New Status for TV Shows (Hiatus) for a Proper Binge Watch Experience.

[VladTepz 47]

I would like to see a new status for TV Shows, (Hiatus or Returning or SomethingElse), in addition to the existing "Continuing" or "Ended" statuses.

 

The purpose of the new status would be for the filtering of shows that have complete seasons and are currently on break/hiatus and not currently airing.
This would allow an easy way for proper Binge Watching aka Netflix style of viewing content only once a season is complete. (Season Premier to Season Finale)


I feel Binge Watching is one of the biggest aspects of watching media via streaming services perhaps second only to being commercial free.


Emby having a "Binge Watch" feature built in would be a big boost to the amazing features already built in and would propel Emby in-line with modern way many people prefer watching their media.

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That said, I understand that the availability of reliable data is virtually nonexistent currently, or sources don't have an API available, for this kind of info. Especially for mid-season premiers/finales.

One workaround would be to implement gathering the data in the same way Sonarr V3 (Phantom) has implemented their ability to Highlight Season Finales along with Season Premiere in Sonarr V3 (Phantom) calendar view.
https://github.com/Sonarr/Sonarr/issues/2461

Then use that info to determine if a show is currently airing, (Continuing), or on break, (Hiatus).
Although one caveat is that even Sonarr doesn't currently have the ability to determine mid-season premiers/finales, but it's not a huge deterrent to the end goal of providing a way for a proper Binge Watch experience.

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Currently, my workaround is to use https://www.sidereel.com to track all my shows and weekly/daily check and add the tags (Continuing, Hiatus, Ended) to a show manually, then use filters (Emby) and smart-playlists (Kodi).
Obviously this is less then ideal as it is really a lot of work with more often then not things get missed and marked incorrectly.

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Thanks for your consideration and time. Keep up the good work. 

[Luke 42078]

Interesting suggestion, thanks !

[Carlo 4561]

We currently have Ongoing & Ended.  Maybe if we added something to indicated "Un-Aired" this would be enough.  Emby can already pull in the meta-data for the shows and can already show us missing episodes and upcoming episodes past the current date.  If we have a series with "Un-Aired" shows we know it's still releasing episodes.  Thus anything marked Ended on Ongoing is ready for bing watching.

 

Any series marked "Un-Aired" with a high unwatched count probably has multiple seasons maybe worth bing watching.

Any series marked "Un-Aired" with low unwatched counts wouldn't be worthy of bing watching.

 

Being able to filter based on Ongoing, Ended or Un-Aired would then help to find the shows you want to bing watch.  You could then always "favorite" them from time to time and use the favorites to get to your crafted bing worthy shows.

[Dibbes 514]

What about color coding the seasons? Red unwatched indicator is ended series, blue unwatched indicator means season still airing, green unwatched indicator means show is on hiatus

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ebr 16184]

Do any of the metadata providers have this data/status?

 

If not, how would we know?

[Luke 42078]

They don't, so he's proposing that we infer it based on other data.

[VladTepz 47]

Do any of the metadata providers have this data/status?

 

If not, how would we know?

 

No... I have yet to find a metadata provider that has this data/status available besides Sidereel.com, ( which is the most accurate, but provides no API ), or the now defunct TVRage.

 

IMDb, TVDB, TVMaze, TMDB, Zap2It, Reelgood & Trakt all do not currently provide this data, at least not via their API. I also researched a few other lesser know metadata providers with no luck.

 

 

It would probably need to be implemented in a "best guess" sort of way until a reliable source is (if ever) available.

 

I believe Sonarr V3 uses the Seasons/Episodes lists to "guess" that the last listed episode is the Finale.

 

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As @@cayars suggested, possibly the best way for Emby to determine is a show was on "Hiatus" or not would be to leverage the included "Display missing episodes within seasons" feature already built in. Emby already gathers this data. It can be then used to determine a "Hiatus" status.

 

• If show's status is "Continuing" & it has missing/un-aired episodes, It would be logical to think it's "Currently Airing" aka "Continuing"

   

• If show's status is "Continuing" & it doesn't have missing/un-aired episodes, It would be logical to think it's on break aka "Hiatus"

  ​

• If show's status is "Ended"  It would be logical to think it's Cancelled/Ended

   

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I also like the suggestion of 

Any series marked "Un-Aired" with a high unwatched count probably has multiple seasons maybe worth bing watching.

Any series marked "Un-Aired" with low unwatched counts wouldn't be worthy of bing watching.

