STRM files now marking same play history as original files

[StuBailey 35]

Here's the story:
I see that STRM files keeps the play history  separate from the real files - that's great - but  it doesn't play .bif files for FF or REW video previews. Some STRMs actually have chapters but no pics for some reason, and even those don't show video previews on FF or REW - no biggie. Using symlinks plays the .bif but shows  an exact duplicate of the play history of the original files....

So, I experimented by making a folder, but not entering it as a library, then added a symlink of the original file. Then created a new library with a folder and copy of the contents from the original folder - poster, fanart etc. but a symlink of the symlink from the non library folder. I scanned the new library and it took much longer then expected for one movie.

So now I have the original library with the real file, a library with STRM files including the one I experimenting with, and the new experimental library with symlink file. This was to see if the new symlink library might not duplicate the play history in the original file folder.

It still duplicates the play history, and now also the STRM files folders - ALL movies in the STRM library also create a duplicate play history if you play them. No matter which of the 3 libraries you choose to play they all get marked the same with the play history.

Removing the symlink library and the non listed library, plus deleting them from the drive and then re-scanning, still has the STRM files duplicating the original files play history and vice versa. Reload server or reboot computer the same. There might be a shorter way to reproduce this but that's how I did it. In no hurry to just get things back to normal I'm curious if looking under the hood of why this is happening might be a hint at how to get STRM files to play .bif files, or a way to not duplicate the play history with symlink files.

I like to play with things

[ebr 16185]

Hi. None of this is really related to Roku, correct?

We track play history by provider ID so, different copies or "pointers" to the same item (as far as the global metadata providers are concerned) will share play history, resume points, etc.

[StuBailey 35]

I didn't really think so but just figured maybe...

[Luke 42080]

What would you prefer to happen?

[Happy2Play 9782]

How is the strm different than the original as it is a short cut to original? 

Only difference with a strm is it will not have media info until played cause other info to not be present.

 

19 hours ago, StuBailey said:

ALL movies in the STRM library also create a duplicate

Not knowing exactly what you are doing but yes if this strm library is an additional library they you are adding additional database ids for each item but since play/resume is by providerid it will show as many copies in CW or Search as you have in your entire collection unless multi-versioned manually or by the plugin as automatic via server has to be in same folder and specific naming scheme.

 

[StuBailey 35]

Ok let me start over a bit... I already had a library made using STRM files to make a category of Western movies simply to avoid making duplicate files. From what I read somewhere on this forum, using STRM files allows them to be separate from the actual files in terms of play history (played / not played or marking the time where you left off. That worked. The STRM file of Westerns would have a few marked as played for example, while the original real files showed not played. I had that set like that for a year or so. In fact I tried the STRM files because using symlink files would mark played / not played etc in both the symlink file library and the original.

Then I experimented with symlink files again. When the experiment didn't work I just got rid of the experimental library and the folders and files on my computer.

Now simply using the same STRM files of the Westerns I had for a year or so marks both the STRM files and the real files the same.

I'm going to replace the programdata folder with a backup... I have a feeling everything will back to the way it used to be.. 

 

[StuBailey 35]

What I would prefer is to happen is to use STRM or SYMLINK to avoid duplicate files while being able to have chapters and video preview on FF or REW, but have play history not duplicated in both original files and STRM/SYMLINK.

[Happy2Play 9782]

16 minutes ago, StuBailey said:

STRM files allows them to be separate from the actual files in terms of play history (played / not played or marking the time where you left off.

This is not true as it is about providerid not file/path/name.  So "Aliens", (tmdbid=679) will will be used to track Played and Resume on every copy.

Only time this changes if item does not have a providerid then a DBid is used and can be different and lost if something happened to DB or Media is moved.

21 minutes ago, StuBailey said:

Now simply using the same STRM files of the Westerns I had for a year or so marks both the STRM files and the real files the same.

Should have always been that way or I know it has been from day one for me.

12 minutes ago, StuBailey said:

What I would prefer is to happen is to use STRM or SYMLINK to avoid duplicate files while being able to have chapters and video preview on FF or REW, but have play history not duplicated in both original files and STRM/SYMLINK.

