Converting segments in playlist to individual songs

[bastafidli]

I am using HD Media Extender. I am listening to my music by selecting a folder and then choose to play all songs in that folder. If the folder (e.g. artist) contains two subfolders (e.g. albums) then the playlist contains two entries, one for each album.

Now when I go to playlist I want to see all songs instead those two albums. Is there a way, how can I configure SageTV to always add all songs instead of the two albums?

I may also have discovered a bug but I am not sure if I am not doing something wrong. I see the two albums in the playlist and some song from the first album is playing. I can go to the second album, click on it and choose to convert it to individual songs. But when I go to the first album and I click on it, I do not have such option. Is this a bug?

Thank you

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

Now when I go to playlist I want to see all songs instead those two albums. Is there a way, how can I configure SageTV to always add all songs instead of the two albums?

There is no option to add them all as individual songs.

I may also have discovered a bug but I am not sure if I am not doing something wrong. I see the two albums in the playlist and some song from the first album is playing. I can go to the second album, click on it and choose to convert it to individual songs. But when I go to the first album and I click on it, I do not have such option. Is this a bug?

This is not a bug -- you have shuffle play disabled, so you can't modify the current playlist item or the ones that precede it in the playlist.

- Andy

[bastafidli]

Andy,

I noticed that the same happens only with one album in the playlist. I can see only the album in the playlist and I again cannot convert the segment to individual songs. What do you mean by I have shuffle play disabled? Do I have to change the play mode to shuffle to be able to do so?

Thank you

[Opus4]

Just like I said above: when you have shuffle play disabled, "you can't modify the current playlist item or the ones that precede it in the playlist."

Either enable shuffle play before converting those segments or modify the playlist while it isn't playing. Give it a try.

- Andy

[bastafidli]

Andy, thanks for the tip. I have tried it and it worked. I played with it more over the weekend and it just confirms my opinion that the Now playing playlist if somehow flawed. This is the behavior I am seeing and this is what I think is not working/or how should it behave to make some sense. (I am documenting it here and try to submit it as a support request to see if I am just completely off or maybe it can be made better.)

I select directory (album) and select play now. The album is in Now playing playlist.

1. There seems to be no way to easily switch to the Now playing list when I am selecting songs to play through Folders. I have to scroll to the left to go to the toolbar, the scroll through toolbars to the top bar, then to Playlists, then scroll down to Now playing and then select to see it. I think this should be made easier. I would love to select folder (=in my case artist or album or type of music), then select play now and then be automatically transfered to now playing list.
2. There is no way to configure SageTV to always add albums (or even directories containing multiple albums) as individual songs. I always have to convert it manually. I am personally interested in seing details in Now playing playlist of what song is playing and what songs will be played next or were played just a little while ago and not see just the one listing for album.
3. There is no way to convert the album to individual songs in the Normal mode. I have to switch to shuffle, convert it and then switch back to normal. Why do I have to go through hoops like this?
4. When only 1 album is in the Now playing list, it is highlighted (yellow border). I go through the step 3 and convert it to individual songs. The first song is highlighted (yellow border) and stays highlighted all the time. I would expect that the song that is playing should be highlighted with the yellow border and the list scrolls as the song that is currently playing may not be visible. If I manually scroll to a different song, the list would let me, but then when a next song starts playing, the list would reset and scroll so that the now playing song is highlighted and visible and details are shown in the pane on the right (see below)
5. The pane on the right side seems to show the album detail but not the details for the track. I would like to somehow setup (or have it as default) to synchronize this pane with what is now playing because the little area at the bottom of the screen doesn't show enough detail. For example if you have compilation cd, each song may be sang by somebody else (or different group of people all present in ID3 tags). I would like the right pane to always show details for the now playing song, unless of course I scroll through the list of songs, in that case it would show the details for the row highlighted in blue.

I think these are just small usability things, but from my experience as software developer and architect, these types of details make all the difference.

[Opus4]

For #1: if you'll check out the manual for the screens you want to get the most out of, you will often see some usage tips. You can use Smooth FF/REW and FF2/REW2 to change the browser view w/o navigating to the top bar.

- Andy

[nielm]

3. There is no way to convert the album to individual songs in the Normal mode. I have to switch to shuffle, convert it and then switch back to normal. Why do I have to go through hoops like this?

Stop playback first, convert to songs, then restart playback... You cannot convert an album while it is playing in normal mode (because it will mess up the playback sequence, which is also why it is allowed in shuffle mode, as you do not care about the playback sequence)...

Or add the albums to a named playlist, then convert them, then play it.

4 [after converting] The first song is highlighted (yellow border) and stays highlighted all the time. I would expect that the song that is playing should be highlighted with the yellow border and the list scrolls as the song that is currently playing may not be visible.

It does. The fact that it appears not to for you is because you went via shuffle mode to convert the album. The playlist engine is still playing the album, even though it is no longer in the playlist. Once it gets past the end of the album, or if you stop and restart playback the highlight should work correctly...

(Andy -- it may be a good idea to disable convert-to-tracks for the currently playing item in shuffle mode).

[bastafidli]

Thanks for the tip. Have to definitely try it, but it is still major pain. The real solution would be custom setting to alway add albums as individual songs. Is this something which can be done in SageMC?