Music shuffle

[SeanS 2]

I have movies and music on my server and use my TV to play music quite a lot but prefer my library to be on shuffle. There seemed to be an issue with actually shuffling every song in my music folder so I was advised to press play on the MUSIC folder icon and this would shuffle every track. This works but only issue is that the shuffle starts again from the exact same song each time and play in the same order as the last time I listened ? Any work around for this ?

 

[Luke 37022]

 

 

press play on the MUSIC folder icon

 

Hi, this is not a shuffle function, this is Play All. Have you tried clicking the buttons that say "Shuffle" ?

[SeanS 2]

The play all works as a shuffle though, this was a workaround that you said I should do because if you go into the folder and press the shuffle button then this only shuffles the songs ina particular folder / album. Is does not shuffle the entire library

[Luke 37022]

Really, where did i say that? The play all is definitely not a shuffle. It never has been.

[SeanS 2]

 Sorry I see wasn't you but was Speechles. It was in the ROKU shuffle post (sorry I should have done it in Samsung TV) and was on the 22 Sep 2019. Am trying to paste the answer but I am bit retarded. Have pasted in below

 

It actually does work as a "shuffle" for my entire library of songs (library is made up of folders (albums) and then individual songs. But it starts every time with the same song and then shuffles in the same order. It does shuffle all "songs" though.

 

If I try the shuffle button in the library itself it always seems to select a random album and then only shuffles songs within that album, it does not shuffle the library

Edited October 8, 2019 by SeanS

[SeanS 2]

[Luke 37022]

Ok I think he meant you open the menu and then in the menu there will be a shuffle option. In any case, Play all and Shuffle are two different things.

 

Does this clear things up?

[SeanS 2]

No it doesn't. The shuffle inside the menu does not shuffle all of the songs. It only shuffles songs within an album.

 

The workaround for "play all" actually does "shuffle" my entire library but it still starts with the exact same song every time and then shuffles but follows exactly the same sequence every time.

 

I don't understand how shuffle can be such an issue ? especially with regards music.

[Luke 37022]

 

 

No it doesn't. The shuffle inside the menu does not shuffle all of the songs. It only shuffles songs within an album.

 

Can you please go over an example? thanks.

[SeanS 2]

Ok so as have previously explained I have a menu which is set up as music.

 

This has folders inside the main music folder and these are the album. There are also individual songs inside the library as they are not linked to an album

 

When I open the music library / menu then there are the following menus on the top - suggestions - albums - album artists - playlists - genres - folders

 

All of the folders (albums) are showing and there is a PLAY ALL - SHUFFLE - SORT BY TITLE button

 

If I press the shuffle button then it basically randomly selects an album / folder and then starts playing a song within the album but when it advances a track then it remains inside the album

 

It does not select all of the tracks within the library and then shuffle.

 

Not sure if there should be a menu at the top for SONGS and then you could go on to that and shuffle then it would shuffle all of the songs in the library

 

In plex I can go into the library and just press shuffle and it will shuffle all songs inside the library

[SeanS 2]

[Happy2Play 8252]

@@Luke

 

I would say this has nothing to do with a specific client as I get the same in the web client.  If you go to Music-Albums and select shuffle, Emby will randomly pick one album and play it sequentially and stop at the end of the album.

 

Depending on your expectations of the feature it does work since it randomly plays a album, but should it continue to another random album since one is shuffle playing from albums?

Edited October 8, 2019 by Happy2Play

[SeanS 2]

@@Luke

 

I would say this has nothing to do with a specific client as I get the same in the web client.  If you go to Music-Albums and select shuffle, Emby will randomly pick one album and play it sequentially and stop at the end of the album.

 

Depending on your expectations of the feature it does work since it randomly plays a album, but should it continue to another random album since one is shuffle playing from albums?

 

Happy2Play - Thanks you have confirmed exactly what I have getting on this side.

 

What I am trying to "shuffle" is my entire library of songs and not just within an album.

