TV show and season view in libraries set to home video or mixed content

[Chytharo 1]

Hello,

 

I have most of my libraries set to the "home videos & photos" type, because that allows me to use a folder structure with multiple sub folders.

Is there a way to give a folder a tv show-view, so that I can see all the metadata information I put into that folder and the subfolders are displayed like seasons are in a true tv show library? And is the same possible with a season-like view? That it shows the cover, title and information about the folder above at the top and the contents are shown list-like, but with preview-pictures and option buttons on the right, similar to when you are into a season "folder" of a tv show in a library set to tv show?

 

If that's not possible, would that be hard to code like as a plugin or something like that?

 

Some other small off-topic questions:

When I manually add the studio name and also fill in information like when it originally aired, it shows the information like this:

"Aired [day of the week] at [time] on [studio]". Why does it display it like that? The studio where it was produced is not the tv channel where it aired.

 

How do I search for certain tags or other metadata on home-video/mixed content type libraries? The filter options look very limited in comparison to the tv show library filter.

 

Can I somehow set my own theme music to certain folders or shows by uploading a mp3 or providing a youtube-link?

Edited August 10, 2018 by Chytharo

[Luke 42078]

Hi, this isn't possible. Why not use a TV library?

[Chytharo 1]

Hi, this isn't possible. Why not use a TV library?

 

Because that would force me to use a certain folder structure and let a scanner handle the sorting. I already have an own folder structure (franchise based) with more than one subfolder + I use many media files on other projects and with other programs, so I can't restructure and rename thousands of files without messing a lot of things up. Also, most of my media is anime, which is problematic in it's own way, as a lot of more obscure titles or release formats can cause issues.

So, it's easier and for me to use home media, as it is much more customizable and accepts my files and their structure as they are. It just bothers me, that I can put in a lot of metadata for each folder, but apperantly there's no way to display it within that library type to give the folders a more netflix-like look.

 

Are there maybe any fanmade plugins or a code I can use, to unlock these options for other library types? Maybe it's not that difficult as everything is already implemented, just restricted to a specific type.

 

Oh, and did your answer refer only to my main question, or to the other 3 small questions too?

Edited August 11, 2018 by Chytharo

[Luke 42078]

Ok if you need your folder structure, there's no way to force home videos to display any differently, sorry.

 

We do plan to improve our tv folder support to be able to accommodate a mish mash folder structure. It's possible in the future that will allow you to use the tv content type.

[pwhodges 2012]

I am also frustrated that I cannot simply see my videos in the directory structure which I have used for the past ten years.  My music folder at least works if I follow the folder route - I can see all my folders to whatever depth - but the video folders get flattened out in a way that destroys their pre-determined sorting, and some folders are not displayed at all but replaced by non-existent folder names like "Season 1", "Season 2007", or just "Specials" (each containing a mix of unrelated files from two or three entirely different directories).  Since I disabled every possible way for the server to get metadata from the Internet (the files contain none), at least I no longer have my entire library labelled as episodes of the Mr Bean cartoon, which happened to me twice in the past...

 

So please, I would love a way to see the actual directory structure with no added or changed features, not what some algorithm in the server wrongly thinks my directory structure should be.  It's already there in the Music content.

[Luke 42078]

I am also frustrated that I cannot simply see my videos in the directory structure which I have used for the past ten years.  My music folder at least works if I follow the folder route - I can see all my folders to whatever depth - but the video folders get flattened out in a way that destroys their pre-determined sorting, and some folders are not displayed at all but replaced by non-existent folder names like "Season 1", "Season 2007", or just "Specials" (each containing a mix of unrelated files from two or three entirely different directories).  Since I disabled every possible way for the server to get metadata from the Internet (the files contain none), at least I no longer have my entire library labelled as episodes of the Mr Bean cartoon, which happened to me twice in the past...

 

So please, I would love a way to see the actual directory structure with no added or changed features, not what some algorithm in the server wrongly thinks my directory structure should be.  It's already there in the Music content.

 

Hi, the home videos content type will allow you to do this. 

[pwhodges 2012]

I read that suggestion above, so I deleted and rebuilt the library with that type before complaining.  The issue was still there after that rebuild, whether I navigate through the "folders" icon or not.  Is there something more I should have done to clear out any memory of how it was before?

Edited August 17, 2018 by pwhodges

[Luke 42078]

Can you please go over an example? because home videos will not flatten your folder structure. thanks.

[pwhodges 2012]

OK, I'll just describe it for now; I could do screen shots, but you'll trust what I say for now, right?

 

I have a library called Anime; it has the folder D:\Anime as its root.  Formerly I had the library contents as "mixed", as part of my attempt to make it work; now the type is "Home videos and photos", and of course the change required the library to be rebuilt, but there were no other changes done.  In that folder are subfolders with names like Anime (bought), Anime (seen) etc.  Let us take Anime (seen) as an example.

 

The first directories in this section are:

 

_monogatari     (which gets sorted to the end by Emby, which is fine; it also has many subdirectories)

91 Days,

Ah! My Goddess 2001 S-1

Ah! My Goddess 2006 S-2

Ah! My Goddess 2007 special

Ah! My Goddess 2011 OVAs

Ah! My Goddess 2013 OAD

Air (movie)

...

