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Are you still watching?


Jdiesel

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Jdiesel

I couldn't find a existing feature request for this so I created one.

 

I would be nice if all Emby apps had a prompt after so many consecutive episodes are played (maybe 3-4) asking the user if they are still watching and requiring them to answer to continue watching when "Play next episode automatically" is enabled.

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chef

There were a couple of emby apps which use to have this feature.

If I can remember correctly, Unfortunately, after it was implemented people request it be remove.

 

I personally found it useful because I sometimes binge a bunch of episodes and fall a sleep. Then my playlist keeps on playing.

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Untoten

There were a couple of emby apps which use to have this feature.

If I can remember correctly, Unfortunately, after it was implemented people request it be remove.

 

I personally found it useful because I sometimes binge a bunch of episodes and fall a sleep. Then my playlist keeps on playing.

Some don't like it so remove it?  Why not just have it as a toggle option?

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mwongjay

Yeah hopefully this makes a comeback! If not, might be a good candidate for a plugin which I could look into if they don't want to bring it back.

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A plug-in won't be able to do this.  It will have to be implemented in each individual app.

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mwongjay

A plug-in won't be able to do this.  It will have to be implemented in each individual app.

 

At a very high level I was thinking the server would poll the sessions for active devices. For active devices, check the last activity at some frequency (minutes, or possibly stream changes). If there was no activity prompt the user with a notification. If a specified time passes between the notification and no response from the web socket for remote control commands, stop streaming to that device. If there was a response then reset and repeat observing. 

Edited by mwongjay
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There is no way to respond to a notification from the server without building that into each app.

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mwongjay

There is no way to respond to a notification from the server without building that into each app.

 

Wouldn't it be great if Emby could send confirmation prompts?! In the meantime what I'm proposing is just getting the user to issue any general command during a specified time frame. If they do we know the user is actively watching. If not, stop streaming. They would obviously still be able to pick up where it stopped.

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  • 1 month later...
Jdiesel

Just a friendly bump for this FR.

 

The dashboard controls to kill a stream do not work so there is not way to prevent a client from continuing to start new episodes if someone leaves it running. If we can't get a prompt can we get a server side option to prevent "play next episode automatically" for all clients?

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NeauxGeaux

I for one would love to have my episodes stop after 3-4 of them. I fall asleep every night to shuffling a TV show. My own work around was to use my tv settings to shut off after 4 hours.

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  • 5 weeks later...
Jdiesel

Even a option to set the maximum number of episodes to play sequentially would be nice. No need for a prompt, have it play a set number of episodes, if you let it, and after it reaches the limit it ends. If you want to keep watching you need to start the next episode manually.

 

I don't know if others are bothered by this as much as me but not having the ability to stop remote Roku playback and users that continuously leave playback running I am at my wits end. Not to mention the default setting on the Roku is for auto playback.

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Jdiesel

I don't believe Roku's listen to external requests so unless the Roku is on the local network the server playback controls don't work. @@speechles mentioned it on another thread so maybe he can speak more it it. I even went as far as forwarding the port he mentioned that the Roku listens on with no luck. 

 

EDIT:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/50054-dashboard-playback-controls-not-working/?p=479486

Edited by Jdiesel
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Jdiesel

It is really the remote clients with runaway playback that are the issue. It is easy enough to walk into the next room and shutoff a local client.

 

How does "Play next episode Automatically" currently work? Does it create a playlist and queue up all the episodes? Is it as simple as limiting the number of episodes to queue up?

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https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/32969-ability-to-kick-users-or-limit-time-on-same-tv-channel/

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/37324-are-you-still-watching/

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/41132-are-you-still-watching-configurable-options/

 

 

Essentially round and round goes the merry-go-round and everybody scream, YAAAY!!

 

The top link has my answer to this. I added an "inactivity timer" or what others might call a sleep timer. After "X" amount of time the app asks simply, "are you alive? are you still here?" and pops up a 60 second count down. After 60 seconds goes by, the video player is closed and if possible the roku would send the CEC codes required to also turn off the TV. The roku brightsigns have this interface, the roku devices don't.. yet? maybe wont, but I have code in the app that can when they do..

