Plugin: Home Screen Companion

[soderlund 194]

Here is my plan going forward adopting @Brazerawsome fixes and upgrades. 
 

I have already been building a few fixes and features that will be released as a stable version. This includes some UI bug fixes, requested fixes/features. And also a top list for tv-shows! 
All features in the stable release are my own fixes and some of them are inspired by Brazers work. The tv-show top list is my own take on it, and builds on the same principle as the movie list. Brazers version (not saying it was bad) had some limitations and drawbacks server wide. 

Going forward I have merged a lot of Brazers work into my code, and this will be released as a beta. I need to test this a bit more myself before I can release it, but it will hopefully be ready in a few days. The beta will be available in the plugin catalog. 
 

The stable release will be finished later today hopefully. 

Edited 10 hours ago by soderlund

[mwongjay 92]

23 hours ago, Brazer said:

a scheduled row that switches back on returns to the position it had on each user's home screen, instead of the bottom

That's an improvement so thanks for making headway! Here are some concerns I still have though:

1. Does this require me to make a scheduled section active, sort it the way it needs to be, then revert to the original schedule?
2. How does this handle a situation where sections are sorted while scheduled sections are inactive? Example 

Sections:

0 - Trending
1 - [scheduled - disabled] Halloween
2 - My Media

Actions:

0 - Make Halloween active today, move it to position 1
1 - Revert Halloween to original schedule (disabled)
2 - Move My Media to position 1

The sections would now be sorted like this:

0 - Trending
1 - My Media
2 - [scheduled - disabled] Halloween

When Halloween becomes active will it appear in position 1 or 2?

Edited 9 hours ago by mwongjay

[soderlund 194]

On 10/11/2026 at 12:27 AM, mwongjay said:

I agree you shouldn't insert at the top of the home screen because IMO that's the same predicament - the inability to specify the placement among existing sections. As for your workaround that seems convoluted and error prone lol.

I think this could be achieved by HSC managing its own home section list that the users interact with. The list should display both active and inactive sections allowing you to maintain a sort order internally (either HSC db if you use sqlite or a file on file system). When a user loads views to interact with the home section list update the list with values from Emby. During a sync to Emby fetch the internal list, filter out inactive, and update the home screen. 

Yeah it’s not the best way, but its A way and honestly i think its not too bad. 
 

You set up the section and have it active. Emby now creates the whole section and populate it. 
When its done you take it out of schedule and the row still excists. The plugin has now removed the tag on all the movies and the section is now empty and not showing up on the Home screen. 
 

Now you can select and reorder the sections/rows. As long as you don’t open the settings for that specific section in Emby native settings you are good. 
 

The only difference from any other section/row is the manual workaround for the schedule. 
 

With that said - I’m currently rebuilding this function. My goal is for you to simply create it as any other home section. And now on creation it will turn up among all home sections (in the settings) even if it is out of schedule. 
You can then reorder it as you wish, and the section will always be visible when reordering all home sections (and also with a prefix “inactive”. 
So even if it’s summer you will see the Christmas section in settings, but never on the Home Screen. 
And I’ll make it more solid so you can still open up the setting even if the schedule is out of date without anything getting messed up. 
 

Does this makes sense? 

Edited 9 hours ago by soderlund
Typo

[mwongjay 92]

14 minutes ago, soderlund said:

With that said - I’m currently rebuilding this function. My goal is for you to simply create it as any other home section. And now on creation it will turn up among all home sections (in the settings) even if it is out of schedule. 
You can then reorder it as you wish, and the section will always be visible when reordering all home sections (and also with a prefix “inactive”. 
So even if it’s summer you will see the Christmas section in settings, but never on the Home Screen. 
And I’ll make it more solid so you can still open up the setting even if the schedule is out of date without anything getting messed up. 
 

Does this makes sense? 

Yes, this workflow is intuitive and clear what the outcome will be

[HairyBizRat 21]

Is there a “how to setup/configure” guide? I’ve been playing around with it but nothing shows on the Home Screen so obviously have no idea what I’m doing.

 

i just want to use the AI to do a kind of trending or suggested list of movies and shows on my Home Screen 

[GrimEvil 102]

@HairyBizRat

to do the trending you could do it this way, have it as a card or a spotlight

So I have a MDblist subscription and would do it this way. 

goto mdlist

select a list that meets what you need

I am going to use the Trending (netflix, amazon) list by michael above and then click aciton copy url

this will then give me the below

https://mdblist.com/lists/eragos/trending-netflix-amazon-prime-video-apple-tv-disney

I then go into my Emby server and then home screen comp.

then click on the add new source add a a name, select external list and paste the above url

Then click save, this will create your first section

Now to display this on the homescreen

you would then click this item and select the Home Screen Section at the top, and add a tick to the add as home screen section

For it to show you first have to sect the Target user/users

Then select the view type, in this case as its not the spotlight, I have selected card

then click the save button and run group, this should create the home screen section you need

if you then check the home screen section in the server config you should see a trending movie section 

if you now goto your home screen you should see the created cards and information 

Hopefully that gives you some setup pointers 

[soderlund 194]

1 hour ago, HairyBizRat said:

Is there a “how to setup/configure” guide? I’ve been playing around with it but nothing shows on the Home Screen so obviously have no idea what I’m doing.

 

i just want to use the AI to do a kind of trending or suggested list of movies and shows on my Home Screen 

As @GrimEvilsaid  

There is also a ”Help” button at the top. Although this more explain each function more than being a “get started-guide”. Maybe look in there and you might get a better overall understanding for the plugin. 
 

I will try to get some time to write a better get started guide 

[soderlund 194]

New minor release -  Version 4.3.0.0
Download .dll and full release notes: https://github.com/soderlund91/HomeScreenCompanion/releases/tag/v4.3.0.0

New features, updates and fixes

Install/update via Emby plugin catalog or manually download the .dll.

IMPORTANT! 
Minimum required Emby server v4.10.1.0

Release notes

New:

• TV-show top-list: Added support to create top-lists for TV-shows

Updates:

• User select: Added "select all" to user selections
• Collection: Added ability to set "Sort title" when creating a collection.
• External lists: When testing a source now gives a full list of what movies are on the list and what has a match in the library.

Fixes:

• UI-Bug: Fixed an issue when switching tab or leave the web-browser, all unsaved settings was lost. This was probably due to the latest Emby release.
• UI-Bug: Schedule end dates are now shown as inclusive on the config page. "Oct 1 – Oct 31" now shows as active through the whole of October, 
• Tag handling: A tag from a deleted group stayed "managed" forever and was stripped on every run. This prevented you from manually using this tag.
  Note: the first sync after updating removes such a tag one last time.

 

HomeScreenCompanion.dll

Edited 56 minutes ago by soderlund