Request 1: Playlist resume option, Request 2: Auto-create-playlists

2019-05-08 01:52:09

(
EXAMPLE OF REQUEST:
http://www.skybuck.org/foobar2000/ResumeExample1.png
)

(Also it wouldn't hurt to colorize the tab which is currently playing... as you can see from the screenshot no idea which tab is currently playing.
Perhaps an easier solution is to embed the player icons/buttons into each tab... so that each tab can be individually started/stopped... this would allow the funny effect of playing multiple albums at the same time... ofcourse most people would not want this... but who knows... currently... I find it annoying how foobar starts/stops musics from other tabs... and not the current tabs... it's totally akward... I need to double click on current tab to make it active ?! tab ? file ? music ? where the fuck I click to make it active ? Confusing at best. Perhaps multi-tab is bad... look at that new mess oh well. So far I kinda like it though... but it's duplicated functionality...  windows explorer already has tabs in taskbar)

I am a new user of foobar2000 and so far I am impressed, pleased and enjoying it.

But there is one thing that is immediatly pissing me off considerably.

First of all I switch from VLC media player to Foobar2000 because VLC media player playlist sucks... it requires 13 steps to create and has permission issues all time.

Foobar2000 only requires 9 steps to create a playlist (see way below *), this could be reduced to only 7 steps if file doesn't have to be clicked 3 times.

What is pissing me off is this:

Foobar2000 in it's simpelst form has support for multiple playlists in it's GUI which is GREAT.

But it doesn't remember where it left off if I switch playlists. Even if it does it's mechnics is shitty at best.

Especially when I am listening to new albums/playlist I have no idea what music belonged to what title since I am multi-tasking...

If for example I want to re-arrange file order inside foobar2000 I have to drag and drop the filenames/music files.... this is because the foobar2000 uses a binary playlist... so it cannot be added in text editor.

Because of drag&drop I accidently played the files that were being dragged and dropped.

This caused the playing of the other playlist to be interrupted and it started playing the new playlist.

This is not what I wanted.... I wanted the other playlist to continue playing.

THERE IS NO RESUME option.

I tried the UNDO option... but this didn't help.... the UNDO option doesn't "UNDO playing changes".

THERE IS NO MEMORY whatsoever of what it was playing.

THERE IS NO LIST of played songs..

THERE IS NOTHING in this case.

In some other cases I have seen some "selection box" around some music file in some playlist.

I AM UNSURE if this is where the playlist left off.

It's clear to me that this needs to be changed in a next update of foobar2000.

What I suggest is as follows:

1. All playlists need to have an "arrow" indicating where it was busy with playing last time it played a play list.

2. The arrow/music file/track number/position should be saved in the playlist so that it could be able to start playing the playlist again from where it left off. However I can imagine that this feature might be annoying if I want to restart a playlist months later for re-listening... but for a player like foobar2000 which seems heavily interested in playlists... this could actually be an interesting feature for big-album listeners... I kinda like this idea. It could also be made configureable... or "ask on startup of a playlist" for example:

"Do you want to contintue listening where you left off ?" or "Restart playlist ?"

Anyway...

3. A further improvement would not only be to remember the "track number" inside RAM or FILE but also THE POSITION of the music file. So that the music doesn't have to be replayed from the start... but can immediately go from where it left off..
For example 1 minute and 15 secs or so.

If this could also be STORED in RAM or FILE that'd be great ! =D

4. Further enhancements to the GUI:

4.1 A GREEN ARROW inside a playlist could indicate which is the MAIN playlist CURRENTLY PLAYING.

So green arrow = currently playing

4.2 A YELLOW or RED or BLUE ARROW is where the PLAYLIST was INTERRUPTED by another playlist starting.

Basically this REPRESENTS a RESUME option for the user.

However using colors might not be nice for BLIND PEOPLE.

5. So instead perhaps a SPECIAL ICON can be used as a RESUME INDICATOR.

Perhaps the typical pause = ICON could be used to indicated where the playlist will RESUME.

6. IT SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE USER TO ACCIDENTLY CHANGE THIS RESUME INDICATOR. THIS WOULD BE VERY ANNOYING.

It only changes if the users clicks or double clicks a music file as normal to play it...

8. Perhaps DRAG AND DROP should be removed to re-arrange files... it might accidently trigger PLAYS and screw stuff up.

However... with these new RESUME ideas... only the currently re-arranged playlist would be screwed up... but the rest should have remained intact which is great.

9. ON CLOSE of FOOBAR2000 all these resume points should be stored in ALL PLAYLIST loaded in the foobar2000 application.

This is mostly because foobar2000 has options to experiment with DSD, plugins and other things which might require a RESTART of FOOBAR2000, which again would screw up playlists without this stored information of resume points.

I HOPE THAT MY REQUEST IS CLEAR.

RESUMING OF PLAYLISTS, SWITCHING PLAYS BETWEEN PLAYLISTS, TEMPORARELY PAUSING PLAYLISTS TO PLAY OTHERS IS A MUST HAVE FEATURE FOR FOOBAR2000.

This would make FOOBAR2000 playlist feature SUPERIOR to VLC media player and possibily other players, giving foobar2000 another edge/adventage over other players and will definetly increase foobar2000's popularity among album listeners.

10. TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY TO OTHER PLAYERS FOOBAR2000 could KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK by the following insanely cool feature/tool:

AUTOMATICALLY CREATE PLAYLIST FILES PER FOLDER.

