Playlists ?

[rachaelandrews]

Unless I'm missing something, Boxee does not appear to support playlists.
Ideally I would like to be able to use my iTunes playlists in Boxee. I very rarely listen to music by artist or album.
Is this possible somehow, or if not, can it be done in a later version ?

Thanks.

[vulkan]

there is currently support for .pls and .m3u playlists. future versions (near future :)) will have better support for iTunes playback and playlists.

[rachaelandrews]

Hiya,

Interesting !

I downloaded an apple script to convert my itunes playlists into .m3u format but boxee doesn't like them and won't play. The screen goes blank and nothing happens. Pressing the menu button gets me back though so it's not as if it crashes boxee horribly or anything.
Any ideas ? I know it could be many things so any hints would be much appreciated.

[tsella]

1. if the itunes content is DRMed, we wont play it.
2. please open the m3u file (or PM it to me), and check the paths generated in it are correct and pointing to actual files.

from your description i think the issue is probably item 1 above.

[giyad]

Hiya,

I downloaded an apple script to convert my itunes playlists into .m3u format

Where did you get that from? please share :o

[DGMurdockIII]

anymore word on this has there been any progress on this

[jransomed]

I'm seeing the same issue of a m3u playlist going to a black screen. All of my music is DRM free. From what I can tell of the log file, it appears it is treating it as a slide show. If I highlight it from sources, it has a camera icon in the right pane. Probably explains why the screen goes black.

Giyad, I have a method using java to convert iTune playlists to m3u format. I've been using it from my Linux rigs, but it can be used in OSX as well. If you don't hear anything back on the apple script method and are interested let me know. I would imagine its not as point and shoot as an Applescript would be, but it gets the job done. ;-)

While on the subject of converting iTunes playlists to m3u, how does the location path work in relation to the path in sources.xml

As a rough example: Say the sources.xml listed music as H:/Users/me/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/
What would the path need to be for albums resting under "iTunes Music" in the m3u file?

I just want to make sure that as we are converting playlists to m3u files we aren't giving ourselves more headaches by having the m3u files referencing a path that Boxee isn't able to resolve.

[giyad]

I'm seeing the same issue of a m3u playlist going to a black screen. All of my music is DRM free. From what I can tell of the log file, it appears it is treating it as a slide show. If I highlight it from sources, it has a camera icon in the right pane. Probably explains why the screen goes black.

Giyad, I have a method using java to convert iTune playlists to m3u format. I've been using it from my Linux rigs, but it can be used in OSX as well. If you don't hear anything back on the apple script method and are interested let me know. I would imagine its not as point and shoot as an Applescript would be, but it gets the job done. ;-)

While on the subject of converting iTunes playlists to m3u, how does the location path work in relation to the path in sources.xml

As a rough example: Say the sources.xml listed music as H:/Users/me/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/
What would the path need to be for albums resting under "iTunes Music" in the m3u file?

I just want to make sure that as we are converting playlists to m3u files we aren't giving ourselves more headaches by having the m3u files referencing a path that Boxee isn't able to resolve.
i haven't heard back yet so I'll take whatever I can get!

[jransomed]

i haven't heard back yet so I'll take whatever I can get!

I'll try and get a quick howto written up and files posted for you this evening at the earliest and tomorrow at the latest. I've made it pretty quick and easy with a basic shell script.

[giyad]

I'll try and get a quick howto written up and files posted for you this evening at the earliest and tomorrow at the latest. I've made it pretty quick and easy with a basic shell script.

Take your time! I've been looking for a solution for a very long time...:D

[jransomed]

Take your time! I've been looking for a solution for a very long time...:D

I've got the files gathered into one folder with a shell script to help with the conversion process. I've had to upload them to a different location than the forum here as the file size was too large (1.7MB)

You can get the zip file from here:
http://peregrin.jmu.edu/~stevenjv/ConvertPlaylist.zip

A quick low down on how to use this solution:
====================================
The contents of this zip file will unzip to a folder named ConvertPlaylist with the following contents:
convertplaylist
itunesToM3u.xsl
saxon9.jar

The shellscript, convertplaylist, is pretty basic and needs to be executed from the terminal. Make sure it is executable by executing:

chmod 700 convertplaylist

Now that the script is ready, Select the playlist of your choice in iTunes, and export it to XML (Save it in the ConvertPlaylist directory and be sure to remove any spaces or special characters)

From your terminal execute the following:
*Note: When entering your playlist name, do not include the file extension .xml


./convertplaylist yourplaylistname

An Example would be as follows for a playlist with the filename: Boxeerules.xml


./convertplaylist Boxeerules

This will output a m3u file named Boxeerules.m3u

====================================

I hope this helps. I can't credit for the itunesToM3u.xsl stylesheet. I found it somewhere online. Please let me know if something seems amiss.

[curveo]

Hey there
the convert script works great but the playlist shows up as a slide show in my Boxee for both video and audio playlists..I'm I missing something here or is there another way to open the playlist that i should try?

thanks,

[jamesfoster]

yeah I get the same with m3u.

I just tried creating a video playlist using the pls format. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLS_(file_format)

unfortunately the pls file acts like a folder.

I was hoping for continuous play of all videos one after the other. it would also be nice to shuffle the videos and repeat all (ideal for music videos).

anyway, keep up the good work.

[jeramyn]

I'd love to see this feature. I have a hodge podge collection of music with only one or two songs/artist or songs/album so it doesn't really do me any good to play songs by an artist or album. I think shuffling all songs or by playlist would be really helpful. By the way I'm new to boxee and it is really incredible! good bye cable! Great work!

