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[forbigd]

The subject says it.... in our pool room the Media Center can run out of tunes in Now Playing and then just sit. It takes a while to get back and fix it.
Can I have it play a playlist when the Playing now is empty? Some special Smartlist I could create to play popular but not played recently tunes could take over when the Playing Now runs dry? I would have thought that would be an option, but I didn't find it where I thought it might be.

Does such an option exist?

Thanks!

[forbigd]

Howdy all. Lots of looks, not one person knows whether there is an option for making a playlist play when Now Playing is empty.
I would have to guess it doesn't exist. What do you all do when you are using MC as a gameroom jukebox and it runs out of tunes. Sit in silence? Assign someone to make sure it doesn't empty? 
We are all playing pool and don't want to rush over to add more. We try to keep 20-30 in the list so it doesn't run out, but it does anyway. We really like our Pool games.
I have played with MC since ver 13, and I am pretty good with expressions, but how do you trigger it to play a playlist when there are no files in Playing Now?
It seems like an easy task, but as soon as the list is empty, there is nothing to hang an expression on.
A programming change to allow playing of a smartlist when empty would be really nice. You all changed MC for me so the Now Playing deletes songs from the list after playing, that was great. Now can we have a option to play something when there is nothing to play? Without having to touch the MC? Automatically play a list?

Thanks for reading.

Don

[JimH]

With one of the little icons in the upper right corner, you can put MC in continuous mode, so the music loops around.

You can probably right click on a playlist and choose to add it to Playing Now at the end.

[eve]

With one of the little icons in the upper right corner, you can put MC in continuous mode, so the music loops around.

You can probably right click on a playlist and choose to add it to Playing Now at the end.

This is the closest thing to a solution you'll probably find.

You *could* write something to keep checking the current play state / queue with MCWS and when it's no longer currently playing send it this command.

Code: [Select]

PlayPlaylist
         Plays a playlist.
         Parameters:
            Zone: The zone the command is targetted for. (default: -1)
            ZoneType: The type of value provided in 'Zone' (ID: zone id; Index: zone index; Name: zone name). (default: ID)
            Playlist: The ID of the playlist to play or the path. (default: )
            PlaylistType: The type of value provided in 'Playlist' (ID: playlist id; Path: playlist path). (default: ID)


[blgentry]

It sounds like you want a DJ.  A streaming service might be a solution for you.

Another approach is to populate your Playing Now with enough music to last an hour or two longer than you think you will need it.  A typical album is 35 to 55 minutes.  So if you play pool for 3 hours, you want say 4.5 hours of music, or about 9 or 10 albums.  Pick 9 or 10 albums and add them to Playing Now,  Press control-shift-r to "reshuffle remaining".  This will put the tracks in a random order.  Press Play and you'll have 4 or 5 hours of music.  Need more time?  Do 12 or 14 or 20 albums instead.

Or make a smart list that produces a very large list of music to play based upon your criteria.

These are just ideas to try to achieve your goal.  I don't think the exact thing you are asking for exists.  But you can do many things to get more music to play for longer.

Good luck.

Brian.

[forbigd]

Our Thursday night pool games use MC as a Jukebox would be used in a bar, the old fashioned ones with records and coins .
Our host makes a list to start with using a keyword. Maybe 20-30 tunes. After that all of us drop by when we are not at the table to add a song or two.
The list fluctuates with a page or more of tunes down to just a few. The host calls out to us saying that MC is close to running out of music, and someone steps up and adds something. If we don't it gets eerily quiet.
The songs played are not part of a canned playlist we add, but live picks during the evening by the folks there that night. Just like an old jukebox. The only option we ask is to "add and shuffle remaining" so their picks gets shuffled in.
If we throw in some canned list at the end, we cannot add any more, the list would get shuffled in.
This is why we asked for and got the option to removed played. No one cares to go back in time to see what was played, we want what is playing to be at the top.
We can see what was played easily.
And, if it runs out of songs, some option to go "automatic" with a smartlist.
Sure I use MC as my personal player and throw in albums, but on pool night I need something like a jukebox. We all call MC "The Jukebox" anyway

WE are the DJ. 
Just clarifying how we use it, and why,.. I get there is no option. I have never used MCWS, but it sounds challenging, I will try
Thanks all.

Don

[forbigd]

I didn't think about the rest, it gets really complicated. I would want the smartlist to start when the Now Playing is empty. But when someone comes up to add a song, I want their song to be added "next to play". And if that happened, I guess I would want he rest of the smartlist to go away. Not stop the smartlist song playing now, but add the one picked and remove the rest. If that is the only song added it goes back to the smartlist after the one song plays.
I had just asked for a list to be played if Now Playing is empty, adding the rest is over me.

But the idea of having a list ready for emergencies is a good one. I will do that.

[blgentry]

For a commercial jukebox, your description sounds pretty accurate.  Essentially:  Keep something playing all the time.  But when a customer cues up one or more songs, make them start right after the current "auto" song. 
If an auto song is not playing, mix customer tracks in with other customer tracks.

I wouldn't expect the JRiver staff to do this, but it does raise interesting questions about the various ways that people use MC.

Efren Reyes would be really fun to play with.  I think I would just smile being around him.  Even as he completely destroyed me in all billiards games.  Allison Fischer would probably equally destroy my game.  But she seems less fun.

In case someone here hasn't heard of "The Magician" Efren Reyes, here's a representative video showing him in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGjSvpfu9rE

Brian.

[eve]

I didn't think about the rest, it gets really complicated. I would want the smartlist to start when the Now Playing is empty. But when someone comes up to add a song, I want their song to be added "next to play". And if that happened, I guess I would want he rest of the smartlist to go away. Not stop the smartlist song playing now, but add the one picked and remove the rest. If that is the only song added it goes back to the smartlist after the one song plays.
I had just asked for a list to be played if Now Playing is empty, adding the rest is over me.

