ACdb.tv - Automated Collections

[kikinjo 281]

@AmythingGreat work. Great plugin.

[kikinjo 281]

edited....fixed

 

 

Edited June 6, 2025 by kikinjo

[Amything 122]

Hey, 

Plugin update to 2.1.0.0.

You now have 3 options to order items within collections:

None - Default setting. ACdb does not touch how collections are sorted.
Sort Name - Alphabetical sorting. Forced every time the collection syncs.
Premier Date - (oldest first): Forced every time the collection syncs. 
Newest First (For supporters only): Please read on...

I would love to give more control over this, but API can only order by sort name and premier date.

I made Newest First for supporters only since this can affect your library in unexpected ways unless you pay attention. It's my favorite way to sort since I like to see my most newly added stuff first in collections, but it does affect how these items sort outside of collections. You can always turn it off if it's not for you and the sort names will reset back to what they were.

 

[Eigeplackter 90]

Question:

Afaik Emby doesnt allow movies to be in 2 separate collections.

At least I remember always running into problems with another plugin.

How does this plugin work, if a movie i.e. 1 of the the IMDB 250 films, is already in another collection ?

[sh0rty 714]

4 hours ago, Eigeplackter said:

Question:

Afaik Emby doesnt allow movies to be in 2 separate collections.

At least I remember always running into problems with another plugin.

How does this plugin work, if a movie i.e. 1 of the the IMDB 250 films, is already in another collection ?

Simply not true. See example The Godfather from my server:

Edited August 8, 2025 by sh0rty

[Amything 122]

Yeah, like @sh0rtysaid, it's totally fine to have a movie in multiple collections.

[Beaker1966 3]

Its not working for me.. I paid for director tier..

Screen shots attached...

[Beaker1966 3]

1 hour ago, Beaker1966 said:

Its not working for me.. I paid for director tier..

Screen shots attached...

Its fine .. I get it now... My mistake

[Amything 122]

OK glad to hear.

Edited August 12, 2025 by Amything
Didn't see reply.

[fonzie 22]

Does this share my movie collection out anywhere when it is doing the API calls to sync the collections? I just want to ensure the data of the movies I have remains locally within my local network for privacy reasons.

[Amything 122]

3 minutes ago, fonzie said:

Does this share my movie collection out anywhere when it is doing the API calls to sync the collections? I just want to ensure the data of the movies I have remains locally within my local network for privacy reasons.

Hey, it sends the IMDB IDs of the missing items in the collection to my server. Where I stores them so that you can see which items you do not have. Other people will not be able to see what those items are. I've thought about making this optional but no one has requested it. If it's a stopper for you I can look into that.

The plugin does not access your Emby API key or anything like that and I don't even store the IP of your server.

[fonzie 22]

10 hours ago, Amything said:

Hey, it sends the IMDB IDs of the missing items in the collection to my server. Where I stores them so that you can see which items you do not have. Other people will not be able to see what those items are. I've thought about making this optional but no one has requested it. If it's a stopper for you I can look into that.

The plugin does not access your Emby API key or anything like that and I don't even store the IP of your server.

Yes, an option for that would be very nice.

[BMNBMN 4]

I love the idea of the plugin too, but I don't use it either due to privacy concerns.

[Amything 122]

4 hours ago, BMNBMN said:

I love the idea of the plugin too, but I don't use it either due to privacy concerns.

I can understand being concerned, these are the main points that come to my mind:

You don't want to give 3rd-party access to your server: The plugin runs on your server and connects to mine, not the other way around. I do not store your Emby API key on my server, so there’s no way for me to connect to it to access your media for example. There are solutions that work like that, but I deliberately avoided that approach. Technically, any plugin could contain malicious code, but that’s true for all plugins. I don’t obfuscate the code, and since it’s .NET, anyone can open the DLL and inspect it fully. 

You don't want a 3rd party to know what media you own: Since I want to give you the option to see what items you are missing from a collection I have to store that information. Someone could theoretically infer what items you do have in a collection if that data were leaked. Honestly, I hadn’t thought much about this, popular plugins like Trakt track what you have watched and there are similar examples. In any case, I’ll add an option to disable this data being stored.

You want to become a supporter but don’t want some random guy having your financial information: All of that goes through Patreon, and I never see or handle any of it.

[1971camaroguy 32]

I'm trying to make sure I understand how all this works for creating my own Collections. My goal is collections for my movie boxed sets I ripped.  I started putting them on imdb as my own custom lists for each set to keep up with them and make sure I don't forget a movie.

my acccount is located at acdb.tv and I use my api key to log in. I can browse my synced collections there as well as add new collections by searching the collections. I paid for a patreon membership here.

To build my own collection I have to import a list I can create at MDBList? To take advantage of the features I can to create and subscribe to this (paying for another monthly patreon account) Now I am at two paid accounts, is that correct or did I do something wrong and could have used the first account I created.

Either way, to make a custom list I can go to imdb under my account and export my collection into a excel file to my computer. To do this I go to the top and choose import list. I give the list a name, choose movie and paste the movie names or imdb ID's from my excel file. And click import?

