earth does it rely on the directory name to match the tag? Madness
logoo said:
If you want your pictures to appear you have to rename in the directory Music>Artist>Album the album names with a name different from the name of the album in your mp3 tags.
I really can't understand that but anyway it works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have all my artworks embedded directly in mp3 files and all of them are i one big directory called Music.
I'm not sure how can I achieve correct (or any) artwork to be shown....
the htc player won't recognize any changes unless you rename the folder as you have already found. An easier solution is to go into settings - manage applications - media storage - clear data. This will wipe the media database. Reboot your phone. Open music app - be patient while the database is rebuilt.
The only reason why i am using the HTC Music App is because of its integration with the lock screen.. that feature has got me by the balls, because everything else of the app suck!
No good way to search by folder, bad album art management!
Horrible in my opinion: if you bunch up all your music together in a single directory it work pick up correct album art, u can't put it in any directory it must be in sdcard\media directory, you must sort by album name .. .too many limitations! not everyone sorts their music colection by album names and create album names for every song! Jeez! Fix it HTC!
Album Art display workaround
For me non of the solutions worked on HTC Inspire - very frustrating in addition to other crap constantly starting like Facebook - which I hate etc.
But I connected the phone to PC and browsed on the SDCard for Android/data/com.android.providers.media and I deleted the whole folder. After that all album arts are visible again in both players HTC and winamp. Now I have to find the solution for the disappearing playlists

putting MP3's onto my desire

Lucky for me I still mainly buy CD and not downloads
So, how to I copy my CD's via my win7 pc to desire complete with album art work?
I've tried two options.
One is doubleTwist
The problem I have with it is it's slow at times, especially when starting and the initial sync with your device. It also handles tagging for compilation albums very poorly. For example I have a Motown album. Obviously there is no main album artist, and each track has an artist. In iTunes there are separate fields for Album artist and Track artist. doubleTwist can't parse this data and creates an album on your sd card for EACH and every artist it finds. So rather than my folders being organised as on my PC like Artist>Album>tracks, with this Motown album being found in Various Artists>Motown 50>tracks, I ended up with dozens of extra artists each with their own album called Motown 50. So there would be a Stevie Wonder folder...he'd have an album called Motown 50...then there'd be a Marvin Gaye folder and he'd have an album called Motown 50 too. SO as you can imagine the Album view on the media player looked a mess! There's also a complimentary Android app in the market which is actually much better than the built in music player. You also don't have to use the desktop app to use the Android app so give that a spin either way.
Next option is MediaMonkey
Now this is much better. It not only helps you organise your music, allowing for tags that even iTunes doesn't handle, but it will fetch album art for albums you don't have them for...as well as tag info for tracks you haven't tagged. The downside is it's not the most user friendly of apps. I got a few settings wrong and it scattered my music in random locations all over my SD card...it was hell to clean up. It managed to maintain my albums and tagging though. You just have to be very careful with it.
I use MediaMonkey to manage my mp3 library and to sync with my mp3 player. Not the prettiest of programs and sometimes not that intuitive when you first start to use it buit its very powerful - free too unless you want it to rip mp3s for you then you gotta pay for the Gold edition. You can though always use another ripper.
For my Desire though I just copy and paste the files to the SD card. MediaMonkey has already sorted out all the tags and album art for me so those are part of the file copied. I find it's far easier this way.
why can you just do what I do , copy them over in HDD mode , or even take out the Mme card and copy them over , and add a jpg to the folder where the album is .. eg album called wham be in a folder called wham with wham artwork as a small jpg... easy ...
dgattenb said:
why can you just do what I do , copy them over in HDD mode , or even take out the Mme card and copy them over , and add a jpg to the folder where the album is .. eg album called wham be in a folder called wham with wham artwork as a small jpg... easy ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
works well
On a Win7 PC you have everything you need without installing any other software
Open up Windows Media Player and use that to BURN the CD. This will create a WMA (go for the WMA lossless option if you want the best quality) file.
Windows Media Player will automatically identify the CD, download track and album info and even the album art information if you want.
You can now start creating playlists. These are lists of tracks/albums that you add to.
Now connect your Desire in HDD mode. Media Player will take you through the sync process and allow you to choose which playlists to sync.
Now everytime you connect your Desire to your PC and run Windows Media Player, it will automatically sync your playlists to your device where you can then listen.
For some reason, most people forget about Windows Media player yet for a non iTunes user it is probably the best solution out there because it does the sync part so well
@ mark
works brilliantly
Im going to go against the grain and NOT recommend Media Monkey (although I do love the program) it just isn't reliable for ID3v1 tags.
Use whichever program you want to rip the mp3, there's a host of free software out there on 30 day trial, or limited use, all of which will do the job.
Use Tag Clinic (currently 4.3)
to fix your tags, use only ID3v1 tags, strip out any id3v2 tags (there are two seperate views for the two tag version in Tag Clinic, which is what makes it better and simpler than other software.)
Also only use the id3v1 generes that are available int he dropdown list, this I found as the only way to get reliable genres to stick.
Add jpegs of your album art to each folder, keep the dimensions less than 300px X 300px otherwise some players will not show it, regardless as to whether the file is available. also call the jpg, folder.jpg. (this is where media monkey IS helpful as you can copy an image from google images and paste it into the album art preview window and select 'save a copy to the folder as folder.jpg'
you should be all set, this I've learned after piddling around for hours trying to get MixZing to work with my SD music collection. I've read all the posts and made a few discoveries on my own.
Until ID3v2 tags are recognised (or recognised in parallel with ID3v1 tags) then this is the only way to get your collection showing properly.

