Sync music with auto convertion

[carbonara]

I have a huge library of music in MP3 320kbps. I'm looking to copy selected albums to my phone but during the sync process I'd like them to be re-encoded to a lower bit rate so I can fit more on the phone. I'd like this done during the sync so I don't have to keep a second, lower bitrate copy of everything.

WMP12 claims to be able to do this but, not surprisingly for a piece of Microsoft software, it doesn't actually work so I'm looking for something else that can do it. Is there anything else out there?

Also, nearly all media managing software constantly just refers to syncing "playlists". I don't ever use playlists as I tend to listen to whole albums in order so I select artist then album, no need for a "playlist". Can I use these things to copy across whole albums without the need to create a playlist of that album and use that to sync?

 

[carbonara]

Have found a rather clunky workaround for this now. Couldn't find another media manager that would re-encode music as it was syncing so had to use WMP12. So the workflow to get music synced to the phone and have it at a lower bitrate than the files on my computer goes like this.

1. Sync phone to WMP12 to copy the files across.
2. Use a tag editor on the phone to get the tags from freedb one album at a time.
3. Remove the album artist tag from each album otherwise the phone incorrectly seems to think this is to be used for the album title.
4. Check everything is ok on the phone then use album art grabber to get the album artwork for the albums the phone can't seem to accept it's there for.

Not exactly pretty really but now my music is all neat on the phone with artwork and at a lower bitrate than the copies on my computer.

Seems Android has a very very long way to go and quite a bit of work to do to catch up with the iphone in this department though.

 

[SUroot]

Are you the same carbonara from the o2.uk htc desire thread by any chance?

 

[carbonara]

Ha ha, I am yes. I was just going to ask you the same thing when I saw your name in the notification email. Enjoying the phone?

 

[SUroot]

Immensely. You?

Having a few niggles here and there but I don't regret it. What contract did you get in the end?

 

[carbonara]

Same as you really, a few niggles, like the one above but on the whole think it's an amazing piece of kit, no regrets at all.

I was supposed to use a mates' friends and family code but that way I had to go through am O2 shop to do it, they wanted

 

[SUroot]

O2 generally are unlocked but i havent tried another sim in it yet. Have you seen the thread about o2 data changes? I may have to leave next contract.

 

[carbonara]

O2 generally are unlocked but i havent tried another sim in it yet. Have you seen the thread about o2 data changes? I may have to leave next contract.

I know, it's ridiculous isn't it? I'm presuming they're not actually allowed to change existing tariffs and contract. Can't believe all the networks seem to be moving backwards too. And I crossed 2 networks off my list when I was considering switching because they only had 500MB limits but now O2 are at it too. I may have to switch when my contract runs out too but I'm hoping things will have settled down with mobile data by then. O2's 3G coverage sucks I'm noticing now I have a phone I actually want to use.

Imagine if you had an iphone though with that Sky app for watching Sky Sports, which you can use over 3G, take out a new contract and you can only use it for about an hour a month.