"Random" playback order is not truly random

[Jani Uusitalo]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Load a playlist of N files in VLC
2. Set playback to Random
3. Play or jump (with "Next" button) the playlist forward for N files and observe the playing order
4. GOTO step 3

What happens:
The order in which the files are played in step 3 always repeats itself.

What I expect to happen:
For the files to be played back in a truly random order, without any perpetually repeating pattern.

Further info:
The playing order seems to get shuffled only at the start, so the playlist isn't played in order, but the once-shuffled order is repeated over and over. To reshuffle the playlist, VLC has to be restarted, but still then it just plays the newly-shuffled playlist over and over.

To be fair, in practice instead of true randomness I suspect most people prefer something from the way the "Random" now works: that each file on the playlist is played once and once only in every N plays. AFAICT it is not mutually exclusive with reshuffling the playlist between those N plays; just make sure that the two transitional files (last file of shuffled-playlist-1 vs. first file of shuffled-playlist-2) aren't the same.

I for one though would still prefer even true random over what it currently is.

Of the half a dozen or so randomness-related bugs in VLC's tracker I was able to find, Ticket #5730 ("New Feature Request: Shuffle & Random for Playlists") [1] came closest to what I'm reporting here. In fact, it's a superset of this one and I'd prefer to have it fixed over just mine.

*[1] http://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/5730#trac-ticket-title

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: vlc 2.0.5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-22.34~precise1-generic 3.5.7.2
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-22-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.1
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: 09ae689090491ca53449589269e4bfd8
CheckboxSystem: edda5d4f616ca792bf437989cb597002
Date: Thu Jan 24 22:57:34 2013
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: vlc
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2011-11-21 (430 days ago)

[Rémi Denis-Courmont (rdenis)]

Upstream, patch welcome.