 

Now I get the idea, have a timer after so many episodes, and that also can work.

 

In the first link, the issue is identical to this one. How to stop remote users from streaming all night? In the blue neon app the answer I had was set a timer to 5 hours, the user can drop all the way down to 5 minutes and have steps in it, 30 minutes, 2 hours, etc. Then to disable only allow administrative users to do this. Users who stream remotely, cannot disable the inactivity timer, unless they are marked as administrator on that server. The maximum the setting allows is 5 hours. So most they can get is 5 hours of uninterrupted play. For others you set this accordingly, but the key takeaway is a user cannot disable this function unless they are an administrator otherwise this defeats the purpose of the function. Right? The 5 hours is done from last keypress of the roku remote. So it can be avoided entirely by pushing the OK button every once in awhile during playback. This is an intelligent timer.

 

So knowing all this, you can see how just using a timer might cut off in the middle of an episode. So an episode counter is required too, but what if the titles arent episodes? What if these are 3 hour movies? You need to know the length of each played item then display dialogs after 2-3 episodes have played, or on movies and anything else after 5 hours play. This might be just fine, then throw up a dialog, "are you still watching?" and have the user interact. Have the same 60 second count down used above. Make it so only administrative users can disable and it would work the same as the way above. It should also work off time since last keypress and know when to appear based on how long a user has last interacted with the remote. Only spawn the dialog after 2 or 3 episodes, if their last keypress was at least an hour ago. Seems fair. But deciding isn't up to us, it should be a setting with several options so the user decides where its right.

 

Now the other part is users with playlists. Say they just queue up 114 hours of video, or simply leave their live-TV playing for 114 hours. These remote users that do this are the nuts in need of cracking. The above ways can work. Does anyone have any other ways of doing this? Input? We need more input.

 

See the links I posted above for some answers in the other threads. Opinions? Thoughts?

Edited by speechles
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mwongjay

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/32969-ability-to-kick-users-or-limit-time-on-same-tv-channel/

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/37324-are-you-still-watching/

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/41132-are-you-still-watching-configurable-options/

 

 

Essentially round and round goes the merry-go-round and everybody scream, YAAAY!!

 

The top link has my answer to this. I added an "inactivity timer" or what others might call a sleep timer. After "X" amount of time the app asks simply, "are you alive? are you still here?" and pops up a 60 second count down. After 60 seconds goes by, the video player is closed and if possible the roku would send the CEC codes required to also turn off the TV. The roku brightsigns have this interface, the roku devices don't.. yet? maybe wont, but I have code in the app that can when they do..

 

Now I get the idea, have a timer after so many episodes, and that also can work.

 

In the first link, the issue is identical to this one. How to stop remote users from streaming all night? In the blue neon app the answer I had was set a timer to 5 hours, the user can drop all the way down to 5 minutes and have steps in it, 30 minutes, 2 hours, etc. Then to disable only allow administrative users to do this. Users who stream remotely, cannot disable the inactivity timer, unless they are marked as administrator on that server. The maximum the setting allows is 5 hours. So most they can get is 5 hours of uninterrupted play. For others you set this accordingly, but the key takeaway is a user cannot disable this function unless they are an administrator otherwise this defeats the purpose of the function. Right? The 5 hours is done from last keypress of the roku remote. So it can be avoided entirely by pushing the OK button every once in awhile during playback. This is an intelligent timer.

 

So knowing all this, you can see how just using a timer might cut off in the middle of an episode. So an episode counter is required too, but what if the titles arent episodes? What if these are 3 hour movies? You need to know the length of each played item then display dialogs after 2-3 episodes have played, or on movies and anything else after 5 hours play. This might be just fine, then throw up a dialog, "are you still watching?" and have the user interact. Have the same 60 second count down used above. Make it so only administrative users can disable and it would work the same as the way above. It should also work off time since last keypress and know when to appear based on how long a user has last interacted with the remote. Only spawn the dialog after 2 or 3 episodes, if their last keypress was at least an hour ago. Seems fair. But deciding isn't up to us, it should be a setting with several options so the user decides where its right.

