VirtualTV plugin

[bfir3 117]

I do seem to have a different issue related to Genres though. Seems fine for content type Movies, but doesn't work for Mixed Content or TV Shows. Simply changing Content Type from Movies to TV, and then pressing Preview. It works for Movies but not for TV/Mixed.

 

[pünktchen 1409]

6 hours ago, bfir3 said:

I do seem to have a different issue related to Genres though. Seems fine for content type Movies, but doesn't work for Mixed Content or TV Shows. Simply changing Content Type from Movies to TV, and then pressing Preview. It works for Movies but not for TV/Mixed.

 

Is this the only condition you have set?

[bfir3 117]

7 hours ago, pünktchen said:

Is this the only condition you have set?

Yes, here is an example:

1. Press Add Channel
2. Scroll down to Genre in the Rules section and type "Action"
3. Press Preview 
   This Preview works and displays the list of items
4. Scroll up to Channel Content Type and change to MixedContent
5. Press Preview
   This Preview does not work and the loading spinner spins forever.

As an aside, when I do this and then close the Add Channel dialog without pressing save, the channel is still added to my channel list and I have to manually delete it.

Edited June 2, 2024 by bfir3

[Junglejim 385]

10 hours ago, bfir3 said:

Yes, here is an example:

1. Press Add Channel
2. Scroll down to Genre in the Rules section and type "Action"
3. Press Preview 
   This Preview works and displays the list of items
4. Scroll up to Channel Content Type and change to MixedContent
5. Press Preview
   This Preview does not work and the loading spinner spins forever.

As an aside, when I do this and then close the Add Channel dialog without pressing save, the channel is still added to my channel list and I have to manually delete it.

Do you also make sure that the settings has access to mixed library's?

[bfir3 117]

3 hours ago, Junglejim said:

Do you also make sure that the settings has access to mixed library's?

This option only pops up if you select a user from the dropdown. I have not done this in this case.

But I have tried with the user selected and all of the folders selected without any luck. Also to be clear I'm only testing with the "Preview" function. I have not tried refreshing the guide when the Preview function returns 0 results and shows the spinner endlessly.

The Studios filter works for TV Shows but not Movies or MixedContent while the Genre filter only works for Movies and not TV or MixedContent.

Edited June 3, 2024 by bfir3

[pünktchen 1409]

On 6/2/2024 at 11:30 PM, bfir3 said:

1. Press Add Channel
2. Scroll down to Genre in the Rules section and type "Action"
3. Press Preview 
   This Preview works and displays the list of items
4. Scroll up to Channel Content Type and change to MixedContent
5. Press Preview
   This Preview does not work and the loading spinner spins forever.

Working fine here.

 

14 hours ago, Junglejim said:

Do you also make sure that the settings has access to mixed library's?

For the function alone, it's not necessary. But of course it doesn't make sense to choose only movie libraries, when the channel is set to mixed content.

 

11 hours ago, bfir3 said:

The Studios filter works for TV Shows but not Movies or MixedContent while the Genre filter only works for Movies and not TV or MixedContent.

Cannot confirm. Both is working fine for me.

 

11 hours ago, bfir3 said:

This option only pops up if you select a user from the dropdown. I have not done this in this case.

Here is the problem and the bug. You always have to select library folders as a source!
Without any folder selection, the plugin should never return anything. But currently it does, that's the bug.

[bfir3 117]

28 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

Here is the problem and the bug. You always have to select library folders as a source!
Without any folder selection, the plugin should never return anything. But currently it does, that's the bug.

Okay I will try again with the user and folders selected. The Preview button should correctly return the list yes? Just want to be sure I don't have to regenerate the guide each time to verify.

Thanks for you help.

Edited June 3, 2024 by bfir3

[pünktchen 1409]

20 minutes ago, bfir3 said:

The Preview button should correctly return the list yes?

Yes.

[bfir3 117]

29 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

Yes.

I've just done another test as you recommended.

