Make the Pre a MP3 Device While in USB Mode in Ubuntu

[malpha]

Okay, I believe I have fixed the video syncing. Here are the values I changed in the .is_audio_player file:

audio_folders=Music/, AmazonMP3/, Videos/
output_formats=audio/mp3,audio/aac,video/mp4,video/quicktime,video/mp4-generic,video/mpeg4,application/sdp

What happens with Videos is that Banshee creates a Videos/ folder in your Music/ folder, and it is here that it puts the video files. Make sure the Pre is ticked to sync Videos under Banshee, I'm not sure if it's enabled by default.

As for album art....no, there isn't a particularly simple way. The reason it works in Media Sync is because the iTunes sync Banshee replicates uses a special AlbumArt database to match up songs with album art files, which the iPod and by extension, the Media Mode Palm Pre understands. However, the Palm Pre in USB mode does not use a database to match up album art and unlike other USB devices, does not pull album art from the album folder. For album art to show up on the Pre, the art has to be embedded in the mp3's ID3 file. Unfortunately, Banshee cannot embed album art into ID3 files as of yet. Thus, you'll need to find an alternate method of downloading and embedding album art. Of course, once you do this, you'll most likely have to delete and sync your files again to see if it worked.

I'm currently trying this to embed my missing album art:
Album Cover Art Downloader

[VeeDubb65]

I haven't had a chance to check the video syncing, but I do have a solution for the cover art.

The program you linked is basically useless.

It used to be THE program for downloading cover art, but it depended on amazon, and amazon has blocked them so it can't find art for the majority of albums.

However, Banshee already does a fantastic job of downloading cover art; it just can't embed it.

Easy-Tag can do the embedding very easily, but it can't download.


The only tough part was figuring out where the heck Banshee stored all the cover art.

It's stored in /home/USERNAME/.cache/album-art


Once you've found it all, it's pretty easy to embed it all.

[malpha]

Ah, I didn't know, it was working okay for me. I just had to go to the properties, uncheck Amazon, and check the other services instead. easyTag does have the added benefit of apparently correcting other information, though, and is only just a little more work. Thanks.

[VeeDubb65]

lol, now I feel like a dork. I didn't even look at the preferences.

Oh well. I had just used audio converter to convert all of my music to the same format, and been horified to discover that it dropped all the tag info from the ones that were wma, so I was spending a ton of time with easytag anyway.

[VeeDubb65]

Since Malpha's version of this is so simple, I have created and submitted a patch to the WebOS feeds, so hopefully this will show up in Preware sometime soon.



On a side note, this actually works regardless of whether you put the device in USB mode or media sync mode, and causes Banshee to ignore the ipod_control directories either way. However, it will read the Pre as two different devices, so you should pick one way or the other, and stick to it.

I recommend combining this with the "Hide MediaSync Mode" patch to simplify things.

[j.morneau]

I am new to Ubuntu and have a palm pre from bell. I normaly plug in my device with my usb cable and a drive automaticaly shows up on my desktop. then i normaly drag and drop my .mp4 files on to it. recently right after the filetransfert is completed the drive disapears??? i am unable to find a way to disconnect the Pre before pulling out the usb cable. Causing data loss.

can anybody help me please?

[0ese]

Hi malpha,

here some additional infos, may be helpfull for using Banshee or Rhythmbox under Ubuntu.

In Ubuntu information about media player and their capabilities is provide by "media player information" files, e.g. "palm-pre.mpi" for the Palm Pre (you can find here: cgit.freedesktop.org/media-player-info/tree/media-players/palm_pre.mpi)

And this is the information inside this file (by 24.02.2011):

[Device]
Product=Prē
Vendor=Palm
AccessProtocol=storage
DeviceMatch=usb:0830:8004;usb:0830:8002;
Icon=phone-palm-pre

[Media]
OutputFormats=audio/mpeg;audio/3gpp;audio/mp4;audio/aac;audio/x-wav

[storage]
AudioFolders=Music/

This file can by found in your files system under /usr/share/media-player-info.

Maybe this information about playlists should be added:

[Playlist]
Formats=audio/x-mpegurl

This should help, that Rhythmbox or others will create playlist in m3u-format and not in another format the Palm Pre doesn´t know.

Regards!