 

Now the other part is users with playlists. Say they just queue up 114 hours of video, or simply leave their live-TV playing for 114 hours. These remote users that do this are the nuts in need of cracking. The above ways can work. Does anyone have any other ways of doing this? Input? We need more input.

 

See the links I posted above for some answers in the other threads. Opinions? Thoughts?

 

I posted awhile back in this topic with my initial brainstorming for a solution which is similar to yours using timers to prompt action from the user. So long as the user sends any command you continue increasing the timer. If someone isn't responding is there a reason you'd want to continue streaming? It may be ok to end the stream. If they return they can simply resume from where they left off which IMO is more useful than the user trying to remember where they left off. I had planned on making a plugin, but did not receive any feedback from the devs and didn't want to start if they had this feature request on their roadmap. 

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mwongjay

Why can't you stop it on the dashboard?

 

This does exist, but my problem with this approach is it requires manual intervention. I wouldn't want to text the person streaming to see if they were still watching before I shut it off on them. I personally think this feature request should make it onto the roadmap as a native feature rather than a plugin. Many modern streaming apps have this functionality. Not many people have gigabit internet and even fewer have high upload speeds which can really be the limiting factor when streaming to external clients. Even adding a simple implementation would be useful and iteratively build out its features.

Edited by mwongjay
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This does exist, but my problem with this approach is it requires manual intervention. I wouldn't want to text the person streaming to see if they were still watching before I shut it off on them. I personally think this feature request should make it onto the roadmap as a native feature rather than a plugin. Many modern streaming apps have this functionality. Not many people have gigabit internet and even fewer have high upload speeds which can really be the limiting factor when streaming to external clients. Even adding a simple implementation would be useful and iteratively build out its features.

 

My question was a response to a specific statement about stopping a stream manually.

 

At one point, we had a version of this feature in an app and it was so hated that we had to remove it :).

 

I'm sure there is a good way to implement this across all apps but we just haven't designed exactly what that should be.  It should be consistent though and, I agree, we should probably look at it soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

​Please do add something like this or even the ability to set a sleep timer. I was setting up a playlist every night with a few episodes but that requires some time to set up each night. Now I use a bash script to exit Emby Theater after 2 hours. It works great but would be better to have an option built in to Emby.

You say that you removed it because people hated it, why not just disable it by default? Then the people that want it can turn it on and the ones that hate it can just ignore it.

 

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darkassassin07

I definitely support this for my own use let alone runaway wan streams.

I work graveyards and have a habit of watching shows when I get home and falling asleep with emby playing. When I do I have to stop playback when I get up and look through multiple episodes to figure out where i left off marking the rest unwatched again.

 

Some people wont want to use it, but i think it should be a core feature with the ability to enable/disable it server-side. (default off?)

Edited by darkassassin07
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  • 2 weeks later...
LedZeppelinWails

I'm not sure it is an option but I would love this as a setting I could impose on users. If it were a setting on the server at a user level, technically I could impose it on myself (or my user), rather than set it globally. Basically I have one user who appears to be falling asleep while streaming from my server. I would love to have the option to say limit play back to x minutes unless user interaction detected. Or I would even take that on the server, per user, or just guest that I could toggle automatic playback. Maybe it available I'm just not seeing it. Small plug... Any server admin options I'll take, the more the better. Its the reason I switched to Emby from another server app.

Edited by LedZeppelinWails
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Jdiesel

I'm not sure it is an option but I would love this as a setting I could impose on users. If it were a user setting technically I could impose it on myself, rather than set it globally. Basically I have one user who appears to be falling asleep while streaming from my server. I would love to have the option to say limit play back to x minutes unless user interaction detected. Or I would even take that on the server per user or just guest that I could toggle automatic playback. Maybe it available I'm just not seeing it. Small plug... Any server admin options I'll take, the more the better. Its the reason I switched to Emby from another server app.

This has been added to the Roku app and it works very well. Hopefully it makes its way into the other clients as well.

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LedZeppelinWails

Is this something you can enable on the server per user? Wonder as I might be missing a setting. Or what was added to the Roku app? Just not sure what part of my statement you are referring to. Thanks for the reply!

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