Using Active Playlists

Active playlists create a hierarchy of playlists based on the keywords that you choose. Files that match the keywords are listed under each sub-playlist.

They are fully dynamic so the list of sub-playlists and files in the active playlist will change as your Mezzmo library changes.

To create an active playlist, click Create Playlist → Active Playlist.

You can use active playlists to quickly get your files nicely organized. For example:

• A list of your movies organized by year
• A list of your TV shows organized by TV show name, season and episode
• A list of photos organized by year and month
• A list of music organized by artist and album
• A list of music organized by composer
• A list of movies organized by content rating

Give your active playlist a meaningful name and description. Optionally, select some poster artwork and backdrop artwork for it - or leave it blank and Mezzmo will automatically assign artwork to it based on the files contained in the playlist.

Set the content rating for the active playlist so that certain devices or users will be restricted from seeing it or playing the files within the smart playlist. For example, set the content rating to 'R' if it contains videos that are not suitable for children.

Set the way you want your titles displayed for the files in the active playlist using the Display Titles button. For example, you may want your music tracks listed with full information to make them easy to identify such as “Coldplay - X&Y - Speed of Sound”.

Select the keywords that you wish to use for organizing your files. The above example uses “Artist” and “Album / Series” so that music files will be organized where the top level playlists will be the artist name and the sub-playlists will be the albums from each artist and the corresponding files will be music tracks each album sub-playlist. For example:

[+] Bob Dylan
[+] Coldplay
  [+] A Rush of Blood to the Head
    Politik
    In My Place
    God Put a Smile upon Your Face
    The Scientist
    Clocks
    Daylight
    Green Eyes
    Warning Sign
    A Whisper
    A Rush of Blood to the Head
    Amsterdam
  [+] X&Y
    Square One
    What If
    White Shadows
    Fix You
    Talk
    X&Y
    Speed of Sound
    A Message
    Low
    The Hardest Part
    Swallowed in the Sea
    Twisted Logic
    Til Kingdom Come
[+] Foo Fighters
[+] Rihanna

To filter your active playlist so that it only certain types of files are included, then click the Smart Filter button and add the rules that you want to use to drill into your collection of files in your Mezzmo library.

Choose the types of files that you want to find - all types of files, just video files, just music files or just photos.

Set the Sort by setting to match they way you want your files listed. Select Random Shuffle to have them randomly ordered each time you access the playlist.

Right-click on the playlist and click Properties to edit it at any time.

When you add files, delete files, change the attributes of a file or maintain your Mezzmo library, Mezzmo will display a Processing active playlists task in the Status pane. This tells you that Mezzmo is working through all your active playlists to make sure they are in-sync with your collection of files.

Tip: Whilst this task is processing, you can browse and stream your files on your devices or web browsers. You do not need to wait until it has completed.

Tip: If you think your active playlist is out-of-sync with your collection of files, then you can instruct Mezzmo to update it. Right-click on the active playlist and click Properties. On the Active Playlist Properties dialog, click OK to close the dialog. Mezzmo will begin updating the active playlist in the background. It may take several minutes depending on number of files in your Mezzmo library.