Creating a Playlist (How???)

[richj]

Hi, I've been all over Squeezebox & Wiki and cannot find out how to create a SIMPLE playlist e.g. music on my PC.
They all reference SQl, Dynamic Plugins, etc. Isn't there a simple way to create a playlist just using squeezebox?
I can see all my music in my music directory, but can't create a playlist from it.
Thanks,
Rich J.

[aubuti]

How you create a basic playlist depends a lot on which interface you are using. There's the infrared remote (for SB Classic, Boom, Radio, etc), the Duet Controller (for any SB), the SB itself (for Boom, Radio, Transporter, Touch), third-party remotes such as iPeng on an iPhone, and the SBS web interface (all SBs except for Touch when running its built-in Squeezebox Server, TinySBS). Which do you want?

To get you started, let's take the SBS web interface as an example, since it works for all SBs. You have two panes. On the left is the main menu, which takes you into your music library. On the right is the current playlist. Go through your library, and when you find an album or a track you want to add to the playlist, click on the "+" button. The track(s) should then appear on current playlist in the right-hand pane. Continue until you've selected all the tunes you want. Note that if you click on a "Play" icon instead of the "+" icon, you will replace the contents of the current playlist rather than adding that track to the playlist.

Once you have the tracks in the current playlist, you can re-order them by dragging-and-dropping _within_ the right-hand pane. You can also delete tracks in the right-hand pane.

If you want to save the playlist for later use, you can click the save icon in the lower right corner, at which point you will be prompted to give a name to the playlist. The playlist will be saved in the directory you specified for playlists under Settings > Basic Settings.

Making playlists with other interfaces or devices are simply variations on this same theme. Note that you can also make playlists on other software as long as the software can save the playlists as .m3u files. Also note that a lot of other software is better at making playlists than SBS. If you use other software, save or copy the playlist(s) to your SBS playlist directory, rescan playlists, and they will be available to you in Squeezebox Server.

[richj]

I'll give it a shot

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it and will try & let you know.
Rich J

[richj]

Still having a problem

Hi,
I located my music on the left pane & clicked on the + Nothing moved over to the right panel.
The bottom of the panel (the largest portion) is completely blank. The top part has a few controls with a record icon.

I tried doing one record at a time & "All Song" and nothing showed up. There probably was no save icon because nothing was there to save.

What did I do wrong??
Rich J.

[aubuti]

Got me. What browser are you using? And what type of SB are we talking about? Is the name of the SB showing in the upper right corner of the web ui? What does the popup/tooltip say when you hover the mouse over the "+" icon on the left side? Does the playlist populate when you refresh the browser view?

EDIT: Also, what version of SBS are you using? And, you say the playlist is completely blank -- but when I have an empty playlist mine says "Empty".

[richj]

SB Info

Hi again,
The browser I'm using is Firefox 4.0 (I get the same results on IE. The SB that I have is the Squeezebox Wi-Fi radio (model x-R0001). There is a pulldown that shows 2 names 1-mysqueezebox 2-mysqueezebox.com (tried them both)
When I hover over the "+" icon it says "Add to Current Playlist" - When I click, I get a momentary Hourglass, then nothing. I doesn't go to the right pane.
When I refresh the page, the left pane goes up one level. Nothing on the right side.
SBS ver. = Version: 7.5.4 - r32171 @ Thu Apr 14 09:19:34 PDT 2011
Also, the right pane is blank. The top of the right pane shows a record icon, volume control, etc.
One thing I noticed: "server Settings -> player says "Your player was not found."
Right now, as I am attempting to do a playlist, my squeezebox is running on wireless and my SBS is not connected to it.
Should it be to create a playlist?
Thanks,
Rich j.

[garym]

Hi again,
The browser I'm using is Firefox 4.0 (I get the same results on IE. The SB that I have is the Squeezebox Wi-Fi radio (model x-R0001). There is a pulldown that shows 2 names 1-mysqueezebox 2-mysqueezebox.com (tried them both)
When I hover over the "+" icon it says "Add to Current Playlist" - When I click, I get a momentary Hourglass, then nothing. I doesn't go to the right pane.
When I refresh the page, the left pane goes up one level. Nothing on the right side.
SBS ver. = Version: 7.5.4 - r32171 @ Thu Apr 14 09:19:34 PDT 2011
Also, the right pane is blank. The top of the right pane shows a record icon, volume control, etc.
One thing I noticed: "server Settings -> player says "Your player was not found."
Right now, as I am attempting to do a playlist, my squeezebox is running on wireless and my SBS is not connected to it.
Should it be to create a playlist?
Thanks,
Rich j.

yes, you should be connected to SbS when creating (or using) playlists. On the radio menu itself, select my music and then it should offer you the menu item to connect to your SbS running on your computer. Once connected to SbS you should then be able to create playlists.

