VirtualTV plugin

[zachattack83 3]

On 2/17/2021 at 4:44 PM, pünktchen said:

What should happen after the one or two hours full of cartoons?

In theory, I guess the goal would be to build a 24 hour schedule based off of the day of the week. So maybe repeat the schedule monday through friday, then put on whatever you want on saturday and sunday. Possible even have dead times from like 3am till 6am when everyone is asleep. So after the 2 hours of cartoons, from like 3pm to 5pm, maybe put on some other family friendly shows from the 80s and 90s. Really just chasing nostalgia at this point  

[pünktchen 1258]

Limiting the output of a channel to some hours would be possible. The start time you can set already, it's just not for specific days but for the day of the guide refresh. Other than that i wouldn't even know where to start with such a complex system and how the config should look like. Is there anything out there that allows you to define something similar?

[zachattack83 3]

I'm not sure if anything exists. I enjoy emby so I haven't searched much else. Sorry for that. I wish I had an example to give you.

What is the framework like for working with an emby plugin? I do a lot of php web design, but have never dove into an emby plugin. Let alone one thats as advanced as yours already is lol. 

Is it all customizable? or are you limited to the types of functions that you can run therein? I would say that if its fully customizable, we could probably figure something out. Maybe find a way to sort of build your own guide and add it to the emby guide data, then, it would grab the next show in sequence from the library, based off of what you defined. So predefining the shows at the time slot would be the first hurdle I guess. Like I said, I'm really not familiar with the emby plugin stuff, so I'm probably sounding like an idiot as I spitball ideas lol.

[zachattack83 3]

Whats the logic involved for your plugin currently for building the line up?

[pünktchen 1258]

17 minutes ago, zachattack83 said:

What is the framework like for working with an emby plugin?

C# for the plugin and html + javascript for config screen.

19 minutes ago, zachattack83 said:

Is it all customizable?

One cannot change anything for the GUI part but with the data from database one can do whatever is needed. Of course there some restriction to put the data back to Emby.

23 minutes ago, zachattack83 said:

Whats the logic involved for your plugin currently for building the line up?

Isn't that clear by the config screen? I get the data from the library and than just filter it by channel rules.

[zachattack83 3]

Its displayed pretty clearly yes, but I asked because if you wrote it out as a flow I could make sure I wasn't missing anything in regards to the logic behind it..

So couldn't you just add another options for the user to:
create the line up -> set day -> set show to time slot / set dead space times.

And then when you go to generate the guide data,
check if channel has line up set -> select day -> select time -> select show  -> select episode.

You could probably even make it so the user could set the library folder for each time slot that it should be grabbing the shows from.

I think as long as you can store all of the information, the overall process shouldn't be too terrible. If I knew C# I'd offer to help, but I'm limited to html, php, and sql.

 

[NitroKyx 0]

Alright, so I have all my television shows across one folder...like 600 series.

I'd like to limit a channel to have maybe 20 of those series, is there a way to do this without making it a hassle?

Edited February 19, 2021 by NitroKyx

[GrimReaper 3291]

11 minutes ago, NitroKyx said:

Alright, so I have all my television shows across one folder...like 600 series.

I'd like to limit a channel to have maybe 20 of those series, is there a way to do this without making it a hassle?

Tags. 

[NitroKyx 0]

What is the proper syntax to include "Show A" but not "Show B" in a single channel?

Can I tag series as a batch?

Edited February 19, 2021 by NitroKyx

[GrimReaper 3291]

3 hours ago, NitroKyx said:

What is the proper syntax to include "Show A" but not "Show B" in a single channel?

Can I tag series as a batch?

No bulk-editing natively in Emby, but for 20-odd items it shouldn't take more than couple of minutes to tag 'em all. 

If you mean operators, it's "!" for NOT, as noted in field helper text. In your case, it would be [Show A tag] && ![Show B tag]. 

Edited February 19, 2021 by GrimReaper76
Typo

[Oracle 74]

Similar to the guy above me, I am struggling with understanding how to properly tag shows to work with VirtualTV. I want my channels to have very specific content on them. Can someone talk to me like a toddler for a couple minutes and give me the rundown? Trust me, I'm not a moron all the time. I feel like a potato.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Arly (Sprinkles)
Wording

[GrimReaper 3291]

34 minutes ago, Arly (Sprinkles) said:

Similar to the guy above me, I am struggling with understanding how to properly tag shows to work with VirtualTV. I want my channels to have very specific content on them. Can someone talk to me like a toddler for a couple minutes and give me the rundown? Trust me, I'm not a moron all the time. I feel like a potato.

