Rockbox Development > Feature Ideas

Settings to handle media with longer durations

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questions2000:
NOTE:
The two replies below about "Sleep Timer" could make this request no longer relevant?

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This might be too specific of an issue, but had a suggestion to share.

By default, when a file is played in a folder, a playlist gets generated of all the items within that folder (which makes sense).  The current file plays all the way through and then goes to the next item in the folder, or user hits the "next track" button (right arrow) to do this manually.

ISSUE
However, lets say you have a folder that contains files that all have longer durations (say 1-3 hours for each file).
In this case, user might not want to automatically play the next file in the folder.
Various scenarios, user may walk away from device, forget it is still playing, not know device is still playing, fall asleep, etc.
All causing the device to continue playing longer files one after the other, eventually draining the devices battery.

Depending on the method user uses to access files (folder/filenames or ID3 tags), only way to avoid this is for user to have to create separate folders for each file or do a similar approach with ID3 tags, so that playlists are not generated.  To me this is not a convenient solution.

DESIRED OUTCOME
I still think the generating of the playlist of the folder is desired even in these cases because it would still allow user to be able to manually hit "next track" button (right arrow) to play the next long file.
To me it would be about some way of having the device automatically "stop/pause" at the end of these files with longer durations.
This would then allow user to manually hit "next track" button to go to next item in folder, instead of automatically playing next long duration track, which is the current default.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION
Would probably get added in the "Playback Settings" section.
-A setting that would allow user to set a duration "threshold" (in minutes) of what they consider to be a "long duration" file.
Once this "threshold" is set, any items that have a longer duration then its value, would be programmed to automatically pause at the end of playing.
(I personally would only be using this for audio so this does not matter to me, but for users who use audio & video files, if this does get added, may want to have two separate settings for this, one for audio files and one for video files)

Hopefully someone might consider this to be worth adding either one of these solutions, or a better one is anyone can think of better ways to solve this?

Thank you to anyone who reads this.

bahus:
I use the Sleep Timer (Settings -> General Settings ->Startup/Shutdown) set to 40 minutes, with Start Sleep Timer On Boot and Restart Sleep Timer On Keypress enabled. This way, if I fall asleep, it's easy to find the last position within a 40-minute range. And when I'm actively listening, I usually press some buttons within that time frame, which resets the timer.

eugenkss:

--- Quote from: bahus on May 08, 2025, 11:01:44 AM ---I use the Sleep Timer (Settings -> General Settings ->Startup/Shutdown) set to 40 minutes, with Start Sleep Timer On Boot and Restart Sleep Timer On Keypress enabled. This way, if I fall asleep, it's easy to find the last position within a 40-minute range. And when I'm actively listening, I usually press some buttons within that time frame, which resets the timer.

--- End quote ---
Same here. I use it with a 10-minute sleep-timer.

questions2000:
@bahus & @eugenkss

Thank you guys for reading my post and for these replies.
I remember seeing that RB had a "Sleep Timer" but basically overlooked it because I was thinking of it more like other devices where it has to be set manually, so was not interested at the time.
I was not aware of these other two sleep timer settings you guys mentioned, these settings make something like a sleep timer so much more versatile, wow!
Again completely overlooked this, thank you guys so much for pointing this out.
Also thank you again to all developers, Rockbox has so much great stuff offered, some really great ideas.

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