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[Supersnake]

It appears you've covered it with the list. Click the down-arrow on the splitter.

  Oops! Indeed I did, thanks!

[sirrahmit]

Just loaded up MC 16 Beta today.  You guys just keep on making this product so enjoyable to use!

I immediately noticed the Play Radio was gone (one of my favorite MC features) and so here I am on this post to learn about Play Doctor.

Not that my opinion is anything, but I'd like to add my 2 cents...

One of the things I like MOST about MC is that it's NOT a Steve Jobs application.  I have an iPhone and love most things about it.  The thing I really hate about my iPhone is everything around storing and playing my music.  The Genius on the iPhone is actually pretty good, but why does it have to only add a certain number of files?  Then when I hit Genius again, I get some of the same songs I just heard in my last hour or so of music.

Now I'm NOT comparing Play Doctor to Apple Genius, but in using the Play Doctor for the first time today, it did exactly what I hate about Genius.  It created a finite playlist and started over when it hit the end (presumably because I have repeat turned on).

Am I missing a setting or is that by design?

I've read a lot about what people liked about Radio Play in this post.  Personally, my favorite part was that it would go on and on and on and on...

I am often listening to music while I'm working around the house and I just want it on.  Sometimes I hear something not so good, but I don't care as long as it keeps going, with my library of music.

Please don't lose this feature, I really loved that part of Play Radio!!

Thanks for listening...

Listening to: 'Sin' from 'Cryptic Writings' by 'Megadeth' with Media Center 16

[satfrat]

Guess it's my turn to complain as I loved MC15 Play Radio for it's simplicity with the parameter adjustements but more importantly there was no limit for how long Play Radio would play on it's own. I've had my MC15 Play Radio set on random and continue to play for days nonstop.

Now we have a more complex Play Doctor which seems to limit it's play period to 100 songs. I hope I'm just missing something here but is there any way to get around this 100 track limit and get back to unlimited track play? With over 15,000 albums in my library, there's plenty for the Play Doctor to choose from and I don't want to limit my system to just 100 tracks.

I have absoluetly no interest in Last.FM. The audio quality of my library is far superior to that of internet radio so I personally would never listen to it myself. Now granted, I've only had MC16 for 1 day and I feel the upgrade was worth the cost as I feel the audio quality has gotten better and audio quality is my main concern for being a continuing JRiver customer. But this 100 track limit in Play Doctor is a headache for me and hopefully I'm just missing something here that'll get me past this. Thanks for your time and the continuing efforts to improve JRiver Media Center.

Cheers,
Robin

[Zukros]

The MC 16 demo is brilliant. However, after using it for a few hours I was wondering if the Play Doctor function could be tweaked in a few small ways to make it more user-friendly?

• Firstly, the choice of tracks from last.fm. It frequently selects tracks that I have in my library, causing an unnecessary pause while it buffers a song that I already have a higher-quality version of. Is there a way to exclude tracks that I already have in my library being taken from last.fm?
• Also, the amount of tracks taken from last.fm. There seems to be no way to alter the ratio of songs from my library to songs from last.fm. When I use Play Doctor for an artist of whom I have few songs, this means my own library repeats itself time and time again, as opposed to what i was hoping for, which was a few of my own songs and more new ones from last.fm
  

Thanks,
Zukros

[AssadMawad]

as i've noticed so far play radio uses the track genre to generate playlist (what if the genre was wrong), and the variety mainly control the artist variation (why not the tempo, or the mood as for example change the genre...) and i didn't use the last fm box.
as a suggestion a will keep play radio with the ability to learn from one time to another from the library fields, and give the play radio a more advanced function as it can suggest playlist based on the music analysis as if it listen to the music and matched with another like a DJ function!

and i have a little problem for the search box: the suggestion is wonderful but can you keep the old search method under the suggestions?

[BumbleDawg]

The Stock Rule for "No Duplicates" doesn't seem to work for Play Doctor. I had to workaround by using "Remove dulicates of Filename (name)".