Hi there, what seems to be bothering you? 

[Oracle 74]

28 minutes ago, GrimReaper76 said:

Hi there, what seems to be bothering you? 

Sorry for the delayed response, ran out to the store.

So, I am having a little trouble understanding the proper way to configure channels. Similar to NitroKyx, I am attempting to set up some channels for my wife to put a stop to those wonderful "I don't know what to watch" conversations that take place on the regular. My issue is that, I have about 800 series, 4,000 movies or so. When I configured a "TV" channel, I want only a couple series to show up on that channel, but I also want those shows to appear elsewhere as well. I really just need to be walked through this like a child. I have it all installed. Can I "include" shows and "exclude" shows through tags? How so?

[mxmh 7]

kann man auch einen Sender erstellen, wo immer nur Folge 1 von variablen Serien angezeigt wird.

z.B Smallville S01E01...Fringe S01E01...Big Bang S01E01

[GrimReaper 3291]

2 minutes ago, Arly (Sprinkles) said:

Sorry for the delayed response, ran out to the store.

So, I am having a little trouble understanding the proper way to configure channels. Similar to NitroKyx, I am attempting to set up some channels for my wife to put a stop to those wonderful "I don't know what to watch" conversations that take place on the regular. My issue is that, I have about 800 series, 4,000 movies or so. When I configured a "TV" channel, I want only a couple series to show up on that channel, but I also want those shows to appear elsewhere as well. I really just need to be walked through this like a child. I have it all installed. Can I "include" shows and "exclude" shows through tags? How so?

Yes, you can do either. Did you already tag those items in your library? 

[Oracle 74]

1 minute ago, GrimReaper76 said:

Yes, you can do either. Did you already tag those items in your library? 

No.

I guess what I am asking is "What is the proper way to tag these items?"

[GrimReaper 3291]

Just now, Arly (Sprinkles) said:

No.

I guess what I am asking is "What is the proper way to tag these items?"

Edit metadata on any item in your Library (three-dot menu on a poster). For TV Shows, you can do it either on Series level, Season level or Episode level - as far as I know, VTV respects them all. Movies are separate entities by themself. Scroll down, you will come upon Tags section, with the "+" sign beside it. There you can add as many tags as you like, single or multiple. 

[Oracle 74]

Okay, and if I just tag these items...VTV will find the tags if I direct it to, and include only items tagged as such

EX: "XMAS" tags will only be included? Nothing else?

[GrimReaper 3291]

Just now, Arly (Sprinkles) said:

Okay, and if I just tag these items...VTV will find the tags if I direct it to, and include only items tagged as such

EX: "XMAS" tags will only be included? Nothing else?

Yup. 

[Oracle 74]

Thanks!

[tuvx 14]

I really want to like this plugin, but in my case it just does not work.

Using in Kodi is an absolute no-go; 100% stuttering on MPEG2VIDEO. I mentioned in an earlier post about changing settings for decoding, but doing that makes watching media without the plugin not work. Also, the guide always seems to be wrong.

Using through the Emby app on a Fire stick seems to work (if I force restrict bit rate), for a while, but usually after 1 play it will crash (just gets spinning circle).

I realize everyone's setup is different, and am just providing feedback in case I can help you in making a more versatile plugin.

[crusher11 851]

I figured out why I was sometimes having titles turn up in Continue Watching. If you turn the TV off while watching Virtual TV, it doesn't clear the resume point. You have to actually exit playback first.

 

[pünktchen 1258]

5 hours ago, tuvx said:

Using in Kodi is an absolute no-go; 100% stuttering on MPEG2VIDEO.

I'm using the plugin exclusively for playback in Kodi and never experience any problem no matter what the video source codec is. Xvid, mpeg4, h.264, hevc or mpeg2. The problem must be your server hardware or configuration that struggles with transcoding.

 

5 hours ago, tuvx said:

Also, the guide always seems to be wrong.

Of course you have to make sure that the epg in Kodi is updated after a guide refresh in Emby.

 

5 hours ago, tuvx said:

Using through the Emby app on a Fire stick seems to work (if I force restrict bit rate), for a while, but usually after 1 play it will crash (just gets spinning circle).

As mentioned earlier you should use playback mode "Playlist" because that will give you native library playback in Emby apps but will fallback to "Continous" for Kodi.

