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Author Topic: Random playback from active playlist problem.  (Read 4607 times)

Piotr_1

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Random playback from active playlist problem.
« on: April 21, 2017, 04:48:41 am »

Dear People. I am testing this JRiver player and I like it except one feature that is driving me mad. Sometimes I like to play a random song from the playlist, and in Foobar i had the 'random PLAY button' - the one witch question mark on it.

Here I have to press the 'shuffle button' on the right side, but it's not working, I have to select 'shuffle on' from the spreading list, though I did not press the right mouse button. The option should be turning on afrer single left click and the menu should be opening after right click.

I am using simple remote cotrol so this is real pain to activate this again. Third thing is I am turning it off and it's not turning off, until I will stop playback by stop button and play button again. Otherwise is still shuffle. Why is this? This is really too much for me, and with my remote this is real disaster.

Can you please add 'random play button' and fix this things to work simple without clicking 10 things?
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blgentry

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2017, 06:15:11 am »

I don't have time for a full reply right now.  But here's a little info:  The shuffle button doesn't do what you think it does.  Ignore it for now.  Instead, any time you want to random play a playlist, just start playing it.  Then do "reshuffle", which will randomize the Playing Now queue.  This will do what you want.

Player > Playing Now > Reshuffle

Or just press Control - R .

You might want to read up on Playing Now and so some experimentation with it.  Playing Now is very very powerful and allows you compete control over playback.

Good luck!

Brian.
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Piotr_1

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2017, 09:03:38 am »

It's missing logics for me. I've got plenty of options that are named 'shuffle' but they do different things? So I've got:
-shuffle
-shuffle on
-shuffle off
-reshuffle
-play?

So let's say I've got my list of the files containting 1000 albums in my active playlist window.
I am sitting on my sofa with multimedia remote having basic playback keys, like play, stop, next, previous, arrows, mouse buttons.
I don't have a "shuffle on" and "shuffle off" button on my remote, or CTRL and R buttons. It is not a popular button!

I want to play album after album, song after song, but suddenly I want to play a random file from the playlist, like a lottery. Random, random, random, then I find some album that suits me and want to come back to standard "next and previous" mode.

So in Foobar I could leave mouse cursor over 'random play' button and press left mouse button on my remote to make random file play on demand.
In Winamp I could leave mouse cursor over 'toggle on/off playlist shuffling' button. And it was doing on and off, on and off.

In JRiver I can't do such things from my remote, because shuffling requires complicated actions and sofa stand ups. And still I don't understand functionalities that I've described in the first post :(
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Piotr_1

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2017, 09:14:11 am »

An 'shuffle off' is not working for sure. I have to stop playback by stop button, then 'shuffle off' is activating. While playback - no way.
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blgentry

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2017, 06:50:24 pm »

If you want to learn about MC, I'm here to help.  If you want to argue that I'm wrong and you don't like JRiver MC I can't help you.

JRiver MC is a fantastic and amazing media manager and player. It probably doesn't work like the players you are used to.  If you're willing to work with the differences you might really like it.  If not, you probably should just go use your other players and be happy with the behaviors you are used to.

Good luck to you.

Brian.
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Piotr_1

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2017, 09:48:07 pm »

I like the sound quality so I wanted to buy it, but I'm a shuffle user much. This is not arguing. Please explain me.
Imagine, I'm in shuffle playback mode.
I am meeting song I like and I want to switch to shuffle off, but without stopping the song.
I just want to finish listening to song I am listening, like a normal person, and then to continue within the same playlist zone in Shuffle Off mode.
Can I do this or no?
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ferday

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2017, 10:25:55 pm »

i understand that English is not your first language, but please explain better what the expected results are.

when you turn shuffle OFF, what do you think will happen?
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Piotr_1

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2017, 03:46:32 am »

No, English is not my first language, I am Polish.
When I am pressing 'shuffle off' and some track is playing, I would expect, that when the track is reaching the end, the next track will be taken from normal list order (not shuffled). The same, when the track being played is not finished yet and I am pressing the NEXT button. Now this is not working like this. I have to press STOP button, otherwise it will stay in shuffling mode.
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ferday

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2017, 03:53:49 am »

there is no "shuffle mode".  when you press shuffle, it re-orders the now playing list (which is literally a static list).  so there is no "normal" state to return to after turning shuffle off.  when you push stop and play again, it makes a "new" now playing list (which usually starts from the top)


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Piotr_1

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2017, 04:23:07 am »

There IS normal state to return to. It's the state equal to the state you've just described telling what STOP makes with playing now. Maybe you don't use this shuffle much, so you can't feel the difference, but in my previous players this was natural behavior that I can abandon shuffle while playback.
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blgentry

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2017, 05:05:14 pm »

I'm not familiar with foobar, so I can't really speak to how it works.  I know how MC works pretty well though.  MC is a queue based player.  This means that there is a list called Playing Now.  This is where everything plays from.  This is different than a lot of other players.

For example, when you "play a playlist" you aren't actually playing from the list itself.  Instead, when you press play, the playlist is COPIED to Playing Now and it is played back from there.  If you use Reshuffle as I have suggested, it randomizes the Playing Now list, which is where you hear everything from.  You can see Playing Now by clicking on it in the left hand Navigation area.

The shuffle button that you have talked about several times makes the COPY to Playing Now *also* randomize it as it's being copied over.  When you turn that OFF, it does NOT undo the shuffle (randomize).  It just disables this "copy with random" feature.  The Playing Now queue remains in the order that it was in before.

...and this is the part where I'm not sure I can give you what you want, because MC does not have an "unshuffle" feature, that returns Playing Now to a state before it was shuffled (randomized).  The best I can come up with is to suggest this:

Don't use the Shuffle button.
Instead use Reshuffle.
When you hear a song that you like and you want to continue listening to the whole album, do this:
1.  Go to Playing Now and click on the column header for ALBUM.  This will sort by album.
2.  Now make this sorting "permanent" in Playing Now by choosing Player > Playing Now > Update order.

Then Playing Now will be sorted by album and continue to play your song and then the next song in that album, in order.

I'm sorry that MC doesn't seem to have the exact same feature set as Foobar.  I've given you the best advice that I know how.  Maybe someone else has something else clever to suggest.

I further understand that you are using a "simple remote control" and don't want to use menu items.  Sorry about that; I don't know any simple ways of accessing the features and functions that I've described.

Good luck Mr. Piotr.  :)

Brian.
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Piotr_1

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2017, 04:49:36 am »

Thank you :) Yes, I've seen how this 'playing now' is functionig and had similar ideas with sorting by albums or folders.
Anyway, my tracks order before shuffling was not incidental and sometimes I want it back.
I haven't discovered 'playing now' list's advantages for me yet. Except you can see 'what was played' history, and what will be played next. The phrase 'playing now' means to me what is playing at the moment. At the moment, only one song plays, and the list is not playing at the moment. The program may have some virtual list for its own use. My imagination about the functioning of the player is simpler. As I have seen in the players so far. From the sofa I can not see what's on the screen and I can not shuffle, copy, sort. Some music servers will be having small screens too. I like the visual side and the covers. I did not know all the possibilities of your player yet, maybe there is much more interesting. You have to see how this 'random play' button working in Foobar. It was working cool, it's function was exactly: Play the next song that will be drawn from the list and do not shuffle anything. Leave everything as it is. So it's working was very simple and doing job for me.
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Piotr_1

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Re: Random playback from active playlist problem.
« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2017, 05:08:30 am »

here it is
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