Author Topic: Playlist vs Album  (Read 15273 times)

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Offline VorTechS

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Playlist vs Album
« on: October 11, 2007, 08:01:07 am »
As I only use Playlists to represent Albums I may have missed a bit of a trick in PhatHack Media Manager which has only come to light as a result of writing the PhatNoise data files.

So I need to gauge response to this 'issue' fairly rapidly.

In PhatHack Media Manager a playlist is essentially treated like an 'Album', in that an individual track has no concept of the 'Album' to which it belongs.

Should I make a distinction between 'Playlist' and 'Album'?

Thanks.
Kenwood KDC-W7031 | Kenwood KHD-CX910 | 250GB DMS | PhatHack Media Manager v1.1.4 (Alpha) | VIOT

Catch me weekdays 8am-4pm GMT on IRC @ irc.freenode.net on channel #phathack (aka the chat link!!)

Offline VorTechS

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2007, 08:22:37 am »
Actually, never mind.  I've decided that yes there should be the distinction.

However, if no track album is available for any given track - the value for this is defaulted to the playlist title for the DMS database.
Kenwood KDC-W7031 | Kenwood KHD-CX910 | 250GB DMS | PhatHack Media Manager v1.1.4 (Alpha) | VIOT

Catch me weekdays 8am-4pm GMT on IRC @ irc.freenode.net on channel #phathack (aka the chat link!!)

Offline judb

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2007, 01:33:10 pm »
I don't really use playlist mode at all, i use the SSA modes because they are so freakishly handy and easy to use, so um yeah please implement album artist and genre! :)

Offline VorTechS

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2007, 02:28:58 pm »
Interesting.  Kind of the reverse to me then.  I think I'll add an option in for DMS database generation to 'override' what the meaning of 'Playlist' / 'Album' is so that an un-used mode can be turned into a different mode from an existing data view.  I'd never use Album view, because my playlists already represent my 'Albums'.

That would be an option meaning:

<Index File = View>

or :

Album = Playlist
Playlist = Album

So the relevant index files are generated based on your selection.

Eventually, not now, this could then be extended to provide SSA/VIOT customisation on differing criteria.

In testing, unfortunately, like PhatNoise MM the generation of the differing index views is a hell of a hit timewise.
This is mainly because the source of the data has no resemblance to the SQL database and the IDs contained therein and so I'm having to build up alternative collections of the data.  I'm doing this at the point of generating the index files rather than at any other point, to keep the rest of PhatHack Media Manager running at a reasonable pace.  From what I can see of the other tools around, it's not too much different (except it's VB instead of C) and I'm using SortedLists to give me instant Alpha sorting.

Some time in the future hopefully we can re-write the way the PhatBox gets at it's track listings because there has gotta be a much better way of achieving the same results.
Kenwood KDC-W7031 | Kenwood KHD-CX910 | 250GB DMS | PhatHack Media Manager v1.1.4 (Alpha) | VIOT

Catch me weekdays 8am-4pm GMT on IRC @ irc.freenode.net on channel #phathack (aka the chat link!!)

Offline Firefox

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2007, 05:28:03 pm »
Just to throw in my 2 pence/cents while you are talking overrides...  ;D

I like to override Genre mode of VIOT with Track Titles on my Keg. i.e. the trackname tags from the files are used to populate the Genre databases (as per the Phatsort code i emailed to you earlier).
That way i can easily play versions of the same track from different Artists.

Also for custom sorting (on my wish list at least, hopefully yours too....) don't forget to allow for options to exclude "The", "A" etc etc. from the text in the tags.

Greatwork so far - looking forward to the day when my 4-step PMM, Phatsort, Phatvoice & sox process will be replaced by your 1-step PHMM !!

Offline VorTechS

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2007, 06:30:14 am »
I like to override Genre mode of VIOT with Track Titles on my Keg. i.e. the trackname tags from the files are used to populate the Genre databases (as per the Phatsort code i emailed to you earlier).
That way i can easily play versions of the same track from different Artists.

I seem to have missed something somewhere?  I didn't receive any code from you....?

Quote

Also for custom sorting (on my wish list at least, hopefully yours too....) don't forget to allow for options to exclude "The", "A" etc etc. from the text in the tags.


Noted, I'll add that into the options when I get round to it.  Just to clarify is this something you only do for the purposes of VIOT sortation?
Kenwood KDC-W7031 | Kenwood KHD-CX910 | 250GB DMS | PhatHack Media Manager v1.1.4 (Alpha) | VIOT

Catch me weekdays 8am-4pm GMT on IRC @ irc.freenode.net on channel #phathack (aka the chat link!!)

Offline Firefox

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #6 on: October 13, 2007, 08:50:55 am »
I seem to have missed something somewhere?  I didn't receive any code from you....?

Hmmm. email sent 20 Aug 2007 20:44 "Re: PhatHack Media Manager - PhatSort code attached". Maybe filters prevented the attachment. I'll try again right now, let me know if it makes it through this time...

Just to clarify is this something you only do for the purposes of VIOT sortation?
That's right. Playlists are left as per PMM sort order, but the 3 extra VIOT modes are altered by my PhatSort manipulation.


Offline Shu

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2007, 05:00:37 pm »
Also for custom sorting (on my wish list at least, hopefully yours too....) don't forget to allow for options to exclude "The", "A" etc etc. from the text in the tags.

I am using PhatNoise Media Manager 3.90 Build MCD and it has the option to hide the leading "the" or "a" in artist, album and genre lists.  Is this what you are wanting?  You go to Tools - Options - Display and it is the last check box at the bottom. 

How do you switch and search by genre or artist or album on the head unit without creating playlists?  Or did I read it wrong that someone said they could do this?

Offline VorTechS

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2007, 09:37:43 pm »
You are reading it wrong.  I am writing _PhatHack_ Media Manager, a windows replacement for _PhatNoise_ Media Manager.

I am incorporating a number of tools into the application which exist as separate programs into the one program to make life easier for everyone.
Kenwood KDC-W7031 | Kenwood KHD-CX910 | 250GB DMS | PhatHack Media Manager v1.1.4 (Alpha) | VIOT

Catch me weekdays 8am-4pm GMT on IRC @ irc.freenode.net on channel #phathack (aka the chat link!!)

Offline turbogestoord

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Re: Playlist vs Album
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2014, 07:33:53 am »
Okay, I know very old thread...

But i was wondering what happend to these comments in the most recent version of Phathack media manager? I'm a newbie to the phatbox and phmm and i would like to know if there's a way to sort my albums more? i would like to make a playlist by month or by 3 months and would like to put in complete albums, is there a way that i can make this work?