Playlist loading issue/question

[ravital]

Hello,

First, this is iPod Video 5.5, Rockbox v.3.13, all audio are flac files.

In my previous version (3.9 and earlier), I used to navigate from Main->Playlists, press Select on a playlist, the player would display "Loading" in a reverse-video box and load the playlist. Then I would go back to Main->Now Playing, and the first track would be playing or ready for me to play.

With the current, v3.13:
* Main->Playlists Catalog->Select a playlist, it only opens the playlist to show me its content. Select the first item, go back to Main, there is no "Now Playing" -- there is a "Resume Playback" and when I select it I get "Nothing to resume" and the player goes back to the main menu.

This is NOT as it should be according to the manual.

* It seems like the only reliable way to load a playlist and play it is from Main->Files-> navigate to the directory were the tracks are stored, select the a track, then go back to main, which THEN will snow "Now Playing" and select that.

* If I follow Main->Files->Playlists, select a playlist, then select a track, the player goes back to the Now Playing screen, and shows me it's on the last track, with the time track showing "0:00/0:00" as if the track had a length of 0-seconds. I press the << key repeatedly, it won't go back to previous tracks. Again, nothing like what is described in the manual.

Is this normal? My apologies, if this is documented somewhere, I haven't found it.

* What I'm looking for is a shorter reliable way (if there is one) to load one playlist and one only, for the player to follow and play.


Also, is the manual not updated to reflect functionality in newer stable releases? The front page of the PDF manual reads today's date -- Oct. 27, 2015, and I downloaded it just a few hours ago, so I don't know if that's the true date the manual was released or if somehow the Rockbox site stamps the date of download on the manual's front page.

Thanks in advance.

[Frankenpod]

I don't have that problem with video 5.5 and latest dev version of Rockbox (or any previous version).  It works the way you say it used to work for you.  I'm not using flacs but don't see that should make any difference.

How did you get the playlists onto the ipod?  Maybe they are messed up or in the wrong format?

(I can't remember if its necessary to build the database for playlists to work or not)

[ravital]

Thanks for the reply.

The playlist is just a file with the extension .m3u and contains only a list of the tracks with absolute path from the iPod's root. I also make sure there are no special or foreign characters in the folder/file names.

Here's an example of a few lines in a playlist: name: "Erroll Garner-Concert by the Sea.m3u"

/Erroll Garner/Concert by the Sea/02-Night And Day.flac
/Erroll Garner/Concert by the Sea/03-Spring Is Here.flac
/Erroll Garner/Concert by the Sea/04-Ill Remember April.flac

So from the iPod's root, there's a folder named "Erroll Garner" and one below it named "Concert by the Sea" where the tracks are stored. The playlist is stored in the /Playlists folder off the root, and shows up in the iPod's Playlist Catalog.

To get it on the iPod:

The iPod is not recognized by either Windows7 or Linux when booted into the Rockbox firmware. I suspect this is because I'm using the "Tarkan modification" where the HDD is replace with a flash card on an adapter.

Rockbox works fine with that modification, but to get tracks or anything else on it, I reboot it into the Apple OS and just do a straight copy from my computer to the iPod - I don't use iTunes, I don't play anything via the Apple OS.

I really would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks in advance

[saratoga]

If it skips a track it means it couldn't load it. Assuming the files aren't corrupt, double check that the m3u paths are correct.

[ravital]

Well, I'm going to sound like a liar, but tonight it's behaving as it should (I think):

Main->Playlist catalog->select a playlist->select any track-> and it begins to play, and in Now Playing I can skip back and forth to previous/next track.

Honestly, it was previously behaving as I described in the OP.

Thank you both in any case.

[Frankenpod]

Well, I'm going to sound like a liar, but tonight it's behaving as it should (I think):

Main->Playlist catalog->select a playlist->select any track-> and it begins to play, and in Now Playing I can skip back and forth to previous/next track.

Honestly, it was previously behaving as I described in the OP.

Thank you both in any case.

Heh, I don't think you'd have any reason to lie about something like that!
Did you reboot in the meantime?  Maybe that was all it needed?

[ravital]

Thanks, Frankenpod,

By "lying" I meant I might have been inaccurate in my description earlier.

Anyway, I found a new behavior -- Some playlists load just fine, as described in the manual, and some exhibit the problem I described earlier.

I'm on a Linux (Kubuntu) system, the playlist is written by EasyTag, which should not be a problem. I order my tracks under one directory for each album. So rather than experiment to find the best way to let EasyTag write the paths in the playlist correctly, I just let it use the absolute path and edit the playlist in UltraEdit (text editor) to remove the /home/user/ and so on so that the directory is at the root, where Rockbox expects to find it.

I don't know that this step is what's causing the problem, but rather than spend an eternity trying to troubleshoot this, the solution is simple. I don't ask much of my playlists, just that they play the tracks in the order they appear in the album. So at this point, if a playlist misbehaves and shows the same problem as before on the iPod, I simply delete it, go to the album's directory under "Files" and select "Playlist Catalog" then "Add to new playlist" and let Robckbox write the plalyst however it wants. Easy enough to tell them apart, since Rockbox writes them as .m3u8 and I (EasyTag) write them as .m3u. That's more than good enough for me.

Thanks for the input, everyone, Cheers