Here is the virtual channel configuration: 

<VirtualChannel>
      <Id>VirtualTV-67e6e306546e4ad38d7cc9f90703675c</Id>
      <Active>true</Active>
      <ExportChannel>false</ExportChannel>
      <CacheProgramData>true</CacheProgramData>
      <ProgramIndicators>true</ProgramIndicators>
      <Name>Action &amp; Adventure</Name>
      <Number>70</Number>
      <Logo />
      <PrimeTime>00:00</PrimeTime>
      <PlaybackMethod>Playlist (Live)</PlaybackMethod>
      <MoviesWatched>90</MoviesWatched>
      <TvshowsWatched>80</TvshowsWatched>
      <Bumpers />
      <BumpersBreakMin>1</BumpersBreakMin>
      <BumpersBreakMax>1</BumpersBreakMax>
      <BumpersRangeMin>3</BumpersRangeMin>
      <BumpersRangeMax>3</BumpersRangeMax>
      <UserName>virtualtv</UserName>
      <ContentSource>Rules</ContentSource>
      <ContentType>MixedContent</ContentType>
      <WatchedStateMovies>Watched &amp; Unwatched</WatchedStateMovies>
      <WatchedStateTvshows>Watched &amp; Unwatched</WatchedStateTvshows>
      <SortOption>Random Movies, Random interleaved Episodes</SortOption>
      <MixedContentMoviesCount>0</MixedContentMoviesCount>
      <MixedContentEpisodeCount>0</MixedContentEpisodeCount>
      <EpisodeRangeMin>1</EpisodeRangeMin>
      <EpisodeRangeMax>3</EpisodeRangeMax>
      <UserFolders>
        <string>S:\Anime</string>
        <string>S:\Documentary Movies</string>
        <string>S:\Foreign Movies</string>
        <string>S:\Movies</string>
        <string>S:\Animated TV</string>
        <string>S:\Documentary TV</string>
        <string>S:\Foreign TV</string>
        <string>S:\TV</string>
      </UserFolders>
      <UserCollections />
      <UserPlaylists />
      <IncludedItems>
        <string />
      </IncludedItems>
      <ExcludedItems>
        <string />
      </ExcludedItems>
      <ExcludeTags>
        <string />
      </ExcludeTags>
      <AudioLanguage>
        <string />
      </AudioLanguage>
      <SubtitleLanguage>
        <string />
      </SubtitleLanguage>
      <MinCommunityRating xsi:nil="true" />
      <MinCriticRating xsi:nil="true" />
      <MinParentalRating xsi:nil="true" />
      <MaxParentalRating xsi:nil="true" />
      <MinRuntime xsi:nil="true" />
      <MaxRuntime xsi:nil="true" />
      <ReleasedAfter xsi:nil="true" />
      <ReleasedBefore xsi:nil="true" />
      <Tags />
      <Genres>Action</Genres>
      <Actors>
        <string />
      </Actors>
      <Directors>
        <string />
      </Directors>
      <Studios />
      <AllConditions>true</AllConditions>
    </VirtualChannel>

I simply click on the channel from the list and press Preview. The loading spinner spins endlessly and I see this in the console: 

Changing to content type Movies the Preview query will work without issue and returns items within 5-10 seconds. MixedContent and TVShows both fail.

A bit more debugging. I found the getVirtualChannelPreview function and captured the virtualChannel object data that is being sent to the server just to see if there was an issue with that:

{
    "Id": "VirtualTV-67e6e306546e4ad38d7cc9f90703675c",
    "Active": true,
    "ExportChannel": false,
    "CacheProgramData": true,
    "ProgramIndicators": true,
    "Name": "Action & Adventure",
    "Number": "70",
    "Logo": "",
    "PrimeTime": "00:00",
    "PrimeTimeTicks": 0,
    "PlaybackMethod": "Playlist (Live)",
    "MoviesWatched": "90",
    "TvshowsWatched": "80",
    "Bumpers": "",
    "BumpersBreakMin": "1",
    "BumpersBreakMax": "1",
    "BumpersRangeMin": "3",
    "BumpersRangeMax": "3",
    "UserName": "virtualtv",
    "ContentSource": "Rules",
    "ContentType": "TVShows",
    "WatchedStateMovies": "Watched & Unwatched",
    "WatchedStateTvshows": "Watched & Unwatched",
    "SortOption": "Random Series, Random Episodes",
    "MixedContentMoviesCount": "0",
    "MixedContentEpisodeCount": "0",
    "EpisodeRangeMin": "1",
    "EpisodeRangeMax": "3",
    "UserFolders": [
        "S:\\Anime",
        "S:\\Documentary Movies",
        "S:\\Foreign Movies",
        "S:\\Movies",
        "S:\\Animated TV",
        "S:\\Documentary TV",
        "S:\\Foreign TV",
        "S:\\TV"
    ],
    "UserCollections": [],
    "UserPlaylists": [],
    "IncludedItems": [
        ""
    ],
    "ExcludedItems": [
        ""
    ],
    "ExcludeTags": [
        ""
    ],
    "AudioLanguage": [
        ""
    ],
    "SubtitleLanguage": [
        ""
    ],
    "Tags": "",
    "Genres": "Action",
    "Actors": [
        ""
    ],
    "Directors": [
        ""
    ],
    "Studios": "",
    "AllConditions": true,
    "MinCommunityRating": "",
    "MinCriticRating": "",
    "MinParentalRating": "",
    "MaxParentalRating": "",
    "MinRuntime": "",
    "MaxRuntime": "",
    "ReleasedAfter": "",
    "ReleasedBefore": ""
}

