Configuration - Advanced Options

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Configuration - Advanced Options

To get into the Configuration screens, just click the "Configure EphPod" button on the Main Screen or choose "Configuration" in the iPod Tools Menu. Below is a screen shot of the Advanced Options Configuration and an explanation of the various things you can do on this screen. If you want to see the other options screens, just click on the tabs in the picture.

Write to Music Directories from F00 to F - The iPod has 20 directories (F00 through F19) that can hold your MP3 files. Here, you can specify how many of them you want to use, starting at F00. Using many directories will make it faster for you to browse your iPod's music folders, but since you probably won't be doing that, it won't make much of a difference which value you put here.

Preserve MP3 filename in copy - If this is off (the default setting), EphPod will copy your MP3s to your iPod and use their Song ID numbers as their filenames. So an mp3 named "Remember Me.mp3" would be renamed to "2010.mp3". EphPod does this because Windows allows for a greater number of characters in filenames than some Macintosh computers do (255 characters for Windows, 32 for Macintosh), and so if you were copying two files named "Lynyrd Skynyrd - Greatest Hits Ever Made in the World - Sweet Home.mp3" and "Lynyrd Skynyrd - Greatest Hits Ever Made in the World - Freebird.mp3", they would both be truncated to "Lynyrd Skynyrd - Greatest .mp3" and one would overwrite the other. It is recommended, therefore, that you let EphPod rename your MP3s. Remember, you will rarely look on your iPod's hard drive for songs; if you need to copy songs from your iPod back to your computer, you can always use the Copy To Folder function.

Use Directory Structure if no tag available - If there are no ID3 tags in a file that you are adding (or you are adding a WAV file), then EphPod can use the path and filename of that song to determine its information (Title, Artist, Album, Track Number). EphPod takes the grandparent folder name as the Artist name, the parent folder name as the Album name, and the filename as the Song Title. Additionally, if the Song Title starts with a number and is followed by text, it takes that number to be the track number. So "C:\My Music\Eminem\The Marshall Mathers LP\I'm Back.mp3" would be decoded properly as Artist: Eminem, Album: The Marshall Mathers LP, and Title: I'm Back. In this case, the track number would be blank. "C:\My Music\Live\Mental Jewelry\01 - Pain Lies on the Riverside.mp3" would be decoded properly as Artist: Live, Album: Mental Jewelry, Track Number: 1, Song Title: Pain Lies on the Riverside.

Use Windows API Copy Routines / Use Internal Copy Routines - When EphPod copies files over to your iPod, it can either let Windows be responsible for the copying, or EphPod can do the copying itself. When you use the internal routines, you have more control over the copying, and can specify how many bytes of a file you want to copy over at a time. The only time you should switch from Internal to Windows is if Windows is giving you faster times than Internal routines with a really high buffer, or if Internal routines with a really lower buffer is causing problems (write-behind errors or crashes).

Internal Copying Buffer Size - Setting this number lower makes the copying process more stable, and slower. Increasing it makes it faster, and increases the potential for write-behind errors and crashes. That said, very, very few users experience any instability with the internal copying routines set at the highest buffer size. Feel free to boost this number to get faster copying, and drop it down if you run into any problems.

Boost Song Length by 5 Seconds for all Songs - Sometimes if you have Variable Bitrate (VBR) MP3s, whatever program you used to create them will incorrectly report the length of a song by a few seconds. This feature is here for those users (actually only one that I know about). If you have MP3s like that, you should re-rip them using a good ripping program. So, don't use this feature unless you absolutely have to (although it won't do anything bad, it's an ugly hack, and we don't like ugly hacks as a rule).