[richj]

Thanks Aubuti

I kind of figured I was doing something basically wrong. I'll give it a shot in the morning. I hesitate to change my player on the radio. Every time I do that, I can never get my Wi-Fi player back.
Thanks again for your help
Rich J

[dickmc]

Download Winamp (free) and use it to make play lists.

Easiest way to make both simple and complex playlists is to use the FREE version of Winamp and simply save the resulting playlist (m3u) files to your Slimserver music folder. You can also easily drag selections up and down within the Winamp playlist editor to change their order within the playlist. You can also readily add and delete selections within your playlists using Winamp. When you rescan your Music file it will automatically find and list all your Winamp playlist (m3u) files.

For a sneak preview of how Winamp playlist creation works, see http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/...2&radios=False

For a Winamp tutorial about creating playlist, see http://blog.winamp.com/2008/09/19/wi...ake-a-playlist

The free version of Winamp 5.61 (which I might add is a darn good player) is at http://www.winamp.com/media-player/en

Have fun.

[raaurora]

Windows media player will let you create playlists and save them in m3u format.

[souwalker]

Making playlists with other interfaces or devices are simply variations on this same theme. Note that you can also make playlists on other software as long as the software can save the playlists as .m3u files. Also note that a lot of other software is better at making playlists than SBS. If you use other software, save or copy the playlist(s) to your SBS playlist directory, rescan playlists, and they will be available to you in Squeezebox Server.

Can you mention a few of those software?

All my FLAC files are in my QNAP NAS. SBS is also installed in my NAS. Winamp was mentioned but can I use Winamp installed on my PC and point to my NAS music folder and create the playlist? do I then save the playlist in the SBS Playlist folder?

Alternatively, what are the other 3rfd party options?
Rgds
Pat

[aubuti]

Can you mention a few of those software?

Here are some examples:
Winamp
foobar2000
J River Media Center
Media Monkey
Songbird (I think it does .m3u files)

Yes, you can point Winamp (or other softare) to your NAS.

[kmr]

Here are some examples:
Winamp
foobar2000
J River Media Center
Media Monkey
Songbird (I think it does .m3u files)

Yes, you can point Winamp (or other softare) to your NAS.

Songbird requires an extension to export playlists, but it seems to work OK so far. It's the best solution I've found so far for a Mac not using iTunes integration.

[dickmc]

All my FLAC files are in my QNAP NAS. SBS is also installed in my NAS. Winamp was mentioned but can I use Winamp installed on my PC and point to my NAS music folder and create the playlist? do I then save the playlist in the SBS Playlist folder?


Playlists (Winamp and any other) I think MUST be saved within in the same master folder as the related music. I have no idea what QNAP and NAS are. However, I can tell you what I have that works.....

Assume that you have a main folder called "MUSIC". MUSIC can have subfolders like "JOHNNYCASH", "CLASSICAL", etc. These subfolders can have their own subfolders like: "ALBUMONE", "ALBUMTWO", etc. Whether you can go down more levels, I do not know but I think five total sublevels is the limit. In any event, I store a playlist for an album in that album's folder. Any playlist that refers to more than one album goes in the main MUSIC folder.

In any event this works fine. I am not sure, however, if playlists can refer to folders above then in the folder Hierarchy.

The easiest way to find out is to create some short trial playlists. Since Winamp itself can play flac files, this is easy to test. Thus, you can test any playlist that you create within Winamp. If it works in Winamp (and is located in your main Slimserver music file), it should work in Slimserver.

[souwalker]

The easiest way to find out is to create some short trial playlists. Since Winamp itself can play flac files, this is easy to test. Thus, you can test any playlist that you create within Winamp. If it works in Winamp (and is located in your main Slimserver music file), it should work in Slimserver.

I use SB touch to play my FLAC files through my HIFI.

Rgds
Pat