[drmimosa]

I also love the new Play Doctor feature of the program, and Last.fm integration is awesome!!

+1 to Zukros above , customizing the amount of Last.fm tracks thrown into the mix would be icing on the cake...

[pcstockton]

also?

[WolfWalker]

OK time for my 2C. I love it. They need to make the list longer and to try to incorporate more lastfm. They should also incorporate some of the functions from radio

[EpF]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but apart from including playing tracks from Last.fm, how is Play Doctor any more than a smartlist with a 'random' setting and a limit of 100 tracks? As an evolution of Radio it is a big disappointment to me. How can a fixed playlist compare with one which changes according to your choices?

Radio's main features were it's ability to adapt on the fly and the open-ended nature of the playlist. These were two things which differentiatied it significantly from a smartlist. Personally, Radio had become my default way of playing music, which is what  I use MC for 99% of the time.

I really, really, really want these two features back! I don't have a subscription to Last.fm, and it's not something I am interested in. My most used feature (and a unique and unreproducable one) of MC has been replaced by a feature whose only real use requires paying out more money.

[bunglemebaby]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but apart from including playing tracks from Last.fm, how is Play Doctor any more than a smartlist with a 'random' setting and a limit of 100 tracks?

The last.fm integration is two-fold. One part is the streaming of last.fm tracks (which does indeed require a subscription); the other part is using last.fm data to choose tracks. For me, this results in more interesting playlists than those just based on my own local metadata. It also isn't too random for my collection, whereas Radio generally was.
The two approaches (Radio/Doctor) seem to have widely varying success rates based on a user's music collection. For me, the Radio function was too sensitive to ever give me good mix results.

[glynor]

I really, really, really want these two features back! I don't have a subscription to Last.fm, and it's not something I am interested in. My most used feature (and a unique and unreproducable one) of MC has been replaced by a feature whose only real use requires paying out more money.

I don't have a premium last.fm account either, but I actually do like quite a few things about the new Play Doctor over the old Radio system.  I feel like it is much more consistent, and much less likely to seem to "drift off on a tangent".  The old Radio system would often seem to go down a rabbit hole without much interaction from me.

However, I agree in concept with your basic points.  The two things that are "wrong" with the Play Doctor as compared to the old Radio system are:

1. the music eventually stops (after 100 tracks)
2. it can't adapt on-the-fly to things that you skip past, like the old Radio feature could.

I really think that with a few tweaks, it could combine the best of both worlds.  What if?

1. When you get to the end of a Play Doctor List, it automatically refreshed using the last few tracks as the new seed.
2. If you manually skip a song, Play Doctor would cross out the skipped track and refresh the rest of the list using the new information

[Matt]

However, I agree in concept with your basic points.  The two things that are "wrong" with the Play Doctor as compared to the old Radio system are:

1. the music eventually stops (after 100 tracks)
2. it can't adapt on-the-fly to things that you skip past, like the old Radio feature could.

I really think that with a few tweaks, it could combine the best of both worlds.  What if?

1. When you get to the end of a Play Doctor List, it automatically refreshed using the last few tracks as the new seed.
2. If you manually skip a song, Play Doctor would cross out the skipped track and refresh the rest of the list using the new information

I agree, and we plan to change both of these.

It may be a few weeks.

[EpF]

I agree, and we plan to change both of these.
It may be a few weeks.

Heh - I spent so long composing my response to bunglemebaby that Glynor replied, then responding to that took so long that Matt replied with everything I wanted to hear, rendering all my hard work useless!

Thanks Matt!

