VirtualTV plugin

[salasbati 0]

nice work I like this so much

[Pseibold 1]

I believe a URL would be fine for both the EPG and the M3U.  (Plex and Emby are on the same physical server)

[pünktchen 1259]

@crusher11 please give this a try: VirtualTV.0.9.5.2_Emby.4.6.x.zip

You can also set the mixed content interleaving to zero now to get a more random result, although i don't know how good the randomness is.

[pünktchen 1259]

@Pseibold Before you even try this just be aware the exported channels will use "Continous Playback" for streaming. That means your server will often have to transcode your videos and that of course is a heavy task if it's not gpu accelerated. Also i really don't know if this will work correctly if multiple users are trying to play the tv channels in Plex. It was never created for use in other streaming servers but for single clients only. Most probably an already running tv stream will stop if an other plex user starts playing a new one. Keep an eye open on your transcoding folder!

Channels m3u url:
http://127.0.0.1:8096/emby/VirtualTV/Channels?User=Plex&ConvertAudio=true&StopMode=log

Guide xmltv url:
http://127.0.0.1:8096/emby/VirtualTV/Guide?ImageType=Thumb

[Pseibold 1]

Sounds like an interesting test case.  I've got an Nvida P2000 GPU in the server...  I'll try this and see how it goes.    Would you like me to post any of the outcomes of my test here? (I don't need you to fix any issues, unless you want to, but happy to report any transcoding, cpu, gpu, effects etc)

[pünktchen 1259]

On 2/11/2021 at 3:54 PM, Pseibold said:

Would you like me to post any of the outcomes of my test here?

Only general infos is enough. Does it work or not, what about multiple users, is the transcoding folder cleaned up after finishing playback?

[SnowzSan 0]

It seems no matter what I do it just randomly selected anything from my library. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by SnowzSan

[pünktchen 1259]

???

[pünktchen 1259]

@crusher11 any feedback?

 

[crusher11 854]

Haven't even had time to install it.

 

[VicMoore 564]

Good morning punktchen...

I have been using your plugin for several weeks and it's fantastic. I use it everyday. I appreciate the effort that you have put into it.

I set up the channels by assigning tags with the Emby meta data editor.  For me this was the easiest way to define channel content. I also set all of the channels to "playlist". I am running emby on a Synology NAS and the performance is fast.

I have a couple of questions:

1) how often should I refresh the "live tv guide"?  I currently do it every night at midnight.

2) the randomness of the TV channels and the movies on each channel is poor. It seems that every day has similar shows. Is this because I refresh the guide everyday?

3) please explain the "channel primetime" option for channels. What does it do? How is it used?

4) I assigned logo images to several channels. Now I can neither change or remove them. Is there a way to delete them? Is there a file that I can delete?

Thanks for developing such a useful plugin. It's my primary means for watching Emby content.

Regards, Vic

[pünktchen 1259]

6 hours ago, crusher11 said:

Haven't even had time to install it.

That's really not helpfull.

 

4 hours ago, VicMoore said:

how often should I refresh the "live tv guide"?  I currently do it every night at midnight.

It depends on the amount of your data if it can fill multiple days.

4 hours ago, VicMoore said:

the randomness of the TV channels and the movies on each channel is poor. It seems that every day has similar shows.

It should be slighly better since the last release? People often complain about this, but i already do my best. I request all library items in a random order and then do another shuffle by Fisher Yates.

4 hours ago, VicMoore said:

please explain the "channel primetime" option for channels.

It makes sure that at the day of the guide refresh one show will start at the defined time.

4 hours ago, VicMoore said:

I assigned logo images to several channels. Now I can neither change or remove them. Is there a way to delete them? Is there a file that I can delete?

Deleting Emby's cache folder should be enough. If not, then use an image with a different name. Last resort is to remove the image in Emby's metadata editor.

[crusher11 854]

On 2/15/2021 at 5:12 AM, pünktchen said:

That's really not helpfull.

I'm not getting paid for this. I've been busy.

 

On 2/15/2021 at 5:12 AM, pünktchen said:

It depends on the amount of your data if it can fill multiple days.

So you're saying the "refresh live TV' thing needs to be done regularly? I've only ever run it after making changes to my channels, and then just left it. I figured it would handle itself from there.

[pünktchen 1259]

6 hours ago, crusher11 said:

I'm not getting paid for this.

Nor am i!

6 hours ago, crusher11 said:

So you're saying the "refresh live TV' thing needs to be done regularly?

Of course. But the Refresh Guide task has a default trigger, so maybe it suits for your needs.

 

[crusher11 854]

So what happens if I'm watching "TV" when it refreshes?

Over the next 24 hours, there's three straight episodes of Police Squad, followed by three straight episodes of Big Bang Theory, then a Jimmy Carr special, three episodes of Police Squad, an Eddie Izzard special, two Big Bang Theory episodes, three Yes Minister episodes, a Big Bang Theory episode, two more Yes Minister followed by a Yes Prime Minister, Big Bang Theory again, three Fawlty Towers, Yes Prime Minister, another Izzard special, two Yes Prime Minister, three Big Bang Theory, three Blackadder, two Fawlty Towers, three Big Bang Theory, Fawlty Towers, a Dara O'Briain special, three Yes Minister.

It seems very clumpy. Almost entirely 2-3 episode blocks of a show before moving on. Zero episodes of QI, which has hundreds available.

