Plugin: Home Screen Companion

[crusher11 1204]

It only works within libraries, not between them.

[soderlund 159]

14 minutes ago, crusher11 said:

It only works within libraries, not between them.

Bummer... You are probably correct. I have another plugin that among other things merges all version across the server. That's probably why it works for me. 

But do you think this will be a problem? I'm trying to decide what way to go as described a few posts back. 

 

Brainstorm with me! 

I really like the idea to use tags instead of libraries because of this multi-version issue and that its a more safe approach (code wise), plus it would open up for series as well. But i truly hate the idea that a movie from the top list will get the number poster across the whole server and that it will show up in another home section and be the only one with a number... 

One way to embrace it could be to have the mark with a small text as well. So instead of only showing 1, 2, 3 etc on the poster, we also add a small "Today top 10". Then when the same movie shows up in another home section the user gets a "oh, cool that movie is part of this top list" and it might actually be a cool thing. 

I don't know.. what does the community say? 

[Jdiesel 1447]

I personally don't care for the modified covers in general. Right now I just use a smart playlist called "popular this week" that has a play count greater than 1 from any user within the last 7 days. There is no way to rank how popular an item is (number of play counts or number of users with a play count) but its fine for my usage, I just sort by random. I do this all with tags as they are the cleanest. With a playlist you could define the order of the items better, as in sort from most popular to least.

I would probably not be the best candidate for advice as I wouldn't use a feature that tagged a cover with a number or badge. I would use a feature that allowed the top items to be better sorted in a home screen view though.

Edited May 13 by Jdiesel

[Jdiesel 1447]

I was just thinking about converting my AI user generated lists over from tags to playlists as using tags leaks user names to all users as the applied tags are visible to everyone. Home Screen Companion will only let me create a homescreen selection using Tags or Collections, not a playlist. Using the Emby UI I am able to create a homescreen selection using a single playlist. Can this ability be added or is there a limitation somewhere? 

[soderlund 159]

41 minutes ago, Jdiesel said:

I personally don't care for the modified covers in general. Right now I just use a smart playlist called "popular this week" that has a play count greater than 1 from any user within the last 7 days. There is no way to rank how popular an item is (number of play counts or number of users with a play count) but its fine for my usage, I just sort by random. I do this all with tags as they are the cleanest. With a playlist you could define the order of the items better, as in sort from most popular to least.

I would probably not be the best candidate for advice as I wouldn't use a feature that tagged a cover with a number or badge. I would use a feature that allowed the top items to be better sorted in a home screen view though.

That's another drawback with using tags, we cannot sort them in a good way. Sure we could use the "sort title" but that would be system wide. Using a specific library for the top list we can easily sort within the library. 

15 minutes ago, Jdiesel said:

I was just thinking about converting my AI user generated lists over from tags to playlists as using tags leaks user names to all users as the applied tags are visible to everyone. Home Screen Companion will only let me create a homescreen selection using Tags or Collections, not a playlist. Using the Emby UI I am able to create a homescreen selection using a single playlist. Can this ability be added or is there a limitation somewhere? 

Absolutely, it can get added to the plugin. I havent looked into this yet since I mostly wanted to get the creation of playlist working. When i did the playlist function I struggled a a lot to get it to update accordingly to the source. I'm putting this on the to-do list and we'll se when i get time to work on in. 

In the mean time, set up the playlist via the plugin, then manually add a home section using Emby native menu for this. 
Or rename the tag to something anonymously like "AI_recommended_user1"

BUT - If having series on the list it gets pretty messy as a home section since episodes are handled the Emby way (where every single episode is added).. 

[Jdiesel 1447]

Ah yeah series within a playlist would be messy. I'll just rename the tags to be anonymous for now. Thanks!

[rbjtech 5363]

As per previous advice, I would not use a duplicate library - this was the 'only way' to do it before - and it caused all sorts of problems.   Now we have the ability to dynamically create rows/collections etc via tags, then I can't think of a good reason why you would want to go back to the old method.    

If an item has a 'top picks' number on it - but it's not in a top pics row (for example), then I agree it may look a bit odd - but as you suggest, replace with 'top pic + #' should remove any confusion.   A top pick in an alternate row is still a top pic afterall. 

