Old time radio shows on USB stick problem.
April 23, 2021 7:00 AM Subscribe
Hi everyone;
I bought a boombox,that has a USB port. I have transferred a bunch of them from a mp3 to the USB,thats all good.
The problem is,how do I force the USB to play the shows,one after another?
Any suggestions?
Thanks :-)
Response by poster: Ok-here is the model:
HANNLOMAX HX-318CD Portable CD/MP3/USB Boombox, FM Radio, Bluetooth, 1 USB Port
posted by LOOKING at 7:22 AM on April 23, 2021
HANNLOMAX HX-318CD Portable CD/MP3/USB Boombox, FM Radio, Bluetooth, 1 USB Port
posted by LOOKING at 7:22 AM on April 23, 2021
Does the procedure described in the "Playing MP3 files with USB" section of the instruction manual not work?
posted by flabdablet at 7:29 AM on April 23, 2021
posted by flabdablet at 7:29 AM on April 23, 2021
Best answer: I'd try renaming the mp3 files to something like "01-oldShow01.mp3", "02-oldShow.02mp3" etc.
posted by Thug at 7:30 AM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Thug at 7:30 AM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I'm not being very clear here.
I bought the boombox,waiting for it to be delivered here.
I have a mp3 cd,and I transferred the shows to my usb stick.
When I played it,it played just one show,and then I have to press play again to play the next one.
This is all done on my pc.
Perhaps it will auto play all the shows on the boombox,but not the pc?
Sorry that I wasn't clear on this.
posted by LOOKING at 7:45 AM on April 23, 2021
I bought the boombox,waiting for it to be delivered here.
I have a mp3 cd,and I transferred the shows to my usb stick.
When I played it,it played just one show,and then I have to press play again to play the next one.
This is all done on my pc.
Perhaps it will auto play all the shows on the boombox,but not the pc?
Sorry that I wasn't clear on this.
posted by LOOKING at 7:45 AM on April 23, 2021
So, Windows Media Player?
Right-click the folder containing all of them and select play or play with media player.
posted by kschang at 8:23 AM on April 23, 2021
Right-click the folder containing all of them and select play or play with media player.
posted by kschang at 8:23 AM on April 23, 2021
Response by poster: Yes,I know how to transfer the shows to a usb stick.
I was just wondering as to why the usb when on the pc only plays 1 show,then I have to click play again for the next one.
Im hoping this wont happen with the boombox when I get it.
Someone told me I need to install something called "auto run" onto the stick-that confuses e even more,lol.
posted by LOOKING at 8:57 AM on April 23, 2021
I was just wondering as to why the usb when on the pc only plays 1 show,then I have to click play again for the next one.
Im hoping this wont happen with the boombox when I get it.
Someone told me I need to install something called "auto run" onto the stick-that confuses e even more,lol.
posted by LOOKING at 8:57 AM on April 23, 2021
Best answer: The USB stick isn't a music player. It's just a storage device. The order your tracks get played in, and whether they automatically play in sequence or play singly or repeat or loop or whatever, is controlled by the machine you plug the USB stick into, not by the stick itself. So if you're using your computer to play things off the stick, what you're actually doing is running audio player software of some sort on the computer (possibly Windows Media Player, if you haven't explicitly installed anything else) and that player software is just reading audio files from the stick, according to the player software's own rules.
When you get your boom box, it will also have software inside it that can read audio files of the stick and then play them for you. The behaviour of that software will be as defined by the boom box designer. About the only control you will have over it as far as laying out files on your stick goes is choosing what folders to put them in and what to name them.
One fairly common convention, if you have multiple tracks to play, is to play them in alphabetical order by file name. This is why Thug suggested using a file naming convention where each file's name starts with a two digit number; that way, you can change the play order just by changing the numbers at the start of the names.
But again, when you do this you're not telling the stick what order to play things in, because the stick doesn't play things. You're creating play order hints on the stick to be interpreted (or possibly ignored) by the computer or (when it eventually arrives) the boom box.
posted by flabdablet at 9:07 AM on April 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
When you get your boom box, it will also have software inside it that can read audio files of the stick and then play them for you. The behaviour of that software will be as defined by the boom box designer. About the only control you will have over it as far as laying out files on your stick goes is choosing what folders to put them in and what to name them.
One fairly common convention, if you have multiple tracks to play, is to play them in alphabetical order by file name. This is why Thug suggested using a file naming convention where each file's name starts with a two digit number; that way, you can change the play order just by changing the numbers at the start of the names.
But again, when you do this you're not telling the stick what order to play things in, because the stick doesn't play things. You're creating play order hints on the stick to be interpreted (or possibly ignored) by the computer or (when it eventually arrives) the boom box.
posted by flabdablet at 9:07 AM on April 23, 2021 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the help--I think i finally get it,lol.
posted by LOOKING at 9:12 AM on April 23, 2021
posted by LOOKING at 9:12 AM on April 23, 2021
It's possible your boom box might recognize an M3u file. You would just have to try it, I think.
posted by Quonab at 9:47 AM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Quonab at 9:47 AM on April 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
one suggestion is to merge all your mp3s to one big mp3. this can be done using online tools such as audio-joiner.com or using open source software such as audacity
this way, the boombox will play that one big mp3 of all your radio shows one after another.
posted by edman at 9:48 AM on April 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
this way, the boombox will play that one big mp3 of all your radio shows one after another.
posted by edman at 9:48 AM on April 23, 2021 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:06 AM on April 23, 2021