I searched the forum and the Web and don't see an answer, so maybe you folks can help.

I run Vista Home Premium on a custom-built HTPC.  I have loads of MP3 songs, all tagged by my former player software (Music Match).

One of the features I miss from my old PC was the Auto-DJ feature that would pick random songs to fill a specified time, based on specific tags.  For example, I could get 4 hours of assorted Celtic music, or (using a custom "Situation" tag called "kid mix") pull up three hours of assorted children's favorites.

Media Center has half a dozen ways to play random visualizations and photo slide shows, but nothing I can find to queue up random songs.  Is there a feature I am overlooking?  Or maybe a 3rd party plug in?

About the only work-around I have is to connect over the network with an XP client, create a bunch of static playlists, save them as M3U files, translate the drive letters, and pick them off the Playlist menu in Media Center.  That's pretty lame.  I sure hope you can suggest something better.

Thanks!

How about "Play all" with the Shuffle button enabled?

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TV Pack, Intel DG31PR mobo, Core 2 Duo E6700, 2GB DDR2 RAM, Asus nVidia 8500 GT, Hauppauge Win-TV-HVR-1800, integrated audio, Antec Fusion 430 case

Velcroman:

How about "Play all" with the Shuffle button enabled?

Well, as far as I can tell, that method is missing three key features:

• It always shuffles the same songs in the same order.
• It doesn't let you filter by genre or other criteria.
• It doesn't fill a specified time slot (not as important, but very nice to have.

My Movies vastly improves on the basic MC video interface.  Does anybody make a similar product for music?

 

Wow, it's been weeks and this post is still on the front page and still unanswered.  That's pretty weak.

Anyway, I found the answer. In WMP, click <Alt> File | Create Auto Playlist.  The features are all there.  It's just not exposed on the Library screen.