Using Amarok Media Player - Part 2

For: Mepis Linux

by: je.saist

We left off on the last page having looked at the Context tab and the Collection Tab. Now we'll take a quick look at the File tab, which should be easier for some users to navigate. Then we'll connect a Generic Media Player, in this case an iRiver H320, to the computer.

20: Left Click on Files on the Far Left Side of Amarok.





21: The left hand column will now show the /home folder in use. From here it should be pretty simple to find the folder with your music and click-drag to the playlist.




21-B: Here I've clicked down into the Concert folder I have stored under /home/Zerias/Music

Now, I'm kinda glossing over this because we'll be back into this type of view later with our Media Device section. 




22: So, lets see how Amarok handles a Generic Media Player on a data connection. I just hooked up my iRiver H320 and Amarok gives us a little pop up. By default, Amarok is set to handle Apple Ipods and a media device. However, Amarok may not always pop this dialog window up. So, we'll do our work on adding my Iriver in the Settings portion of Amarok.

Left Click OK to close the Pop-up window.





23: Left Click on Settings at the top of Amarok.




24: Left Click on Configure Amarok.





25: This is the default configuration screen for Amarok. We'll be back here later in another guide.

For now, left click on Media Devices in the Left hand Column.





26: Here we have a similar screen to the pop-up we saw earlier. Next to sbd1 we currently have Plugin: Do not Handle

Left Click on the Down Arrow next to Do not handle





27: We now the options for Generic Audio Player, Music Sharing, Apple Ipod Media Device, and iRiver iFP media device.

Would make sense that I would select the iRiver iFP, this turned out to be wrong. Appearently that setting is for iRiver's flash player devices and newer players. So, I'm going to select Generic Audio Player by Left Clicking on it.





28: Amarok is now instructed to treat any device on sdb1 as a Generic Audio Player.





29: lets look at some more configuration options that we can have on our player. Next to Generic Audio Player is a button with a wrench and a hammer crossing, colored in blue. Left Click on the Button.





30: This is our advanced screen allowing us to specify file handling on our player. Now, I did find one interesting feature in here I wanted to show you. that is the section labled Transferring files to media devices.





31: Left Clicking on Add Format brings up the list of formats that we can have sent directly to our drive.





32: I'm going to go ahead and grab .ogg





33: Flac, the Free Lossless Audio Codec.




34: wma, windows media audio.





35: I'm also going to grab wav as well. Although this is a much larger file, there are some times I need to transport wav files when recovering audio data from audio cassettes, record players, and eight tracks.





36: You can also specify which format other audio types should be turned into.

Currently Amarok has Other formats will be converted to: set as mp3.





37: However, I'm going to change the converted format. Simply left click on the drop-down arrow.





38: I'm going to select the .ogg format by left clicking on it.





39: Alight, I'm done messing with the configuration for my Iriver. Click OK to exit.





I think I need to build my collection again, can I go back to Part 1?

I want to access my media player, I'm going to Part 3!