Hide folders in gallery

I have a few applications (Juiceplotter for example) that store some graphic files on the SD card.
When I view the gallery, I don't want to see these graphs. (I also have an issue with MP3s from Lets Golf and the music player)
Can I hide these directories by adding a "." to the name of the folder without effecting the actual application?
Bielinsk said:
I have a few applications (Juiceplotter for example) that store some graphic files on the SD card.
When I view the gallery, I don't want to see these graphs. (I also have an issue with MP3s from Lets Golf and the music player)
Can I hide these directories by adding a "." to the name of the folder without effecting the actual application?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, that should work.
pr0nz !
Yeah that's what some people are doing to hide folders ... folders with sensitive pictures. Stealth folder.
doesn't work.
While it does hide the folder form the gallery, it also hides it from the application. So the application pukes.
there is a way to prevent the media scanner from scanning folders, something like putting a blank/empty 'noscan' file in the folder.
Maybe someone else will remeber the exact filename, otherwise I'll repost when I have it.
edit:
try an empty text file '.nomedia' in the folders you want not scanned
http://www.google.com/support/forum...n&fid=38ae9cef358fc8de0004839c47779068&hltp=2
that would be great if there is a way to do that.
If you do find it, please share.
Bielinsk said:
doesn't work.
While it does hide the folder form the gallery, it also hides it from the application. So the application pukes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
interesting.. i'll do more testing then.
TeknoJnky said:
there is a way to prevent the media scanner from scanning folders, something like putting a blank/empty 'noscan' file in the folder.
Maybe someone else will remeber the exact filename, otherwise I'll repost when I have it.
edit:
try an empty text file '.nomedia' in the folders you want not scanned
http://www.google.com/support/forum...n&fid=38ae9cef358fc8de0004839c47779068&hltp=2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this... this is very useful.
There's an app called HideNSeek for 99 cents. It's supposed to be used by playas that don't want various girls to see pics of other various girls in the gallery (it's even disguised as a flashlight app), but I think most people use it to block regular folders/pics (like album art) from showing up in the gallery.
shift_ said:
interesting.. i'll do more testing then.
this... this is very useful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't do that ! Or be aware of the consequences.
If you put a .nomedia empty file in your folder in order to prevent the Gallery from loading pictures, it will also prevent any media players (ex : music player, winamp, meridian, etc...) from scanning these folders to find music !
So, I still don't know how to prevent Gallery from showing pictures in music folders (because I prefer having a "polluted" Gallery than a useless music player!).
I'm quite sure the File Manager app that comes with CM6.1 includes the ability to "exclude from Media Scan" on any folder. Haven't tried it myself. I like my nudies exposed at all times.
+1 for .nomedia!
Theres also a vault app that hides your pics and videos
I hate to ressurect an old thread but I can't find an answer anywhere. How do I exclude album art from the gallery in AOSP ROMs without also disabling music files or the album art in a music app? I have several GBs of music and hundreds of album art files that pollute my gallery.
Thanks in advance.
I have a similar issue and I am going mad with my 1000s of media art showing on my gallery. There should be a way to manually assign afolder for indexing.
Why don't you use . (Dot) if you want to hide anything (etc .Pictures)? Adding dot in front of the name will make folder as hidden and will be visable only via some app (root explorer, bluetooth file transfer)
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
why it becomes so complicated??
you dont need to rename any folder.
just place .nomedia file in folder which contain files you don't want people to see. (i.e pr0n)
don't place it on your camera (DCIM) or music folder, thus gallery app still can access it.
chmod will do it.
boku_baka said:
why it becomes so complicated??
you dont need to rename any folder.
just place .nomedia file in folder which contain files you don't want people to see. (i.e pr0n)
don't place it on your camera (DCIM) or music folder, thus gallery app still can access it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its complicated because in different case its not that simple, for example I have many deep rooted folder structure which have links to 1 master html page (actually its an offline html site where the pix are sliced) now i keep on changing over writing this folder structure so as per suggestion I will need to create .nomedia file & copy in all the sub folders>sub folders right upto the last directory. Gallery in this case index 1000s sliced images & polluting the whole gallery.
Even if I do this once I will have to do it again as it will get modified when I overwrite.
Best would be (if possible) I create a master folder & tell gallery not to index any media for all the folders & sub folder from this master folder. So I copy the folder=file in thsi master folder if i don't need them to be indexed in gallery.
But what do I do for the music album art? the media player needs to display the art so if i put .nomedia file will the music player be able to display it & the gallery wont index it?
I am yet to try this solution.
seriously dudes between chmod and chown you should be able to do anything you want. If the app tanks or ? you might have to write a small script. Worst case scenario you could probably put files on a different partition and crate a symbolic link to it.

video folders

hi guys
do you know how to sync videos to your wp7 device and organize them into folders? i tried syncing a folder containing videos and subfolders with other videos, and all of them landed on my mozart in one place without any folders whatsoever syncing pictures works perfectly, every folder and subfolder is in place, and i love that i just have to connect my phone and everything syncs automatically
it doesn't appear videos have the same folder structure as pictures which is a bit disappointing. hopefully MS introduces it, though i don't know if/when.
Option 1: Microsoft introces this as a special feature for music and/or videos.
Unlikely because it needs special coding, and the mass market doesn't care.
Option 2: Microsoft removes isolated storage restrictions, allowing common storage in addition.
Then you can organize video files yourself and use any software to access them. However tech sites are not pressing Microsoft for this; we have to rely on the current approach being so contrary to the nature of computing that it causes problems that makes Microsoft add common storage.
ok, i found a temporary solution: in zune in collection i assigned the videos to different categories (movies, tv, personal) and they are organized like that on my mozart, that will do until there's an update

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