Plugin: Home Screen Companion

[soderlund 221]

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 October 12 by soderlund

[mwongjay 105]

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 October 12 by mwongjay

[soderlund 221]

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 October 12 by soderlund
Typo

[mwongjay 105]

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 22]

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 109]

@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 221]

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 221]

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 October 12 by soderlund

[crusher11 1352]

So no fix for my issue yet? 

[HairyBizRat 22]

10 hours ago, soderlund said:

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 

Thanks , first I totally missed that. I was able to get MBLIsTs working but couldn’t get any AI suggestions working but will play around with it some more

thanks for the plugin , awesome work

[soderlund 221]

6 hours ago, crusher11 said:

So no fix for my issue yet? 

Correct. 

Like I already said I had a new version more or less ready, and i wanted to publish that before digging in to more things. It will be fixed in the next release

5 hours ago, HairyBizRat said:

Thanks , first I totally missed that. I was able to get MBLIsTs working but couldn’t get any AI suggestions working but will play around with it some more

thanks for the plugin , awesome work

AI could be a bit cumbersome. Did you remember to enter your API-key in the settings? 
 

[crusher11 1352]

11 hours ago, soderlund said:

Like I already said I had a new version more or less ready, and i wanted to publish that before digging in to more things. It will be fixed in the next release

 

All good, just wanted to confirm before I spent time testing it out.

[soderlund 221]

New BETA release -  Version 4.4.0.0-beta
Download .dll and full release notes: https://github.com/soderlund91/HomeScreenCompanion/releases/tag/v4.4.0.0-beta

New features, updates and fixes. This release contains a lot of improvements by Brazer, and some long waited fixes. I believe all reported issues and requests are handled now. 

Install/update via Emby plugin catalog or manually download the .dll.
If you are going through the plugin catalog, make sure to use the beta channel.

IMPORTANT! 
Minimum required Emby server v4.10.1.0

Release notes

Big thanks and shoutout to @Brazerfor many of the features and fixes in this release!
For those of you who tried out Brazers fork, you should be safe switching back to this. There is a built in clean up.

New:

• Quick Start: a popup with starter sources to get going fast.
• Your Next Watch: personal recommendations for each user, as their own playlist and home row.
• Manual List: a new source type where you hand-pick movies and shows.
• Preview: every source type can be previewed before saving.
• Smart Playlist: new "Popular on this server" rule and "Pick the top N by" sorting.
• Generated art: posters and backgrounds for collections, tags and playlists, with a Customise popup.
• Top-list badges: Number badge, Top 10 tile or no number, all customisable.
• Real-poster badges: optionally badge the original movie posters too.
• Rank movement: top-lists show how titles moved since last week.
• Import collection: take over an existing Emby collection.
• Copy & Paste: copy sources and top-lists, also between servers.
• Ranked collections (experimental): collections that keep the list order.
• New schedules: Time of Day, Yearly weekday, Easter, Advent and Friday the 13th.
• Home row position: place new rows at the top, the bottom or after a chosen row.
• Hide HSC libraries: top-list libraries are hidden from My Media and Latest (on by default).
• Run status: see what a running sync is doing and what is waiting.

Updates:

• General: Runs never overlap; a second run waits for the first.
• Sources: Limits now count only titles that are in your library.
• Schedule: Tag home rows stay in place all year, marked [INACTIVE] outside their schedule.
• Deletion of group: Deleted groups get their tags, collections, home rows and playlists cleaned up, and a better confirmation dialog.
• Copy & Sync: never copies one user's personal rows to another user.
• Log: Fetch errors now show their cause (e.g. HTTP 403).
• Smart playlist: Ignore titles only marked as watched: a new setting so "recently played" rules only count titles that were actually played.

Fixes:

• AI sources: Sources with a refresh interval no longer lose their tags and collection between refreshes.
• General: Run Group respects "Preserve tags on empty result" and leaves shared tags alone.
• Smart playlist: Rules with ":" in the value (e.g. "Mission: Impossible") now match.
• Playlist: Playlists with TV shows are no longer rebuilt on every sync.
• AI source: The Claude AI source now returns complete lists.
• General: Renaming a group now renames its home row.

Other improvements and fixes: 

 

• Faster loading, a reworked help section, many UI and stability fixes, and a one-time clean-up when upgrading from Brazers fork.

HomeScreenCompanion.dll

[mwongjay 105]

@soderlund@BrazerThanks for the hard work! There are a lot of features in this update and I'm curious how much they've been tested. Wondering if it's fairly solid and I should update or if I should wait till the next minor version lol

[soderlund 221]

30 minutes ago, mwongjay said:

@soderlund@BrazerThanks for the hard work! There are a lot of features in this update and I'm curious how much they've been tested. Wondering if it's fairly solid and I should update or if I should wait till the next minor version lol

I would say they have been pretty well tested. I have been testing all the basic functionality of the plugin quite extensive, and Brazer have tested a fair bit on his work. 
With that said there might still be some complications when merging the two versions that our tests didn't catch.

