Can the interface be changed to play 20 track list, one track- then stop?

[rwburbage]

Hopefully I posted in the correct forum.  I tried a search for play once then stop.  Didn't find much.

Do any of the Sansa products - or any other player - support playing a single track at a time from a list of tracks in random or shuffle mode?
I need to be able to create 2 albums or track lists.
I need to have the player play a single track at a time from an album of tracks in random order.
The random mode also needs to randomly repeat the same tracks in the list of 20.  I don't want it to shuffle the list and only play all 20 once.
Then to be able to push >>| to play the next track and then stop.
Hopefully that made sense?  Can sansa or anyone-group-software support adding these custom play modes to any mp3 players?
Thanks very much for any help!
Rich

[GodEater]

There's a patch floating around which does this - but it's not ready for inclusion in the core of Rockbox yet - so downloaded builds don't have this feature.

If you want it, you'll have to download the code, patch it, and compile your own.

[Chronon]

Just to clarify, Rockbox's features are available, as far as possible, on all supported players.  If this patch (for pause between tracks) were to be accepted into the SVN builds then it would be available on any player running such a build of Rockbox.  Some of your other requirements won't be addressed by that patch.

The random mode also needs to randomly repeat the same tracks in the list of 20.  I don't want it to shuffle the list and only play all 20 once.

Rockbox's shuffle doesn't work this way.  http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/ShuffleExplained

I need to be able to create 2 albums or track lists.

Rockbox only deals with one playlist at a time.  You can modify the structure of this playlist on-the-fly (including queuing) if you like, load a new one, etc., but you can't simultaneously work from two separate lists.  You can create as many playlists as you like but Rockbox will only work from one of them at a time.

I haven't really looked into this, but it seems like you (or someone) might be able to write a plugin to do what you want using a Lua script.

[rwburbage]

Wow!  Thanks for the info and direction.  The link about the shuffle possibly leads to another question.  If they player is in play once then stop mode plus shuffle and the stop instruction followed after the play once, wouldn't the random seed be regenerated.  So instead of next track hit play again.  Is there a way to control the random seed through software to base it on the previous random set to repeat some of those tracks sooner than later?  Or maybe in the playlist add multiple copies of the tracks to simulate this. 

Although I have seen players start in random mode and seem to create the same seed each time.  The player would shuffle in the same order.  I'm not sure if power off or stop mode would change this seed or not.

I didn't make the question clear about the 2 sets of tracks.  The player doesn't need to play off 2 different sets of tracks at once.  Only one at a time.  Then after I have played enough of track set 1.  I select the next set of 20 tracks.  Play once then stop in shuffle with repeat.

Would the Sandisk 2GB Sansa E250 work with this version of RB?

Are there any PC based player software that do this to test with?

Thanks again! Rich

[Falco98]

If they player is in play once then stop mode plus shuffle and the stop instruction followed after the play once, wouldn't the random seed be regenerated.  So instead of next track hit play again.  Is there a way to control the random seed through software to base it on the previous random set to repeat some of those tracks sooner than later?  Or maybe in the playlist add multiple copies of the tracks to simulate this. 

Hoping I understand your question correctly...
Rockbox doesn't "reseed" a random playlist between stops; it shuffles the playlist once, and then plays through until all tracks have been played (and repeats if repeat mode is enabled), but that's it.  It doesn't matter if the player is stopped during the set, it will resume where it left off.

I think that maybe what you're trying to do, if you'll be doing it all manually, can be accomplished by playing a few songs (like 5 or 10), and then having Rockbox do a "Reshuffle" on its going playlist.  Whenever you do a Reshuffle, the currently-playing song is moved to position 1, and all other songs (including ones played already and ones not played already) are shuffled together and re-added to the playlist following the current song.  If you do this 2 or 3 times during the 20 tracks you're trying to compile you would be likely to have some repeats, and it seems this is what you desire.

