CarPlaylist, a New App to build car USB music libraries: V 1.4 Released
 

CarPlaylist New Version 1.4 released into the wild!

Version 1.4 adds Adds one fix. Some cars like Toyotas and Hondas use a different player file format than most GM cars where every folder is a play list. GM uses playlist file drivers to allow single songs to be in multiple play lists. This duplicates songs and wastes space on the USB, but is easier to code in the car player. CPL version V1.3 had a bug where the files in the build had no extension in a direct folder build. This caused the player to not recognize the files. This version is now posted to my Drop Box. Uninstall the older CarPlayList, then install V1.4. All your run settings are saved.

Version 1.3 adds Window Media Player and direct folder support for easier playlist build copying, and tons of fixes. Everything should work and be documented. If not let me know. All feedback welcome.

Still free, no ads and free to share with your friends and family.

If you already have CarPlaylist and have the link simply uninstall the old version and download and install the new version. All of your settings are saved for the new Version.

If you are interested in using the current version of CarPlaylist send me a PM with your email address so I can send you a link.

New features:

• Windows Media Player supported
• Direct (fast) hard drive Playlist building option
• Tons of fixes with better iTunes XML support

How CarPlaylist got started:

This cool thread below gave me some ideas for a new app. My Camaro with the Car Play update hates Ipods. They get recognized in about 1 in 10 starts. Edit: A FAT32 format seems to help.

My Honda Accord loves Ipods and handles my 160 GB Ipod with 80 gig of music and audio books with ease. But now occasionlly chokes and bricks the iPod and cannnot produce enough power to keep the big Classic HD based Ipod charged. :cry: It does support the smaller memory based Ipods perfectly.

Currently I am thinking Android Auto for audio books and a USB for music is the way to go on most cars.

Note: If you use a playlist file CPL build and copy the playlists and music folder to your Android in a root folder, you can use the Power Amp App to located the folders and play CPL playlists.

http://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=439606

Here is what the little app called CarPlaylist does:

• For now PC only, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 supported
• MP3 files only so far, not sure if iTunes store bought music plays on a USB
• Supports Itunes directly and also will work with exported playlist files
• Reads the m3u files or iTunes xml and extracts the songlist
• Shows you both of the above in a list
• Lets you also specify the USB path
• Lets you set the song file path list to remove from the car playlist
• Lets you select one or all of the playlists to copy to the USB
• The app goes through the starting playlist just copying the songs in the list to the USB
• Builds a simple USB Playlist and adds it to the USB
• Formats large USBs to FAT32
• Builds playlist file playlist for the Camaro
• Builder folder based playlists for other cars
• Windows Media Player supported
• Direct (fast) hard drive Playlist building option

I grabbed all of my favorite Itunes playlists and in a few minutes built a 12 GB (64GB) USB player. I cant believe how great these work in the Camaro. The Camaro does want Fat32. This is a format challenge for Windows. But there are solutions. USB3 devices in USB3 ports are faster than USB 2 but still slow compared to a hard drive.

Thanks for sharing.

What I am thinking now is I can read the Itunes xml and pull the play lists out without having to export them.

For people who keep music on PCs do you use something other than iTunes?

Sometimes my mp3 files either lose the artwork (Or never had artwork attached directly to the file. Sometimes artwork is stored in folders. I don't know what causes this behavior. Maybe it was the program that was used to rip the mp3 from CD). I discover that artwork is missing when I copy the files from iTunes on my PC to the external drive I store music on to use with my Sonos system. Songs that had artwork in iTunes will sometimes not have artwork in Sonos. Once the artwork is embedded into the mp3, I copy it to Sonos again, overwriting the original artless file.

The process I use to get the missing artwork directly into the file is a bit lengthy but here it is:

Make sure you have a copy of the artwork. I usually get it from a Google search.

Open iTunes and select the all songs needing same artwork. I do it one album at a time. Sometimes in the case of various artist compilations made by me, it will have to be done to each song individually.

Right click on the selected songs and choose 'Get Info'. If you have more than one song selected a dialog will ask if you want to edit information for multiple items. Select 'Edit Items'

Click the Artwork tab and then Add Artwork button to select artwork that you have saved to a file. [Used to be able to just find artwork online, copy the image to the clipboard and then paste it into the Artwork tab. Not sure if this still works on the latest version of iTunes.....but if it does, you can save a lot of time] Click OK and the artwork is embedded.
:happy0180:

Excellent idea, how do i get the app for mac osx?

Oh yeah, I need the app for windows. Is it posted? :hitcomputer:

I am still working on it. Seems to work fine for me but I will fix if needed. Later I might sell this for a few $$ if it seems useful to people.

I just did my taxes. :fear: :mad2: :mad0259: :cry:

So back to the app. I think once I have something I will just post it to my dropbox. So in the mean time anyone interested in the app for PCs PM me your email and as soon as the Beta Version is ready (not too long) I will invite you to my DB folder. I have some websites, but DB distribution is cleaner for now.

I will do an installer so that part will be a breeze.

And maybe if there is enough interest I will do a MAC version. A shame dotNet doesnt run there.

I am interested in a Mac version

Noted for you and Glen E. Once I get this PC App going and see if there is more interest I will look at this.

I used to use Macs, but in the end with Apple ripping me off for everything I moved back to PCs. I can put together a killer laptop for 1/2 of the price of a Mac. And man do I hate the ripoff Lightning cables. The Macbook Pros are very well built though. And there is still one lying around the house somewhere.

I would enjoy the challenge.

Making Progress. I have the installer and the beginning of a help file started.

Next I want to support itunes without having to export playlists, just select the Itunes Playlists and the app will build the USB for you. I might support other PC players, but I do not think thier use is very common.

I am using the 64GB flash drive I already built with the app. Works great on my SS.

Thinking more about the Mac. I probably will write that one too. it just may take a while. I have to write it in C I think. C has been a while for me since my Unix days. A Mac runs Unix, so welcome back Unix. Great OS for geeks.

I love my mac. I am a networking guy myself. I wish I learned more about code writing. I enjoyed it in school.

Still working on this. The Apple Itunes xml is a mess. You can find stuff but if you search the full xml for everything it takes forever. So even though it's almost working I have to keep refactoring to make it faster. So its more hacked than clean. As long as it works I guess.

But once I finish this part I will write up the doc and start letting it out of its cage.

The pay can be good but its a lonely job.

I think that is one of the things I like about it. I can just lose myself in code like I do with troubleshooting a network or programming devices.