Top Picks support thread

[TheUrbanXplorer 36]

18 hours ago, chef said:

 

 

I'll try my best to work though your question, lets see if I can fix some of this.

 

1. Can you let me know what options are turned on in the configuration? Are both "Favor New releases", and "Favor Recently Added" option turned on or off?
2. Do you have parental controls enabled on this account? Is the option "Hide watched items from the home screen" enabled on your server?

The only reason there is 9 items is because double digit numbers get pretty crowded. The primary images look pretty bad.

This is a thumb image with lots of room to draw too. 

 

But I'm open to some ideas to create thumb images to handle this. If anyone who uses the plugin wants to get creative, and has some ideas about how to do a thumb and primary image layout that fits everything in. I can add thumb styles to the plugin.  That would be awesome! We could definitely create a top 20! that would be really great!

3. I need to know a little more about the this one. How are your series set up in the library? I think I might need a log as well. I can't think of a reason why episodes would be shown at the top level for series in top picks. A log might tell us more about why. I can get to the bottom of it, get it fixed  

4. That's not good! Do the unwanted  library items appear in the list after the engagement task? 

5. I can tell right away that the item in the rank 1 doesn't have metadata accessible to create the thumb images. This is most likely due to the German titles. I will check that the provider is returning data properly for different languages.

A couple follow up questions that may help me try and fix #5:

Do those items have images (like logos and backdrops) available in the library?

Has emby been able to obtain the images? 

Do providers like TMDB, and TVDB have images available for those items?

 

Thank you for the feedback @TheUrbanXplorer. as always your insights are much appreciated.  

 

 

Hello boss,
Thanks first of all for the feedback.
- Regarding rank 1 in the screenshot, I forgot to say that there is no error here. In the screenshot it was more about the missing Top Pics.
- Pictures of the configuration see below
- Metadata for adults is allowed, because there is an age restriction set for children anyway. I regulate everything via the user permission.
- Favorites are not hidden with me, I do not really use, here I lack a watchlist, as with Netflix. But that's up to Emby, not you!
- If only the design is the problem to increase the number, I throw the top 100 in the room! Because I can help you anytime! Design is no problem, Photoshop is my Kung Fu. If I know what it should look like and what format, I can conjure up anything your heart desires.
- A protocol I attach you to this post

I would like to mention that the content I want to exclude is in a separate library that children can't access. I would like to be able to exclude this library in Top Pics.

[woenk 57]

15 minutes ago, Junglejim said:

I think it's classed as a new library (virtual) so all meta gets scraped (in my case anyway). Have a look at the meta properties for the "Top Picks" library (scraper order for meta, images etc.). If you match your main lib's settings everything should equal out, hopefully. I think .. but not sure it will use some images that are in the main library? I don't store any images/nfo stuff with my main lib's so that's prob why it just re-scrapes everything for me.

I totally agree though, pulling the existing info/images from emby's db would be nice.

As far as I understood, the compilation is also a virtual library, but I have not noticed any differing pictures in it.

Looking in the folders on the server I can see that subtitles are copied, but the plugin somehow struggles with copying anything else then .srt

[GrimReaper 3312]

1 hour ago, woenk said:

Why does Top Picks need to download all the things in the first place ?

Would it not be way easier if it just took all available data already on the server ?

57 minutes ago, Junglejim said:

I totally agree though, pulling the existing info/images from emby's db would be nice.

Having no issues with Top Picks pulling only local content (metadata/images), as all my library scrapers/fetchers are disabled and all my custom artwork is used.

 

[woenk 57]

53 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Having no issues with Top Picks pulling only local content (metadata/images), as all my library scrapers/fetchers are disabled and all my custom artwork is used.

 

 

ahhh...gonna try that ...thanks

[bwarthen 0]

I have a couple large libraries that use .strm files.  I've noticed the plugin doesn't play well with those.  Was wonding if there would be a time when that might get implemented as well.  I also noticed that even if I don't specify a virtual path and select Movies it only pulls in TV Show into the top nine and not any movies I would expect a mixture.  Again that could be becuase its sorting through the strm files as well and that is throwing things off. 

