[jjd-uk]

If not any trouble, is there a commit I could point someone to at https://github.com/MrMC/mrmc/commits/master

[edit]

This one maybe? https://github.com/MrMC/mrmc/commit/56d4...619322bc46

[MrMC]

nah, that one removes the useless GUI overlay when debug is enabled. Gets in the way and can cause playback effects that mask real issues.

https://github.com/MrMC/mrmc/commit/3596...ee1a800aa2

That's some. Can't find the others. It was on so long ago

[DaveBlake]

Yes, this bug has been languishing in trac for 15 months. As music is my thing I am probably the dev most likely to look at this, but not feeling hopeful after what Montellese says on Trac.

Some pointers would always be welcome, dig that memory MrMC.

[MrMC]

those are easy to find in kodi code base, search for the debug log message, nuke it, done

[DaveBlake]

I just want to convince myself that removing the logging is really going to make enough of an improvement.

The real issue is the speed taken by the combination of auto play next and the songs node. It is not about just playing a single song, but what happens when you want to play all of them. There are those that would see this as a reason to remove the songs node.

Or is it all a mistake? When looking at so many songs does the user really want to auto play next all of them? Should there be a max count to auto play?

[jjd-uk]

From what I see reported the normal use is to use Songs node to play everything back in your library, most people seem to do this in combination with shuffle for random playback. Why do this? one reason I think is it can act as a rediscovery playback mode that grows in usefulness the larger your collection, as during the random playback you may hear a long forgotten track or something you haven't listened to in a long while.

[jznine]

Isn't that what Party Mode is for? That's pretty much the main audio option I use to randomly explore my collection.

[Ned Scott]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I always use "songs" view (for any given music program) whenever I don't have a strong preference on what I want to listen to. I only save songs I want to listen to, so it's not so much about rediscovery. I already know what's there, I just want to play all of it. The only exception to this was when I used to have sound effects loaded in iTunes years ago, until the day I realized there was no point in having them in iTunes. Then I had no reason to use any filtered view unless I wanted a specific artist or album. For everything else, there's playlists.

As long as I remember to exclude that sound effects folder. Nothing is more jarring than listening to a shuffle of songs, and then suddenly "Dogs attacking children" plays.

[DaveBlake]

All ways of using Kodi are good, Ned. But not sure what the uses are for a "Dogs attacking children" sound effect, and I don't think I want to know

More uses for the songs node (and reasons not to remove it) are discussed here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=264647

All the problems that the songs node may have, especially on larger libraries, equally apply to large smart playlists. IMO songs node viewing of every song makes sense even if there are lots and it is slow. What I have doubts about is if there really is a user desire to play more than a certain number. Do people really set a playlist going that could last a week or more? If they do would not a "I'm playing everything in x order and got to item y" be better approach.

But such functionality would still need a fundamental redesign of current playlist management. That is a hard change to even comtemplate.

[Ned Scott]

Working as a theatre sound tech results in some weird stuff... ;)

I suppose most people wouldn't notice if Kodi limited the playlist to only the first 24 hours (or less), but wouldn't Kodi still have to processes everything in order to make a shuffled playlist?

[NeroBoron]

I can canntell you how I use it:
Usually I select a song from "all songs" because I want to hear this song now and then some random songs of my library. When I want to listen to another specific song during playback I ssearch and select it in "all songs" again.

Never used party mode or something like that. Also searching the current playlist feels kinda pain in the ass because it is shuffled. So I use the same all songs view. BTW selecting another song during that playback clears the playlist and adds everything again. Not a problem but as mentioned earlier I guess the player could just jump to that song in my playlist again.

I also now there is the queue option, but it doesn't work correctly on shuffle if I remember correctly.

I only use the other views when I want to listen to a specific genre/artist/album. Which only happens in 5% of the cases.

