Plugin: Home Screen Companion

[crusher11 1348]

Never mind, there's a schedule override active at the moment for Halloween.  

[horstepipe 434]

2 hours ago, soderlund said:

Happy to help
What do you mean by expanding the feature? What are you feeling is missing?

This can already be done in at least 2 different ways. 

• For the home section/row - just set it to random sort order
• The list as a whole - set the list on MDBList to random order. It will then be randomized every 12 or 24 hour, depending on your setting. 

Quote

For the home section/row - just set it to random sort order

this works for all items, yes - but I do not want to be flooded

Quote

The list as a whole - set the list on MDBList to random order. It will then be randomized every 12 or 24 hour, depending on your setting. 

as this is not my list I can't set it to random order - but I can get a random order when fetching that list via API.
 

[horstepipe 434]

2 hours ago, soderlund said:

What do you mean by expanding the feature? What are you feeling is missing?

A real randomization
Assigning list a,b,c to random Set A, list d,e,f to random Set B and list g,h,i to random Set C -> Let random Set A,B and C show every day

Ice on the cake would be to set time and date. So that you can show e.g. horror lists at 20:00pm when the kids aren't around anymore

Edited Wednesday at 04:59 PM by horstepipe

[horstepipe 434]

I do appreciate your time

[soderlund 221]

2 hours ago, horstepipe said:

this works for all items, yes - but I do not want to be flooded

as this is not my list I can't set it to random order - but I can get a random order when fetching that list via API.
 

 

For a true random order in Emby the “sort order=random” is the best option imo. Even if  I add a randomize option for the source Emby has its own way to sort each row which is a bit counterproductive.
It’s either sorting by name, title, added date, and some other options. This means that if you have a row of 50 items, very few of your users are going to go through the whole list/row, and the items at the end won’t really see the light of day. 
 

Using random order Emby randomize the row on each page load. 
 

One way to solve this is to use title and the plugin will then give random sort titles. BUT this is server wide. So it will impact every other row where the same title is shown (except the top-lists). 
 

So for example, lets take Gladiator for an example. You have this movie in a section/row that is randomized. The plugin has given it position 5. 
If Gladiator also is shown in another row named “trending now” it will get position 5 there as well if sorting by title. 
If you go to your library “all movies” it will have position 5. 
etc etc..

My philosophy when building this plugin has always been to limit server wide changes. I don’t want to fix something by breaking something else. 
 

A long explanation, and not really an answer. But I hope I could explain something at least So like I said, the sort order random is imo very good! 

 

 

For the MDBList you can copy it and make it yours. However there is a limit for a free account (can’t remember how many list you can have), but if you are using mdblist a lot is a really low amount of money for a premium account. Like $2 or something like that. 
I think it’s well worth the money! 

2 hours ago, horstepipe said:

A real randomization
Assigning list a,b,c to random Set A, list d,e,f to random Set B and list g,h,i to random Set C -> Let random Set A,B and C show every day

Ice on the cake would be to set time and date. So that you can show e.g. horror lists at 20:00pm when the kids aren't around anymore 

I would say that with some manual tinkering that’s can be done. If I get the time to write a guide I’ll help you out!
 

In the beta (that will be released as stable VERY soon) you can add time of day. 
 

 

[soderlund 221]

New minor release - version 4.5.0.0

Even if its called a minor release, this is a big one! Everything from the 4.4 betas, plus new features in 4.5. If you have been on the stable channel, below is everything that has changed since 4.3.0.0. For those who are on the beta, see "Already on the beta?" section.

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

 

Important!
Minimum required Emby server v4.10.1.0

Warning
Make a backup before updating (Settings → Backup in the plugin, and to be extra safe a full Emby backup). This release moves your top-lists into their sources and changes how some things behave, see Good to know when upgrading below.

 

 

Big thanks to @Brazerfor many of the features and fixes in this release (PRs #19–#28) plus some other fixes

 

Highlights

• Top-lists are now part of their source. No tag needed: tick Create as top-list on a source's Home Screen tab.
• Copy & Sync profiles. Several source users, each with their own users to copy to, copying everything or only selected rows.
• Your Next Watch. Personal recommendations for each user, as their own playlist and home row.
• Updated UI. A cleaner look, Basic / Advanced settings levels and a Quick Start to get going fast.
• Missing titles. See which titles on your lists are not in your library, and export them.
• Original-language posters. Posters in a title's own language, from Home Screen Tweaks.
• Settings level. Added a settings level selector (top right in the header). Why? To declutter and make it easier and not too overwhelming for new users. 

