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Author Topic: Exporting playlists for a Windows player  (Read 6863 times)

dskrt

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Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« on: October 06, 2015, 11:13:54 am »
Hello,

How can I export from MC Mac a playlist which can be read and played on a MS-Windows player? My Multi-Media System in my car does not accept MAC generated playlists but accepts MC Windows generated playlists!

Might be a suggestion for development: Enable cross-platform exported Playlists i.e from MAC to Windows and Vice-Versa ?

Thanks for any answer
  
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blgentry

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2015, 12:11:02 pm »
When you go to File > Export Playlist, notice that in there are a bunch of selections for Format in the middle of the dialog box.  You could try something really simple like M3U, which is pretty universal. Or you could pick WPL, which is a format specific to Windows Media Player.

You might have an issue with relative path names.  I'm assuming you're doing this so you can play music from a portable drive (USB thumb drive for example).  You'll almost certainly want to check the box at the top of the dialog that says "use relative path names".

Good luck,

Brian.
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dskrt

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2015, 12:19:21 pm »
Thanks for your answer, but the problem is not the relative path but the way MAC and Windows manage path definitions, Mac uses the backslash "/"  and Windows uses the slash "\" in path names independently of what definition you use for your playlist. WPL is the windows playlist and so should use "\" and not "/".
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blgentry

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2015, 06:25:03 pm »
I'm puzzled.  Windows is the only system on the planet that uses \ as a path separator.  Are you saying you have something like a microsoft Sync system in your car, and it sees thumb drives as having \ as the path separators?  That seems totally backwards and wrong.

As a test, you can take one of your exported playlists and edit it with a text editor.  Do find and replace.  Find / and replace with \ .  You can do all instances of / at once, so it won't take any real work to do it.  If that fixes it, well, I guess that's a usable fix.

But it still seems like that should not be the case.  I'll be curious to hear the results of your experiments.

Alternatively, you could have MC copy your files to your drive, all in the same folder.  That way the playlists would have no path separators in them at all.  Depending on how you view your music, that might be really messy.  Just an alternate suggestion.

Let us know what you find out.

Brian.
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blgentry

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2015, 06:37:21 pm »
Ok, I just did some research quickly.  It seems that Sync *does* need to see \ as a path separator *and* it needs  full path names... not relative path names.

http://boards.synccommunity.com/discussions/Welcome_to_SYNC_Owner_to_Owner/Media_Players/I_cannot_transfer_playlist_to_USB_drive/fordsyncmb/1690.1?nav=printDiscussion

Jeez.  Sync is really a horrible system in my not so humble opinion.

The text editor find and replace should be a good workaround for you for now.  If you need to do this on a large number of playlists, it can be automated with some shell scripting pretty easily.

Brian.
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dskrt

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2015, 03:14:44 am »
If you generate a .WPL file from Windows media player under Windows the path separators used will also be a slash "\". Any path address in the windows environment is with "\" unfortunately, so it is in fact not so non-standard

Changing path in playlist by 'find and replace' is very tedious as you have to replace "/" one by one because XML statement like </title> also also use "\" in their tags   

Here is a WPL file generated by Mediaplayer in Windows:

<?wpl version="1.0"?>
<smil>
    <head>
        <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 12.0.7601.18840"/>
        <meta name="ItemCount" content="0"/>
        <title>Test</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <seq>
            <media src="..\..\..\..\..\..\..\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-musicsamples_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_06495209cbd8e93b\Kalimba.mp3"/>
        </seq>
    </body>
</smil>
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blgentry

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2015, 09:04:13 am »
Ok, questions and comments:

1. Is this to be used in a Microsoft Sync system?  It might help with figuring out specifics about the playlist format.  For example, I've read that Sync needs full path names.  Your example has relative path names, which probably won't work based on what I read.
2.  Are you using MC's Handhelds feature to copy music and playlists?  Or are you manually exporting one or more playlists?
3.  I don't think WPL format is in any way necessary for Sync.  M3U is supposed to work.  Then you won't have the problem with the XML tags after you do a find and replace.
4.  If you REALLY want to use WPL for some reason, you can still do a find and replace.  You just have to do 3 of them.  First one replaces / with \.  Next one replaces \> with /> .  Final one replaces <\ with </ .  That should fully transform the file correctly.  Here's a command line that does all of that in one shot for the named file:

Code: [Select]
perl -pi -e 's/\//\\/g;s/<\\/<\//g;s/\\>/\/>/g' "Put the Filename here without quotes"
You could automate this further by having the command line operate on all of the playlists in a directory for example.

I would suggest you do some testing to find out what playlist format works with your system, whether it can use relative paths, etc.  Then you can work on a strategy for doing these exports in as easy a way as possible.  :)

Brian.

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dskrt

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #7 on: October 08, 2015, 10:30:01 am »
What is SYNC ? I am copying my music and playlists to an SD Card which I use then in my car , a Mitsubishi Outlander with MMCS. The owner manuals clearly states it needs .WPL playlists and only WPL playlists. WPL Playlists generated from WINDOWS MC work correctly, those from MAC MC do not.

