do playlists contain too much data?

[mattosterholm]

I have many mp3/ogg/flac and other audio files on a linux system that I play in a variety of ways:

1. Streaming using gnump3d http://www.gnump3d.org on the server; A great streaming server written in perl. I will stream them locally, on my lan or over the Internet. gnump3d generates m3u links via web browser.

2. Locally (the system is a workstation too) using XMMS.

3. Over the lan using nfs/samba (non-streaming) on a variety of workstations using XMMS, Winamp, foobar2000, &c.

I've ripped most of my stuff using CDex or Grip which are both great rippers.

Here's my query/theory: When it comes to making playlists, I have settled on making m3u files. Rather I should say, flat files with an m3u extention and no meta-data at all. Most of my audio files have ID3 info and all the players I use know to read them (Even WMP or another occassionly). My m3u files look just like this:

song01.mp3
song02.mp3
song03.ogg

That's it. No other data and no path. The file lives in the same directory as the songs so streaming via http or opening in the player right off the filesystem, never gets confused. At first I went crazy trying to use default playlists created by the ripper. I could use pls in some players but not others, and m3u vise-versa. (some of the m3u info confused the streaming process).

Just plain file listings in a "m3u" file seems to work perfectly on absolutely everything. What is the point/purpose/advantage to using all that other junk in the m3u or pls spec? Is it just left over from before ID3 was implemented (mainstream)? Am I missing something or is it just useless overhead?

[shaneh]

Having the titles and other meta data means winamp doesnt have to try re-read that info from the files, if it even exists. You could have a playlist with nicely formatted titles using some other tool, and load it in winamp without winamp having to try re-read in the meta data and format the titles itself everytime it loads.

[mattosterholm]

Okay, so the advantage is Winamp can get the info from the m3u file instead of from each 'mp3' file? Why is that better? Because of network/disk access?.. I still don't see any advantage. Winamp and XMMS appear to get that info anyway from my simple directory listing m3u file.

[shaneh]

If you have 50,000 songs in a playlist, and want to have the titles there straight away for searching or whatever, believe me you'll appreciate the difference. Or your mp3s may not even have the id3 info in them, for example you rip from a CD with title info, but dont put it in your tags. Whether or not you do this, or anyone does this, is irrelevant. The point is, it should be possible, and with this scheme, it is.

Winamp will re-read the info from tags on play, on show or on load depending on your settings.

[mattosterholm]

Wow. 50,000 songs. I guess I never thought of that. I don't think I have ever saved a playlist with more than 100 songs. Most of mine are just albums with a dozen or so songs. I guess theres some use if you are going to build a list that long, but for streaming purposes, I'm going to stick with my format. It seems to create the least problems.

[shaneh]

heh, well that is an exageration. But even with a few hundred, it saves you a lot of time at startup, assuming you want the titles immediately available rather than when theyre viewed or played. A lot of people for some reason put their entire library of songs in their playlist, despite the media library being there for that purpose.

Youd only notice the startup delay if you had winamp set to read titles on load. Which you'd need if you want the title info there to search on or whatever. Plus the reason I stated where there is no id3 info for a file, for example .wav files etc.

[mattosterholm]

Right. So the short answer is it loads the info into the Playlist Editor rather than just song01.mp3 until you actually get to it AND if you've no ID3, it can add the info for you.

Okay, got it. Thanks