Podcasts and Audiobooks

[ygaddy]

I am brand-new to Rockbox (and already love it!), but was very surprised when it treated my audiobooks and podcasts like any other music tracks.

I have done some reading on other posts (such as http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,23404.0.html and those linked within that discussion), and do not see where the following has previously been suggested.  Llorean (a fellow Texan -- yeehaw!) said that "Rockbox can't magically "know" which settings to load for which files," but I think there might be a way...

Within my Sansa Fuze v2's original firmware, if a track has the genre Audiobook or Podcast it is synced to the relevant folder and given special treatment, i.e. automatically bookmarked, cross-fade turned off, etc.  It seems that Rockbox could automatically apply similar .cfg defaults based on those special genres as well, to avoid having to change .cfg when you switch from music to one of those. 

I realize I'm new here and the discussion has probably been had and I just didn't find it...but if not, maybe a new feature idea?
Post Merge: April 06, 2011, 01:16:26 AMWell, I have done some more snorkeling and found another relevant discussion on this topic here: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,25667.0.html

I apologize if my original post came across at all as unappreciative or condemning of y'all developers -- y'all have done a great piece of work, and do a fine job of balancing features with functionality!

I do not have experience developing this type of system or working at the hardware level.  But from my software background, it seems as if there should be a non-.cfg-level solution available.  At its simplest we're talking about changing a handful of settings (cross-fading, bookmarking, shuffling, maybe EQ) when files of a certain type (specifically podcast and audiobook) are played.  It seems that something like a macro should be able to change those -- basically automating what you would otherwise do manually before listening to those files.

I agree that the path of the previous conversations -- as extensive as implementing .cfg files recursively throughout the folder hierarchy -- was too much.  If Podcasts and Audiobooks were treated as separate from the database itself, or at least as unique options (filters? views?) within the database (again, I'm coming from the Sansa Fuze original firmware paradigm), then these macros (or whatever) would run only when you launched from the podcast or audiobook view, and not worry about it if someone puts audiobook files in the middle of a shuffled playlist with music.

But that may be where my understanding breaks down -- maybe there's no such thing as a macro and those settings can't be changed without going the .cfg route.  Thanks y'all for listening.

[Chronon]

Rockbox doesn't have macros per se.  The closest thing would be the Lua viewer, which allows certain Lua scripts to be run.  However, I'm not sure what benefit running a script has over loading a config file in this case (where it seems like you just wish to change settings).

[ygaddy]

Can Lua scripts be run automatically, say, when launching media from a given playlist or folder?  I'm really just looking for it to change those settings automatically, given certain conditions, rather than having to do the extra clicks myself.

Oh, the extent of laziness that technology has taught us...

[Chronon]

No.  Plugins and files supported by viewers must be launched manually.  If you have an idea for a new feature feel free to post in the Feature Ideas forum.

[Yotto]

I don't know anything about LUA scripting, but is it possible to do it the other way around? Have a script that loads a config, then a playlist?

[Chronon]

Why not just keep the .cfg in the playlist directory and load it before launching the playlist?