This seems to match the channel configuration from the XML so looks fine to me.

EDIT2: I will try again connecting from the local IP address instead of the domain name in case it's some network related issue.

EDIT3: OK same thing with the local IP address. Seems like we've got a very strange issue on our hands! lol

Edited June 3, 2024 by bfir3

[pünktchen 1409]

31 minutes ago, bfir3 said:

Changing to content type Movies the Preview query will work without issue and returns items within 5-10 seconds.

That is very slow. Either your server is not really powerfull or your database/library is really big. In any case, you should only select the folders that you really want to use as a source for a specific channel, not all folders.

[bfir3 117]

4 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

That is very slow. Either your server is not really powerfull or your database/library is really big. In any case, you should only select the folders that you really want to use as a source for a specific channel, not all folders.

I see. So there is some type of limitation based on library size? I assumed it was just making a query to the Emby API with the filters from virtual TV and returning the first X items. I will try limiting the folders more to see if I get different results, but the bulk of my library is only in two folders anyways S:\TV and S:\Movies. According to Emby it's about 6000 movies and 100000 episodes

[pünktchen 1409]

40 minutes ago, bfir3 said:

I see. So there is some type of limitation based on library size? I assumed it was just making a query to the Emby API with the filters from virtual TV and returning the first X items. I will try limiting the folders more to see if I get different results, but the bulk of my library is only in two folders anyways S:\TV and S:\Movies. According to Emby it's about 6000 movies and 100000 episodes

It's these 100.000 episodes that are making trouble. The plugin will check every tv show and every episode against your genre rule. I know, genres at the episode level is really unusual, but if somebody has that, then the plugin can make use of it. What you could try is to limit the query by using  additional conditions like "release date".

Edited June 4, 2024 by pünktchen

[bfir3 117]

11 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

It's these 100.000 episodes that are making trouble. The plugin will check every tv show and every episode against your genre rule. I know, genres at the episode level is really unusual, but if somebody has that, then the plugin can make use of it. What you could try is to limit the query by using  additional conditions like "release date".

The plugin isn't just calling the Emby API with the filters from the plugin limited to X results. It's strange that it would check every single episode individually no?

[pünktchen 1409]

1 minute ago, bfir3 said:

The plugin isn't just calling the Emby API with the filters from the plugin limited to X results.

Neighter nor. There's no limit and the Emby API also doesn't allow conditional statements or wildcards.

7 minutes ago, bfir3 said:

It's strange that it would check every single episode individually no?

Maybe. But it's also strange that someone has so many episodes that they can't watch in their entire life.

I try to code a test plugin version tomorrow that will only check shows for genre.

[bfir3 117]

1 hour ago, pünktchen said:

Neighter nor. There's no limit and the Emby API also doesn't allow conditional statements or wildcards.

Maybe. But it's also strange that someone has so many episodes that they can't watch in their entire life.

I try to code a test plugin version tomorrow that will only check shows for genre.

LOL. That's fair but the server has 120 users so it's not just me watching stuff. Really surprised by the limiting nature of the Emby API.

I do think it's a good idea to check the top level Series for genre instead of each individual episode though. That sounds like it should probably help lol.