A couple of people have made comments regarding how the randomness of Play Doctor is better than Radio. My experience is that PD is extremely random - here are the first 10 tracks from a Play Doctor playlist on my library with 'Variety' set to 'none':

Outlined view - Ms. John Soda (german indie tech)
Dancing on the Ceiling - Oscar Peterson (jazz)
Hemorrhage (In My Hands) - Fuel (rock)
Tonight, Tonight - The Smashing Pumpkins (alternative rock)
Rats - Pearl Jam (grunge)
Secret Thoughts (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) - Celine (electronica)
Walk This Way - Run DMC with Aerosmith (hip hop)
Feel - Big Star    Best of [Big Star] (rock)
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm - Crash Test Dummies (acoustic)
No Diggity - Blackstreet (hip hop)

That's very random. I just tried using 'a little' Variety, and the list started with Einstuerzende Neubauten followed by Joni Mitchell!!! It went on from there. It seems to me it could use a bit of tweaking in this department. (my include rules shouldn't have much affect on randomness as I changed them all to artist-rating and last played/skipped for ~250,000 songs)

[glynor]

A couple of people have made comments regarding how the randomness of Play Doctor is better than Radio. My experience is that PD is extremely random - here are the first 10 tracks from a Play Doctor playlist on my library with 'Variety' set to 'none':

Outlined view - Ms. John Soda (german indie tech)
Dancing on the Ceiling - Oscar Peterson (jazz)
Hemorrhage (In My Hands) - Fuel (rock)
Tonight, Tonight - The Smashing Pumpkins (alternative rock)
Rats - Pearl Jam (grunge)
Secret Thoughts (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) - Celine (electronica)
Walk This Way - Run DMC with Aerosmith (hip hop)
Feel - Big Star    Best of [Big Star] (rock)
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm - Crash Test Dummies (acoustic)
No Diggity - Blackstreet (hip hop)

Weird.  If I run it with Variety set to None, the entire list usually ends up being from the same artist as the seed and it almost NEVER goes outside of the Genre.  I generally run it with Variety set to "More" mode, and that seems to be about right for my library.

I don't know what could be different.  Perhaps tagging differences?  Do you use any weird tagging schemes?

[rick.ca]

I agree, and we plan to change both of these.

Yes! From previous comments, I'm under the impression adding the PR skip ability to PD isn't a trivial undertaking (because the selection engines are quite different?). So I appreciate the effort to do so. I miss the interactive experience PD offered. Also, if you can successfully combine "the best of both worlds," I think it may become a "killer feature" for many users. Even if you're not interested in interacting with the thing, the skip function is the easier possible way to tweak a list that didn't turn out as expected.

[EpF]

Weird.  If I run it with Variety set to None, the entire list usually ends up being from the same artist as the seed and it almost NEVER goes outside of the Genre.  I generally run it with Variety set to "More" mode, and that seems to be about right for my library.

I don't know what could be different.  Perhaps tagging differences?  Do you use any weird tagging schemes?

This is my ruleset for restricting what files to choose from:

Code: [Select]

playlistid==716654164 -[Artist Rating]=1 [Last Played]=>30d [Last Skipped]=>7d -[Rating]=1
The playlist code that starts that off is a complicated one: It is a smartlist that is builds on 2 preceding smartlists. However that series of smartlists is simply a progressive restriction starting with exluding certain filetypes (au, mid, etc.) and directory-locations (\PORTABLE\, \Ringtones\, etc.), then moving on to media sub-types like audiobooks etc., and finally removing duplicates based on playlists like 'allowed', 'hidden', etc. (thanks Marko!). None of them use modifiers of any kind, so the final list shouldn't pre-emptively randomise things. (Reading back over that makes me realise just how long and involved my use of MC is - what a great program!)

As an experiment I completely removed the ruleset and tried both 'none' and 'a little' varieties, and the results were the same: from Fatboy Slim to Tom Waits to Gypsy Kings  within the first 10, as an example.  ?

[rick.ca]

As an experiment I completely removed the ruleset and tried both 'none' and 'a little' varieties, and the results were the same: from Fatboy Slim to Tom Waits to Gypsy Kings  within the first 10, as an example.

If you're not entering a term it can use to restrict the selection (e.g., a genre, style, artist, album or track name), then it's reasonable to expect it will select randomly from the entire library (or whatever is allowed in the Rules for files that can be included).

