I have looked all over this site and others. Tried both the default RIO software and the RRR 0.7.9 software and I cannot get playlists to work. When the music search completes it finds 4 playlists but in the menu on the RIO it displays "no matches" . My playlist files are M3U created using MusicMatch. Ideas?!

Did you ever figure this out? I am new to this as well and have the same problem. I assume it's because the playlist from Musicmatch contains absolute paths. Not sure how to fix it (short of manual editing), or what the base or root directory for the playlist should be.

I had this problem too, but it was easy to fix. It maybe because you are creating playlists on a different PC? If you open the .M3U file in notepad or Wordpad, you will be able to see the .mp3 files it contains and their directory. This must be the same directory as that which the Rio uses to retrieve its music. Does that make sense?

Mark,

Thanks. It makes total sense and I had basically come to that conclusion.

I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere and perhaps something should be added to the FAQ about this.

There are two problems. First, what is the top level or root directory that ARM (or other servers) use? It’s certainly not clear but I will assume that for every directory you specify when the scan is made each of those becomes a top level directory for the purposes of the playlist. At least that explains it for the one directory I use.

Second, what players create playlists in the proper fashion? Musicmatch seems to make absolute paths no matter what I try. I have set it to start in the same directory I scan from. I have recreated my library in this directory. It still makes absolute lists. I can’t find any configuration option for this either. It’s not a huge problem to solve with an editor or script, but it’s annoying.

Alan,

I usually use Winamp, but experimented a bit with Musicmatch and found that in one respect it worked much better: Winamp has an irritating "feature" in that it creates a useless .m3u name (like 4tyh.m3u) when any playlist is created, despite giving it a sensible display name.
I am not sure what the "proper" way to create playlists is. They are really just a text shell with the location of the required files inside. I am not sure (being a cabinet maker, not an IT guru!) if there could be another way? I resolved that I must always create playlists on the PC that serves the music. That way, the absolute nature of the path always hits the right spot, even if music is kept in various directories.

M

After some playing around I have discovered that two formats will work. Absolute paths work if they are on the same machine as ARM is running, and relative paths work if they start from the directory where you told ARM to scan from.

and relative paths work if they start from the directory where you told ARM to scan from.

Are you sure? I'd expect them to start from the directory the .m3u file itself is in.

Peter

Well I was sure, but my playlist and the scanning root were one and the same. So it didn't matter.

I have retested and yes it does work in any directory as a relative reference from that point. So that is probably the deciding factor. Thanks for pointing that out.

Greetings,
I have a similar setup - PC1 has Musicmatch 8.0 where I rip and tag my CDs, PC2 is a dedicated ARM server, and all music files reside on a Snap Server. The file structure for my music files on the SnapServer is: \\SnapServerName\MusicDirectory\ArtistName\Album\Song.mp3

When I import tracks into ARM, I select \\SnapServer\MusicDirectory and let it go to work.

I initially created playlists on PC1 using the tracks on the SnapServer. I then copied the *.m3u files to: \\SnapServer\MusicDirectory\_Playlists.

After importing, the Rio found the tracks and the playlists. However, when I select a playlist, I get the "No Match" error.

I then moved the *.m3u files up one directory level to: \\SnapServer\MusicDirectory and reimported. I got the same result from the Rio.

I have opened the *.m3u files with Wordpad, Notepad, and MS Word and have confirmed that each application displays the same text and formatting. I have also confirmed that I have the full UNC path: \\SnapServerName\MusicDirectory\ArtistName\Album\Song.mp3 for each track in the playlist.

Finally, I confirmed that both Musicmatch and Windows Media Player correctly read the *.m3u files regardless of which PC I use and regardless of where the *.m3u files reside.

Anyone who can shed light on this frustrating problem will be greatly appreciated.

Don't know if this will do it for you, but every time I create/change any playlist information, I always delete all files and directories under the ..\program files\audio receiver\db directory(check the path as I'm typing it from memory....)

I was plauged by not finding tracks (new and updated ones) in the playlist and finding ones that no longer existed (missing ones) on my drive, even though it was rebuilding them when I restarted ARM. It seems to remember a previous scan of the entire disk which had imported Real Audio playlists and more, after that point they were never removed or checked again I guess cause I explicitly pathed the directories after that.

Anyway, it seemed to fix it for me. Good luck.
- Tim