Jan 18, 2019
Thomas Byers wrote
Please consider adding a shuffle option to a play audio playlist script control. Currently you can shuffle tracks in a playlist when playing through the playlist window, but if you insert a script control cue to play a playlist, there appears to be no way to set that playlist to shuffle. This would be very helpful as I have a script template I start with each week for our service, I have added a script control to play a playlist of prelude music before the service, but each time I fire that control it always plays the same songs in the same order. Would really like to have an option to shuffle the playlist from the script control. Thank you.
New
1 vote
3 Answers
Jan 22, 2019
Ryan Zeeck
agent
wrote
Hey Thomas,
Sorry for the delayed response on this. I wanted to look into this a bit before I responded.
I did some testing and I did find some weirdness with how things were working. Here is what we were able to determine:
When you fire a Playlist from a Script control, it will always fire the first audio file in the playlist (because it has to start somewhere). So, if you were to add an audio file that is like a second or 2 of silence to the beginning of each playlist, and then have the rest of your songs listed, it should play that first song (silence) and then the Shuffle should take over and begin firing the songs randomly.
Is that something that you may be able to do?
I hope this helps!
Thanks,
-Ryan
Sorry for the delayed response on this. I wanted to look into this a bit before I responded.
I did some testing and I did find some weirdness with how things were working. Here is what we were able to determine:
When you fire a Playlist from a Script control, it will always fire the first audio file in the playlist (because it has to start somewhere). So, if you were to add an audio file that is like a second or 2 of silence to the beginning of each playlist, and then have the rest of your songs listed, it should play that first song (silence) and then the Shuffle should take over and begin firing the songs randomly.
Is that something that you may be able to do?
I hope this helps!
Thanks,
-Ryan
Jan 22, 2019
Thomas Byers
wrote
Hello Ryan, thanks so much for the reply!
So, I thought for sure I had previously tried (patiently) waiting for the first song in the playlist to play to see what came next and it always seemed to be the same next song. I had never thought about the 1 or 2 second blank track. Actually it looks like that does work, but it's dependent on the shuffle option being selected in the Audio Playlists window, even if that's closed and you're playing it from a script control. Yes, it does look like that will work for my needs (as long no one has messed with the shuffle option), but it still might be worthwhile to investigate an actual implicit option for this in the script control so it's not tied to the Audio Playlists window setting.
Also, I've just started playing with Playlists, and didn't realize you couldn't reorder songs in a list once you had created it (at least I couldn't find a way). However, using playlists created in Windows Media Player look to be a little more flexible since you can reorder tracks in WMP...and it looks like MediaShout will most of the time pickup changes made in WMP, although it looks like you have to restart MediaShout for it to see any NEW playlist you might create in WMP. Does this sound like expected behavior?
Thanks again!
So, I thought for sure I had previously tried (patiently) waiting for the first song in the playlist to play to see what came next and it always seemed to be the same next song. I had never thought about the 1 or 2 second blank track. Actually it looks like that does work, but it's dependent on the shuffle option being selected in the Audio Playlists window, even if that's closed and you're playing it from a script control. Yes, it does look like that will work for my needs (as long no one has messed with the shuffle option), but it still might be worthwhile to investigate an actual implicit option for this in the script control so it's not tied to the Audio Playlists window setting.
Also, I've just started playing with Playlists, and didn't realize you couldn't reorder songs in a list once you had created it (at least I couldn't find a way). However, using playlists created in Windows Media Player look to be a little more flexible since you can reorder tracks in WMP...and it looks like MediaShout will most of the time pickup changes made in WMP, although it looks like you have to restart MediaShout for it to see any NEW playlist you might create in WMP. Does this sound like expected behavior?
Thanks again!
Jan 23, 2019
Ryan Zeeck
agent
wrote
Hey Thomas,
Yeah, I had to go through a few times during my testing to make sure it began to Shuffle after that first song. I'm glad that seems to work for you! Yes, we are still looking into the possibility of adding action buttons for the Playlist outside of that Playlist window.
Yes, that is something that I have frustration with as well. You are correct in saying that you cannot reorder the songs in the playlist through MediaShout. Yes, I have seen better success with running it from WMP. This is the expected behavior. I'll make sure to bring it up to the Team in our next meeting as something that we could look at adding/changing. Thanks for the info!
God Bless!
-Ryan
Yeah, I had to go through a few times during my testing to make sure it began to Shuffle after that first song. I'm glad that seems to work for you! Yes, we are still looking into the possibility of adding action buttons for the Playlist outside of that Playlist window.
Yes, that is something that I have frustration with as well. You are correct in saying that you cannot reorder the songs in the playlist through MediaShout. Yes, I have seen better success with running it from WMP. This is the expected behavior. I'll make sure to bring it up to the Team in our next meeting as something that we could look at adding/changing. Thanks for the info!
God Bless!
-Ryan