 

[crusher11 854]

It would be nice to have "exclude tag" as a global option, so I don't have to go through and exclude the "exclude" tag on every single channel individually (which I'm doing to prevent certain specials from being included).

 

[crusher11 854]

Actually...putting "!exclude" in the "tags" section doesn't appear to exclude anything at all. My exclude-tagged specials are still showing up in the TV guide.

 

[pünktchen 1259]

7 hours ago, crusher11 said:

It seems very clumpy. Almost entirely 2-3 episode blocks of a show before moving on.

Because that is what you have set in the config. How should it look like in your opinion?

7 hours ago, crusher11 said:

Zero episodes of QI, which has hundreds available.

For whatever reason that show is probably not even considered for the result. Just look at the whole guide data for that channel.

7 hours ago, crusher11 said:

It would be nice to have "exclude tag" as a global option

No.

7 hours ago, crusher11 said:

putting "!exclude" in the "tags" section doesn't appear to exclude anything at all. My exclude-tagged specials are still showing up in the TV guide.

Let me guess. You have a "include" tag for the series and at the same time an "exclude" tag for the specials of that series!? Will be fixed in an update.

[crusher11 854]

6 hours ago, pünktchen said:

Because that is what you have set in the config. How should it look like in your opinion?

I'd expect the "maximum" to work just as a maximum, not as a "try to have exactly this number more often than not". QI is definitely included, it showed up on day two.

 

6 hours ago, pünktchen said:

Let me guess. You have a "include" tag for the series and at the same time an "exclude" tag for the specials of that series!? Will be fixed in an update.

No. I have it selecting all Comedy from my TV library, minus specific TV shows, minus anything with an "exclude" tag.

[pünktchen 1259]

8 hours ago, crusher11 said:

I'd expect the "maximum" to work just as a maximum, not as a "try to have exactly this number more often than not".

The episode maximum works as intended. It's the series shuffle that makes you think it is wrong. What's happening here is: The plugin takes a list of series and shuffles it, then it picks up random episodes of the first series list entry in the range of min and max. After that the series list is shuffled again. Here it can happen that the first list entry this time is the same as last time, otherwise it wouldn't be random.

 

8 hours ago, crusher11 said:

I have it selecting all Comedy from my TV library, minus specific TV shows, minus anything with an "exclude" tag.

This works perfectly fine here with the current release version, so it must be something on your side. Re-evaluate your tags!

[crusher11 854]

1 hour ago, pünktchen said:

The plugin takes a list of series and shuffles it, then it picks up random episodes of the first series list entry in the range of min and max.

It might technically do that, but it's picking the max half the time on a range of 1-3. It should, if random, be picking the max only a third of the time. If it were me, I'd weight lower numbers more strongly, so that the chance of getting another episode of the same series decreases gradually the more episodes it plays, until it hits zero. So for example, if an episode of a show plays, there's a 50% chance it will be followed by another episode from the same show, a 25% chance that second episode will be followed by a third, and a 0% chance of there being a fourth.

I can't see anything wrong with my TV setup?

[zachattack83 3]

So far so great. I've been keeping an eye on this for a little while now. It has come a long and positive way!

I've been really liking the customization for movie channels. It makes for a great addition on my live tv, and allows me to just pick up on a movie without having to 'think' about what I'd like to watch. I have no complaints so far. You've thought of a lot and done a great job implementing it.

I have a couple of ideas that I have been thinking about, but I'm not sure if they're feasible.
 

• Setting movies to start on half hour intervals, or 15 minutes, and the empty space between being filled with movie previews? I'm not sure if this is doable, but I thought it would be neat.
• Would it ever be possible, for tv shows, to be able to create a planned program line up. Like, every day, when my kids get home from school, these certain shows would be on, much like the 90s, when I was a kid, I would always come home from school and watch like talespin, rescue rangers, etc. I think it would be neat if we were able to create a program line up, and the system would just grab an episode of that show. I think kids don't get the enjoyment of a saturday morning cartoons anymore, and I'd love to be able to recreate something like that for mine.

I'm not sure if these have already been suggested, or requested. 39 pages of comments is quite a bit to sift through!

Keep up the good work!

[pünktchen 1259]

6 hours ago, crusher11 said:

It should, if random, be picking the max only a third of the time. If it were me, I'd weight lower...

But then that's not random anymore. You must not confuse probability with randomness. Just toss a coin, the chance is 50% you get head. But you get tail. Toss again the coin. You would think to get head this time, but it's again tail. It's random.

6 hours ago, crusher11 said:

I can't see anything wrong with my TV setup?

Yes, looks good to me. Wait for the update. I'm pretty sure it will be fixed then.

[pünktchen 1259]

1 hour ago, zachattack83 said:

Would it ever be possible, for tv shows, to be able to create a planned program line up. Like, every day...

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

[crusher11 854]

18 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

But then that's not random anymore. You must not confuse probability with randomness. Just toss a coin, the chance is 50% you get head. But you get tail. Toss again the coin. You would think to get head this time, but it's again tail. It's random.

Who said it had to be random?

And it's not random at the moment, it's coming out with the max number of episodes around half the time.

But yeah, I think weighted towards fewer consecutive episodes from one show, with a cap to stop anything crazy happening, makes the most sense.

I also have a "Basketball" channel, which covers the NBA, NBL, international games, and some other various exhibition games and such. I don't have a limit on consecutive episodes for that one, but it gets very clumpy as well. Like, it usually goes an entire day showing only one league.