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Android TV on Shield - Scrolling in Collections detail screen


jordy

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jordy

Hi,

 

In the web UI and Emby theater, Movie Collections scroll in a vertical manner. My preferred direction.

 

In Android TV, on my Shield, it scrolls horizontally. This is generally fine, because most collections only have between 2 and 5 movies in them. However, Collections such as James Bond and Star Wars have significantly more. This results in having to scroll to see them all - unnecessarily imo.

 

Also, I have a manually created collection of Kids Movies for my grandchilden - some 43 individual movies and 12 sub collections. In this case, Horizontal scrolling is absurd. It also looks very ugly. 1 line of movies at the top with more than half the screen remaining blank

 

Can you please either change this permanently to reflect that which appears in the Web UI and Theater or give us an option.

 

Thanks

 

jordy

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This has come up before.  Since collections can contain different types of items and we separate those items into different lists, it is just not able to do vertically scrolling grids for these on this platform.

 

As you said, for most collections the current presentation is fine.  We'll have to think about anything else that could be done for larger ones.

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jordy

This has come up before.  Since collections can contain different types of items and we separate those items into different lists, it is just not able to do vertically scrolling grids for these on this platform.

 

As you said, for most collections the current presentation is fine.  We'll have to think about anything else that could be done for larger ones.

So, how about giving the user the option of vertical scrolling where it suits their own situation. The current look is completely wrong and it's not representative of the overall look and feel that is apparent throughout the rest of Emby.

I'm not overly concerned with segregating the movies and sub collections - The Web UI shows them all together in the Movies tab anyway so it's not like it's something we don't already have - just give us an option for vertical scrolling. Surely i'm not the only one looking for this... Quote: "This has come up before"!

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I think the both of you are talking about two different things. To clarify, are you asking about the list of collections, or the list of items in a single collection?

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jordy

I think the both of you are talking about two different things. To clarify, are you asking about the list of collections, or the list of items in a single collection?

I'm talking about the fact that in Android TV, when I access (click on, open or whatever you want to call it) a Movie collection such as The James Bond Collection, Star Wars Collection etc the page opens and, when the content of the collection is greater than 6 items, to see those items which are not displayed on the screen I must scroll in a Horizontal manner. Whilst this is not required for Small Collections (<=6) where all items fit nicely on the page, it is not a good look nor is it optimal to have to scroll right to see what other Movies are in the collection. I'm just asking for the direction of scroll to be Vertical - just like it is in the Web UI and Theater. That way any scrolling is minimised and at all times there are always 12 items displayed on the screen instead of 6. As stated in my 1st post, I have a manually created Collection with 55 items in it. I know that this is of my own doing and probably not an issue for most users, but seeing as other tabs/pages in Android TV have Vertical scrolling enabled by default, is it such a difficult problem to make it the same for Collections?

 

Thanks

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The web app actually does the same thing. see my austin powers collection here.

 

5d282c958f989_Untitled.png

 

I think what's happening is you're able to see more in the web app without having to scroll horizontally.

 

But this is normal - on desktop layouts we tend to give you more on screen at once. TV layouts, 6 going across is the normal convention.

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jordy

The web app actually does the same thing. see my austin powers collection here.

 

5d282c958f989_Untitled.png

 

I think what's happening is you're able to see more in the web app without having to scroll horizontally.

 

But this is normal - on desktop layouts we tend to give you more on screen at once. TV layouts, 6 going across is the normal convention.

Sorry Luke, that does not make any sense. In your picture, it is obvious that the direction of scrolling is going to be Vertical. That is what I'm asking for in Android TV.

 

If the 'Normal" layout for TV is 6 across with Horizontal scrolling, why then do the List of Collections, the Home Page, the List of Movies, the List of TV shows, the content of TV Series and Live TV listings ALL have Vertical scrolling. These must then be a major contradiction of the "Normal convention" for TV.  As I said, It does not make any sense.

 

Again, is it so hard to make all the screens in Android TV scroll in the same direction regardless of content. Now, that would make perfect sense!

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jordy

@@Luke, Show us pictures of the James Bond Collection as YOU see it in the Web UI, Theater and Android TV and tell me which one looks and works best. The Android TV representation is Ugly and not suitable for the content.

 

Also, looking at the Android phone app, everything (including Collection contents) is vertically scrolled, so ebr's assertion (Quote: "Since collections can contain different types of items and we separate those items into different lists, it is just not able to do vertically scrolling grids for these on this platform") that vertical scrolling for Collection content on Android is not possible, is perhaps not entirely correct.

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Also, looking at the Android phone app, everything (including Collection contents) is vertically scrolled, so ebr's assertion (Quote: "Since collections can contain different types of items and we separate those items into different lists, it is just not able to do vertically scrolling grids for these on this platform") that vertical scrolling for Collection content on Android is not possible, is perhaps not entirely correct.

 

The display technology between the Android mobile app and the Android TV app is entirely different.  Basically the mobile app is using web technology and laying the different sections out that way works fairly well.

 

The Android TV app is using a "recycling view" technology built into Android that makes doing such a thing much more difficult as it would mean attempting to put two vertically and dynamically built lists on top of one another and this creates some real scrolling issues.  Would it be impossible?  Not entirely sure but it isn't easy nor would it work very well from an interface standpoint.

