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[Armaegis]

So here's the situation: I do a weekly music program at my community radio station, and I want to make an archival cd/dvd of all my episodes. What I would like is to have the cd full of my mp3s and weekly playlists, such that I can double click on the playlist and it will play an episode entirely from the cd using whatever the default media player on that computer is.

I know how to copy over all the music preserving the original file/folder structure, but the problem is the exported playlists which keep pointing to the original location of my music (ie: c:\music). Can I export those playlists with either the cd drive assignment, or a generic "\\music" or something like that?

[JimH]

When you burn a data CD, I think MC also adds a playlist.

[Armaegis]

Yes it does, but it contains every single song on the cd. What I want is to be able to play a single episode which only contains about a dozen songs.

For 2008, I had about 50 episodes, each with it's own playlist of a dozen songs. Can MC export these playlists without the drive designation in front of each filename? ie:
\music\artist\album\songname.mp3
instead of
c:\music\artist\album\songname.mp3

That way it will play off the cd or whatever location I copy it to, instead of searching for the original location.

[rick.ca]

I'm not sure if it would work or is the easiest way, but this is what I'd try:

1. Burn the CD, but don't close it.
2. Export the playlists to simple M3U. Using a text editor, strip the "C:\" from the exported playlists.
3. Burn the playlists to the root of the CD, and close after burning.

[Armaegis]

I considered that, but with nearly 200 playlists to go through that's not a very appealing option If I had the programming knowhow, I would run it through a batch process...

[rick.ca]

Export all your playlists using File - Export All Playlists. If the playlists in question are in one playlist group, you'll find all of them together in a folder in your library. If this is not the case, just move all the exported playlist/groups under one parent folder. Open all 200 in a text editor like Notepad++ and use the Find (& replace) in Files function to change the path names.

[Armaegis]

Thanks Rick, editing the playlists with Notepad++ worked.

As a potential feature, it would be nice if when we're making a data cd/dvd with media center, when we drag a playlist into the burn action pane (by the playlist itself, not individual song files) that we are given an option of exporting that playlist onto that cd/dvd as well. Obviously, the exported playlist would be to be without the drive association for it to work.

As a side note, from the export window what does the "store paths relative to exported playlist location" actually do? I've tried it with both the box checked and unchecked, exporting to various different drives, but the files look the same each time.

[rick.ca]

As a side note, from the export window what does the "store paths relative to exported playlist location" actually do?

Good question. When I noticed it didn't do what you needed, I assumed it was for something else. When I think about it, however, I can't imagine what. Maybe it's a bug.

As a potential feature...

As a completely separate matter, it would be nice if a log-like playlist (i.e., of the source files) were automatically created whenever a disk is burned. It's easy enough to do manually, but I usually forget—and then wish I hadn't.

[rick.ca]

...and now that you're done, I wonder if Matt's suggestion here (to use a virtual Handheld) might have been an easier solution. If an intermediate step of writing files, but the playlists would be created automatically. It also allows other options, like converting files, adding or removing cover art, etc.

[glynor]

I'd really like some way to export a MC Slideshow (including music) out to an actual video file, which could then be posted to YouTube or burned to a DVD.  This would be a super-easy and convenient way to build photo slideshows of family pictures and then share them with grandma and grandpa or other family members.  If it could also include and transcode video files in the playlist, that'd be even better (so you could mix in camcorder footage as desired).

For output formats, I'd be mostly interested in:

1. DVD
2. H264 MP4 (preferably up to HD resolutions, for YouTube)
3. XviD AVI

[Armaegis]

...and now that you're done, I wonder if Matt's suggestion here (to use a virtual Handheld) might have been an easier solution. If an intermediate step of writing files, but the playlists would be created automatically. It also allows other options, like converting files, adding or removing cover art, etc.

Certainly a novel idea, and it might have worked in theory... except it can't detect a blank dvd as a valid path.  

[rick.ca]

Certainly a novel idea, and it might have worked in theory... except it can't detect a blank dvd as a valid path.

That's what I meant by "intermediate step"—it would have to be copied to the HDD first, then to the removable disc.

[Armaegis]

That's what I meant by "intermediate step"—it would have to be copied to the HDD first, then to the removable disc.

Ah, I see what you mean now. Yeah, I just tried that out and it would work. Definitely something to consider for the future. Thanks.