BootTunes: Useful program for iTunes users

[zpc]

Hi everyone. I'm just posting to spread the word about an application I've written to solve the problem of getting shows into iTunes and hence onto your iPod/Phone/Pad. It's free and open source, works on Windows and Mac, and you get check it out at http://code.google.com/p/boottunes.

Bug reports and feature requests are welcome. Thanks.

[mdshrk1]

I tried it...got to 4% & it shut down.

[zpc]

Ah, a promising bit of first feedback, mdshrk1. Could you try it with a different show? What show did you try it with (hopefully something currently being seeded so I can try it out myself)? Lastly, what OS are you on? Thanks.

[mdshrk1]

I tried it with two different shows. I have Windows 7. I tried it with Itunes open & Itunes closed. Same result.

[zpc]

What do you mean when you say "shut down" exactly? Unless the program really crashed hard, there is likely a log file with some useful information in it. Could you check the folder where the program is installed for a file called boottunes.exe.txt? If it's there could you copy and paste its contents here?

Anyone else have success or failure to report?

[mdshrk1]

Nope...when it didn't work, I uninstalled it. When I say shut down, I mean the icon disappeared as if it were never there.? It seems to me that that would equal "crashed hard."

I would love a program like this. Keep it up.

m

[zpc]

I've released a new version that fixes this crash and various other bugs. Here's the download page (http://code.google.com/p/boottunes/downloads/list).

[GRC]

I can find no details about which Operating Systems it will work with, nor any details on system requirements; RAM, processor, etc.

I have XP and Vista machines

[zpc]

I can find no details about which Operating Systems it will work with, nor any details on system requirements; RAM, processor, etc.

I have XP and Vista machines

It works on my XP machine. I haven't heard from anyone trying it on Vista, but it should work there as well. Decoding and encoding are processor intensive, so the CPU will strongly affect how long the conversion to lossless m4a will take, but there is no real requirement to run the program. It's compiled for 32-bit systems, but should work on a 64-bit OS just fine (i've tested it with Windows 7 64-bit). As for RAM, I'm looking at the activity monitor right now as BootTunes is converting a show, and it's using less than 70 MB.

[Pumpum]

Hey there,
not really sure how this works. But I'm trying to get flac into itunes, or flac to convert to apple lossless. Anyway, just saying that I'm here to test if you need me. I'm running Windows 7 with fully updated drivers/apps etc.

[Pumpum]

Okay here's what I done.
I tried opening the folder with the .flac content and it said there was no txt file.
So I opened a new .txt file and wrote the following:
01 Track 1
02 Track 2
03 Track 3
04.. and so on.
That then overrides the error message I was getting and I was able to input the information I wanted. In your youtube video you said the process is rather slow. Well for me it's quite rapid, probably twice as long as it takes to rip from a CD in the first place.
I'm not sure why it's put it in a .m4a container? But this is probably due to my lack of knowledge :P
My final request would be to ask if you can provide an example of what the text file contains so that I don't have to manually write it in BootTunes. Or maybe, instead of getting the error message saying there's no .txt file, there could be the option of writing one instead using a form style unit frame?
Hope this helps.

[DashBoard Jesus]

Fantastic app ZPC! Just got done doing a batch of twenty FLAC's. You rock my man. I'm on a MacMini 2.0Ghz C2D OSX 10.6.5. I have searched for 3 years to find a app like this. Slow, yes, but I believe that is due to the Python tools doing the encoding? Do you have an email or website? I'd like to share the text files that were correctly identified if it would help.

[zpc]

Thanks. The decoder/encoder code in Python Audio Tools is actually written in C, but yes it does seem like it could be faster. The best place to post those text files would be the issues section (http://code.google.com/p/boottunes/issues/list) of the Google Code page, but if you don't have a Google account and don't feel like making one you can email me at boottunes at zacharychavez dot com.

[zpc]

Just thought I'd bump my own post to say that development on BootTunes has progressed and that anyone who tried it before and found it too buggy should give it another go.

[P A U L]

Ok, thanks...

Just tried it out. Win 7 i5 750 64bit 8GB RAM. 1st show took about 8-10 minutes or so, converted fine. Picked up the images from the folder, added them & m4p.

