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Forum: General Discussion

Topic: Need help with "History" lists

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For some reason VDJ looses my "history". Well, I can't say it looses the songs, but it looses the location of the songs. Once in a while I get one of my history sets come up with the YELLOW circle. If I drag and drop one form the list into a player it gives me an "Error" on the player.

What causes this?

Equipment
Numark Cue - Laptop
Western Dig. 500G External HD - remains the same H.D. letter though


thanks for the help
 
Posted Tue 22 Apr 08 @ 3:37 pm
History files are .m3u playlist files.

ALL playlist files store each track with the absolute path location of the file. Here is an example of a History file -- 

#TIME:13:36

K:\\Music Videos\\Promo Only Best Of 1996 Vol. 2\\Dance\\Quad City DJ's - C'Mon N' Ride It (The Train)(%).avi

#TIME:13:38

K:\\Music Videos\\Promo Only Best Of 1996 Vol. 2\\Dance\\Robert Miles - Children.avi

#TIME:13:39

K:\\Music Videos\\Promo Only Best Of 1996 Vol. 2\\Dance\\Underworld - Born Slippy.avi

#TIME:13:40

K:\\Music Videos\\Promo Only Best Of 1996 Vol. 2\\Dance\\CeCe Peniston - We Got a Love Thang.avi

#TIME:13:42

K:\\Music Videos\\Promo Only Best Of 1996 Vol. 2\\Dance\\Civilles & Cole - Pride (In the Name of Love).avi

#TIME:13:45

K:\\Music Videos\\Promo Only Best Of 1996 Vol. 2\\Dance\\Kym Sims - Too Blind to See It.avi

#TIME:13:47

K:\\Music Videos\\Promo Only Best Of 1996 Vol. 2\\Dance\\69 Boyz - Tootsee Roll.avi

#TIME:13:49

K:\\Music Videos\\Promo Only Best Of 1996 Vol. 2\\Dance\\Ace of Base - Beautiful Life.avi


So, if I was to move a song from the exact locations listed OR if this is an external drive and the external drive does not have the same drive letter this time (K:) -- then this list becomes completely useless.

Every time I setup my rig, my drives get plugged in the same ports. This ensures that they get the same drive letters. And I don't plug in any other devices (extra drives, thumbdrive, etc) before my rig is completely setup. This is also why we recommend plugging in your USB sound card every time to the same USB port.

Hope that helps.
 
It helped a lot, but I already follow what you do exactly.

Lets say that I plugged a thumb drive into the laptop and not the main H.D. The thumb drive took the drive letter of the main H.D. The files will not be found.

I power down.. hook everything back up with no thumb drive in the works. Will VDJ re-recognize the tracks that where in the history list but were lost last time?

hope that made sense.
 
Jeremy G wrote :
Lets say that I plugged a thumb drive into the laptop and not the main H.D. The thumb drive took the drive letter of the main H.D. The files will not be found.

Correct

Jeremy G wrote :

I power down.. hook everything back up with no thumb drive in the works. Will VDJ re-recognize the tracks that where in the history list but were lost last time?

And, Correct.

My Saturday DJ brings in a small HD when he plays. If I look at our Saturday night history files on Friday night, I can see the track names but not access them because they are from his HD.
 
So the check, clean & fix database option could do with being extended to the global database settings if thats possible, yes?

Gary
 
There is no such things as the Global Database. And, the utilities only apply to the individual database files.
The playlists / history files are not part of the database, they are individual .m3u files.
Now, could we add some feature to not show those tracks not accessible - possibly.

 
What I'm actually saying is to add an option to remove these files that VDJ has seen and will no longer see in the future. If for example a guest DJ came in and done a 30 minute set using my equipment, and plugs in his external hard drive with 10000 MP3's on, I am forever going to see them tracks as yellow unscanned, unplayable tracks in the future. Not good. Maybe an option to remove all file entried with a certain file path, and a repeated warning of about what you are going to delete and are you sure you want to delete etc. If he plugs in and becomes drive G, I would like the option to remove everything that refers to drive G afterwards.

Gary
 
GaryBr wrote :
What I'm actually saying is to add an option to remove these files that VDJ has seen and will no longer see in the future. If for example a guest DJ came in and done a 30 minute set using my equipment, and plugs in his external hard drive with 10000 MP3's on, I am forever going to see them tracks as yellow unscanned, unplayable tracks in the future. Not good. Maybe an option to remove all file entried with a certain file path, and a repeated warning of about what you are going to delete and are you sure you want to delete etc. If he plugs in and becomes drive G, I would like the option to remove everything that refers to drive G afterwards.

Gary


Gary - you would only see them if you look at the History file for the day that the guy played. I don't see a problem with that.

Otherwise, you should not see those files any other time - because the guys drive is no longer plugged in and the 'database' info was written to his drive not your system.

No there is only 1 scenario where you will have entries in a specific database file. If you use a CD ROM in the CD drive OR any other external media that is LOCKED from being written to - VirtualDJ will store the necessary data in the primary database file found in your My Documents -> VirtualDJ folder (VirtualDJ Local Database v5.xml). This file can be easily cleaned up using the Check, Clean, and Fix utilities from the Config -> Browser tab.

So, again why would you want to 'remove' data from the history playlist file ?

 
When I use my filter folder to show files that are unscanned (which i have to do a lot) because VDJ still doesn't store my bpms correctly after 3 different laptops and 1 year of use) they also show in that filter folder :(

Gary
 
GaryBr wrote :
When I use my filter folder to show files that are unscanned (which i have to do a lot) because VDJ still doesn't store my bpms correctly after 3 different laptops and 1 year of use) they also show in that filter folder :(

Gary


That is because they ended up as part of your primary database - use the Check, Clean and Fix utilities as I suggested on the C: drive (and wouldn't hurt for all your other drives as well)

Also, we have determined from another thread that the "unanalyzed" tracks that keep popping up are from poorly ID3 tagged files. Those file were most likely tagged with a badly designed tagging tool. Use something like Tag&Rename or MediaMonkey to correct the issues.
 
Good news about discovering why unanalysed tracks keep popping up. I don't use tags at all though. I have tags turned off in VDJ and I don't tag my music files, so still not sure what the problem is. Also the biggest culprit I have with files keep needing to be analysed are with video files, and I don't tag these either.

Gary
 
Is it better to have tags turned on or off?
 


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