 

I would even like to see a "Binge Watch" Section similar to "Next Up" or "Continue Watching" for the future, but one thing at a time.

 

I just think it's something interesting that no current media software currently offers, yet even with the growing appeal for consumers to consume media in this way.

 

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*EDIT due to slow typing....

They don't, so he's proposing that we infer it based on other data.

 

Exactly...

Edited January 6, 2019 by VladTepz

[Carlo 4561]

Yes I was saying maybe we could infer the data based on information we already have on hand for the series.  Probably not perfect but "good enough" to get the job done.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Do any of the metadata providers have this data/status?

 

If not, how would we know?

 

 

They don't, so he's proposing that we infer it based on other data.

 

MCM is sort of already doing it.  Isn't this already known depended on provider data when there is x amount of days between episodes.

 

 

On break  unknown return date

On break with known return date

 

Edited January 6, 2019 by Happy2Play

[Happy2Play 9780]

They don't, so he's proposing that we infer it based on other data.

More information

 

The status is still Continuing but next episode is available in cache en.xml

 

<finale_aired>2019-02-26</finale_aired>

 

 

From the en.xml for The Voice

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Data><Series>
  <id>247824</id>
  <Actors>|Adam Levine|Blake Shelton|Kelly Clarkson|Alicia Keys|Carson Daly|Gwen Stefani|Jennifer Hudson|Miley Cyrus|Pharrell Williams|Usher|Shakira|Christina Milian|Alison Haislip|Cee Lo Green|Christina Aguilera|</Actors>
  <Airs_DayOfWeek>Monday</Airs_DayOfWeek>
  <Airs_Time>8:00 PM</Airs_Time>
  <ContentRating>TV-PG</ContentRating>
  <FirstAired>2011-04-26</FirstAired>
  <Genre>|Drama|Reality|</Genre>
  <IMDB_ID>tt1839337</IMDB_ID>
  <Language>en</Language>
  <Network>NBC</Network>
  <NetworkID></NetworkID>
  <Overview>"The Voice" invites the strongest vocalists from across the United States to compete in a blockbusters vocal competition, the winner will be "the Voice". Now in its 14th season, celebrity musicians Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Alicia Keys, and newly added, Kelly Clarkson act as coaches while Carson Daly hosts the show.

The show's innovative format features four stages of competition: the blind auditions, the battle rounds, the knockouts and, finally, the live performance shows.  Adding another layer of excitement this season is the introduction of the "block" where the Coaches have an opportunity to block a fellow coach from recruiting an artist on their team.</Overview>
  <Rating>8.3</Rating>
  <RatingCount>18</RatingCount>
  <Runtime>45</Runtime>
  <SeriesID>80674</SeriesID>
  <SeriesName>The Voice</SeriesName>
  <Status>Continuing</Status>
  <added>2011-04-10 10:08:07</added>
  <addedBy>267961</addedBy>
  <banner>graphical/247824-g12.jpg</banner>
  <fanart>fanart/original/247824-12.jpg</fanart>
  <finale_aired>2019-02-26</finale_aired>
  <lastupdated>1546161928</lastupdated>
  <lastupdated_detail>Update an episode</lastupdated_detail>
  <poster>posters/247824-14.jpg</poster>
  <slug>the-voice</slug>
  <tms_wanted_old>1</tms_wanted_old>
  <zap2it_id>EP01365756</zap2it_id>
</Series>

 

At least with this example it appears to be a day off though.  But other examples line up.

 

 

 

But looking at a example of lets say Arrow 

 

en.xml

<finale_aired>2019-01-21</finale_aired>

That is the air date of the next episode, as it is currently still on break.

 

Another example on break (continuing) with unknown return date as next season release date unavailable Van Helsing

<Status>Continuing</Status>
<finale_aired>2018-12-28</finale_aired>

Edited January 7, 2019 by Happy2Play

[Carlo 4561]

I don't think small breaks for holidays (Christmas/New Years) need to get in the way.  Mostly I think we want to try and differentiate the broadcast season so the OP only binge watches whole seasons.  We should have this info for most series correct?

 

Put another way when the last known episode of the season is in the past the season is "binge" worthy.  To keep it simple, missing episodes probably shouldn't be a factor at all.

 

Once you have the ability to filter shows based on completed seasons (in some way), then the user can pick and choose what to watch based on interest and number of unwatched episodes.

 

Speaking of unwatched counts, this is how I presently binge watch shows.  I just presently pick shows I've got an interest in that have the most unwatched episodes and I favorite them to put them on my "short list" of shows I'm presently interested in.