Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jctcom]

This has been ongoing through several versions of MC.  Probably as far back as version 21 when I first encountered it.

I have finally decided to ask about it since everyone else seems to love Play Doctor and I have seen few people indicate they have any issues with it at all.

First off.  I have it set to Limit Tracks to "1500" and yet I only seem to get 100 or 101 tracks at the most.  It seems to ignore this setting entirely.

Here is a screen shot of my settings for Play Doctor:



As you can see I have the tracks limit set to 1500.

Another issue I have is that most tracks that I try to enter to use for play doctor do not seem to show up.

For example here I am trying to use "Breakfast In America" by Supertramp.  But as you can see when I start typing "Breakfast" nothing shows up:



If I keep typing "Breakfast In America" I start to get some hits when I type "America" but not the song "Breakfast In America"  I don't even get the album "Breakfast In America"?



If I go into my "Audio" folders on the left and start typing "Breakfast...." I get everything including album and all albums which include the song title:



I would really love to start using play doctor more often but as it is it seems very crippled.

Note the song "Breakfast In America" is only one example.  This seems to happen for a majority of song titles I try to search for.

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks.

Carl

[JimH]

I have it set to Limit Tracks to "1500" and yet I only seem to get 100 or 101 tracks at the most.

It adds tracks in smaller groups.  It's learning from your skips.  What you see is normal.

[jctcom]

It adds tracks in smaller groups.  It's learning from your skips.  What you see is normal.

I don't understand exactly what "It adds tracks in smaller groups" means?  Is that why it is limited to 100 songs in the playlist?  Is there no way to change this behaviour?

I have never ever skipped over "Breakfast In America" as a track or an album.  For that matter I very rarely "Skip" over tracks and that does not account for the 25 - 30% of tracks that do not come up when I enter them into the "Play Doctor" search window.

Carl

[JimH]

I don't understand exactly what "It adds tracks in smaller groups" means?  Is that why it is limited to 100 songs in the playlist? 

Yes.  No way to change.

[RD James]

Play Doctor keeps a rolling list of 100 tracks, so when one track finishes, another is added.
This is by design, as things like skipping a track can modify the whole list to eliminate ones similar to it for example.
 
I agree that the search results are often unexpected, and it doesn't seem to allow for things like "album=" like the regular search field does.
I typically find it easier to browse my library and select the track I was looking for, then use the "Play (with Play Doctor)" option on it.

[jctcom]

Play Doctor keeps a rolling list of 100 tracks, so when one track finishes, another is added.
This is by design, as things like skipping a track can modify the whole list to eliminate ones similar to it for example.
 
I agree that the search results are often unexpected, and it doesn't seem to allow for things like "album=" like the regular search field does.
I typically find it easier to browse my library and select the track I was looking for, then use the "Play (with Play Doctor)" option on it.

Ahhh.  I did not realise that it added additional tracks as it goes.  I will have to check for that.

I have used the option to search for a track in my database and did the right click "Play with Play Doctor" option.  But I have found the results to be less than satisfactory.  It seems to select quite a wide range of tracks that do not seem to be very similar.  I guess I will have to change the option to "Some Variety" and see if that produces more desirable results.

Thanks for your help.

Carl

[RD James]

The amount of variety selected, and the tracks that you listen to/skip affect the rest of the list.
You may find that you skip a few tracks to begin with, but the list improves as a result.

[jctcom]

The amount of variety selected, and the tracks that you listen to/skip affect the rest of the list.
You may find that you skip a few tracks to begin with, but the list improves as a result.

Ahh.  I think I get it now.  I actually need to skip the undesirable tracks in order to get it to apply the criteria correctly.

I didn't realise it works similar to Pandora, Spotify, Etc...

Ok I will start doing this and see how it goes.

Thanks.

Carl

[jctcom]

Thanks for all the info.  But this does bring some other questions to mind.

For instance.  Today I want to listen to Progressive Rock and select one of my many Progressive Rock Tracks to start a PlayDoctor list.

What happens a few days from now when my wife is home and we want to listen to “Soft Rock”?  Does Play Doctor retain the info used in creating the Progressive Rock playlist if I select another Progressive Rock track in the future?  Or are we starting from scratch each time?

I understand that I can affect the Playlist by skipping tracks and it will remove other similar tracks.  Are there other ways to affect the playlist?  If I rate a track that had not been previously rated with 4 or 5 * will that affect the playlist?

Or if I manually add an additional track to the playlist will that affect it?

For that matter are smart Playlists similarly affected?  I.E. if I skip a track will it remember that and remove other similar tracks from that smart list?  (I don’t expect this to be the case since the smart playlists seem to pre-load a set number of tracks but thought I should ask just in case)

I have found it has improved significantly by selecting less variety though.

Thanks.

Carl

[RD James]

It generates a new list every time you use it - you cannot stop and resume a Play Doctor session - it will just play out the remaining tracks.
I don't think there's anything which persists beyond the current session, but you can set up rules to include/exclude files based on tags.

[JimH]

You can save a Play Doctor list as a Car Radio button.  When you do, it will give you a choice of saving the exact list or a set of rules for the list.

[JimH]

... are smart Playlists similarly affected?  I.E. if I skip a track will it remember that and remove other similar tracks from that smart list?

No.

[wig]

Carl, you can also start a playlist or smartlist using that using Play Doctor.

Changing the set up rules can also help you customize the Doctor. You can exclude seasonal music and audiobooks for example, or use other field data to fine tune your experience.

I would love the ability to create Play Doctor channels (stations?) that could evolve over time, but saving Play Doctor lists as Car Radio buttons is a decent compromise until the Doctor writes that prescription.   

 

[jctcom]

You can save a Play Doctor list as a Car Radio button.  When you do, it will give you a choice of saving the exact list or a set of rules for the list.

Thanks for all the replies.  Clears up a lot.

If I save a playdoctor list as a "Car Radio" button.  Is there a way to "Resume" the playdoctor list using that car radio button? Or if I use the "Playlist" that is created and "Right Click" > Play with "PlayDoctor" will that effectively "Resume" the Playdoctor selection criteria?  Then Re-save it to the same car radio button for future Play Doctor use?

Also Couple of earlier questions that did not get answered.

If I Add a new track manually to a currently running playdoctor list will that affect the Playdoctor selection process?

If I rate a track that was previously unrated to 4 or 5 stars same question?

Basically I am trying to find out if there is a way to positively affect the Playdoctor selection process rather than just negatively  (i.e. skipping tracks).

Thanks again.

Carl

[jctcom]

Any comments on my last couple of questions / Comments?

I promise those are most likely my last questions on the subject :.)

Though there may be a feature request coming if there is indeed no way to positively affect PlayDoctor results.  :-)

Carl

[JimH]

You can save a Play Doctor list as a Car Radio button.  When you do, it will give you a choice of saving the exact list or a set of rules for the list.

Those are the only choices.

I don't think that adding tracks will make a difference.  The track(s) you initially select are the "seed" that Play Doctor uses.