2nd, I thought I'd try something I have some shows that are 1 long file w/ a cue file. The cue file wasn't recognized. On 1, the images are in png format. While it recognizes the png files as images, when I select the png image to use it says: "no file to add"...

So, it doesn't even recognize that the flac file is there, nor the png file...

Maybe something to consider...

The m4p file is larger than the flac file. Have you thought of just doing a codec?

[zpc]

Thanks for the feedback, Paul.

Although I've heard of cue files, I'd never actually seen one in the wild, so I didn't think to add support for them. Where do you encounter them, usually?

PNG files are supported. You say the "no file to add" message appears after choosing an image? There is a "Nothing to add" message that appears when you click the "Add to iTunes" button when there aren't any valid recordings in the queue. If a show is missing information needed to form its title, it will be considered invalid and appear in red, and if that is the only thing in the queue when you click "Add" you will get the "Nothing to add" message. Is that what happened?

I know ALAC files are bigger than FLAC, but it's the only lossless compression that iTunes supports. If by "doing a codec" you mean converting to a lossy format, you can always do that from iTunes. There's even an option that'll automatically create AAC versions whenever you copy ALAC files to a device.

[P A U L]

re: cue files

When someone loads a full show, or ½ show in one long file. Most converters seem to recognize them & when converting, they split the track into individual song tracks...

re: no file to add

Yes, that is correct. That is then the problem with adding a long single file w/ cue ?

The only text files that are in the folder are checksum files. Could that be it?

Codec means keep (using) the existing file & making it read as a compatable format, instead of converting the file into a new file & using that...

[zpc]

When someone loads a full show, or ½ show in one long file. Most converters seem to recognize them & when converting, they split the track into individual song tracks...


Handling cue files may be out of the scope of BootTunes (http://boottunes.com). It's intended to do one thing, and that is to import shows from sites like this into iTunes in an orderly and lossless fashion. Is there some trading community that uses cue files commonly?


Yes, that is correct. That is then the problem with adding a long single file w/ cue ?


Since BootTunes doesn't know anything about cue files, it would just import it as a single file.


The only text files that are in the folder are checksum files. Could that be it?


Does the error occur when you try to add the show to the queue, or when you try to start the conversion process? If the latter, does the show appear in the queue highlighted red with a message such as "missing venue"? If so, you would need to double click it and either fill in the missing information, or fill in "title override" with your own custom album title.


Codec means keep (using) the existing file & making it read as a compatable format, instead of converting the file into a new file & using that...

I'm guessing you're referring to Fluke (http://code.google.com/p/flukeformac/), which let's you play FLAC in iTunes. That's certainly more convenient, but you can't transfer the files to a device or have album artwork.

[Karst]

I use songbird to play may FLAC files.

[zpc]

I use songbird to play may FLAC files.

Another viable solution, unless you have an Apple device.

[P A U L]

I was just looking for a way to get shows to my iPhone/Pod/Pad...

I haven't had time to mess w/ it since, but probably like you said, I need to manually add some info, but I really don't necessarily want a long file unsplit for those devices...

I can play flac on everything on my PC. I only use iTunes to work w/ my devices listed above. This is pretty cool for what it does...

I use exrecodeII to do this already though & it does work w/ sidecar files (such as cue) & will split all the tracks on recoding. You can also add images, text, etc., but you have to do it manually. It's more versatile, but yours is nice & quick, for what you have it doing. Maybe you can download exrecode & see how it's engineered?

http://xrecode.com/

oh, & yes, there's a few forums, that do like the long file. Yeeshkul has been promoting this, as they banned people from splitting tracks & uploading. Much like the no remaster policy here, if you are the taper & split it, it's ok, if the original poster posted in 1 file, a split track version is not allowed...

http://www.yeeshkul.com/forum/showthread.php?p=157799#post157799

Those that split tracks and then upload...

If the original seeder wanted their releases to be split into tracks they would've done so themselves.

What you do for your own personal usage is up to you, but do not upload such pathetic excuses for 'remasters' here. It's extremely rude towards the original seeders and their efforts and a rather lame practice in order to boost your ratio.