Yes this has been mentioned before but currently not possible with the way all userdata/resume points are tracked as 10 copies/versions of a movies is still one move.  But search/CW will show you every version unless Grouped.

[StuBailey 35]

I just added a programdata backup and it's still doing it.

[StuBailey 35]

8 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

This is not true as it is about providerid not file/path/name.  So "Aliens", (tmdbid=679) will will be used to track Played and Resume on every copy.

It was 100%  true for me for about a year and all I can guess is from not doing a clean install while instead doing updates... other than that I never added chapters until now and when I did, and liked the results, I played with symlinks because the STRM did not show the preview...  It only took me minutes to after trying the symlink test to see the difference. Something changed somehow but it's not a big deal because after trying the chapters and preview I'd rather have that working with symlinks instead of STRM with no chapter and previews.

8 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Only time this changes if item does not have a providerid then a DBid is used and can be different and lost if something happened to DB or Media is moved.

Should have always been that way or I know it has been from day one for me.

Yes this has been mentioned before but currently not possible with the way all userdata/resume points are tracked as 10 copies/versions of a movies is still one move.  But search/CW will show you every version unless Grouped.

[Luke 42080]

It would have always been this way, unless they had no internet metadata and therefore wouldn't have their user data associated with the moviedb id's.

Why not put them in the same library and let them get merged as multiple versions of the same title?

[StuBailey 35]

I just created a new strm file movie to the same Westerns strm folder. This movies never previously had a strm or symlink associated with it (just in case) and it is not duplicating the play mark.... one shows not played and the other is at the 10 min mark.

I just copy all the files except the .mp4 or .mkv to the strm file folder and then drag a shortcut from the mp4 there also... I right click on the shortcut and copy the path to avoid typos for the txt (strm file).. So all the provider IDs should be the same...

Too tired to explore more right now but going crazy drives me... Will back at it tomorrow to figure it out 

[StuBailey 35]

Multiple versions?

[StuBailey 35]

I had so many movies collected over the yrs that I envisioned it as 1950s-1960s folder - 1970s-1980s folders etc. instead of categories because when I first hear about a movie title I instantly sense the timeline like "oh, that's a 70s movie or a 30s movie" and so on, so when I started with emby I stuck with that layout . Then when a few categories grew large enough I got hooked on making individual categories look good in it's own library. Otherwise I can't see the need to multiple versions -if that's what you mean by multiple versions..

[StuBailey 35]

Thanks for all the replies... I have everything the way I want now by simply editing the IDs in the nfo file. Turned out the last STRM I made that worked by not duplicating the original file time marker was because I forgot to copy the nfo file, and I had the library not fetching anything. Still not sure why the strm files had their own markers compared to original but it's no longer important.

[Luke 42080]

Thanks for the feedback.

[Happy2Play 9782]

1 hour ago, StuBailey said:

I have everything the way I want now by simply editing the IDs in the nfo file.

Not knowing what ids you are changing but yes once this link is broken, they become Independant items and are tracked differently.  This media can never be moved and cannot be restored as a different database will have different ids for the media.

[StuBailey 35]

I changed the IDs that looked like the ones listed in the library settings IMDB, UniqueID,  tt123456 etc.. I started on my Sci-Fi collection and simply added sci-fi in front of the IDs. All I need is to properly display the movie name and description and of course the artwork. I learned my lesson early on to simply copy the movie folders as they were with the .nfo file, artwork, landscape and posters etc. excluding the actual movie of course for simple backup. It's a never ending process for me having fun playing with posters to kind of make them match next to one another in contrast or whatever. If I'm not happy with the fetching sites posters I'll look for an old ad poster and make my own... so I always back things up and not afraid to make a mistake

And if anyone's interested, I once experimented to try to make something similar to act like a Windows OS empty folder to dump the home screen library pics. The idea was to turn some 45 Library categories into maybe 10. I have about 7 TV related libraries and created one main TV folder, one main MOVIE folder etc. When you entered the main TV folder you would see the home screen as usual, but only the 6 tv libraries.. and it worked but I heard the computer working on rewriting things so I quickly exited and put things back as usual..