Playlist (or similar) to play ONLY tracks on a USB disk?

[Me My Self and I]

Well, it's getting close to Christmas...

I have all my Christmas music stored on a separate device so I don't get Christmas music in July. On a previous machine I had I could simply plug in a USB device into it and set it to play from USB (only). The B2 seems not to have this facility (or I've misunderstood it). I thought I could get around this by generating a playlist for only those tracks on the USB device. I've loaded my playlist into the USB disk, into a folder b2export\plalists\christmas.m3u and I've imported it into the B2. It is showing as having 0 tracks (or at least I presume that is what the (0) means) either way, it plays nothing.

Is it possible to start the B2 playing tracks (only) on a USB disk? If so, what is the magic trick required please.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi,

The B2 now has a "blacklist" playlist. Music entered in this will NOT be included in random play across your collection.

This means you can load you Xmas Music, make a playlist for it and listen to it random from this playlist. Also add the xmas music to a playlist called "blacklist" and this will not be included in random.

Does this help?

Fred

[Mark Fishman]

You don't like Christmas music in July? That's very unfair to new songs: as Tom Lehrer said, in order to get your song played by Christmas, you have to start plugging it in May.

I, on the other hand, don't like Christmas music in December, as all the stores start playing it at Hallowe'en and by Thanksgiving I'm sick of it. So I understand your problem, just backwards...

[harlond57]

I have one Christmas disc on my Brennan.  It includes, among other songs, Robert Earl Keen's Merry Christmas From The Family , the Vandals Hang Myself From The Tree, Eric Idle's F__k Christmas, the Killers' Don't Shoot Me Santa, and the Pogues' Fairy Tale Of New York.  That's a Christmas disc I can tolerate.

[PMB]

Hi mkste...,

Playlists on the B2 are simply lists of titles, saved as text, that tell the B2 what to play next - there is no music saved in Playlists - that's on the B2's hard drive.

m3u playlists are not compatible with the B2.

You could try putting all of your Christmas music in one Album (folder) on the USB stick (with the Artist as Christmas) and then ask the B2 to play that Album - when you view your music on the web UI, the tracks on the USB stick will be listed below those on the hard drive and have a yellow icon (rather than a white one).

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Me My Self and I]

Thanks Paul. 

.m3u playlists are quite a common format and it surprises me they are not supported.

The problem with your suggestion is that it could really mess up the organisation of all my other music players and storage systems. I *could* copy all the tracks out onto a USB, then *could* attempt to move the tracks into a single folder, change all the artists, then plug it into the Brennan, try to find that *album* and start it playing. Would it play only that album in random sequence? Would the correct artwork be displayed on the web interface?

Sadly I don't have the inclination to find out.

I've bought a small fanless PC with built in LCD screen to replace the B2, popped MusicBee onto it and plugged in the USB with Christmas music on it. Result? I now have a music player with an always on HD display for the artwork, touch controls, HDMI output, a VNC server to view and control remotely, and a fixed IP address that works rather more as I'm used to and at a much lower price than the B2.

The B2 will be heading to an online retailer once the Christmas break (and the need for the Christmas music) has ended.

Trying to navigate the menus is infuriating enough, and not being able to play from USB has made the decision for me. Oh I wish my HiFidelio hadn't failed after fifteen years...

[Mark Fishman]

>  I've bought a small fanless PC with built in LCD screen

Make and model? Might be useful info for some other folks who have similar requirements to yours, for whom the B2 doesn't quite match up.

[Jeff. M.]

Mark, I posted 2 days ago, I have bought a raspberry pi 3, currently running it into my amp via USB, and the sound is excellent, when I get a dac hat for it, should be even better! Very pleased so far! 

[Mark Fishman]

The RPi3 doesn't quite match the description of the item purchased by the other fellow. He has something with a built-in LCD screen, and it runs MusicBee (software to play digital files). I think that MusicBee runs on Microsoft Windows. Thus it is highly unlikely that his "small fanless PC" is an RPi. I'd be interested in knowing what he bought, that's all.

[Jeff. M.]

I realise that, just chucking another option in there. 

[Brennan Support]

Hello mkste

Martin Brennan here

B2 uses m3u for internet radio. Its a simple text file. I would be interested to see the playlist file (or a snippet) you wanted to import.

Generally I'll add features if there is a demand and it won't add complexity.

An m3u file has to somehow specify a path for each item of music (for internet radio its a url) I am not sure how that would work if you had an m3u file on a computer then moved all the files to a USB memory because the path would change. The path for a file normally includes the mount point and that would be different again when you plug the USB into a different computer. Thats why it would be interesting to see your example

Martin

[Me My Self and I]

The m3u playlist was one generated by MusicBee on exporting the playlist to USB.

It would have content similar to this:

\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-14 - You Can't Rule Me.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-13 - My Heart Would Know.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-12 - Somebody Was Watching Over Me.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-11 - Going Where the Lonely Go.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-10 - High And Lonesome.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-09 - Last Kind Words Blues.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-08 - You Led Me To The Wrong.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-07 - It Don't Bother Me.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-06 - Can't Let Go.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-05 - Searching For My Love.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-04 - Trouble With My Lover.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-03 - Go Your Way.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-02 - The Price of Love.mp3
\Robert Plant & Alison Krauss\Raise the Roof (Deluxe)\1-01 - Quattro (World Drifts In).mp3

[Generated for a "recent" playlist exported in the same way]

Sadly, there have been a number of frustrations with the usability of the b2, the inability to play a Christmas list being the last straw and I've replaced it.

I'm currently using a Lenovo 10" tablet/laptop convertible running Windows 10 and MusicBee. Using this means I can perform full control of it using VNC, supply it with a static IP address (hooray!), give it access to a network storage device and see what is playing at a glance. The Lenovo is great value being rather less than the b2.

I'm sad that my time with the b2 wasn't all I had initially hoped, I really had been spoiled by the unrivalled HiFidelio.