Playlist -- what exactly is a duplicate entry?

[Mark Fishman]

Since a Brennan playlist doesn't like having a "duplicate entry" -- apparently it thinks they are the same entry and gets confused about where in the list it actually is -- I started wondering how the Brennan software is actually dealing with lists, and what, EXACTLY, constitutes a "duplicate".

Let me explain MY confusion, and then someone else can try to explain Brennan's confusion.

I have a lot of classical music. Movements in classical works are often -- not always -- referred to by their tempo indications, so it's not uncommon to have a lot of concerti, say, that have a first movement with the title "Allegro".

I have more than one performance of some works, because while the notes are the same the interpretation can be very different. Each conductor or performer will emphasize some characteristics over others. So I have three or four recordings of the Beethoven piano concerti, for example, by different pianists, orchestras, and conductors. But the names of the concerti are the same, and the names of the movements are the same, even if the artists are different.

If I wanted to make a playlist with three performances of the same concerto by different performers, all three albums would have the same name, and each of the tracks in each of the albums would have matching names.

Would those be considered "duplicate entries"? Not to me, of course, but my brain runs on different software from my B2.

What EXACTLY is the Brennan software doing that it could possibly have trouble with two entries having the same name, and being from albums with the same name?

Technical details would help immensely. Thanks -- Mark F.

[Daniel Taylor]

Although I can't speak for Brennan...  I would expect that the pathname, having a different artist, should be sufficient to differentiate one song from another.  But that would not be a true duplicate.

If someone, say for a test, were to go into the playlist text file and copy the pathname on one line and create another exact copy of that pathname on another line, then that would be a duplicate.  But I really have no idea why that would cause the Brennan software any problem.  It would just mean that that song might be played twice as much as any other.

So there's probably more to this.

[Mark Fishman]

> there's probably more to this.

Indeed.

I had a high-school chemistry teacher who used to tell us not to overcomplicate things. I also had a coworker who wrote software and, in his own words, frequently "out-clevered" himself.

Surely the easiest way to deal with a playlist is just to play the entries in the list? and, if the list is shuffled ("random"), just build a shuffled list and play the entries in that?

Something more complicated is going on, if it's possible to identify one entry as being the same as another entry. It seems to me to be a needless complication, more work than is necessary.

But, then, I have no idea what the software is actually doing -- which is why I'd like details.

[PMB]

Hi All,

I'm running some tests and trying to replicate the problem.

Paul

Brennan Support.