playlists changed after minim refresh

[huyanh]

Hello
Thanks for all these new information.

I think that the solution for my needs would be to :
1. create playlists in BubbleUPnP : the easiest way for me, rather than on Finder/Mac OSX
2. export them as m3u or XPSF files
3. copy them in the folder of minimServer on Synology

I will try !

[simoncn]

I tried this to see what would happen. Unfortunately, the exported .m3u8 file contains remote URLs, not local file paths. For example, my test .m3u8 file contains

http://192.168.0.23:9790/minimserver/*/music/musicfiles/CD-451/05*20Pavan-Galliard.flac/$!transcode-24.wav

The preferred format is a relative path to a local file, such as

../musicfiles/CD-451/05 Pavan-Galliard.flac

The remote URL does work but going across the network to access a local file has significant drawbacks such as no metadata and no artwork. Also, with the remote URL it is not possible to change the transcoding settings that were in effect when the playlist was created. Playing the file should be the same in both cases although for some reason I thought it sounded slightly better from the playlist local file entry.

Edit: Updated this post to correct a misunderstanding of the effect of having a URL in the playlist. Playing from a URL entry in a playlist should be equivalent to playing from a local file entry in a playlist because in both cases the same URL would be sent to the control point and renderer.

Edit 2: There is another possible problem. Some control points and renderers need to know the MIME type of a file before starting to stream it. Others can read the MIME type from the file when the stream starts. A URL entry in a playlist doesn't have MIME type information, so it works for the latter case but not the former.

[AnthonyEd]

I've downloaded the m3u8 file from my Bubbleupnp playlist. Then added to a folder on Minimserver. Did a rescan.

I now have a server side playlist which I can see in Bubbleupnp. The problem is it only shows the track not the artist. Also no artwork.

[simoncn]

If the .m3u8 file contains URLs instead of local file paths, a MinimServer rescan will not read metadata from the URLs. This is why you are not seeing the artist and artwork.

See this post and subsequent discussion for a possible solution. The URLs need to be converted to local paths either manually or using a script.

[AnthonyEd]

Thanks. You mentioned you might have a script in one of the responses?

[simoncn]

This script was mentioned by user simbun, not by me. I see he has been active on this thread previously, so I presume he will respond to this.

[simbun]

I have a bash (Linux) script that takes the output of 'BubbleUPnP > More > Settings > Import / Export data > Export to file' (easier to export though much more difficult to convert) and converts each to m3u8 if that's helpful?

I briefly tried to rewrite it in powershell (from BubbleUPnP m3u8 export) but I wasn't able to decode non-ascii characters, so I never finished it.

If you're not on Linux I'm happy to try and convert one for you, and if it works send you the output and the code if that helps?

Ultimately it's just:

• Strip URL of 'http://*' and any transcode elements
• Decode the remaining url (*20 to space e.t.c.)
• Convert to a relative path
  

In order to produce relative paths I would need to know where you're planning to store the playlists.

[simbun]

I had a couple of hours this morning to look at the powershell script and I think it's sorted. It looks for .m3u8 playlists in the $sourceDirectory and writes them to the $targetDirectory.

Just modify the locations at the top of the script (4 in total) and run it in powershell (copy the entire script and paste it into the console).

I may enhance the script to handle the BubbleUPnP zip export as that's how my dad exports his, but I'm not sure yet.

[AnthonyEd]

(21-05-2025 14:49)simbun Wrote:  I had a couple of hours this morning to look at the powershell script and I think it's sorted. It looks for .m3u8 playlists in the $sourceDirectory and writes them to the $targetDirectory.

Just modify the locations at the top of the script (4 in total) and run it in powershell (copy the entire script and paste it into the console).

I may enhance the script to handle the BubbleUPnP zip export as that's how my dad exports his, but I'm not sure yet.

I get some errors when running this although it does produce a relative playlist. After a rescan and then looking at my control point it looks as though my playlist is empty.

Error below:


PS C:\Users\xxxx_> foreach($item in $contentDirectory)
>> {
>> $folders = $item -split "\$separator" | Where-Object { $_ -ne "" }
>> $cdLookup.Add( $folders[$folders.Count - 1], $item.Substring( 0, $item.TrimEnd("$separator").LastIndexOf("$separator")) )
>> }
Exception calling "Substring" with "2" argument(s): "Length cannot be less than zero.
Parameter name: length"
At line:4 char:3
+ $cdLookup.Add( $folders[$folders.Count - 1], $item.Substring( 0, $i ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: ( [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ArgumentOutOfRangeException

[simbun]

(22-05-2025 18:19)AnthonyEd Wrote:  I get some errors when running this although it does produce a relative playlist. After a rescan and then looking at my control point it looks as though my playlist is empty.

Sorry about that.

From the error message I assumed that your collection was mounted in the root (/music), but I don't see the same error when testing that sceanrio so can you send me your $contentDirectory and $playlistFolder?

If it is a single folder deep, for now just add another folder before the root of your collection to both the contentDirectory and playlistFolder e.g.

Code:

$contentDirectory = @('/dummy/music/')
$playlistFolder = '/dummy/music/playlists/'