Then I can go to "my lists" and look under static lists and see my created lists. 

Then I go back to acdb.tv and choose  Discover lists and paste the url I just copied into the search box and my list will come up....then I can open that and add it to my collection to be synced with emby?

It's a lot of steps to get from point A to point B.......I could just as easy just pull up my imdb lists and look for the movie on my emby gui and create my own collections manually quicker than the steps I have to try and remember and go through.

Unless there is a quicker way to do this or am I missing something?

I like the plugin, but it becomes kind of tedious going back and forth

Also my MdbList account limits me to 40 created lists, what happens if I hit that limit? Can I remove some of the lists without affecting the ones I added to acbd.tv? 

Thanks!

 

Edited October 7, 2025 by 1971camaroguy

[Amything 122]

1 hour ago, 1971camaroguy said:

My goal is collections for my movie boxed sets I ripped.

Hey, thanks for the support! If it's boxed sets you are after, you might want to use boxed set feature in Emby, under Libarary > Movies for example you should find this feature: 

 

I don't use this myself, but as far as I know it should create boxed sets. I think this might be what you are after?

Some ACdb users do use it for kind of similar purposes, like a Star Wars collections for example, but in those cases it's usually more generic and includes all the Star Wars Animated movies, TV series, holiday specials etc. in one collection. 

But I agree with you, that if you are creating simple boxed sets with only a couple of titles, using the above Emby feature or doing them manually makes most sense.

ACdb does not communicate directly to IMDB lists, they don't offer a reasonable API for me to connect to, so it's not high on the todo list to be honest.  I'm aiming to add Trakt lists soon.

[King_Col_Bundy 13]

I just installed this plugin and subscribed to the Patreon, great work this is a really cool feature! I just wish there was a way to feature these collections on the home screen so my users could see them.

[horstepipe 422]

It is planned to extend the plugin to create playlists and not collections? 
I don't want to mix this up with real movie collections.

BR

[Amything 122]

19 minutes ago, horstepipe said:

It is planned to extend the plugin to create playlists and not collections? 
I don't want to mix this up with real movie collections.

BR

I haven't really thought of that no. Main reason is that if you add a TV show it will add all the episodes individually. Might be a good idea for movies only though. 

Users with many collections usually organize them with the sort name or filter them with favorites.

Come to think of it you can add episodes individually on MDBList now, so "Best of Seinfeld" etc. playlists sounds cool. I will look into it, but it won't be for a little while. 

Edited October 18, 2025 by Amything

[horstepipe 422]

thanks, 

 

Quote

Users with many collections usually organize them with the sort name or filter them with favorites.

alternatively, one could automatically add some prefix (which you could setup in the plugin) for these collections. Then organizing them by sort name would make sense.
 

Edited October 18, 2025 by horstepipe

[Amything 122]

I haven’t made a post in a while, so here’s what’s been happening since last time.

Library Posters

Added Library Poster feature, it does not require any Patreon supporter role. You can now set Library Posters directly from ACdb.tv. That being said, if you don't want to install the plugin you can check out the gallery anyway and add them manually. If you have created some library posters, please share! This just launched yesterday so there is not that much variety yet in terms of styles.

I’ve added posters for many of the most popular library names for variety of languages. If you have the plugin installed  you can click on one of your libraries to search for posters that might fit that library name. You can easily edit the text to your own language or change the image for supported posters in the Art Department (see below).

Collection Backdrops

The Collection Backdrops feature lets you upload and link backdrops to your posters. Any collection using that poster will then display the associated backdrop.

 

The Art Department

Every good studio needs an Art Department. It lets you upload images as usual, but also add overlays and text to them. It can be nice when you want your posters to share a consistent style. You don't need an account to download your creations, but we sure do appreciate if you share them.

Click the edit icon after saving to make a new version in the same style. Just click on the image to swap it out and update the text to make a new poster.

You can also use templates from posters that have been created using this method. Look for the edit icon on posters, click it to make your own edit and save a new version.

Improved Poster Handling

One of the most common issues for users is that posters are not showing. The plugin now relies less on metadata refresh and sets posters directly. If you still experience issues, check out the FAQ for poster tips.

There have been so many cool posters and interesting collections uploaded recently, check out some great new collections and posters. Thanks to the creators and supporters!

Join the Discord if you like more frequent updates and there is also a feed with new posters and collections.

[rbjtech 5284]

@AmythingNice - it's come on a long way since your original py script haha - tbh, I still use that as it does eveything I want but great to see the enhancements for those that want more

 

[kikinjo 281]

Top Plugin, one of the best out there.

[1971camaroguy 32]

Playing with AI and didn't care too much for the Ninja Trilogy Box art on TMDB. If anyone wants to use it, here it is. 

[Amything 122]

On 29/09/2025 at 07:59, fonzie said:

Yes, an option for that would be very nice.

On 05/10/2025 at 15:53, BMNBMN said:

I love the idea of the plugin too, but I don't use it either due to privacy concerns.

Hey again, I added an option to enable/disable Store Missing Items. If you have concerns about ACdb.tv having information on which content you own you can turn that off.