# Anyone here use VLC player much (sort of off topic but not)

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/anyone-here-use-vlc-player-much-sort-of-off-topic-but-not/58954>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [24 February 2022 21:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/anyone-here-use-vlc-player-much-sort-of-off-topic-but-not/58954 "2022-02-24T21:13:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Trying\_to\_learn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/trying_to_learn/32/28400_2.png) [@Trying\_to\_learn](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Trying_to_learn)\
**Post date:** [24 February 2022 21:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/anyone-here-use-vlc-player-much-sort-of-off-topic-but-not/58954/1 "2022-02-24T21:13:19Z")

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I am asking because I am wanting to make a _Jukebox_ kind of thing on a RasPi.

But early testing with VLC is ... well: not the best.  
I'll put that down to me and my (in)ability to use programs.

Not to extreme a number - say 4000 - I want to get random playback.  
So my thoughts are turning to: rather than giving VLC the whole list, I get Node-Red to pick a random value.  
This is used to pick what is to be played.

As is I have directories with the audio files.  
Some by album, some by artist.

So there are ... 300 directories.  
Alas I can see problems here as it isn't 2 levels. Some could be 3 deep for directories.

So the thought is:  
Create a number to pick the directory.  
Enter that directory.  
If it has directories, pick another random number to pick the next one.  
Repeat until there is/are not directories.  
Random number to play that file.

Could Node-Red do that part easily?

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**Author:** ![ghayne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/ghayne/32/39_2.png) [@ghayne](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/ghayne)\
**Post date:** [24 February 2022 21:29 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/anyone-here-use-vlc-player-much-sort-of-off-topic-but-not/58954/2 "2022-02-24T21:29:13Z")

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Andrew, this might be possible, but why not just use a player with a shuffle function?  
The amount of time you would invest in this project in Node red is enormous, for the same result.

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**Author:** ![EmilWesselink](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/emilwesselink/32/65829_2.png) [@EmilWesselink](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/EmilWesselink)\
**Post date:** [24 February 2022 21:36 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/anyone-here-use-vlc-player-much-sort-of-off-topic-but-not/58954/3 "2022-02-24T21:36:13Z")

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If you use the ls -R function on the main folder you will get a list of all files in all subdirectories. If you put on some filtering you can indeed do some random stuff to start it. But you have to poll VLC the whole time to see status of songs before you can start the next one.

But when I google to the VLC command line options, I think all is possible to do just with VLC.

vlc --help

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/8/2/82cd3c86ef1046dabcf276b818955f87c2b1f09e.png)

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**Author:** ![Trying\_to\_learn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/trying_to_learn/32/28400_2.png) [@Trying\_to\_learn](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Trying_to_learn)\
**Post date:** [24 February 2022 23:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/anyone-here-use-vlc-player-much-sort-of-off-topic-but-not/58954/4 "2022-02-24T23:43:43Z")

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Yeah, I originally tried VLC player in _Random_ mode....

Saying I have even 400 songs, the play back was something like.....

1  
80  
1  
284  
165  
1

So as much as it was truly random... the repeats were annoying.

It is early days for it.  
Just now I have the machine back up and working, I would like to get it working as a Jukebox.

😉

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [25 April 2022 23:43 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/anyone-here-use-vlc-player-much-sort-of-off-topic-but-not/58954/5 "2022-04-25T23:43:52Z")

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