WPL is a Windows Media Player Playlist and as such should imho use slashes.

I am exporting the Playlist with relative path. As said from MC Win it works, from MC Mac it does not

Here is an example playlist generated by MC WIN

<?wpl version="1.0"?><smil>
<head>
<title>Rattle that Lock</title>
</head>
<body>
<seq>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - 5 a.M..mp3" tid="{8C6C1A45-6D90-4F77-800E-6744F2C12827}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock.mp3" tid="{327A40D9-7CFB-4833-BC84-164804580033}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - Faces of Stone.mp3" tid="{0AC41289-384B-4268-941B-D92EBDA9400D}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - A Boat Lies Waiting.mp3" tid="{D6B53DA0-D002-4674-A3C7-C68D7B7BB34B}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - Dancing Right in Front of Me.mp3" tid="{90B1E50F-92E0-43CA-861F-4495D35FD183}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - In Any Tongue.mp3" tid="{6345AD5A-C3C9-4A33-BC75-FFF2D12F49F5}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - Beauty.mp3" tid="{92E2CEDE-1824-4B66-82AC-DDD8CEF7C939}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - The Girl in the Yellow Dress.mp3" tid="{53765ED1-967C-4DDB-A257-915706B837BF}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - Today.mp3" tid="{2CB731C8-4800-4CB7-A871-719801BF4DC7}"/>
<media src="Music\David Gilmour\Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD\David Gilmour - And Then....mp3" tid="{82281129-4BB2-47AB-ABA2-C797C3A01E7A}"/>
</seq>
</body>
</smil>

And here the same Playlist generated by MC MAC. Both generated by MC 21

<?wpl version="1.0"?><smil>
<head>
<title>Rattle that Lock</title>
</head>
<body>
<seq>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - 5 a.M..mp3" tid="{8CFA3257-2DDA-4444-9C93-5EEC0644058E}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock.mp3" tid="{F8F761D3-682E-7E49-AFB4-4E2C1380E944}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - Faces of Stone.mp3" tid="{1E19873B-69E9-CE47-9D15-4AFDDA19E1A1}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - A Boat Lies Waiting.mp3" tid="{E059E37E-DCA7-7546-B6B4-E954ED1DE580}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - Dancing Right in Front of Me.mp3" tid="{8DD51371-0AF0-C849-8A95-C4A13964D36C}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - In Any Tongue.mp3" tid="{1520DA24-DE39-C348-A452-117654FBAD43}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - Beauty.mp3" tid="{D1987038-D127-1744-BE84-54BC93E4B281}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - The Girl in the Yellow Dress.mp3" tid="{329389DD-2FC6-D243-B221-05880F36EB77}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - Today.mp3" tid="{6CAAF355-8062-6E4D-AC09-DBA8CA7FBEB6}"/>
<media src="./Music/David Gilmour/Rattle That Lock (Blu-Ray + CD Deluxe Edition) - Disc 1_ CD/David Gilmour - And Then....mp3" tid="{8E8E4F1B-4AF5-BE46-8B3A-652FE734EDC8}"/>
</seq>
</body>
</smil>


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blgentry

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #8 on: October 08, 2015, 10:58:38 am »
Quote from: dskrt on October 08, 2015, 10:30:01 am
What is SYNC ? I am copying my music and playlists to an SD Card which I use then in my car , a Mitsubishi Outlander with MMCS.

Microsoft makes a touchscreen "advanced" stereo system that is put into a lot of Ford Vehicles as an option.  That system is called Sync, or Ford Sync, or Microsoft Sync.  It's no fun to use and REALLY no fun to integrate with.  I'm glad you don't have one.

Quote
The owner manuals clearly states it needs .WPL playlists and only WPL playlists. WPL Playlists generated from WINDOWS MC work correctly, those from MAC MC do not.

Ok, that makes it very clear then.

My perl command line that I posted earlier will convert the slashes ( / ) to backslashes ( \ ) for you and preserve all of the XML tags correctly.  I've noticed that the Mac version of the WPL playlist also has "./" before the path to each music file.  I've added a little piece to my perl command line to remove that also.  As a test, I cut and pasted your Mac playlist into a file on my system.  Then I ran my new perl command on that file.  It transformed it into something that seems to be just about exactly the same as the windows version.  I'm attaching it here.

Here's the updated command:

Code: [Select]
perl -pi -e 's/\.\///g;s/\//\\/g;s/<\\/<\//g;s/\\>/\/>/g' "File Name goes here without quotes"
I don't speak for JRiver, so I can't address adding this capability to the program.  I'm just trying to help you.  If you want to try my command, great.  If not, that's fine too.  Good luck to you.

Brian.
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dskrt

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Re: Exporting playlists for a Windows player
« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2015, 11:08:36 am »
Thanks a lot Brian, I will try your perl as a workaround and I will also address it to JRiver as it is in my opinion not a correct generation of the WPL file on MAC systems
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