I guess the Studio filter for TV shows is checking the Series because that filter seems to work fine. I've had success with it for both TVShows and Movies, but not MixedContent. Definitely looks like an issue with library size. (and possibly my old server hardware)

EDIT: Just to reinforce the problem being related to large libraries as you suspected: I have been doing more tests with Genre filter with MixContent. If I have enough genres with && the items will be returned. So like 3+ genres has been working. 

Edited June 4, 2024 by bfir3

[pünktchen 1409]

5 hours ago, bfir3 said:

I have been doing more tests with Genre filter with MixContent. If I have enough genres with && the items will be returned. So like 3+ genres has been working. 

Then the query itself is not the problem but converting the c# result into json and then returning that as a web response. So while the preview times out, the guide refresh will probably work.

[bfir3 117]

3 hours ago, pünktchen said:

Then the query itself is not the problem but converting the c# result into json and then returning that as a web response. So while the preview times out, the guide refresh will probably work.

Okay that's interesting. I will give it a shot and report back! Thanks.

[bfir3 117]

On 6/4/2024 at 3:16 AM, pünktchen said:

Then the query itself is not the problem but converting the c# result into json and then returning that as a web response. So while the preview times out, the guide refresh will probably work.

Indeed you were absolutely correct! The channel shows episodes and movies from the Action genre with no issues, it was just the Preview that was failing.

Now I have a new question for you: Is there a way to have a channel with specific episodes from one TV Series without using a Tag or any additional changes to my library. For instance if I want a Friends channel I can put Friends into the box:

But as far as I can tell this will search across episodes, etc. and anything with "Friends" in the title will appear. Is there something I'm missing?

[Junglejim 385]

1 hour ago, bfir3 said:

Indeed you were absolutely correct! The channel shows episodes and movies from the Action genre with no issues, it was just the Preview that was failing.

Now I have a new question for you: Is there a way to have a channel with specific episodes from one TV Series without using a Tag or any additional changes to my library. For instance if I want a Friends channel I can put Friends into the box:

But as far as I can tell this will search across episodes, etc. and anything with "Friends" in the title will appear. Is there something I'm missing?

That should usually work but "Friends" is a very generic title. Maybe narrow it down by adding studios "NBC", not sure if that will work, just a idea.

I've never tried this but maybe you could exclude everything else with a wildcard "*"

Edited June 5, 2024 by Junglejim

[pünktchen 1409]

54 minutes ago, bfir3 said:

Now I have a new question for you: Is there a way to have a channel with specific episodes from one TV Series without using a Tag or any additional changes to my library.

No. I suggest you to create a playlist and use that instead of channel rules.

 

56 minutes ago, bfir3 said:

But as far as I can tell this will search across episodes, etc. and anything with "Friends" in the title will appear. Is there something I'm missing?

"Friends" alone will search for the exact title across all items. "*Friends*" will search for anything with that word anywhere in the title.

 

6 minutes ago, Junglejim said:

That should usually work but "Friends" is a very generic title. Maybe narrow it down by adding studios "NBC", not sure if that will work, just a idea.

No, it will not work. "Include these..." is independent of the other rules.

[Junglejim 385]

Or just tag the TV Show "Friends" at the series level and use that..

[n0tanks87 6]

Would anyone know why I am getting this error when I go to make a virtual channel?

[bfir3 117]

9 hours ago, Junglejim said:

Or just tag the TV Show "Friends" at the series level and use that..

Yeah honestly this or the playlist are suitable low-effort workarounds so I will go that route. Thanks for all the help

[pünktchen 1409]

1 hour ago, n0tanks87 said:

Would anyone know why I am getting this error when I go to make a virtual channel?

When does this happen? Right after adding a new channel or when you try to save the channel? In the latter case, you've probably missed a field that must not be empty, like channel name. You could also try another browser to get a meaningful error message.

[n0tanks87 6]

3 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

When does this happen? Right after adding a new channel or when you try to save the channel? In the latter case, you've probably missed a field that must not be empty, like channel name. You could also try another browser to get a meaningful error message.

It's when I save the channel. I filled out all of the boxes that I thought applied. Even added a logo. I tried Firefox and Chrome. Both give the same error. I did get passed the error only to get met with no guide data no matter how I refreshed it. Even force refresh. I must be doing something stupid on my part.