[Ronner]

I've used MediaPortal for a long time and a couple of months ago I switched over to XBMC because the UI is simply a lot smoother than MediaPortal.

A feature that I liked much in MediaPortal's tv series plugin was the "play random episode" option. Especially with large sitcoms such as friends, seinfeld or southpark etc. this option is quite nice. Eating diner on the couch and just press a button to play a random episode of that specific show.

Would it be a good idea to put this feature under the context menu of a show? Press C, scroll to "play random episode", press ok and voila...

Shouldn't be too hard to make and would be a nice addition imho.

[Carlovian]

+1 for this

It's something so simple it's hard to believe it hasn't been done yet.
I'm not moaning btw, XBMC is fantastic in my book.

I know it can be done by setting up a smart list and randomizing it but it just seems so cumbersome. Like Ronner said, an option in the context menu perhaps and depending on what's currently selected it could play a random episode from an entire show or just from one particular season.

[NomadCF]

And not complicate the Idea any more, But this would be nice for the movies side of it too, and maybe a combination of the two. Meaning randomly keeping a EP or a Movie. (kinda like surfing the channels on a normal TV.)

[achilleas.k]

Hey guys. I found this thread while searching for a way to do just this and then I figured it out.
If you right click/press C on a show directory and press Play, it'll add all the show's episodes to the "Now Playing" list.
Then go back to the menu while the first episode is playing, press C again for context menu and select "Now playing ...". This will bring up your playlist. Pressing left will show the playlist options which includes a shuffle button.

It's a bit of a mess and I don't know if there's a simpler way to do it right now, but the important thing is that the shuffle option remains enabled, so next time you want to do it you just right click a directory, press play and it starts playing all the included files in random order.

EDIT: The wiki page on playlists should be useful too. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Playlists

[Ronner]

Hey guys. I found this thread while searching for a way to do just this and then I figured it out.
If you right click/press C on a show directory and press Play, it'll add all the show's episodes to the "Now Playing" list.
Then go back to the menu while the first episode is playing, press C again for context menu and select "Now playing ...". This will bring up your playlist. Pressing left will show the playlist options which includes a shuffle button.

It's a bit of a mess and I don't know if there's a simpler way to do it right now, but the important thing is that the shuffle option remains enabled, so next time you want to do it you just right click a directory, press play and it starts playing all the included files in random order.

EDIT: The wiki page on playlists should be useful too. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Playlists

Thx for posting this workaround to sort of the same functionality, but it's too complex. There should simply be an option in the "C" menu saying "Play random episode".

[spiff]

make yourself a smart playlist. we can't bog down the menu with every little feature somebody comes up with. personally i'd find this utterly useless.

[achilleas.k]

Thx for posting this workaround to sort of the same functionality, but it's too complex. There should simply be an option in the "C" menu saying "Play random episode".

Well it's not really that complex because, like I said, after doing it the first time, you're set. You just right click any directory (TV series root, sing season), press Play and it just shuffles em all up.

[Ronner]

make yourself a smart playlist. we can't bog down the menu with every little feature somebody comes up with. personally i'd find this utterly useless.

personally I find most of your comments utterly useless plus that most of them have this demeaning and arrogant tone.

just because you personally find something useless doesn't mean you have to speak with such an unrespectful tone towards others.

I just find it strange that functionality like this is so quickly dumped upon just because someone on the dev team thinks it's useless. There are more people that find it useful than there are people that think it's useless. People that come from other MC applications where that functionality was available all see the use for it and given the fact that it wouldn't be that hard to implement or even take that long to implement I don't see a reason not to.

As for not wanting to bog down the menu, I can totally understand that, but you could also think of the option to provide a "play random" function and be able to tweak that into the menu through a config file or something like that. that way people that find it useless will still have it the way it is now by default and the people that find it useful could add it to their menu.

[spiff]

all in the eye of the beholder, no demeaning was intended. i used myself as an example, if you prefer, insert 'random joe' there. the functionality is there for those who want it.

i really don't see why it's so hard to create a smart playlist, and hit play on that instead of duping functionality and cluttering menus.

[Ronner]

all in the eye of the beholder, no demeaning was intended. i used myself as an example, if you prefer, insert 'random joe' there. the functionality is there for those who want it.

i really don't see why it's so hard to create a smart playlist, and hit play on that instead of duping functionality and cluttering menus.

my apologies then for jumping the gun on your intent. must be the fact that it's friday and my mood suffers badly from being at the office

I've read the wiki on smart playlists but from that I can't really see it in front of me how it would work but I'll search the forums a bit more and see what I can find.

[spiff]

1) setup a smart playlist (using the gui editor) which grabs unwatched episodes (or any episodes if you don't care).
2) set the order of the playlist to be 'random'
3) either go to the playlists node and hit play on the playlist, or add a suitable skin button somewhere which starts it for you.

[Ronner]

1) setup a smart playlist (using the gui editor) which grabs unwatched episodes (or any episodes if you don't care).
2) set the order of the playlist to be 'random'
3) either go to the playlists node and hit play on the playlist, or add a suitable skin button somewhere which starts it for you.

What I did is this;

- went to playlists
- selected "new smart playlist"
- Set the following; type tv shows, gave it the name Friends Random, find items where tv show is Friends, limit to no limit, order by random ascending and pressed ok

Now when I am on the playlist with the name "Friends random" I can do "C" and select "Play". That works and it plays a random episode, but if I don't do it via "c"->"Play" but press "P" for play right away, it simply displays the tv-show library. I'll figure this out when I'm home cuz im trying it on my laptop at work which only has one show in it for testing purposes.

One more question. What are my options of adding a custom button somewhere that would play a smart playlist, and thus start a random episode? What are the options of locations to put them and how would I do that? Preferably I'd want to put them in the submenu of the "TV SHows" home menu. (you know, the menu that shows up when you press the right-cursor key and normally shows "Title, Genres, Years etc"), but I don't know what command I have to put in which XML.

[Hanson]

I have a question that's related to this area...
I use XBMC mainly for watching concerts, and I wonder if there is any possibility to play content totally at random? I would like to be able to play random chapters from different concerts, to have a live concert music mix with different artists.

[tooshna]

I think there really needs to be a 'random' button somewhere. With so many movies it is hard to pick one these days, a random function in the menu where 'recently played' is would be ideal. I think a lot of people would use it.

[Hitcher]

The RecentlyAdded script can be configured to select random Movies, Episodes or Songs/Albums instead or there is a separate RandomItems script so you can have both on the Home screen. Obviously the skin needs to support this feature but I have it working in Welo and will soon add it to all versions of Alaska.