Smart Playlists

[Sam Bald]

So, I'm trying to make a playlist of the contents of a directory and have the playlist update whenever I add or delete files from the folder. Can Rockbox do this? I figured it would be easy by making an M3U playlist with Notepad and just adding a line like this:

\MUSIC\Acoustic

Wikipedia told me I could do that with an M3U playlist, but I tried opening a playlist like that with Rockbox and all it did was give me an error: 1. (ERR) Acoustic

So, is this possible with an M3U or another method?

[Yotto]

You may be able to do what you want to do with dynamic playlists.

Just play one of the files from the directory and it'll automatically make a playlist of all the files in the directory. If you have bookmarks turned on (and make a bookmark), the next time you load that bookmark it'll re-generate the dynamic playlist. I use this for podcasts (where I'm adding and deleting files daily) and it's worked for years.

I also use m3u playlists. I generate my m3u playlists with my PC and have a script that easily regenerates the playlist whenever I copy files to my Rockbox. I *think* your problem is that you're not making a list of the mp3 files in the directory and are instead just putting the directory there. You have to explicitly list each file.

For example, if in your \MUSIC\Acoustic directory, you have 3 files (1.mp3, 2.mp3, and 3.mp3) you must list them as so in your m3u file:

\MUSIC\Acoustic\1.mp3
\MUSIC\Acoustic\2.mp3
\MUSIC\Acoustic\3.mp3

[Sam Bald]

Bookmark? I thought that was only for saving your place in a song. I don't see anything in the manual about bookmarking a directory. How does that work?

I was reading the other day that you can put a directory in an M3U file and it plays the directory. Check out the M3U article on Wikipedia, or Google it. What's so nice about that is that you can put multiple directories in the file, and that way you can have an automatically updating playlist of lots of different folders.

[Yotto]

A bookmark saves your place in a song AND a playlist (or directory if it's a dynamic playlist). See section 8.6 of the manual. First paragraph:

Bookmarks allow you to save your current position within a track so that you can return
to it at a later time. Bookmarks are saved on a per directory basis or for individual
(saved) playlists.

I don't see anything in the Wikipedia article on M3U on putting a directory in an m3u file. It would be nice, but would make things like shuffle troublesome (You have to search every directory in the m3u and create a virtual playlist to shuffle). In any case, I know for a fact that it doesn't work in Rockbox because I tried it

Really, though, it's super simple to create a playlist. In linux, I just "find . -name *.mp3 > playlist.m3u" and in dos (it's been a while but I think) you can "dir /b *.mp3 > playlist.m3u" and do the same thing. Just make that part of your routine (or add it to the script that copies the files) and you're all set.

Or, like I said above, simply utilize the dynamic playlist feature. So long as all the files are in the same directory it's as simple as just playing a file and then bookmarking it when you're done. Next time you play it (the bookmark), Rockbox will create a fresh playlist of all the files in that directory.

*EDIT*

I just realized that you don't need bookmarks to do what you want. Or playlists. All you need to do is play one of the files from that directory and Rockbox will make the playlist for you based on the files in that directory. If you never save a bookmark, it'll still work.

I still think bookmarks make it easier though, as then you can just go into the list of bookmarks and play one. I almost never play files (or playlists) any more and instead play one of a half dozen or so bookmarks, one for each playlist I commonly use.

[Sam Bald]

I don't see anything in the Wikipedia article on M3U on putting a directory in an m3u file. It would be nice, but would make things like shuffle troublesome (You have to search every directory in the m3u and create a virtual playlist to shuffle). In any case, I know for a fact that it doesn't work in Rockbox because I tried it

Oh, it's there. It's the second example under the "Example" section. I don't understand what you mean with shuffling. The playlist would just combine all the folders into one list, wouldn't it? But yeah, looks like this doesn't work with Rockbox because we both tried it and, obviously, it didn't work. And I checked out one of the links in the Wikipedia article, and it said, "Support for M3U features varies wildly. iTunes, for example, will only render the first entry in an M3U file." So I guess Rockbox just doesn't support that particular feature of M3U files.

So long as all the files are in the same directory it's as simple as just playing a file and then bookmarking it when you're done. Next time you play it (the bookmark), Rockbox will create a fresh playlist of all the files in that directory.

OK, but what if you eventually delete the song that you bookmarked? Such as podcasts where, like you mentioned, you add and delete files daily. Wouldn't the bookmark disappear?

I just realized that you don't need bookmarks to do what you want. Or playlists. All you need to do is play one of the files from that directory and Rockbox will make the playlist for you based on the files in that directory.

Yeah, I had a bit of a "stupid moment" earlier today when I realized the same thing. And that would work great for me most of the time too, but it would be really nice to have a playlist of more than one folder. I know there are ways to do this, but I want one that's as simple and automatic as possible. Although I do like your idea of the DOS thing; I didn't know you could do that.

[torne]

And I checked out one of the links in the Wikipedia article, and it said, "Support for M3U features varies wildly. iTunes, for example, will only render the first entry in an M3U file." So I guess Rockbox just doesn't support that particular feature of M3U files.

M3U is not any kind of actual standard, it's just Winamp's playlist format; many players have ripped it off and reimplemented it, with more or less features, at various points in time. There's not really a checklist of what to support.

[Yotto]

I don't see anything in the Wikipedia article on M3U on putting a directory in an m3u file.

Oh, it's there. It's the second example under the "Example" section.

Wow. It is. I swear it wasn't there yesterday. I read the entire article twice. I was kind of tired, though

I don't understand what you mean with shuffling. The playlist would just combine all the folders into one list, wouldn't it?

Lets say your m3u file has multiple directories in it. Each has a different number of files. You load the playlist and say "shuffle". How does Rockbox choose which song to play?

But what if you eventually delete the song that you bookmarked? Such as podcasts where, like you mentioned, you add and delete files daily. Wouldn't the bookmark disappear?

This never happens to me (Well, unless I accidentally delete the file) becasue I only delete a file after I've listened to it, and so the bookmark I'm loading is always for a file that exists. In the rare cases where this did happen, the bookmark still exists, but won't load. It doesn't hurt, it just doesn't work.

I do like your idea of the DOS thing; I didn't know you could do that.

Yeah, m3u files are simply text file lists of other files. Any way of creating this list is viable, including a simple DIR command.