FordGT90Concept 61 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 It kind of sucks that this "recommendations row" can't be outright hidden but the fact it can't and the fact that Emby can use it, I think I see an opportunity. My understanding is that Emby can't give recommendations unless it has a user logged in. For personal SHIELDs, this isn't a problem but in a multi-user situation, no user is logged in by default so no recommendations are shown initially. Suggestion: If Emby for Android TV has no user logged in and therefore has no recommendations to offer, use a guest account and offer the Live TV channels as recommendations. If they back out of the Live TV channel they tuned to, give them the channel guide. If they back out of that, close Emby (assumption being they're not watching any more or a user is going to log in). Think a cable box or satellite receiver system...try to mimic that with "recommendations" being the portal to it. I could see regular users using this too due to simplicity. For example, a lot of people like turning on the news at certain times of the day. That's something that's really only viewed live and once it is over, they turn it off. Showing the news channel in recommendations would as closely mimic tuning to the TV channel normally with the added benefit of being able to pause it. I really hope this idea can be implemented. I think a lot of users I deal with (myself included) would really appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14904 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 I'm not sure what you mean by "No user is logged in". The only way into the app is to log in as someone. Once you do that just once, then the recommendations will be created and be there for the last logged in user. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pelon 160 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Now I'm confused. There is a setting for auto logout. So in effect in my case, after an hour of no use, the app is supposed to be logged-out. In that case, are the recommendations updated,or are the recommendations, just a snapshot of the last time I was logged-out? Since the upgrade, we can see which apps are running, so I can switch from another app, back into Emby. I can see that Emby is running in the background in the task switcher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14904 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 The recommendations from the last logged in user will remain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordGT90Concept 61 Posted February 4, 2017 Author Share Posted February 4, 2017 (edited) From what I've seen so far, they don't, but even if they are supposed to, is that appropriate? Shouldn't recomendations always reflect a guest user because there's no guarantee the user that clicked the recommendation is actually the human being that represents that user? Implementation is really up to you, I just think having exclusively Live TV channels on the recommendations line would be awesome because that's something people that are looking at it for the first time would understand and use without any instruction. Edited February 4, 2017 by FordGT90Concept Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14904 Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Try it out. It is designed to respect the necessary authorization for the user which caused the suggestion to be created. If you discover that is not the case please let us know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordGT90Concept 61 Posted February 5, 2017 Author Share Posted February 5, 2017 (edited) 1. Powered it on, recommendations row was blank but there was a spinning circle that it was trying to load something. Let it sit there for 15 seconds probably before giving up. 2. Clicked on Emby. Emby remembed the server address so it showed the user list. 3. Clicked on my name. 4. Went back to see recommendations row, there were two:4a. "NFL Football" 4b. "Eraser" (I think) I despise football so that recommendation is terrible. I doubt I'd ever watch Eraser either (my dad recorded it). I powered everything off again at this point... Same as above but instead of NFL Football and Eraser at step #4, it shows "Sonic Impact" (not interested in that either, another thing my dad recorded). This time, instead of powered off, I slept it... Of course, it still shows "Sonic Impact" because why would it change from sleeping? See what I'm saying? There's a missed opportunity here. The best recommendations, in my opinion, are the Live TV channels. I'd argue that they should always be under a guest account even if someone was logged in previously because, coming off of sleep, there's no guarantee that's the same user that woke it up. If a user wants access to more than the guest account offers, they'll back out, click on Emby, and gain access the usual way. Edited February 5, 2017 by FordGT90Concept Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6766 Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Just as a different perspective, I turn off the Emby recommendations, along with most others. I just don't need them being displayed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordGT90Concept 61 Posted February 5, 2017 Author Share Posted February 5, 2017 If I do that, it still shows the recommendations row saying something down the lines of "no recommendations are available." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6766 Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 I think I just have YT, Google Movies and TV, and System Updates enabled, so I still get something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14904 Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 If I do that, it still shows the recommendations row saying something down the lines of "no recommendations are available." The recommendations row is not created by Emby. It is created by the OS. We just add our items to it. The logic right now is it will show two of your latest movies, anything in-progress and a next up episode (or something very similar to that). It is showing you those movies because they are the newest ones in your library. Most of our users don't have Live TV and it would be very hard for us to keep any Live TV recommendations up to date properly because we only have this opportunity when our app is running but perhaps something can be done there in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordGT90Concept 61 Posted February 6, 2017 Author Share Posted February 6, 2017 (edited) I'm aware it's the OS to blame but since I can't kill it, it would be nice to use it. You'd probably have to add one option to server (enabled guest account) and several options to the Android TV app: -Recommendations source: [drop down] Default, Pictures, Music, Live TV, Recorded TV, Movies, etc. (pick a folder basically) -Number of recommendations to show: [drop down or input] Don't know if SHIELD has a maximum here. If so, some sub-options would be required to narrow down which content should be shown. I think for Live TV you could use the same list as recently used or most used. For pictures, you'd probably have to do random in the selected folder. Music could be most played. Recorded TV and Movies would be most recently added. -Allow Guest account: [yes/no] --Generate recommendations using Guest account: [yes/no] If you don't have access to what is on right now, just show the channel logo with the call sign of the channel. Most people generally have a favorite channel they'd gravitate too and if they tune to that and find out they don't like it, they're in the system (back takes to full guide) so they can use the guide to find something better. TL;DR: Could just focus on what users are most likely to use: Movies, Live TV, or Series (same as recorded TV). Some pretty safe assumptions can be made based purely on that choice (e.g. Live TV is going to want the most commonly used channels). Edited February 6, 2017 by FordGT90Concept Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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