 

The "play all" when you press play on the LIBRARY itself does actually shuffle all songs but it starts with the exact same song each time and plays the same shuffle order as the previous time.

 

To me the fix would be a SONGS menu at the top and then go onto that and then press shuffle

[Luke 37022]

Ok yes, this shuffle needs to be improved, certainly. There is some trickiness here because you're  looking at album folders, not individual media.

 

We are working on improving this. Thanks.

[SeanS 2]

Thanks, is only thing I have found which is a pain for me.

 

Have been using Plex for about 2 years and have moved over to Emby and there are a lot of things I prefer on Emby.

[EZEd 53]

Ok yes, this shuffle needs to be improved, certainly. There is some trickiness here because you're  looking at album folders, not individual media.

 

We are working on improving this. Thanks.

 

Each time I see this topic I just feel compelled to comment (only because it is the last remaining thing on my wish list for the expectations of Emby). Please, please, please add the ability to simultaneously play random pictures from the photo library while playing random/shuffled music by genre.  As I've stated many times before in different threads about this topic, this is the last remaining capability holdover from WMC7 that I don't have in Emby that would make my transition officially complete and I could forget about WMC forever.  This was a feature that we used a great deal in our household from WMC and is sorely missed.

 

Currently I get around the limitation by setting up huge genre based music playlists which handles the music side but then I can't random play all pictures in my library simultaneously.  You can only play pictures from a specific folder and then not in random order while playing the music.

 

Please throw this in to the development loop when you work on the random play music capability.  Your work is greatly appreciated and you guys would be become the gods of the industry, in my opinion, if you could make that happen.

 

One other quick related question, is it on the development map to also include visualizations during music play in the future?  Soundspectrum G-Force was always my favorite but any that you could integrate into Emby for use would be great.  I suspect this latter capability would have to come in as a plugin, correct?

 

Let us know.  Thanks a lot

Ed

[SeanS 2]

Not sure if this is the same issue but I wasn't able to play music in the background while trying to have photos scroll on the TV ? Music would play in the background but as soon as I opened the photos library and then selected a photo to show on screen and then shuffle it would pause the music in the background

[Luke 37022]

Not sure if this is the same issue but I wasn't able to play music in the background while trying to have photos scroll on the TV ? Music would play in the background but as soon as I opened the photos library and then selected a photo to show on screen and then shuffle it would pause the music in the background

 

Thanks, we'll take a look at that.

[EZEd 53]

Thanks, we'll take a look at that.

 

@@Luke, I don't know if it is possible but a way to get around this might be to allow simultaneous playback of two different playlists.  The user could construct both music playlists and pictures playlists and then have the server play both simultaneously.  Or maybe even allow a combined playlist (single entity) that could point to both pictures and music files in the library and play them both simultaneously.  It would be a bit of chore to set up ahead of time but could be a work around until we could get true simultaneous random play from both media types directly from folder structure.  I might also add that there used to be a photos slideshow visualization called MyMemories that could work as the random photo engine but is seen by the media player as a visualization.  So by getting Emby music player to work with visualizations you'd almost kill two birds with one stone and get the random photos player as a bonus.  Do check out both Soundstream and MyMemories websites and you'll get the idea.

 

Thanks again

Ed

[Luke 37022]

Yes that's something we need to do.

[SeanS 2]

Any updates on this ?

[Luke 37022]

We are working on improving this. Thanks for the feedback.

[serpi 72]

Hi,

 

with the new .71 version you could try pressing the Info button of your remote when you are on the home screen at your music library.

 

You will get on menu and there should be an item named random play (or similar, for me it's german Zufällige Wiedergabe).

 

This should, well, random play your music library (or any other library/folder you select).

 

At least this worked on ET for Windows, I would think, the Samsung app does now the same (haven't tried it yet). (Now I tried, it does)

 

Ciao, Alfred

Edited January 5, 2020 by serpi

[SeanS 2]

I tried this and doesn't work on my Samsung app. It still only plays one album and shuffles within that album

[Luke 37022]

Yes we are still looking into this. Thanks.