how to create music choice playlists with U-verse

To be honest, I didn't tune to 500 directly.  I actually clicked on the Go Interactive button on the remote and navigated to it that way.  Then I pressed Guide to see if there was a channel as a shortcut and there was.

I hadn't really played with it much, and I got really tired of the same dang commercial that was played over, and over, and over, and over again between songs.  And the content was somewhat limited.  I think that Pandora is probably a better choice for background music.  Or, if you have a pretty decent collection on a Windows PC, you can use the Media Share app to play it from your WMP on your PC.

I'm glad I could help.  Be aware that the STB will go into offline mode after 8 hours of inactivity (i.e. no commands recieved by IR), and your music will quit playing.  This happened to me on my Christmas music playlist on Christmas.  I turned on the playlist and turned off the TV (allowing it to play through the Amplifier) before opening presents, and shortly after cleaning up the lunch dishes the music quit playing.

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@quartermaester wrote:
Having just jumped ship from Cox I was familiar with Music Choice. The station selections are nearly identical as are the stagnant, dated photographic background stills and artist bios. We've been with U-verse a little more than a week, so there is much to learn in regards to discovering on-screen menus and their many options. With that said, thanks again for the hint to investigate Media Share (via Go Interactive>Entertainment) as an alternate way around personalized music choices. I was surprised to find the two existing Windows 7 networks listed on screen. The artists and albums displayed but didn't play at first until I went in and tweaked some of the settings. Being theinternet/network privacy bug that I am I must admit being somewhat suspicious but am fairly confident that our network is secure. Now to rip more from my CD collection so to add to the archive on the Windows 7 box so I can enjoy more of the music I like on my TV. Thanks again,JefferMC!

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Media Share is the bomb!  I actually have a program installed on my host PC called TVersity and that seems to work better than using Windows Media Player.   TVersity shows up in the lists as a service, when starting Media Share.  TVersity allows Folders, so I have my ripped music collection on my PC in folders (New Stuff, Rock, Country, Oldies etc) and then albums beyond that.  Pretty cool.  Although I have not dabbled with it much, you can use TVersity to add streaming URL's and listen to online radio stations, on your U-Verse boxes! 

Look at post #825 in this blog.  tHeMSUMan "stole" my post from 2010! 🙂  What I wrote is in the grey box.

I will say streaming has gotten more hit and miss but it is a fine "hidden gem."

On the topic of playing music through the STB, I played with the U-verse Party app over the weekend.  I must say that I was not impressed.  Never got it to work properly (okay, at all).  I'll probably open a new topic on that.

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@JefferMC wrote:

On the topic of playing music through the STB, I played with the U-verse Party app over the weekend.  I must say that I was not impressed.  Never got it to work properly (okay, at all).  I'll probably open a new topic on that.

 

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Not surprising, Jeff!  Not sure why AT&T doesn't work out something to allow streaming radio.  It would be a HUGE feather in their cap and i would use it.  It could be that Music Choice may be a stumbling block but they have a golden opportunity to work with an outfit like Iheart, Tune In, Pandora, Rdio, Spotify and the like. 

I'm not sure if you were on here when AT&T had the horrible Urge music service but folks would scoff "Who listens to music through their U-Verse boxes?"  Lots of folks, actually!

Yes, you can start a picture show and then start music.  Or you can connect your STB to your amp and turn off the TV.

When I first discovered Media Share I found that extended use (a few hours or more) would cause the STB to become slugish and erratic.  Rebooting the STB fixed that.  I summize some sort of memory leak.  I have not experienced this in the last 2 years or more.

Yes, STB means Set Top Box, and rebooting I mean hold the power button on the front of the STB for 10 seconds (or until it starts blinking) then let go, though pulling the power cord would work, too.  Rebooting will take 2-3 minutes to complete.

Pushing the power button just puts it in "standby."  

No problem, happy to help.  Earlier, I had said that a long time ago (on a previous version of the firmware), Music Choice caused symptoms of a memory leak.  I meant Media Share, not Music Choice, and wanted to be sure I made that clear.