MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Is There A Secret to Changing the Order Music Files Play In?

SteveEisenberg · 10-15-2011, 08:27 PM

As background, I have a tiny personal little VB .NET 2010 Express program that automatically deletes those annoying notices (including the new ones for library books) whenever I attach my Kindle to my PC and press the annointed multi-key combination. I'm thinking that I might buff this up a little and make it my first freeware release since the days of the Apple II. Along those buffing up lines, I added a feature to randomize music tracks. My code goes through each MP3 on my K3, picking the music files at random and giving them a treatment like this:

My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile (strOriginalFilePath, strTempFilePath)
My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteFile (strOriginalFilePath)
My.Computer.FileSystem.RenameFile (strTempFilePath, strOriginalFileName)

This does seem to reset the order in which the MP3 tracks play. And the whole process would be fast -- except that the CopyFile line above takes roughly forever AKA many seconds for most tracks. I could try doing an API call file copy, but I don't think it will much help, as doing a similar copy with Windows Explorer takes at least as long.

Maybe this is just how it has to be, in which case I will give the user an up-front estimate of how long it will take to randomize their songs before proceding. But before I do that -- does anyone know, at the lowest level, how the Kindle decides which order to play the songs? It seems there should be way to change some file characteristic that determines the order, rather than re-copy the whole track.

Thanks for all ideas.

10-15-2011, 08:27 PM	#1
SteveEisenberg Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,435 Karma: 43514536 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: near Philadelphia USA Device: Kindle Kids Edition, Fire HD 10 (11th generation)	Is There A Secret to Changing the Order Music Files Play In? As background, I have a tiny personal little VB .NET 2010 Express program that automatically deletes those annoying notices (including the new ones for library books) whenever I attach my Kindle to my PC and press the annointed multi-key combination. I'm thinking that I might buff this up a little and make it my first freeware release since the days of the Apple II. Along those buffing up lines, I added a feature to randomize music tracks. My code goes through each MP3 on my K3, picking the music files at random and giving them a treatment like this: My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile (strOriginalFilePath, strTempFilePath) My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteFile (strOriginalFilePath) My.Computer.FileSystem.RenameFile (strTempFilePath, strOriginalFileName) This does seem to reset the order in which the MP3 tracks play. And the whole process would be fast -- except that the CopyFile line above takes roughly forever AKA many seconds for most tracks. I could try doing an API call file copy, but I don't think it will much help, as doing a similar copy with Windows Explorer takes at least as long. Maybe this is just how it has to be, in which case I will give the user an up-front estimate of how long it will take to randomize their songs before proceding. But before I do that -- does anyone know, at the lowest level, how the Kindle decides which order to play the songs? It seems there should be way to change some file characteristic that determines the order, rather than re-copy the whole track. Thanks for all ideas.