Covers, Tags/Genres etc., Collections

[Million_Voices 3]

Hi, just a few words about where I come from first. I used to use Plex and switched to Emby a few months ago, and bought the Lifetime sub to support the product (and use it completely ofc). As a former Plex user there are some things really annyoing me with Emby, which I think can relatively easily be made better and would benefit many people or which I am simply too stupid to use correctly within Emby. @Happy2Play

I am currently using the latest Beta for Emby server on QNAP 4.8.0.8 beta and the MacOS client 2.1.9

1. In Plex for any given movie there are three or more pictures extracted internally by the Screen Grabber to select from as a cover, as far as Iearned, with Emby you would have to do a manual screenshot for each movie, place it in a directory (preferably together with the movie) and select it within Emby. Why can't this be easier?
2. When working with Tags/Genres or any other field you can add something to when editing metadata, there is no popup/dropdown etc. of existing entries of that group. So you have to keep in mind, which Tags for example you already used. That may work for small collections, but with larger ones this gets really cumbersome. With Plex for example you could just use mouse clicks on existing entries to select them for the edited item -> much faster. Also the process of entering the tags should be made more Plex-like. The little popup you get when clicking on the +-Icon looks extremely basic and could offer so much more convenience. I know many will say, "then go back to Plex" but I come up with this to make Emby better, not put a blame on the product.
3. Collections: You need to be able to select multiple collections for an item on the fly, not only after each other. So basically you CAN add something to two collection, but you can't do this in one step when editing the metadata for example.
4. The Options screens and section need a more streamlined and more consistent appearance. Some options are so buried under scroll-downs or sub-menues, sub-options or under different main options it really is a huge mess. At least that was my first impression with the options screen and even today after knowing my way around there a bit better I find it really cumbersome most of the time and it takes longer to find something you are searching for than it should.

As already mentioned, I really like Emby, so please don't see this as a bashing post or rant. I know sometimes a developers view can be a bit "obstructed" when it comes to UX and UI issues the end-user has and I know the reasons for this. So please take it as constructive criticism. If there are any questions or my "issues" aren't clear, please don't hesitate to answer or contact me.

As I used the search before posting, I was wondering if I am really the only one who has the above mentioned issues with Emby or I just didn't find it.

[Abobader 2941]

Hello Million_Voices,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Luke 37008]

Quote

1. The Options screens and section need a more streamlined and more consistent appearance. Some options are so buried under scroll-downs or sub-menues, sub-options or under different main options it really is a huge mess. At least that was my first impression with the options screen and even today after knowing my way around there a bit better I find it really cumbersome most of the time and it takes longer to find something you are searching for than it should.

Hi there, can you please provide a specific example? Thanks.

[Happy2Play 8242]

12 hours ago, Million_Voices said:

1. In Plex for any given movie there are three or more pictures extracted internally by the Screen Grabber to select from as a cover, as far as Iearned, with Emby you would have to do a manual screenshot for each movie, place it in a directory (preferably together with the movie) and select it within Emby. Why can't this be easier?

Image Fetcher (Fetcher Setting) is set to 1 by default adjust per library.  But why would anyone use a backdrop for a cover?  But if no primary image exist the it will inherit first backdrop.

 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Happy2Play

[Million_Voices 3]

10 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi there, can you please provide a specific example? Thanks.

Sure. First thing that comes to my mind (remember: first impression, new user) are the different places you can adjust settings. E.g. video/playback settings: You have settings for this in the user specific settings, you have options for that in the settings of whatever app one is using (MacOS differs big time from Windows and Web etc.), you have settings in the server settings. This goes for quite a bunch of settings/options and I know it can make sense, to include these things in different places but if there is so much focus on user-administration like themes, access rights, external access etc. wouldn't it be useful to build a dedicated main option just for all these things to be able to select all these from a central place. Mabye just as an alternative way or to be able to enable a kind of "easy"- or singleuser- / isolated-mode or whatever one wants to call it. 

Sorry I only gave this one example but I am currently a bit short with time. Maybe it's just a matter of personal taste and you should simply ignore it

[Million_Voices 3]

5 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Image Fetcher (Fetcher Setting) is set to 1 by default adjust per library.  But why would anyone use a backdrop for a cover?  But if no primary image exist the it will inherit first backdrop.

 

 

Ok my bad, I see by your answer I explained badly what I meant. First, it's not about Movies but Home-/Selfrecorded video files, second, as you of course couldn't see because of my bad explanation in the first place: Here it makes sense to be able to select from different pictures as cover or backdrop.

I didn't even know that the "Fetcher Settings" was a button with settings behind it, great example for the question @Lukeasked me regarding UI design.

So, basically to break it down in the correct direction: Why is there no "Fetcher Settings" for normal video files just like it is for movies? And the pictures are somewhat even already grabbed (see chapter thumbnails). Just let me use these, because they are already there and if I want a custom picture I still can add it the current way. I hope I could explain it better this time. Sorry, english is not my first language.

[ebr 14903]

17 hours ago, Million_Voices said:

Ok my bad, I see by your answer I explained badly what I meant. First, it's not about Movies but Home-/Selfrecorded video files, second, as you of course couldn't see because of my bad explanation in the first place: Here it makes sense to be able to select from different pictures as cover or backdrop.

I didn't even know that the "Fetcher Settings" was a button with settings behind it, great example for the question @Lukeasked me regarding UI design.

So, basically to break it down in the correct direction: Why is there no "Fetcher Settings" for normal video files just like it is for movies? And the pictures are somewhat even already grabbed (see chapter thumbnails). Just let me use these, because they are already there and if I want a custom picture I still can add it the current way. I hope I could explain it better this time. Sorry, english is not my first language.

So, in regards to this, is this FR what you are looking for?

 

[Million_Voices 3]

On 8/19/2022 at 5:04 PM, ebr said:

So, in regards to this, is this FR what you are looking for?

 

Yes.

It hasn't have to be while playing a file though. A static selection would be fine (at least that's what I meant), as already said, like for example Plex handles this.

[Luke 37008]

Quote

So, basically to break it down in the correct direction: Why is there no "Fetcher Settings" for normal video files just like it is for movies? 

Because for regular video files there are no sources for backdrop images, logos, etc.

[Million_Voices 3]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Because for regular video files there are no sources for backdrop images, logos, etc.

Sure, but as I described already to @ebr, it's not about downloading covers, art or the like but just to be able to use the pictures being generated by the chapter scanner as the main "cover" picture for example. In case I got it wrong, the generation of the chapter pictures (which you can click to jump to the corresponding position in the file) works the same for regular video files as it does for movies and tv shows. So there is no need to implement something completely new, but just add the ability to allow the user to select out of these pictures for cover picture (for "regular video files").

Edited August 28, 2022 by Million_Voices
Added info for clarity.

[Luke 37008]

On 8/27/2022 at 11:56 PM, Million_Voices said:

Sure, but as I described already to @ebr, it's not about downloading covers, art or the like but just to be able to use the pictures being generated by the chapter scanner as the main "cover" picture for example.

Right OK. There is no option for that, but the main thumbnail generator will generate an image about 15% into the video.

[Million_Voices 3]

3 minutes ago, Luke said:

Right OK. There is no option for that, but the main thumbnail generator will generate an image about 15% into the video.

Ok, then I am humbly asking to maybe include the described functionality, similar to the guy four years ago in the linked post. Would be a really meaningful and practical addition I think. Thanks for your time and the explanations on the topic, I just didn't get, why the pictures being generated by the chapter scanner anyways can't be used for this. Have a nice time.