[rwburbage]

Ok, more good info.  I'm playing with media monkey and testing the random, stop, play.  It plays as you noted.  If you start and stop and start again playlistA in shuffle it uses the same random list but start playing at the beginning of the track.  If I change playlistB and hit play- stop - come back to playlistA, it starts in a new random order.  Anyway to force the software to do this?

The idea of a patch to at least test with play once then stop .... is a start.  Can you point to HowTo compling this in the build.   I have a sansa e250.

I can smell a solution...

[yapper]

These should get you started:
http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/VMwareDevelopmentPlatform
http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/WorkingWithPatches

[rwburbage]

Ok thanks!  Anyone know where the patch is that allows play once then stop.  Between the patch and adding multiple copies of the same tracks lets say 10 times I might get the results I need.  Thanks for the help!

[GodEater]

http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/9114

[rwburbage]

ok, I've made some progress.  At my speed that is.  I've read as much as possible and have everything loaded correctly and I'm having problems getting that patch to work.  It seems like this feature http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/9114 was tested on a previous build.   I'm not having any luck trying to use the patch command.  I dropped the .diff file in the rockbox directory.  i used the dry run switch. the patch command outputs a message:

can't find file to patch at input line 5
perhaps you should have used the -p or --strip option?
the text leading up to this was:
---------------------------------
diff --git a/apps/SOURCES b/apps/SOURCES
index 313e5e0..cbf0487 100644
--- a/apps/SOURCES
+++ b/apps/SOURCES
------------------------------------

File to patch:

It just asked me to terminate a batch job...  no idea... i was following the steps from how_toCompile
*************************************************************

ok the -p switch worked for the patch command...continuing
I started with the patch in the .rockbox dir and patched from there.
$ patch -p 1 < pause_between_tracks_latest.diff
I noticed that there was a leading /a/ folder in all the file pointers.
the patch command message led to the solution. !nice work on that!

***********************************************************

compiling took forever on my 3200+ 20-25mins. need an upgrade...

then followed the rest of the HowToCompile instructions

No errors besides hunk this and that moved lines, etc.

First, I tried it in the simulator. I could not get it to work.  I dumped the contents of the compiled zip on the sim .rockbox directory but did not see pause between tracks show up in the playback menu. ?? I thought I read some notes about only certain directories are used in the sim?? not sure what I read.

***********************************************************

I was like - what, did it compile the patch or not? Just to try it out, I took a shot at it on the e250 player, I connected and dumped in the .rockbox on the player and disconnected cable - boots to sansa firmware - poweroff - poweron - booted rockbox 24315m - main menu - selected settings - playback settings - and there it was!- pause between tracks.  selected yes. tested tracks and it works.  each track stops at the end, hit play to play the next - shuffle still works, etc.!

The only problem i'm seeing is at the end of the track is shows stopped but starts to play the first 1/4 of a sec of the next track.  I went through the settings and tried to find anything that might buffer up the next tune or have a fix for that. I didnt find anything that would change it.  I guess a quick workaround is to add a blank 1/4 sec before each track.  All of the tracks I'm using have the leading silience trimmed off so the tracks starts immediatly with no silence.
******************************************************

Ok, that worked. I used Audacity and I added a second of silence to the beginning and the end of each track.  exported to mp3 again. Made 4 copies of all the tracks in the album. It does what I need. Project complete!

Thanks a super bunch for the work and responses.  where do i paypal some cash to show my gratitude!!!

Rich
*******************************************************************
Here is the complied project for the sansa e250 v2.
http://yourprojectman.com/Documents/rockbox%20Track%20pause.zip

[GodEater]

Thanks a super bunch for the work and responses.  where do i paypal some cash to show my gratitude!!!

Look up at the top of this page, on the left hand side.

We have a little paypal donate button there

[rwburbage]

Yep! I found it last week. Done!

Thanks again for the project!

Rich

Here is the complied project for the sansa e250 v2.
http://yourprojectman.com/Documents/rockbox%20Track%20pause.zip