Introduction

This is a tool to convert standard playlist files (.M3U or .PLS) into special .TPL playlist files for the Verizon Razzle TXT8030 cell phone.

The dreaded limitations

If you have one of these phones, and you tried to use it as an MP3 player, you quickly run into many limitations:

• You aren't allowed to use any subdirectories! All files need to be in the "my_music" directory on the root of the card.
• It doesn't play files in track order on an album! Instead, it sorts the files alphabetically. You are forced to retag the files so that they include track numbers in the title of the song if you want them to play in order.
• You can't send any playlists to the phone! All playlists must be created on the phone itself.

By using this playlist converter tool, you can work around those problems. You can create playlists for every directory, so you can sort-of get your filesystem arrangement back. When playing from a playlist, the music player does not re-sort the files alphabetically. And now you can finally send playlist files to the phone!

How to use it

This is a C# program, you will need to first install the .NET framework if you don't already have it.

First connect your phone to the PC using the USB cable. Go to "9: Settings and Tools" > "2: Tools" > "0: USB Mass Storage". Or just take out the MicroSD card and put it in a card reader. Your choice.

Run the program. Tell it your drive letter. It will automatically pick the first removable drive. If that's not correct, select the correct drive letter, then press the Rescan button. You can also put in a directory name if you want, but "my_music" is probably already the correct folder.

Once the right drive and directory are selected, a list of music files should appear. This is just for display only, there is no built in playlist editor in this tool. If you need to create a playlist, use Winamp or something like that.

Now that your music files are listed, you can click the buttons to convert a playlist, or extract a playlist.

Download

Download Here

How it works

The TPL playlist file format is just a bunch of FAT32 cluster numbers! I'm using Chishm's GBA_NDS_FAT library to scan the directory, and get the cluster numbers for each file it finds.

Then you feed the program a playlist file, so it throws out any information about what directory the file is in, then matches the filename to the cluster number for that filename.

Because the playlists are just FAT32 cluster numbers, this means that when you defragment or delete and recopy files to your SD card, your playlists become invalid.

If you find any other cell phones which use the same playlist file format, let me know.

Contact

You can post comments on My Message Board, or email me or PM me.

Acknowledgements

Contains portions of code from GBA_NDS_FAT written by Chishm