[marko]

if you select "more" variety, and "just press play" I wouldn't expect any duplicates in the list at all when there's over 16,000 tracks to lift from, but still, duplicates do appear...

[EpF]

If you're not entering a term it can use to restrict the selection (e.g., a genre, style, artist, album or track name), then it's reasonable to expect it will select randomly from the entire library (or whatever is allowed in the Rules for files that can be included).

Actually, if I don't choose something I would still expect the result to honour the variety setting - as an evolution of Radio, that would seem to make sense.

[rick.ca]

Actually, if I don't choose something I would still expect the result to honour the variety setting - as an evolution of Radio, that would seem to make sense.

I suppose so. In other words, if you enter nothing and select Variety=None, it should make some arbitrary choice and create a list with no variation from that choice. Those who want to use it just by hitting play (or using a MCC command from Theatre View) would probably want to use a Variety setting higher than None.  That shouldn't be an issue if it "remembers" the Variety setting. It does so between uses and even sessions (i.e., restarts of MC), but reverts to None if the zone is changed. Also, I can't presently tell if the MCC command honours the setting. Considering it reverts to default on zone change—probably not.

So, yes, it should choose something arbitrarily when the user enters nothing. But then it becomes critical the Variety setting be retained and not default to None.

It probably wouldn't work this way, but if it does make that arbitrary choice by somehow generating a search term in lieu of one entered by the user, then it would be interesting to know what that term is. If it were shown in the search box when the list was stopped, it might give the user an idea for a different or better term to use for the next request.

[pcstockton]

really.... why not just keep radio and doctor?  Why is that so radical?

[EpF]

really.... why not just keep radio and doctor?  Why is that so radical?

Now there's a fine suggestion! I would prefer this by far. I'm not sure if there is any point to referring to the pulled build which had some changes to Play Doctor, but in build 44 the big problem I could see was that skipping a song only had an effect on the end of the playlist, 100 songs later. I also noticed that the smartlist-type rules you enter don't persist - another serious step backwards for me compared to Radio. For me to be able to use PD the same way I use Radio, I would have to enter the same set of rules manually every time I opened the program (or changed Zone, from what rick.ca said).

It probably wouldn't work this way, but if it does make that arbitrary choice by somehow generating a search term in lieu of one entered by the user, then it would be interesting to know what that term is. If it were shown in the search box when the list was stopped, it might give the user an idea for a different or better term to use for the next request.

I can't remember what I read about how Radio determines what to choose next, but I believe it uses a mixture of the obvious candidates like genre and artist as well as things like bpm and intensity. In any case, for PD to operate like/better than Radio, on user pressing play with no terms, it would arbitrarily choose a track and then generate the rest of the playlist using the user's variety choice to determine how far from that original track the rest of the list deviates, in terms of those fields. However therein lies the problem. With Radio, if you didn't like a track you could just skip it - with PD if you don't like the track choice, depending on your Variety setting you could find you don't like/aren't in the mood for most of the playlist. Then the only thing you can do is press stop and start again until you get what you want.

Here is my version of an evolution of Radio:
The ability to specify additional fields which Radio should use when determining what to choose next (instrumentation, record label, era, etc.)
The ability to save the Radio state, so that if I've been really enjoying a particular list but have to restart my computer, I can simply take up where I left off.
The ability to simply toggle radio on or off, without having to restart the playlist - if I'm listening to something specific, then want to use that as the basis to start a Radio session, being able to simply toggle radio on would be great (just like the shuffle, loop controls), rather than having to stop playback and use the menu and click through to get back to where I was.
A graphic input on the Playing Now file-list to allow a simple 'more like this' toggle for each track. Skipping essentially says 'fewer like this', so a positive version would be excellent.

[glynor]

Now there's a fine suggestion! I would prefer this by far. I'm not sure if there is any point to referring to the pulled build which had some changes to Play Doctor, but in build 44 the big problem I could see was that skipping a song only had an effect on the end of the playlist, 100 songs later. I also noticed that the smartlist-type rules you enter don't persist - another serious step backwards for me compared to Radio. For me to be able to use PD the same way I use Radio, I would have to enter the same set of rules manually every time I opened the program (or changed Zone, from what rick.ca said).

