Default Playlist sorting

[Deafboy]

Hi,
i am using VLC as my default player for ages, but since one version (don't know exactly, but it is one, that is in official ubuntu jaunty repo.)
the default playlist sorting seems to be random.The issue is related to both qt and ncurses interfaces. In qt it can by easily workarouded by sorting the list manually. But in ncurses if I select whole folder (with [space] key), the playlist is screwed up and I cannot re-order it. The only workaround here is selecting the files one-by-one, which is anoying more and more with every new version of VLC. Is it really that hard to fix that, or am I the only one with this issue?



edit_________________

And today, I have realised that if filename consist of letters with diacritics, it is not played if the track was added one-by-one manually. If i select whole folder, the characters are shown in correct form and can be played. (Related to ncurses interface only) However, if I select whole folder, the playlist order is wired as I sayed before.

Please, someone from the videolan team - tell me if this is going to be fixed sometimes in the future, or i can start looking for some alternatives.
I am really sick of such bugs. Sometimes I don't want to debug, play with SW and finding workarounds. Just listen some music after long day

[GVK]

I have the same problem and am asking the same fundamental question.

Apparently, however, when a folder is opened, VPL does create some sort of internal default playlist for that folder. Presumably this playlist disappears once VLC is closed.

One crude solution is to have a playlist in EVERY folder that you want to play.

Meanwhile I'm going to see if there is some logic behind the arbitrary order that VLC creates.

BTW, the Audacious music player has the same problem ......

GVK

[GVK]

UPDATE:

I can find NO logical explanation or rational rule for how VLC generates a default playlist.

FYI, VLC on the Mac does the same thing - there is no folder open command in MacOS (that I can find), but dragging a folder to VLC results in the same arbitrary playlist order.

But for MP3s and other audio, both Movie Player and Audacious work correctly - files are played in numerical/alphabetical order (as they do on MP3 players).

Go figger - sounds like a BUG in VLC and should be reported as such.

GVK

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

VLC simply sorts files in the order that the operating system list them. That's why the same order comes all the time until the folder is changed. VLC is not alone. ogg123 does the same thing for instance.

[GVK]

See my post in the general VLC board (although behavior is better in MacOS - at least local directories are properly sorted). I have not tried Windows yet.

For Linux users, I recommend using Audacious to get around this problem with audio files, which occurs on BOTH networked AND local directories.

GK

[GVK]

For anyone tracking this issue, here is an update:

The way the command line file manager ls and the way Nautilus (the default file manager for some Linux distros, or Ubuntu at least) report the files in a directory ARE DIFFERENT.

The default listing mode for ls is to show the files in alphabetical order.

Nautilus can supposedly be configured to show files in the same order, although in my installation it refuses to do so; instead, it lists files in the order they were placed into the directory.

This is the same problem that people have when copying a batch of files from one drive (or mount point) to another - the files are copied in physical order, not by order of file name or attribute.

Anyway, the bottom line is that VLC plays files in the same order that Nautilus displays them, NOT in the order that the ls command reports in Terminal.

GVK

[GVK]

I have now demonstrated conclusively (to my satisfaction) that with VLC1.0.6 (Goldeneye) and Ubuntu 10.04 including the Nautilus File Manager, the playlist that is generated within VLC does not respect file name order regardless of how the files are reported by Nautilus (or by the command line ls).

Generate three files, 1.MP3, 3.MP3, and 4.MP3 in the same folder. Open the folder using Right click Open With and, successively, Movie Player, Audacious, and VLC. Note the implied or actually reported playlist, which will be as originally generated. Now rename one or two of the files - make 1.MP3 into 5.MP3, and 4.MP3 into 1.MP3 . See that the newly named files show up in alphanumeric order (if Nautilus is configured to arrange files that way). Repeat Open With. Movie Player and Audacious respect the renamed file order. VLC does not - it plays the files IN THE ORDER THAT THEY WERE ORIGINALLY ADDED TO THE FOLDER.

You can debate whether this is right or wrong, but it seems like every other multimedia player does what any sensible user would and should expect.

VLC 1.1.0 on Mac OS 10.6 also behaves in this incorrect way. I don't believe that VLC under Windows can be used to open a folder.

IMO, VLC in Ubuntu 10.04, at least (possibly this VLC version in all Linux installations) is BROKEN. (Judging from 1.1.0 on the Mac, the observation may apply to ALL versions on UNIX-like operating systems).

