Topic: Is there an Auto Playlist option? (Read 11952 times)

mashenden · « **on:** February 07, 2012, 05:52:59 pm »

I am a newbie evaluating MC, ultimately looking for a solution that does something very similar to AutoDJ (MM) or iTunesDJ. My need is best described as an Auto Playlist that selects X songs taken randomly from my Library. As it finishes playing a song, one that was previously played would roll off the top and a new one would be automatically added to the bottom of the list (randomly selected from Library without noticeable repeats. I don't want to mess with maintaining playlist).

My primary requirement: User Simplicity... In other words, push a single button on a remote, and have it automatically start playing this Auto Playlist while also launching a Visualizer (G-force) in full screen.

The overall idea being an easy and quick way to get my music and visual entertainment going. I may or may not get around to selecting songs (double click to Add as next to play), but if not there is no shortage of music.

I have searched for a solution and tried a few approaches using Play Doctor with Smart Lists and Play Charts, as well as QuickPlay . I have set up a SmartList to define 10 random songs, but I have not yet found a way to have it automatically roll new songs in as others roll off the top - they all seem to require me to manually refresh them.

Any suggestions on setting up any of; auto-start, auto-playlist, and/or auto-visualization would be greatly appreciated.

wig · « **Reply #1 on:** February 07, 2012, 05:56:49 pm »

Quote from: mashenden on February 07, 2012, 05:52:59 pm

I am a newbie evaluating MC, ultimately looking for a solution that does something very similar to AutoDJ (MM) or iTunesDJ. My need is best described as an Auto Playlist that selects X songs taken randomly from my Library. As it finishes playing a song, one that was previously played would roll off the top and a new one would be automatically added to the bottom of the list (randomly selected from Library without noticeable repeats. I don't want to mess with maintaining playlist).

My primary requirement: User Simplicity... In other words, push a single button on a remote, and have it automatically start playing this Auto Playlist while also launching a Visualizer (G-force) in full screen.

The overall idea being an easy and quick way to get my music and visual entertainment going. I may or may not get around to selecting songs (double click to Add as next to play), but if not there is no shortage of music.

I have searched for a solution and tried a few approaches using Play Doctor with Smart Lists and Play Charts, as well as QuickPlay . I have set up a SmartList to define 10 random songs, but I have not yet found a way to have it automatically roll new songs in as others roll off the top - they all seem to require me to manually refresh them.

Any suggestions on setting up any of; auto-start, auto-playlist, and/or auto-visualization would be greatly appreciated.

JRiver has almost exactly what you described. It's called Play Doctor. Here is more info:

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Play_Doctor

(edit) That link really isn't a very good introduction. If you click the Stop button, you should see the Play Doctor interface in the right-hand pane. You can simply click the Play button there to start the Doctor.

mashenden · « **Reply #2 on:** February 07, 2012, 06:14:11 pm »

A bit more detail would be appreciated. It does seem like Play Dr has potential, but as was noted in my initial post, I am not yet able to make it automatically refresh with a new song as the old one rolls off the top.

Also, any suggestions on automatically starting G-Force in full screen?

Scolex · « **Reply #3 on:** February 07, 2012, 06:24:20 pm »

Play Dr will keep adding more songs as it goes as long as it is started in a fresh state. In other words if you stop playback and restart or restart MC and continue from where the list was last played the Dr will no longer give you refills on your prescription.

mashenden · « **Reply #4 on:** February 07, 2012, 06:40:06 pm »

Interesting. I'll give it more of a try with this in mind. I suspect my first effort to test this did include at least one interruption. One of the other players I recently tested would start playing the list where it left off when closed, even mid song. Another would restart the interrupted song at the beginning. If I understand this right, restarting MC would render the old list near useless since it stops adding songs. Is this a bug or intentionally designed this way?

That said, I suppose restarting an existing list or song is not a real requirement in a world of random play.

Does manually adding a song cause it to stop auto adding songs?

