Play random episode not very... random? (1 Viewer)

[bnsaflsujt]

Hi All!

I was wondering if this is the intended behavior for the play random episode feature. It seems that any time mediaportal is exited, or the computer is restarted, the random seed for the "Play Random Episode" feature is reset. For example, if I were to go to family guy, and select play random episode, it would play something like 1x15, then 5x20, then 3x12, and so on. But if I restart mediaportal, and go back to family guy and click, "Play Random Episode", it goes 1x15, then 5x20, then 3x12, and so on. The only thing I could think is if having an episode as watched or unwatched has anything to do with it, because many times, I will skip watching the episode, because I am not interested in that one at the moment. If they were to be marked as watched, would they still repeat in that order?

Thank you in advance for your help,
James

 

[bnsaflsujt]

I am going to DL the new TVSeries, but am not planning on seeing this fixed, as nothing about it was mentioned... Has anyone seen anything like this?

 

[bnsaflsujt]

I am still having this problem, and am kind of getting let down at the lack of response! Is there any word on this? From ANYONE?!

Sincerely,
James

 

[SilentException]

I will try to reproduce.. But there is some inconsistency in your first post:

"It seems that any time mediaportal is exited, or the computer is restarted, the random seed for the "Play Random Episode" feature is reset"

First you say that the seed resets but then:

"But if I restart mediaportal, and go back to..."

 

[revs]

playing 1,3,5 then 1,3,5, then 1,3,5 is still random playing 1,2,3,4,5 would also be random.. That's the problem with 'random', sometimes its not very random!

 

[bnsaflsujt]

Hi SilentExcept;

That may have not been the best choice of words then. I guess to make the most since, it should be "Then if I restart..." I don't mean for the 'But' to sound like if I do something else, it solves the problem, just a continuation of the problem description.

Hi revs,

Yes, I understand that 1,3,5 is random, and that there is even a chance that 1,3,5 would come up as the next 3 iterations as well. However for it to do this EVERY time mediaportal is reopened seems to break standard concepts of probability. I mean, what are the chances that when telling it to pick a random episode out of 200 (series view), that it would pick the same sequences over, and over, and over again. That is why I believe that there is a random seed set in the code, instead of using the computer clock to seed. I mean, if I am truly getting these episodes to play in this order EACH time, RANDOMLY, I really need to go buy a lottery ticket!

Thanks for the replies everyone,
James

P.S.: I will as always try to respond ASAP to any posting, but I am about to leave for school (university), and I have to attend a 6 hour seminar today. However, the seminar is on image/video manipulation/analysis and code enhancement in MatLab, so it isn't really a "have to attend" but "want to attend."

P.S.S.: (SilentExcept) If you are not able to duplicate it, is there any type of a log that I can send you to help you determine the problem?

 

[SilentException]

ok here is my test:

1. start mediaportal and mp-tvseries
2. enter show (two seasons in the show)
3. press play random episode.. episode 6x9 was played
4. press x to go back to gui and press play random episode again.. episode 7x5 was played
5. press x to go back to gui and press play random episode again.. episode 6x8 was played
6. exit mediaportal
7. start mediaportal and mp-tvseries
8. enter same show (two seasons in the show)
9. press play random episode.. episode 6x1 was played.. so i stopped..

now you

 

[ltfearme]

This seems to be pretty random to me when testing, it was never the same with 7000 episodes in DB. By default it uses a time dependent seed value.