A lot of the features are pretty small and/or standalone and shouldn't have any real impact for the bigger picture. 

I have tested every function on my server and it has gone well. Otherwise I wouldn't have released it. But I haven't done in-depth testing of everything, hence a beta-release where we can get the help from you guys. 

But always take a backup before upgrading! (And to play it safe, also do a full Emby backup)

Edited October 13 by soderlund

[Brazer 47]

48 minutes ago, mwongjay said:

@soderlund@BrazerThanks for the hard work! There are a lot of features in this update and I'm curious how much they've been tested. Wondering if it's fairly solid and I should update or if I should wait till the next minor version lol

Hi @mwongjay,

Most of what's in this beta has been running on my two servers for the last couple of weeks, with around 90 users each, plus a separate test server where every change is tried first. @soderlundand I both tested the merge, so it's in good shape, but it's still a beta, and reports like yours are exactly what helps.

To put your mind at ease about what it touches: HSC never changes your media files or your metadata. What it does:

• adds and removes its own tags on items;
• creates and updates its own collections and playlists, and their images;
• manages the home screen rows it creates;
• creates its own small libraries for top lists and ranked collections. These hold shortcut files inside the plugin's own folder, and your real files are never copied or moved.

Watched status, ratings and your library files stay as they are. The badges on real posters are drawn by Emby when it shows the image, so no image file is changed either.

As @soderlundsaid, take a backup before updating (Settings → Backup & Restore in the plugin, plus Emby's own backup) and you can always go back. If anything looks off, post it here and we'll sort it out.

[crusher11 1352]

21 hours ago, soderlund said:

I believe all reported issues and requests are handled now. 

I don't see my issue listed anywhere, was it just left off the update notes?

21 hours ago, soderlund said:

• Manual List: a new source type where you hand-pick movies and shows.

Wasn't this already possible by using the IMDB ID, TVDB ID, or Title rules? How does the new implementation differ?

[Brazer 47]

29 minutes ago, crusher11 said:

I don't see my issue listed anywhere, was it just left off the update notes?

Wasn't this already possible by using the IMDB ID, TVDB ID, or Title rules? How does the new implementation differ?

Hi @crusher11,

Your multi-version issue is fixed in the 4.4.0.0 beta. It just didn't make it into the release notes. Playlist and Collection rules now count every version of a film that's in the list. So if one version of The Passion of Joan of Arc is in your playlist, the 24fps version counts as being in it too, and won't get the Spotlight tag. Give it a go and let us know if it behaves for you.

On Manual List versus IMDb ID / TVDB ID / Title rules: the rules are a filter. They pick the titles that match, but give you no order, and you have to know the IDs. Manual List is for hand-picking:
- you search your library inside the plugin and add titles, movies and shows alike;
- you set the order with ▲ ▼, and remove with ✕;
- that order is kept, so a top list, playlist or row built from it follows your order;
- Preview shows exactly what the tag will get.

So if you just want "these specific titles" in no particular order, the rules work fine. If you want a curated, ordered list, like your own top 10, Manual List is easier.

Since a few fixes didn't make the release notes, here's the full list of what else is fixed in 4.4.0.0 beta:HSC_fix_list.txt

[soderlund 221]

Yeah sorry I might missed some on the release notes. It was late evening and I wanted to get the release published. 
But to summarize all the to-do:s and issues/feature request I have noted down should now been handled. If something have gone under the radar just let me know and I'll look into it

Sheers! 

[crusher11 1352]

Yep, seems the issue I was having is resolved. 

[GrimEvil 109]

So another quick guide.

I have a Spotlight that changes depending on the day of the week. 

What it does is change the banner based on a tag , so I have Bond films, Harry potter, star war, top films as rotating banners per day of the week.

This how you can do something similar:-

We start by creating the Spotlight container

We then create the tag "spot" it needs the rule as shown above "0_Spotlight" - this is the important bit as that controls what changes each day

we then set the below as the home screen section

This controls how it is displayed on the home screen

Once this is complete, we then need to create the content that will be shown each day (I will provide examples below)

using a External list:-

I used a mdlist of the marvel cinematic universe as my base (url below)

https://mdblist.com/lists/dhun_nuniden/marvel-cinematic-universe-mcu

I then setup the below section for this

I then create the tagas you can see i use the refrerance "0_spotlight" for the tag as this is what controls the change

I also create a collection from the above, so I can also access them normally from within emby when not the spotlight

Now to the bit that controls when this shows

in the above I have selected week days, tue. For when I want this section to show in the spotlight, I also tick the Priority override this makes sure that is shown as scheduled.

save and run a home screen comp. sync

This will then show the MCU every Tuesday on the spotlight

Use  a Collection:-

I then want a different day using a collection I already have,  I do the same but for the first step I use the bellow setting for my "Star Wars" collection 

I have changed the source to "local Collection" and picked my "star Wars Collection" as the items I want it to display

the other settings are the same as in the other screenshots, the only change is the schedule

 

A different day of the week is selected.

once you have created 7 as per the example you would have similar sections to the below in the plugin

Hopefully that makes sense and is helpful to someone.

