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#220330 - 14/10/2001 08:59 Random, er, isn't.
phaigh
addict

Registered: 04/11/1999
Posts: 649
Loc: Reading, UK
Hi all.

Finally managed to get mine hooked up (only in computer room so far, but still progress).

I tried what I do on the empeg, (down->down->down) by selecting :

Select Music -> Playlist -> Play All Music.

(Playlist seemed the most obvious).

It plays, but it seems to play songs from the same album - so far I've pressed 'Next' (>>) twenty times and it's only played 3 CD's (Spice Girls, Tindersticks and Texas).

This doesn't seem random to me, unless I'm missing something.

When I do the same but select 'Artist' except 'Playlist' it seems to be a lot more random.

Cheers,

Paul.

--
RioReceiver - Still Waiting for one in the UK.
_________________________
Paul Haigh, Reg. 4120 (mk1) 6GB, Blue, 00254 (mk2) 12GB, Red, 00357

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#220331 - 14/10/2001 09:00 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: phaigh]
phaigh
addict

Registered: 04/11/1999
Posts: 649
Loc: Reading, UK
In fact, this seems to happen *every* time I do this - I.e. I always get Tindersticks and SpiceGirls being played, and whilst I like to listen to them both (occasionally) all of the time is really, really, annoying.

Cheers,

Paul.

--
RioReceiver - Still Waiting for one in the UK.
_________________________
Paul Haigh, Reg. 4120 (mk1) 6GB, Blue, 00254 (mk2) 12GB, Red, 00357

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#220332 - 14/10/2001 09:22 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: phaigh]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
You didn't say whether or not you pressed the "Random" button on the front panel? That usually helps.

_________
Tony Fabris
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#220333 - 14/10/2001 09:36 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: tfabris]
phaigh
addict

Registered: 04/11/1999
Posts: 649
Loc: Reading, UK
Thanks for the post tony, Yep, I did - If you re-read my post, you'll see that using 'artist' instead of 'playlist' actually *does* randomise the contents.

You don't get the same artist in a row normally, so it may go like so:

SG, SG, Tinder, SG, SG, Tinder, Texas, SG, Texas, Tinder, SG, etc.

So it's *almost* random.

Cheers,

Paul.

--
RioReceiver - Still Waiting for one in the UK.
_________________________
Paul Haigh, Reg. 4120 (mk1) 6GB, Blue, 00254 (mk2) 12GB, Red, 00357

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#220334 - 14/10/2001 09:39 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: phaigh]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Well, assuming you pressed the "Random" button and it says the word "Random" on the screen, it should be shuffling everything.

Are those the only two artists available? Perhaps it's not indexing your entire collection.

I know that mine works OK and randomizes properly, but my collection isn't too large. I know there's some size-limit bugs for its database that will be fixed on the next software release.

_________
Tony Fabris
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#220335 - 14/10/2001 09:53 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: tfabris]
phaigh
addict

Registered: 04/11/1999
Posts: 649
Loc: Reading, UK
Tony.

Again, I have pressed the 'random' button . Perhaps I wasn't clear before with the behaviour I was seeing:

When I press:

"Menu -> Select Music -> Artist -> Play All Music"

Everything is randomised correctly, and as I excpect (i.e. 5000+ tracks, not in artist order).

When I do the following:

"Menu -> Select Music -> Playlist -> Play All Music"

I get the bizarre Spice Girls/Tindersticks thing. With enough FF pressing (50+) I do eventually get to a different artist.

It certainly seems to be a bug.

If it wasn't indexing the collection, then I wouldn't get them on the 'artist' method. Despite this, I've re-built the DB on the server, but it's still the same.

When you randomise on your unit, do you use 'Artist' or 'Playlist' - can you try 'Playlist' and see what you get?

Cheers,

Paul

--
RioReceiver - Still Waiting for one in the UK.
_________________________
Paul Haigh, Reg. 4120 (mk1) 6GB, Blue, 00254 (mk2) 12GB, Red, 00357

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#220336 - 14/10/2001 10:03 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: phaigh]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
My guess is that you have playlists on your hard disk somewhere (an M3U file) with only spice girls and tindersticks. Playlists, in the case of the Rio Receiver server software, specifically refer to M3U files.

Is it possible that your other music does not have associated M3U files, and only those artists have M3U files?

_________
Tony Fabris
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#220337 - 14/10/2001 10:07 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: tfabris]
phaigh
addict

Registered: 04/11/1999
Posts: 649
Loc: Reading, UK
That's got it - only 6 playlists on the whole share (which is odd).

I have automatic software that should create the playlists on the server directories - it had failed and I hadn't noticed. Re-created them all - everything fantastic again.

'Danke' as they say @ oktoberfest.

Paul.

--
2xEmpeg.
1xRioReceiver.
_________________________
Paul Haigh, Reg. 4120 (mk1) 6GB, Blue, 00254 (mk2) 12GB, Red, 00357

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#220338 - 14/10/2001 10:10 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: phaigh]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA
Since the Receiver will categorize your artists/albums without playlists, you might want to just delete all playlists.

I have taken to only creating "mood" playlists. For instance, I have a playlist called "Low Key", but I do not have any artist or album playlists.

That way, when I choose the playlists menu, I'm presented only with my mood playlists.

_________
Tony Fabris
_________________________
Tony Fabris

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#220339 - 14/10/2001 13:08 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: tfabris]
phaigh
addict

Registered: 04/11/1999
Posts: 649
Loc: Reading, UK
I actually use the playlists on my portable Archos player, but I see your point.

Paul.

--
2xEmpeg.
1xRioReceiver.
_________________________
Paul Haigh, Reg. 4120 (mk1) 6GB, Blue, 00254 (mk2) 12GB, Red, 00357

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#220340 - 18/10/2001 10:57 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: tfabris]
Dylan
addict

Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 498
Loc: Virginia, USA
In reply to:

Since the Receiver will categorize your artists/albums without playlists, you might want to just delete all playlists.




*sigh* I wish. Like most MP3 jukeboxes (whether software or hardware), the Receiver is designed more for playing individual songs instead of albums.

There is no default hierarchy of Artist->Album->Songs. Starting with Artist gives me an list of all the songs from that artist. If I start with Album I get a massive list of all albums in alphabetical order. I often don't remember the name of an album but would recognize it in a short list.

The only decent solution I know of was posted in this forum. I run a little program that generates playlists from my file hierarchy named Artist-Album. This gives me the sorting I want in the Receiver. But this is a not an optimal solution either because the display doesn't show enough characters. And the list is huge. A hierarchy would be much more desirable.

Obviously I must organize/play my MP3 collection differently than most people because nothing out there works the way I want it to. I have this same gripe with the car player. I really don't want to have to manually maintain Artist->Album playlists when the player could do it so easily for me.

-Dylan



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#220341 - 18/10/2001 16:33 Re: Random, er, isn't. [Re: Dylan]
altman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/05/1999
Posts: 3457
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
This is something on the wishlist for the next update; another as yet unreleased product does it in the proper artist->album->song way, so a lot of the code already exists.

Hugo



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