Is it possible to display screenshots or links for generic "movie" items?

[acbarrentine 1]

I have a wing of my library that's not traditionally released movies, tv shows, etc. Things picked up from YouTube, Patreon, Kickstarter, and the like -- things without official metadata plugins. There are a couple things I would like to be able to do with the Item display page for them. Each video typically has 1 or more URLs associated with it, and often I'll take a series of screenshots for it. I have nfo files for them, and (if it matters) enabled the setting to save metadata and files next to the media.

For traditional movies, you can get links to IMDb, TVDb and so on, based on Unique IDs. I tried hacking links like that on my more generic videos. It wouldn't display, and I found if the metadata saves again, those fields get stripped out of the XML. The Emby wiki mentions a field called <HomePageUrl> that will stick around through resave, but doesn't display on the Item page.

The Emby wiki also mentions support for Screenshots. I don't see any other references to them around. I can picture how I'd want them to display, in a tile row similar to how the chapters row shows up. I don't know how to name files or mark them up in the metadata to make Emby understand them, and I'm sure they wouldn't render anyway.

My question is what is the best way to make this stuff part of the pages? Would I need to make my own custom plugin somehow? I poked a tiny bit into the plugin API documentation, which is rooted in Visual Studio and C#, neither of which is supported on my dev machine (Mac) or server (Synology/Linux).

[GrimReaper 4740]

For links, you could give a spin to community-made Custom External links plugin:

For screenshots, I have to admit I have not understood what are you hoping to achieve there? 

Edited May 24, 2025 by GrimReaper

[GrimReaper 4740]

14 minutes ago, acbarrentine said:

The Emby wiki mentions a field called <HomePageUrl> that will stick around through resave, but doesn't display on the Item page.

The Emby wiki also mentions support for Screenshots. I don't see any other references to them around. I can picture how I'd want them to display, in a tile row similar to how the chapters row shows up. I don't know how to name files or mark them up in the metadata to make Emby understand them, and I'm sure they wouldn't render anyway.

Emby Wiki shouldn't be referenced anymore, you should explore Emby DEV portal instead, for updated/latest information. 

https://dev.emby.media/index.html

AFAIK Screenshot element is not used anymore, though I might also be wrong. @softworkz

 

[acbarrentine 1]

The intent with screenshots really is just a way to browse the associated screenshots. It's like fan art, which shows up in the UI as "Backdrops", but you would be able to scroll through them, like you can view the chapter images now. Ideally, you could click them to go full screen.

Edited May 24, 2025 by acbarrentine

[GrimReaper 4740]

4 minutes ago, acbarrentine said:

The intent with screenshots really is just a way to browse the associated screenshots. It's like fan art, which shows up in the UI as "Backdrops", but you would be able to scroll through them, like you can view the chapter images now. Ideally, you could click them to go full screen.

Don't know of any client app that has that (or similar) feature. 

[acbarrentine 1]

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

Don't know of any client app that has that (or similar) feature. 

I don't imagine they do. That's what I'm asking about. What would it take to get there? Is that plugin development? Is there a way to extend the web UI?

[GrimReaper 4740]

8 minutes ago, acbarrentine said:

What would it take to get there? 

You could lend your support here:

 

[acbarrentine 1]

Good call! Very similar. I just posted over there. If Emby were open source I could probably dive right into it, but it isn't. That's why I was thinking plugins.

[softworkz 5066]

On 5/24/2025 at 6:02 PM, GrimReaper said:

Emby Wiki shouldn't be referenced anymore, you should explore Emby DEV portal instead, for updated/latest information. 

https://dev.emby.media/index.html

AFAIK Screenshot element is not used anymore, though I might also be wrong. @softworkz

Correct, this image type is not used anymore.

[Luke 42078]

It never really got used would be a more accurate statement.