Getting .m3u playlists to show?

[jim234567]

New to Rockbox on my Sansa Clip+ (lovin' it already) 



However I'm wondering what is the easiest way to get your playlists to show up under the "Playlists" option on the Main Menu (under View Catalog)?

I loaded several .m3u lists onto my player (made with Winamp), but in order to get them to show up there, I have to first load (play) the .m3u from the file browser, then do a re-save of the list on the player itself (which requires re-entering a name for it too). Finally I have to then move the saved .m3u8 file from the player's root into the actual Playlist folder because it's not saving there by default and I don't see a way to change the save location.

Seems I must be doing something wrong...  Is there a way to have the player automatically see playlists in the folder with my mp3 files and show them under Playlists like the OF does?

(forgive me if this is in the manual... I tried looking in there for it but I didn't see anything in the Working with Playlists section, and the rest of the manual is a bit daunting due to it's size lol)

TIA

[Chronon]

The playlist catalog is a particular directory (/Playlists).  You are free to store playlists anywhere you like and simply launch them with the file browser.  If you want a playlist to appear in the catalog then simply save it to the /Playlists directory.  You can also cut and paste them to that directory from within Rockbox but it's probably easiest to simply put them there when you save them to your player.

[jim234567]

I tried putting a list directly into there, but all it did was cause the player to not play anything when I tried to load it, and I had to reboot it.
Apparently Rockbox uses a different format for playlists within that directory than what Winamp (and RB's file browser) uses
(/<microSD1>/MUSIC/artist/album/filemame.mp3 vs. MUSIC\artist\album\filename.mp3).

So there's no way to have RB automatically find the playlists in the music files folder and automatically catalog them under playlists in the menu when initializing the database?  

[Chronon]

Because the microSD card is mounted to /<microSD1>, the path in an m3u playlist must contain this string or Rockbox won't be able to find it.  Rockbox will accept forward slashes or back slashes as delimiters (unix style or DOS style, respectively).

The playlist catalog is simply the set of playlists at /Playlists.  Rockbox doesn't do any scanning to find playlists in other locations.

[jim234567]

Seems like this would be a useful thing to add (the Sansa OF already does it by default).

It's a multi-step process to get each of those lists into there (that has to be repeated any time I make updates to a list too).

Alright, thanks for the reply.

You wouldn't know why it doesn't save the list into /Playlists when I re-save it on the player, would you? (it saves it to the root instead for some reason)

[bluebrother]

So there's no way to have RB automatically find the playlists in the music files folder and automatically catalog them under playlists in the menu when initializing the database? 

Those are two completely different things. The Database has nothing to do with Playlists. The Playlists entry in the menu simply lists all playlist files that are stored in the /Playlists folders. No Database involved at all. The Database doesn't handle playlists.

[pondlife]

Barmy idea - maybe the Playlist Catalog should cover all storage - i.e. with a database-like scan?  If you have dircache enabled, the file tree has probably been parsed anyway... and that's one less "special directory".

This could be a third browser (i.e. file/database/playlists) and seperated from the file browser completely.  (Saving/renaming/deleting a playlist file would need to keep synced - again dircache-like.)

pondlife

[jim234567]

It would definitely save a multitude of extra steps.

No info on how to get the player to save the lists into the actual Playlist folder instead of onto the player's root?

[bluebrother]

Enter the path of the file you want to use?

[jim234567]

I have to enter "/Playlists/(name of list)" on the little virtual keyboard?

When I save presets or themes or anything else it seems, they automatically go into their proper respective folders... Why are playlists different?



I'll just continue reconnecting it to my computer afterward to move them there rather than fumble with the player itself trying to enter all that in.

Thanks for the answer.


Edit:
I see it now, it does not put "/Playlists/(name).m3u8" like it does "/fmpresets/(name).fmr" for example.  Bug?

[Chronon]

You might wish to use the Playlist Catalog options in the context menu if you want the playlist to end up in the catalog.  For example, you can use "Add to New Playlist" to insert a single track, a directory or an existing playlist into a new playlist and the default path will be /Playlists/.

[jim234567]

You might wish to use the Playlist Catalog options in the context menu if you want the playlist to end up in the catalog.  For example, you can use "Add to New Playlist" to insert a single track, a directory or an existing playlist into a new playlist and the default path will be /Playlists/.

Thanks, that actually does make it default to the /Playlists folder (I was doing it from "Playlists" on the main menu), though I'm not having much luck getting more than just the single track that's playing to go into the new list. How would I get it to save the entire "dynamic" list that's currently loaded to a new file using that menu?

[Chronon]

I believe that saving the current dynamic playlist can only be done via the menu entry you are referring to.  As you say, it doesn't default to the /Playlists directory.  If someone wants to change the default to /Playlists I wouldn't have any objection to that.  Maybe the default save location could be specified in config.cfg like the playlist catalog can.