In-Progress Cinema Mode: random trailer selection

[Suliamu 54]

6 hours ago, michaeltruncale said:

Also the Trailers it's showing are very low resolution, is there a way to force it to be Random, and force it to find at a minimum 1080p Trailers?

I'm doing it very differently than most people here.  
I use plugin "Vantage Point".  
It gives you the ability to setup a folder, and content that is put into this folder is randomly chosen and played before a movie or a show. You can chose it yourself.  
It works perfectly. If you have a trailer-collection in a separate folder, this is the perfect way to do it and get fully randomness.  

But here comes the next point: I found after more than 2 years that my audience actually doesn't like trailers. 
It's basically a little bit like market research.   
They don't like them at all. I was also surprised. But when observing my own habits when watching stuff, i am skipping them too.   
Doesn't matter if its chosen random, or if an algorithm choses it. My users are looking for ways to turn them off.  
So before jumping enthusiastically into this, i would maybe make first a test with your users if they actually want it. 

Next, I found out that little "Intros", also delivered by Vantage point, are functioning way better and people are not skipping them but enjoying them. 
I'll give you three examples in the attachements:

I wrote an FFMPEG-script which is doing all the stuff, fade in-fade-out, text-scrolling by its own, automatical counter in the corner and so on. 
From those "Intros" i made only one in a tenth gets skipped.  

 

[AlmostTonyStark 8]

18 hours ago, Suliamu said:

If you have a trailer-collection in a separate folder, this is the perfect way to do it and get fully randomness.  

So I just had a trailer before a movie last night that I hadn't seen before, I like the idea of random because then it's constantly introducing me to new movies that I maybe haven't seen, don't have in my collection, or is in my collection by have forgotten about. I'm not really wanting to maintain a folder and download Trailers, because then I'd have to spend time finding new trailers to add. The trailers how they are don't seem random, if I start a Disney animated movie i showed me back to back Disney trailers, if I played a shoot em up movie, it showed me two other shoot em up movies, if I started a horror it showed me trailers related in the same genre, would be great to just be purely random...

[Smitty018210 170]

24 minutes ago, michaeltruncale said:

So I just had a trailer before a movie last night that I hadn't seen before, I like the idea of random because then it's constantly introducing me to new movies that I maybe haven't seen, don't have in my collection, or is in my collection by have forgotten about. I'm not really wanting to maintain a folder and download Trailers, because then I'd have to spend time finding new trailers to add. The trailers how they are don't seem random, if I start a Disney animated movie i showed me back to back Disney trailers, if I played a shoot em up movie, it showed me two other shoot em up movies, if I started a horror it showed me trailers related in the same genre, would be great to just be purely random...

Right now trailers are not random in the stable release. That is what this topic is about. We were hoping to improve that. 

If you go back a few pages there is a new version of the Cinema Intros plug-in that Luke created that you can install to your server. (Emby.Server.CinemaMode.dll) 

Sadly right now it appears to work only with beta server installs. Not the stable.

So you would have to install the beta server. Either replacing your stable release or you can do what I am doing (for testing) and running as a separate install.  I'm running them on two different W11 Machines, but I do think you can run them on the same machine. Not sure how that is done though. 

Edited August 13, 2025 by Smitty018210

[chowbok 136]

@Luke What exactly is the logic with the Cinema Intros plugin at this point? It does change the trailers, but they still seem to be somewhat related (comedies always seem to give me comedy trailers, for instance). Is there no way we can just have a toggle switch that makes the trailer selection *completely* random?

[Smitty018210 170]

20 hours ago, chowbok said:

@Luke What exactly is the logic with the Cinema Intros plugin at this point? It does change the trailers, but they still seem to be somewhat related (comedies always seem to give me comedy trailers, for instance). Is there no way we can just have a toggle switch that makes the trailer selection *completely* random?

They seem to be totally against that idea for what ever reason. 

[chowbok 136]

I don't understand why it can't just be an option. It doesn't have to be the default. I don't even care if it's a hidden option and I have to edit a config file somewhere.

[Smitty018210 170]

5 hours ago, chowbok said:

I don't understand why it can't just be an option. It doesn't have to be the default. I don't even care if it's a hidden option and I have to edit a config file somewhere.

Honestly, the cinema intro plug-in is long over due for an overhaul. It's needs some love from the Devs. Not just the randoms trailers part, but more control on what is played over all. 

More options are always better in my opinion, but it is what is. This request is from 6+ years ago at this point. 

[chowbok 136]

@LukeAny chance of implementing this, or getting a new copy of the DLL from you that has this? You posted that for an earlier version before.

[Luke 43016]

Hi, more randomization control is possible for future updates. Thanks.

[Bigmack3000 116]

4 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, more randomization control is possible for future updates. Thanks.

Lol

[chowbok 136]

5 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, more randomization control is possible for future updates. Thanks.

Oh no! Come on Luke, there's no way I can get an updated copy of the Cinema Intros DLL you gave me before?

[hjason7812 37]

On 2/27/2026 at 2:29 AM, chowbok said:

@Luke What exactly is the logic with the Cinema Intros plugin at this point? It does change the trailers, but they still seem to be somewhat related (comedies always seem to give me comedy trailers, for instance). Is there no way we can just have a toggle switch that makes the trailer selection *completely* random?

you go into the cinema intro section on emby dashboard ares left side panel and in there you can select to have trailers from new and upcoming movies or trailers from old movies. this will give you whatever movie trailers are out currently at random it doesn't show whatever the genre of the movie it is playing in it does in fact show random trailers for all type of genres. below is a screenshot of my setup and it shows movie trailers of all kinds in any movies

[hjason7812 37]

On 2/28/2026 at 6:19 AM, Smitty018210 said:

Honestly, the cinema intro plug-in is long over due for an overhaul. It's needs some love from the Devs. Not just the randoms trailers part, but more control on what is played over all. 

