Separate cast from crew

[ebr 16169]

2 hours ago, Bigmack3000 said:

I really don't understand how "amount of clicks" is an argument against in this situation.  We have to click x amount times down the entire cast list to find the directors as it stands.  So making either "cast" or "crew" clickable significantly Reduces the amount of clicks necessary to find the same information.  If clicks were truly the issue, then at the bare minimum directors should be listed first in that row

Hi.  You are only looking at it in the context of this one (relatively rare in the grand scheme) operation - navigating to the Director - but you would have to travel through those items every time you navigate anywhere on the screen.

Even though it would introduce the same extra click situation in vertical navigation, I would prefer having a separate row for cast vs crew because it wouldn't introduce a new paradigm (clickable headers) that would then be requested in other situations and introduce more  navigation issues.

[Happy2Play 9780]

2 hours ago, Bigmack3000 said:

Is there a link to that discussion?  I'd be surprised if actually no one wanted writer or producer, etc, visible.

Have not found it but was back in 2020/2021 per there were a lot of complaints about director being first.  And Director was even removed from the row all together for awhile as it was clickable via all non TV clients.

[CRiXiD 25]

3 hours ago, Bigmack3000 said:

I really don't understand how "amount of clicks" is an argument against in this situation.  We have to click x amount times down the entire cast list to find the directors as it stands.  So making either "cast" or "crew" clickable significantly Reduces the amount of clicks necessary to find the same information.  If clicks were truly the issue, then at the bare minimum directors should be listed first in that row.  

Is there a link to that discussion?  I'd be surprised if actually no one wanted writer or producer, etc, visible.

I just did a quick review of all the main movie list sites, rt, imdb, tmdb, trakt, metacritic. Every one lists director and writers as the most prominent pieces of information on a movie after the name and rating, and usually in its own dedicated section above the cast or sometimes as the first item in a combined list of cast and crew.

That it is almost impossible to find on Android TV builds is a very strange and frustrating decision (to my wife especially ), however I suspect and hope this is just an oversight. I can imagine it would be easy to agree to putting director last in the list if you have a direct and more effective link to the director immediately above the list, as is the case on many of the clients. Maybe the Android TV crowd were absent in the vote.

Edited August 31, 2024 by CRiXiD

[Happy2Play 9780]

I would disagree as TMDB you get cast then crew but have clickable links under overview for Director/Writers.  But every list will list them differently ie different section.   But I have always seen cast more important than crew for this particular row.

[CRiXiD 25]

Tmdb has director in the headee itself, right under overview and before cast. My point is that it is pretty much universally accepted that director and typically writers are core pieces of information that should be as prominent as the top billed cast. This is as true from a user's perspective on emby as anywhere else imo, as is evidenced by frustrations in our home. My emphasis here however is not on whether it should be in the combined row or not, rather that director and writers should be quickly accessible without having to scroll through sometimes nearly a hundred cast members. Presumably the emby team agree with this given that at least director is usually more prominent than cast on non android tv clients. 

[Happy2Play 9780]

3 minutes ago, CRiXiD said:

Tmdb has director in the headee itself, right under overview and before cast.

Technically so does Emby but issue become all you TV app users.

[CRiXiD 25]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

Technically so does Emby but issue become all you TV app users.

That's correct. My feature request is specifically regarding the Android TV client and presumably other TV clients.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Guess a mod or admin need to change the name as it is isolated to a specific display mode for link and obviously different per client for the always different Android TV app.

As for row personally do not want to see order changed if it were then maybe only for TV mode.

But separation for cast row and crew row maybe but by default Emby only gets Director for Movies.

Edited September 1, 2024 by Happy2Play

[Bigmack3000 107]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

Hi.  You are only looking at it in the context of this one (relatively rare in the grand scheme) operation - navigating to the Director - but you would have to travel through those items every time you navigate anywhere on the screen.

Even though it would introduce the same extra click situation in vertical navigation, I would prefer having a separate row for cast vs crew because it wouldn't introduce a new paradigm (clickable headers) that would then be requested in other situations and introduce more  navigation issues.

I mean, i would love a full dedicated row for crew.  and it can easily be optional to show only cast, or show both rows.  I just didn't think that would ever be a real option because putting more things on the screen always appears to be a non-starter for emby.  

The only other place I could see people requesting clickable headers would be extras, but again I don't think emby ever really wants to fix that area.

[CRiXiD 25]

15 minutes ago, Bigmack3000 said:

I mean, i would love a full dedicated row for crew.  and it can easily be optional to show only cast, or show both rows.  I just didn't think that would ever be a real option because putting more things on the screen always appears to be a non-starter for emby.  

The only other place I could see people requesting clickable headers would be extras, but again I don't think emby ever really wants to fix that area.