Scolex · « **Reply #5 on:** February 07, 2012, 07:01:09 pm »

Quote from: mashenden on February 07, 2012, 06:40:06 pm

Does manually adding a song cause it to stop auto adding songs?

I wasn't sure so I checked and unfortunately it does stop adding songs.

mashenden · « **Reply #6 on:** February 07, 2012, 07:21:18 pm »

I have figured out how to use Startup in the Options to automatically start playing and to show a Visualizer. If I can crack the auto-refresh vision, all would be good.

Am I missing the point behind why Play Dr would be designed to stop adding songs, or is this a bug?

Another quirk - I set my rules to limit the list to 10 entries, and hit the Play Dr play but it either added 199 or started playing another list (not sure how I would tell). Either way it did not do what it seemed like it should. Then when the 199th song was played, it started again at #1 instead of refreshing the list.

Given the quirk about not adding songs and not being overly intuitive I cannot see this working in my household.

Any other ideas? I really would like to see a Smartlist that has an automatic refresh function.

mashenden · « **Reply #7 on:** February 07, 2012, 07:59:06 pm »

I have played some more with Play Dr and am either completely confused or it is not working correctly.

After hitting Stop, and selecting the Set Rules option in the Play Dr box, I can verify that the default Rules remain and I have set a Modified Result to set a limit of 10 items. When I hit Play, the list changes and it starts playing, but it is definitely not a list of 10, but instead a list of 10 songs repeated 20 times (strange).

Then under Playlist, there is a Play Dr listed. It includes 10 songs, but not the 10 that were added to the playlist when I hit play. Then below this Play Dr there is a PlayChart option that lists yet another 10.

In short 3 lists related to Play Dr of which none seem to refresh automatically.

Please help me understand.

Matt · « **Reply #8 on:** February 07, 2012, 08:02:34 pm »

Adding modifiers to the Play Doctor filter is not supported. You'll just get strange results, as you have seen.

mashenden · « **Reply #9 on:** February 07, 2012, 08:13:38 pm »

Please do not take this as a complaint - I am still trying to wrap my head around MC, but if something does not work, would it not make sense to remove the option or change it so that it does work?

Bottom line - Am I to deduce that there is not a solution that will allow me to set up MC to randomly select a set of songs, with the option to let users add to the list, and then continue to play randomly selected songs once the user's choices are played?

Matt · « **Reply #10 on:** February 07, 2012, 08:19:55 pm »

You can just pick what to play from any view.

You can make a Smartlist of rules to build a playlist to play.

You can type something you like (or pick some files) and use Play Doctor to let it pick what to play.

But there's currently no mechanism to use Play Doctor but also manually add files to the playlist.

mashenden · « **Reply #11 on:** February 07, 2012, 08:41:17 pm »

Bummer.

What are the chances of the developers fixing Music Dr so that it does not stop adding songs or adding a feature called "auto-playlist"?

Regretfully, for me not having this is a deal killer. I need to have a way to automatically start playing random music, while allowing users to add songs to the playlist without derailing things. I find it hard to believe I am the only one that needs this.

Oddly, after trying iTunes, WinAmp, MM-4 and now MC, it seems each one does almost everything that I am after, but there is always one thing that each cannot do... not always the same thing, but at least one thing. This seems odd to me given how much functionality they all have, and that my requirements are very fundamental music listening requirements, albeit somewhat lazy (aka convenient)

Scolex · « **Reply #12 on:** February 07, 2012, 09:14:41 pm »

Will the stock Random Songs smartlist not work for you? You can make it whatever size you want and can add songs to it as you wish.
You can configure double click in options/general/behavior to:
Add to Playing Now (end)
Add to Playing Now (play now)
Add to Playing Now (play next)
those selections and others are also available in the right click menu.

I'm sorry but I just don't see why auto refresh is so important if you are going to be adding songs manually.
I take it as you want the auto random list to start just to have something playing while people are entering requests.
Am I mistaken in my assumption?

mashenden · « **Reply #13 on:** February 07, 2012, 09:34:39 pm »

Thank you for the interest. It really is appreciated.