[chef 3746]

6 hours ago, horstepipe said:

yes,

the problem is that this list does not load (because it is too big).

I'm seeing a similar issue for the reports plugin when accessing Emby through cloudflare.

Looks like as long as this list is not being loaded properly, top picks are not being created.

Okay. Does the browser console show an error when loading? If it doesn't then the list will eventually load. 

Still, this is not ideal. 

[chef 3746]

20 minutes ago, bwarthen said:

I have a couple large libraries that use .strm files.  I've noticed the plugin doesn't play well with those.  Was wonding if there would be a time when that might get implemented as well.  I also noticed that even if I don't specify a virtual path and select Movies it only pulls in TV Show into the top nine and not any movies I would expect a mixture.  Again that could be becuase its sorting through the strm files as well and that is throwing things off. 

We use strm files to create the library.

It is possible in the future to handle reading existing strm files and adding them to top picks. Currently, it probably won't play nicely. Yes.

Id need to see a log for the second issue. Feel free to pm me, and I can take a look.

I was about to release an update to handle this exact issue when targeting specific virtual folders.

I can hold off on the release until I see a log, and make sure that the release is going to fix that... I think it is related to the fix I have done. 

[chef 3746]

5 hours ago, woenk said:

As far as I understood, the compilation is also a virtual library, but I have not noticed any differing pictures in it.

Looking in the folders on the server I can see that subtitles are copied, but the plugin somehow struggles with copying anything else then .srt

Right srt subtitles are the only files we can get a path from. They can get copied over.

But, from what I have experienced, once the strm file starts to play the "real" file in the library any embedded subtitle are available. They just don't show up in the top picks item detail page until after emby has played them. 

It is strange. I've tried to probe the library file to get that metadata, but,  strm files were not able to display anything on the details page until after the file was played.

It seemed better to not probe it during the creation of library because it took extra resources, and time to do it.

As an aside, I've been working on your initial bug report, and I hope I have fixed the episode/season issue you found for the next release. 

I've tested two ways of handling the library structure. Both ways work for me. 

There should be an update soon.

Edited December 2, 2022 by chef

[chef 3746]

Actually, just to add to the strangeness of strm files and metadata...

When I did probe the library file, and get the stream data, I then attempted to write it all to the NFO so it would be available in top picks... Oddly enough, when stream data was added to the NFO the entire file was ignored by emby.

I know I serialized the XML data properly. I'm absolutely sure of it.

We need to NFO to help sort the ranked items, so it was nesessary to ignore the stream data.

Still, it is weird. 

[Junglejim 353]

18 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

Having no issues with Top Picks pulling only local content (metadata/images), as all my library scrapers/fetchers are disabled and all my custom artwork is used.

 

Yea cool, my setup is a little different to yours. I think you use a external media manager and have images/nfo's stored with your media?

I don't and just use emby's db. It still works out ok for me image wise (thumb). It seems to grab the right fanart/logo to create the image.

The thing I find is the metadata for the "Top Picks" movie will be a bit different to the main movie.. eg. Parental rating and minor stuff like that. Not a big deal!

I guess it's because I don't have nfo's with my media and it could have to re-scrape that sort of info? Or more like I had to edit Parental rating to match my region and it's not picking that up.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Junglejim

[GrimReaper 3312]

7 minutes ago, Junglejim said:

I think you use a external media manager and have images/nfo's stored with your media?

Yup. 

7 minutes ago, Junglejim said:

The thing I find is the metadata for the "Top Picks" move will be a bit different to the main movie.. eg. Parental rating and minor stuff like that.

Is your preferred scraper order in your Top Picks library same as in your main libraries? 

9 minutes ago, Junglejim said:

I guess it's because I don't have nfo's with my media and it could have to re-scrape that sort of info?

