2012-11-19, 02:07
So, I'm building a random episode selection playlist for my daughter, pulling from her three favourite shows: Dora the Explorer, Bubble Guppies, and My Little Pony.
The problem is that we've got 5 seasons of Dora, one season of BG, and 3 of MLP. If I just make a random playlist from all three, most episodes are Dora.
My attempted solution: Build 3 smart playlists, one for each show, grabbing 10 random episodes. These smart playlists work properly, each with 10 random episodes. A fourth playlist then grabs 30 random episodes, using those three playlists as a source. This should (to my understanding of how the logic works) make playlist consisting of 30 episodes, 10 of each show. It doesn't. I still end up with playlists that are predominately Dora the Explorer.
To test this, I reduced the RandomDora playlist to a limit of 5, and the aggregator playlist to a limit of 25.
Viewing the RandomDora playlist directly shows 5 random Dora episodes. The aggregator playlist shows 25 episodes.... and more that 5 of them are Dora the Explorer.
What am I doing wrong? I'm so sick of Dora
The problem is that we've got 5 seasons of Dora, one season of BG, and 3 of MLP. If I just make a random playlist from all three, most episodes are Dora.
My attempted solution: Build 3 smart playlists, one for each show, grabbing 10 random episodes. These smart playlists work properly, each with 10 random episodes. A fourth playlist then grabs 30 random episodes, using those three playlists as a source. This should (to my understanding of how the logic works) make playlist consisting of 30 episodes, 10 of each show. It doesn't. I still end up with playlists that are predominately Dora the Explorer.
To test this, I reduced the RandomDora playlist to a limit of 5, and the aggregator playlist to a limit of 25.
Viewing the RandomDora playlist directly shows 5 random Dora episodes. The aggregator playlist shows 25 episodes.... and more that 5 of them are Dora the Explorer.
What am I doing wrong? I'm so sick of Dora
Code:
RandomDoras:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="episodes">
<name>RandomDoras</name>
<match>all</match>
<rule field="tvshow" operator="is">Dora the Explorer</rule>
<limit>5</limit>
<order direction="ascending">random</order>
</smartplaylist>
RandomGuppies:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="episodes">
<name>RandomGuppies</name>
<match>all</match>
<rule field="tvshow" operator="is">Bubble Guppies</rule>
<limit>10</limit>
<order direction="ascending">random</order>
</smartplaylist>
RandomPonies:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="episodes">
<name>RandomPonies</name>
<match>all</match>
<rule field="tvshow" operator="is">My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic</rule>
<limit>10</limit>
<order direction="ascending">random</order>
</smartplaylist>
Aggregator Playlist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="episodes">
<name>Random Rachel Shows</name>
<match>one</match>
<rule field="playlist" operator="is">RandomGuppies</rule>
<rule field="playlist" operator="is">RandomDoras</rule>
<rule field="playlist" operator="is">RandomPonies</rule>
<limit>25</limit>
<order direction="ascending">random</order>
</smartplaylist>