Adding TV show to a playlist results in all episodes being added

[visproduction 315]

Not a bug, but not so user friendly.

User ads a TV show to a Playlist:
Result - All episodes are added. If there were 100 episodes, they all get added.

Make this more user friendly?

Adding just Epsiode 1 will solve this issue and offer the functionality that user wants.  If TV series are set to play episode after episode, I think that is an option, then you only need a single episode on a playlist to give the user playback options from that episode onward. This functionalty more closely matches how Collections work.  I think option C is best.

Feature change?
A ) Hardly anyone has ever noticed... not worth changing.
B ) Automatically put only Episode 1 on a playlist and make sure that sequential episode playback is on or pop-up suggest the user turns that on.  The user chose to add an entire TV show to a Playlist.  We can assume they want all the episodes to be able to playback.  If the user wanted some other episode, they would have gone to that episode and added it.
C) Automatically put only Episode 1 but don't bother extra coding about multiple episode playback.  The user already made that choice, so leave it alone.

 

[Luke 42078]

Hi, you added from the series screen. You need to drill down to the episode screen if that’s what you want. Thanks.

[visproduction 315]

Luke,

Yes, that is the issue.  Adding from the series screen adds all the episodes.  Does anyone really want to do that?  That was the question.  It makes a mess, especially if there are 100 episodes.  I believe that just adding episode 1 when the user adds from the series screen is more user friendly.  I know that picking a single episode works.  That is not in question.

[rbjtech 5284]

Agree 100%.

I think the real question is why can you not add a show to a playlist   adding episodes is pretty clunky - who wants to see that.

This is also where plugins and scripts fall down because you can't actually reference a show,  you have to reference ep1 as you say and then look at its parent. 

Btw if emby did ever change this.. then also maybe add the ability to add to the playlist from a season.  Ie just add s02e01 instead if selected from season 2

Edited August 18, 2024 by rbjtech

[ebr 16184]

21 hours ago, visproduction said:

Adding just Epsiode 1 will solve this issue and offer the functionality that user wants

Is that really what the user wants?  If it is, why didn't they just add that episode?

21 hours ago, visproduction said:

If TV series are set to play episode after episode

That setting would not have an impact when playing in a playlist.  A playlist is a list of items you wish to play in a specific order so branching out to items not in the playlist does not make sense.

6 hours ago, rbjtech said:

I think the real question is why can you not add a show to a playlist

Because playlists are lists of individual playable items.  A show is a collection of items.  When you look at a playlist, you expect to see each specific item that will play and in what order.  

Do you know of an example of any other playlist interface that has collections of items in the list?

[visproduction 315]

ebr, OK that makes sense.  I agree, leaving it like it is, seems right.  Thanks for the extra details.

Edited August 18, 2024 by visproduction

[seanbuff 1316]

I understand this ask, as I've wondered the same thing. 

Part of the problem is people want a "Watch List" (Netflix style) where you can add a top-level series or season, however Emby playlists are not that, they are designed for individual items as ebr said.

Both have their own use cases, but we only have one function at the moment.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

I find that, with a little thought, I can have almost everything I want by proper configuration and some creative configurations. I know not every possibility can be handles by my methods but it works for me quite well. 

BTW: I also use collections, not the predesigned garbage created by "automatic" collections, (I turn that off) but personally created collections that contain exactly what I want. And I use "favorites" too.
Combining those basics I can have virtually and configuration of shows and movies I dream up. 

I know that many/most people want things done automagically but i find that if I control what is in collections I get close to the ideal for me.
The only thing missing is that when looking at a collection, no matter how sorted or displayed, there is no alpha picker but that is a minor issue except.

I even use a few, very few, playlists to fill things out.

The next up (Legacy) and Continue watching rows are really all I use, most of the time, but, sometimes, the fancier and more complex things are handled by one or more of the above things i mentioned.

Emby, for me, needs to fix a few minor issues, like the lack of an alpha picker in many places. But, other than that, Emby is such a complex and diverse system that there always seems to be a way to display content so that it is most convenient and efficient.

[rbjtech 5284]

19 hours ago, ebr said:

 

Because playlists are lists of individual playable items.  A show is a collection of items.  When you look at a playlist, you expect to see each specific item that will play and in what order.  

For audio, yes, for video no. As has been said above, people see the playlist as a watch list because frankly thats all emby offers on the limited interface.   'I'd like to watch that show sometime, or let me watch the first few episodes'  - clearly i don't intend on watching the entire show in one session, so why would i want to add each individual episode ?   

Playlist/watchlist mgt has been #1 on the feature list for 8 years Eric, does this not tell emby that the playlist functionality within emby today is a very outdated implementation where you have just bolted on video to something designed for audio ?

People want a 'library' with their genre, their 'picks', their favorites, their interests, their generation.  Emby offers nothing other than a playlist (useless for tv) or a collection - that can't be pinned as items.  Filters are all but useless as you can't use and/or combos.

Do you see the problem here ?   When you have 1000's of movies/shows to watch, people just want to see a custom subset of that, and emby offers very little in terms of a solution to this problem.

(And this isn't just me with this feedback, every one of my friends and family have asked how do I do this, my response is embarassing when i say it can't be done ..)

Edited August 19, 2024 by rbjtech

[ebr 16184]

9 hours ago, rbjtech said:

For audio, yes, for video no. As has been said above, people see the playlist as a watch list because frankly thats all emby offers on the limited interface.   'I'd like to watch that show sometime, or let me watch the first few episodes'  - clearly i don't intend on watching the entire show in one session, so why would i want to add each individual episode ?   

Playlist/watchlist mgt has been #1 on the feature list for 8 years Eric, does this not tell emby that the playlist functionality within emby today is a very outdated implementation where you have just bolted on video to something designed for audio ?

People want a 'library' with their genre, their 'picks', their favorites, their interests, their generation.  Emby offers nothing other than a playlist (useless for tv) or a collection - that can't be pinned as items.  Filters are all but useless as you can't use and/or combos.

Do you see the problem here ?   When you have 1000's of movies/shows to watch, people just want to see a custom subset of that, and emby offers very little in terms of a solution to this problem.

(And this isn't just me with this feedback, every one of my friends and family have asked how do I do this, my response is embarassing when i say it can't be done ..)

The lack of a feature you desire doesn't mean we should make a different feature behave incorrectly for its designed purpose.  Its really that simple.

[rbjtech 5284]

7 hours ago, ebr said:

The lack of a feature you desire doesn't mean we should make a different feature behave incorrectly for its designed purpose.  Its really that simple.

You honestly believe the current playlist function is fit for purpose ?

[Happy2Play 9780]

No Playlist will not entirely fit the use case here but at the same time should not be changed to fit that use case either.  But in the end support the existing request.

 

[ebr 16184]

7 hours ago, rbjtech said:

You honestly believe the current playlist function is fit for purpose ?

Yes, as a playlist.