MediaMonkey forum

I am using the latest 5.0.4 beta.

I am unsure if this is a bug or by design and seek clarity.

Using the Column Filter from the Artists view, I select a year. I right click on that year and select Play Shuffled > Play Mixed.

My expectation is that MM would start playing shuffled tracks from the selected year immediately after clicking on Play Mixed, but it does not. I have to manually click on the Play button after making the selection.

Note: This is from the initial open of MM5 and no tracks were presently being played.

No feedback from the design /development /support team?

@Peke

MMW 5.0.4.2667 beta: I can confirm this behavior.

Hi,
I can't replicate in 2672. Hmmm strange.

Debug log supplied in ticket could help us see what is going on.

Update to Version 2672 Beta (Mode: Standard)
Please watch the video. The songs are transferred to NowPlaying, but no song is played automatically.

https://www.file-upload.net/download-15 ... d.wmv.html

Hi,
That is by Design, only Play Now ever executed playback after adding to Playlist all other only added to playlist non interrupting current player state.

Only reasonable usable case I see (at least how I look at it) is that when Now Playing is Empty and playback is stopped should execute Play start after adding to Now playing. But that is also per user needs.

Thank's

Thanks all. It seems strange behavior /design decision to me.

I could understand if there were contents already in the play list or if there was already content playing. In that case, play next or play last could be applicable. However, starting from an empty playlist and no active content, it seems reasonable to expect 'Play Mixed' to immediately begin playing upon selection, similar to play now.

It is a minor thing to take an additional step.

Well, I must say even though I rarely used this, I would most certainly expect a command that is entitled "Play Shuffled" to place my songs in the queue and start playing them, if not already.

If I wanted them to be added without starting playback, I would look for a command entitled "Add to now playing", which would then be expected add them, and not affect the playing state.

Of course, I am the same person who thinks the command "Play next" should work whether or not "Shuffle" is turned on. I would expect it to play next regardless of how the rest of the list is being dealt with.

There are definitely some quirks in this media monkey that seem "not logical"

Hi,
Maybe "Play" should be renamed to "Add" as that is only confusion for Next/Last/Mixed otherwise Play Now is clear enough what it's doing



(according to PLAY NOW settings in Options)

I really don't think that would help, Peke. "Add Next" doesn't make a lot of sense. From my view, the right answer is to re-evaluate the design decision around this as it seems illogical from a blank queue starting position. If something else was already queued or playing, then I could understand a little better.

It should not be a big effort to introduce logic where "Play" is inferred when working with a blank Play list /nothing playing at the time of selection. I could go so far as inferring 'Play' for any of those selections (Play Next, Play Last, Play Mixed, etc) if the current play list queue is blank.

Frankly, I agree with the earlier post in this thread as well, with regard to 'Play Next'. Regardless if I have shuffle enabled or not, Play Next should do exactly that, IMHO. Play Next...

That won't be what everyone wants. Some will build Playlists there before starting playback, even when it's empty to start with.

Seriously, this is the response. Obviously the current design is NOT what

everyone

wants either!

Why not make it a checkbox option then and satisfy both groups instead? Any other solution that improves the design.

This would not involve a great deal of technical effort to by-pass the code section if the option is unchecked.

I'm not sure, but I think that Peke's suggestion would probably clarify things and solve most of the confusion. i.e. if we changed the terminology to better reflect what the command does, it would look like:
- Play now, Queue next, Queue last
- Play shuffled: Play now, Queue next, Queue mixed, Queue last
- Play shuffled (by Album): Play now, Queue next, Queue last

Taking this approach would allow anyone to initiate playback normally/shuffled/shuffled by album, and once playback is in progress, to add to the queue in the manner desired. (note: I thought about 'Shuffle' / 'Shuffle (by Album)', but that could imply that the list will be shuffled).

IIUC, the additional improvement being suggested would be to add on option to modify the menus when playback is stopped so that every play command also initiates playback. e.g. "[x] When playback is stopped, show Play commands instead of Queue commands" (Tooltip: This allows files to be queued and played in one step, but prevents files from being queued without initiating playback.) The menu (when playback is stopped) would look like:
- Play now, Play next, Play last
- Play shuffled: Play now, Play next, Play mixed, Play last
- Play shuffled (by Album): Play now, Play next, Play last

I was originally thinking that this could be useful because it can save a mouse-click, but seeing the menu structure makes the negative consequences of this approach much clearer. On the positive side, it would be possible to e.g. 'Play mixed' and save a mouse-click. BUT, the benefit is minimal since 'Play mixed' is used for editing the queue and more often than not when it (and other edits / additions to the queue) are performed it's preferable but no longer possible to make more than a single edit to the Playing queue without initiating playback.

-Rusty

I was thinking about this and came up with the following idea, which upon closer examination is exactly what you (Rusty) proposed firstly above, so I vote for that, either terminology is fine!!!

- Play now, Add next, Add last
- Play shuffled: Play now, Add next, Add mixed, Add last
- Play shuffled (by Album): Play now, Add next, Add last

If playback is not underway, the user would most likely want the track(s) in question to start immediately and thus use the play now option, or would be satisfied if it was added further down, and initiate playback separately.

If playback is already underway, all options would work correctly