Request: File Tag Repo - Playlist(m3u) Support

[wuench]

I have moved to the File Tag Repo from iTunes and am much happier. It seems to be working pretty well.

The only issue I have had is that CQC seems to be a lot pickier with JPG's than other apps. Specifically I was downloading and embedding cover art in my files using Winamp and CQC just didn't like the image. Even if I saved it off to a separate directory. Opening it with mspaint and resaving it fixes it, so I figure it is a bad checksum or something. I have noticed this when importing into the IE too, CQC is just more strict about JPGs.

Anyhow, the one thing that seems to be lacking with the File Tag Repo is playlist support. Is there anyway we could get this added at some point?

[Dean Roddey]

I guess I could come up with some simple text format for you to create playlists and put it in the top level directory of the repository or something.

On the JPEG thing, that's the only place where we use third party code. Doing a JPEG codec was just too much work for these busy days. Back in the day I'd have done it, and we have our own ZLib/PNG support. But there just wasn't that luxury later on when JPEG was added. So we can't really do much to change how that works.

[wuench]

I was more concerned with reading them into CQC than writing them, since the File Tag Repo can't be edited directly, but I guess creating them in CQC is good too. If you follow a standard like m3u then they can be created in other apps. The m3u format is pretty simple. Here is a link I found on the format:

http://hanna.pyxidis.org/tech/m3u.html

Looks like it is just a line with the length of track, track name, and then a following line with the file location.

Here is a sample of one I created from Winamp:

Code:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:272,Sammy Hagar - The Message
d:\music\WMA\Sammy Hagar\Ten 13\04-The Message.wma
#EXTINF:258,Sammy Hagar - Deeper Kinda Love
d:\music\WMA\Sammy Hagar\Ten 13\05-Deeper Kinda Love.wma
#EXTINF:216,Sammy Hagar - Little Bit More
d:\music\WMA\Sammy Hagar\Ten 13\06-Little Bit More.wma
#EXTINF:274,Sammy Hagar - Ten 13
d:\music\WMA\Sammy Hagar\Ten 13\07-Ten 13.wma

[Dean Roddey]

OK, yeh, that would be easy enough to read. I wasn't really talking about creating them in CQC, just that there would have to be some format for you to create in some way. But if that's a well used standard, and it's simple, it would be easy enough.

So are they commonly in one file in the main directory of the repository, or is there just one file with multiples of them, or is each playlist a separate file, etc...?

[wuench]

I think each playlist is a separate file. Here is the wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3U

It looks like a there are a couple of format versions. But the one above is what came out of winamp when I exported it and looks like the original version 1.

I think the playlist files can be located anywhere as long as you reference the entire mp3 or wma file path. Otherwise it looks like it can use relative type paths as well.

[rm1759]

was this support implemented in the file tag repository?

[Dean Roddey]

Not yet, no.

[Dean Roddey]

So I got the code written for this today. Haven't tested it, and I'm sure that someone will find some problem or other that I'll need to fix. But basically it's there.

[IVB]

Sweet! I just tried exporting a sample m3u playlist from JRMC, here's what it outputs. Is that basically what you're reading in?

Code:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:353,(Da Le) Yalleo - Santana
\\Antec1200\Production_Data\Shared_Important_Info\My Music\JRMC\Santana\Supernatural\0547.mp3
#EXTINF:199,(There's Gotta Be) More to Life - Stacie Orrico
\\Antec1200\Production_Data\Shared_Important_Info\My Music\JRMC\Stacie Orrico\Now, Vol. 14\00B4.mp3
#EXTINF:163,(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin
\\Antec1200\Production_Data\Shared_Important_Info\My Music\JRMC\Aretha Franklin\Aretha's Gold\(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.mp3

[Dean Roddey]

That should work. I'm ignoring the comments and directives. We don't need that since we already have all the info. I just look up the item that matches the path and build up the playlists that way.