I'll have to look more closely at the stock Random Songs smart list to see if that will work.

The auto refresh feature (or something like it) is needed because usually I would prefer to click a button to launch MC and let it do the rest. I avoid maintaining playlists because I generally like all of my music and really like to let random (without repeat) entertain me with songs from the entire Library. Occasionally, when the mood hits, I (or other users not as familiar with my system) think; "Wow I'd really like to hear [whatever]". Then I/they would need to hit a single button to stop the visualizer and then intuitively be able to browse and select a song, ideally by double clicking to add as next song. In a perfect world the Visualizer would reactivate after x seconds of inactivity on the system.

Scolex · « **Reply #14 on:** February 07, 2012, 09:53:31 pm »

As far as the visualizer I would run it with the display detached (ctrl+6) and then you could get back to the list with alt+tab or a media keyboard/mouse button that has been configured for such a function.
I personally use my win tablet for such when using my htpc as a *jukebox*, songs get selected on the tablet and the TV has the visuals on it.

mashenden · « **Reply #15 on:** February 07, 2012, 10:06:56 pm »

Yep - I think I have the Visualizer figured out (close enough), except for automatically relaunching after inactivity. I have set it up to default to Display view mode on Startup - works well.

Regarding a Random Smartlist, I messed with one earlier, setting it to 10 thinking it would refresh after it played the 10 songs, but it just kept playing the same 10 songs, so I realized that it effectively would not draw from the whole library without having to refresh it. A step that does not fit into the definition of "auto..." that I am after.

The Not Recently Played Smartlist may have potential. The part that has me concerned is if there is a limit to the number of entries in a playlist, because if there is a limit then it would mean the playlist would get stale unless it was refreshed.

In summary I can live with a short list that refreshes (like AutoDJ) or a list that includes all songs in the Library, or a random play of the entire Library... any of which would ensure that songs were pulled randomly from the entire Library.

A couple of questions to see if Not Recently Played Smartlist is a viable solution:
1) How many songs are stored in a playlist? Is it the whole Library less the ones "recently played"?
2) Assuming there is a limit that is below the total songs in the Library, is there a way to Refresh a Smartlist using a keyboard command, where I could set up a macro to start MC, refresh the playlist, then play it (keeping it a one button effort)?

Scolex · « **Reply #16 on:** February 07, 2012, 10:32:15 pm »

As far as I know there is no limit to the size I just created smartlist to try and find a limit and my 17808 files wasn't enough.
Here is how I have my Random Songs setup.

rick.ca · « **Reply #17 on:** February 07, 2012, 11:02:36 pm »

Quote from: mashenden on February 07, 2012, 10:06:56 pm

The Not Recently Played Smartlist may have potential...

As Scolex's example should suggest, a Smartlist can be whatever you want it to be—any number of tracks based on just about any selection criteria you can imagine and sorted in any manner. See Smartlist Rules and Modifiers and the Expression Language and knock yourself out. While your list is playing, you can add anything to play immediately or after the current track. And yes, you can program a hotkey to restart/refresh the list (using Core Command 30007).

glynor · « **Reply #18 on:** February 07, 2012, 11:37:11 pm »

Quote from: Scolex on February 07, 2012, 10:32:15 pm

As far as I know there is no limit to the size I just created smartlist to try and find a limit and my 17808 files wasn't enough.

MC can handle hundreds of thousands of assets without issue. Some people have huge libraries. Matt did testing on importing 100k files in one go, in fact.

Once imported, you can use all of them in a Smartlist if you want, though rendering it with shuffle on might take a little longer than "normal", especially if you have a slow CPU.

Matt · « **Reply #19 on:** February 07, 2012, 11:41:08 pm »

Quote from: glynor on February 07, 2012, 11:37:11 pm

Matt did testing on importing 100k files in one go, in fact.

