Possible bug?

[RossRoy]

I just noticed something odd in dAP r3b4. I read a reply from you on this thread where you say that dAP keeps track of what's been playing and deliberately doesn't play any of the 100 tracks to have played.

Well right now, I am using selective play along with random to play a small selection on songs (a selection of 11 songs through selective play) and if I use the "skip" button on the mini-player, it doesn't seem to check the last played songs, and it may choose the same songs twice in a row (it just selected the same song 4 times in a row).

Is it a bug, where pressing skip doesn't use the same function as the automatic advance when it plays on itself? Or is it because my song selection is too small so it doesn't take into account the last played list?

[BestRip]

Re: Possible bug?

I have had a similar experience... with dAP3.3 playing random 18 tracks and I got a 5 times in a row... what are the odds of that???:D

[RossRoy]

Re: Possible bug?

what are the odds of that???:D

In true mathematical theory, it's very slim.

But computer randomizer based on the internal clock are known to be really unreliable when generating true random numbers.

[dbample]

Re: Possible bug?

In true mathematical theory, it's very slim.

But computer randomizer based on the internal clock are known to be really unreliable when generating true random numbers.

Well, actually the odds are exactly zero because Spoon's program checks the random number against the already-played list and would not play a song on that list again unless we are past 100 songs.. So, there must be something else going on that bypasses this check. One thing is that if you skip a song too quickly, within the first 10 second or so, I don't think it counts it as played, and it does not add it to the played list. So it could choose it and play it (not "again" since it hasn't been played) later.

[RossRoy]

Re: Possible bug?

Well, actually the odds are exactly zero because Spoon's program checks the random number against the already-played list and would not play a song on that list again unless we are past 100 songs.. So, there must be something else going on that bypasses this check. One thing is that if you skip a song too quickly, within the first 10 second or so, I don't think it counts it as played, and it does not add it to the played list. So it could choose it and play it (not "again" since it hasn't been played) later.

I just tried your theory. I let the song play almost to the end, then pressed skip, and it did select the same song again on a few occasion.

--- UPDATE ---

Argh! My bad for that test! Of course it played the same song again, I made a mistake setting up my selective playback filters.

I tested it again, and you are right dbample. If you let the song play for at least 5-6 seconds, then it is recorded has having played and it won't be selected again unless nothing else is available. I wonder what would happen to the randomizer if I have a selection of 8 songs, then, once they've all played randomly, would it automatically replay them all in the same order because it would start playing the oldest played first?

[Spoon]

Re: Possible bug?

>would it automatically replay them all in the same order because it would start playing the oldest played first?

After they had all played then they would be played again in any order (effectively the repeat checking would be off)

[Spoons]

Re: Possible bug?

After they had all played then they would be played again in any order (effectively the repeat checking would be off)

ah ha!! now i know after all those randomizer discussions we had why the same song will repeat itself without any "100" space between it. i remember doing tests a long time ago and discovered it did happen after passing the 100 songs played.

hmmmmm..... this is a slight hic up? because if you have 1000 songs you will end up repeating several past played songs over and over before it will move on to the other 900 songs not yet played. this was the problem i had.

hmmm... more to think about now :D

[Spoons]

Re: Possible bug?

is it possibal to have an option to control the do not repeat for 100 songs? if there was an option to select/reflect the number of tracks in MMC or currently selected tracks then the randomizer would work within that figure? so if i had 500 tracks and could set the randomizer to "500" then effectivly it would never repeat a song?

a good theory?

[Spoon]

Re: Possible bug?

Sounds like you need the shuffle feature I am soon to add.

100 was a round number, if your tracks are 3 minutes then that is 300 minutes of audio, or 5 hours. Perhaps it should be longer?

[Spoons]

Re: Possible bug?

yes it could be longer then. i am thinking of a different picture though.

it's been on my wish list for a long time that i can load 100 cd's worth of tracks and have MMC play all of them right through to the end without repeating any and then finally stopping at the end.

i know 5 hours of audio is very long but not when it is done over one week.

example scenario: (working on average 3 min's per track)

I load 1000 tracks in MMC to randomly play "all". but i only start it once a day for an hour. so that's 50 hrs? if so then a problem will occur on day 6 (100 tracks are played and now random turns itself off ). so day six comes along and starts repeating songs from day one two three etc etc... , my tests have shown after the 100 tracks have played some tracks will then repeat anything up to 6 times in a row before moving on to another track. in this secenario it may take many months before i actually get to hear all the tracks that were in MMC collection.

so in my above example i would like to be able to have more control on how "random" works.

[RossRoy]

Re: Possible bug?

That would actually be great because I have over 3000 songs loaded into MMC and I know some of them I have never even heard because I always leave dAP on random (with selective play to filter out the christmas songs hehe)

So having the option to control how many songs the random function must play before turning off the previously played check would be great!

But, what I'd like even more is a sort of smart playlist generator. Tell MMC you want, say, 10 hours of music from genre "Jazz" and "Classical" that have a "4 stars or more rating" and then it generates a playlist from that. I know selective play sort of allows that, but it doesn't limit itself to like 5 hours of music then turn off. That's something I liked about another player I used before, can't remember the name, I could set it to play for say 8 hours (a standard work day) and when the music stops, that means the day is over! :D

[Spoon]

Re: Possible bug?

>but it doesn't limit itself to like 5 hours of music then turn off.

A combination of Selective and the 'Random Selector' would do that?

[RossRoy]

Re: Possible bug?

>A combination of Selective and the 'Random Selector' would do that?

It would work, and it does work actually. The only option I'd like that's missing is the ability to tell dAP "Play for 8 hours then shut down".