Shuffle Diplomacy and Continue Watching: How Do These Work?

[donaldblair 1]

Like everyone here, I'm loving Emby - and it's a dream off a Debian VM. I switched my entire infrastructure (including Emby server) to Debian bullseye from Windows Server and the Windows platform about two months ago, and despite being a relative newbie to Linux, I've never tried this while Emby was running on a Windows VM: shuffling a TV series on an extended basis.

The scenario: My TV library name is called "TV". On my Edge browser client, I'm watching Murphy Brown (260 episodes over 11 series) and want to shuffle random episodes, so I click on the dots menu of the series poster under TV > Shows, and select "Shuffle". I enjoy a few episodes over a few hours.

Closing out the browser, a day or two (or sometimes just a few hours) later, I decide I want to watch more random episodes of the same show. I repeat the process of shuffling episodes, and find that it's repeating many of the same episodes I've already watched, or skipped from the first shuffle that I didn't want to watch.

 

My hypothesis: now, I've not done a proper study on this however I think it's likely playing, in the shuffle mix, those episodes I skipped after the first minute or so (or, whatever is greater than x in the Library Playback Min Resume Percentage setting, for an average 22 minute show).

The reason I think this is happening is because it was an effect of the "Continue Watching" home screen option that I've since disabled: very often I wanted to watch a new episode that was added to the library for a new show, but after watching it, the next played would be whatever was in the "Continue Watching" queue that either remained unfinished, or was next in the order of how I started watching that series (either by shuffle, or in order).

Not to mention, "Continue Watching" adds episodes from the same show that I haven't finished watching, and there seems to be no limit on the display of this (which ultimately suggests the biggest problem here in this post: I'm unable to finish watching a 22 minute tv show, and that's another problem not for a post on a board)

 

My questions: though this isn't enough reasonable information provided, I'm wondering if there's an algorithm on shuffling that is somehow overridden by what should be played next, because they are in the "Continue Watching" queue? Is there a difference of randomisation between Windows and Linux when it comes to how shuffling works in Emby? Does Emby depend on a random shuffle that is saved in memory, and requires a system or service reboot to change the way it randomizes the shuffle?

Thanks and hope for any input or similar situations.

[Luke 42078]

Hi, shuffle is random, but anything you watch with it will affect your saved playback progress, including Continue Watching. Does that answer your question?

[donaldblair 1]

On 10/24/2022 at 2:59 PM, Luke said:

Hi, shuffle is random, but anything you watch with it will affect your saved playback progress, including Continue Watching. Does that answer your question?

Thanks for your reply Luke, @Happy2Play

It only answers it insofar as "Continue Watching" includes what's been played beyond that percentage point, even if the view is disabled from the home menu (is there a way to disable this altogether in Emby, the Continue Watching queue, or to have it clear every time the client exits?) I was able to replicate the problem I'm having just yesterday: when I shuffle a series, episodes that I quickly skipped the last time I shuffled the series - fast enough to bypass whether or not it ends up in "Continue Playing" - are still showing up in the same shuffle order, including items I've already watched in the last shuffle. It doesn't look like it's truly shuffling: it appears it's playing a list of what it's put together randomly.

I've not tried purposely rebooting the service or the server entirely yet, not knowing if that would resolve the problem, but I do know that the server has since been rebooted for general maintenance from my post, and I still experience the same repeated playlist for shuffled items. The items and the emby cache files sit on an NFS share, if this makes any difference, but logs aren't suggesting any permission issues.

I only resolve this by forcing myself to a season within a series, and shuffling a season with the most unplayed items. 

[Happy2Play 9780]

On 10/26/2022 at 10:35 PM, donaldblair said:

, even if the view is disabled from the home menu (is there a way to disable this altogether in Emby, the Continue Watching queue, or to have it clear every time the client exits?)

Sort of, you can adjust per Library Resume settings to a value that would never work.  But will affect all users.

On 10/26/2022 at 10:35 PM, donaldblair said:

It doesn't look like it's truly shuffling: it appears it's playing a list of what it's put together randomly.

Devs will have to comment more on this as there have been a few topics on shuffle not really being random.

[Luke 42078]

The shuffle is random, however the shuffle order will not be saved and won't change the episode order that is seen in Continue Watching. But anything you play will get marked played across the system.

Does that answer your questions?