Takes many days before new music is played

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JWvanGulik
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Takes many days before new music is played

Post by JWvanGulik »

Hi, last Saturday I have added some music tracks and until today (so 4 days later) none of these music tracks were played. It goes without saying that I have the "LeastTimesPlayed" option in my script and that the music tracks could have been played based on their settings (e.g., year, mood and so on). Any idea why it takes so long before these new tracks are played? /JW
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radio42
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by radio42 »

Question is, how you added new tracks? When using folder based media libs, a simply copy into the folder is not enough.
You must trigger a rescan of that media lib in order to really get the new tracks into the lib - either manually or via the automatic options.
Are you sure, that the new tracks are loaded into the media lib?

If yes, it is probably any other history or restriction, rule set or a like, which prevents it!
At best you analyse the Script-Test output, why it might not be played.

Also note, that the "LeastTimesPlayed" mode has a bias towards new tracks. E.g. if all other tracks have been played 50 times, the LeastTimesPlayed mode would always select the new tracks until they have also been played 50 times.
As such, it sounds the LeastRecentlyPlayed mode might be better suited?
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by JWvanGulik »

Hi Bernd, thanks again for your quick answer. I think I'm using folder based media library (I never understood what this means), and I have the "Reload libs every" option set to 2 hours. Isn't this the same as rescanning manually?

The 50 times played system setting I didn't know. The music track with the most played times is 21 at this moment. I use a music library with around 3300 music tracks. It will take more than a year to reach the 50 times played at 24/7 non-stop! Since this threshold is new to me, I will try the "LeastRecentlyPlayed" setting and see if this brings anything. I remember that I tried this before and that it had some other negative effects, but let's try again. BRJW
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radio42
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by radio42 »

Not sure what you mean by “50 times played”??
Guess you are mixing the History size here, which has nothing to do with the LeastTimesPlayed mode.

A folder based libs take all tracks of a given folder (directory) and uses them as libraries entries.
A playlist base lib just uses those tracks contained in that playlist.

For the history settings I recommend watching the related tutorial video:
https://www.proppfrexx.radio42.com/foru ... f=5&t=1018
JWvanGulik
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by JWvanGulik »

Hi Bernd, so I guess I have a folder based library. All music tracks are in one folder and there is a "synced_.pfp" document in that folder that contains all the track information like mood, tempo, cue points, etc. When I open this "All Music" "playlist" I see all music tracks with their information and when I add a music track to the mentioned folder, I just drag this music track in the All Music playlist and add all required information. After I save this playlist the music track is known by the system and can be planned in a script.

The 50 times I mention is because you gave this example in your previous answer. I expected PF to choose first the LeastTimesPlayed track when selecting a next music track, but as explained this can take a long time. Yesterday I changed the script settings to select the "LeastRecentlyPlayed" option in my script and added 12 new tracks which contain 2 new artists and now, approximately 24 hours later, only one of the new tracks is played. None of the new artists are chosen by the script while there are no script rules preventing this. So my conclusion is that PF does not always take this "LeastRecentlyPlayed" setting as selection criteria. I understand that there is more to selection of music tracks than only the "LeastRecentlyPlayed" selection criteria (e.g., era, mood, group) but is seems that the "LeastRecentlyPlayed" or "LeastTimesPlayed" criteria is applied only when a track cannot be chosen based on other criteria's.

I hope I'm clear in my explanation. It's not a very big topic, because eventually all tracks will be selected. It just takes so long...

/JW
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by JWvanGulik »

I think I have found (part of) the problem. When a track is planned, it is added to the Global Song History (set to 1000 in my case). But when a new hour starts the new script starts and the planned track is not played any more. So the track is planned but not played. As a consequence of the GSH the track will not be scheduled for another 1000 tracks, while it wasn't played in the first place. How to make sure that the GSH only records played tracks? /JW
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by JWvanGulik »

Maybe a last addition to my previous posts, to simplify the problem. As mentioned, yesterday 12 new music tracks with 2 new artists were added to the system and a manual update rescan of the "All Music" folder was done. In my script, every 5th music track is planned to be a music track with grouping "D". No other requirements, just that. So at least those 2 new artist tracks with grouping "D" should have been selected by the script. This was not done and I still don't understand why. It cannot have to do with history settings, because the artists (and titles) are new. Hope this helps to find the problem. Thanks again, JW.
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radio42
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by radio42 »

That might explain a few things.
a) the _synced_.pfp file contained in a folder-based media lib is for internal use only, i.e. it contains the scanned files and simply acts as a reflection of the folder and is managed by ProppFrexx. If you modify this file manually, your changes will not be visible and even overwritten.
For adding new files to that folder based media lib, simply copy the audio files into that folder, e.g. by using the windows file explorer.
If you have defined and set the 'Auto Watch' option with that media lib, it will automatically be imported and is ready for use.
Else you need to Rescan that media lib manually or wait, til your automatic reload happens.

b) This is a normal history settings. Once a track is planned, it is placed in the global song history, so that it will according to your settings not be played again.
Planned but unplayed tracks of a playlist will after the program is stopped be removed from the global history again (this happens automatically)! However, as the new program/playlist already starts in advance of the current program, this removal has of course some delay. depending on your settings (e.g. if you resolve the full program til its end time) - the planned but unplayed track is considered at a later place.
Still, a history of 1000 sounds quite high - not sure how your Artist and Title and Album repeats are configured, but you have to make sure, that those numbers are not too big.
See this tutorial video for details: https://youtu.be/fJknoxnXOAQ
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by JWvanGulik »

Hi Bernd, still some questions here (sorry for that). The "Auto watch" option that you mention cannot be found by me in the Folders/Libraries settings. Do you mean "Auto Save"? That is on.

When I add a music track to the folder, I open the _synced_.pfp file, drag and drop the newly added music track in the list and update the information in the TAG-editor. After saving, this information remains in the file, no problem there. So I don't recognize what you write about "not be visible and even overwritten".

My media lib currently consists of 3284 music tracks with 1539 unique artists. My setting for extended history check for Artists is 375 or 1500 minutes. When I test my scripts this does not lead to any problems. The reason for this high Global Song History is (obviously) that I don't want to plan the same track to often. 1000 tracks roughly results in playing the same track possibly every 2.8 days (at 24/7). Of course, when the "LeastRecentyPlayed" setting would work like I expect, this high number would not be necessary.

Good to hear that the planned tracks are deleted from the GSH, although it may takes some time. So we can strike this possible problem from the list :-)

/JW
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Re: Takes many days before new music is played

Post by JWvanGulik »

Auto Save function found. I don't think I need this because every single track I add is manually updated in the TAG editor and saved to the playlist.
I lowered the numbers of the GSH and the Artists setting in the Extended History Check and it already seems to work better. When testing my script with the high settings, it returned no problems so I thought this was not the problem. But for now it looks already better. Thanks again for your insight.

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