The simple case you see before you is to load the entire database into internal memory then it is a dead easy function. but you limit the database size (the playlist will also add). And as the server handles concurrent users who each can … and you have to deal with some user just repeatedly pressing shuffle …
Almost any other solution require you have som kind of shared state. This is normally messy and more so in upnp.
You could biild it so only one user at a time can use it. Then you could have a field you fill with a random number you sort on. This would be much slower and not useable as only one user at a time …
So if you want to solve it with a disk-based database and handle concurrent shuffle-all requests it would be costly in temporary disk usage and much more costly in execuion.
You could do various pseudo-shuffle-all functions … but then customer support would get bug-reports that ”ob la di ob la da” played three times the last hour. Or not heard at all over a weekend.
Note that I’m only guessing here, I dont know anything about the internal architecture of the Core. If forced to implement I would do a pseudo-shuffle-N. There are specialty darabases that could do it but they require resources probably not available in the Core. I just want you to understand why they not just give a quick answer, there are more to it than incompetent developers.
Thanks for your extensive answer. My question is - can it not be done by indexing? Just load the indexes into memory (referenced to the songs). I am not an expert as well. Once again I refer to the Olive - it did also support several terminals if I can call them this way.
Of course, the trouble is you would need to store the index somewhere. If you are the sole user you could store it in memory. the Core support 100k songs right? I’d guess the index is a 32-bit int so it’s 400kb of memory.
But the core support several users and if each requests shuffle then its 400kb x 10 users = 4Mb.
But when you think about it everyone should be able to use the same shuffle-index (it is randomized right so they dont know) so it is still 400kb.
As I said even so I can think of several ways to do it “good enough” with various pseudo-shufflers. So I basically agree with you especially since the previous iteration of the products supports it, my objection was mostly you would need to have a good think about how to implement it without breaking the good plug-in-and-use functionality of the core.
Thanks for agreeing with me. At the moment I still haven’t had a reply apart from an automated email. I don’t expect a solution straight away but at least they could send a note giving reasons for it or against it but doing nothing is not good customer service. For me these things are very influential in my buying decisions especially as I had very good customer service from Cyrus.
As mentioned previously I don’t want to shuffle my entire library but I’d like to be able to create a playlist that contains 2,000 or more CDs from my NAS and then shuffle that playlist.
Is it possible to do this with a SU/Asset/QNAP network?? I’ve installed Minim and Bubble servers for FLAC radio streaming and Tidal streaming respectively. Perhaps there’s another software that will allow for shuffle of large playlists?
On the old generation streamers, there is a workaround that will allow you to do this. You need your server to provide a track list, which you can then see in the UPnP input.
Play that whole track list from the Naim app, and it will work, but it will only play the maximum of 500 tracks. However, that is a limitation of the app, not the streamer, and if you start play using the remote, you can queue up the whole track list. Then return to the app, and you can resume control from there if you want.
That makes sense, can I use Asset, Minim, or Bubble for this or do I need to install additional software? If this process is explained elsewhere I can refer to that.
It’s been a while since I’ve used BubbleUPnP, and I’m not sure if you can do it with that. It works using the regular Naim app control. It doesn’t matter which server you use, as long as you can set it to give you a track view that you can see in the Naim app, which I’m pretty sure most can.
Ok, I went to all tracks under the upnp and added it to its own playlist from the pop out menu. I see the playlist with my other QNAP playlist under upnp playlists in the app. But I can’t figure out how to access them with the remote/player.
You can use the app to select random play, but then use the remote/front panel display to navigate to the UPnP input, select the full track list, and start play.
Asset has a Jukebox track selection option that will select 500 random tracks from your entire collection. I assume it’s a different 500 tracks each time - that should keep anyone going for most parties!
I’ve just noticed that you want to do this with a long playlist rather than your entire library. My solution should still work, except that you will need to log into your server and create your playlists there. Most servers can do this, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Again, find this playlist in the UPnP input via the remote, and you can play the whole thing in random order.
The problem I’m having is I can’t find the playlist (the all tracks playlist I created) with the remote looking at the SU menu. I can navigate in and out of the Asset, Minim, and Bubble, servers in the menu but I only see the playlists I created in Minim for the FLAC radio streams. Do I need to create a .m3u file for the playlist so I can see it?
To add to Chris’s solution, you can select a Genre from the remote and then press Play/Shuffle to get a random selection of similarly themed tracks. That’s certainly less work than creating a playlist and might be adequate for background listening.
To be honest, I don’t use Asset, so I’m not sure how you would use it to create a playlist. Once you’ve done it, you should be able to see it listed alongside other options such as album, artist etc. in the UPnP input menu. Maybe another Asset user will know, or you could ask on their forum.
Adrian’s idea of selecting random play in a genre could be another option, but I’m not sure if it would select random tracks, or random albums.
Thanks, yeah there’s some other options in there and I’ve been experimenting with them. I was just hoping to find one where I can easily make a large playlist and shuffle it.
