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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: GaryD9 on September 25, 2003, 06:38:35 am

Title: More smartlist questions...
Post by: GaryD9 on September 25, 2003, 06:38:35 am

Is there any way to apply weighted sorts to a smartlist?  As an example of what I'm trying to do:

I currently have a smartlist called "normal playing" which contains every mp3 audio file rated 3 and above.  Currently, it's sorted as "random".  However, I'm starting to find that I'd like to make it slightly less random in that tracks with a lower playcount OR tracks with a rating of 4 and 5 should _tend_ to fall nearer to the top of the list.  

So, as an example, a track with a rating of "5" would have a 50% chance to be on the top third of the list, a 30% chance to be in the middle of the list, and a 20% chance to be at the end of the list.  If the average number "number plays" count of all my mp3 files is 3, then a track with 0 number plays would also tend to fall near the top of the list (but not always!)  

My first thought is that every track would be given a priority based on its rating, number of plays, and a random number:

AvgPlayed = (average number of plays for all tracks)

for (each track)
 TrackPriority = TrackRating + (AvgPlayed - TrackNumPlayed) + (random number between 1-50).

Then, the list is sorted in TrackPriority order (decending) for my final playlist.

Obviously, this can't be done with smartlists...  

My next attempt was the create a calculated user property with the formula of "[number plays] - [rating]" thinking I could use that as a sort.  Unfortunatly, it seems that calculated properties are all about concatenating strings, and not adding numbers. :(

Any thoughts, help, etc?

Thanks
Gary