It's on my to-do list to get WMP listed on that page too. It took roughly 5 days for WMP to import the files to our 14 minutes!

glynor · « **Reply #20 on:** February 07, 2012, 11:48:57 pm »

Quote from: Matt on February 07, 2012, 11:41:08 pm

It's on my to-do list to get WMP listed on that page too. It took roughly 5 days for WMP to import the files to our 14 minutes!

Good to hear WMP did finally finish! Last I remember, it was a few days and counting...

Another couple of tips for mashenden:

In addition to making Smartlists, you can also completely customize the "views" available in the Tree Control on the left-hand side of MC, and these views you make can also have the same kinds of filters and modifiers that you can have in Smartlists.

This can be very handy for more complex views, where you want a fancy shuffled playlist, but you also want to be able to filter it on the fly. Marko wrote an amazing tutorial on how to customize views in MC recently, and it is worth a read for any beginning user who is looking to move to an intermediate user.

For giggles, here is one of the Smartlists I'm using right now to "randomly" fill my iPhone with music:

Code: [Select]

[Media Type]=[Audio] -[File Type]=[cda] [Removable]=0 -[Keywords]=[noipod] -[Rating]=1 [Channels]=<=2 ~mix=1800,6%,{[Genre]=[Alternative]},10%,{[Genre]=[Americana]},6%,{[Genre]=[Classic Rock]},10%,{[Genre]=[Electronic]},3%,{[Genre]=[Folk]},15%,{[Genre]=[Indie]},4%,{[Genre]=[Jazz]},6%,{[Genre]=[Pop]},8%,{[Genre]=[Progressive]},10%,{[Genre]=[Psychedelic Rock]},4%,{[Genre]=[Punk]},6%,{[Genre]=[Reggae]},3%,{[Genre]=[Rock]},3%,{[Genre]=[Trance]},6%,{[Genre]=[Urban]} ~sort=[Artist],[Album],[Disc #],[Track #],[Name]

You can replicate this view in your own system by simply creating a new Smartlist, hitting the Import/Export button, and then pasting that code above into the box.

It'll give you an idea of the crazy stuff you can do with the system.

Scolex · « **Reply #21 on:** February 08, 2012, 12:13:57 am »

Glynor,
Thanks for the example I just recently noticed the Mix feature and wasn't quite sure how it worked, you saved me a search/post.

glynor · « **Reply #22 on:** February 08, 2012, 12:20:36 am »

Quote from: Scolex on February 08, 2012, 12:13:57 am

Glynor,
Thanks for the example I just recently noticed the Mix feature and wasn't quite sure how it worked, you saved me a search/post.

It works really well.

The only two things that are annoying about it are:

a. You can only limit a Mix by a quantity of tracks, rather than a run-time or file-size. I get that 1800 number in my list above by figuring out the rough average size of my MP3s (once converted on the fly to "High Quality Portable" MP3s by MC's Handheld engine), and then dividing by the total file size I want the list to end up using by this "average file size per MP3" number I come up with. A little clunky but it works.

b. You have to make sure the percent totals equal 100% yourself, since MC doesn't have a nice UI in the Smartlist editor for the Mix widget. I made a simple Excel spreadsheet to make them. It'd probably actually still function if you exceeded 100%, if not "correctly" (since that'd be impossible), but I always do it right because I'm a nerd.

rick.ca · « **Reply #23 on:** February 08, 2012, 12:32:08 am »

Quote from: glynor on February 08, 2012, 12:20:36 am

I'm a nerd.

Bumping your Psychedelic and Reggae might help.

wig · « **Reply #24 on:** February 08, 2012, 06:46:49 am »

Quote from: glynor on February 08, 2012, 12:20:36 am

b. You have to make sure the percent totals equal 100% yourself, since MC doesn't have a nice UI in the Smartlist editor for the Mix widget. I made a simple Excel spreadsheet to make them. It'd probably actually still function if you exceeded 100%, if not "correctly" (since that'd be impossible), but I always do it right because I'm a nerd.