[scott967]

All ways of using Kodi are good, Ned. But not sure what the uses are for a "Dogs attacking children" sound effect, and I don't think I want to know

More uses for the songs node (and reasons not to remove it) are discussed here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=264647

All the problems that the songs node may have, especially on larger libraries, equally apply to large smart playlists. IMO songs node viewing of every song makes sense even if there are lots and it is slow. What I have doubts about is if there really is a user desire to play more than a certain number. Do people really set a playlist going that could last a week or more? If they do would not a "I'm playing everything in x order and got to item y" be better approach.

But such functionality would still need a fundamental redesign of current playlist management. That is a hard change to even comtemplate.

This I think is what I've wanted for a long time. For Christmas season I like to run through all my Christmas albums, not at random. But when I shut down, I would like to be able to pick up where I left off next time. I don't see any way to do this with smart playlists, so the best I could do was create an album playlist with albums random ordering, but that doesn't ensure I get through the whole library. I think I could do it with a python script, but that seems to require a deterministic ordering so the position in the playlist would remain static. To do that I would have to create an m3u playlist but Kodi only allows ascii in m3u (even though it is happy reading playlists in utf-8) which makes it a non-starter for me (I do have Other Software that will write utf-8 to playlists but that's kind of a PITA -- would prefer an "in-Kodi" solution).

but I do have many smart playlists mainly genre-based that I play in Party-mode.

scott s.
.

[popcornmix]

But such functionality would still need a fundamental redesign of current playlist management. That is a hard change to even comtemplate.

Please contemplate it. Current scheme of playing a track from songs node generating a playlist of 50000 tracks (and taking minutes) is so broken.
Something like: Add song 1 and song 2 to playlist. When song 1 completes add song 3 to playlist. And repeat.

but wouldn't Kodi still have to processes everything in order to make a shuffled playlist?

No. Each song has a unique index (from database). Either just pick a random number for each song added.
If you really want each song not to be repeated then create an array of 50000 ints (200K) containing incrementing numbers.
Shuffle those numbers. Now use this list as song numbers to play. This will be cheap and just as good as current system.

[scott967]

But such functionality would still need a fundamental redesign of current playlist management. That is a hard change to even comtemplate.

Please contemplate it. Current scheme of playing a track from songs node generating a playlist of 50000 tracks (and taking minutes) is so broken.
Something like: Add song 1 and song 2 to playlist. When song 1 completes add song 3 to playlist. And repeat.

but wouldn't Kodi still have to processes everything in order to make a shuffled playlist?

No. Each song has a unique index (from database). Either just pick a random number for each song added.
If you really want each song not to be repeated then create an array of 50000 ints (200K) containing incrementing numbers.
Shuffle those numbers. Now use this list as song numbers to play. This will be cheap and just as good as current system.

That's more or less how PartyModeManager works now. It builds a song query using the smart playlist filters and checks to see if any songs match in the db. If there are, it clears the now playling playlist, turns off shuffle mode and repeat mode, calls AddInitialSongs, to set the initial playlist, loads it into the now playing playlist, starts playing it, and opens the musicplaylist window in the UI.

AddInitialSongs queries the db for the songIds, then runs GetRandomSelection function on the songIds.

scott s.
.

[DaveBlake]

Usually I select a song from "all songs" because I want to hear this song now and then some random songs of my library. When I want to listen to another specific song during playback I ssearch and select it in "all songs" again.
...
I only use the other views when I want to listen to a specific genre/artist/album. Which only happens in 5% of the cases.

So you want to hear more than the one song you select, but other than the first selected one you don't care what is played? I would never have thought of that!

Please contemplate it. Current scheme of playing a track from songs node generating a playlist of 50000 tracks (and taking minutes) is so broken.

If what you want is to play a single track a simple solution would be to turn off auto play next. The problem is that hitting play on a song from songs node (or a large smart playlist) currently means play everything on this list from here. So again I ask is it reasonable to limit the number of songs that auto play next puts on the current play list?

Or are we looking for auto play next to work like party mode but without the shuffling? I guess we are.

The ability to continue play of a playlist from where you left off would be nice.

Unfortunately I am a limited resource. If there are easy wins to be made I will try, but the bigger changes to playlist management needs time I do not have.