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Author Topic: Smartlists - Not Very Random  (Read 1671 times)

toopretty4blues

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Smartlists - Not Very Random
« on: July 18, 2003, 12:53:21 am »

Maybe someone could confirm or laugh me away on this.  I made a smartlist for a genre of a certain time ([Genre]="rock" ~t=120).  At first glance the list seems random but I'm noticing that a couple bands are disproportionalitely being selected.  In my case: 1200 rock tracks of which 18 are from Blink 182 and 84 from U2 - and on average I'll get 2 Blink 182 songs versus 1 U2 song in my smartlist.  One thing I've noticed is that all my Blink 182 songs are id3 tagged as track #1.   Could it be the numerals in their names. Any thoughts?

Media Center 9.0.180 on Windows XP SP1

thanks,
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loraan

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Re: Smartlists - Not Very Random
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2003, 07:10:37 am »

Whenever you evaluate the randomness of an algorithm, it's very important to do scientific, mathematically rigorous tests. Humans are very bad at judging randomness, (in my opinion, this is at least partially due to a tendency for us to look for patterns in our environment, causing us to see apparently non-random patterns even in completely random sequences). Bear in mind that even a completely random algorithm might pick zero of your 84 U2 songs for your playlist, just like there is a certain (albeit low) probability of rolling double-sixes ten times in a row on a pair of dice.

However, in your case, I think things are much simpler. When you apply a limit to a smartlist (~t=120) the tracks that get past the limit are dependent on the sort order of the smartlist or view. In your case, you should be getting the exact same tracks every time your playlist. It sounds like you might be sorting by track number, causing you to get 120 minutes of the lowest numbered tracks in your collection. You need to add the random sort modifier to your smartlist :-)
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rocketsauce

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Re: Smartlists - Not Very Random
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2003, 11:06:39 am »

An easier solution is to copy one of the premade smartlists (in this case, Playlists/Auto Smartlists (music)/Random -- one hour) and then alter it to meet your criteria.

Rob

Listening to: 'Donde Estebas Tu' from 'Hoy Y Ayer' by 'Celia Cruz' on Media Center 9.0
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toopretty4blues

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Re: Smartlists - Not Very Random
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2003, 12:33:39 am »

Thanks for the feedback.  I do realize that the perceived lacked of randomization in the smartlist maybe just that 'perceived'.  None the less, I do not get the same exact list but a somewhat unrandom list regardless of the sorting order.  How can I use a Auto Smartlists to build my particular smartlist? Do you mean copy and paste the search string?  Or make a dependancy on it?

thanks,
- TD =
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loraan

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Re: Smartlists - Not Very Random
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2003, 06:31:48 am »

Select the text in the existing smartlist and then paste it into your new smartlist.
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rocketsauce

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Re: Smartlists - Not Very Random
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2003, 10:47:36 am »

Copy the rules from the pre-built smartlist to a new one and then alter them to fit your needs. This gives you a working base to start from. It also helps you get an idea of how some of the smartlist rules are used.

For example, I copied the Random -- one hour smartlist and then added a rule to exclude certain genres (like Christmas and Comedy). You could make it so that it only includes certain genres. Then I also made a rule to include only tracks that have been played 1 or less times.

Rob
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toopretty4blues

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Re: Smartlists - Not Very Random
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2003, 11:29:13 pm »

I copied from the Autoplaylist that generates a random data CD and the results are as random as I can tell.  The magic words are "sort=random".   Imagine that.

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