1. Mix works fine at any percentage. I have a few mix smartlists that I am constantly tinkering with, and I'm too lazy to make sure the value add up to 100%.

2. A nice UI for the Mix modifier would be awesome!

mashenden · « **Reply #25 on:** February 08, 2012, 07:09:45 am »

Quote from: Scolex on February 07, 2012, 10:32:15 pm

As far as I know there is no limit to the size I just created smartlist to try and find a limit and my 17808 files wasn't enough.
Here is how I have my Random Songs setup.

I think this is going to work. I'll have to try it on my main system that has all my files instead of my test system that only has 300 or so songs.

To ensure that I understand how things work, I have two questions for Scolex:

In your visual example there is a 100 song limit. That was not the one that you used to test the playlist limit, right?
Then regarding your Random Songs Smartlist, am I correct that playing this Smartlist loads 100 random songs into the playlist and those 100 songs will play forever if a refresh is not done?

Quote from: Scolex on February 07, 2012, 09:14:41 pm

...
I'm sorry but I just don't see why auto refresh is so important if you are going to be adding songs manually.
I take it as you want the auto random list to start just to have something playing while people are entering requests.
Am I mistaken in my assumption?

I have been trying to mentally answer the question about why an auto-refresh feature is needed. I believe that the answer is because if a Smartlist, or more importantly the playlist, does not get refreshed somehow, the music will get stale. I would prefer to not have to do this manually. In an extreme example, I loaded a Random Smartlist with a 10 song limit. Unless I did something wrong, MC will play those 10 songs until the end of time (kinda like a top hits radio station

)

So assuming there isn't a limit to the number of songs in a Smartlist or playlist, to overcome the stale concern I will try using the Not Recently Played Smartlist with no limit set, which should result in a near endless list of songs that I have not heard. Technically the list will one day repeat but that would never be noticed given the shear number of songs in my Library. My only concern is that new songs added to the library would not be included in the playlist unless a refresh is done - a small concern for me given that my music tastes are no longer in the experimental mode (read - I'm getting stubborn in my old age

)

A counter question comes to mind, though (not meaning to be argumentative - only trying to get my mind around the design); Specific to a Random SmartList, why would a user ever want to manually refresh rather than have it automatically refresh or pull songs from the Library as others roll off the top?

Scolex · « **Reply #26 on:** February 08, 2012, 12:18:41 pm »

No I didn't use the visual reference to test for a limit everything was the same other than I removed the "Limit Number to" filter.
Yes if you load a smart list with x number of songs it will repeat those songs if not refreshed and repeat is turned on. If repeat is off
playback will stop at the end of the list.
I found a command for autoplaylist "MC17.exe /MCC 10047" it will create a random list of 100 songs it appears to call the Dr.

mashenden · « **Reply #27 on:** February 08, 2012, 12:43:25 pm »

In further testing it looks like the best approach for my need is to use the Not Recently Played smartlist with no limit set on items. It does pull all songs from my Library.

Since it does not automatically refresh, the playlist will get stale over time (albeit a long time) so I will want/need to refresh it occasionally.

Any ideas on the best way to accomplish this automatically would be appreciated.

I saw the following excerpt:

Quote from: rick.ca on February 07, 2012, 11:02:36 pm

.... And yes, you can program a hotkey to restart/refresh the list (using Core Command 30007).

Off the cuff, it seems Core Command functionality will make it possible to do a Refresh (Command 22077) or a variety of other things from outside of MC. Very cool. Time to give it a test.

Quote from: Scolex on February 08, 2012, 12:18:41 pm

... I found a command for autoplaylist "MC17.exe /10047" it will create a random list of 100 songs it appears to call the Dr.

Good to know, although it is a bummer that it calls the Dr. That function just does not work very well given that it stops pulling songs if the playlist is stopped, or even touched for that matter. I'm still not clear if that is a bug or an intentional but misunderstood feature of the Dr.

