Really random songs on Windows Media Player 10 for Mobile?

[betacyte]

Hi all,

Anybody else noticed that the random song generator on WMP10 for mobile is not really random? Is there a plug-in or other fix out there that can help?

Thanks for any advice

Patrick

[Darius Wey]

Random song generator? Do you mean the "Shuffle" function?

[betacyte]

Yes, the shuffle function. It is not very random :-(

[Darius Wey]

I'll be honest and say that this is the first I've ever heard of the shuffle function not being random enough. I just loaded a 40-track playlist in Windows Media Player Mobile and with the shuffle function enabled, it was jumping from the start, to the end, to the middle, to the first third, third quarter, second fifth, and back and forth, which in my opinion, is quite random. Is yours not behaving the same way? Perhaps you could describe it a little.

[betacyte]

I have about 300 songs on my playlist and I listen to it almost every day on my way to work. After about 2 months I realized that some songs I have heard about 20 times, where as others I didn't hear at all. I know that true random is hard to achieve and I wanted to know if there is any plugin that helps me listen to all my songs on my phone while keeping me guessing what the next song will be

[Darius Wey]

Interesting.

Well, I had a look at the registry, and there doesn't appear to be any keys that modify the action of the shuffle function (except a simple enable/disable switch). And I'm not aware of any external hacks either.

What you could do is try another audio player. Conduits Pocket Player (http://www.conduits.com/products/player/) is my favourite. It's not free, but functionality-wise, it's miles ahead of Windows Media Player Mobile, and in my opinion, well worth the money spent.

[betacyte]

Thanks for the tip. Although WMP is not great, I like the fact that I only have to sync my phone with my PC and the way I set it up, all song I rated 4 stars or higher on my PC are tranfered to my phone. From what I see the other program doesn't allow for such simple transfer. Thanks anyway.

Patrick

[Joseph Moon]

...I realized that some songs I have heard about 20 times, where as others I didn't hear at all...

I agree with you on that - in fact, the same problem occurs on the desktop version. It is also a problem with WinAmp on the desktop too.

In order for it to be a true random playlist, the author should load the whole playlist into an array. As each song is played, the song should be flagged in the array as having been played. When all songs have been played - the player should stop - unless the repeat button is on.

To me it is simple programming. I just don't understand why so many players have this problem with the random function.

Joseph...

[betacyte]

I agree that to me it also looks like a simple programming job, however I am not a programmer...

The desktop version has an auto playlist called 'have not heard recently'. This could be a solution for the desktop, but the mobile version does not have this option.

[Sven Johannsen]

I bet you would find if you got out your PPC on Fri night and hooked it to power, hit MP and shuffle, and just let it run for the weekend, you would hear songs only once. Until you closed MP and then started over. What I think is happenning is the 'randomized' playlist, with 'have played' flags isn't saved between sessions, picking up where it left off. Each time you get a new, and somewhat similar playlist created.

[Joseph Moon]

This is how I created a true "Play It Once - Randomly" playlist...

I loaded every song into the playlist maker and randomized the list several times and saved the playlist back out. Now I simply play the list in sequential order from start to finish.

Joseph...

[betacyte]

Sven, I think you hit the nail right on the head... the shuffle function during a session works well. It is for several sessions that the random in only psuedo random.

No workarounds, or plugins known?

[JonMisurda]

I've added a shuffle command to my playlist editor. It should always be pretty random.

Discuss at:

http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~jmisurda/ppc/blog/index.php?entry=entry060808-005355

and download from:

http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~jmisurda/ppc/playlist/playlist_ed.htm

Jon

[betacyte]

This could be a solution, but when I try to add all my songs my phone hangs up and I have to do a reset :-(

[JonMisurda]

Weird, never seen/heard of that before...

Could you describe how many songs we're talking about and what sort of directory structure they're in?

I'm glad to look into it if I can.

Jon

[betacyte]

I have a 1 GB miniSD, with a directory called Music. In that directory I have many subdirectories with the names of the bands. Most band directories have a subdirectory the name of the album, and in there there are the songs: ~230 of them. They are a mix of .wma and .mp3 files. I noticed I have at least one directory with an ampesand (&) sign and some with apostrophies (').

When I add the folder 'Music' and indicate I want to have the cursursive folders, the program just stops. No crash. Like it is still thinking. However the 'thinking' takes more than 10 minutes, so I reset.

I hope this helps

[JonMisurda]

That doesn't sound unreasonable, and here special characters won't matter... although reloading a playlist you make will have problems. But you're not there yet.

One thing it might be is related to free RAM. How much do you have?

Did you try importing a single directory out of the music folder?

I have an idea what it could possibly be if your device is memory constrained.

Jon