Channels & viewing

[BostonDriver]

First, thanks to everyone who helped me get my playlist setup.

Now that I have playlists, I'm curious if I can have RMP "shuffle" the playlist such that mp4 files play in some random order?

For now I manually reorder the m3u file, but that's prone to human error. 

Thanks!

[AvsGunnar]

@BostonDriver 

Click on one of the movie titles when you are in the Roku Media Player. (title placeholder loads to left and the "Play" option is on right).  Press the * button (options button) on Roku remote.

A Video Options options menu should appear with Shuffle (On/Off), Repeat All (On/Off), Playlist Mode (On/Off), and OK.

I believe only titles within a folder will be shuffled.  It won't shuffle "between" folders.  (At least not in my experience.)

Once again, will defer to @atc98092 who uses playlists extensively and knows RMP behavior inside and out. 

[atc98092]

I don't know of any shuffle ability for video playback. For music, there's a shuffle option after you select the first music file to play. My guess is pictures would have the same ability, but I don't have any pictures on my server to test.

Unfortunately, there's no fast way to shuffle video playback. However, using the program I referenced before (Playlist Creator 3), you can reorder a list and save it fairly quickly. You can sort by file name, folder location, or file type, just by clicking the header, then saving the file. You can also reorder the list using the arrows on the right side of the list. Sorry, no drag and drop to reorder. Unfortunately, the program doesn't seem to be supported any longer, so version 3.6.2 is about it. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have any bugs in it, so it works well as is. Drag and drop reordering is really the only improvement I could think of for it. 

[AvsGunnar]

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@atc98092 wrote:

I don't know of any shuffle ability for video playback. For music, there's a shuffle option after you select the first music file to play. ... 

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Similar with the video playback, need to press the first one to play and then the others within a particular folder will shuffle randomly if shuffle enabled.  I haven't tried with a playlist though, figured it would be similar as with any other media player with shuffle capability.

(ie) a folder of episodes can be shuffled in RMP.  I have a folder named "Show_A" and then seperate folders for Season_001, Season_002, Season_003, etc. within the Show_A folder.   If I play something from Season_001, all the episodes can be shuffled from within Season_001 folder, but will not include anything from Season_002.

I don't use playlists though.  I assumed the benefit of using a playlist with RMP would allow the player to know which directory the content is in when shuffling was enabled.  Sounds like it doesn't.

[atc98092]

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@AvsGunnar wrote:

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@atc98092 wrote:

I don't know of any shuffle ability for video playback. For music, there's a shuffle option after you select the first music file to play. ... 

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I don't use playlists though.  I assumed the benefit of using a playlist with RMP would allow the player to know which directory the content is in when shuffling was enabled.  Sounds like it doesn't.

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Yes, a playlist can provide the full path to the media. The Playlist Creator software I mentioned offers saving the location as relative or full path. On my Serviio media server, it needs the full path since my media is scattered across four different hard drives. For content on a USB stick, a relative path should be sufficient. 

[BostonDriver]

>> Click on one of the movie titles when you are in the Roku Media Player. (title placeholder loads to left and the "Play" option is on right).

To test in a folder (not playlist) I click on the video (click == select).  The play icon (">" is right in the middle of the window (box?) selected.

>> Press the * button (options button) on Roku remote.

I have an options/search option (*) on the upper right of the screen.  

When I hit "*" on the Roku remote with the video selected I don't get a video options menu as you described.  

My Ultra is old (e.g. prior to 4K), software is up to date.

[atc98092 · Accepted solution]

@BostonDriver If your Roku is an Ultra, it's 4K. The very first 4K capable player was the Roku 4 (model 4400), which was released in Oct 2015. Long time ago. The first Ultra (4640) came a year later, but it supports 4K and HDR. 

Some of the menu options he mentioned are only available once you have selected a title. I just tried it on one of my playlists. I selected the first movie in the list, which opens the window with the movie information and the play button. When I press the * button within that window, there are three options: Shuffle, Repeat All and Playlist Mode. I have no clue what the last one means, but for the other two it's pretty obvious. I had forgotten about this particular menu, as I build my playlists in the order I want them played. but you can enable shuffling the contents of the playlist, and with the second options you can have it start over once it's played everything on the playlist. 

Note, I went into my main title selection, and once I selected a title the same three options are available. So it doesn't have to be a playlist to have the shuffle function. I even tried it on a USB stick which has seven different test clips. I can select one video, and the * menu still offers the same three options. 

[BostonDriver]

Success.  Thanks.  

The step I was missing was to "select again" to get the title etc you both described earlier.   I was using the  arrow buttons to select (highlight?) video, they hit play or options.   I needed to click the "OK" button to get to where you wanted me.

The goal is to randomly watch some old stuff I've accumulated without knowing what comes next.

BTW, my Ultra is a 4640X.  I'll check out Playlist Creator soon.

Thanks again everyone.