Judging it by a pulled (and already replaced) build is a fool's game.  Give them time.  I suspect they'll get it right.

[rick.ca]

the big problem I could see was that skipping a song only had an effect on the end of the playlist, 100 songs later.

It's difficult to determine exactly what replacements it's making and judge how "effective" they may be, but it is replacing items in the list (that I assume are) similar to the track skipped. A track is added to the end of the list just to keep the number at 100.

I also noticed that the smartlist-type rules you enter don't persist

What sort of rule doesn't persist? I added a to exclude one particular "Style" and started a list based on an artist with a similar style. Many track skips did not result in any tracks from the excluded style being added.

The ability to save the Radio state...

PD already does this.

...if I'm listening to something specific, then want to use that as the basis to start a Radio session, being able to simply toggle radio on would be great...

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but it sounds a lot like Play (with Play Doctor). The ability to switch between PD and regular play would be pushing things too far. You can already use multiple zones and switch between them.

Skipping essentially says 'fewer like this', so a positive version would be excellent.

Why stop there? How about "skip this, but add others like it."

really.... why not just keep radio and doctor?  Why is that so radical?

Not only would [keeping them separate] be confusing, it would also just result in Play Doctor users wanting the ability to learn and Play Radio users wanting the ability to see and save playlists.

[gappie]

Judging it by a pulled (and already replaced) build is a fool's game.  Give them time.  I suspect they'll get it right.

maybe.. but it was right to start with, at least for some of the people here. and it is still a mess now, at least for some of the people here. and although matt can state that the code underneath is the same. the result is so different for the doctor that i dont see how those two can ever meet.

can we please get radio back.

[EpF]

What sort of rule doesn't persist? I added a to exclude one particular "Style" and started a list based on an artist with a similar style. Many track skips did not result in any tracks from the excluded style being added.

The 'set rules for files that can be included' gets reset to default every time I open the program. I'm using v43 now. That's very weird. It's working now. That consistently didn't work for me 3 or 4 times in a row.

PD already does this.

Yes, I see that it remembers what you type in the control box and how much variation you selected. My evolutionary list for Radio was kind of independent of Play Doctor because PD does not handle 'no-seed' cases the same way Radio does, but assuming that that function of Radio gets implemented in PD, then that might be what I'm looking for in that particular regard.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but it sounds a lot like Play (with Play Doctor).

Yes, it's very like it, although I still think the toggle version would be a lot smoother. If I'm listening to a compilation and one song makes me think I'd like to hear more like that, it would be great to simply be able to click the shuffle button and choose the 'Play Doctor On' item. This strikes me as something that might be easier to implement for Radio than for PD, but then again PD already has at least a version of it.

Why stop there? How about "skip this, but add others like it."

Ehh...

Judging it by a pulled (and already replaced) build is a fool's game. Give them time. I suspect they'll get it right.

Yes,  I knew it was a bad idea at the time.

..and it is still a mess now, at least for some of the people here. and although matt can state that the code underneath is the same. the result is so different for the doctor that i dont see how those two can ever meet.

can we please get radio back.

Personally glynor's suggestion of the list updating on skip would be quite a help to fix it for me, as long as the update began at the next trrack - that's crucial. Would you agree? It's not the direction that I personally would have liked to see Radio go in, but I'd be ok with it if it retained the core functions of Radio - instant adaptation and open-ended playlists. It doesn't seem that irreconcilable to me.

[rick.ca]

Personally glynor's suggestion of the list updating on skip would be quite a help to fix it for me, as long as the update began at the next trrack - that's crucial. Would you agree?

As I said, it is updating the list on skip—and that includes the next track.

It doesn't seem that irreconcilable to me.

Then you shouldn't be surprised to find it's already doing that.

[Edit] You may need to use a more recent beta version.

