Save TV episode backdrops to media folders

[crusher11 1101]

TV episode backdrops are possible, but they can only be saved to the server, not to the media folder.

[crusher11 1101]

And as a result, I just had a bunch of them get deleted during a library scan.

 

Can we please get this implemented? I know there are other features that are wanted by a vastly larger number of users but allowing "episode-backdrop.jpg" to exist in the media folder alongside "episode-thumb.jpg" and "episode-poster.jpg" (etc) seems like a super simple thing to do. It's a pain constantly having to go back and recreate my backdrops, this is probably the third or fourth time it's happened.

[Luke 42077]

We are actively monitoring this request for community feedback. Thanks for the feedback.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

Out of curiosity - where do the backdrop images you create get displayed

 

and /or which app shows them?

[crusher11 1101]

Next Up/Continue Watching, and they're displayed in the background when viewing the episode details page. Works on every app I've tried.

 

I have my sports set up as TV episodes so I like to have Next Up and Continue Watching display an image specific to the episode, as opposed to a normal TV show where the series backdrop is sufficient.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

So why dont you "just" replace the thumb image with your backdrop image?

 

Oh yes it wont show that for continue/next up

Edited February 17, 2020 by PenkethBoy

[crusher11 1101]

Because Next Up and Continue Watching display backdrops for TV, not thumbs.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

Series backdrop is an anti spoiler feature for next up / continue watching

[crusher11 1101]

Right. Which is why I set episode backdrops. But they're saved with the server, not with my media, so they're constantly at risk of deletion.

[crusher11 1101]

This is what it looks like when I've got it set up, which I find preferable to just series backdrops.

 

 

Obviously for normal TV shows the series backdrop is fine.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

An idea

 

if you set your sports as a home video library then the "episode" image shows

 

otherwise the series thumb shows or if thats missing a random series backdrop - if setup as a tv series

[Happy2Play 9780]

That is why all this information (specific example) is needed in the request as this only applies to a specific user subset.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

very small subset - of one

[crusher11 1101]

An idea

 

if you set your sports as a home video library then the "episode" image shows

But I lose the ability to have the next game play automatically, or display in Next Up, as well as not having the TV show style episode listing where I can see a description of each game. TV shows are a far better way to do what I want with my sports, it's just this episode backdrop issue.

 

And as I said above it really shouldn't be complicated to implement. I'm unsure as to why it doesn't work out of the box. Episodes can obviously have their own backdrops, that's working fine, they're just not saved with the media.

[PenkethBoy 2068]

Well maybe you will get lucky

 

the changes required need to be applied to all clients so not as simple as you hope

 

but there a loads of requests outstanding with greater support (currently) that would be a better time investment - as this is a little niche 

[crusher11 1101]

Why would it need to be applied to all clients? It's a matter of saving them, not of displaying them. The latter already works.

[crusher11 1101]

I guess my question is why it works the way it does right now. It seems to me there would have to be a specific code excluding episode backdrops from the usual image saving process.

[crusher11 1101]

I guess my question is why it works the way it does right now. It seems to me there would have to be a specific code excluding episode backdrops from the usual image saving process.

@@Luke can you provide any info on this aspect of it?

[Luke 42077]

It's just never been looked at before.

[crusher11 1101]

Right, but my question is: why is "save this image as a backdrop" linked to "save this file as itemname-fanart.jpg" for movies, but not for TV? If I were coding emby, I'd simply have the one lot of code that saved a backdrop as "itemname-fanart.jpg" regardless of item type.

 

Even if backdrops simply did nothing for TV episodes, that would make sense. But they can be saved to the server folder, and they can be displayed, so they're obviously accounted for on some level. I just find it strange that they're accounted for on one level but not another.

 

Additionally while testing this out I noticed that if I save a primary image for an episode, it saves as "episodename-thumb.jpg", but it's also possible to set a different image as a thumb, which doesn't save with the media. "episodename.jpg" is also valid for primary images. This should probably be looked at anyway as the current setup is a bit confusing.

 

A per-library setting to use episode thumbs instead of backdrops in Next Up/Continue Watching would also solve my issue, but the way it's set up at the moment does seem very clunky.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Because this is typically not used.  There are no episode backdrops provided by anyone.  So by default all backdrops are provided by the series.

 

So your manual process has never been thought of or developed.

[crusher11 1101]

Right, but as I said I would assume that would result in one of two outcomes: either episode backdrops wouldn't work at all, or someone just programmed a generic backdrop code in that allows backdrops to work anyway because it would've taken more work to say "don't do this for TV episodes". So I'm curious as to exactly what's going on under the hood and why.

[jakeg1235 5]

Dropping in to say I've also been wanting this ability, it's nice for some tv episodes to have a specific backdrop!