 

We would need to make the decision to not separate content into different types and build an entirely new view (one that has details for a main item and then a vertical grid of related items) that doesn't yet exist.  But, I don't even want to entertain that unless we make the first decision to not separate the content.

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Sorry Luke, that does not make any sense. In your picture, it is obvious that the direction of scrolling is going to be Vertical. That is what I'm asking for in Android TV.

 

If the 'Normal" layout for TV is 6 across with Horizontal scrolling, why then do the List of Collections, the Home Page, the List of Movies, the List of TV shows, the content of TV Series and Live TV listings ALL have Vertical scrolling. These must then be a major contradiction of the "Normal convention" for TV.  As I said, It does not make any sense.

 

Again, is it so hard to make all the screens in Android TV scroll in the same direction regardless of content. Now, that would make perfect sense!

The page scrolls vertically, but each section scrolls horizontally.

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One possible compromise we could make in this app would be to allow maybe two or three rows for each section.  They would still scroll horizontally but they may layout a bit more like you are wanting them to...

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jordy

The page scrolls vertically, but each section scrolls horizontally.

I completely understand this concept - when, and only when - you have content from multiple sources all being shown on the same page at the same time. It makes sense to have a combination of vertical and horizontal scrolling to accommodate this.

 

BUT, when all of the pages content comes from the same source - as it does within a Collection (be it Auto or manually created) - Horizontal scrolling does not make sense, it is completely counter intuitive. Every screen I own scrolls Vertically to display additional content, including my TV screen when I am using it as a display monitor for my other devices, which includes my pc, laptop, Shield, Chromecast etc etc. So, where and how did we get to this absurd concept of horizontal scrolling being the "Norm"? And why do all the other pages/tabs scroll Vertically if Horizontal scrolling is the Norm?

 

Why can't you give me/us the option of having Vertical scrolling to suit our preferences? I'm not a coding expert by any reference, but I do know enough to understand that actions and operations that occur regularly in a program are coded once only in a separate module and then "called" from the main code when needed. Thus a simple "Option Switch" should be all that is needed to provide this change in scrolling behavior.

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jordy

This is an OPEN CALL to any USERS who are monitoring this topic - 104 views to this point says there are a few.

 

I invite you to chime in and put your point of view, If you think I'm correct, please show your support. Likewise, if you think I'm wrong please try to explain why so that I may understand.

 

All I see at the moment are the Devs tying to defend their own choices.

 

thankyou.

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I think a reasonable solution is to just let it scroll vertically when there is only one category.

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jordy

I think a reasonable solution is to just let it scroll vertically when there is only one category.

So, if I read this compromise correctly, In the case of my "manually created" Collection of Kids Movies which has 43 individual Movies PLUS 12 "Automatically created" sub collections - eg The "Despicable Me" Collection etc then this will still scroll horizontally?

 

So it appears that my only solution is to delete the sub collections so the movies all appear as individuals?.

 

If so, it's a step in the right direction but not what I hoped for. As I said in an earlier post, I'm not overly concerned if individual movies and sub collections are combined, as in the Web UI Movies tab when "Group Items into collections" is checked. If you were able to make this happen, it would solve my problem :)

 

thanks

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jordy

One possible compromise we could make in this app would be to allow maybe two or three rows for each section.  They would still scroll horizontally but they may layout a bit more like you are wanting them to...

Yes, this would be better visually as it would remove the blank space in the lower half of the screen, But it still does not resolve the issue of horizontal scrolling.

If it is the difference between individual Movie "Items" and Collections that is causing the inability to have vertical scrolling, is it possible to re-assign the category or item type? I'm thinking like you can change numbers to text and vice-versa depending on your requirements? Simplified idea I know but you never know if you don't ask :)

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jordy

@@Luke, on the topic of Collections, In Theater (3.0.6), My manually Created "Kids Movies" collection does not appear anywhere. Not in the "Collections" View nor in the Movies View with or without "Group Items into Collections" checked. No filters applied in any screen.

 

thanks

 

Jordy

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jordy

When you click on the 3dot menu for a movie and select "Add to Collection" it gives the option to create a "New Collection". This then is a Manual creation of a Collection - as against collections which are "automatically" created by the AutoBoxSets plugin from metadata etc.

 

Simple I would have thought!

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jordy

Try adding more content to those collections and then see if they show up.

I would  - if I could. My Manually created "Kids Movies" collection has disappeared from everywhere - WebUI included.

 

EDIT:

I was able to add a single movie to a newly created "Kids Movies" Collection and It immediately appeared complete with the originally assigned Poster.

 

Unfortunately, the 3dot menu item "Add to Collection" is no longer available for AutoBoxSet created collections. Can you add that back please ?

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jordy

It has not been removed. Why do you feel that it's not available?

Because it is no longer part of the 3 dot menu for existing Collections is why. And, just to be clear, I'm talking about adding an existing collection to another collection.

For example: Adding the (AutoBoxSet created) Madagascar Collection to my personally created Kids Movies Collection. I used to be able to do this, but that option has been removed from the 3 dot menu for AutoBoxSet Collections.

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