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Smart Playlist Properties
Smart playlists are playlists that are dynamically populated using the search criteria that you define. Mezzmo searches your Mezzmo library for media files that match your search criteria and lists those media files that match.
Smart playlists are very useful when you wish to collect a set of media files that all have certain matching characteristics. For example, you may want to create a smart playlist of all your 'Rolling Stones' songs from the 1970's.
Mezzmo installs several smart playlists into your Mezzmo library when you first run Mezzmo - including:
- Top 50 Rated
- Last 50 Played
- Recently Added
You can right-click on any of these smart playlists and click the Properties menu item to view the Smart Playlist Properties dialog.
Location
Choose a location in your library where you want the smart playlist located. Click the Browse button to choose a new location.
Playlist name
Enter a name for the smart playlist that best describes the media files that will be added into it. For example, if you are searching your Mezzmo library for all your Beatles music with a rating of 5 stars, then the smart playlist may be called 'Top Rated Beatles Music'.</p>
Description
Enter a description of the smart playlist that may be helpful for you to understand the contents of the playlist. For example, if you are searching your Mezzmo library for all your Beatles music with a rating of 5 stars, then the description may be 'All my favorite Beatles tracks'.
Content Rating
Click the browse button to select a content rating that best describes the files that will be listed in the playlist. This content rating will be used by Mezzmo to either list or not list the playlist on devices depending on the content rating settings for the device.
Display Titles
Click this button to edit the display titles for this playlist. Display titles let you set format for the titles of your files when they are displayed in Mezzmo and on your devices. You can set the display titles for all playlists and folders in the Options dialog (General page).
Change Poster
Lets you change the artwork thumbnail for the playlist. Mezzmo will display this artwork in its user interface. Mezzmo also streams this playlist artwork to devices and web browsers. Some devices will display this artwork - however, it depends on each device's implementation.
- Add Picture: Click to use an image from your hard disk.
- Delete Picture: Click to remove the current artwork thumbnail.
<h3>Search criteria</h3>
<p>Smart playlists use search criteria to determine what files are included in it. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>You define the search criteria using the rules editor in the Smart Playlist dialog and Mezzmo finds all the matching files from your Mezzmo library.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As an example, imagine you want to create a smart playlist named "My top 20 rated rock songs from the 1980s". <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>The search criteria would include two rules and a 20 item limit:</p>
<p style=“margin-left: 48px;”>Match [all] of the following rules:</p>
<p style=“margin-left: 48px;”>[Genre] <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>[is] <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>[Rock]</p>
<p style=“margin-left: 48px;”>[Year] <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>[is in the range] <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>[1980] <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>to <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>[1989]</p>
<p style=“margin-left: 48px;”>Limit playlist to: [20] items <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>Sort by [Most highly rated]</p>
<p> </p>
<p>You can use many different attributes of your media files for smart playlists - including Artist, Album, Bit depth, Duration, File type, File size, Genre, Height, Width, Year, Title and Rating.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Match all/any of the following rules</h3>
<p>If you have multiple rules in your search criteria, you can choose to have media files match all the rules or match any of the rules.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Creating rules</h3>
<p>To enter a rule, choose a field from the first combo box (for example, Genre or Artist or Album). <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>Then, choose an operator (for example, "is" or "starts with"). <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>Then, enter the value to match with (for example, "Rock").</p>
<p> </p>
<p>To add a new rule, click the <span style=“font-weight: bold;”>'+'</span> button at the end of a rule. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>A new empty rule will be added into the dialog box. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–></p>
<p> </p>
<p>To remove a rule, click the <span style=“font-weight: bold;”>'-'</span> button at the end of a rule. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>The rule will be removed.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Restrict this smart playlist to these types of files</h3>
<p><!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>Choose the types of files that you want contained in the smart playlist.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Sort by</h3>
<p><!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>Choose the file attribute that you want your files sorted by.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style=“font-weight: bold;”>Tip:</span> Choose <span style=“font-weight: bold;”>Random Shuffle</span> to have the files sorted and listed randomly on your devices.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3>Limit playlist to</h3>
<p>Limiting playlist is useful if you do not wish to see all matching media files, but just a certain number. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>For example, the top 50 rated songs, or the 100 recently added videos. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Limiting can also be useful for collecting a set of matching media files to be written to removable media (CD/DVD). <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>For example, you can limit the duration to 80 minutes so you can burn the smart playlist to fit an audio CD, or you can limit the file size to 640MB so you can burn the media files to fit a CD.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>To limit your smart playlist, enter the amount of the limit and <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>type of limit you wish to apply. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>You can limit by:</p>
<ul style=“list-style: disc;”
type=disc> <li class=kadov-p><p>the number of items <!--kadov_tag{{<spaces>}}--> <!--kadov_tag{{</spaces>}}-->(for
example, limit the playlist to 20 media files)</p></li>
<li class=kadov-p><p>the duration <!--kadov_tag{{<spaces>}}--> <!--kadov_tag{{</spaces>}}-->(for
example, limit the playlist to 80 minutes total duration)</p></li>
<li class=kadov-p><p>the file size <!--kadov_tag{{<spaces>}}--> <!--kadov_tag{{</spaces>}}-->(for
example, limit the playlist to 640MB total file size)</p></li> </ul>
<h3>Sharing Permissions</h3>
<p>Click to choose the devices you want Mezzmo to deliver this playlist and its files to. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–>You can use this for limiting what playlists a device can browse. <!–kadov_tagspaces–> <!–kadov_tagspaces–></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style=“font-weight: bold;”>Tip:</span> For parental control over your Mezzmo library, we recommend using Content Rating to limit what files, playlists and folders are listed and played on a device.</p>
<p> </p>
<h3><img src=“../Images/bullet.gif”
x-maintain-ratio=TRUE style="border: none; width: 11px; height: 11px; float: none;" width=11 height=11 border=0> See Also</h3>
<p><a href=“../Topics/Using_Playlists.htm”>Using playlists</a></p>
<p><a href=“Playlist_Sharing_Permissions.htm”>Playlist Sharing Permissions</a></p>
<p> </p>
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