Some "Queue" options are unclear.

[Ascension Shining]

 Hi guys, I was browsing through the PA settings when I came across the "Queue" options in "Settings > Library > Queue".

 

 Here I only mentioned the options that I did not feel a change with in practice.

 

 1_ I tried the "Play Next Insert Position" option in "Normal" and "Shuffled" mode, but I didn't feel a change in the order of playing songs.

 

 2_ The "Play Next: Start Queue" option is not visible to me at all in practice, and the description below is very brief and does not mention its function, however, I think it may be a useful option.

 

 Apart from these, I know the others very well.

 

 Thanks for your tips.

[andrewilley]

'Play Next' is perhaps a bit of a legacy misnomer, especially now that there are variable settings for the main 'Add to Queue' feature. It really just offers an extra 'Insert at start of Queue' feature which has the effect of playing the new songs next. It still obeys the normal Queue rules - i.e. Start playing immediately, Start after current song had finished, or start playing after current category (Album, folder, etc) has finished:

There is an additional switch only for the Play Next button, which forces the 'Play After Current Song' mode (i.e. it ignores the above general Queue options):

All of these enqueuing options assume Poweramp is already playing by the way, there is no feature to automatically resume playback when you add something to the Queue. You still need to press Play.

There are a couple of minor bugs with the Play Next feature that I've noted before but which still seem to be present in the current build. The same issues were fixed for 'the Add to Playlist' and 'Add to Queue' buttons, but are still present in 'Play Next':

• If the existing Queue has not yet commenced playing, using 'Play Next' will simply intersperse the new songs alternating with the existing songs, rather than placing them all at the start of the Queue.
• The Play Next>Shuffled option does not seem to work, songs are always added in order.

Personally, given the new flexible options available for 'Add to Playlist' and 'Add to Queue', I think it might be simpler to just remove the 'Play Next' button completely and replace it with an 'Insert at Start' mode for the Queue button (mimicking how adding to playlists works). This is really what the button already does, so it seems a bit redundant now.

Andre

[Ascension Shining]

Let's look a little deeper at the "Play Next Insert Position" option.

 

 Play Next Insert Position > Normal

 The songs are regular.

 

 Play Next Insert Position > Shuffled

 The songs are still regular.

 

 Now we will change the "Queue Insert Position" option.

 

 1_Queue Insert Position > Normal

 2_Play Next Insert Position > Normal/Shuffled

 The songs are regular. (already mentioned above)

 

 1_Queue Insert Position > Shuffled

 2_Play Next Insert Position > Normal/Shuffled

 The songs are messed up.

 

 The result is that the settings of "Queue Insert Position" option are synchronized with "Play Next Insert Position".

 

 That is, if the "Play Next Insert Position" option is in "Normal" or "Shuffled" mode, there are redundant options, and finally, the "Queue Insert Position" option has the final effect.

 

 To fix this bug, I have some suggestions:

 As you know, the purpose of the "Play Next Insert Position" option is to play the selected songs exactly after the current song, if this option is in "Shuffled" mode, if more than one song is selected, it will shuffle them. , but if only one song is selected there is no reason to mess up.

[Ascension Shining]

11 hours ago, andrewilley said:

so it seems a bit redundant now.

I completely agree with you that some options are redundant or at least it seems so, however, any advanced option needs a detailed guide because it may deprive the user of very useful features.

[andrewilley]

@Ascension Shining I concur. The reason why the Play Next>Shuffled option does not work is that it seems to be basing its functionality on the current >>Queue mode instead. Thus if '>>Queue' happens to be set to Shuffled, the Play Next button does the same thing - i.e. it inserts the chosen songs randomly throughout the whole remaining queue.

And Play Next fails completely if the Queue has not commenced playing yet. For example, if I use it to add five "War of the Worlds" tracks to the start of an existing queue (which contains just Pure Moods tracks in this case) the following happens if the queue has not commenced playback yet:

Andre

[andrewilley]

25 minutes ago, Ascension Shining said:

I completely agree with you that some options are redundant or at least it seems so, however, any advanced option needs a detailed guide because it may deprive the user of very useful features.

Even when Play Next is working properly (i.e. when >>Queue is set to 'At End') all it does is to insert the chosen songs at the start of the Queue. Given the recently added extra options of the other Playlist/Queue buttons, I honestly no longer see the point of Play Next existing at all.

One simple 'Insert at Start' option added to the >>Queue modes would do the exact same thing, and be more consistent with the modes available for the similar +Playlist button.

Andre

[Ascension Shining]

Well, thank you very much for your guidance, even though I didn't fully understand some parts of your guidance, I still understood most of it, and in the future I will try to improve my English with refresher courses. However, the members of the forum may not have even taken basic English courses, so we should try to use simple English words.