Best,
G. Kinal

[quiggitybiggity]

This is the same on Windows.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I think 1.2.0 does it better.

[fie]

I wrote a bash script to as a work around for this issue.

create an executable .sh file with the following contents

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash OIFS="$IFS" IFS=$'\n' files="" for var in "$@" do for file in `find "$var" -type f -name "*" | sort `; do files=$files`printf '%q' "$file"`" " done done echo -E "$files" | xargs vlc --one-instance --playlist-enqueue IFS="$OIFS"

Right click on a folder containing Music/Video, choose "Open With", click Other Application..., expand "use a Custom Command", select the bash script you created, Open. Tah-dah.

If anyone's got any improvements let me know.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

This has long been fixed in VLC 1.2 prereleases. Though in some cases, it seems the UI forces sorting based on the "selected" column of the playlist.

[fie]

This has long been fixed in VLC 1.2 prereleases. Though in some cases, it seems the UI forces sorting based on the "selected" column of the playlist.

I'm on 1.1.11 and I did notice this behavior after some fiddling. I suppose I had no default sorted column. The script might still be useful in the case that the Track Number meta data were non-existent.

[Win7Mac]

You can debate whether this is right or wrong, but it seems like every other multimedia player does what any sensible user would and should expect.

Agreed, really not expected behaviour, neither intuitive nor logical to a user.

This has long been fixed in VLC 1.2 prereleases. Though in some cases, it seems the UI forces sorting based on the "selected" column of the playlist.

I still have this issue with 2.0.1 and I'm not alone:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=98980

This makes VLC hardly useable, please fix it soon.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

I have no idea what you mean. Everything works fine here.

Folders are now (VLC 2.0) sorted alphanumerically, unless the user forces another order by clicking on the head of a column head. That's for folders.

"Playlist" files (such as M3U or XSPF) are sorted in the order of the file. It's always been like that, and it's very much intended like that, especially for albums.

As for opening multiple files, by drag-and-drop, file associations or with the file open dialog, the order is whatever it was. VLC does not change it. Note in some cases, the drag-and-drop order might not be the order in which they were selected; that depends on application originating the drag-and-drop. VLC cannot second-guess other applications...

[Win7Mac]

Please try the following:
- open any folder containing some mp3's with explorer
- sort them by whatever you like
- select all tracks and rightclick>add to VLC playlist
- go to VLC playlist and you will find a random order
- go back to the same folder in eplorer again
- select all tracks and rightclick>add to VLC playlist again
- go to VLC playlist again and you will find a different random order

Can you reproduce this?

I'm not talking about "Playlist" files (such as M3U or XSPF), I don't use that.
My music is sorted in explorer like this:
"My music"-folder > "Artist"-folders > "Album"-folders
Building up "Playlist" files for each folder/album is not wanted as I have 23.426 files in 1.800 sub-directories on my Win7/64bit running VLC 2.0.1.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

You seem to assume I run Windows. I don't.

[Win7Mac]

Sorry, did not realize this is a Linux thread.
Anyway, I don't adress you personally. This is just a place to report problems.
So don't tell people "I have no idea what you mean. Everything works fine here." if you did not even look at the issue.
But I doubt that it is Windows-related though. Just my guess, I don't run Linux...

[raymalone]

This isn't working for VLC media player 2.0.2 again.. When I select a number of files, just say 5 .avi files and either click play/add to VLC playlist it still randomly plays the files. When I go to playlist via CTRL+L, right click and select sort by title ascending, it doesn't save that command for the next time I open a playlist. Sure ye can implement a default option of having the multiple files open in alphanumerical order. Also I'm on windows 32bit if that helps. Do you have anything else you can tell me to help fix this issue? Kind regards, Ray.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

VLC adds the item in the order specified by the explorer. To "fix" it, you'd need to fix the explorer. So you're screwed.

[raymalone]

But the explorers (windows explorer I am assuming you are talking about) order is set to alphanumerically, and if I highlight Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4 and right-click and add them to VLC playlist, the first file that plays is Video 3 and other times it randomly generates a Video to play. Do you know if there's a way to fix this or do you know if there is any previous version of VLC that doesn't have this issue? Kind regards, Ray.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

As far as we know, that's a problem in Explorer, not in VLC. It could also be a problem inside Qt4-Win32. Either way, there are no known solutions.