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#37769 - 31/08/2001 05:20 skipping playlists...
pupvogel
journeyman

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 96
Loc: Hamburg, Germany
I think it would be cool if I could skip playlists.

For example, from time to time I use the 'three times down'-shortcut to play in random order.
Now when empeg starts to play a Cat Stevens album and I feel more like Trash Metal, it would be great if I could skip the whole album to see what's next.

Right now I have to push the right button [number of tracks minus 1] times (AND I have to wait for the drives to spin up because the tracks are not in the cache), while always checking the display when the next playlist/album begins.

Ok, pushing the right button _long_ skips inside the current track; so how about pushing the right button short and long in short succession, something like 'double-click and hold'.
Or, to make it even simpler, empeg skips to the next playlist, if the right button is pushed long during the first second or half a second of a track.

If there is no following playlist, functionality just stays the same.

Does this make sense to anyone ?

Dr. Pupvogel
mk2 #080000169

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#37770 - 31/08/2001 10:16 Re: skipping playlists... [Re: pupvogel]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31597
Loc: Seattle, WA
The only problem is that once it's playing the tracks, the empeg has no knowledge of playlists.

For example, when you tell it to play a portion of the tree, it uses the playlist information to generate the initial list of tracks. But after that, all it knows is "here's a list of tracks, beginning to end". Even if there was a button to skip to the next playlist, it has no way of knowing which of those tracks signifies the beginning of another playlist.

Although a variation on the Tweak Order buttons might be a workable solution: How about this?: Holding down the Artist button goes to Next Artist. Holding down the Album button goes to Next Album. It still wouldn't know the playlist structure, but in a properly organized sequential playlist, it could produce the same result: simply scroll through the list until it hits a track with a differing artist or album.

There was another request on the BBS for the exact opposite behavior in the case of the "hold tweak" button, so this would be contrary to that. Unless it behaved one way when shuffled and the other way when sequential... hmm....

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Tony Fabris
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#37771 - 31/08/2001 10:25 Re: skipping playlists... [Re: tfabris]
tms13
old hand

Registered: 30/07/2001
Posts: 1115
Loc: Lochcarron and Edinburgh
In reply to:


Although a variation on the Tweak Order buttons might be a workable solution: How about this?: Holding down the Artist button goes to Next Artist. Holding down the Album button goes to Next Album. It still wouldn't know the playlist structure, but in a properly organized sequential playlist, it could produce the same result: simply scroll through the list until it hits a track with a differing artist or album.

There was another request on the BBS for the exact opposite behavior in the case of the "hold tweak" button, so this would be contrary to that. Unless it behaved one way when shuffled and the other way when sequential... hmm....




Or perhaps have it depend on whether the Artist (or whatever) of the next track is the same as the current one?

IOW, do whichever it takes to be different to pressing "right".

--
Toby Speight
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Toby Speight
030103016 (80GB Mk2a, blue)
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#37772 - 31/08/2001 11:00 Re: skipping playlists... [Re: tms13]
pupvogel
journeyman

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 96
Loc: Hamburg, Germany
Hm, much more problematic than I thought...

But yes, I guess it would make sense to look for the next album-name that is different from the current one...if the next one is different already, search for the same name.
A little bit confusing for the unaware user, maybe...on the other hand, the status right now is also 'not so good'...

Best thing of course would be user-definable behaviour for things like that.

Still I think the function should be available on the empeg itself, not on the remote only.
To be honest, I still have no idea how to use it... and that's just because the empeg works very well without it.
(I always have a playlist with about twenty albums that I currently 'like more than the others'...every week or so I change it, so I am really quite happy without the remote)

Dr. Pupvogel
mk2 #080000169

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#37773 - 31/08/2001 11:06 Re: skipping playlists... [Re: pupvogel]
tms13
old hand

Registered: 30/07/2001
Posts: 1115
Loc: Lochcarron and Edinburgh
In reply to:

Best thing of course would be user-definable behaviour for things like that.


Agreed - user-defined is best for (almost) everything.


Except that the more configurable stuff there is, the harder it is for Empeg to give us a bug-free release or to diagnose problems. I've got too much experience of trying to maintain over-configurable software (and for every feature you think is redundant, there's one customer who "needs" it).

Rant over - back to your normal reading now.

--
Toby Speight
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Toby Speight
030103016 (80GB Mk2a, blue)
030102806 (0GB Mk2a, blue)

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#37774 - 02/09/2001 09:37 Re: skipping playlists... [Re: tfabris]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
How about this?: Holding down the Artist button goes to Next Artist.

I stuck a task entitled "Hate Artist" into our task system the other week. By pressing and holding the artist button, the empeg should filter out any matching artist from the current play position to the end of the running order. Similarly for the other buttons.

This isn't quite what you want, but it's close. And besides, it means that I've already got dibs on "hold down the artist button" .




Roger - not necessarily speaking for empeg
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-- roger

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#37775 - 04/09/2001 16:19 Re: skipping playlists... [Re: Roger]
muzza
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 21/07/1999
Posts: 1765
Loc: Brisbane, Queensland, Australi...
Could this be settable?
holding tweek button > Seek all similar artists | hate/filterout artist

Murray 06000047
Just increasing my post count
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