Music on my TX?

[fishchick72]

So far I have been unable to put any music on my TX (I got it for Christmas from my husband), I was told I needed a memory card to do that, so today I bought a 1 GB card & I still am unable to figure out how to do this.........can anyone help?

I do have pocket tunes, but it says I have to purchase the full product in order to put my songs in there, isn't there any other way?

[nordin]

You need to first create a folder named Audio on the memory card.

If your computer is a Windows PC, with the memory card in a SD-card reader, use Windows Explorer to create the folder.

Then, still using Explorer, copy your mp3 from the computer into the newly created folder on the SD memory card.

Put the card back to your TX.

Start pTunes. You should be able to see a list of your mp3s on the card.

The bundled pTunes should be able to playback the mp3s without you needing to purchase the full product.

[fishchick72]

hhhmmmm......I don't have a "SD-card reader"...............

[chuangk]

You may buy an adaptor for SD-card as long as you have a USB Drive.
(I bought a multi-card adaptor for $10 at Fry's)

[fishchick72]

oh, wow, thanks, good to know! I will go to Frye's tomorrow!

[fishchick72]

can someone show me a link to one so I at least know what I'm looking for please?

[fishchick72]

this is the card I got if that helps at all....
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6965581&type=product&id=1099385493537

[Gregte]

An alternative to buying a card reader that plugs into your USB port and that will accomodate an SD card would be to utilize your TX itself as the card reader. To do this all you need to do is download an app for the TX called Card Export II. It has a free trial period. It is slower than a card reader but you could try it out for free and get up and running right away.

[nordin]

http://www10.shopping.com/xGS-sd_card_reader

http://www.calcellular.com/12in1-reader.html

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Tech-BONZAI-READER-STI-USB2BONZAI/dp/B000189W0A

The card reader comes in all sorts of shape, size and capability. Some are single-card readers, meaning they can only read SD card (or CF, or MS, etc) and nothing else. Some can take multiple card types (SD, Memory Stick (MS), Compact Flash (CF), etc)

A single card reader normally costs less than a multi-card reader.

[fishchick72]

thanks so much! so what does "SD" stand for??

[nordin]

SD is acronym for "Secure Digital".

From wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card)

Secure Digital (SD) is a flash (non-volatile) memory card format developed by Matsushita, SanDisk and Toshiba for use in portable devices, including digital cameras, handheld computers, PDAs and GPS units. As of 2006, SD card capacities include 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, and 512 MB, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 GB (4-32 GB: SDHC)

[fishchick72]

ok, thank you, I think that's what my card is then.........

[fishchick72]

Ok, so I got a card reader thingee today. I was able to put the MP3 files onto the card, but still am unable to access them or view them when the card is in my PDA.........can anyone help??

[fishchick72]

Can anyone help me with this????

[nordin]

Hi,

I thought the problem had been solved.

Anyway, if you correctly created a folder named Audio on the memory card, and put your music to that folder and nowhere else, then there should not be any reason why the player on your TX is not able to show or play the content.

Unless the music format is not supported by the player. I trust your files are mp3 ?

[fishchick72]

yes, my files are MP3
I put the files on the card, but not in a folder.......how do I create a folder??

[nordin]

From what you've written the files are there but not in the correct folder.

Here's a way how to create the folder - http://nordin.kembali.net/mypalm/create_folder

[fishchick72]

Ok, I did that & put the files into the new "audio" folder, but when I look inside the folder it says there are "shortcuts" to those files.........does that matter?

The files still don't show up anywhere when the card is in my pda & I still can't figure out how to play them in the pocket tunes......they don't show up there either..........

[nordin]

Yes, it does matter.

Shortcuts are not recognizable by the pda's audio player.

You need to make sure you copy or move the actual files and not the shortcuts to the Audio folder on the SD card.

On a windows PC, you select the files on the source folder, click Edit / Copy, then go the target forder & click Edit / Paste. Make sure it's Edit / Paste and not Edit / Paste Shortcut.

The shortcuts are only 1 kB in size each, whereas a normal mp3 file would be in the region 3-5 MB size.

