Shuffle All via database w/o playlist

[Walrus]

I'm running a modded 240GB iPod, with everything encoded in Vorbis...as such, there's a LOT of music on it, way more than the 30,000 track playlist limit. 

The only thing I miss about the original iPod firmware from years ago is the "Play all tracks" feature.  I know I could list the tracks in the DB and click one, but then it tries to cue up 40,000+ tracks, which sorta defeats the purpose of "I just need some random shit to be played right now." Also, there's a lot of music I've never heard on there (benefits of a roommate who works at a college radio station), and it just seems like a

I know this might not be possible, so my other suggestion that would provide a similar functionality by having an option to queue 50 or 100 random tracks in a playlist.  Just a thought...Its the only feature in the native firmware I actually liked.

[JdGordon]

if you are playing music, you have a playlist. If you want to only play a handful of tracks from the playlist, it still has to build it. so no, this can't be done

Also, there's a lot of music I've never heard on there (benefits of a roommate who works at a college radio station), and it just seems like a

finishing sentences is a

[[Saint]]

Hi,


As JDGordon said, whether or not you're playing one track or a thousand there will always be a playlist.

However, this reply is regarding:

Also, there's a lot of music I've never heard on there

One possible solution for this that springs to mind would be to use the Database feature:

"History../Play History - Never Played Tracks"

This creates a playlist of tracks with a playcount of 0.
Personally, I find this feature quite usefull.

There is also "Forgotten Favourites",  I'm not 100% sure of the factors governing how this playlist is built but it's fairly self explanatory, basically it's tracks you used to play a lot, but haven't in a while.
Also "Recent Favourites" and "New Favourites" (also fairly self explanatory...)
I find these features usefull also.

However,

These Database features rely on it's ability to gather sufficient runtime data to build the playlists, so:

"Settings/General Settings/Database/Gather Runtime Data"

Needs to be set to "Yes" for this to work.*

But even if Gather Runtime Data is on, if you are someone that is constantly changing the music on their DAP these features won't really work for you as I'm fairly confident that the Playcounts for each track are reset every time the Database is rebuilt.**

I hope that (if you were not aware of this already) you find this information usefull.



Sincerely,
[St.]


*(correct me if I'm wrong please anyone...)
**(again, correct me if I'm wrong please anyone...)

[Walrus]

ha, sorry for the incomplete thought...i was on here at work and probably doing about 5 things at once. 


Yes, 'technically' it's a playlist but I don't want to have to build one.  Also, I don't want it to manually load 40,000+ files into a playlist, since that would take quite some time, and thus defeat the purpose, which is to cure overloaded music listeners of indecision.

As I use the file browser rather than the database to play files, even if I compiled a new database, everything in it would be "never played tracks" so it wouldn't really change much.

It's okay if this isn't possible, I just thought I'd suggest it...the "play all tracks" menu option is really the only part of the native iPod firmware that Apple got right.  Given that the artist/album/etc sections of the DB have 'random' options on the menu, a kind of "generate random playlist" option of 50 or 100 tracks wouldn't be too out of place. 

[JdGordon]

no technically abiout it... rockbox cant play music without building a playlist.

[Chronon]

Given that the artist/album/etc sections of the DB have 'random' options on the menu, a kind of "generate random playlist" option of 50 or 100 tracks wouldn't be too out of place. 

Given that you are building a particular playlist, you need to decide exactly how to build this playlist of 50 -- 100 entries.

You could, of course, also insert the root playlist shuffled into a new playlist to get a freshly shuffled list of all tracks.

[[Saint]]

As I use the file browser rather than the database to play files, even if I compiled a new database, everything in it would be "never played tracks" so it wouldn't really change much.

Solution to this seems kinda obvious to me, but maybe you have some particular aversion to the database?

However...

I believe using the database is the best option for you (especially if, as you said, there's a lot of music on your DAP that you've never even heard or hear rarely) if for no other reason than for it's ability to generate playlists of never played tracks/forgotten, recent and new favourites/and (if you get creative with tagnavi_custom) any sorting order you so choose to sort it by.

You could get it to display a "top 50/100 tracks" with only a minor amount of pissing-around, none if you know what you're doing.

This would stop the, queuing >40,000 tracks thing.

The file browser has it's uses....sure.

But I personally find the Database *incomparably* more useful than the file browser for the aspects I've explained above, the fact that it can be personalised to suit almost ANY sorting order is a HUGE bonus over the file browser in my opinion.

It performs the same functions as the file browser and a whole lot more, and can (I'm fairly sure) do what it is you're asking...



Sincerely,
[St.]

[ClevelandTony]

Would be cool to have an option like this>

SHUFFLE > 50  random tracks
                > 100 random tracks
                > 250 random tracks

My previous 2 players had that option as well as
PLAY > 30 min of random music
         > 60 minutes
         > 2 hours

Certainly nothing I NEED as I am totally content with my playlisting options.

[Walrus]

That's pretty much exactly what I was suggesting in lieu of a "shuffle all" option for the entire database.