Bug 326073 - Randomization of partitioned playlist not random
Summary: Randomization of partitioned playlist not random
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: amarok
Classification: Applications
Component: Playlists/Dynamic Playlists (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 2.8.0
Platform: Ubuntu Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 2.9
Assignee: Amarok Bugs
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-10-15 23:12 UTC by artur.glavic
Modified: 2022-11-16 05:16 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Dynamic playlist XML file (1.72 KB, text/xml)
2013-10-16 16:50 UTC, artur.glavic
Details

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Description artur.glavic 2013-10-15 23:12:03 UTC
I have a large collection of >10k tracks and a dynamic playlist partitioned by genre to play some genres more often than others with one partition option being 'Tracks from the same album'. I already noticed quite some time, that the selected songs are far from random, some do come up once a month or even more often. Today I found a strange behavior that might be related:

I prefer having only one upcoming song in the playlist and it got stuck on one album. Whenever I push repopulate the song is again from the same album. When I set the number of upcoming tracks to 3 or higher it finds other songs, even for the one directly after the current playing song.

I don't know if this is a general issue with the random song selection in amarok or with the partition setting, as I don't know how to test for that.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Setup a dynamic playlist with the partition option
2. Put 'Search for: genre:....' the partitioning several times and 'Tracks from the same album' as last item
3. Set 'Upcoming' to 1 and hit repopulate
Actual Results:  
Each time only songs from the currently playing album come up.

Expected Results:  
Random selection depending on the partition settings.
Comment 1 Myriam Schweingruber 2013-10-15 23:51:47 UTC
How often did you try? "Random" can also mean that sometimes there are repetitions.
Comment 2 artur.glavic 2013-10-16 11:41:39 UTC
Tried it at least 30 times (partition of save album should be <20%) and tested switching to upcoming 1 and 10 back and forth getting the same result.
Comment 3 artur.glavic 2013-10-16 11:50:15 UTC
Just tested it again now. Strangely it now found not only songs from the same album but from the same artist, which sounds even more unlikely. I also testes restarting amarok, but got the same result. 

It seems like the probability of finding something else increases with the 'Upcoming' value. With 2 I do not get any other artist, with three it is the same artist all over the list for about 2/3 of the time, and with 4 the same artist has about one song every 4-6 repopulations. This clearly is not random.
Comment 4 Myriam Schweingruber 2013-10-16 14:10:23 UTC
Could you please provide the xml file of your Random playlist part?
Comment 5 artur.glavic 2013-10-16 16:50:48 UTC
Created attachment 82885 [details]
Dynamic playlist XML file
Comment 6 artur.glavic 2013-10-16 16:52:54 UTC
Here is the file. The playlist is called 'Mixed Metal'.
Comment 7 Myriam Schweingruber 2013-10-16 18:20:49 UTC
Try changing the proportions of your bias, those seem to be far too low. Especially if you want all possible tracks answering these part biases only.
Comment 8 artur.glavic 2013-10-16 18:25:36 UTC
Sorry, but I can't follow you. The proportions sum up to 100% and the dialog does not allow to change this behavior at all. The only possibility would setting it directly in the xml file, but increasing the total above 1 would not make much sense to me.
Comment 9 artur.glavic 2013-10-16 18:40:12 UTC
I tried manually setting the values in the xml file to 100x what I had before and now it seems to give relatively reasonable results. 
However, the partition indicators of every entry in the play list tree is full and when editing the partitioning inside amarok it automatically sets it back to a sum of 1, so there is obviously a bug in the GUI, which was not there before my update to KDE 4.11. 

This also does not explain some tracks coming up more often than they should, what they also did before, but I guess that's harder to get a hold on.
Comment 10 Myriam Schweingruber 2013-10-16 23:12:10 UTC
So you say this happened after an upgrade of your KDE version? Amarok is not part of the KDE SC release, so I really doubt this could happen.
Comment 11 artur.glavic 2013-10-16 23:16:17 UTC
OK, than I guess it was just a regular Amarok update and I noticed it only after the KDE update, as the repository I added for it contained the Amarok update as well.
Comment 12 Myriam Schweingruber 2013-10-17 05:36:35 UTC
Thank you for the feedback.
Comment 13 Chris Rizzitello 2014-08-29 23:59:06 UTC
i have a similar problem https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=338668
Comment 14 Justin Zobel 2022-10-17 00:41:00 UTC
Thank you for reporting this bug in KDE software. As it has been a while since this issue was reported, can we please ask you to see if you can reproduce the issue with a recent software version?

If you can reproduce the issue, please change the status to "CONFIRMED" when replying. Thank you!
Comment 15 Bug Janitor Service 2022-11-01 05:04:47 UTC
Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
15 days. Please provide the requested information as soon as
possible and set the bug status as REPORTED. Due to regular bug
tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDSINFO status with
no change in 30 days the bug will be closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

If you have already provided the requested information, please
mark the bug as REPORTED so that the KDE team knows that the bug is
ready to be confirmed.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!
Comment 16 Bug Janitor Service 2022-11-16 05:16:15 UTC
This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
30 days. The bug is now closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!