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[Kid_Squid]

How can I accomplish this with Media Center..

I want to create a perpetual playlist very similar to a radio station format clock...for example

Play 2 Rock Songs
Then 1 Country
Then 2 Dance
Then 2 Rock
Then 2 Oldies
etc...

The system would randomize songs that are in each of the category directories..... and then play automatically...hopefully with some type of video output that could be displayed on a tv with cover art and the like.

So you could turn the system on and forget about it....and basically have your own radio station playing songs in the rotation you want.

Thoughts....Suggestions...any conversation is eagerly awaited!


Squid

[John Gateley]

I create a field "Johns Genre" and assign the values "old fogey", "Young punk", "good", "terrible", and blank means I don't know.
You can do the following with the regular genre field, but it's too fine grained for my taste.

Then I use the ~mix keyword in a smartlist:

~mix=10000,20%,{[Johns Genre]=Old fogey},40%,{[Johns Genre]=Young punk},20%,{[Johns Genre]=good},20%,{[Johns Genre]=}

This creates a list of 10000 tracks, where 20 % is old fogey music, 40% is young punk music, 20% is favorites, and 20% is stuff I don't know well enough to classify yet.

I'm not sure of the exact ratios I used - I did have to tweak them a little, and I've probably messed up the syntax.

This works really well for me, I leave it on at home all the time, and it's better than radio except when I want to hear
something brand new.

j

[iCamp]

...but can you get it to playback in the order he needs?  How would you do that part?

[John Gateley]

No - it doesn't play back in the fixed order he specified, but I actually like it better this way, not really knowing what's coming next. The distribution is the same, but you don't get used to thinking "oh, a country song, that means I'll be hearing a rock song next".

j

[Kid_Squid]

But this will not be perpetual...correct???

I really want to set this thing once....and then forget it.

Sorry to steal a line from an infomercial.

[John Gateley]

The first number is the length of the playlist. I choose a number much much larger than the number of tracks I have (100,000). It repeats after playing all of them, and I can't tell there's a pattern, so in effect, it's perpetual. I run it for days at a time (just turning the stereo off when I'm not listening).

j