I also do have the below section on my home screen as well, that groups media by streaming platform. 

let me know, if anyone wants some instructions for that setup as well

 

Edited October 15 by GrimEvil

[soderlund 221]

New BETA release -  Version 4.4.1.0-beta
Download .dll and full release notes: https://github.com/soderlund91/HomeScreenCompanion/releases/tag/v4.4.1.0-beta

New features, updates and fixes

Install/update via Emby plugin catalog or manually download the .dll.
If you are going through the plugin catalog, make sure to use the beta channel.

IMPORTANT! 
Minimum required Emby server v4.10.1.0

Release notes

Note:
Some features require a sync to take affect.
If you don't see any update in UI, clear browser cache

New:

 

• External source: TMDb collections can be used as a source, both through the API and as a web URL.

Updates:

 

• Scheduled runs: (From 4.4.0.0-beta) Emby's Scheduled Tasks now only lists the tasks you can schedule yourself: Tag & Collection Sync and Home Screen Sync. The other tasks (Top-list section sync, Merge top-list versions and Continue Watching Bump) no longer show up there. They still run automatically as before, and you can start them by hand from the plugin's Run menu.
• Top-list section sync: Now auto detects a new library and runs the task. No more need to manually run after creating a library.
• UI overhaul: Updated the UI to give it a cleaner look and make it more consistent throughout the plugin.
• Top-list: The original round number badges can now use gold, silver and bronze colours for items 1, 2 and 3.
• Logging: If a source fails or gets a warning (e.g. an MDBList is empty or no longer exists), a warning or error sign now appears in the group header before the name. A counter shows how many groups need attention, and a filter lists only those groups.

Expand to view the log report

Fixes:

 

• External source: Sources with several URLs now skip a URL that no longer exists (HTTP 404), so the rest of the source keeps updating.
• External/AI source: A source with filters no longer puts the tag back on titles that the filter removed.
• Smart playlist: A Smart Playlist (MediaInfo) source without any filter rule is now skipped instead of tagging the whole library.
• Smart playlist: Watched/Unwatched rules for TV shows now use Emby's own played state of the show (a show counts as watched when all its episodes are watched). Before, shows were almost always seen as unwatched, so existing sources with these rules may now give different results.
• General: Various bug fixes and performance improvements

HomeScreenCompanion.dll

[mwongjay 105]

@SunderlandI installed 4.4.0 and there's a bug. It's hard to know what's going on, but I'll do my best to explain my configuration. I create a new source from an external mdblist called Trending. The only thing configured is to add a tag. The source list contains 30 items. I then create a top-list of movies by Trending tag. The first time I created this top-list and synced it to home screens it worked. I could see the home screen section with the numerical badges limited to 10 items. At some point after 24 hours users now see one of the following and it's hit or miss:

- User sees the correct top list home screen section with 10 items showing the numerical badges
- User sees the home screen section named "Trending" with no numerical badges and 30 items (this appears to be the original tagged list of 30 items)
- User does not see the home screen section named "Trending" at all

Edited October 16 by mwongjay
Spelling

[soderlund 221]

7 hours ago, mwongjay said:

@SunderlandI installed 4.4.0 and there's a bug. It's hard to know what's going on, but I'll do my best to explain my configuration. I create a new source from an external mdblist called Trending. The only thing configured is to add a tag. The source list contains 30 items. I then create a top-list of movies by Trending tag. The first time I created this top-list and synced it to home screens it worked. I could see the home screen section with the numerical badges limited to 10 items. At some point after 24 hours users now see one of the following and it's hit or miss:

- User sees the correct top list home screen section with 10 items showing the numerical badges
- User sees the home screen section named "Trending" with no numerical badges and 30 items (this appears to be the original tagged list of 30 items)
- User does not see the home screen section named "Trending" at all

Thanks for your report! 
Is this only happening for movies? Do you see anything in the logs?

EDIT: I cannot seem to reproduce this error... I have sent you a PM so we can track this down together!

Edited October 16 by soderlund

[RedNo7 40]

On 12/10/2026 at 21:47, soderlund said:

New:

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

This is working brilliantly - with my mum and I thank you!