Emby 3.4.x and Collections question

[dimitrik 14]

As I'm very conservative user, I don't like to update often or soon after a release. 

With 3.4.x I have a question before I upgrade.

 

Does the new collections feature allow me to set different users to have access to different collections?

 

E.g. I have Horror Collections and Cartoon collections and I don't want my kids to access both, just the cartoons.

 

I should also note that I create collections myself by adding a "collection.xml" file, not with the emby interface, but I am fine with changing this if that's a problem.

 

Thanks for any advice!

[Deathsquirrel 745]

Collections don't show up in your library unless you have rights to at least one movie there.  So my kids don't see R rated content due to parental controls.  The can see the Conan Collection because some of those are PG-13 but don't see the Blade Collection a all are rated R.  If they open the collection they only see the approved titles of course.

[RobWayBro 28]

I have a manual workaround. 

 

With the new layout for collections, being a library, made this more simple.

 

• Create a new folder to use for a new library.
• Create a new library, name it whatever you like - located at above location.
• Look at the path for your collection library, it is most likely:

• C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\data\collections

• Go to this location.  Inside this is all the collection folders that contain an .xml file and image files.  Copy whatever collection folder you want in the new library you created and paste the folder in the new library path.
• Run a scan on the new folder and you should now see only those collections and can restrict the folder as you desire.

 

HTH...

[dimitrik 14]

Collections don't show up in your library unless you have rights to at least one movie there.  So my kids don't see R rated content due to parental controls.  The can see the Conan Collection because some of those are PG-13 but don't see the Blade Collection a all are rated R.  If they open the collection they only see the approved titles of course.

 

OK, so this sounds exactly like what I want to avoid. I want my kids to access the bugs bunny collection but not the Alien collection, which according to the above, they will, unless I set up parental controls. The trouble is I don't like parental controls much because I find them very restrictive. Especially around the PG-13 range, they limit some content which is OK, while allowing other stuff which is not (by my standards).

In addition we also have unrated content that we prefer to restrict e.g. family videos with family members who have passed away, which can be upsetting.

 

In any case the point is that I beleive users need flexibility in controlling their servers and the whole "simplified settings" logic can definitely be taken too far. Users who want simplicity above all, get an apple TV and rent content on iTunes. Emby users are mostly sophisticated I think.

 

I have a manual workaround. 

 

With the new layout for collections, being a library, made this more simple.

 

• Create a new folder to use for a new library.
• Create a new library, name it whatever you like - located at above location.
• Look at the path for your collection library, it is most likely:

• C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\data\collections

• Go to this location.  Inside this is all the collection folders that contain an .xml file and image files.  Copy whatever collection folder you want in the new library you created and paste the folder in the new library path.
• Run a scan on the new folder and you should now see only those collections and can restrict the folder as you desire.

 

HTH...

 

This sounds worthwhile, so I will give it a shot, thanks!  The trouble is that manual workarounds have no guarantee of being supported in future releases, especially the way emby is updated, with little warning of major changes (at least for those of us on the release channel).

 

I do think that if collections are going to be bundled together, we need more granular access controls though, ideally something that restricts access to their content according to the settings of the source library.

 

Luke is that something you think you can implement?

[Luke 42085]

No they won't. They can only access collections that have at least one title from a library they are allowed to access.

[ebr 16195]

Also, our Parental Controls are extremely flexible.  You can do exactly what you want to with it as you can set the Custom Rating field on those PG-13 movies you don't want them to see to something higher.

 

You can also set it to automatically block unrated items.

 

Finally, you can use tags to block things specifically.

[dimitrik 14]

No they won't. They can only access collections that have at least one title from a library they are allowed to access.

Ah, so in my example the kids will access the Disney collections but not the horror collections, even though they will see the ”collections” library.

 

That will work fine, thanks for clearing that up!