Organising music on SDHC

[Lyons]

I'm trying to get my music organised on the SD card in advance of the Columbus arriving.

On my iPod, I had it laid out with the different genres for playlists as such;

-Music
  -Acoustic
  -Rock
  -Dance
  -Country
  -Urban

I was hoping to replicate this with folders on the SD card.

My first question is if I have all the songs in the first music folder, and then in their respective folders below that, does that mean is on the card twice?

If I select the general music folder to play, will I be able to shuffle through the whole folder?

1 of my gripes of the RNS when I had it last was it's (or perhaps my) inability to shuffle ALL songs, not just those within a specific folder.

[alexperkins]

It works on folders, but you can use playlist files (M3U)- so namely put it all in one top folder, make a folder called playlists, and ensure the playlists are created based on the SD card file locations as opposed to those on your computer, then it will work :)

Im going to reorganise mine at some point as I have a couple of duplications which are quite irritating

[Richn83]

Mix will only random shuffle within the folder you start playing from.

As you say if you have all albums within music and then within the categories then you will have the files twice it doesnt have the same determining factors as an ipod which tags all the songs it just uses a simple hierarchical file structure.  If you have a large enough SDHC card then song or album replication isnt really a problem as 20Gb HDD and 16Gb SD card is really more music than you could ever need and certainly more than you can ever search through while driving!

You can also make playlist by putting the songs you want in a folder and naming the folder.

[Lyons]

Perfect.

I only have 8GB or so of music anyway, so it'll be no bother putting it on a card twice then.

If I were to put the "music" folder on the HDD, then the playlists on the card, can you remind me how easy it is to flick between HDD and SD card selection?

[alexperkins]

You go to MEDIA and just select SD CARD instead of HDD 

I dont think you can have the music on the HDD with the playlists on the card...I think playlists are only supported if the music and playlists are on the card.

[Lyons]

I mean even Music on the HDD and the songs organised into the genre folders on the card, it means I'd only need an 8th card.

[alexperkins]

Oh i see, so duplication effectively, but not on the same drive 

[Lyons]

Indeed!

While we're on the topic and to save me searching, what are the advantages of an SDHC card over an ordinary SD?

[alexperkins]

SDHC is anything over 4GB - its just a branding

Secure Digital High Capacity 

[Richn83]

Its actually a different file format rather than just branding, the standards are set by a group you can read the technical bumpf about it all if you have a week to spare and like to torture yourself.

The original SD format was only able to support file capacity upto 4GB due to the file structure used a bit like the difference between 32 and 64 bit operating systems on computers there is an inherent limit to the amount of data and size of file the format can handle.

SDHC extended that format up to 32GB by changing the way the data is stored and they now have SD XC extended capacity which will allow for SD cards of 64Gb and above.

So SDHC cards wont necessarily work in an SD card device hence below firmware 1100 only SD cards worked in the RNS as the unit was unable to recognise the file format the SDHC cards used.

[alexperkins]

  Just like ye olde FAT32 4GB file limits 

[Lyons]

Just another quick query, would a micro SDHC card in an SD adapter work in an RNS, or does it need to be an actual SD?

[alexperkins]

No reason why not