Playback order settings?
#1
Tongue 
Apologies for this very basic question, but I couldn't find a discussion of it on the Wiki.

Is there a way to change the playback order, perhaps via settings?

The way Kodi works for me now, if I am playing music album "A" and then switch to play a song from the middle of music album "B", after the song finishes, Kodi resumes playing songs on album "A".

Instead, what I'd like is that Kodi always continue to play songs on album "B".

In other words, I'd like to configure Kodi such that it does not try to remember the album I was playing before. I'd prefer that it always just plays the next song on the album that contains the currently-playing song, until it reaches the end. At the end of the album, it just stops playback.

Any suggestions?

Edit: I'm using Kodi v18 on a Linux box in kiosk mode. I drive it via the Chorus web UI, v2.4.6.
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#2
(2019-01-16, 02:45)mrob Wrote: Edit: I'm using Kodi v18 on a Linux box in kiosk mode. I drive it via the Chorus web UI, v2.4.6.
 Apologies I've no idea about your question, but I am intrigued what is Kiosk mode ?
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#3
(2019-01-16, 11:42)tkgafs Wrote:
(2019-01-16, 02:45)mrob Wrote: Edit: I'm using Kodi v18 on a Linux box in kiosk mode. I drive it via the Chorus web UI, v2.4.6.
 Apologies I've no idea about your question, but I am intrigued what is Kiosk mode ? 
Maybe(?) there's a better name for this but by "kiosk mode" I mean the Linux box is a server distro that has been configured to only run Kodi.

Kodi gets started automatically when it boots up and the UI works. There's no desktop environment, but I can connect via ssh for a command line.

I followed these instructions: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=231955

------------

Hope somebody has ideas about the playback issue with Kodi. It's really maddening how it keeps going back to the previous album.
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#4
What gets played depends on what level of the library you are looking at in the UI when you click play or play next. I am also going to assume you have Settings > Player > Music > Playnext song automatically enabled (the default). The behaviour is this:

You navigate to see a list of songs e.g. songs on an album, or a playlist and click a song. Then all the songs in the list are added to the current queue and the song clicked starts to play. Once this finished the next song is played automatically.

Viewing album list is you play one an album (say hit <P>) then all the songs on the album are added to the queue. As above first starts play and auto flows to next etc.

If you navigate to a song and hit "Play next" on the context menu then that song is inserted into the queue below the currently playing song. Then the rest of the queued songs play.

If you navigate to an album and hit "Play next" on the context menu then all the songs on that album ares inserted into the queue below the currently playing song.

To stop playing album A and start album B simply hit <P> when on that album in the list.

I have just realised you are using Chorus and not the UI, but I would guess the behaviour is similar. The actions are all making adjustments to the current queue of things to play
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#5
Thanks for clarifying this. You're correct: I have Settings > Player > Music > Play next song automatically enabled.

I can't really square what you describe with the behavior I'm seeing. Chorus has a Play but also a Queue button. There is also a Current Playlist which can be opened as a sidebar, and that may in fact be the "current queue" you mention. Pressing Play adds every song in every album being viewed to the current playlist (maybe the current queue, dunno), so if you are viewing an artist, then you get every song from every album. Pressing Queue seems to do something similar, but there is no documentation to explain the difference.

There are clearly some bugs in the Chorus UI and I haven't been able to get any answer to my questions on the Chorus forum. The playlist behavior, in particular seems totally erratic. The different parts of the Chorus UI easily go out of sync, show two different songs playing at the same time, etc.

The basic problem seems to be that Chorus has some issues, but its developer has moved on and nobody else has stepped up to the plate.

Kodi itself looks great, but right now I can't even get it to play songs in a predictable order.

Tbh, I feel kind of stuck on this and don't know how to proceed. -_-
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#6
So your issue is more Chorus related than Kodi, I really can't comment as I don't use it much, but when I have used it I had no problem adding albums to the current queue in order so perhaps it is about how you use it. Yes play from an artist willl queue all the songs by that artist, what else would you expect?

The Chorus Dev has not "moved on" as in abandoned his work, but Jez is a busy guy and possibly does not have time to spend on Kodi right now.  All devs are volunteers giving their time and expertise for free, life can get in the way of that, also not all of them are enthusiastic about giving user support.

If you don't like how Chorus works then there are other ways of controlling Kodi without having a monitor attached. There are apps that run on Android or iOS e.g. Yatse or Kore, you could use those on a phone or tablet.
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#7
Hey, thanks very much for this recommendation. I had no idea there are so many different remote apps for Kodi ! Big Grin

The issue with Chorus is not that I can't add things to the queue, but that it just quickly seems to become a mess, out of sync with what's actually playing, etc. If you use it consistently, you may see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, I'll try out some of the remote apps and see how they work.
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#8
(2019-01-17, 04:59)mrob Wrote: Pressing Queue seems to do something similar, but there is no documentation to explain the difference.

Using the Kodi interface directly if you use Play to select an item, then that creates a new playlist for the item you've selected Play on.