I think the only critical issue not yet addressed is...

...it should choose something arbitrarily when the user enters nothing. But then it becomes critical the Variety setting be retained and not default to None.

A minor issue: Skipped items are not being struck-out in the Theatre View PN List.

[wig]

Just installed 16.0.49, and I have some feedback about Play Doctor.

- Even with variety sets to lots, I'm still getting duplicates.

- 'Set rules for files that can be included' keeps defaulting back to the original settings. Is there any way to save my custom settings and make them the default?

- If I manually add a track to Playing Now, it disrupts Play Doctor and turns it back into a normal playlist (no more learning or adding tracks). Surely the doctor has a prescription for a little end user interaction? 


I think this feature is shaping up nicely. I definitely see myself using it in the future.

[Matt]

- 'Set rules for files that can be included' keeps defaulting back to the original settings. Is there any way to save my custom settings and make them the default?

Could you provide a step-by-step of how you're starting playback, and how to make it forget the setting?

Thanks.

[wig]

Could you provide a step-by-step of how you're starting playback, and how to make it forget the setting?
Thanks.

Restarting Media Server cleared up the problem, Matt. Settings are now being saved, even through a restart.

I doubt I'll be using those settings much, though. Using my existing smartlists with 'Play (with Play Doctor)' looks like the way to go.

Edit: It appears Play Doctor rules are honored even when using Play (with Play Doctor). I didn't get any two star songs when starting a playlist that way until I removed that rule from the Play Doctor settings.

[mobyfrag]

I truly love the Play Doctor functionality!! However, when I set the Stock Rule "No Duplicates", it's not working: in a prescription of 100 files, 25-30 are duplicate ones. And I can remove them with Right click > Remove duplicate from Playing Now. That Stock Rule was working with "Play Radio" old function.

What's about this bug still present in .149 ?

[rick.ca]

What's about this bug still present in .149 .49?

It's not a bug...

It's there because it's a standard search dialog. It's possible all the modifications work. Most of them are irrelevant, however, as Play Doctor creates the list after the search.

[bunglemebaby]

t's not a bug...

Well, it's certainly an odd "feature" to get repeat/duplicate songs. I've been getting a lot now with the updates in 16.049 too. The "learning" process seems to whittle the playlist down to ~5 albums with about half of the songs from each of those albums repeating over and over even though I skip each one many times.

This segues well enough into my chief complaint with the updated PD system: there's no way to manually delete songs from the list now. At the least couldn't we remove songs from the list and have them count as skips, or "queue it as a skip"? I know others prefer the skip method, but it's nice to be able to quickly filter and remove any obvious doozies from the list (doom metal in the jazz list sort of stuff).

[Magic_Randy]

...there's no way to manually delete songs from the list now...

To delete from playing now after starting PD:

right click on a track-->more play options-->remove from playing now

After you do this the first time, remove from playing now is at the top of the list, so all you have to do is:

 right click-->remove from playing now

[rick.ca]

Well, it's certainly an odd "feature" to get repeat/duplicate songs.

A function that doesn't apply to the list obviously can't be a bug. There's also nothing odd about duplicates appearing in a selection of 100 tracks, especially if drawn from a narrow segment of the library and/or little or no variability requested. And if you start with duplicates, narrowing the selection even further by skipping tracks can only result in more duplicates.

I suppose one would expect to be able to Remove from list—as for a regular PN list. But expecting deletions to be treated as skips is a bit much. It's difficult to imagine how that might work for multiple deletions—which is a likely situation in which deletion might be a better solution than skipping. You can also double click on any track and immediately skip. Doing that to a few "doozies" will normally remove them all. But all this is secondary to how the list generated in the first place. A function that produces a list that needs extensive editing doesn't make any sense.

[mobyfrag]

Thanks for the clarifications Rick and Magic

[bunglemebaby]

To delete from playing now after starting PD:

Thanks, odd that this still works. I had guessed that song removal had been removed because it caused problems with PD's learning.