BTW - So far my MC experience has all the signs of being well worth the time and money ($oon, that is

). Also the support on this forum is awesome. Thank you to all that have helped me get off the ground. It is greatly appreciated.

wig · « **Reply #28 on:** February 08, 2012, 01:07:57 pm »

Quote from: mashenden on February 08, 2012, 12:43:25 pm

Since it does not automatically refresh, the playlist will get stale over time (albeit a long time) so I will want/need to refresh it occasionally.

Any ideas on the best way to accomplish this automatically would be appreciated.

A Smartlist is supposed to give you a random selection of songs, honoring the list's rules, every time you play it. I'm not sure how you are controlling JRiver, but instead of pushing play you could simply call the Smartlist each time you start a listening session. I use the Media Center remote to do this; you could set up a global hotkey to do the same thing.

mashenden · « **Reply #29 on:** February 08, 2012, 02:58:53 pm »

Quote from: wig on February 08, 2012, 01:07:57 pm

A Smartlist is supposed to give you a random selection of songs, honoring the list's rules, every time you play it. I'm not sure how you are controlling JRiver, but instead of pushing play you could simply call the Smartlist each time you start a listening session. I use the Media Center remote to do this; you could set up a global hotkey to do the same thing.

This sounds enticing, but please understand that many terms that are familiar to many are not familiar to me as a Newb. So with that in mind, when you mention calling a Smartlist using a global hotkey, are you inferring that you are using the MCC Commands and if so which commands, or are you executing a command or string of commands some other way, and if so how/what?

In summary, more details please

MrC · « **Reply #30 on:** February 08, 2012, 03:37:05 pm »

Quote from: mashenden on February 08, 2012, 02:58:53 pm

This sounds enticing, but please understand that many terms that are familiar to many are not familiar to me as a Newb. So with that in mind, when you mention calling a Smartlist using a global hotkey, are you inferring that you are using the MCC Commands and if so which commands, or are you executing a command or string of commands some other way, and if so how/what?

In summary, more details please

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/User_Defined_Global_Keyboard_Shortcuts

mashenden · « **Reply #31 on:** February 08, 2012, 05:46:05 pm »

I suspect with the MCC commands and keyboard commands in my tool bag I'd be set.

It looks like the link to the Resource.xml file is broken, though. ?

My experience playing with the MCC commands has been very encouraging. I think I am about ready to start piecing together my macros to do everything that I need.

Also, wig - please comment if these are the approaches that you were mentioning in your post.

MrC · « **Reply #32 on:** February 08, 2012, 05:52:49 pm »

Quote from: mashenden on February 08, 2012, 05:46:05 pm

It looks like the link to the Resource.xml file is broken, though. ?

The link works. Right-click the link, and Save Link As. Alternatively, remove the last component (i.e. \Resource.xml) from the FTP URL and browse to that location. You'll see the file.

rick.ca · « **Reply #33 on:** February 08, 2012, 06:05:40 pm »

Quote from: mashenden on February 08, 2012, 02:58:53 pm

In summary, more details please

I suggest you start by experimenting with smartlists. You're probably not going to learn all they can do anytime soon, but you will quickly get a sense of what can be done with them. You might discover there are a number of different smartlists you want to use, each of which provides 1,000 hours of playing time. That would suggest a method of restarting/refreshing them is rather secondary to a convenient way of choosing one in the first place. Or not. The point is, the program is so adaptable to personal needs and preferences, you need to dive in to discover what those are. So get yourself into real trouble first, then ask for help.

