Relative path names inside m3u playlists : possible ?

[DavidHB]

Please forgive me if I am telling you what you already know, but this might help other forum users as well.

The key thing is that MinimServer indexes any playlist (.m3u) files it finds in its assigned music folder(s), and makes them available to the user via a 'Playlists' entry in the top level menu it presents for the Control Point to display. This means that the playlists are available on any control point you use, and are accessed in the same way as you access all your music, which is a great feature. It also means that the playlists need to be where the music is, and not on some other machine or in a folder not indexed by MinimServer.

When it comes to using relative paths, you need to establish and maintain a consistent relationship between the folder where the playlist resides and those where the music tracks reside. There are a number of ways of doing this, but the one I have found easiest is to put a 'Playlists' folder in the Music folder used by MinimServer, and keep all my playlist files there.

My music folder (I keep identical copies on my PC and on my NAS, so my playlists work on both) is organised at the top level essentially by genre, but I put the Playlists folder at the top level as well. An extract from one of the playlist files then looks like this:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:380,Piano Sonatas [Kempff, mono][Disc 4] - 9 - Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor ("Moonlight"), Op. 27, No. 2: 1. Adagio sostenuto - attacca:
../Classical/Beethoven/Piano Sonatas [Kempff, mono]/Piano Sonatas [Kempff, mono][Disc 4]/409 Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor (Moonlight), Op. 27, No. 2 1. Adagio sostenuto - attacca.flac
#EXTINF:139,Piano Sonatas [Kempff, mono][Disc 4] - 10 - Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor ("Moonlight"), Op. 27, No. 2: 2. Allegretto - attacca:
../Classical/Beethoven/Piano Sonatas [Kempff, mono]/Piano Sonatas [Kempff, mono][Disc 4]/410 Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor (Moonlight), Op. 27, No. 2 2. Allegretto - attacca.flac
#EXTINF:363,Piano Sonatas [Kempff, mono][Disc 4] - 11 - Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor ("Moonlight"), Op. 27, No. 2: 3. Presto agitato

Note that the paths all begin with "../", meaning "go to the next level up from where this playlist file is located (i.e. the Music folder in this case)". That's where the 'relative' bit comes in.

Although .m3u files are plain text and could be created in Notepad, my files were all generated in Playlist Creator, which saves a lot of mental effort. It has settings both to use relative rather than absolute paths and to use forward rather than backslashes in paths, even when working in Windows. Provided that your music and playlist locations stay the same after you have created the playlist, Playlist Creator is a doddle to use.

When you have created your playlist, do a rescan in MinimServer, and check the log for errors (if MinimServer cannot find a file referenced in a playlist it has scanned, there will be an error message).

Hope this helps.

David