But the idea of having a list ready for emergencies is a good one. I will do that.

I'm thinking about this. I don't know if we need to empty the queue when someone chooses a track.

Send To > ZONE > Add (Add As Next Play) is an option in the context menu.

Build a smartlist that you're comfortable as your 'pool' of tracks to play. Add that to the queue. Then, you add what you're intending on listening to, at the beginning of the queue. Leaving the rest of the queue populated by this smartlist. Now when someone wants to specify a track? Send To > ZONE > Add (Add As Next Play). It should leave the queue in its current state, adding the chosen track after the currently playing one.
 

You're essentially describing a commercial jukebox solution, even though the premise is super simple. This is all easy to do in a 'utilitarian' interface but it's not exactly, I dunno, user friendly for a guest?

[forbigd]

I'm thinking about this. I don't know if we need to empty the queue when someone chooses a track.

Send To > ZONE > Add (Add As Next Play) is an option in the context menu.

Build a smartlist that you're comfortable as your 'pool' of tracks to play. Add that to the queue. Then, you add what you're intending on listening to, at the beginning of the queue. Leaving the rest of the queue populated by this smartlist. Now when someone wants to specify a track? Send To > ZONE > Add (Add As Next Play). It should leave the queue in its current state, adding the chosen track after the currently playing one.
 

You're essentially describing a commercial jukebox solution, even though the premise is super simple. This is all easy to do in a 'utilitarian' interface but it's not exactly, I dunno, user friendly for a guest?

That has always been a small pain for me. I know MC decently well, and can whip up a special View, smartlist, whatever, but when I change the MC, the masses get confused.
A classic: Guy sits down at MC and finds an artist he likes. But he accidentally double clicks the artist, and now he has replaced playing now with his artist.
Thank the folks at MC for having a "Recently Playing Now"... So I have to leave it set to "Show Properties" when double clicked. Annoying, but keeps the masses from "Breaking the jukebox". Folks playing pool take great delight when someone makes the music stop. "Don broke the jukebox"
One guy thinks I have programmed it so it skips songs he puts in the list. He can be a bit gullible. I would like to program it so he can only pick 2 songs by an artist at once, he likes to bomb us with many of his favorite guy. "Allow only 2 [Artist] picks of the same artist per hour..
But yes, for this crowd, I want something just like a jukebox. I want it to be touchscreen too, but MC can't do that. And before you experts say it can..... I need a display that shows a pick list of artists and songs, like standard view, and one "Pane" showing what IS playing now, and what's up. I can get Theater view with touch to work a bit, but not what we need. We use standard and a mouse.
I love MC. Unfortunately it is more powerful than most players and that confuses the non-techie types.
Anyone (just 1 guy currently) that has their own MC running relies on me to set it up and keep it running.

Don

[dtc]

You could also try Play Doctor. It will set up a Playlist of 100 tracks based on your selection criteria. You can set the display to show the currently playing track as well as a list of all the tracks.  It does not give you jukebox type control but does a reasonable job of selecting tracks according to your criteria. You can skip a track and it learns from that skip. You can set up a shortcut key to start it with the existing criteria.  It is described in the Wiki and there is a link there to the thread with the keyboard shortcut setup.  This is not a jutebox but it is a way to generate long playlists automatically.

[eve]

That has always been a small pain for me. I know MC decently well, and can whip up a special View, smartlist, whatever, but when I change the MC, the masses get confused.
A classic: Guy sits down at MC and finds an artist he likes. But he accidentally double clicks the artist, and now he has replaced playing now with his artist.
Thank the folks at MC for having a "Recently Playing Now"... So I have to leave it set to "Show Properties" when double clicked. Annoying, but keeps the masses from "Breaking the jukebox". Folks playing pool take great delight when someone makes the music stop. "Don broke the jukebox"
One guy thinks I have programmed it so it skips songs he puts in the list. He can be a bit gullible. I would like to program it so he can only pick 2 songs by an artist at once, he likes to bomb us with many of his favorite guy. "Allow only 2 [Artist] picks of the same artist per hour..
But yes, for this crowd, I want something just like a jukebox. I want it to be touchscreen too, but MC can't do that. And before you experts say it can..... I need a display that shows a pick list of artists and songs, like standard view, and one "Pane" showing what IS playing now, and what's up. I can get Theater view with touch to work a bit, but not what we need. We use standard and a mouse.
I love MC. Unfortunately it is more powerful than most players and that confuses the non-techie types.
Anyone (just 1 guy currently) that has their own MC running relies on me to set it up and keep it running.

Don

I feel as though this one's a custom job with MC as a backend / playback and an interface up front. That's how I handle Film + MC.
Maybe other users have better ideas about how to address this.

[forbigd]

Thanks for the responses.
The part that is missing from your thoughts is that we do not want to have to stop playing and go over to the jukebox and press a button to start the smartlist.
I can figure that out. I am asking that it start playing it's own generated list by itself when the Now Playing is empty.
I wish I had a lot more knowledge how it all works. I have been learning more and more for years, but some parts are still a mystery.
There is an expression called IsPlaying(). I can make a field that shows whether a song is playing. All songs will have a 0 except the one that is playing now.
So I have a data point that tells me no song is playing. The field will have ALL 0's.
But I can't make the jump to light speed with that data. How do I write something that says "when all files have a 0 in this field, play this playlist.
Beyond me You would think that would be simple, but I am probably crossing programming lines that don't exist. ...
Like having an apple orchard, but all my harvesting equipment is for carrots.
Thanks again.