Folders for Media Player files (well sort of) - interested?

[Guest ray]

I don't think anyone has mentioned this before but I've hit upon a clunky way of setting up *sorted* WMA and WMV folders (not playlists unfotunately) for use in Media Player (MP3s don't seem to be recognised). It gets around the lack of folders in media player by putting then in Explorer Favourites instead.

As you may know you can set up Favourites folders using ActiveSync Explore by creating them in "IPSMWindowsFavorites". As a starter create two new folders, one called ",Movies Files" and the other called ",Music Files".

Note 1: The commas in front of the folder names are to drive them to the top of the list of all 'normal' favorites and their folders.

Note 2: It is possible to set up subfolders within these folders but unfortunately the SPV doesn't seem to recognise any favourites you put in them. (So bang goes the possibility of having genres/artists/album names as subfolders). You can get around this by increasing the number of root folders but the more you set up, the more scrolling you will have to do later.

Now create the same folders you set up above in "Storage CardMy Documents". You don't have to have the same structure or names you set up before but it makes things easier later. Copy your WMV/WMAs to these folders. Also create a similar folder heirachy on your PC. Again you don't have to do this but can make life easier.

For each WMA/WMV set up a Internet Shortcut. Go into notepad and enter the following:

[internetShortcut]

URL=file:///storage cardMy Documents,folderfilename

Modified=501CE6E5519DC201E8

Replace ",folderfilename" with the folder and filename + .WMV or .WMA of one of your media files. I'm not sure what the hell the "Modified=" string is but it seems to work (probably date and time etc.) Save the text file as "filename.url" (without the WMA or WMV) into the correct PC folder hierachy. Repeat the process for each file you want to access through Explorer.

Now copy all these Internet shortcuts and the folders from the PC over to the "IPSMWindowsFavorites" folders you set up earlier. Re-boot the SPV, start IE and you should be able to see the new folders and shortcuts. IE should launch media player with the file you want. You only need to re-boot when you are creating new folders, not new favourites.

This is all a bit of a pain in the **** for loads of files but I'm sure someone out there can write a VB batch application to do it all automatically - get to it!! - until a better media player comes out.

Contact the guys who make "Pocket TV" MPEG player for the Pocket PC platform. Maybe if there's enough interest they'll get something to market quickly for Smartphone.

Cheers - Richard

(bit busy for the next few days so if you have problems I may not be able reply)