To recap: Smartlists can be created to produce just about any kind of list imaginable. In most cases, these can be designed so the playing time is more than what could possibly be necessary. Where this is not the case (e.g., the smartlist produces a desired play sequence, but can only do so with 10 or 100 tracks at a time), a batch file triggered by a hotkey can be used to send the list to Playing Now multiple times. Play Doctor is sort of an automated alternative to Smartlists. It saves you the trouble of creating a smartlist, at the cost of giving up the control a smartlist provides. It's also intended to run and replenish itself automatically, and adding anything to it ends that mode (i.e., turning it into a regular playlist, in effect). But if a listener is willing to add tracks, then surely intervening again to restart it is not much of a hardship.

pcstockton · « **Reply #34 on:** February 08, 2012, 06:16:04 pm »

Quote from: mashenden on February 07, 2012, 05:52:59 pm

I am a newbie evaluating MC, ultimately looking for a solution that does something very similar to AutoDJ (MM) or iTunesDJ. My need is best described as an Auto Playlist that selects X songs taken randomly from my Library. As it finishes playing a song, one that was previously played would roll off the top and a new one would be automatically added to the bottom of the list (randomly selected from Library without noticeable repeats. I don't want to mess with maintaining playlist).

maybe I am underthinking this but, why not simply "shuffle all" from any level. You wont get any repeats.

Or use Play Doctor as others have suggested above for a more "guided" approach.

-patrick

glynor · « **Reply #35 on:** February 08, 2012, 07:53:25 pm »

Quote from: rick.ca on February 08, 2012, 06:05:40 pm

You're not going to learn all they can do anytime soon, but you will quickly get a sense of what can be done with them. You might discover there are a number of different smartlists you want to use, each of which provides 1,000 hours of playing time. That would suggest a method of restarting/refreshing them is rather secondary to a convenient way of choosing one in the first place. Or not. The point is, the program is so adaptable to personal needs and preferences, you need to dive in to discover what those are. So get yourself into real trouble first, then ask for help.

Exactly. Well said, Rick.

mashenden · « **Reply #36 on:** February 08, 2012, 08:54:27 pm »

Quote from: MrC on February 08, 2012, 05:52:49 pm

The link works. Right-click the link, and Save Link As. Alternatively, remove the last component (i.e. \Resource.xml) from the FTP URL and browse to that location. You'll see the file.

Ahh, got it. Thank you.

mashenden · « **Reply #37 on:** February 08, 2012, 10:11:35 pm »

I believe I have found the last piece to my puzzle on using other programs to reliably control MC, so that I can create some macros for a one click "Play Music" button to do all I mention above. The best command to use with MC Server seems to be:

localhost:52199/MCWS/v1/Control/MCC?Command=######

or if on a different PC:

//192.168.1.101:52199/MCWS/v1/Control/MCC?Command=######

because is allows you to use the Core Commands from the list noted by rick.ca, above. (Core Command list )

I was able to play/pause using ://192.168.1.101:52199/MCWS/v1/Control/MCC?Command=10000

Also to use this approach you need to open Options, go to Media Network and select the top option on Media Network and DLNA. Also open MC Server on the machine to be controlled.

Time to play (pun intended).

mashenden · « **Reply #38 on:** February 09, 2012, 06:57:28 am »

Bottom line - MC is VERY impressive and I will be moving forward with purchasing it. It appears unlikely we will get an answer to my 2 outstanding concerns about why things are designed the way they are (Play DR stops refreshing and no Auto Refresh option on Smartlist) but that is OK since I have found somewhat complicated, but usable workarounds. I am a bit surprised MC would not want this functionality built in but doing it outside MC works well too since MC's control commands are very robust.

I will post details on my final solution once I have it working.

JimH · « **Reply #39 on:** February 09, 2012, 07:03:46 am »

A little ungentlemanly conduct removed.

JimH · « **Reply #40 on:** February 09, 2012, 09:19:10 am »

I cleaned up a little more, but left glynor's post. I think that rick.ca is giving reasonable advice on learning about smartlists, and glynor is only agreeing with him in #35.