Edited May 14 by rbjtech

[soderlund 159]

4 hours ago, rbjtech said:

As per previous advice, I would not use a duplicate library - this was the 'only way' to do it before - and it caused all sorts of problems.   Now we have the ability to dynamically create rows/collections etc via tags, then I can't think of a good reason why you would want to go back to the old method.    

If an item has a 'top picks' number on it - but it's not in a top pics row (for example), then I agree it may look a bit odd - but as you suggest, replace with 'top pic + #' should remove any confusion.   A top pick in an alternate row is still a top pic afterall. 

I have done this setup with multiple libraries and same movie in them for a long time and never had an issue tbh. 

But yeah, I'm gonna have to go down the rabbit hole and redo this.. The only thing I'm thinking about is how to fix the sorting, any suggestions? If using sorting order it will affect it server wide, but i can't thing of any other way on top of my head. 

[rbjtech 5363]

9 hours ago, soderlund said:

But yeah, I'm gonna have to go down the rabbit hole and redo this.. The only thing I'm thinking about is how to fix the sorting, any suggestions? If using sorting order it will affect it server wide, but i can't thing of any other way on top of my head. 

Is it possible to combine with 'collection order' instead ?  ie show in the order you dynamically build the list - do not use the item 'sort order' ?

[Jdiesel 1447]

If you are able to rescan/re-add the items to the library your could sort by date added.

How is the toplist order decided? Play count within a time window? 

Edited May 15 by Jdiesel

[soderlund 159]

9 hours ago, rbjtech said:

Is it possible to combine with 'collection order' instead ?  ie show in the order you dynamically build the list - do not use the item 'sort order' ?

Probably, that might requiring a collection as source, and I don't really want to clutter the server with a collection only for the use of a top-list. As a start I'm gonna keep the way its handled right now (set SortTitle to 01, 02 etc..). I don't think this will be too big of an impact since we can set specific sort order for home sections. 
 

1 hour ago, Jdiesel said:

If you are able to rescan/re-add the items to the library your could sort by date added.

How is the toplist order decided? Play count within a time window? 

It's decided in the order the source delivers them. I have only considered using external URL for this feature since it makes most sense to me. 
For example this trending movie list from TMDb https://developer.themoviedb.org/reference/trending-movies will keep it as is in the correct order. 

[crusher11 1204]

The only available collection orders are Release Date and Title, I believe.

[soderlund 159]

I have been trying to get some clarity on the rumor that we should not have the same movie in two different libraries. 
The main thing is that it will be duplicates in "continue watching", but this could be managed by combining the movies as different versions. 

Other than this I cant seem to find anything. The risks seems to be if having two libraries pointing to the same movie - which is not the case with the plugin.

The plugin currently creates a new folder with .strm files, and a new library pointing to these files.  

Could any Emby dev (or some who knows) shed some light on this please. 
Tagging @Lukeand @ebrin desperate need of answer

 

 

[Luke 42525]

17 hours ago, soderlund said:

I have been trying to get some clarity on the rumor that we should not have the same movie in two different libraries. 
The main thing is that it will be duplicates in "continue watching", but this could be managed by combining the movies as different versions. 

Other than this I cant seem to find anything. The risks seems to be if having two libraries pointing to the same movie - which is not the case with the plugin.

The plugin currently creates a new folder with .strm files, and a new library pointing to these files.  

Could any Emby dev (or some who knows) shed some light on this please. 
Tagging @Lukeand @ebrin desperate need of answer

 

 

user data is based on external ids, so yes, if they are not grouped as multi-version then this could result in duplicates in continue watching.

[Jdiesel 1447]

Any ideas why I am getting duplicate home screen sections? Every so often I'll get duplicates added to the bottom of my list.

[soderlund 159]

On 5/18/2026 at 4:44 AM, Jdiesel said:

Any ideas why I am getting duplicate home screen sections? Every so often I'll get duplicates added to the bottom of my list.

I have noticed this as well but haven’t pin pointed why. I could be if you have made any changes in embys native Home Screen menu to the first home section, and then the plugin no longer recognizes it and creates a new. 
This is just a theory. 
 

