Emby TV series restarts with an episode marked "Played"

[gddeluca 2]

Experiencing EMBY, when started and selecting to continue a TV series, choosing an episode which is already marked "Played" and which is 5 - 6 episodes in the past.

It happened repeatedly, and was only corrected by letting the episode play, then doing a FF to the near the end, and letting it 'run out'.  The episode was marked "Played" throughout this.

Is there some other factor affecting what is taken into consideration when Emby chooses what is 'next'?

My wife is visually impaired and when this happens, it drives her nuts because she can't see menus etc. well enough to recover from this on her own. She counts on NEXT episode doing it's job.

 

[ebr 16174]

1 hour ago, gddeluca said:

when started and selecting to continue a TV series

Hi.  Exactly what did you do here?

[gddeluca 2]

From the 'continue watching' section just pick a series, and then play it. It will start playing an episode which is marked played. And not just the most recent episode, but one 3 or 4 back, and all the ones in between are also marked played.

The only way to reset this that we have found is to let it play the old episode, and FF to near the end and let it finish playing the episode. It's as if marked played is not 'taking'.

[Luke 42078]

Hi there, can you please provide a specific example? Thanks.

[pwhodges 2012]

8 hours ago, gddeluca said:

The only way to reset this that we have found is to let it play the old episode, and FF to near the end and let it finish playing the episode. It's as if marked played is not 'taking'.

Marking the episode unplayed and then marking it played again will also fix this.

@LukeI find this quite a persistent nuisance.  The problem is that there are two separate flags - one played/unplayed and one for the Resume position.  If, for instance, I go back to an earlier episode and play part to remind myself of something, that earlier episode is now still marked played, but also has a Resume position.  The Continue Watching prioritises the Resume over the played flag, but there is no visual indication of this.  To my mind, the played flag should take priority; if I want to replay a whole series, or every episode from an earlier point, I can tell Emby what I want by clearing the played flag on the series or the required episodes; otherwise Emby should assume I want to continue from the furthest point I've reached - i.e. by ignoring Resume points on already-played episodes.

Paul.

[ebr 16174]

4 hours ago, pwhodges said:

The Continue Watching prioritises the Resume over the played flag, but there is no visual indication of this

Yes there is - the resume-able one has a progress bar on it.

4 hours ago, pwhodges said:

Emby should assume I want to continue from the furthest point I've reached - i.e. by ignoring Resume points on already-played episodes

That is not how I would expect it to work.  I expect Emby to respect my current playback process - not guess at something else I may be doing.

[ebr 16174]

@gddelucaI was going to ask you if you had done what pw described:

4 hours ago, pwhodges said:

I go back to an earlier episode and play part to remind myself of something, that earlier episode is now still marked played, but also has a Resume position

meaning did you play an earlier episode partially such that it had a resume position?  If so, the system is behaving as designed - picking up where you last left off.

[gddeluca 2]

Can't honestly answer that Q:. but going back and re-playing a part of a watched episode is simply not within my wife's visual abilities, she can barely select the shows she wants and play them.  Anything beyond that and I become her assistant, and I don't recall ever doing that.

What she does see often, is a show not getting marked played even though it is in the last few seconds where the "Play Next" and "Cancel" buttons appear. Often if she just exits at that point (Back button), the show fails to be marked Played. I've seen that as well, it's not consistent. 

But that's another whole problem.

[ebr 16174]

45 minutes ago, gddeluca said:

Can't honestly answer that Q:. but going back and re-playing a part of a watched episode is simply not within my wife's visual abilities, she can barely select the shows she wants and play them.  Anything beyond that and I become her assistant, and I don't recall ever doing that.

Is it possible she did that by accident?  Selecting the wrong episode somewhere, then realizing it, stopping it and going to a different one?  The next time this happens, please note whether or not the first episode being played has a resume position.

46 minutes ago, gddeluca said:

What she does see often, is a show not getting marked played even though it is in the last few seconds where the "Play Next" and "Cancel" buttons appear. Often if she just exits at that point (Back button), the show fails to be marked Played. I've seen that as well, it's not consistent. 

Confirm the playback setting for how much of a show needs to be played to mark it watched.  You may want to adjust it to a lower value.

[pwhodges 2012]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

meaning did you play an earlier episode partially such that it had a resume position?  If so, the system is behaving as designed - picking up where you last left off.

I can agree to differ to that extent (and of course you were right about the indication).

But it's not actually consistent.  If "resume" means exactly that, as you say, then what happens at the end of the episode?  I'll tell you what happens - it skips to the next unplayed episode, omitting any immediately subsequent played ones; so this was not a true resume, which would imply continuing in sequence, not jumping the next also previously played episode.  If resume takes priority, then to be properly consistent it must also clear the played flags on subsequent episodes.  But that, of course, would be a nightmare - so I'd still argue for resume not taking priority over played.

But I agree that neither behaviour can really be considered "clean"!

Paul

[ebr 16174]

6 hours ago, pwhodges said:

I'll tell you what happens - it skips to the next unplayed episode, omitting any immediately subsequent played ones;

Are you sure about that?  With what app?  Pretty positive neither Android TV nor Roku would behave like that.

[pwhodges 2012]

After playing to the end of the episode and returning to the home screen, the next unplayed is shown in the Continue Watching row.  I haven't tried letting it play the next episode automatically, because I don't enable that in any case.

Paul

[ebr 16174]

14 hours ago, pwhodges said:

After playing to the end of the episode and returning to the home screen, the next unplayed is shown in the Continue Watching row

Okay, that's different and, yes, I'd say that is somewhat inconsistent.