Audio File Autoplay Issues

[Shutey]

I have been sorting my music folders out using XY and found autoplay works in a strange and unexpected way.

In Config/Preview/Preview I have "Autoplay", "Keep playing with info panel hidden" and "Play also when info panel is hidden" all turned ON.

With the Preview Panel visible/open - XY does not autoplay mp3 files but instead displays any embedded image and a very minimal audio control that lacks time played and length at either end. However XY does autoplay .flac format and has a very useful audio control below the list panel including time played and length.

Closing the Preview Panel XY does now autoplay mp3 files but now there are no audio controls at all - not even under the list panel even when playing .flac files!!!

When sorting, refiling, renaming, comparing and just deciding by listening whether to keep audio it is annoying to have to keep remembering to hit play.

Am I doing something wrong in config or is this an issue that should be in the bugs or wishes part of the forum? I'm not expecting XY to replace MusicBee but it would be nice if the features on offer were more useable like always autoplaying when selected in config and always having audio controls on screen regardless of the Preview Panel's state.

Regards and thank you.

[admin]

You need better preview handlers. The K-Lite Codec Pack Basic should do.

[Shutey]

I already had K-Lite Codec Pack 18.5.0, (released 6 August 2024), I just updated to K-Lite Codec Pack 18.5.2 (release 23 August 2024) but it makes no difference.

Autoplay does not work on .mp3 and other compressed audio formats when the Preview Pane is open but does work for .flac files.

However autoplay does works when the Preview Pane is closed but then there are no audio controls for any audio formats. Very frustrating.

[admin]

Try the Preview Tab instead (F12).

[Shutey]

F12 opens the Information Panel at the foot of the screen taking up a chunk of the work space. When I refer to the Preview Panel I am talking about Ctrl-F11 opening the Preview Panel down the right side of the screen not the Preview Tab of the Information Panel.

[admin]

Well, I'd like to know if it works on the Preview Tab. Then we can look for a solution for the Preview Pane.

[Shutey]

Yes, the Preview TAB seems to work as intended except when the Preview PANE is open then it doesn't.

I confess I wasn't aware the Preview TAB was an option, I did check the help file, help pdf and feature web page and saw no mention of it or perhaps I was confused by not realising there was a pane and a tab. As another writer said, XY help isn't very task friendly at times.

Personally I find the small Audio controls that appear at the foot of the list pane when playing .flac files to be sufficient provided it appears for all audio file formats and of course that all formats autoplayed with or without the Preview PANE being open.

Perhaps one solution might be simply to allow the option for the Information Pane/Preview TAB to be turned 90 degrees to the vertical.

For clarity, I would prefer not to shorten the depth/height of the workspace as some folders contain many files and especially if I have two lists open/split pane. When reviewing audio files/music albums the reason for having the Preview PANE open is to view album artwork and it also displays any artwork embedded in the audio file which the Preview TAB does not.

[admin]

Personally I find the small Audio controls that appear at the foot of the list pane when playing .flac files to be sufficient provided it appears for all audio file formats and of course that all formats autoplayed with or without the Preview PANE being open.

... small Audio controls that appear at the foot of the list pane... do you have a screenshot?

[Shutey]

Is this what you need? Seems this also works for .m4a files as well as .flac.

The pause button on the left doubles as a play button.

Untitled.jpg

[admin]

So now you are talking about the Quick Audio Preview triggered by mouse down on the icon (Configuration | Preview | Mouse Down Blow Up | Mouse Down on Thumbnails and Icons | Audio preview)?

Anyway, to have the Preview Pane use the same native handling as the Preview Tab set this tweak:

Code: Select all

AudioPreviewPPNative=1

[Shutey]

Using Mouse Down Blow Up is not the solution.

On Left Mouse Down you are force to keep holding down the button on the thumbnail/icon as there is no Stay Up option. Therefore the Quick Audio Preview is pointless because you can't move the mouse off the thumbnail/icon to use the audio controls! The selected file is also not shown as selected/highlighted.

On Right Mouse Down it is the same as above except now you also lose the right click context menu when the List Pane is in thumbnal view. In Details view the icon target is so small as to make the Right Mouse Down gimmick a pain to use for any length of time!

On Right Mouse Down with Stay Up checked allows you to move the mouse to the audio control but does not highlight the selected file, it takes away the context menu in thumbnail display and it works on all files so becomes an absolute annoyance when not looking at audio files as image/document files filling the screen even with the Preview Pane turned on!

The Mouse Down features were one of the first things I turned off way back when I first started using XY, with the Preview Pane - they are gimmicky and not necessary.

I am not sure what the "AudioPreviewPPNative=1" tweak is supposed to do ... set to 0 or 1, it seemed to make no difference but I left it set to 1 for now. See correction below.

So now you are talking about the Quick Audio Preview triggered by mouse down on the icon

This was just a suggestion based on it being small, unobtrussive and alrealy part of XY. It is NOT ONLY triggered by "mouse down on icon" as it works happily with mouse down turned off. However it only works when playing some file formats such as .flac/.m4a and only with the Preview Pane showing - so why does it not work for other audio file formats AND why doesn't it work when the Preview Pane is not showing? Music will autoplay all formats with the Preview Pane not showing but then there are no audio controls unless you open the Information Pane and the Preview tab which takes up a chunk of the screen that the Quick Audio View does not. This also only works when the Preview Pane is not showing!

I suspect part of the issue here is that there appears to be three! different audio controls, the Quick Audio Preview, the control on the Preview Pane and the one in the Information pane. The audio control on the preview pane does not autoplay and has no timings on it making it the least useful - perhaps removing this for audio files (not video files) might help the others function as intended, just a thought don't crucify me for it

Bottomline is as a user I just want to be able to open a folder containing music files and play them with an audio control that don't take away a chunk of the screen. I want to be able to do this regardless of whether I have the Preview Pane showing or not if possible and without losing any other functionality e.g., the context menu. The Mouse Down option is a step backwards whereas the Quick Audio Preview controls seemed to me to be a "possible" solution but I'm not the programmer.

[Shutey]

Correction to my previous post...

I wrote

Code: Select all

I am not sure what the "AudioPreviewPPNative=1" tweak is supposed to do ... set to 0 or 1, it seemed to make no difference but I left it set to 1 for now.

My bad, after making the tweak I forgot to "Exit Without Saving", sorry.

Having now done this autoplay does work for .mp3 files even with the Preview Pane showing which is a step forward however... there are no Audio Controls including the Quick Audio Preview that previously appeared when playing .flac, they have gone as well. So it is one step forward, one step back. The only controls now are in the Information Pane/Preview tab these also work with or without the Preview Pane showing but it still takes up a lot of screen which the Quick Audio Preview didn't.

[admin]

Confusing.

Maybe someone else understands what this is about?

[admin]

OK, you found out how to use AudioPreviewPPNative.

So, if you want audio controls, either open the preview tab, or use quick audio preview (right button). These are your options.