Yup, and as per above question, if that order ain't the same it'll reach out to different provider first which might or might not have exact same data. 

[Junglejim 353]

12 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Yup. 

Is your preferred scraper order in your Top Picks library same as in your main libraries? 

Yup, and as per above question, if that order ain't the same it'll reach out to different provider first which might or might not have exact same data. 

Yea I made sure the preferred scraper order is the same because of this minor problem. Not sure what's going on.. With new movies sometimes I have to change stuff like Parental rating etc. because the info from the providers is just not current for my region at that point in time. I think that's whats going on in my case, I've changed it in emby db and "top picks" just re-scrapes the default because I have no nfo file? 

[GrimReaper 3312]

26 minutes ago, Junglejim said:

With new movies sometimes I have to change stuff like Parental rating etc.

NFOs are the only way to preserve customizations. 

26 minutes ago, Junglejim said:

I think that's whats going on in my case, I've changed it in emby db and "top picks" just re-scrapes the default because I have no nfo file?

Yup, same principle as if rebuilding a library from scratch: if you store NFOs (and/or artwork) with your media, those will be read (including your customization) - if not, metadata is scraped from online providers and all your previous customization is lost. Top Picks items are new items as far as Emby is concerned, they're not copies of existing db items, they get their own db entry and are treated as such: read already available metadata (from existing NFO) or go online and fetch it. 

[Junglejim 353]

4 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

NFOs are the only way to preserve customizations. 

Yup, same principle as if rebuilding a library from scratch: if you store NFOs (and/or artwork) with your media, those will be read (including your customization) - if not, metadata is scraped from online providers and all your previous customization is lost. Top Picks items are new items as far as Emby is concerned, they're not copies of existing db items, they get their own db entry and are treated as such: read already available metadata (from existing NFO) or go online and fetch it. 

Yea cool I can live with that! Nfo's/images also get stale over the years, unless you do a total lib refresh (where nfo's are used to avoid that sort of thing ). No big deal, all good.

Cheers.

[horstepipe 356]

23 hours ago, chef said:

Okay. Does the browser console show an error when loading? If it doesn't then the list will eventually load. 

Still, this is not ideal. 

yes, as said browser shows the 100 seconds timeout error code by cloudflare (code 524).

Implementing some alphabetical list to choose a letter from before all movies are being loaded would solve the issue here I guess - not sure how much efford that would take to implement it.

Btw top picks shows tv shows although Content type is set to Movies.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by horstepipe

[chef 3746]

43 minutes ago, horstepipe said:

yes, as said browser shows the 100 seconds timeout error code by cloudflare (code 524).

Implementing some alphabetical list to choose a letter from before all movies are being loaded would solve the issue here I guess - not sure how much efford that would take to implement it.

Btw top picks shows tv shows although Content type is set to Movies.

 

 

Okay, I'm on this today.

 

[Junglejim 353]

Hi @chef, I just added a tvshow to "Top Picks" and it got added fine at Num 1. The tag naming is wrong though, it has the tags "top-pick" "top-pick-" where the latter should be "top-pick-1"

Not a biggie, I haven't utilized the tags at this point.

[Junglejim 353]

LOL, I don't think this mixed library stuff is working out mate! I just tried to put Andor to the second spot in "Top Picks".

It works out ok for the library view..

Home Wig.. Not so much..

Let's just have this for movie yea? This mixed media is crap the way it is at the mo.

Edit:  Another update of "Top Picks" pushed it back even further on the home screen??? WTF?

Yep movies only for me.. removing tv stuff..

Edit (again ): ... The top picks library in Android TV just has Andor??? Nothing else! LOL

Edited December 4, 2022 by Junglejim

[Painkiller8818 203]

How exactly is the actual selection of the top-picks working?

For me it generates always the same top-picks so i can use the plugin actually only with pinned top-picks.

