Arch Linux

rocktorrentz

Member

From: Southampton, England

Registered: 2007-08-05

Posts: 141

Change sonata search view and something like transkode?

I've just moved to mpd and sonata from amarok because I got fed up about how slow and bloated it was. However there are two things that currently bug me. Firstly I would like the search function to return albums when I search for an artist rather than a long list of tracks, as I very rarely listen to single tracks; is there a way to do this or another client that has this functionality? Secondly, I would like something like the transkode plugin for amarok; it can be a standalone app or an extension to mpd or sonata but I really like being able to transfer my FLAC to my ipod and having it converted on the fly.

Thanks in advance

dyscoria

Member

Registered: 2008-01-10

Posts: 1,007

Re: Change sonata search view and something like transkode?

One dirty solution (which is what I do) would be to arrange your music collection into folder like this: music>artist>album
That way, when you're browsing you're library of music contained within your 'music' folder, you get a list of artists, and then entering the artists folder will give you a list of albums.

As far as converting FLAC goes, I dont know of an automatic way to do it. "pacman -Sy lame" will give you the tool to manually convert to mp3. You could always use rockbox instead, as that will allow you to play flac files on your ipod.

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flack 2.0.6: menu-driven BASH script to easily tag FLAC files (AUR)
knock-once 1.2: BASH script to easily create/send one-time sequences for knockd (forum/AUR)

rocktorrentz

Member

From: Southampton, England

Registered: 2007-08-05

Posts: 141

Re: Change sonata search view and something like transkode?

Thanks for the quick reply. I have the same folder arrangement anyway but I was hoping to be able to use the search box like in amarok. Also, I tried rockbox on my ipod a few weeks ago but it had a nasty bug (at least that's what I think caused it) that caused the battery exhausted symbol to come up every other time I tried to turn it on which would only go away when I plugged it in (even though the battery was over half full). Besides, I would rather have ~6x the amount of music in good quality lame mp3 than having perfect quality flac.

fwojciec

Member

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,411

Re: Change sonata search view and something like transkode?

Recent versions of gtkpod automatically convert flacs to mp3s when you add music to an ipod.  Or you could use a (fairly) simple script for that -- but that wouldn't be really "on the fly."

rocktorrentz

Member

From: Southampton, England

Registered: 2007-08-05

Posts: 141

Re: Change sonata search view and something like transkode?

Ok. I had no idea gtkpod had that functionality. Thanks.