Channels & viewing

[niagara94]

Hi - I am only able to play one album at a time on the Roku Media Player.  Any ideas on how to fix this?  Thanks!

[RokuJohnB · Accepted solution]

Hi @niagara94,

Thank you for posting here in the Roku Community!

We understand you're having a problem with the Roku media player since it was playing only one album at a time. We're happy to assist you. Please check out this support article here on how to use Roku Media Player to play your videos, music, and photos for troubleshooting steps and details.

Please keep us posted on what you find out.

Best regards,
John

[niagara94]

Hi - Thank you for your reply. I followed the instructions from the link that you mentioned. However, I can only play one album at a time. I'm trying to play all albums from one artist at a time. How would I do that? Thanks!

[AvsGunnar]

@niagara94 

Have you tried placing all the songs by that artist in the same folder?

Roku Media Player (RMP) will play all content in a single folder, but will not start playing content from another folder, generally, without a playlist file. (ie. if you have different folder for each album, only the songs from a particular album folder will play).

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I don't use RMP for audio files, but maybe you can create an autostart file (autostart.m3u) or playlist file (PLS, m3u, or m3u8) as described in the Roku Support article. (not sure if it can jump/switch between folders like a Playlist (PLS) file for video files in RMP, but would assume it will if included in the playlist file.)

https://support.roku.com/article/208754908

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I can likely try adding some audio files tomorrow and playing around a bit , but perhaps @makaiguy or @atc98092 can weigh in with some options.  I generally just use RMP for video content.

[niagara94]

Hi - Thank you for your reply.  I have the songs organized in the following way:  the individual artists each have their own folder and withing the artist folders each album is a separate folder.  If I start at the artist level and press play (in Roku Media Player) it will play just the first album.  If I press ok it will show all albums by the artist but then I can still pick only one album to play (it just can be an album other than the first one).  I know that the Roku article mentioned Playlist but I have no idea how to create one.  Plus since I would want to listen to different artists at different times would I have to make a Playlist for each artist and then where in the Media Player would I see the playlist?  Thanks!

[atc98092]

There's a very easy to use Windows program called Playlist Creator. It hasn't been updated in a very long time, but it still works just fine, and it's free. It can build playlists in M3U or PLS format, both of which Roku Media Player recognizes.

Just a caveat: RMP hasn't been updated in several years, and has some issues that need addressing. Most are video related, not audio. But just be aware Roku hasn't put any effort into it for quite a while. If you're playing your files from a USB device, there might be better apps/channels available for you. But if they are being streamed from a DLNA server, RMP is your only option. 

[makaiguy]

@niagara940

How are you accessing your music files?  If you have them on a networked computer, Roku Media Player can access them from a DLNA server installed on the computer.  Then RMP can access any music indexes established on your DLNA server.   You can set a DLNA server up natively in WIndows, but there are more versatile ones out there.

I've tried several DLNA servers over the years, but I keep going back to the free version 3.8 of an old one called TVersity for my photos and music because I really the collection of indexes it creates based on the metadata info in each file..  I set up which folders I wish it to scan, and it scans and indexes everything in that folder and subfolders. 

TVersity has been discontinued and is no longer supported, but can still be downloaded from numerous sites such as Major Geeks.

[niagara94]

Hi - Thank you for your reply.  I will look up Playlist Creator.  Is it a part of Windows Media Player?  I had been using Plex to stream and listen to music but now they don't have a screen saver for when I listen to music (trying to prevent damage on my tv screen from static images).  I'm open to other apps/channels, I just don't know a lot about what is out there.  Thanks for any further ideas!

[niagara94]

Hi - Thank you for your reply.  I do have them on a networked computer.  I had been using Plex as a media server and using the Plex app on Roku but they no longer have a screen saver and I am trying to prevent tv damage from static images when listening to music.  I'm open to other ideas.  Thanks for mentioning TVersity.  Any other options?  Thanks!

[atc98092]

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@niagara94 wrote:

Hi - Thank you for your reply.  I will look up Playlist Creator.  Is it a part of Windows Media Player?  

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No, it's a separate program you can download for free. You can get it here. 

I use Serviio as my DLNA media server. It too is free here. It supports PLS and M3U playlist files. Disclaimer: I am the author of the Roku profiles that are included with Serviio, and a moderator on their forum. But I am not an employee and receive no payment for my assistance there. Using Roku Media Player with a DLNA server you get the same screen saver that is configured for your Roku device.