[pünktchen 1258]

New version 0.9.6 in the starting post:

Channels:

• Fixed some bugs with exlude conditions for "Names" and "Tags" (hopefully finally)
• Added simple channel rule to include movies and tv shows by name, because new users don't understand Emby's tagging system

[GrimReaper 3291]

16 hours ago, pünktchen said:

 

• Added simple channel rule to include movies and tv shows by name, because new users don't understand Emby's tagging system

Following above from plugin developer, and number of posts in this and other threads around the forum, I thought that quick run-down of Tagging system might be of some assistance, or even give some incentive to delve into, for those that haven't made use of it until now, in addition to KB article:

https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001848783

which often gets ignored, either because TL;DR or RTFM applies.

Tags are extremely versatile tool that allow targeting items or manipulating queries for items in your library to a higher level than pure Name alone. You can think of them as an equivalent of sticking a "Post-It" note or color marker on any item in your Library. One item can have a single tag or multiple tags assigned. Same tag can be assigned to a single item or multiple items. They can be used in various scenarios: marking items, access control, 'grouping' items, various plugins implementation. 

Tags are not exclusive to VirtualTV plugin (nor any other plugin, althouh multiple plugins make use of them; top of my head, of those that I personally use: VirtualTV plugin, SmartPlaylists plugin, Iconic plugin, Automated Tagging plugin). Being part of Emby core (and with recent Search improvements in latest versions of the server, they get their own tab in search results, making them even more usable), they are created/assigned through Metadata Editor or Edit Metadata dialog on any item in your Library. For Movies, it can be done on Movie/Extras level. For TV Shows, it can be done on Series/Season/Episode level. Hierarchy is respected, i.e. tag at Series level will encompass all seasons and episodes beneath - tag at Episode level will apply to that episode alone, not encompassing other episodes in the same season, nor other episodes/season(s) nor Show in question. 

Example of Tags handling:

Item 1: TagA, TagD

Item 2: TagB, TagD, TagF

Item 3: TagC, TagF

Search for TagA returns Item 1 only; ditto for TagB and TagC, Item 2 and Item 3 respectively. 

Search for TagD returns Items 1 and 2.

Search for TagF returns Items 2 and 3.

That allows for specific targeting and/or multiple-results on a single argument query. 

That said, on to VirtualTV implementation. While setting the single Tag Channel condition is pretty straightforward (following above, hopefully), the GREAT inclusion of conditional logical operators in Tags (and Genre - heck, I might even use Genres for the examples as they might be more familiar, same logic applies) fields gives extreme versatility - but makes things somewhat more complicated, as they need to be carefuly evaluated else loop is created or results returned are not as expected. Inclusion of operator NOT just makes it much more so. Due to language limitations  our thought processes don't necessarily translate exactly as we intended to (God knows I've failed to express myself countless times, as I beleive there ain't a single person living that hasn't) - or they do TOO WELL. An example: thought "I want my Channel to include only Crimes and Thrillers." Natural syntax that comes out of that is 'Crime && Thriller' (Crime AND Thriller) - and is incorrect, as that would return only items that have BOTH Crime and Thriller genres in their metadata. Operator OR (||) needs to be used here ('Crime || Thriller'), as that will direct the plugin to pull items from either (both) Crime pool or (and) Thriller pool. Again, just replace genres with Tags and same applies. Exclusions are done via NOT (!) operator whose use, again, when used alone, is clear enough: !Drama. In multi-argument syntax, not so much. Example (one I've had to cope with more times than I can count): "I want Romance in any combination, but NOT Romance/SciFi." As condition 'Romance' if used alone would return ALL Romance movies (Action/Romance... Drama/Romance... Comedy/Romance...) including SciFi/Romance, and condition '!SciFi' if used alone would return ALL other genres (Action, Drama, Thriller...), including Romance, they need to be combined into single expression: 'Romance && !SciFi'. That will grab from the Romance pool only, but exclude those that have SciFi in addition. 

I suppose that wraps it up, generally speaking. Guess it has been a long one, eh?

As English is not my native language, I'm aware that I don't manage to express myself exactly as I wanted to every single time, yet I hope someone might find some useful info in all of the above, and any additional input from community members would be more than welcome, I might've had just as well ommited something I'm unaware of presently (or got it wrong, for that matter) and, as always, two heads know more than one. 

Cheers

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2021 by GrimReaper76
Typos, of course