Control point (android) with shuffle by album/composition/group

[tjcurnow]

I'm moving across from a Squeezebox system, now that my Squeezebox has sadly died. I really like MinimServer and the configurability, but I'm having trouble with something that was really easy on the Squeezebox, "Shuffle by Album".

I like to narrow down the choices - say, to Romantic period, then Concertos, then Piano as the instrument - which I have no trouble doing using MinimServer and BubbleUPnP. Then I want to play all the Romantic Piano Concertos in my library, in random order. But each piano concerto consists of three (sometimes two or four) different tracks. In BubbleUPnP I can only find the option to shuffle all the tracks in the playlist, which doesn't work at all, since I need it to play all of the tracks within each concerto in the right order, one after the other.

So what I want is something which will shuffle/randomize the playlist, but at the level of the Composition or the Album or the Group (since those are all coextensive in my system), but keep the tracks within each composition in the right order.

Does anyone know of a control point on Android that allows this? Or if it's possible to do on BubbleUPnP and I've somehow missed it, how can I do it?

(I don't think it's relevant, but for completeness I'll say that at the moment I'm unfortunately streaming from my Windows 10 computer wirelessly to my Samsung TV. A Pioneer N-50A will appear soon so I can go back to driving the Rotel amp, then I'll invest in either a QNAP or Raspberry Pi plus SSD as the server, depending how much energy I have left by that point.)

Thanks.

[DavidHB]

Generically, what you are asking for is a shuffle function that shuffles containers rather than tracks. I know of no reason why this can't be done, but to the best of my knowledge no current control point actually does it.

MinimServer already does its bit by organising groups of tracks into relevant containers (GROUP, DISCSUBTITLE etc.), so the problem, as you surmised, is at the Control Point end. If bubbleguuum reads this, it would be useful if could comment on the feasibility of doing something along these lines. As, presumably like you, I listen mainly to classical music, the current track-based shuffle function is of very limited value for my purposes.

David

[Cebolla]

(07-11-2016 13:50)tjcurnow Wrote:  (I don't think it's relevant, but for completeness I'll say that at the moment I'm unfortunately streaming from my Windows 10 computer wirelessly to my Samsung TV. A Pioneer N-50A will appear soon so I can go back to driving the Rotel amp, then I'll invest in either a QNAP or Raspberry Pi plus SSD as the server, depending how much energy I have left by that point.)

Thought I'd best point out that the Pioneer N-50A doesn't support gapless playback when used with a (third party) gapless supporting UPnP/DLNA controller app, such as the excellent BubbleUPnP Android, ie, when the N-50A is being used as a slave device or Digital Media Renderer (DMR), aka 'push' mode. The N-50A only supports gapless playback when you use it with its own Pioneer ControlApp, or IR remote control/buttons on the box, ie, when the N-50A is being used as a master device or Digital Media Player (DMP), aka 'pull' mode.

[tjcurnow]

David - That's annoying. But thanks for letting me know that you don't think such a control point currently exists.

Cebolla - Yep, I know about the lack of gapless playback. Most of the classical music I listen to has clear separation into movements; in a live performance there'd be audience shuffles and coughing and maybe a bit of retuning between the movements, so having the gap doesn't actually bother me, though I realise it bothers some. The only time I really care is when I'm leaving the classical behind and going back to listening to Kate Bush's Never for Ever :-)