auto-loading Winamp Playlist

[dcurrie]

Just discovered Xlobby a few days ago and am very impressed with just how flexible the program is - much more so than myHTPC (which is what I was trying to work with earlier). Hopefully the following scenario is possible:

It seems most htpc systems are geared towards playing and browsing albums via artist-album directory structures. I don't store entire albums - just various mp3s for jukebox style play (i.e.: directory c:\mp3\a contains acdc, abba, aerosmith, c:\mp3\b contains black sabbath, bangles). No sub-dirs - all A artists in directory A etc (in other words, I have 27 directories : A-Z and # (for artists such as 10cc). Probably going into far too much detail, but bear with me...

What I want to do is have Xlobby autoload a playlist on startup. This way I can link the "Music" button off the front menu to go directly to a "now playing" style screen that will also have play/next/previous controls - without having to go to the music screen, then playlist, then now playing. Is this possible? Also - is it possible to auto-enable random play as default?

Thanks for any help - Xlobby looks like an htpc dream come true - now if only I can figure out enough about xml to somehow parse/import some of the myHTPC xml I've generated...

[rhinoman]

What you want is doable, (not sure about the random play bit but I think so).

Its really just a case of having a menu button run a number of consecutive commands which you would do by 1st creating them as a macro in the event manager, including the jump to your control page. The control page can contain whatever you choose. Most of what you need is already done in the playlsit section.

[dcurrie]

What you want is doable, (not sure about the random play bit but I think so).

Its really just a case of having a menu button run a number of consecutive commands which you would do by 1st creating them as a macro in the event manager, including the jump to your control page. The control page can contain whatever you choose. Most of what you need is already done in the playlsit section.

Hmmmm....sounds logical, but I can't seem to find the action/event that loads the playlist when looking at the skineditor :/ Any suggestions?

[rhinoman]

Not my best subject, but after adding your playlists to the playlist folder of the install, could you not then start with the playlist screen as a base giving you the list and then just add the controls that you want to that screen.

[dcurrie]

Not my best subject, but after adding your playlists to the playlist folder of the install, could you not then start with the playlist screen as a base giving you the list and then just add the controls that you want to that screen.

Yes, and as a "last resort" I plan to do that, but on the off chance it could be automated, I asked :]

On a different note - I seem to be getting quite a few errors using Xlobby on my htpc system, but not my main. The obvious difference between the two besides hardware is OS - htpc being built on Win98SE, main on XP. Is Xlobby/.Net difficult to operate effectively on anything less than 2K/XP?

[rhinoman]

Never tried it on anything other than XP, sorry.