Even if i watch about 20 movies in a week, there are no new movies in  the top-picks so not sure if it is using any movies from the history i watched or anything else to create new recommendations for me


Another thing i recorgnized, on my Samsung TV, there is no option to sort top-picks so they are not displayed in the correct order.
Any plans to add such an option in a future update?

Thanks

Edited December 4, 2022 by Painkiller8818

[Spaceboy 2499]

hey @chefunfortunately emby crashed again when top picks ran. it crashed when it ran last week but i was away.

logs unhandled_868ab43c-c326-420e-b703-6b8801aae8f1.txtunhandled_4334bd41-481e-4c42-be10-1d4bcc32c4ab.txtembyserver-63805752516.txt

[chef 3746]

Okay, spent the night working on this.

 

I can see several configuration layout issues that are confusing, and/or are causing loading problems.

 

I wanted to keep the options in the configuration to a minimum, unfortunately when creating custom libraries that contain TV shows, and movies that is impossible to do.

 

I've still got some work to do on this to make it stable, but hopefully the changes will make it clear exactly which library is being used, and what will appear in the list when running the engagement task.

 

 

[chef 3746]

11 hours ago, Junglejim said:

Hi @chef, I just added a tvshow to "Top Picks" and it got added fine at Num 1. The tag naming is wrong though, it has the tags "top-pick" "top-pick-" where the latter should be "top-pick-1"

Not a biggie, I haven't utilized the tags at this point.

I've noticed this as well. I don't know why the episodes miss the rank. 

[chef 3746]

On 11/24/2022 at 4:58 AM, woenk said:

hmmmm....somehow new "versions" are being generated, seems like the plugin can not differntiate between the episodes according to seeans and instead thinks that each episode in a season must also be one in the other seasons  Deleted all series from Top Picks and re-added them.....still genrates those "versions".

All done without individual season folders in the series.

edith: just noticed that Special folders get created event if there are not specials in the series folder (seems to be generated by using TVDB) Result is an empty folder.

 

embyserver (1).txt 1.07 MB · 0 downloads

That is just crazy.

What is Emby doing there? 

Top Picks is following basic Emby folder structure, recommended on the wiki. 

It shouldn't matter how any other library is set up, Top Picks does "Series\Season\Episode".

Each episode file is a strm file that points back to the original episode. It shouldn't matter where that episode is located.

 

 

Sorry to do this, sir... but ... @Luke   Would you happen to have any idea why a TV Series episode would "version" all the other episodes like what is shown in the image above?

The plugin Library creates this typical folder structure, and episode naming pattern:

 

|---- What We Do in the Shadows

|---- |---- Season 1

|---- |---- |---- What We Do in the Shadows - 1X01 - Pilot.strm

|---- |---- |---- What We Do in the Shadows - 1X02 - Next Episode.strm

|---- |---- |---- What We Do in the Shadows - 1X03 - And Another Episode.strm

 

It is strange.

Maybe I should just follow the folder structure the original series is using -> Series Folder\Episode List.

[chef 3746]

Wait! I know what this is!! Son of a gun!!

That is a tricky thing to catch!

We are serializing the NFO files directly from the series folder.  Those NFO files would be incorrect for top picks folder structure.

Nevermind I can fix this! 

@woenk can you please post what an NFO at the series level loons like for you and also one episode NFO so I can write them properly for this situation.

 

Give me so e time! 

 

[woenk 57]

tvshow. nfo from original folder:

tvshow.nfo

From TopPicksfolder:

tvshow.nfo

Epsiode info drom original folder:

S01E01 - Rosie the Robot.nfo

From Topipicks folder (season 1):

The Jetsons - 1x01 - Rosie the Robot.nfo

 

but as already stated it also stuff like this:

The Jetsons - 1x01 - Elroy Meets Orbitty.nfo

 

As said, it creates those for every episode when one does not have season folders in the original place, meaning you have all episodes as dupilcates in every season folder.

 

and logfiles:D

embyserver (2).txt