It would work as follows:

10.1 Click file.

10.2 Click "create playlists automatically"

10.3 Choose folder (base folder to scan from)

10.4 Foobar2000 scans all subfolders and create exactly 1 playlist per subfolder.

10.5 Foobar2000 automatically stores this file under the following filename:

Playlist.foobar2000

Or something standard like that.

THIS FEATURE WOULD BE AWESOME AND A MAJOR TIME SAVER.

HAVING TO TYPE "playlist.fpl" or something stupid like that all the time is a MAJOR TIME WASTER.

I DONT CARE ABOUT THE FILENAME... I JUST WANT A PLAYLIST.DAMN.IT =DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

So this process can DEFINETLY BE AUTOMATED.

SIGH, IF THIS FEATURE could be ADDED then this would make FOOBAR2000 A DREAM APP FOR ME WITH MANY LOVE HEARTS IN MY MIND.

Problem is as follows:

I CANNOT CREATE THIS TOOL MYSELF because foobar2000 playlist is BINARY ?! And format is unknown to me at present time ?!

VLC media player uses XML/HTML or some markup language which makes it look like crap.

Perhaps there is some document or SDK for foobar2000 that might specific this FOOBAR2000 playlist format... if so I might be able to create this tool myself with DELPHI.

However perhaps the developer(s) of foobar2000 like this idea and will implement it or create a side tool to do this or perhaps somebody else with more foobar2000 developing experience could create such a tool ?!

This would be a major time saver for me... please believe that ! =D

Don't ask how many albums/folders I have on my harddisk(s) virtual hardisk(s):

I HAVE NO IDEA.

It's probably in the hundreds.

Re-creating all these playlists would take an approximation of clicks:

Let's estimate albums at 300 or so.

300 x 9 clicks + 300 x 10 letters = roughly 300 x 20 steps = 6000 steps.

Let's say each step requires about 2 or 3 seconds of work.

That's roughly 6000x3 seconds = 18000 seconds needed to re-create all these damn playlists.

AND YES I DO WANT SEPERATE PLAYLISTS NOT ONE GIGANTIC ONE.

I want to play a certain album whenever I feel like it.

So let's calculate how many minutes/hours of time saving this could be:

18000 / 60 = 300 minutes (assuming everything goes fine... sometimes windows explorer can freak out or even foobar2000 freaks out and wants to adept VLC media player playlist and overwrite that which is also annoying)
300 / 60 = 5 hours of creating playlists.

How much hours of time wasted for all users of foobar ?!??! Days ? Weeks ? Months ?

This is perhaps the biggest hurdle to switching between players, having to re-create these playlists.

If foobar could automate this... that would definetly sweeten the deal to switch to this player ! =D

Think

About

It

Bye,
  Skybuck.

( *
To create a playlist: Choose GUI: "Simple playlists + tabs" (see way below how to enable this) then it's easy:

1. Click file

2. Click new playlist

3. Click file

4. Click add folder

5. Click select folder

6. Click file

7. Click save playlist

8. Type playlist name

9. Click save

*)

(
Choosing this simple GUI is done as follows:

1. Click "File"

2. Click "Preferences".

3. Expand "+display"

4. Click "Default ?User Interface"

5. Click "Quick Setup"

6. Click "Simple Playlists + Tabs"

This is a very clean/neat GUI which can open multiple playlists... (have not tried other GUIs yet, don't care about the others for now, wanna keep it simple and keen on playlists for now )
)

Re: Request 1: Playlist resume option, Request 2: Auto-create-playlists

Reply #1 – 2019-05-08 09:29:04

It really sounds like foobar2000 isn't for you. Thought about trying something else like musicbee?

Re: Request 1: Playlist resume option, Request 2: Auto-create-playlists

Reply #2 – 2019-05-08 11:30:49

An interesting and passionate request. Perhaps as a new user it's better to spend more time with the player before opening the guts and rewiring everything.

Re: Request 1: Playlist resume option, Request 2: Auto-create-playlists

Reply #3 – 2019-05-08 12:33:06

The easiest way to solve your requests is to try some other player.
foobar2000 is just not for you.

Re: Request 1: Playlist resume option, Request 2: Auto-create-playlists

Reply #4 – 2019-05-08 13:34:32

Well almost all of these requests are already possible with plugins, save for one - I'm not aware of a way to auto-create playlists of every folder, but nor is it really needed if using the Library Selection playlist. That of course also requires using the Library Viewer / Album List built into foobar, rather than Windows Explorer, which obviously has limitations.

New users of foobar always have a lot to learn - ranting on forums however, and cursing and shouting in the other thread, is just counter-productive. Skybuck I hope sincerely you can calm down a bit. Life is too short to be angry at a music player.

Re: Request 1: Playlist resume option, Request 2: Auto-create-playlists

Reply #5 – 2019-05-08 13:50:23

I don't know if a different player is the solution. But I was left confused why someone would need separate playlists for each directory or album.

You can make foobar2000 remember and automatically resume the position of a track you were playing by enabling "Save playback state when closing foobar2000 and resume on next startup" under Preferences -> Playback.

There are bookmark components that allow remembering playback position for each file.

There's no point in saving playlists that just duplicate the order of the files in a directory. Add all your music dirs to the media library and you can instantly create any kind of playlist you want on the fly. Pick the album or folder from a list or type its name and start playing.

Perhaps indicating position in a playlist could be improved but I don't really see that as a big issue. I at least haven't needed it even once. When I play a playlist I let foobar2000 resume it automatically on player start. When I want to play something else I pick a track and double click on it.