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[Jamil]

I have several .m3u8 playlists that I created to play specific selections of music against my library.  They exist as external files.  What I would like to do is create a new Smartlist that uses an external .m3u8 file as its source.  I will then apply a very limited set of Smartlist rules against the external playlist file.  I am not seeing a way to do this when searching.  Is this possible?

[marko]

"Is this possible?" - No. Assuming all of the files referenced in the playlists are already present and available in your MC library....

Use "File>Import Playlist" to import your playlists. I think that by default, they go into an "Imported Playlists" group in the playlists section of your tree.

Once done, you are free to move them to a new group if your prefer.

Now, what you want should be possible as now, you can create smartlists using rules that reference those imported playlists.

[Jamil]

I actually did try import playlist, but I actually am not even sure what this does.  My expectation was that I import a playlist to have that playlist then created under the MC28 Playlists tree view.  This did not happen at all.  I am not sure what it did.  All files from the playlist already exist in MC28's library.

[Jamil]

I see what happened now.  There is a group under Playlists tree view called "Imported Playlists".  It stuck all content from the .m3u8 file under there.  Let me see if I can create a new Smartlist and/or filter from stuff in here.

[Jamil]

It looks like there's no way to do this.  It imported the .m3u8 file exactly as is, and it will not allow me to add any additional rules to it.  I also cannot create a new Smartlist with an existing playlist as its source.  This is a worthy new feature that I am surprised MC doesn't already support.

[marko]

aaand.. breath.

I see what happened now.  There is a group under Playlists tree view called "Imported Playlists".  It stuck all content from the .m3u8 file under there.

I think that by default, they go into an "Imported Playlists" group in the playlists section of your tree.

Once done, you are free to move them to a new group if your prefer.

It looks like there's no way to do this.  It imported the .m3u8 file exactly as is, and it will not allow me to add any additional rules to it.  I also cannot create a new Smartlist with an existing playlist as its source.  This is a worthy new feature that I am surprised MC doesn't already support.

A playlist is just that, a list, not made of any rules, just a list, so no, you should not expect to be able to add rules to one of those.

If you cannot create a smartlist with an existing playlist as source, then, either you are taking a wrong turn somewhere, or something is broken somewhere in your MC. This is bread and butter for MC smartlists and has been a thing for a good fifteen to twenty years.

See attached screenshot for a pointer to get yourself back on track, and shout if you need more assistance...

[Jamil]

My expected outcome is actually rather simple--

I have an .m3u8 playlist of content I want to play that has the following conditions:

• All content must be shuffled
• Each individual selection must not have been played in the last two weeks

I see no possible way to accomplish this using MC28.  If you have scripting magic that may help, I am all ears.

[marko]

I see no possible way to accomplish this using MC28.

This, is actually rather simple Once you know, you know, then it's simple. Can you tell me...

• Are you dealing with just a single m3u8 playlist here?
• Am I correct that that this playlist has been successfully imported into MC?
• Can you tell me the name of this playlist (in MC)?
• Can you tell me the tree path to this playlist?

Cheers.

[EnglishTiger]

Take a look at the "Audio -- Favorites -- Have not heard recently" Smartlist" - It has a Rule checking to make sure the Date Last Played is not in the Last 7 Days

[Jamil]

This, is actually rather simple Once you know, you know, then it's simple. Can you tell me...

• Are you dealing with just a single m3u8 playlist here?
• Am I correct that that this playlist has been successfully imported into MC?
• Can you tell me the name of this playlist (in MC)?
• Can you tell me the tree path to this playlist?

Cheers.

I have n number of playlist containing content that all exist in MC28's library.

Attached are five examples all zipped up complete with paths.

What I want to do should be trivial, but I am struggling with this on MC28.

The root of the issue is that import playlist feature is not being handled properly.  It is simply keeping the .m3u8 play list as it is within MC28.  What it should instead do is convert the .m38u playlist to a native MC28 playlist instead.  This should be trivial to code.  All files are unique and exist only once within MC28.

[marko]

OK, So, as there's more than one it's still not 100% clear to me what you need precisely, but, I reckon I can get you started...

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you move (via drag and drop is easiest) all the relevant playlists from "Imported" to a new group called m3u. Amend the smartlist rule to fit with whatever you do with them.

Code: [Select]

p=m3u [Last Played]=>2w ~sort=RandomHint: Use the "Import/Export" button to paste the code above into the smartlist rule editor, and amend as required before hitting the OK button.

