Print

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

[mlefebvre]

Hi,

I've been using Media Center (and before that Media Jukebox) for about 20 years. Over those years I've done a LOT of music listening. Today I was thinking that it sort of would be fun to know just how many songs Media Center has played for me during those 20 years.

Is there a way that Media Center could calculate how many songs were played during all this time based on the "Number Plays" field in MC's database?

Thanks.

Michel.

[wer]

I can quickly think of one way, although not the most elegant.

First, create yourself a new category view in the ROOT.  Don't put it under Audio, because we don't want inheritance.

Start by setting a single top level category of [Media Type].  You can add categories below it if you want to play later.

Now when you go in that view, you will see stacks of tiled images, one for Audio, and probably others for Images and Video if you have those media types.

Now the fun bit.  Pull down on the menu on the tab where it says media types.  Select Thumbnails, then select Thumbnail Text.

In the dialog that follows, paste in this exactly:
[Name]  --  GroupSummary(Number Plays) plays

Click ok and there you go.

[mlefebvre]

Thanks Wer.

I'm a little confused by "First, create yourself a new category view in the ROOT.".

Do I do this in the left hand tree under "Location(root)"?

Thanks.

Michel.

[wer]

Yes, that's right.

[mlefebvre]

Thanks,

I managed and I now have a list of all my songs with the number of times played for each.

What I'm trying to do is to add up all of those numbers into one grand total that would tell me how many songs MC played in total over the years.

Michel.

[Moe]

I think to do what you want to do you're going to need to use global variables. Which is some crazy witchcraft that I can't wrap my head around

[mlefebvre]

I think to do what you want to do you're going to need to use global variables. Which is some crazy witchcraft that I can't wrap my head around

That's what I was fearing. I have the same problem... 

[wer]

No, you don't need global variables.  Are you guys even trying what I suggested?

If you look at the top level view, it gives you the total number of plays for all audio files, exactly what you asked for.

If you create additional categories below media type (like Artist, Album, etc) it will give you the total number of plays for each category.

If you did what I suggested, you got what you asked for and are done.

You asked for total based on number of plays.  If you play 1 song 10 times, that's a total of 10.  If you play 2 different tracks, 15 times each, that's a total of 30. If you're asking for something else, be specific.

mlefebvre, post a screenshot of the view you've created if you think it doesn't match what I told you.

[mlefebvre]

Thanks Wer!

I'll have to redo it. :-)

I'll report back when I'm able.

Michel.

[wer]

If you did it correctly it would look like this:

[Moe]

Well spank my &%$ and call me Charlie,  it does work. Guess I should test things before I open my mouth. 

I have listened to 73,295 songs

[wer]

Very good, Charlie. My play-count looks absurdly low because I just use this machine for editing.

[mlefebvre]

Très cool!

No what I did didn't look like that so I'll have to re-read your instructions later.

Gotta go to work right now... :-(

[blgentry]

I had no idea about GroupSummary() . Neat!

Turns out this has been a feature since 2013.  Looks like I've been using MC since early 2015.

Brian.

[marko]

Have you ever tried switching the upper categories view from thumbnails to details? You can use that to get at some pretty interesting info...

[track #] becomes "Number of tracks" for example...

[wer]

Marko's right, and if you add the "Number Plays" column, it will give you the total number of plays.  But then you don't get to see the pretty thumbnails!

[mlefebvre]

Hi Wer,

I re-did it this morning and it worked. Thanks again!

So I've listened to 102,128 songs since whenever the tag "Hi Wer,

I re-did it this morning and it worked. Thanks again!

So I've listened to 102,128 songs since whenever the tag "Number plays" was added to MC.

Michel.