Just got home from the hospital with a newborn , so it’s gonna take a few days/weeks before I can test myself. 
But if any one have time to troubleshoot/identify what or when this is happening please let me know

 

Regarding the above discussion that multiple libraries with same movie is bad, the Emby devs have confirmed it’s only negative from a UI perspective. So I’m gonna keep the plugin using this method and I have a new release handling the UI duplicate and other bug fixes on the way when I get the time

Edited May 19 by soderlund

[Moondoggie28 2]

I recently tried to add to my server plugins. I am running my server on Windows and attempted to drop the .dll in my plugin folder. However, I am not able to get this plugin to work. Is there anyone that can help me out by chance? 

[seanbuff 1371]

9 minutes ago, Moondoggie28 said:

I recently tried to add to my server plugins. I am running my server on Windows and attempted to drop the .dll in my plugin folder.

Which server version are you running? 

There is a note on the OP.

Quote

 

Requires minimum Emby server 4.10.0.10

 

 

[Moondoggie28 2]

3 minutes ago, seanbuff said:

Which server version are you running? 

There is a note on the OP.

 

That could be the reason? I am running 4.9.5.0

I'm not sure how to update to any beta versions. Sorry for my ignorance, but how do I do that?

[Aleas 90]

8 hours ago, Moondoggie28 said:

That could be the reason? I am running 4.9.5.0

I'm not sure how to update to any beta versions. Sorry for my ignorance, but how do I do that?

I would suggest you wait until 4.10 is out of Beta before upgrading your main instance. Once released enjoy the plugin.

[soderlund 159]

New patch release -  Version 4.1.1.0
Download .dll and full release notes: https://github.com/soderlund91/HomeScreenCompanion/releases/tag/v4.1.1.0

This update contains some improvements, bug fixes and wider server support for the plugin.
Adding a new scheduled task that groups the top-list item with original one to prevent duplicates in UI, e.g. in continue watching (behaving the same way a 1080p and 4K movie would).

IMPORTANT! 
Minimum required Emby server v4.10.0.10

Release notes

Updates

• Server support: Rebuild the plugin to use netstandard 2.0 to support all Emby server hardware.
  (This is also a requirement for posting to the Emby plugin catalog.)
• Top-list: Added image support for using thumbs as image type
  (make sure to enable downloads of thumbs in existing library settings first)
• Top-list: Added a scheduled task that will group versions for the top-list item with the original one. Running this task will remove any duplicated from continue watching and other UI quirks that may appear with multiple versions of the same movie. Suggestion is to run this after you updated the tags/top-list.
  (Default scheduled time is none)

Fixes

• Top-list: Fixed an issue where already excising top-list could merge with newly created.
• Home Section: Updated how each section is handled/tracked to prevent duplicate rows.

HomeScreenCompanion.dll

Edited May 22 by soderlund

[soderlund 159]

On 5/18/2026 at 4:44 AM, Jdiesel said:

Any ideas why I am getting duplicate home screen sections? Every so often I'll get duplicates added to the bottom of my list.

I can't seem to duplicate your error.. Try with the latest release and see if that fixes it, i made a small adjustment how the home sections is tracked. Pls report back  

[Jdiesel 1447]

Thanks I will test and report back.

I may have created then overwrote sections in a way that caused some strange behavior. From what I recall I created selections for one user setup as a template, copied over the template users to all other users, made changes to the original selection, then applied the changes directly to each user. The duplicates seem to appeal after I make edits to the selection.

[soderlund 159]

1 hour ago, Jdiesel said:

Thanks I will test and report back.

I may have created then overwrote sections in a way that caused some strange behavior. From what I recall I created selections for one user setup as a template, copied over the template users to all other users, made changes to the original selection, then applied the changes directly to each user. The duplicates seem to appeal after I make edits to the selection.

Made the same "mistake" multiple times myself.. But I found a small loophole in the code that could lead to the issues you are describing, should be fixed now. 

My workflow now is that i have an Admin account (not in use by myself or anyone) where I have set up a "basic home screen". This is my fallback if i mess things up that i copy to all users.
After copying I have user-specific groups, e.g. AI recommendations for Bob, that is created with a full run for the plugin.
Then I adjust the order for all user-specific sections. 

It's a pretty fast and easy way to restore if something is messed up, and it helps me to keep track of all home sections.

(If using user-specific home sections, remember to disable the sync option so it doesn't overwrite on)

Edited May 22 by soderlund

[Babatom 15]

I’ve set up a home screen and now want to synchronise it with all users. I’m not sure about one rule. Will it be automatically adapted to each user? It would be great if each user only saw what they haven’t seen yet.