Noob Question

[sledjunk]

Sorry if this has been asked before.  I did a search on the forum and couldn't find anything.

My music folders are arranged Artist\Album Name\{disc number if multiple discs}\song.

I would like to load my entire contents and play them back in a random album order.  In other words, once an album is selected, the entire album is played (or even just the disc), and then the play would shuffle to the next album and play it in its entirety.

I would like to start this and then let it play continuously.  My player is typically inside my coat while snowmobiling so I can't get to it after each album to restart.

Is this possible and if so, how do I do it?

Thanks in advance.

[Lear]

Sorry if this has been asked before.  I did a search on the forum and couldn't find anything.

What about the manual?

I would like to load my entire contents and play them back in a random album order.  In other words, once an album is selected, the entire album is played (or even just the disc), and then the play would shuffle to the next album and play it in its entirety.

Auto-Change Directory should do the trick. I don't use it myself though...

[sledjunk]

Yeah, Tried the manual before the forum.

The Autochange Directory doesn't do the trick either. 

I tried adding multiple albums, one at a time, from the database, but they shuffle the songs.  (shuffle is turned off)

Any other suggestions?  Thanks

[gevaerts]

The Autochange Directory doesn't do the trick either. 

It does, but you also need to run the random folder advance plugin to configure it. The manual has the details for that.

[sledjunk]

Thanks.  I'll try that and report back.   
Post Merge: August 15, 2012, 10:32:12 PMOK, I have found the plugin and tried it.

I generated the folder list and tried to "Play Shuffled".  This returned numerous "Error accessing directory" errors until I stopped the process by pressing the power button.

Then I generated the folder list again.  Each time I generate the list, it reports a different number of folders.  I saved the list to a file and edited it to remove the artist folders.  Imported the edited file and still had the same errors.

My folder names have spaces in them (e.g. AC DC, The Beatles, etc).  Could this be causing my problems?  Can I enclose the folder names in quotes?

Thanks

[gevaerts]

That sounds like filesystem corruption. Check the filesystem first.

[sledjunk]

chkdsk reports no errors and files play OK.

Post Merge: August 16, 2012, 10:58:56 AMOK, I got a bit further.

I have removed the uSD card and loaded some music onto the unit itself.

loaded a playlist with one folder only

Loaded the plugin and Generated the Folder List.

Exported the folder list to a text file (for my toubleshooting benefit)

Tried to generate a random playlist.

Still received the same "error accessing directory"  messages as previously, until I pressed the power button to stop.

Went to the WPS and skipped forward through until the first folder was finished and it did indeed skip to another random folder!!!

I am now reloading the uSD card after formatting and will try an expanded test with music on both the unit and uSD.

BTW, I am running the (almost) current daily release (well yesterday's).


Post Merge: August 16, 2012, 01:57:48 PMI now have it working, I think.

After loading one folder to the playlist, I generated the folder list and then tried to generate the shuffled folder playlist.  I got the error messages again, but after stopping the process, the player is working as desired.  In other words, it plays an entire folder, then randomly changes to another folder.

It looks like the creation of the playlist is not necessary.