Playlist question (2 Viewers)

[Eezer]

Version 1.2.3
Mustayaluca skin

Sorry if this has been asked before. I did search but I can't find the answer I'm looking for.

Up until last week I only used MediaPortal for films. Music and music videos were handled by Media Center and a Media Player Classic - HC playlist (set on random) respectively. However, I finally downloaded mvCentral which plays music videos at random and makes me very happy. Playing music however, doesn't...

I loved the way I could boot up Media Center and select Music>Play All>Shuffle. It was brilliant. Until it started crashing all the effing time. (This is why I'm switching music over to MediaPortal).

I just want MediaPortal to work in the same way; Switch on, select music, select Play All and finally hit random/shuffle. But after many hours of faffing around I have realized this is not possible. So I booted up Media Player and created a playlist of all 5000+ songs which I called "Playlist" and saved as an M3U file and placed in the My Playlists folder. All well and good so far.

The problem is that MediaPortal doesn't like it. I select Music, open the menu and select Playlists. "Playlist" appears but selecting it does nothing. Total silence. There's a wee info thing at the bottom right which reads, "0 MUSIC/PLAYLIST".

My music files are all there and play fine if I just select a track or album and listen to it. But that's not what I want. I want to play random songs from random albums in my collection and not just 10 or 20 as I've seen discussed in a thread about 1 button music. I might want the playlist to play all day.

Why is it so hard? It was problems like this that made me stick with Media Center in the first place.

Can anyone explain to me how to make the music section of MediaPortal work in the same was as in Media Center? Or is this not possible?

Or am I just thick?

I'm sorry if I come across as all negative and angry, but I'm just so frustrated. Please, any and all help is much appreciated.

 

[Cruzer]

This may do what you are looking for:

One-Button Music

I haven't tried it myself, but it sure sounds like it is even easier than what you want to do. After all, it's one button!

 

[chrisonline]

I am searching also of a Play all shuffle function.
Does MP support such function out of the box?

 

[Cruzer]

There may be better ways to do this, but this one works.

In MP Configuration, create an All Tracks music view. In this view, just select track. This should list all tracks in the music database. Now start MP, go into music and select this All Tracks view. Go into the context menu and select Queue All Items. This will create a playlist with all tracks and start playing. Now, shuffle the playlist.

I tried this and it works for me. Granted, my library isn't that big, but it contains 15,000+ track and there was not a problem. That being said, this seems like a bit of a pain.

 

[chrisonline]

Thanks, I will try.
I wonder why MP does not have a play all button?!

 

[Cruzer]

I think (yet) another way to do this is with SmartPlaylists. I've been wanting to try this plugin anyhow. If I get a chance to install it, I'll let you know how that goes. With that, you should just be able to create an All Tracks playlist and then just shuffle that. We'll see.

 

[Cruzer]

I spent a few minutes trying to get the SmartPlaylist working but was unsuccessful. I'm sure it's my mistake and I just don't have any time to spend more time on it. That being said, it looks like a great plugin / solution. It appears that it is very powerful and can generate random playlists as well. Again, I didn't get it working but I suggest taking a look at it. I think it will do what you want and more. And if I do find some extra time and get it working, I'll post that here.