Thanks for your understanding.

mashenden · « **Reply #41 on:** February 09, 2012, 11:20:30 am »

I cannot say I agree with removing my posts and leaving in their offensive parts since the top paragraph of Post #33 and 35 make it sound like I was asking questions rather than playing with SmartLists or Play Dr. That simply was not the case. I think if anyone was to follow the progression of the posts, it is apparent that I was learning and testing things as it went. It should also be noted that a workable solution to the SmartList/Play Dr limitations was identified prior to their posting these inaccurate assumptions and "advice" about my approach. Reference Post #27.

Anyhow, I realize I am the new one to the forum so I'll just have to take my lumps on this one and earn my stripes as I go.

Over and out.

MrC · « **Reply #42 on:** February 09, 2012, 11:44:45 am »

I think it has been great to see how quickly you've picked up MC and started learning about its many features, including the more advanced ones. Bravo!

mashenden · « **Reply #43 on:** February 19, 2012, 09:54:16 am »

Quote from: MrC on February 09, 2012, 11:44:45 am

I think it has been great to see how quickly you've picked up MC and started learning about its many features, including the more advanced ones. Bravo!

Thank you MrC for the compliment (and the help in other posts). Getting this figured out within the trial period was only possible with the constructive help from the forum. My appreciation goes out to all that helped.

For anyone that may be interested, I am posting my final solution below, as promised earlier. My exact requirements were not possible within MC (using Options), but through the use of MCC Commands and scripting, I was able to accomplish all I needed.

To summarize, my requirements were to establish a single button that would 1) automatically start playing seemingly random songs, without repeats, 2) automatically launch the Visualizer, as well as 3) have a means to easily reduce the Visualizer (double click or ESC) so that users unfamiliar with MC can intuitively add their choice of songs (also using double click or right click) if so desired. "Intuitive" being an operative word since I was not interested in a complicated solution that requires training people that come over (or that are untrainable

)

I ended up commenting out the Play Dr entry below in lieu of using a Smartlist = Not Recently Played because Play Dr has a quirk/bug where it stops automatically adding songs once a user adds a song (described in more detail above). I would probably go back to trying Play Dr if this gets changed since overall it seems very cool.

Here is my final script that gets put into a file called buttonname.vsf. A Windows shortcut to this file can be created on the Desktop if a non-vb icon is desired.

Code: [Select]

<package>
	<job id="vbs">
		<script language="VBScript">
	
		'Create Shell object - credit and thanks to glynor for the lead on this
		Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
		
		'Start MC
		WshShell.Run "MC17.exe"
		
		'Pause for a bit
		WScript.Sleep 1500

		'Set to Zone 0 (0 is Zone 1= PC Speakers and 1 is Zone 2 = S/PDIF Output)
		WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC 10011,0"

		'Pause for a bit
		WScript.Sleep 1000
		
		'Start Autoplaylist (aka Play Dr)
		'WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC 10047"

                ' Opens the Smartlist "Not Recently Played" for Editing so a refresh can be done
                WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC Command 21026, 715178384"

                ' Sends a Keyboard Enter to refresh the Smartlist
                WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC Command 27000, 13"

		'Pause for a bit
		WScript.Sleep 1000

                ' Loads the Smartlist "Not Recently Played" into the Playlist and starts playing it.
                WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC Command 30007, 715178384"
'or             'WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /PlayReplace TREEPATH=Playlists\Smartlists\Not Recently Played"

		'Pause for a bit
		WScript.Sleep 1500

		'Remove Dups from Playing Now
		WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC 10040"

		'Suffle Remaining
		WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC 10041"

		'Attach Display
		WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC 10037,0"	

		'Move View to Audio so Usrs can select other songs
		WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC 22003,2"	

		'Set Mode to = Display (which makes the Visualizer go full screen)
		WshShell.Run "MC17.exe /MCC 22000,2"

		</script>
	</job>
</package>

[Edited to add commands that refresh the Smartlist]

nPlaylistID "715178384" was identified using the process defined here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=10894.0

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Author Topic: Is there an Auto Playlist option? (Read 11952 times)