 

and further on there is:

 

Higurashi - When They Cry

Interstella 55555 (movie)

Japan Animator Expo

Japan Animator Expo Extras      (with several sub directories)

...

 

The files in these directories generally have a name in the form: "name of show s01e01 title of episode".

 

Now, in the server's metadata editor, and in the view I get by clicking "Anime" (not "Folders") at the first screen in the clients, what I see is like this:

 

Specials

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 55

Season 2014

91 Days

Air (movie)

...

Higurashi - When They Cry

Japan Animator Expo Extras

...

_monogatari

 

The first four of these pseudo-folders contains the files from the single physical directory Japan Animator Expo, divided according to the season numbers in their names.  They also contain the files from Ah! My Goddess S-1 etc mixed in.  Season 55 has the contents of Interstella 55555.  Season 2014 contains one file from Japan Animator Expo and two from elsewhere.  The source directories in these cases are no longer shown in the list.  The directories Japan Animator Expo Extras and _monogatari are still shown, but flattened so that all the files in subdirectories are shown together.  There are other irregularities, but these are enough to talk about.

 

But if I start at the top level in the client by selecting Folders and then Anime and then Anime (seen), the result beyond that is exactly the same as I have described, i.e. what I see when not first selecting Folders.  By contrast, in the case of my Music folder I get different results navigating by the two routes, as expected.

 

The server is v3.5.2, running in a dedicated Windows 10 machine.  Clients: web, theatre, iOS (beta), Android.

Edited August 18, 2018 by pwhodges

[Luke 42078]

home videos should always display by folder structure. did you use the metadata editor at any point to customize the content type of a sub-folder?

[pwhodges 2012]

Probably - when I was removing references to Mr Bean in the past.  Is there metadata that is preserved when I delete a library and rebuild it, then?

 

Actually, now I look, I can't see where you might change the content type of a subfolder.

Edited August 20, 2018 by pwhodges

[Luke 42078]

This is something that is not fully fleshed out. If you customized them then you'll need to delete those customizations from the severe system.XML config file, with the server shut down of course.

[pwhodges 2012]

I can see nothing relevant in System.xml.  So I tried deleting the metadata directory and rebuilding the metadata from scratch.  This made no change to the behaviour (and I remembered to clear my webserver cache and suchlike).  I really have no idea what's going on; something is being remembered in places I haven't found yet.

[Luke 42078]

Can you attach system.xml? thanks.

[pwhodges 2012]

Here you are.

 

(N.B.  I had to use the basic uploader, as the browser wouldn't pass a dropped file to the Flash).

system.xml

[Luke 42078]

Ok so you haven't customized content type, hmm. See if you have any tvshow.nfo files in folders that aren't actually series folders, and if so, delete those.

[pwhodges 2012]

The only .nfo files were in directories which were behaving OK; but I've deleted them.

[Luke 42078]

can you show screenshots of what you see vs. what the folders look like? I'm having a hard time visualizing this. thanks.

[pwhodges 2012]

OK.  Rather than put a lot of big files into the forum, I have put them into a directory on my public server:

https://cassland.org/images/EmbyCaptures/  I have found a simpler example than I gave before.

 

I used the web client for this, because it enabled me to include the URLs of the various pages (text file in that directory).  I started by capturing each step, starting without Folders and then with Folders; but I did not capture the Specials and Season 1 "pseudo-folders" again because they had the same URLs as before.

 

Note that in the true directory listing there is a folder called Mob Psycho 100.  Emby is not showing me that folder; instead it shows me Specials and Season 1, which are its own invention  Specials displays the file from Mob Psycho 100 which has "s00enn" in its name; Season 1 displays the files with "s01enn" in their name, plus the files in the subdirectory Extras.

 

I also included extracts from the server log when simply clicking through to Specials by the two routes; doesn't seem to show much more than the URLs (though there's an error message in both).

[pwhodges 2012]

I've been checking another part of my file system, and found that the directory structure is preserved until there are files in a directory, after which the contents of any further subdirectories are added back into that one.  Also, that even when the directory structure is preserved, some folder names get changed to "Season 1" or similar.

[Luke 42078]

I've been checking another part of my file system, and found that the directory structure is preserved until there are files in a directory, after which the contents of any further subdirectories are added back into that one.  Also, that even when the directory structure is preserved, some folder names get changed to "Season 1" or similar.

 

This won't happen anymore with the next release. Thanks.

[pwhodges 2012]

Will I need to rebuild the library?

[Luke 42078]

No, you shouldn't have to.

[pwhodges 2012]

OK, I just updated to server 3.5.3 (release), and neither of these problems has changed.

 

If I go in via Folders, I still have:

 

(1) subfolders of a folder with media in get collapsed into that folder, and

(2) a sprinkling of virtual folders with names like "specials", "season 1", and so on, with contents taken from a variety of real folders.

 

In other words, going in via the Folder route makes no difference to what is displayed (in the case of visual media - for some reason my Music library behaves as expected).  The library type is currently "Home videos and photos"; I'm now rebuilding it as "TV Shows" to see if that changes anything.

 

EDIT: No, it doesn't.

Edited October 13, 2018 by pwhodges

[Happy2Play 9780]

OK, I just updated to server 3.5.3 (release), and neither of these problems has changed.

 

Sorry 3.5.3.0 was just a patch primarily for Chrome updates that broke parts of Emby.  Next release is referring to 3.6.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Happy2Play