Release notes

Already on the beta?

New since 4.4.3.1-beta (marked below):

• Basic / Advanced settings levels, with option to Show (or hide) Advanced badges to hide the Advanced marks.
• Missing titles: a Missing tab with export (turn it on in Settings first).
• Original-language posters in Home Screen Tweaks.
• Settings tab: Split up all settings between "Settings" and "Advanced Settings". All settings here are visible regardless of the settings level.

Everything else came in the 4.4 betas.

New

Updated UI

• A reworked, cleaner and more consistent look, and a reworked help section.
• Basic / Advanced: a Settings level dropdown at the top right. Basic hides settings most people never need; Advanced shows everything. An advanced setting you already use stays visible in Basic, and nothing is turned off by choosing Basic. The reason behind this is to declutter the UI and make it easier to start with the plugin. All advanced settings are marked in the UI with a badge, you can hade this badge in Settings --> Advanced --> Turn off "Show Advanced badges"
• Settings tab: Split up all settings between "Settings" and "Advanced Settings". All settings here are visible regardless of the settings level.
• Quick Start: a popup with starter sources to get going fast.
• Preview: every source type can be previewed before saving. Testing an External source lists every title and whether it matched your library.
• Run status: see what a running sync is doing and what is waiting.
• Group warnings: a source that fails or gets a warning (e.g. an empty or deleted MDBList) shows a sign before its name, with a counter and a filter for the groups that need attention.

Sources

• Manual List: a new source type where you hand-pick movies and shows.
• External sources: TMDb collections can be used as a source (API or web URL). Fetch errors now show their cause (e.g. HTTP 403).
• Smart Playlist: new "Popular on this server" rule and "Pick the top N by" sorting.
• AI: add any service that works like ChatGPT (Groq, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, LM Studio, vLLM …) under Settings → AI Settings → OpenAI-compatible. The Model field is now a list read from the service itself.
• Tags: a source can put more than one tag on its titles, and a custom tag on the collection or playlist it creates.
• Collections: Import collection takes over an existing Emby collection. Ranked collections (experimental) keep the list order.
• Copy & Paste: copy sources and top-lists, also between servers.
• Missing titles: turn on Show missing titles in Settings to get a Missing tab with the movies and shows on your External and AI lists that are not in your library. A show expands to the episodes you lack (needs a TMDb key). Export as JSON or CSV, or keep a file on the server that is updated after every sync.

Top-lists

• Create as top-list: made straight from a source on its Home Screen tab, in the source's order, with no tag needed. It replaces the source's plain row and uses the same users, title and position. Content: Auto picks a movie or TV show list to match the source. New libraries are detected automatically.
• Badges: Number badge (gold, silver and bronze for 1–3 if you like), Top 10 tile or no number, all customisable, optionally on the original movie posters too. Titles show how they moved since last week.
• Hide HSC libraries: top-list libraries are hidden from My Media and Latest, also for new users (on by default).

Home screen

• Your Next Watch: personal recommendations for each user, as their own playlist and home row.
• Copy & Sync profiles: several profiles, each with its own source user and users to copy to (for example one for the adults and one for the children). What to copy is Everything (optionally keeping each user's own rows) or Selected rows only. Also add users to the sources and top-lists of copied rows (off by default) keeps copied rows updating for each user.
• Position: place a new row at the top, at the bottom, or before or after a chosen row. Rows you moved yourself stay put.
• Original-language posters: a new panel in Home Screen Tweaks. A movie or series made in one of your chosen languages gets its poster in that language, and seasons and episodes can follow. The replaced poster is kept and can be restored. Needs a TMDb key.

Art, schedules and tools

• Generated art: posters and backgrounds for collections, tags and playlists, with a Customise popup.
• Schedules: Time of Day, Yearly weekday, Easter, Advent and Friday the 13th, plus holiday presets.
• Logs: HSC has its own log. Download logs gives you a zip for bug reports, with user names anonymized and API keys masked.
• Cleanup: all users' playlists can be reviewed and deleted.

