Preview mode for listening

[bzavala]

This is something I would love to have in Rockbox.

Sometimes when I have added a new album but don't have too much time, I only want to listen some 30 secs or so of each song so I skip to the next one.. so kinda like listening to the whole album (well, mostly intros only of each song) in only a couple of mins. I would give me an idea of whether I will like the album or not before listening to it all.

So I was wondering if Rockbox could have a Preview Mode for listening.... something like:

You'd go to Settings -> General Settings -> Playback Settings, and select a new entry called Preview Mode.

Once you go in there, there would be these options

- Preview Mode: On/Off
- Intro Time: 20 secs (can be defaulted to whatever, but the user can change the # of secs)
- whatever other setting we can think of

Everything else should work the same way (shuffle, crossfade, etc).

Hope someone else finds this useful...

Thanks in advance!


Ben   

[robin0800]

Personally I would do this on the computer, then if I didn't like it I would not copy it to the player.

[saanaito]

Personally I would do this on the computer, then if I didn't like it I would not copy it to the player.

I share my computer, so for me (and perhaps the OP) that is not an option. This would be a very useful feature for me, because I often leech music (not illegally, mind you) and load up my Sansa with it. Problem is, my Sansa is frequently full (with a grand total of 4 GB capacity), so I must get rid of stuff I don't like to make room for more new music.

A preview feature would make the task less tedious.

[karashata]

Not that I would likely use it (I tend to preview my music on my computer), but I do think this would be a nice feature to include.  Some of the DAPs original firmwares have this feature already and it would make Rockbox a little more fully featured and comparable to the OFs.  (Now, I know the goal of Rockbox isn't to copy everything the OFs can do for the various DAPs, but you have to agree there is a use for a feature like that...)

[Llorean]

Wouldn't it make more sense to delete the songs as you listen to them?

I mean, I see it going like this:

If you preview every 20 seconds, you'll listen to a few dozen songs, then later not remember which songs you didn't like because you're not certain of the order, or which one exactly you're remembering.

If you leave it on manual control, each time a song you dislike comes up, you can delete it instantly from within Rockbox, then skip to the next.

It seems to me there's no practical benefit of the preview mode: We all have fingers, and if the goal is to remove unwanted songs it's not going to help much, if at all.

[jswetzen]

I could see this as a plugin instead of a setting, though. My idea is that you would start playback and then enter a plugin that will skip every 20 seconds or so. If you dislike a song, there could be an option to delete the currently playing song. There would be no need to set a preview setting or to manually delete each song you dislike, and stopping the review is as easy as exiting the plugin.

[bzavala]

Well, we're not talking about deleting the songs with this feature. I just want to have an idea of what the album will be like in a short time.

I will still listen to each song fully (and the whole album for a couple of times) before I decide to delete the songs from the DAP...

Yes, I have fingers and I can manually skip to the next song everytime, but if Rockbox can do it automatically, that would be great.   

Edit: Oh yeah.. and I like previewing the album in the DAP, not in the computer.. that's why I thought about this feature. I believe I once used a plugin like this for winamp...

[saanaito]

Yes, I have fingers and I can manually skip to the next song everytime, but if Rockbox can do it automatically, that would be great.

Again, I agree. Sometimes I listen to new music while doing yardwork/ chores, or while riding my bike. My fingers are occupied then.

[(:@)]

Here is a plugin (mostly copy & paste), if you know how to compile. Maybe it's buggy, since I don't use it myself.

[GodEater]

Why isn't it on the patch tracker ?!?

Patches DO NOT BELONG in the forums!

[oayz]

Plug-in would be great. I suggest instead of phisically detele unwanted files just generate and save new playlist. Some simple single button method to mark files for "deletion" would be nice.

[(:@)]

Why isn't it on the patch tracker ?!?

Patches DO NOT BELONG in the forums!

It's not a patch. It's source file and I've once read that patches put on the patch tracker means that the submitter wants it to be included into rockbox. Playing a song for the set time is a feature I do not want.

Some simple single button method to mark files for "deletion" would be nice.

True and it's already implemented in one of my plugins

[Llorean]

It's a source file to be compiled against Rockbox modifying the functionality of the program by providing another plugin. I'd call that a "patch" even if it's not in GNU diff format.

We really don't need people creating unsupported builds off of source files scattered throughout our forums, with people asking us to add support for patches here as well.

If you write a patch that you think people will want committed (yourself or others) put it in the tracker. If you don't want a patch to be considered for commit at all, don't bother distributing it, because people will ask us eventually. Especially don't distribute it via other "official" channels such as the forums or wiki.

[(:@)]

The apostrophe says it all...
And I don't want to comment the rest. It just makes no sense to me and it's off topic.

[oayz]

Some simple single button method to mark files for "deletion" would be nice.

True and it's already implemented in one of my plugins

Are you hiding treasures from us? :-) Please be kind and post a link to compiled plugin.

Is there a plays for plugins not included to official distribution?