README

DOWNCODE

Simple script to reencode a library of OGG Vorbis and MP3 file to a smaller
size for use with a space restricted MP3 player, while preserving ID3 tags and
OGG comments.

Please contact me with any comments, suggestions, questions.

James Pharaoh <james@phsys.co.uk>

INFORMATION

The script is designed to run incrementally, and will detect changes (based on
modification time) and deletions.

Typical usage is as follows:

$ downcode --source music/faves --dest mp3/faves --delete

I imagine you'd write a short shell script to invoke downcode with the right
parameters, possibly multiple times, and simply run it after modifying your
music colleciton, or before syncing to your device.

The script also replaces certain characters which won't work on a FAT file
system.

FUTURE FEATURES

Let me know if anyone is interested in any of these.

* Improved output - I want to clear the screen and show current progress at the
  top after each file, with the command output underneath.

* Format change - It would be nice to output all OGG or all MP3, but this makes
  the tag handling much more complicated.

* Parallel processing - I have a four core processor, it would be nice to
  specify how many of them to use.

* Filters - It should be possible to specify which files to include or exclude
  in an interesting way, and so be able to more manage a larger collection.

* More intelligent deleting - It would probably be quite easy to wipe out a
  whole directory if you pass the wrong arguments with the --delete option. I
  could probably detect and handle this better.

* Other files - Currently any non MP3 or OGG files are simply skipped. Instead
  we should have an option to copy them, probably based on extension.

* Filename conversion - My linux filesystem supports characters which my MP3
  player doesn't. I substitute only a small number of these, this could be
  done better somehow.

* Quality options - The quality of the output is hardcoded. This should be
  available as command line options, or maybe a config file.

Please email me with any suggestions.