How random is shuffling?

[crusher11 979]

I have a "sports" library, set up as TV shows, containing:

 

3 episodes from the American Basketball Association.

28 episodes from the Australian Football League.

2 episodes from international basketball events.

280 episodes from the National Basketball Association.

181 episodes from the National Basketball League.

2 episodes from NCAA basketball.

70 episodes from the National Football League.

 

90% of the time I hit the 'shuffle' button on this library, I get the 2012 Olympics basketball game between the USA and Australia. The other 10% I get the 2010 AFL pre-season game between Essendon and West Coast.

 

Shouldn't it be more random than this? It has 566 episodes to choose from, and yet it only ever lands on two of them, and one of those appears four or five times as often as the other.

[Luke 40121]

Where are you hitting the shuffle button?

[crusher11 979]

The library page.

[crusher11 979]

Ah, right, so it's selecting a random series and starting from the first episode, instead of picking a random episode? That's a pain. Even so, it's still only choosing two of the seven series.

 

I tried going to the NBL series page and shuffling from there, and every single time it's the first episode of the 2020 season.

[crusher11 979]

The NBL series is across two different drives, with one only holding that first episode of 2020 and the other drive holding all other episodes. Is it possible this is related?

[daedalus 430]

Ah, right, so it's selecting a random series and starting from the first episode, instead of picking a random episode? That's a pain. Even so, it's still only choosing two of the seven series.

 

I tried going to the NBL series page and shuffling from there, and every single time it's the first episode of the 2020 season.

+1 for changing this to play random episodes

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/46869-what-dictates-shufflerandom-play/

Edited September 24, 2019 by daedalus

[crusher11 979]

@@Luke hasn't actually confirmed that it is picking a random series to play through, although that does seem to be the case.

 

The fact that I'm getting the same episode all the time when shuffling a series, though...that's a problem.

[ebr 15672]

I believe what you are trying will work in some of the apps but with the web app there is probably some improvement needed.

 

Thanks.

[crusher11 979]

I'm getting the same results on both the web app and the Android app.

[ebr 15672]

I'm getting the same results on both the web app and the Android app.

 

Yes, I would expect that.

 

Do you have access to an Android TV device?

[crusher11 979]

I do not. Only Android mobile, web, and LG TV.

Edited September 24, 2019 by crusher11

[Luke 40121]

Ah, right, so it's selecting a random series and starting from the first episode, instead of picking a random episode? That's a pain. Even so, it's still only choosing two of the seven series.

 

I tried going to the NBL series page and shuffling from there, and every single time it's the first episode of the 2020 season.

 

Yes this needs to be improved, thanks.

[crusher11 979]

The NBL series is across two different drives, with one only holding that first episode of 2020 and the other drive holding all other episodes. Is it possible this is related?

It must be, because shuffling just plays that one episode and then stops. The other 180 episodes are ignored.

[Luke 40121]

Thanks for the feedback.

[crusher11 979]

I tried deleting that one season, and shuffling then wouldn't play anything back at all for a while. Now it correctly shuffles the existing 180 episodes, so I assume it just needed to run a scan or something.

 

I've noticed for other TV shows that are across multiple drives that the season count is wrong as well. It only counts the seasons from one drive.

[Luke 40121]

 

 

I've noticed for other TV shows that are across multiple drives that the season count is wrong as well.

@@Happy2Play are you able to reproduce?

[crusher11 979]

Here's an example. Under the show title it says "8 seasons", but on the screen you can see 11. Scroll to the right and there are even more. One of my drives has 8 seasons on it, and this is the drive that also had the one NBL season on it that kept getting picked up. For some reason this seems to be the only drive that counts for the purposes of shuffling episodes, or the total season count. I can play through just fine, it has no issue going from episode one on that drive to episode two on another. It just refuses to access any other drive for shuffling, and isn't counting the seasons properly.

 

For the record, by my count there are 42 seasons in total.

[Luke 40121]

Here's an example. Under the show title it says "8 seasons", but on the screen you can see 11. Scroll to the right and there are even more. One of my drives has 8 seasons on it, and this is the drive that also had the one NBL season on it that kept getting picked up. For some reason this seems to be the only drive that counts for the purposes of shuffling episodes, or the total season count. I can play through just fine, it has no issue going from episode one on that drive to episode two on another. It just refuses to access any other drive for shuffling, and isn't counting the seasons properly.

 

For the record, by my count there are 42 seasons in total.

 

@ are you able to reproduce that?

[Guest asrequested]

I don't think I have any libraries that are comparable to that. I don't have any sport, anywhere.

[crusher11 979]

It's just a TV show library that happens to have sporting content in it.

[Happy2Play 9449]

Here's an example. Under the show title it says "8 seasons", but on the screen you can see 11. Scroll to the right and there are even more. One of my drives has 8 seasons on it, and this is the drive that also had the one NBL season on it that kept getting picked up. For some reason this seems to be the only drive that counts for the purposes of shuffling episodes, or the total season count. I can play through just fine, it has no issue going from episode one on that drive to episode two on another. It just refuses to access any other drive for shuffling, and isn't counting the seasons properly.

 

For the record, by my count there are 42 seasons in total.

 

@@Happy2Play are you able to reproduce?

Well I just replicated part of the issue, but have not done any shuffle testing.

 

I created a Separation folder on two drives and put part of a Series on each drive.  Black Sail series folder on each drive and put two episodes from season 1 and 2 on one drive and 2 episodes from Season 3 and 4 on the other drive.

 

Emby only shows 2 Seasons on Overview, but shows 4 Seasons in Seasons.

 

 

 

Library pointed to Separation folder on each drive.

[Luke 40121]

Ok great, thanks !

[crusher11 979]

Shuffling shouldn't be too complicated to test, just hit that shuffle button repeatedly. You should only ever get two episodes, never the other two. Not sure how it decides which drive it wants to use though.

[Happy2Play 9449]

Shuffling shouldn't be too complicated to test, just hit that shuffle button repeatedly. You should only ever get two episodes, never the other two. Not sure how it decides which drive it wants to use though.

 

Yes I started shuffle play and clicked next and it only shuffled through the 4 episodes of Season 1 and 2 (ie the overview 2 Seasons).  The first folder added to the library.

 

@@Luke

Edited October 3, 2019 by Happy2Play

[crusher11 979]

Really hope this gets fixed ASAP. Being able to shuffle all my NBL/NBA/AFL/etc games was one of the things I was particularly keen on, and one of the bigger benefits of having them on Emby rather than on DVD. So much easier when I want to watch a game of basketball but don't really care what it is.