Rockbox iPod 6G-Dynamic playlist delete issue in any build after 422aa56-210205

[fallen2109]

I have updated yesterday to the latest overnight build of Rockbox for iPod 6G. What was my surprise when I discovered that the previous feature - deleting the dynamic playlist is not working anymore. Short explanation - dynamic playlist is the one that is currently being played by the iPod. In the build 210205 and earlier if you pause (via the Play/Pause button) the playback and then go and select new tracks - the current dynamic playlist is deleted completely and the tracks added are forming a new (dynamic) playlist.
Any build after 210205 is NOT SUPPORTING this. In fact I DO NOT KNOW how to delete the dynamic playlist in any of these builds.

Is this a bug or a new feature ?

If it is new feature - how can one delete the dynamic playlist in the iPod 6G Rockbox builds after 210205 ?

[chris_s]

I don't have an iPod 6G but I can't reproduce this on other iPods using the latest build.

Unless you're talking about stopped (not paused) playback and you mean inserting songs using the context menu? I.e. this behavior which has recently changed to apply only to playlists that have finished playing (otherwise, tracks will be added):

If playback is stopped, the Insert and Queue functions can be used as described in 4.4.3 to create a new playlist instead of adding to an existing one. This will erase any dynamic playlist.

[fallen2109]

I don't have an iPod 6G but I can't reproduce this on other iPods using the latest build.

Unless you're talking about stopped (not paused) playback and you mean inserting songs using the context menu? I.e. this behavior which has recently changed to apply only to playlists that have finished playing (otherwise, tracks will be added):

If playback is stopped, the Insert and Queue functions can be used as described in 4.4.3 to create a new playlist instead of adding to an existing one. This will erase any dynamic playlist.

Well there is no STOP button on iPod 6G. I can only PAUSE the palyback. At this point (with PAUSED Dynamic Playlist) if I go and add more tracks - I am supposed to be building a completely new Dynamic Playlist. This is how any Rockbox build before 210205 behaves.
On any newer build - I only add new tracks to the current Dynamic Playlist.

Let me maybe re-phrase my question - How can I delete the Dynamic Playlist in Rockbox builds after 210205 ? Is there a new procedure ?


OK - I think I understood the difference between PAUSE and STOP. Short press of Play/Pause button brings you to PAUSE and the player stays in the Playback screen. Long press of Play/Pause puts the player in STOP mode and you are presented with the MENU Screen. I also see a small white square on the bottom of the screen (the symbol of STOP). This testing is done on 210205. I will put now a newer build and test if this behavior is consistent in the latest build too.

[chris_s]

1) Selecting a new track from the File Browser or Database Browser will erase the current dynamic playlist (possibly after a warning), even in the current build. To quote from the manual:

Whenever a song is selected from the File Browser with Select or Next, Rockbox will automatically create a playlist containing all of the songs in that directory and start playback with the selected song.

Note: If you already have created a dynamic playlist, playing a new song will erase the current dynamic playlist and create a new one.

2) During playback, or when playback is paused, you can alternatively use "Play Next" to replace all but the currently playing track with new tracks. (The meaning of that function is actually closer to "Clear List & Play Next"). -> Adding music to playlists

3) It sounds like you're using the "Insert" function though, whose behavior was indeed changed in cases where playback is stopped. The manual describes the previous behavior as such:

Add track(s) immediately after any tracks added via the most recent Insert operation. If no tracks have yet been added via an Insert, new tracks will be added immediately after the current playing track. If playback is stopped a new dynamic playlist will get created with the selected tracks.

That last sentence is not up-to-date anymore. For it to reflect the new behavior, it needs to be changed to:

"If a dynamic playlist has finished playing, it will be replaced by the selected tracks.

Meaning, if a dynamic playlist hasn't finished playing (i.e., it is still possible to resume it by pressing Play), using the "Insert" function will indeed not erase it anymore. This is to prevent a user from losing their half-listened-to dynamic playlist without warning if they understandably expected the "Insert" function to work the same regardless of player state.

I can see the need for the previous behavior though when you specifically intended to create a new empty list using a few tracks selected from a larger list. My future improvement idea would be to actually allow the "Play Next" function to fill that role even when playback is stopped. "Play Next" would then be used consistently whenever you want to replace all existing tracks in the dynamic playlist (except for the currently playing track, if there exists one). Is that something you'd agree with, or would that not cover your use case?

[fallen2109]

Hi cris_s

I do not fully understand your explanation, To clarify how I usually operate my iPod. My music collection is organized the following way:
 Performer name\YYYY-Album name\XX-Track name.mp3. In the above template YYYY is a four digit year
while XX is a double digit track sequence number.

What I want to do:

1) Say I am listening to all the albums of Performer A
2) At certain point in time I decide to switch to listening to all (or one) album(s) of Performer B

In the past builds -  to achieve this I was:

1) Long-press of Play/Pausde button - until my player shows me the "Menu" screen
2) Browse till the name of the directory that I want to play - either Performer B or an underlying YYYY-Album name
3) Long-press "Select" button
4) From the newly-opened screen "Context Menu" select "Current Playlist"
5) From the newly-opened screen "Current Playlist" select "Insert"

The result of the above operation is that I always replace the current Dynamic Playlist (of Performer A) completely.

By the way after the above operation - I am not always getting the prompt

"Erase dynamic playlist?

SELECT = Yes
Any Other =  No"

May be I do not understand the meanining of the term "Dynamic Playlist" 

Any way - how can I achieve the above operation in the latest build consistently ? Do you have a link for me to the latest manual ?

Thank you for all you efforts and patience.

[chris_s]

If you want to listen to a single album only, you can simply enter the directory for the album and press Select on the first track (which will also add the rest of the tracks in that directory).

The other scenario (listening to all albums of a performer) is admittedly something that isn't (well) handled anymore due to the recent change, unless playback is paused (not stopped), in which case you can select "Play Next" instead of "Insert" in the context menu. I will propose in the developers' chat to either revert the change for the time being, or to make "Play Next" also available in the context menu when playback is stopped (the code would need a few adjustments for that to work though) which would also achieve what you want.

The manual isn't updated yet because the change still needs to be reviewd, sorry about that. The chat is open to everyone if you want to chime in: https://www.rockbox.org/irc/

As for the prompt: It only appears when you've modified the playlist in some way. The information about whether a playlist has been modified currently unfortunately isn't saved across restarts of your device. So, the warning may not not always appear when you would want/expect it to.

[fallen2109]

Hi cris_s,

thanks for your reply. Well I found a sort of workaround. Works like this:

1) While playing - press MENU and go to the directory I want to play (either one album ort collection of albums)
2) Long-press SELECT
3) From the Context Menu screen select "Current Playlist"
4) In the Current Playlist screen select "Play Next"
5) Confirm the "Erase dynamic....?" question by pressing SELECT

That is even easier for me (I do not have to stop the playback).
Stay safe !

[chris_s]

Glad to hear it. You too!

[Frankenpod]

Hey, chris_s

I notice on the patches list you've fixed the filetype colors bug?  If that's the bug I'm thinking of, thanks, because its been, er, 'bugging' me, for a long time.  Not sure from the description if it's the same bug, but it sounds like it.  What I'm thinking of is when a theme has a colours file that changes the text colours you get when file browsing, but then you can't reset those colours back to default again, so the text becomes unreadable when you use a theme with a different background colour from the one you started with.  (Hard to check if it the bug's still there because it only comes up when applying themes that meddle with those colours in the first place.)

[chris_s]

Hey – I've responded directly in your thread on this: https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,52930.msg247934.html#msg247934