So for example if you use Play on Album A and the tracks for that album get added to the Current Playlist, then if you then use Play on Album B a new playlist is created wiping the old playlist so when you go to Current Playlist you'll only see track for Album B. However if you use Queue on Album A the track for that album are added to the Current Playlist, then if you use Queue on Album B the tracks for that album get appended to the exiting playlist so if go to Current Playlist you'll only see tracks for both Album A and Album B.

If Chorus (or any of the remote apps) does something different then that is a problem with Chorus.
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#9
I think we make life hard for ourselves in some of the ways we use terms, "playlist" in particular.

Generally when users talk about playlists they mean .m3u files that list a number of songs. Kodi can be use to play and edit those. Then we also have "smart playlists" which are a Kodi feature that lets the user enter logical combinations of filter rules to define what artist, albums or songs to gather together, held as a .xsp file. Finally there is the "current playlist", that is a list of songs that Kodi has queued up to play. That always exists but can be empty, and of course there is only one music "current playlist". I would much rather call that the queue.

Talking about changes to the "Current Playlist" (queue) as creating a new playlist is really confusing. It sounds as if a new .m3u file, or maybe .xsp file, is created which is not what happens. Even more confusing if the item that you intend to play is a playlist (/m3u or .xsp)

Using the Kodi interface directly if you use Play to select an item, then it fills the Current Playlist (queue) with songs, which songs depends on where you are when you use Play.

So for example say you use Play on Album A and the tracks for that album get added to the Current Playlist (queue). If you then use Play on Album B the Current Playlist (queue) is cleared and the songs for Album B get added to it. However if you use Queue Item on Album B the tracks for that album are added to the end of the Current Playlist (queue), things already on the Current Playlist (queue) are not changed. If you use Play Next on Album B then the tracks for that album are inserted into the Current Playlist (queue) just below the currently playing song and above the remainder of the songs from Album A.

Lets repeat that description for a Playlist A and Playlist B and see why I want to call it a queue not "Current Playlist"

"So for example say you use Play on Playlist A and the tracks for that playlist get added to the Current Playlist (queue). If you then use Play on Playlist B the Current Playlist (queue) is cleared and the songs for Playlist B get added to it. However if you use Queue Item on Playlist B the tracks for that playlist are added to the end of the Current Playlist (queue), things already on the Current Playlist (queue) are not changed. If you use Play Next on Playlist B then the tracks for that playlist are inserted into the Current Playlist (queue) just below the currently playing song and above the remainder of the songs from Playlist A."
Yikes!
 
(2019-01-18, 19:39)jjd-uk Wrote: If Chorus (or any of the remote apps) does something different then that is a problem with Chorus. 
Or maybe an issue with JSON, but I have not seen any problems with this.
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#10
So fromm the OP description it sounds like a Play Next action is taking play where the new item/s is being inserted into the existing Current Playlist (Queue). Play Next is something I've never used so have not observed that behaviour.
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#11
I agree with DaveBlake's point (above) about "queue" vs. "current playlist".

After reading his clarification, I think part of my difficulty with Chorus was that the UI has a panel on the right-hand side which is described as a "playlist" by the drop-down menu picks. So, I was ignoring this for a while, since I haven't gotten to creating a playlist yet, until I realized that in fact it's showing me the queue.

I've tried out the Official Kodi Remote for iOS, and I notice some differences from Chorus.

Using the Kodi remote, if I open a music album (let's call it "A"), tap on one song and pick Play, the entire album gets added to the queue, and that song I tapped starts playing. If I open a different album ("B") and do the same thing, the queue is emptied of "A", the new album "B" is added to the queue, and the song that I tapped starts playing. The behavior is just what DaveBlake describes.

Using Chrous, if I do the same thing, only the song that I tapped gets added to the queue. If I click on the blue Play button, the whole album ("A") gets added. If I switch to another album ("B") and click on the blue Play button, the queue doesn't get emptied. Instead, all of album "B" gets added after the song that is currently playing, pushing all remaining songs from "A" down the queue.

There's also a Queue button in Chorus, but given that the Play feature seems broken w.r.t. the queue (or at least doesn't follow the way the Kodi UI and the official remote work), I won't take up more time trying to explain how that also doesn't seem to behave as expected.

Basically, somebody who understands Chorus would need to fix the code, and for the moment I guess that's only jez.
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#12
Humm....

In Chorus it seems while "Queue Item" (from ... item menu) behaves like "Queue Item" in Kodi GUI and adds the songs at the end of the queue, the "Play" button (on a list of albums) behaves as Play Next does in Kodi GUI - it inserts the songs from the album in between the others. There does not seem to be an equivalent of Play in GUI that clears the queue before adding new songs.

And there isn't a stop button either!

OK, hit clearplaylist (top left menu) and then hit Play or Queue Item - current song continues but then new album plays.

But I agree, not intutitive so possibly a mistake (or the API has changes and Jez has not noticed)
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#13
If the Kodi API has changed, that could be it. Another part of Chorus was broken for about a year due to an API change.
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Playback order settings?0