Three feature ideas from a new user

[Bice]

Hi all - I'm fairly new to RockBox; downloaded it last weekend and installed it on an iPod Video 80 gb, and so far I'm loving it.  Many thanks to the folks who dedicate their time and skill to writing and maintaining it.  Especially the retroTape theme - that thing is awesome.

So, after obsessively reading the manuals and playing with RockBox for the last week, I've figured out how to get it to do pretty much everything I want it to do...with three small exceptions:

1. It would be really nice if the Playlist menu had a feature (or if there was a plugin) that would generate a random playlist of a specified length (either number of songs or total time) from all the audio files on the MP3 player (or from a specified directory and subdirectories).  I know it can currently generate a playlist of every file on the player which can then be shuffled, but with 80 gb of music that can take a while.  It would be great to have something that generates a random list of a limited size.

2. This one seems like it should be easy - I'm surprised it's not in there already.  When looking at the list of Artists or Albums or Songs in the database, it'd be great if it showed the total number of whatever you're looking at.  I was trying to figure out how many CDs I had ripped to the player and couldn't find that info anywhere.

3. It'd be nice if the While Playing Screen could display how much time is left in the current playlist.  I saw a suggestion somewhere that was similar to this - someone wanted song lengths displayed in the playlist.  The answer was that it would be too much processing because every file would have to be opened to determine its length.  I guess the same applies to determining the total remaining length of the playlist.  Maybe a plugin could do this, so the user would have to kick the process off instead of it being automatic?

I apologize if these things have been suggested before - I skimmed through the Feature Ideas forum, but it's hard to find time to read all 27 pages of it to see if I duplicated anything.

If anything suggested above is already possible with the current RockBox, please fill me in.  I'd love to know how to do them.

  -- Bob

[Yotto]

1. It would be really nice if the Playlist menu had a feature (or if there was a plugin) that would generate a random playlist of a specified length (either number of songs or total time) from all the audio files on the MP3 player (or from a specified directory and subdirectories).  I know it can currently generate a playlist of every file on the player which can then be shuffled, but with 80 gb of music that can take a while.  It would be great to have something that generates a random list of a limited size.

Granted, I don't have 80 GB of music (I "only" have about 15GB) but when I shuffle a full playlist it takes less than a second.
That said, I don't think it'd be that hard to do this with a plugin (though I'm not a programmer), at least for the "number of songs" one. As you acknowledge below, you'd have to open up all (or at least the ones you're inserting into the playlist) the songs to see how long they are, which would increase the difficulty - and time - it would take to make a playlist of a certain time. Likely, it would take longer to do that than just shuffle all songs.
But really, how long does it take to shuffle a complete playlist?

3. It'd be nice if the While Playing Screen could display how much time is left in the current playlist.  I saw a suggestion somewhere that was similar to this - someone wanted song lengths displayed in the playlist.  The answer was that it would be too much processing because every file would have to be opened to determine its length.  I guess the same applies to determining the total remaining length of the playlist.  Maybe a plugin could do this, so the user would have to kick the process off instead of it being automatic?

Putting it in a plugin wouldn't make it less processor/disk/time/battery intensive. "Total time" is just as difficult as "Time for each track" as - as you suspect - you'd have to open every single file and check the time. And then you'd have to somehow communicate that number to the WPS.

[Bice]

Granted, I don't have 80 GB of music (I "only" have about 15GB) but when I shuffle a full playlist it takes less than a second.

I have about 10 gb loaded so far, and using the completely unscientific "thousand-1-thousand-2..." timing method, it takes around 20 seconds for RockBox to generate a playlist of everything on my iPod.  I'm assuming that as I add more music, that will take longer and longer.

I guess one way I could get around this would be to generate a full, shuffled playlist and then pull it back to my PC and break it up into smaller playlists of 20-30 songs using notepad.  That would give me the effect I'm looking for, but with some manual effort.

But really, how long does it take to shuffle a complete playlist?

The actual shuffling once the playlist has been built seems almost instantaneous.

Putting it in a plugin wouldn't make it less processor/disk/time/battery intensive. "Total time" is just as difficult as "Time for each track" as - as you suspect - you'd have to open every single file and check the time. And then you'd have to somehow communicate that number to the WPS.

The argument against putting song length in the playlists was that it would have to be "calculated" every time a playlist is opened.  I'm saying don't automatically show the "time remaining in playlist" on the WPS screen, make it something that the user would have to kick off so they know what they're getting into with the processing and disc access time.

Anyway, I should stress that the benefits of using RockBox far outweigh the few minor features I wish it had.  I'm really enjoying it, especially the ability to play FLAC files (of which I have tons).

  -- Bob

[Llorean]

How do you create your playlist? I "insert shuffled" about 2000 songs from the filetree pretty regularly and it takes less than 3 seconds to do.

[Yotto]

I have about 10 gb loaded so far, and using the completely unscientific "thousand-1-thousand-2..." timing method, it takes around 20 seconds for RockBox to generate a playlist of everything on my iPod.  I'm assuming that as I add more music, that will take longer and longer.

Aha. I thought you were shuffling an already created playlist. I never actually create playlists on my Rockbox player.

One of the great benefits, to me, of using Rockbox is that the files on my mp3 player and the files on my computer are identical in structure. So I can create the playlists on the computer and then copy them to my player, and not bother with creating any playlists on the player. As I change my library on the computer, scripts recreate my playlists for me with no further fuss.

I guess one way I could get around this would be to generate a full, shuffled playlist and then pull it back to my PC and break it up into smaller playlists of 20-30 songs using notepad.  That would give me the effect I'm looking for, but with some manual effort.

Personally, I would just create a playlist of all songs, save it, and every time you load it just shuffle it, or save a bookmark while playing and then when you load the bookmark you'll still be inside the shuffled playlist, and the next songs you hear will be random.

Actually, did I say that's what I WOULD do? It's actually what I DO do.

[torne]

I have about 10 gb loaded so far, and using the completely unscientific "thousand-1-thousand-2..." timing method, it takes around 20 seconds for RockBox to generate a playlist of everything on my iPod.  I'm assuming that as I add more music, that will take longer and longer.

Do you have the directory cache enabled? If not, that would explain why it takes that long.

[AlexP]

Dircache will make it hugely faster.

[Bice]

Dircache will make it hugely faster.

It did indeed - down from around 20 seconds to around 2 seconds.

I'd still like to see a "random playlist of a specified number of songs" feature, but with the help I've gotten here, I can live without it.

The big ones were the # of items in the Artist and Album lists in the Database, and the amount of time left in the playlist.  The former seems like it would be an easy thing to do, and it'd be really useful for obsessive types like me.  The latter would be very helpful towards the end of the work day when I'm trying to figure out if I have enough time left to finish listening to a playlist.  The CD player that this iPod is replacing had a feature that showed the total time remaining on the disc, and I used that all the time.

On the plus side, I went for a 3+ hour bike ride today and had rockbox play a random playlist from all my MP3s.  It was awesome.  Made the ride much more enjoyable.

  -- Bob