Skinjob wrote:
I’m not saying it’s harder to implement than tags, just that it’s not trivial. And actually, the browsing UI is pretty simple with tags as the browse lists are just queries executed against the internal database. The MTP upload or MSC “Refreshing Database” process takes care of the hard work of reading all the tag info and building the DB.
So to add folder browsing, they would either have to somehow add the folder information to the internal database so the UI model won’t require a major rewrite or scrap the DB for folder mode and come up with an entirely new UI model. So while reading and navigating folders programmatically is quite simple, I’m sure full implementation is not.
And don’t forget the differences between MTP and MSC. Yes, with MSC there’s a file system. But with MTP there isn’t, it’s all virtual.
I’m sure MTP mode is the main reason there’s no folder browsing. With MTP the “file system” is entirely virtual and you have no control over it, so there’s no reason to have a folder browsing mode. I’m sure the vast majority of users just stick with the default MTP mode and WMP and never think about the folder structure. I’m definitely not one of those users, but I’m sure us MSC users are a small minority compared to the MTP users.
Again, I’m not arguing against folder browsing. I’m just saying that I think many people are underestimating the effort it would take to implement and are maybe giving Sandisk a little more grief than they deserve.
The database (MTABLE.SYS) already contains the full path names, for both MSC and MTP mode items. MTP mode has a directory structure and the database stores its items using a “##MUSIC#” prefix. Here’s a dump from the database, showing how the pre-installed songs are stored (the lines starting with mmc: are the paths):
mmc:0:##MUSIC#\Music\Heavyweight Dub Champion\13000000_Survival Guide For The End O\Return Of The Champion.mp3
02 01 14 “Return Of The Champion” “Heavyweight Dub Champion” “Survival Guide For The End Of Time” “Hip-Hop” “00000002”
mmc:0:##MUSIC#\Music\Jones Gang\Any Day Now\Angel.mp3
02 01 19 “Angel” “The Jones Gang” “Any Day Now” “Classic Rock” “00000003”
mmc:0:##MUSIC#\Music\Red Thread\Ship in the Attic\Wax Museum.mp3
02 01 1b “Wax Museum” “The Red Thread” “Ship in the Attic, Birds in the Subway” “Indie” “00000002”
mmc:0:##MUSIC#\Music\1D000000_The Shanghai Restoration Pro\1E000000_The Shanghai Restoration Pro\Babylon of the Orient.mp3
02 01 1f “Babylon of the Orient” “The Shanghai Restoration Projec” “The Shanghai Restoration Project” “Electronic” “0”
mmc:0:##MUSIC#\Music\Alias & Ehren\Lillian\Cobbelstoned Waltz.mp3
02 01 23 “Cobbelstoned Waltz” “Alias & Ehren” “Lillian” “Electronic” “00000012”
I don’t think there is any difference internally between the two modes. They’re just two different interfaces. Even if I’m wrong, I believe that at least the MSC mode files should be easy to list - forget about MTP. It’s obvious that the people asking for folder support are using MSC exclusively. :wink: