Just got new VW Phatbox - FLAC question

[jheyerman]

I recently purchased a used Jetta, and bought a new Phatbox that was on clearance at a VW dealer.

I have a large database of CDs that I have ripped to flac using EAC or DbPoweramp.  When PMM scans my music directory, the tags do not read in, ie artist, album, etc are "unknown".  I suspect this is because it is an old version (1.83) and expecting ID3 tags, whereas all files are tagged using "flac tags", ie vorbis comments.  So, the first question I have, is will a newer version (2.30, or Media manager, if I can somehow get one) read in the tags?

My second question is does the phatbox support gapless playback - in flac, or anything else?  I mostly listen to whole albums, and live stuff, so my flac collection is set-up for gapless playback.

Thanks!
Jeff

[sbingner]

Yes, I believe the newest versions of PhatNoise Media Manager support FLAC tags

[S80_UK]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

My FLAC is mostly ripped using EAC, with AutoFLAC and FLAC 1.1.3 or 1.1.4.   I use Phatnoise Media Manager 3.92 and have no tag issues.

FLAC playback should be gapless (all my FLAC plays very well).  I have found that just occasionally there can be a glitch between tracks, but it depends on the drive buffers and other factors.  See how it goes. 

Also, once you have things running, we would generally recommend that you hack your Phatbox to allow alternative hard drives to be used...

http://forum.phathack.com/index.php/topic,981.0.html

After this is done, if you have gap issues you can try replacing the Linux kernel with the version which supports drives above 127GB capacity.  I have found that this significantly improved my gapless playback.

See... http://forum.phathack.com/index.php/topic,604.0.html

Download from... http://downloads.phathack.com/sbingner/linux-lba48.bz2

[sbingner]

That's interesting... perhaps some optomization in the new IDE code I back-ported.  Otherwise it's an identical kernel...

[S80_UK]

That's interesting... perhaps some optomization in the new IDE code I back-ported.  Otherwise it's an identical kernel...

Yes, I figured it was just some change to the buffering or something like that.  My 160G drive arrives next day or so, so that will also be fun.  I wonder what that will break... 

[jheyerman]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I did successfully download and update PMM 2.30 and install 3.92.  2.30 did not read in the tags correctly, but 3.92 did!  I like the interface of 3.92 quite a bit better, too.  I copied three albums as a test (2 live ones), and I have gapless playback  .  The one weird thing is that when I browse to a new album, it starts to play, then I get the beep as it switches to track mode. Then there is a long wait (maybe 5 - 8 s) before the track resumes.  Twice it skipped forward to track two rather than resume the first track  .   Is there a way to turn off that "switching to track mode" beep?

Cheers and thanks!
Jeff

Edit: found the answer to my beep question using search, although I haven't seen anything speaking to the skipping fwd to track 2 - maybe flac related?

[S80_UK]

Edit: found the answer to my beep question using search, although I haven't seen anything speaking to the skipping fwd to track 2 - maybe flac related?

I'm glad you made somw good progress - and it is good that you were able to get the software OK too.

Regarding the skipping - that's a new one to me.  But I wonder if it is related to the particular head unit selection.  If I understand correctly there are several head unit options for VW installations.  See this link...

http://phatbox.sixpak.org/phatbox/audioid.phtml

If it's not that, maybe someone with a VW can help you.

Les.

[jheyerman]

Just a note that with the box hacked, and the LBA kernel (I put in a 160gb drive), I have not had the skip fwd to track 2.  So maybe it is related to the new kernel?  There seems to be a lot smaller gap between the "switch to track mode" beep and resuming of play with the new setup as well.

Cheers!
Jeff