[cewan]

I also vote for playlists. This is probably the only reason why I am still using XBMC instead of Boxee.

[justinny]

I have tried a few different things with my m3u list and clicking the "i" button once the play list starts to run just displays the incrementing "1/9, 2/9," etc. I have no issue running/playing music while browsing my Windows share target, but the m3u isn't working.

I have tried:

/file/path/here.mp3
file/path/here.mp3
smb://192.168.1.2/file/path/here.mp3

etc. I'm wondering if it's because there are spaces in the filenames? I read a post that I should replace spaces with "\040" on a Ubuntu forum, but then not sure the files would play when browsing (although i could see how they could as resolution is likely different)...

Anyway, here's the .m3u text. Any help is GREATLY appreciated!!:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:229,A Tribe Called Quest - Bonita Applebum
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/Tribe/A Tribe Called Quest - Bonita Applebum.mp3
#EXTINF:128,De La Soul - Baby Baby Baby Baby ooh Baby
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/De La Soul/De La Soul - baby baby baby baby ooh baby.mp3
#EXTINF:230,EPMD - Crossover
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/EPMD/EPMD - Crossover.mp3
#EXTINF:270,EPMD - So Whatcha Sayin'
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/EPMD/EPMD - So Whatcha Sayin'.mp3
#EXTINF:314,Faith Evans - Love Like This (Crooklyn Clan remix)
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/Faith Evans/Faith Evans - Love Like This (Crooklyn Clan remix).mp3
#EXTINF:258,Ice Cube - Put Your Back Into It
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/Ice Cube/Ice Cube - Put Your Back Into It.mp3
#EXTINF:243,LL Cool J - Phenomenon
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/LL Cool J/LL Cool J - Phenomenon.mp3
#EXTINF:219,LL Cool J - The Booming System
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/LL Cool J/LL Cool J - The Booming System.mp3
#EXTINF:206,Nice N Smooth - Hip Hop Junkies
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/NiceNSmooth/Nice N Smooth - Hip Hop Junkies.mp3
#EXTINF:248,Slick Rick - Monalisa
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/Rap/SlickRick/Slick Rick - Monalisa.mp3
#EXTINF:159,Various - Hits From The Bong - Cypress Hill
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/!!Music/Music2+Billboards/ATO Afterhours/ATO Afterhours VOL V/08 - Hits From The Bong - Cypress Hill.mp3
#EXTINF:294,Various - Insane In The Brain - Cypress Hill
smb://192.168.1.2/Media/Media/MP3/!!Music/Music2+Billboards/ATO Afterhours/ATO Afterhours VOL V/07 - Insane In The Brain - Cypress Hill.mp3

[laniddog]

I've been using
http://itunes-export.en.softonic.com/
It works well, you may have to play with the path to make it work. But it will convert any or all of you iTunes playlist to .M3u playlist, most media players/ servers can play it. Best of all it'd FREE!

[jamesfoster]

there is currently support for .pls and .m3u playlists. future versions (near future :)) will have better support for iTunes playback and playlists.

why does an m3u file of videos not work?

[Andra]

I would love to see support for my iTunes playlists, especially the Smart Playlists. Don't forget the ability not only to sort, but also to shuffle these lists.

I'd also love to see proper support of Music Videos, especially combined with playlists and shuffle.

I want MY mtv! Ever noticed how MTV actually leaves out the M in their logo, and just uses the TV? How very appropriate, don't you think?

[jamesbaker]

I thought I'd try my hand at editing the .m3u to get it to work and I managed to pull it off.

Note: I'm accessing these files over my network (One Hackintosh to another) via smb ... if your playlist and files are stored locally (or if you're using Windows and/or linux), then this won't work.

Assuming you used jransomed's method above,

1. Open up the .m3u file in TextEdit
2. Press ⌘ + F
3. In the find box, type "Users/yourusernamehere"
4. In the replace box, type "smb://YOURCOMPUTER'SSMBNAMEHERE"
5. Click Replace All
6. Save your file and go test it out on your boxee box!

If you're not using smb, but want to be so you can follow this guide, go here: http://support.boxee.tv/forums/49599/entries/43168

[panamamike]

What's the deal with playlist functionality? Does Boxee plan on trying to make this happen or is this a dead end?

Mike

[NomadDNA]

What's the deal with playlist functionality? Does Boxee plan on trying to make this happen or is this a dead end?

Mike


It's on the roadmap... just a few hills between here and there.

[noahcoad]

I was experiencing the same issue and found the problem/solution. The playlists that don't work (for me) were encoded in Unicode (two bytes per character). When converted to UTF-8 (like iTunes outputs) the same playlists worked fine.

All that talk of using this program or that to generate a working playlist was probably because of the output encoding they used. Of course I wish Boxee would read a Unicode file just fine... where do I file that bug?

cheers

p.s. I just opened the 'bad' playlists in Notepad2, chose File > Encoding > UTF-8, saved, and then they'd work fine.

[judgeschambers]

Not necessarily a bug.

http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?p=133624#post133624

[noahcoad]

judgeschambers, are you saying that boxee being able to read a UTF-8 encoded text playlist but not a unicode playlist (exact same file content) is not a bug? Is Boxee meant to not support unicode files for some reason?

(To be clear, this has nothing to do with the contexts of the text file. Just the file system's way of storing the file on disk. Which is what I suspect is what all these threads boil down to, some apps use UTF-8 (or ASCII) encoding and some use unicode (2-bytes per character))