• Registered: 2008-04-24
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Topic: Playlist of Playlists

A feature I would love to see in Cog (and one that I've never seen but always wanted in players for OS X, Windows, Linux) is the ability to create a "playlist of playlists."

A specific example being that one could queue up a entire playlist of full albums and be able to play these albums in random order (while not randomizing the tracks in each album or individual playlist).

One possible solution for this is to have each album folder contain it's own PLS/M3U file, with the ability to "queue up" as many of these user made playlists as one wants, and then play the playlists in sequential or random order. 


On a personal note, I am glad there is something like Cog available for OS X.  It seems the mac community relies far too much on iTunes and I'm far too 'old school' to like anything other than a media player with file/directory based navigation.

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  • Registered: 2007-07-08
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Re: Playlist of Playlists

Hmm, interesting.

I just tried to "manually" make an M3U (just a text file with a .m3u extension) and put 2 M3Us in that M3U.

When I open that M3U in Cog, it would actually add those 2 M3Us to Cog's playlist (unlike files of a non-supported format, which would not be added).

However, it would add those M3Us as entries (as if it were a song); it does not add the songs of the M3Us.

And those entries have an X (the "not found" symbol) in the Status column.

  • Registered: 2007-07-13
  • Posts: 94

Re: Playlist of Playlists

i think this would require something like vlc's approach where the playlist can have an entry for an album (or whatever) that can be expanded with a drop-down arrow thing - but i can't quite picture it working within cog's existing design.

edit: i mean, i'm sure it would be simple enough to add support so that if a playlist had an entry that was another playlist, the latter's contents would also be added to cog's list - but it would require more work/change to treat each album as a distinct entity once it had been added.

Last edited by hippy dave (2008-04-24 23:19:58)

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Re: Playlist of Playlists

I know from a previous thread that Vincent isn't too big a fan of tree views.

So VLC's approach is probably out of the question.

I would kinda agree. Though it may add a little more functionality, it would also take away from the simplicity and elegance of a simple list. (For instance, I don't like how in VLC, if you add an M3U to the VLC playlist, you have to expand the M3U to view the tracks. Complicates things for nothing.)


Yes, the simplest way would be to allow M3Us within M3Us (and M3Us within M3Us within M3Us, etc.) to load the M3U's tracks.

Of course, there would need to be a safeguard against situations, such as if M3U 1 points to M3U 2, which in turn points to M3U 1.

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  • Registered: 2007-07-31
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Re: Playlist of Playlists

Wow, that could collapse the universe... Maybe.

I don't want this, I think it bloats cog, without offering lots of benefit. Randomising albums can be done by hand when adding to the playlist.

m3u in an m3u might be good because I wouldn't know it was there...

  • Registered: 2008-04-24
  • Posts: 7

Re: Playlist of Playlists

  • Registered: 2007-07-19
  • Posts: 77

Re: Playlist of Playlists

Can an "album shuffle" mode be added that goes through all the tracks associated with a particular album, in order, before shuffling to a different one?  This doesn't seem to me to be a logistically difficult idea at all, and I feel like I've seen it before in at least one other player.   Wouldn't that cut the Gordian knot, so to speak?

  • Registered: 2007-07-13
  • Posts: 94

Re: Playlist of Playlists

personally this isn't something i'd want, i like my player to have a straightforward playlist of individual items like cog currently has. i'd have no problem with this kind of feature being added tho, as long as it could be disabled so the behaviour i like would be unchanged. not wanting to put words in our venerable host's mouth, but from previous discussions on various subjects, i don't think this is something he'd be up for - but who knows? smile

  • Registered: 2007-07-08
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Re: Playlist of Playlists

I'm very much an album listener, and I think your shuffle album idea is great. But that doesn't necessarily require multiple playlists.
In the past, I considered both the VLC approach as well as having playlists accessed through tabs. It's been a while though, so I don't quite remember why I decided not to go in that direction. It's likely that there was no pressing need and I forgot about it lol.

  • Registered: 2008-04-24
  • Posts: 7

Re: Playlist of Playlists

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Re: Playlist of Playlists

  • Registered: 2008-04-24
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Re: Playlist of Playlists

I suppose the next question in this scenario would be, how does Cog perceive an album to be a album?
Does it assume all files in a folder to be an album? (or assume all sub folders of a user defined directory location in preferences)
Does it see any files listed in a playlist file to be an album?
Or does it look at ID3 tag info and group by the Album field?  (assuming id3 tag info is correctly inputed)

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Re: Playlist of Playlists

Well, Repeat Album uses the Album metadata/ID3 tag.

Yes, there is the "catch" that all the MP3s in that album must have the same Album metadata, but MP3s ripped from the same album or bought from iTunes usually do.

And if you are just adding one folder after another, or a series of folders in one shot, songs of the same album should be kept "together."

  • Registered: 2007-07-19
  • Posts: 77

Re: Playlist of Playlists

  • Registered: 2008-04-24
  • Posts: 7

Re: Playlist of Playlists

  • Registered: 2007-07-13
  • Posts: 94

Re: Playlist of Playlists