Playlist ordering

Hi
I'm in the process of evaluating Mezzmo and so far it's proving to be one of the best DLNA servers I've tried for working with my new Sony Bravia TV. One problem that is stopping me taking the plunge however is that if I create a new playlist of my music files in Mezzmo with songs I want in a particular order, when I access the playlist from the TV it always gets re-sorted alphabetically whch is not the order I want the tracks to play back in. The same happens when I try to access a complete album - all the tracks have been sorted alphabetically so the original album track order is lost which is annoying if I simply want to listen to an album as it was meant to be heard.
I think I read somwhere in the Forum that Mezzmo automatically sorts files alphabetically if the DLNA device doesnt tell it what order it wants them in. This may be an issue with the Sony but each of the other DLNA servers I've tried (Wild Media, Windows Media Player etc.) work fine with my TV and my playlists and albums playback in the origianl desired order.
I hope this makes sense and hope that it's just something stupid I'm doing. Meanwhile, just to say that in all other areas (video playback, photos etc.) Mezzmo functions great with my Bravia.

Thanks for any support you can provide.

Hi,

Do you create Normal playlists or Smart Playlists? Smart Playlists should preserve their sorting and display the same way on your device (unless the device overrides the sort, but the Bravia doesn't) as they do in Mezzmo. Normal playlists' sorting is local to Mezzmo itself only, so it's not transferred to the device.

Hi Dennis

Yes, its the Normal playlists that I'm creating. I want a selection of particular songs to play back in a particular order. I drag them into the Playlist in the order that I want but Mezzmo then sorts them alphabetically so my original desired running order gets changed.

Similarly, I have Mezzmo linked to my iTunes library and I can see my iTunes playlists from the Bravia no problem, but when I play them back Mezzmo has re-sorted the order alphabetically which is not the order of the songs that is actually in the original iTunes playlist.

Hope that clarifies the problem.

Thanks again for any advice you can give.

Clark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi,

Do you create Normal playlists or Smart Playlists? Smart Playlists should preserve their sorting and display the same way on your device (unless the device overrides the sort, but the Bravia doesn't) as they do in Mezzmo. Normal playlists' sorting is local to Mezzmo itself only, so it's not transferred to the device.

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If you want to have songs ordered by track number you'll need to create either a Smart playlist or an Active playlist, at the moment Normal playlists are not sorted in any way (except alphabetical). Let me know if you need help creating those and I'll walk you through it.

When I first installed Mezzmo and had it bring in my iTunes library, the playlists DID play the songs in order (not alpha). I've since edited the playlists and tried to bring in my iTunes library again, and NOW all playlists are alpha. What did I do right the first time or wrong the second?
Thanks,
bohicaIL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bohicaIL

When I first installed Mezzmo and had it bring in my iTunes library, the playlists DID play the songs in order (not alpha). I've since edited the playlists and tried to bring in my iTunes library again, and NOW all playlists are alpha. What did I do right the first time or wrong the second?
Thanks,
bohicaIL

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Well, while I don't know what I did to create the successful condition above, I did learn an easy way to bring in my ordered playlists. In iTunes, I select the playlist, right click it, and select export. I then export it to a .m3u file in the same iTunes directory as my library. Then in Mezzmo with my iTunes folder selected, I select file, create playlist, and select linked playlist. I then point to the .m3u file I created from iTunes. Now I have my ordering. Plus, anytime I change the playlist in iTunes I can re-export to the same name and Mezzmo has the changes. Works for me!

Using linked playlists is one way to link your iTunes library with your Mezzmo library. Glad it is working for you. We'll check out the ordering issues you mention in your earlier post.