CAN YOU SET UP A STATIC PLAYLIST?????? Racking my brain

[fizze]

Haha, you arent really suggesting to use NTFS links over network? 😉
Quite kinky those “black magic from M$” 😉

Might sound weird what Im about to suggest, but it might actually work for you.
You could define a set of folders aka “playlist 1” “playlist 2” etc.
Then create SMART playlists by file path that include contents of said folders.
Then you could have each client browse these instead of static playlists.
Only bugger would be that for each new file, you’d have to trigger a scan in mt-daapd so it sees them.

But that could be circumvented by some scripting. In fact I think I saw someone with an “incoming” script here once…. 😉

[beerfan]

@fizze wrote:

Haha, you arent really suggesting to use NTFS links over network? 😉
Quite kinky those “black magic from M$” 😉

I share your skeptism, since I haven’t actually used Vista’s symlinks. However, according to that wiki page and what I could turn up on msdn, the new symlinks function much like unix symlinks and can point to any kind of mount point as well as local resources.

You’re right about WinXP junctions though. I’ve played with those and they aren’t worth bothering with.

[jtbse]

I’ve tried the Win XP junction thing, and it won’t work (at least for me). Junctions will only work with NTFS file systems…my music on on ext3 and accessed via Samba in Windows.

Know nothing about Vista (and hope to keep it that way 🙂 ), so I have no idea how Vista symlinks work.

But the issue that I have is how to create static playlists with a Windoze tool that will work from Firefly on nslu2. I really haven’t figured out a way to make this process “transparent”. I always end up having to edit the playlist to modify directory locations, or other things before deploying for the server.

The best I’ve come with so far is:

1) Map the net share music library to the “M:” drive on Windoze and access things via M: with Win-based programs

2) Create a symlink called “M:” on the root fs on the nslu2 that points to the music library directories. (Can’t be created in the musiclib folder itself, because the recursion really confuses Firefly, and I need the “follow sym links” setting on config for other reasons).

So even with this setup, I end up needing to modify the .m3u files to add a leading “/” to the file references. I think Ron has said that Firefly is smart enough to convert “” to “/” on the fly during a playlist scan, but I usually do that conversion manually as well.

Am I missing something, or making all this more difficult than it needs to be?

[fizze]

nahnahnahnhnahahahnnnaaah. 😕

breakt it down 😉

for hat its worth, heres how I manage playlists. I use a NSLU2 as music source an have several PCs across the place.
I use winamp or rhythmbox to create a m3u playlists. Those do have arelative path. (nudge hint)

So i just map the NSLU2 share to whatever fits me and go from there.
The tricky thing s to put the m3u in the right directory on the slug, so mt-daapd picks it up alright. End of story. 😉

[jtbse]

Ok fizze…I get it. 🙂

I played with the relative paths thing earlier, but think I had issues due to my directory layout and the way I was trying to locate the .m3u files.

So I guess it’s worth fiddling with again. (After awhile it just makes my brain hurt, I guess).

Course I think maybe xspf playlist support would make all of this easier since it uses a URI-type reference to the music files (hint hint, nudge nudge) 😀

[rpedde]

@jtbse wrote:

Ok fizze…I get it. 🙂

I played with the relative paths thing earlier, but think I had issues due to my directory layout and the way I was trying to locate the .m3u files.

So I guess it’s worth fiddling with again. (After awhile it just makes my brain hurt, I guess).

Course I think maybe xspf playlist support would make all of this easier since it uses a URI-type reference to the music files (hint hint, nudge nudge) 😀

Okay… wait… weren’t you just pushing for wl-hdd builds?

New rule:

People can only push for one feature at a time.

Otherwise, that’s just *greedy*.

🙂

[beerfan]

@fizze wrote:

The tricky thing s to put the m3u in the right directory on the slug, so mt-daapd picks it up alright. End of story. 😉

Does mt-daapd only scan for playlists if you request a full scan though? Perhaps the “aggresive” scan looks for an updates static playlists.

I much prefer smart playlists to these PITA static playlists. Drop (properly tagged) music in the library directory and enjoy. No playlists to goof around with.

[rpedde]

@beerfan wrote:

@fizze wrote:

The tricky thing s to put the m3u in the right directory on the slug, so mt-daapd picks it up alright. End of story. 😉

Does mt-daapd only scan for playlists if you request a full scan though? Perhaps the “aggresive” scan looks for an updates static playlists.

I much prefer smart playlists to these PITA static playlists. Drop (properly tagged) music in the library directory and enjoy. No playlists to goof around with.

It should notice the file change time and reload it. Theory says, anyway.

But I’m with you… I make smart playlists for everything via grouping or comment or genre tags.

[beerfan]

@rpedde wrote:

But I’m with you… I make smart playlists for everything via grouping or comment or genre tags.

I just discovered the grouping tag. I’ve been wishing for a way to filter live/studio for a while without placing that in the comment field but the grouping tag seems appropriate for that.

I’m surprised people bother with static playlists. Even if you only want to hear the same set of songs in the same order every time, a smart playlist can do that.

[jtbse]

@rpedde wrote:

Okay… wait… weren’t you just pushing for wl-hdd builds?

New rule:

People can only push for one feature at a time.

Otherwise, that’s just *greedy*.

🙂

Think you have me confused with someone else Ron. 🙂

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