A function that doesn't apply to the list obviously can't be a bug. There's also nothing odd about duplicates appearing in a selection of 100 tracks

Agreed on the bug part; I guess what I would really like to get at is that we should be able to purposefully avoid this somehow (as we can in a regular playlist).

...expecting deletions to be treated as skips is a bit much.

Expecting, sure. I was just throwing that out there as a possibility. I don't have any idea why the "remove option" was removed, but I'd like to see it come back. MR's tip works well enough...

And if you start with duplicates, narrowing the selection even further by skipping tracks can only result in more duplicates.
...
But all this is secondary to how the list generated in the first place.

I guess this is really getting more to my point, wrt duplicate songs. The songs that are getting duplicated for me (as the list narrows) are the same songs that I'm skipping repeatedly. So what I'm learning here is that the "learn" function only narrows from the original list and never "moves left or right" so to speak.
What I'm coming across here is that my generated lists were much better by the end without the doctor learning. In other words, the originally generated list is pretty on point but with a small subset of songs that I'm not in the mood for. With the learning function though, I seem to consistently (I'm including PR days here) get whittled down to a small group of songs that I get to hear repeatedly but can't do anything about aside from starting a new list from scratch. So, for me, the automated learning makes the auto-generated lists worse, rather than more in tune with what I'd like to hear. I know others do get better results from the learning, but I'd really appreciate being able to turn it off as I did rather enjoy the previous instantiations of Play Doctor.

[Magic_Randy]

...Thanks, odd that this still works. I had guessed that song removal had been removed because it caused problems with PD's learning...

I would have guessed the same, maybe they just missed this area. I don't think there is a conflict with learning. If you skip, it learns, if you delete it has no impact on learning.

It would be nice to skip in advance rather than waiting until the track starts. This could be handled the same as the remove from playing now UI.

[shAf]

Because MC makes it so easy to create playlists, I somehow missed the "Play Radio" feature in MC15, so I was especially mystified not finding a description of it in the MC Wiki

PD is a great addition to MC (bld 49), especially because I have a Last.fm subscription.  I do have a couple of comments ...

Looking at this "Tom Rush" PD playlist, approximately 1 in 4 tracks come from Last.fm -- it would be nice to have options, none, few, half, most, all (... or possibly percentages, 0, 10, 25, 50 75, 100)

Last.fm provides audio tracks of lesser quality (128kbps) than my own library, so it's a mystery why "No Regrets" off the "Wonder Boys" soundtrack would come from Last.fm when I have the very same album, as well as the on other albums(?)  Along with eliminating the possibility of duplicates, can this be fixed?

What is the "rule" regarding skipping a track?  Does it remove the artist from the playlist?  Does it remove everything similar?  What is the criteria for similar -- maybe it should be an option(?) ... and maybe you can set different options for 'skip' versus 'delete'(?)

MC16 is lookin' good .. and the images in Theater view are a nice touch (... 'cept one has to wonder where some of the images come from ...<g>...)

my CA$0.02 

[satfrat]

Seems there have been some changes made to Play Doctor, the most apparent that affects me directly being the 100 track playlist. For the 1st few weeks, I was use to my system shutting down after the 5-6 hour 100 track limit. But now I'm seeing the playlist limit expand as the count number rises. I've gotten to 236 tracks of continuous play to date and as I'm typing, my playlist reads 53 out of 136 tracks. Could someone please better explain what's now happening with the playlist? I have as a Rule parameter "number of plays" set at zero so there are no repeats. With over 15,000 albums, a have a very large number of zero played tracks on Hard Drive. LOL

Cheers,
Robin

[ohyeah]

Is it possible to launch play doctor from theater view from Playing Now??

[wig]

- 'Set rules for files that can be included' keeps defaulting back to the original settings. Is there any way to save my custom settings and make them the default?

I finally isolated the problem. If I make rule changes, and then change views before hitting the Play button, the rule changes aren't saved.

 

[marko]

How much longer to wait?

Also, how about an option to set a saved station as 'current'?