• p=m3u: This restricts the list to just the files that are included in any of the playlists in the "m3u" group
• [Last Played]=>2w: This excludes anything played in the past 2 weeks
• ~sort=Random: This shuffles the results

If you wanted to further restrict the source set of files, you might use, for example p="m3u\Dennis Coffey" to limit the the initial set of files to just those on the Dennis Coffey playlist. Note that if there is a space involved, wrap it in quotes.

Does that help?

[Jamil]

Thank you.

This is what I wanted to do and the answer to my question.  Yes -- MC28 can create a smartlist with conditions on an existing playlist.  It's just done in a very convoluted way.

Making this feature easier in future versions would be a huge help to your users.  This can definitely be improved and made more friendly.  MediaCenter has been out for a long time now.  I felt like I was jumping through flaming hoops to finally get this done.

[marko]

You're welcome, and yeah, was a bit like walking through treacle, but we got there in the end

[EnglishTiger]

Thank you.

This is what I wanted to do and the answer to my question.  Yes -- MC28 can create a smartlist with conditions on an existing playlist.  It's just done in a very convoluted way.

Making this feature easier in future versions would be a huge help to your users.  This can definitely be improved and made more friendly.  MediaCenter has been out for a long time now.  I felt like I was jumping through flaming hoops to finally get this done.

What needs changing - It took me less than 1 minute to create this:-

[Jamil]

What needs changing - I took me less than 1 minute to create this:-

That is an easier way to source from playlists.  Thanks for sharing that.

However, there is an issue with what you setup that I know from older versions of MediaCenter.  For large libraries, many prefer newly added tracks to have a higher chance of being selected.  Your configuration won't do this at all.  There is a way to have MediaCenter increase the chances of newly added tracks being selected.

[EnglishTiger]

One way of Only Selecting Tracks Recently Imported would be to add in a "Date Imported" Rule.

[Jamil]

One way of Only Selecting Tracks Recently Imported would be to add in a "Date Imported" Rule.

There's an easier way.  This leads into my issue with this smart list editor screen regarding usability.

Logically, if you combine conditions you increase chances:

Code: [Select]

([Last Played]>=3w or [Number Plays]=0)
The statement above increases the chances of never before played content to 50%.

This is a simple fix.  The problem is the User Interface design to actually add the parenthesis.  You must click the edge of the screen to have a parenthesis show.  If you click again, it changes to a square bracket.  Click more, and it changes to other combinations of these symbols.  It's sort of like hieroglyphics. Lol.

Seriously, the reason I create m3u8 playlists is that I dread using the smartlist editor.

[marko]

That is an easier way to source from playlists.  Thanks for sharing that.

That's basically what I showed you way back in reply #5.

[Jamil]

That's basically what I showed you way back in reply #5.

I see this now, but I didn't when you originally posted it.  Your screenshot did not convey that the source to pull content from was a playlist.

EnglishTiger's screenshot was more clear in what this did.

[Jamil]

Thanks for your help guys.  This is now solved with nothing additional to add.

[Jamil]

While playing content in MC28 now, I am seeing a problem related to playback.  MC v28.0.88.

For reasons unknown, the software is mixing up Ne-Yo with N'Dea Davenport.  When a track from Ne-Yo's album gets played, Media Center is showing N'Dea Davenport as the artist.

It's also scrobbling this incorrectly to last.fm.  The song title and artist is all wrong.  The track playing and CD cover is correct  The smartlist is somehow causing this issue.  the .m3u8 file is perfect.

[Jamil]

It looks like cause of this issue is that the playlist import feature is broken.  The website won't allow me to add this attachment, so here is is linked to my dropbox:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/m9drb7r006fapym/mc28_broken_playlist_import.png

[JimH]

Check the tags.

[Jamil]

The tags for all Ne-Yo releases I have in library are correct.  The non-alpha characters in the artist's name appears to be triggering a bug during import.

[Jamil]

I got this fixed this morning:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/fp60ue9hfenq5vu/mc28_ne-yo_fixed.png

I am currently converting all .APE files to .FLAC.  The .APE files shown in my screenshot above are pending conversion.  All I had to do was use EZ CD Audio Converter to convert all Ne-Yo .APE files to .FLAC.  The correct tags are all embedded in the files, and the conversion preserves all tags.  After doing this, I deleted the files from my NAS to copy the new .FLAC files.  I simply re-imported, and this issue is resolved.

How it happened I cannot explain, but it's finally fixed.