Creating Playlists (Music and Music Video)

[Weemisty 3]

Hi,

I've come across a snag after creating a few Music and Music Video playlists today using my Windows server. What I've noticed was whilst I'm able to sort these playlists by Artist on the server side, when I open Emby on the Shield there does not seem to be an option to sort these playlists by Artist. There are a number of sort options available, but the closest I guess is sort by name, which actually sorts by song name. I did think that perhaps whatever sort method I specified on the server side would filter through to the app side, but that does not seem to be the case.

Is this expected behaviour when using the app on Android?

I also noticed that when using the app on the shield, when I enter the music section there is a tab at the top of the screen for playlists, but when I go the music video section there is no playlist option. There is an option to go to Artist, then select playlist (if that artist is included on a playlist) but that seems quite long winded and convoluted. Again, I'd really appreciate it if somebody could correct me on anything obvious I'm doing wrong.

If playlist sorting by Artist does not actually exist on the app side can it be added, as this would be really useful? Same question as well for the playlist tab at the top of the screen for Music Video's?

btw, if this is in the wrong section please accept my apologies. I'm still trying to find my way around the forum fully, but since I'm using Windows for my media server I thought I'd start here.

Edited January 21, 2023 by Weemisty
typo error

[Luke 42081]

Hi.  Can you try sideloading our standard android app on the same device and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

 

[Weemisty 3]

Will certainly give it go later today. 

Will let you know the outcome.

Cheers  

[Weemisty 3]

Hi @Luke

Yes, sideloading latest arm version did the trick. All the issues I described previously are now resolved. 

This newer version of the emby app for Android is outstanding and find the navigation is very fluid and simple to use. I really like the changes made to the OSD and the voice search feature is amazing. However, updating to this version has also raised a few more questions as I can see some things have changed from the previous google store version I was using:-

1) The focus colour and border colour is now white. On the previous version I was using I'm pretty sure there was a option available to set this colour. I've looked everywhere for this setting but couldn't find it listed anywhere on the new app version. Is it not possible to change the colour now?

2) When using the Guide screen for live TV there used to be some options above the first channel on the right side which included 'Tags' so you could easily filter the TV guide by channel group. Is it not possible to do this now? I saw there is a Tag option at the very top of the screen, but that option does not filter the TV guide. 

3) On the previous app version I was using, when playing older SD music videos I could open the setting option on the OSD and select the Zoom option to stretch these videos horizontally which filled the whole screen. I found this worked really well. However,  on the newer app version the zoom option has gone and looks to have been replaced by 'Aspect Ratio'. However, when I tried the 'Cover' and 'Fill' options nothing actually changed when playing exactly the same SD video mentioned above. What's the best way to handle these types of video now if I will wish to fill the entire screen like before? 

4) I have enabled the settings option 'to show next up info' at the end of video, which I thought would show what Music Video was coming up next in my test playlist, but nothing appears. Does this feature not work for Music Videos?

5) Again, for Music Videos I noticed when using my test playlist that if I want to skip the currently playing item to the next video there does not appear to be any easy way to do this as the skip buttons on the OSD have been replaced with 'Info', 'Cast & Crew', 'On Now' and 'Guide' buttons now. For regular audio music the skip buttons are still there. That being said, I do actually like the new buttons I'm seeing for 'Info', 'Cast & Crew' etc. If the Shield's remote had skip buttons, then I guess this wouldn't actually be an issue. What would you suggest in such instances if I wanted to actually skip a music video in a playlist?

6) Lastly, how can I refresh the image for a particular channel tag group? I added a new group of channels a couple of weeks back to my m3u file, which includes paths to the channel icons. The icons appear fine on the guide screen, but if I select the Tag option they are not there. I didn't know if there was a way to refresh/rebuild the channel tag group image?

Any feedback on the above would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

[Weemisty 3]

Update:

Item 3 on the above is now partially solved. Selecting 'Cover' aspect ratio does stretch some of my music videos horizontally, but not all, whereas previous option to stretch horizontally worked on all videos.

Item 6 is now resolved as I figured out how to refresh channel group images.

Items 1, 2, 4 and 5 remain un-resolved and un-answered.

[Luke 42081]

@Weemisty 

Quote

1) The focus colour and border colour is now white. On the previous version I was using I'm pretty sure there was a option available to set this colour. I've looked everywhere for this setting but couldn't find it listed anywhere on the new app version. Is it not possible to change the colour now?

More options to control this are possible for future updates.

[Luke 42081]

Quote

2) When using the Guide screen for live TV there used to be some options above the first channel on the right side which included 'Tags' so you could easily filter the TV guide by channel group. Is it not possible to do this now? I saw there is a Tag option at the very top of the screen, but that option does not filter the TV guide. 

Have you tried clicking the sorting icon at the top left of the guide?

[Luke 42081]

Quote

4) I have enabled the settings option 'to show next up info' at the end of video, which I thought would show what Music Video was coming up next in my test playlist, but nothing appears. Does this feature not work for Music Videos?

This feature is only for episodes. We'll be rewording it on the settings screen.

[Luke 42081]

Quote

5) Again, for Music Videos I noticed when using my test playlist that if I want to skip the currently playing item to the next video there does not appear to be any easy way to do this as the skip buttons on the OSD have been replaced with 'Info', 'Cast & Crew', 'On Now' and 'Guide' buttons now. For regular audio music the skip buttons are still there. That being said, I do actually like the new buttons I'm seeing for 'Info', 'Cast & Crew' etc. If the Shield's remote had skip buttons, then I guess this wouldn't actually be an issue. What would you suggest in such instances if I wanted to actually skip a music video in a playlist?

Sounds like you don't actually have a play queue. If you did, then you'd have skip forward and back buttons to advance through the play queue. How did you start playing the music video? From exactly what screen?

[Weemisty 3]

15 hours ago, Luke said:

This feature is only for episodes. We'll be rewording it on the settings screen.

Ahh ok. That's okay. Just thought I might be missing something...

[Weemisty 3]

15 hours ago, Luke said:

Sounds like you don't actually have a play queue. If you did, then you'd have skip forward and back buttons to advance through the play queue. How did you start playing the music video? From exactly what screen?

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure I was playing from a queue. I will try and get a screen shot and post here.

[Weemisty 3]

15 hours ago, Luke said:

Have you tried clicking the sorting icon at the top left of the guide?

A-ha....Success. That did the trick.

Many thanks