Updates

• Runs never overlap; a second run waits for the first.
• Groups: renaming a group renames its home row, and deleting one cleans up its tags, collections, home rows and playlists. Tag home rows stay in place all year, marked [INACTIVE] outside their schedule.
• Users disabled in Emby are skipped everywhere. Copy & Sync never copies one user's personal rows to another.
• 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 keep their tags and collection between refreshes, and the Claude source returns complete lists.
• External sources: a URL that no longer exists (HTTP 404) is skipped so the rest keeps updating, and filters no longer let a removed title get its tag back.
• Smart Playlist: a source without rules is skipped instead of tagging the whole library, and values with ":" (e.g. "Mission: Impossible") now match.
• Run Group respects "Preserve tags on empty result" and leaves shared tags alone.
• Playlists with TV shows are no longer rebuilt on every sync.
• Top-lists: deleted users no longer cause errors, missing rows are added back where they were, and a backup restore no longer leaves a removed list's library behind.
• TMDb discover lists: a TMDb API URL for TV shows such as https://api.themoviedb.org/3/discover/tv?with_watch_providers=8&watch_region=US (for example, one streaming service's shows) is now read as TV shows. Before, each show was looked up as a movie, so the list matched nothing or the wrong titles. Thanks to DaNewChamp (PR #30).
• General: many smaller UI, performance and stability fixes.

 

Good to know when upgrading

• Top-lists move into their sources automatically, once, on the first run. A source that also had its own home row keeps it, and its top-list stays in the Top-Lists tab. Apply Tag stays on. The Top-Lists tab is now mainly an overview, and where you make manual lists.
• Top-list libraries are hidden from My Media and Latest. Turn off Hide HSC libraries in Settings to show them.
• Smart Playlist: Watched/Unwatched rules for TV shows now use Emby's own played state of the show, so results may change (before, shows were almost always seen as unwatched).
• Limits count only titles in your library, so a list may now hold more of your titles than before.
• Copy & Sync: your current setup becomes the first profile automatically.
• Scheduled Tasks: only Tag & Collection Sync and Home Screen Sync are listed in Emby. The others still run automatically and can be started from the plugin's Run menu.
• If the settings page looks wrong after updating, clear the browser cache.

Beta release notes: 4.4.0.0 · 4.4.1.0 · 4.4.2.0 · 4.4.3.0 · 4.4.3.1

HomeScreenCompanion.dll

Edited Wednesday at 10:24 PM by soderlund
typo

[ChrissiW 0]

Hi,

I'm using Home Screen Companion 4.5.0.0 with an MDBList containing approximately 25,000 movies.

The source is configured with Max = 0 (all items).

However, the log shows only one API request:

GET https://mdblist.com/lists/chriz1204/filme-1990er/json?limit=1000&offset=0

The result is:

List: 1000 items · 779 in your library

There are no subsequent requests with offset=1000, offset=2000, etc.

Could you please confirm whether pagination for MDBList lists is supported? If not, could you implement automatic pagination until all list items have been fetched?

Processing large MDBList lists is essential for my use case.

Thank you!

[soderlund 221]

2 hours ago, ChrissiW said:

Hi,

I'm using Home Screen Companion 4.5.0.0 with an MDBList containing approximately 25,000 movies.

The source is configured with Max = 0 (all items).

However, the log shows only one API request:

GET https://mdblist.com/lists/chriz1204/filme-1990er/json?limit=1000&offset=0

The result is:

List: 1000 items · 779 in your library

There are no subsequent requests with offset=1000, offset=2000, etc.

Could you please confirm whether pagination for MDBList lists is supported? If not, could you implement automatic pagination until all list items have been fetched?

Processing large MDBList lists is essential for my use case.

Thank you!

Hi!

When I started this project i think I did set a limit, cant remember if it was 1,000 or 10,000 titles. I remember thinking "why use a list longer than this?".. Since then this has come a long way and the limit has just followed along. 

It could also be a bug. 

I'll look into it later today or tomorrow, and if there is a limit I will increase it or remove it! 

 

Thanks for reporting!