More options are always better in my opinion, but it is what is. This request is from 6+ years ago at this point. 

i would love it if we could put in a link to trailer channels of movies on you-tube that would be epic for this 

[chowbok 136]

3 minutes ago, hjason7812 said:

you go into the cinema intro section on emby dashboard ares left side panel and in there you can select to have trailers from new and upcoming movies or trailers from old movies. this will give you whatever movie trailers are out currently at random it doesn't show whatever the genre of the movie it is playing in it does in fact show random trailers for all type of genres. below is a screenshot of my setup and it shows movie trailers of all kinds in any movies

It may well be random for upcoming movies; I don't select those so I don't know. It's not random for older movies, as Luke indirectly confirmed above.

[Bigmack3000 116]

4 minutes ago, hjason7812 said:

you go into the cinema intro section on emby dashboard ares left side panel and in there you can select to have trailers from new and upcoming movies or trailers from old movies. this will give you whatever movie trailers are out currently at random it doesn't show whatever the genre of the movie it is playing in it does in fact show random trailers for all type of genres. below is a screenshot of my setup and it shows movie trailers of all kinds in any movies

As has been pointed out many times, trailers for many people are far from random.  Especially concerning local trailers.  

[hjason7812 37]

Just now, Bigmack3000 said:

As has been pointed out many times, trailers for many people are far from random.  Especially concerning local trailers.  

mine always have been random though 

[Bigmack3000 116]

Just now, hjason7812 said:

mine always have been random though 

Remove internet trailers and test it for awhile.  

[Luke 43016]

I've pushed an update to Cinema Intros that allows you to disable the similarity requirement. This will essentially give you random trailers.

[chowbok 136]

Thanks so much! I'll test it out right away.

[Luke 43016]

5 minutes ago, chowbok said:

Thanks so much! I'll test it out right away.

It's the same one you might have tested before. it's just adding it to the UI.

[Bigmack3000 116]

Im very excited to try this out.  Without knowing if this exists yet, my only ask would be thst there's an option to not show a trailer rated above the film you are going to watch.  Example, the trailer for Seven doesn't show before watching toy story. 

[Smitty018210 170]

Thanks for the update, Luke.

I ended up creating a custom plugin for myself called PreshowManager.
It was a pain in the rear to get working, but after about 4-5 months of using it, I am absolutely loving it.
I just hope the upcoming release of the (now beta) new server does not break it! Should I be worried? lol

It supports local preshow videos, local, and internet trailers, genre-based trailer selection, and separate preshow setups for Movies and TV Shows.

Features

Random Trailers

Random Trailers mode plays a configurable number of trailers before the selected Movie or TV episode.

It supports:

• Local trailers from your Emby libraries
• Internet trailers from TMDb/YouTube
• Mixed or Library Specific trailer selection
• Separate trailer counts for Movies and TV Shows
• Excluding trailers for the Movie or TV series currently being played
• Collection/franchise filtering
• Internet trailers playing before local trailers when both are selected

Trailer selection remains random across the available pool.

Genre Trailers

Genre Trailers mode selects trailers based on the genre of the Movie or TV Show being played.

Movies and TV Shows have separate settings, including:

• Local trailer support
• Internet trailer support
• Trailer count
• Genre linking rules

The genre linking system lets you decide which trailer genres can be used for each content genre.

For example, a Horror movie could be configured to use trailers from:

• Horror
• Science Fiction
• Thriller

Each genre can have its own combination.

Preshow Mode

Preshow Mode lets you build the preshow sequence manually.

Movies and TV Shows each have their own set of 15 slots.

Each slot can be assigned a preshow element or left unassigned. Slots are processed in the order they appear.

Example:

Slot 1  - Internet Trailer
Slot 2  - Local Trailer
Slot 3  - Local Preshow Video
Slot 4  - Local Preshow Video
Slot 5  - Genre Trailer
Slot 6  - Unassigned

Movie and TV slot lists are completely separate, so each can have its own preshow setup.

Local Preshow Videos

Local preshow videos can be used for things like:

• Coming Soon bumpers
• Feature Presentation videos
• Theater intros
• Countdown videos
• Studio-style presentation clips
• Custom preshow material

A default folder can be configured and scanned for available videos.

Individual slots can also use a different folder when needed.

Internet Trailers

Internet trailers are pulled from TMDb and use YouTube for playback.

PreshowManager caches and indexes the trailer information so Emby can play the trailers through its normal intro playback system.

Internet trailers are kept separate from local trailers because the two use different playback methods inside Emby.

Movie and TV Settings

Movies and TV Shows are handled separately throughout the plugin.

This includes:

• Preshow slots
• Trailer counts
• Local trailer pools
• Internet trailer pools
• Genre settings
• Enable/disable options

This makes it possible to have a completely different preshow setup for Movies than for TV episodes.

Edited 16 minutes ago by Smitty018210

[Luke 43016]

7 minutes ago, Bigmack3000 said:

Im very excited to try this out.  Without knowing if this exists yet, my only ask would be thst there's an option to not show a trailer rated above the film you are going to watch.  Example, the trailer for Seven doesn't show before watching toy story. 

Yes that's already there.