There are two kinds of playlists you can have for VLC. One is the
playlist that you can save using the option under the "file" menu in
VLC; this is generated by whatever you access in vlc; starts a new
one if you quit VLC and restart it but you can always save the
playlist during your current session. The other kind of playlist--
really basically the same but not automatically generated by VLC--is
the .m3u playlist file you can construct yourself in Text Edit or
whatever editor you like. Today I made what was for me a new
discovery about the VLC-generated playlist.
I had thought that if I used cmd-d and put in a pathname to a disk
and/or directory of adio, the saved playlist would only show what had
actually been played. But in fact, if I type in
/Volumes/LaCie Disk/Music in the edit field, a playlist is
immediately generated of everything in that directory and all its
subdirectories. So by saving that playlist with a title I'll
recognize, I can now just open the playlist and have VLC play all the
music in that directory and of course I can then choose to use cmd-z
and randomize it; this means that once I've saved the playlist I
don't have to use cmd-d and type in a long path to start my music.
I also found another use for VLC-generated playlists. While I still
use iTunes occasionally for listening, I use VLC much more often. I
wanted to have access to all my iTunes-stored audio in a VLC session,
and I also wanted an easy way to check what actually is stored in my
iTunes library--though of course there are other ways to do this. So
in VLC, using cmd-d, I loaded /Users/chomiak/Music/iTunes/iTunes
Music and let it start playing. Then I saved the resulting playlist.
Now I can look through the file in an editor and see what is stored
and know exactly where to find items I want to delete. I can also
open that playlist and have everything that I could access in iTunes
accessible to me in VLC instead. Of course I can't listen to
Audible.com content in VLC but sometimes I use audio hijack pro with
iTunes and make a plain mp3 version of an Audible book if I really
want to listen to it with VLC or Quicktime.
--
Cheryl
"Where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also".
