WinAmp playlists

[PJPro]

I've taken the plunge and am moving away from WMP for streaming music. The reason? I want to rip my CDs to FLAC and stream them to my PS3. The only current choice (non beta) then is TVersity
To manage my files I'm using WinAmp. However, it does not seem to have one key capability....that is to generate playlists based on ratings.
With WMP you can rate a track and it will automatically appear in the appropriate rating playlist eg 5 star only, 4 star and 5 star, 3, 4 and 5 star, etc.
Anyone know if this is a training issue (for me), of a WinAmp plugin that'll generate the playlists I want or if I need to use a different media player/organiser.
I don't mind if I actually have to do something to generate the playlist as long as it can be achieved in a couple of mouse clicks.

 

[fr0g]

PJPro:I've taken the plunge and am moving away from WMP for streaming music. The reason? I want to rip my CDs to FLAC and stream them to my PS3. The only current choice (non beta) then is TVersity
To manage my files I'm using WinAmp. However, it does not seem to have one key capability....that is to generate playlists based on ratings.
With WMP you can rate a track and it will automatically appear in the appropriate rating playlist eg 5 star only, 4 star and 5 star, 3, 4 and 5 star, etc.
Anyone know if this is a training issue (for me), of a WinAmp plugin that'll generate the playlists I want or if I need to use a different media player/organiser.
I don't mind if I actually have to do something to generate the playlist as long as it can be achieved in a couple of mouse clicks.

Ok. I dont actually use ratings, or in fact the media library in Winamp, but after a quick play, its quite easy.

You need to be using its built in media library to catalogue all your music.
You rate songs from the playlist, (right click , rate)
Then in media library view, there is a 'top rated' button. This is smart view that shows songs above a certain rating. You can edit this, or add your own smart view. Then you just need to click the Create playlist button underneath the view of songs.

 

[PJPro]

Wicked! Thanks fr0g. Easy when you know how.
I'd be interested to know how you manage your library and playlists.
Essentially, I place my tracks into folders that I define using EAC. I then point WinAmp at that folder structure and get it to update it's library.
Within that structure I've created a playlists folder and any playlists I create using WinAmp, I save into the folder.
I then point TVersity at the root media folder and it picks up all of the media files and playlists so that they may be streamed to my PS3 or whatever. I have found that refreshing the media library in TVersity is a little flakey. It seems it will not return unless I add an additional, superfluous, media folder.

 

[fr0g]

To be honest, I have been simply being quite conciencious with my music folders (ie been using windows explorer to find my music)
I have a feew playlists, but for the most part I either listen to whole albums, or create on-the-fly playlists as I listen.
I have now just gone back to Helium music manager though, which is probably the best music management software I've used (Media monkey is probably 2nd IMO). It isn't free, but it's extremely flexible...

W

 

[PJPro]

Yes I prefer to manually create the folder structure in Explorer.
Have to say I have more media managers installed than I know what to do with...Media Monkey, WMP, FooBar and WinAmp. Don't like Media Monkey much. Do like WMP and WinAmp. FooBar is a bit plain but does do something useful for me - it corrects tag errors introduced into FLAC files by EAC it would seem!
I'll provide a little more info on this in another thread. I intend to create a new one to hold tips on TVersity I've come across while messing about with it the last day or so.
If you can't wait, try using FooBar to convert a FLAC file produced by EAC into another FLAC file. You'll find they are different sizes! I am assumung that the tag information is different due to symptoms exhibited in TVersity and on the PS3.

 

[fr0g]

PJPro:Yes I prefer to manually create the folder structure in Explorer.
Have to say I have more media managers installed than I know what to do with...Media Monkey, WMP, FooBar and WinAmp. Don't like Media Monkey much. Do like WMP and WinAmp. FooBar is a bit plain but does do something useful for me - it corrects tag errors introduced into FLAC files by EAC it would seem!
I'll provide a little more info on this in another thread. I intend to create a new one to hold tips on TVersity I've come across while messing about with it the last day or so.
If you can't wait, try using FooBar to convert a FLAC file produced by EAC into another FLAC file. You'll find they are different sizes! I am assumung that the tag information is different due to symptoms exhibited in TVersity and on the PS3.

It could be simply different compression levels. There is zero difference once uppacked. Fire up the the FLAC frontend if you have it, you will see you can set compression level from 0 to 8.

 

[PJPro]

Yes, I do have the FLAC Front End, so I am aware of the differing compressions which can be selected.

When I use Foobar to convert the files I am using FLAC 5, which I assume is the compression rating. I think EAC is using 8 (-8 is a commandline argument passed to flac.exe). However, I'm surprised that the difference in file size is just a few KB.

Thing is that EAC and Foobar are both using flac.exe to compress the files. I don't know what Foobar is doing....but whatever it is, it makes a file that doesn't work with TVersity and the PS3 suddenly work!

Stranger still is that it is only a few files which suffer from this condition, not all. Some albums will have 2 or 3 dodgy files. Others won't have any.

 

[fr0g]

PJPro:Yes, I do have the FLAC Front End, so I am aware of the differing compressions which can be selected.

When I use Foobar to convert the files I am using FLAC 5, which I assume is the compression rating. I think EAC is using 8 (-8 is a commandline argument passed to flac.exe). However, I'm surprised that the difference in file size is just a few KB.

Thing is that EAC and Foobar are both using flac.exe to compress the files. I don't know what Foobar is doing....but whatever it is, it makes a file that doesn't work with TVersity and the PS3 suddenly work!

Stranger still is that it is only a few files which suffer from this condition, not all. Some albums will have 2 or 3 dodgy files. Others won't have any.

Ah. Will be tags if its just in KB...
I wouldn't worry either way. Its pretty cool you can get FLACs streamed to the PS3 anyhoo.

Oh and apparently the next upgrade is gonna give access to the XMB from games..But you probably know that...

 

[PJPro]

Yeah, I'm really quite chuffed. Things seem to be coming together nicely.

I used TVersity in the past and hated it. However, the issues I encountered then I have managed to overcome (the main one being the refresh time for the library - drove me crazy).

I've been nosing around the Foobar site(s). Have to say, it appeals from a techie perspective. And given that I need it to fix dodgy FLAC files, I think I might dump WinAmp in favour of Foobar.