How do I trigger a "re-randomization" of the songs my USB plays?

[Pruitt]

In 8.0, the "shuffle" for the USB is pretty bad. Regardless of which song I start with, within a couple of songs, the player reverts to playing the same list of songs, in the same order, as the last time I started the USB. Since I listen to radio for a bit each afternoon on the drive home, that means I get the same 15-20 songs over and over. This out of almost 4,000 songs on the stick!

I can hit the "next song" button on the wheel a bunch of times, but that just takes me farther into the "play it in the same order every time" shuffle queue.

Anyone hit on a way to make the USB player re-shuffle?

 

[bob_p]

It appears randomization might be broken.

The media player seems to forget what song was being played periodically and insists on starting over on the first song (alphabetically) and it seems to even forget that I had "shuffle" enabled.

What I have been doing is making the extra (and unnecessary) screen touches to bring up the song list, and then scrolling down randomly (based on my swipe of the display) and then selecting randomly the first song to play (again, human randomness - not random selection by the media player).

And even if the media player's randomization is broken, by starting at a different place, I can at least hear different songs, rather than going through the same sequence every time it restarts with the first song in the list.

Using time as part of the random number selection is a pretty basic technique to generate what appears to be random numbers (using an externally controlled factor to simulate a random number). Though with the obvious design flaws in the UI, it's not surprising they missed the randomization problem too.

 

[supratachophobia]

In 8.0, the "shuffle" for the USB is pretty bad. Regardless of which song I start with, within a couple of songs, the player reverts to playing the same list of songs, in the same order, as the last time I started the USB. Since I listen to radio for a bit each afternoon on the drive home, that means I get the same 15-20 songs over and over. This out of almost 4,000 songs on the stick!

I can hit the "next song" button on the wheel a bunch of times, but that just takes me farther into the "play it in the same order every time" shuffle queue.

Anyone hit on a way to make the USB player re-shuffle?

The only way I've found is to repeatedly toggle shuffle, like, twenty times. Now, the next time you do it 20 times, you'll get the same order, but that's the best I have. Yes, that's right, 2 time is the same every time, 10 times is the same every time. Really, it's the least shuffle shuffle option I've ever seen. They chose the random seed for the algorithm very poorly.

 

[Petra]

This thread explains so much... I thought things were seeming a little too repetitive.

 

[Gig103]

If you unplug and re-insert the USB device, does that help? My theory is that it would re-index it as a new device.

 

[Pruitt]

If you unplug and re-insert the USB device, does that help? My theory is that it would re-index it as a new device.

Not that I've found. I tried it and still got the same sequence of songs.

 

[jerry33]

Also check that it's still showing shuffle, mine reverts back to non-shuffle frequently although I haven't found the trigger. I first though it was charging that triggered it, but sometimes it's still on shuffle after a charge.

 

[supratachophobia]

Also check that it's still showing shuffle, mine reverts back to non-shuffle frequently although I haven't found the trigger. I first though it was charging that triggered it, but sometimes it's still on shuffle after a charge.

That is a completely separate bug.

 

[Petra]

That is a completely separate bug.

I've noticed this one, too... So much for regression testing.

 

[BertL]

OP, IMHO this poor randomization issue is the same with 8.0 as it was in 7.1. As folks have said, the seed is poor in Tesla's Random Number Generation Routine.

The best way around this at least for me, is to change the "first song" before turning on random/shuffle. Do this:
- In Media Player, select your Album, Folder, whatever -- with the set of tracks you want to play
- DO NOT let the first track start playing or you'll just get the same sequence over and over; Instead, YOU select another track within that set for playback
- Now turn on random/shuffle and let it keep playing

- as long as you select a different song before you start random/shuffle, the following sequence of tracks will appear to be different within the set. If you select the same "first song" again or let it default to the top one in the list, then turn on random/shuffle, and have not changed your USB stick contents, you'll repeatedly get the same order of playback associated with that "first song". Caulk it up to overly-simplistic programming that would have failed one of the first FORTRAN lab assignments I was given 40+ years ago in college.​

 

[Dithermaster]

as long as you select a different song before you start random/shuffle, the following sequence of tracks will appear to be different

I thought that would do it too, but after a song or two I was back to the same sequence. The random play is amazing bad. Clearly neither the developer nor QA uses USB playback or this would have been fixed already.

I would gladly work on the media player sotware for free if they let me.

 

[BertL]

I thought that would do it too, but after a song or two I was back to the same sequence. The random play is amazing bad. Clearly neither the developer nor QA uses USB playback or this would have been fixed already.

I would gladly work on the media player sotware for free if they let me.

I suspect part of the problem is in the number of items that can be played back... less tracks means more of the same more often, as Tesla has not implemented "shuffle" as some of us would define it.

FWIW, there is a least one report in another thread the "randomness" has improved with the latest firmware beginning to be distributed in the past couple of days, along with several other USB fixes -- so hopefully your (and MY) wait won't be too much longer.

 

[supratachophobia]

I thought that would do it too, but after a song or two I was back to the same sequence. The random play is amazing bad. Clearly neither the developer nor QA uses USB playback or this would have been fixed already.

I would gladly work on the media player sotware for free if they let me.

There is a rumor floating around that the .40 flavor of v8 addresses the shuffle issue, presumably with a better random seed generator.

 

[Dithermaster]

There is a rumor floating around that the .40 flavor of v8 addresses the shuffle issue, presumably with a better random seed generator.

I'm on 2.40.21 and I think I saw the issue yesterday, but I'll watch more closely in case I was wrong.

 

[Alex D]

I'm on 2.42.40 and it is not fixed unfortunately. Even if I start with a different song, after a few songs I get the same sequence of songs again. Very annoying...