True random playback?

[supervisor]

Hi! I love Rockbox and am fully satisfied with it, but what would make it perfect for me is if I could find a setting that would let me play back playlists in a true random order, similar to the foobar2000 definition.

Random mode picks tracks randomly, without special measures to prevent track repetitions other than a simple check to prevent the same track from playing twice in a row.

So, if I have tracks A, B, C, D & E in my playlist, a possible list of songs I would hear would go like C, A, D, A, E, B, D, C etc. In other words, if I hear a song in a five-song playlist, I would like there to be the possibility to hear the song again before the other four have been played.

Is it possible in the current build somewhere or am I asking for too much?

Thanks in advance!

[torne]

No, we only have two kinds of random playback: shuffle with or without reshuffling on repeat. Both will play each track exactly once each time around the playlist.

[soap]

Duh!  http://download.rockbox.org/daily/manual/rockbox-ipodvideo/rockbox-buildch11.html#x14-30600011.4.13

Put ALL your tracks in individual folders for each and every single track, and turn on random folder advance. 

EDIT:  Hmm, all joking aside, I'm not sure this will work.  I thought the list of possible folders was checked every time playback reached the end of the current folder, but reading the manual it sounds as if the next folder is predetermined by the plugin???

[williamskg6]

I would like to add my vote to a request for a random playback mode (as opposed to a shuffled playlist).  This has been covered before, but here's my scenario:

My family is Rockboxing out in the car on a playlist of the kids' songs.  The songs should play in random order, which is possible with the Shuffle option, but invariably one of the kids will ask for a specific song.  In a list of potentially thousands of songs, it's very very difficult to find a particular song in a shuffled list.  So, instead of a shuffled playlist, the playlist stays sorted (making it easier to find the song that was requested), but the playback mode is random.

This is how I run every music player and mp3 playing software.  Specifically, on my computer I use Foobar2000, and have grown accustomed to its random playback.  I would greatly love to see a random playback feature added to Rockbox.  Please!  You don't need to remove the shuffle - just add a random playback mode.  Pretty please!

Being able to group songs by album or artist in playlist view would be fantastic too, but that may be too many requests for one posting...

[Llorean]

If you use the shuffle playback mode instead of shuffling the playlist in advance, you can simple turn it off to see the files in your playlist in-order. This is already possible.

[williamskg6]

Yes, I know you can turn off shuffle, see your list in order, then turn it back on but that's just too much of a pain for lazy people like me and not user friendly.

I'm not asking for a way to turn off shuffle and then pick a song.  I'm asking for a way to have music randomly played while simultaneously leaving your playlist in useful (sorted) form without having to change settings on the player.  A Random Playback mode would do this just perfectly without extra steps.

[Llorean]

You didn't mention that you only want it because you're too lazy for the few button presses it takes to turn shuffle off and back on. In your described use case, you made it sound like you weren't able to view the playlist in-order after shuffle, so I was simply telling you that it's actually possible.

Shuffle can be quickly toggled via the quick screen, so it's really not terribly difficult to turn off and on.

If you know of existing features, you shouldn't say things like

The songs should play in random order, which is possible with the Shuffle option, but invariably one of the kids will ask for a specific song.  In a list of potentially thousands of songs, it's very very difficult to find a particular song in a shuffled list.  So, instead of a shuffled playlist, the playlist stays sorted (making it easier to find the song that was requested), but the playback mode is random.

that suggest that you believe you're stuck using the shuffled list.

It is always best to present the true problem you want solved, in this case "I feel it takes too many button presses to see a sorted list when I've been listening shuffled" rather than what you presented it as, "I can't find a song easily in a shuffled list." People will attempt to help you by solving the problem you present. New features should solve problems, so you should always present the real problem being solved when trying to explain how valuable it is. In this case, for example, there was already a way to unshuffle the list, so it wasn't a very strong reason, at all, for "random playback" considering the possible added costs and complications of an additional playback mode, especially when it just seemed like a user not reading the manual.

Honestly though, unless someone like you who actually wants this creates a patch that does this in a very minimally impacting manner, I wouldn't hold my hopes. As I said, turning shuffle on and off is pretty trivial, while playback can have enough problems as it is without introducing further complication. There's also a strong negative reaction to "feature bloat" and this being a nearly redundant feature (duplicating almost entirely the functionality of another feature) would fall in that category for many.

Your best bet is to take an interest in the project, and start working on a patch (or working on learning to program, then coding a patch) to show clearly that it can be done in a way with minimal negative impact on everything else.

[williamskg6]

No need to get hostile

[Llorean]

There's not a single hostile word in there. Try not to imagine added tone, you'll just get yourself upset over nothing.

Regardless of how you imagine it "sounds", what I actually said is nothing but sound advice - describe clearly why you think a feature is important, don't use examples that seem solvable with existing features, and if you really want something work on it as that's the best way.

[evilnick]

If you want a way to play a specific song from a playlist that's being played at random, then that song has to exist on the player.
Therefore, the same effect can be achieved by playing the playlist on shuffle, then if one of the kids wants a specific song then that can be navigated to (in the file browser) and Queued to be played next within the shuffled playlist.

[Llorean]

I'd imagine that's probably going to run into the "too many button presses" problem that turning off shuffle does, in many cases. Though, in others (or with a well organized player) it'd actually be far more efficient, button press wise, than even a random playback through a sorted list would.

[JdGordon]

true random playback has been something brought up a few times, bassically noone has put the effort into doing it. I don't think it would be overly complicated to add (alongside shuffle, not as a replacement) so it just means someone needs to provide a patch.

there would be a problem with m3u playlists being random-ed (as apposed to shuffled) but i dont tihnk that would kil any chance of a patch being accepted.

williamskg6: for your scenario, the best way would be to just go into the file/database browser and use the playlist context menu to insert next (assuming you know where the file is in either of those browsers)

[matthew1]

I agree with the original post.  Right now once a song plays, I know I will not hear it again for a long time.  This is sad.  I'd like every song to get an equal chance of playing every time.  I wouldn't mind if the same song plays twice in a row, but that would be rare.  Is there a technical reason Rockbox can't do this?  The original Fuze firmware did it.  If I go back a track and then skip, I would get a different song.  My stock android player also works this way.  It's important.  I might go back to the fuze firmware for this reason.

One way to implement this; is to shuffle after every song.  If someone wants only a shuffled playlist then they can turn shuffle off or have a "shuffle once" option.

Hi! I love Rockbox and am fully satisfied with it, but what would make it perfect for me is if I could find a setting that would let me play back playlists in a true random order, similar to the foobar2000 definition.

Random mode picks tracks randomly, without special measures to prevent track repetitions other than a simple check to prevent the same track from playing twice in a row.

So, if I have tracks A, B, C, D & E in my playlist, a possible list of songs I would hear would go like C, A, D, A, E, B, D, C etc. In other words, if I hear a song in a five-song playlist, I would like there to be the possibility to hear the song again before the other four have been played.

Is it possible in the current build somewhere or am I asking for too much?

Thanks in advance!

[saratoga]

 Is there a technical reason Rockbox can't do this?  The original Fuze firmware did it.  I

Take a look at the post immediately above yours.

[chrisjj]

For anyone else directed here by Googling for shuffle problems...

If you use the shuffle playback mode instead of shuffling the playlist in advance, you can simple turn it off to see the files in your playlist in-order. This is already possible.

It sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't. https://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/13102