I am about to purchase a WD SMP but need help in getting one issue clarified. I have music stored in a number of folders (Country, R&B, Dixieland etc) on a hard disk. I want to select songs from various folders and have them play in order. I have read the manual and realize that I can not create a playlist using the SMP; but there must be a way to chose songs at random from different folders. I don’t care about keeping the list as it will change every time. The manual simply is not clear, so I called WD support and was told that I could do that and the instructions were on page 182 of the manual. I read it again and I must be dumb; but it still is not clear to me. If I had already purchased the player then I could fool around with it and perhaps I could figure it out… Maybe you do it by simply choosing a number of songs and add them to the queue?
If any of you folks know if this can be done, your advice on how to do it would be appreciated.
Thanks so much for the quick reply. Now I can stop beating my head against the wall. Would this work: I will move all music from the subfolders into one master folder. Then I will create a playlist including all songs in the master folder. Now will the SMP allow me to pick and choose songs from that single folder and play just those songs in the order I chose them? Thanks again for your help.
John, if you had searched this site for posts about playlists, you would have found lots of answers to your question. I have written many posts about this topic where I have described how to create random playlists. So, I will help you out using the search. Here is a search link that looks through this site for messages with my member name and the word playlist: Your answers are here:
Mike, I actually had done a search and had read many of your posts. Nevertheless, thanks for creating the link for me. I’ll use it to go over all of the posts again. I think my basic problem is that I am trying to find a workaround for a feature that the SMP simply does not have.
Mike, I actually had done a search and had read many of your posts. Nevertheless, thanks for creating the link for me. I’ll use it to go over all of the posts again. I think my basic problem is that I am trying to find a workaround for a feature that the SMP simply does not have.
John, glad to know you had used the search, although there was no indication that you did from your post. Many people come here for the first time, and start asking questions, and if they had only searched first, they might have found their answer. When I came to this site, in the beginning, I read posts for a year before ever posting something myself. I have been making up for lost time ever since.
Anyway, the fact that the WD media players cannot make playlists is not important at all, because they do so many other things so well. The playlist creation steps I outline work very well. I have “no complaints”.
I think some of answers have been confused over your use of the word random. You mean randomly pick music from multiple folders which the unit will then play in the order you picked them. Yes you can do that. You have to turn on the media library so you get access to the dashboard. You then move through your music library picking songs at random and each time you find a track to play you simply press options and then select ‘Add to Queue’, when you have picked all your tracks you press the blue button to access the dashboard and select Queue at the top and then Audio in the box that appears. Your selections will be shown and you can start to play them. If you return to the home screen there will be a tab entitled Now Playing., if you select that it shows your selections in a list order and with full screen. I am not sure how good it is because I don’t use it but I believe it is meant to do what you want.
Rich, I think you have solved my problem. I did choose a word, “Random”, that was read in a way that I did not intend. That was my fault and I guess I just confused everyone and my question was not very clear. The procedure you outlined is exactly what I was looking for and fits with my logical assumption that there had to be a way to do what I wanted. Thankfully you were smart to understand what I meant; and not what I said.
Now, John. go buy your SMP and start enjoying it! Once you are using it, alt will become clear. Add don’t neglect to download the complete User Manual from the WD support site. You can even d/l it before you get your player.