- A full dedicated row 

- An optional row 

- An optional "More films by this director" or "More films by this writer" row, like on the suggestions page, with one item that links to the person

- A simple link in the about section (above genres for example) 

- A simple link in the header

There are plenty of good options imo 

 

[user24 313]

22 minutes ago, Bigmack3000 said:

I mean, i would love a full dedicated row for crew.  and it can easily be optional to show only cast, or show both rows. 

Just thinking...

The Collections section now has a Group By function to either show all Media grouped together or separated into individual rows by Media Type.

Perhaps Group By could be a method of optionally separating Cast and Crew into distinct rows? It would be consistent UI, easy to use and perhaps not take up too much extra space. (The default view could be the current combined Cast & Crew view.)

BTW - I think Group By has massive potential for many areas of Emby to allow for combining.separating of sections to suit individual preferences.

[ebr 16169]

14 hours ago, CRiXiD said:

That it is almost impossible to find on Android TV builds

I showed you a screen shot from the Android TV app with the director prominently displayed...

[CRiXiD 25]

39 minutes ago, ebr said:

I showed you a screen shot from the Android TV app with the director prominently displayed...

Oh lord I'm confused as to which version I'm running then. Is the plain Android version available to install on Android TVs from the play store? The one I'm running looks similar to the Android app on my phone, and the web UI on Chrome.

[GrimReaper 4739]

8 minutes ago, CRiXiD said:

Is the plain Android version available to install on Android TVs from the play store?

It is. 

8 minutes ago, CRiXiD said:

The one I'm running looks similar to the Android app on my phone, and the web UI on Chrome.

That would be standard (or Universal) Android app. 

You can easily check which app you're running by it's version:

Quote

Emby for Android TV
Google Devices
Stable: v2.1.14 (2024/06/03)
Beta: v2.1.16 (2024/07/28) 

Universal Emby for Android
Stable: v3.2.75 (2022/09/27)
Beta: v3.4.21 (2024/08/26)

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/21348-emby-latest-versions/

 

[CRiXiD 25]

Thanks @GrimReaper. In that case my feature request is for the universal app, viewed on a tv. Apologies all for any confusion.

 

[eirik 9]

Very happy paying user of Emby universal app, mainly on my Nvidia Shields, pretty much the only thing that frustrate me is the placing of the director at the very end of the list of actors. Putting it a bit on the edge is that extras are more important to show before the director. As said by others, every other movie app or site have the director easily visible so it can be selected showing other movies directed by the same person. And Emby is not consistent among the platforms as on the Windows server and on the mobile app the director is a separate entity which is selectable.

It would be good if this can be picked up again.

[horstepipe 422]

same here,
in most times the crew members are more interesting than the cast, having an option to seperate it like that would be ideal:

[Luke 42077]

25 minutes ago, horstepipe said:

same here,
in most times the crew members are more interesting than the cast, having an option to seperate it like that would be ideal:

We do display the director elsewhere though. Who else is interesting?

[CRiXiD 25]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

We do display the director elsewhere though. Who else is interesting?

The underlying issue I raised is still not addressed though, which is that the director is always the last person amongst cast+crew when using the universal app on TV. Sucks balls.

[Luke 42077]

8 hours ago, CRiXiD said:

The underlying issue I raised is still not addressed though, which is that the director is always the last person amongst cast+crew when using the universal app on TV. Sucks balls.

You could try refreshing metadata. It goes by the order you have in your own metadata.

[Tremas 197]

12 hours ago, Luke said:

Who else is interesting?

Writer/Screenwriter(s), Director of Photography, Cinematographer, Composer.

[CRiXiD 25]

6 hours ago, Luke said:

You could try refreshing metadata. It goes by the order you have in your own metadata.

Wait is there a setting now to choose that director comes first in the metadata? Or are you suggesting that I edit every film?

[CRiXiD 25]

6 hours ago, Tremas said:

Writer/Screenwriter(s), Director of Photography, Cinematographer, Composer.

Exactly. In our house we tend to watch films based on bodies of work for a director, cinematographer or writer. It would be great if the creative roles were treated with as much importance as the cast in Emby.

Edited October 3, 2025 by CRiXiD

[Bigmack3000 107]

Yea, and this is just one of those changes that's been requested and needed for years with no movement.  

[Smitty018210 143]

6 hours ago, CRiXiD said:

Exactly. In our house we tend to watch films based on bodies of work for a director, cinematographer or writer. It would be great if the creative roles were treated with as much importance as the cast in Emby.

This would only be an honest guess, but I would think you are in the minority on that. (I'm sure now people come through and tell me I am wrong. lol)

I am not even saying they are not important, it's not something I care about, but I understand others do find that info very important. 

I do think emby should create a section for crew under the actors for those who want that info displayed.  

My issue as always though is that emby has very little in the way a customizing UI items(sections) like this.

I have to use the WEB player/Browser so that I can remove unwanted items from the UI with custom CSS and can't use new windows app because of it. 

If this is added and we are not give option to remove it. I would have to have yet more CSS code to get rid of it.