I created the audio format conversion script, which converts files that are actually loaded into the amaroK playlist. I\'ve gotten a few emails from people who wanted to convert some format, say .wma, but amaroK isn\'t configured to be able to play those files. That is, because amaroK won\'t play it, they wanted to convert it. So in these cases, amaroK doesn\'t load the files in the playlist, and just gives the \"some urls were unplayable\" message.

I\'m wondering if it would be possible to allow people to load even unplayable files into the playlist. There would be a usability issue here, namely, people would expect that if a song were in a playlist it would be playable. But I\'ve also gotten comments (and seen on boards) from people not knowing what \"some urls were unplayable\" meant, and didn\'t know why it wouldn\'t play.

One possible solution would be to have the text for unplayable files loaded in the playlist, but the font color be that light gray color, like the color of \"filter here...\" You could still give the \"some urls were unplayable\" message whenever somebody tried to play one of these unplayable files.

(Yes, I know that with the right engine, amaroK can play just about anything, but getting the right engine installed is not necessarily an easy thing to do. In fact, *I\'ve* spent several hours trying to get gstreamer to play aac files, without success.)

Well, perhaps the message needs to be more clear. But having unplayable files in the playlist would be silly. Not being able to play files is confusing regardless, we\'d just be moving the confusion from the error message to the playlist.

You could include a konqueror service menu with your script, I don\'t think its hard. I guess to get amaroK to install it you\'d have to install the service menu the first time someone runs the script.

The message does need to be clearer. But, actually, with some file formats and some engines, you can load files that aren\'t playable into the playlist. For example, with arts, I can put .wma into the playlist, but arts won\'t play them. I can put .m4a files into the playlist if I\'m using xine, even though my xine won\'t play them. This produces no error notification--trying to play the file results in nothing happening--which I think we can agree is the worst of both worlds.

But let me try arguing for loading unplayable files.

First, there does need to be some way to communicate a file format isn\'t supported, and I don\'t think the popup, regardless of message, is the best way to do that. Suppose you try to add a directory of files that\'s a mix of mp3 and wma--all of the mp3s will load into the playlist, the wmas won\'t, and you get one popup saying something wasn\'t playable. I think it would be far more helpful to load all the files in the playlist and gray-out the ones that can\'t be played. At least then I\'d know what actually isn\'t playable. I think the visual identification in the playlist would be more helpful to the proverbial mother using the computer.

Second, as it is, the popup notification is attached to an event, adding media to the playlist, which is not the actual problem. The problem is actually playing the file. I personally think it would make more sense to tie the notification specifically to the problem, that is, to tie the notification to actually playing the file. I think that makes it clearer.

Third, to the extent that amaroK is just a player, then true, there is no need to load unplayable files. But to the extent that amaroK is more than just a player, namely, a way to manage your entire collection, regardless of format, then it does make sense. If someone has iTunes .m4p files (which no engine can play), why can\'t I still use amaroK to make playlists that include these files? I don\'t have an iPod, so I haven\'t used this feature, but it looks to me like you can only drag and drop files to the transfer queue from the playlist. If so, it seems odd you can\'t transfer .m4p files to the iPod with amaroK.

OK, there\'s my argument.

mlmitton wrote:

I\'m wondering if it would be possible to allow people to load even unplayable files into the playlist. There would be a usability issue here, namely, people would expect that if a song were in a playlist it would be playable. But I\'ve also gotten comments (and seen on boards) from people not knowing what "some urls were unplayable" meant, and didn\'t know why it wouldn\'t play.

I agree that the message is not very enlightening. Do you have an idea for a better message?

One possible solution would be to have the text for unplayable files loaded in the playlist, but the font color be that light gray color, like the color of "filter here..." You could still give the "some urls were unplayable" message whenever somebody tried to play one of these unplayable files.

As for coloring non-playable tracks in the playlist, how would the user know why a track is colored this way? This still doesn\'t make things clear.

If xine says it can play the files, but then isn\'t able to, thats a bug.

I\'m not too worried about aRts.

I disagree that amaroK is more then a player. It might a player that can do other stuff as well, but its still just a player. Everything it does should be in support of being a player.

Post edited by: eean, at: 2005/05/29 20:44

What if there was a dcop call to enabling loading of unplayable files to the playlist? It could eather be a bool that disabled/enabled the check if the engine could play it, or you could have to specify what file-extensions to enable when you called it.
That way the script could disable the check self.
And when you then try to play songs the engine cant play, because some script did the dcop call, amaroK could print some message to it, and let it deside that to do.

markey wrote:

I agree that the message is not very enlightening. Do you have an idea for a better message?

As for coloring non-playable tracks in the playlist, how would the user know why a track is colored this way? This still doesn\'t make things clear.

For the second question, I\'m not sure I have much to add beyond my second post (which I think you might have missed).

About the message, I would start by changing "URL" to "files". I think to most people URL refers only to "http://", not to a local file. "suitable for the playlist" also isn\'t right because, as I mentioned earlier, that isn\'t actually the problem--they *could* be put in the playlist, they just can\'t actually be played. I think that leaves something like "Some files weren\'t playable and so weren\'t added to the playlist."

I think that\'s about as long as you can get with the space constraints as the UI currently is. If there were no space constraints, I might go with "Some files weren\'t playable by your sound engine and so weren\'t added to the playlist. Try changing engines in the amaroK configuration."

I still think there are reasons besides my script to include unplayable files in the playlist (in earlier post), but as mortiferus suggests, this could be turned on or off. I\'m not sure how a dcop call would work, but there could be a setting added in the "general" tab of the configuration UI. As is (I\'m using 1.2.4), there\'s a little bit of room still available.

But this might be making a mountain out of a molehill.

Post edited by: mlmitton, at: 2005/05/30 21:25