Here's a screenshot of how an SD card Audio folder looks like, with the no-good shortcuts files as well as the actual mp3 files.

http://nordin.kembali.net/mypalm/create_folder/copyfile_a.gif

[fishchick72]

Ok, I copied & pasted the MP3 files into the "audio" folder on the SD card & they still do not show up in my pocket tunes..........now what is wrong???

[fishchick72]

If I go to "manage playlist" & then "add song" I can find the audio folder I created, but all I can see is a pic of an open folder with a green arrow pointing up.......I cannot find my songs.........

[fishchick72]

I took another look & the files on my SD card are each 1 kb in size, which is what you said the shortcut would be...........but I copied & pasted them just as you said to.........

[fishchick72]

These songs are on a disc if it makes any difference.....I am noticing whether I save them on the computer or I save them to the SD card it is just the shortcut........how do I get the actual file????

[fishchick72]

ok, just to see what happens I moved the sample MP3 files that came in my computer onto the SD card & when I put the SD card into my TX they didn't show, but now I put the card in the reader back in the USB port & they are playing from the card.........

[nordin]

I could not easily figure out why you could only copy the shortcuts, and not the actual files, from the CD.

After some long reflections, I believe one reason might be that the CD is an audio CD, which do not contain any mp3 files. If the CD is indeed an audio CD, then the files on the CD would be something like Track01.cda, Track02.cda, etc. cda is shortform for "CD Audio". These cda files on the CD ARE 1 kb in size, just like the Windows Explorer shortcuts. When you copy from the CD to the computer or SD card, then the 1 kb files get copied. They are NOT playable by any mp3 players, including pTunes.

This might explain why you could not play the copied files on your computer either.

If the CD contains mp3, then the files would have names ending with .mp3

Are you sure the files on the CD are mp3 and not cda files ?

If your computer (I assume a Windows computer) is set to [Hide extensions for known file types], then you would NOT be able to easily tell whether a file is an mp3 or a cda file. Normally, by default, a Windows computer come configured with [Hide extensions for known file types].

If the files on the CD are indeed cda files, then you would need to convert the audio files into mp3 format using a CD ripper program, before you can use it for your PDA. On my computer I have Windows Media Player 10, and it has the Rip function, and can rip to mp3 format as well.

With regards to your PDA not able to play your computer's sample mp3 files which you had put onto the SD card, it would NOT be able to do so if your PocketTunes version is 3.1.1 and the "mp3" files are not mp3 but wma (Windows Media Audio) files.

I checked my computer' Sample Music folder, and found that the files there are wma files, and not mp3 files...

[fishchick72]

hhhmmmm.....I'm trying to figure out what they are, but am not able to so far........

what I do know is that it is a burned copy of a CD & when I burn copies of CDs in my laptop (as I did this one) I cannot play those copies in my car, it converts it to a format that my car CD player won't play, BUT my husband's car CD player WILL play the burned CDs. I know that my car CD player is not MP3 compatible, but my husband's is, so I had assumed it was converting them to MP3 files.............

I am not familiar with CDA files, but if that's what's on a regular CD then that's not what these are because they don't play in my car. I should add that the CDs I burned on my old computer I can play in my car, so it's not just that my car can't play burned CDs, it's that the burner on my laptop is converting them into another type of file.

When I look at the properties of each file on the CD they are all roughly 44 bytes in size & size on disc is roughly 2.0 kilobytes

does any of that info help at all??

can I easily undo the "hide known file extensions?"

[fishchick72]

ok, I found that "hide known file extensions" & I unchecked it & went back & I do see that they are CDA files.............so what's the easiest way to get them into MP3 format from either the burned disc or the original disc..........and what format are the files in on a CD that you buy in a store, if you happen to know?

Thanks again for all your help, I REALLY do appreciate it!

[nordin]

You would need to convert the cda audio files into mp3 format using a CD ripper program, before you can use it for your PDA.

On my computer I have Windows Media Player 10, and it has the Rip function, and can rip to mp3 format as well.

Alternatively you can use any third-party CD ripper program.

You can find several freeware CD rippers here : http://www.nonags.com/nonags/mp3enc.html

If you do not have time to explore, you mightwant to download this : http://www.bonkenc.org/

[fishchick72]

thank you! as soon as I have time I will look into those, if they aren't too complicated I'll give it a try!