VirtualTV plugin

[FefeHern 1]

Just now, pünktchen said:

They won't be shown in the guide but played after the normal program entries.

Apologies, I mean to say when I watch the live TV normal programs, the bumpers haven't been appearing at all. I see that near the ending / credits for shows, Emby prepares to show the next normal episode (Watch, cancel options) and if I let the TV show end, the next show plays automatically with no bumper inbetween

[pünktchen 1409]

2 minutes ago, FefeHern said:

I mean to say when I watch the live TV normal programs, the bumpers haven't been appearing at all.

Have you let it play two programs? That's what you set as maximum videos.

[pünktchen 1409]

On 11/24/2025 at 8:08 PM, podonnell said:

Is it possible to create a filter such as this on language?

No, not yet. I plan to do some maintenance at the holidays.

[FefeHern 1]

3 minutes ago, pünktchen said:

Have you let it play two programs? That's what you set as maximum videos.

Yeah, I've had it running for three episodes today. Yesterday I've had it running for hours with TV Shows, but no bumpers showed up for any of the channels (I've enabled it for all)

[pünktchen 1409]

5 minutes ago, FefeHern said:

Yeah, I've had it running for three episodes today. Yesterday I've had it running for hours with TV Shows, but no bumpers showed up for any of the channels (I've enabled it for all)

Please compare the length of some program entries with the actual runtime of the library entries. Is it always the same?

[FefeHern 1]

Here's the current episode running on VirtualTV. I've included the guide's runtime (Left side, green), the actual video's expected ending runtime (Right side, blue) and my time (bottom right, pink)

From the looks of it, the lengths all match and once it hit 2:36PM, it immediately went to the next episode.

[pünktchen 1409]

@FefeHernYou did not understand what i've wanted from you. Every live tv program entry is based of a video from your library. You should compare the duration of that video in your library with the runtime of the live tv program entry. You should compare that for multiple items, because of your settings some program entries will definitely do not have bumpers assigned.

[Dibbes 514]

@pünktchenHey, it's been a while since I had issues. Still majorly enjoying this plugin.

Either way, I'm not sure what's going on here, but editing a channel is now taking around 45min for it to save. I made some path modifications within my library and needed to update the channels as well, however, whenever clicking either of the "save" buttons, it's taking a very long time to save, locking up the database in the process. There are no active sessions and no library scan or anything going on. Hope you have ideas, otherwise it's going to take me days to edit all channels.

The specs of the server can be found here in the first User: 

 

This is what the log says:

 

2025-11-30 00:42:14.130 Debug SqliteItemRepository: GetItems query time (slow 6x): 4178ms. Query:
    with WithAncestors AS (SELECT itemid FROM AncestorIds2 WHERE AncestorId in (31829902,31829901,5475071,32118211,31554581,32118209,32837561,48756,29669038,31421295,29686337,32685249,32068337,32844633,5883302,31502877,28964775,5487143,29716705,31313412,32702657,32086576,32992798,32992797,31812139) )select count(*) OVER() AS TotalRecordCount,ListItems.ListItemEntryId,(Select ShareLevel from UserItemShares join AncestorIds2 on AncestorIds2.AncestorId=UserItemShares.ItemId where UserItemShares.UserId=9 and UserItemShares.ShareLevel not null and AncestorIds2.ItemId=A.Id order by Distance limit 1) as ShareLevel from mediaitems A join ListItems on A.Id=ListItems.ListItemId And ListItems.ListId=33136467 left join ( select AncestorIds2.ItemId from AncestorIds2 join ItemLinks2 ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner on ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.Type=4 and ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.LinkedId=33220193 and ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.ItemId=AncestorIds2.AncestorId) itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids on itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids.ItemId=A.Id left join UserDatas on A.UserDataKeyId=UserDatas.UserDataKeyId And UserDatas.UserId=9 where itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids.itemid is null AND (Coalesce(ShareLevel, 0) > 0 OR A.Type in (1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,34,35) OR A.IsPublic=1) AND A.Id in WithAncestors Group by A.Id LIMIT 1
2025-11-30 00:42:14.131 Debug App: Sqlite: 284 - automatic index on itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids(ItemId)
2025-11-30 00:42:18.934 Debug SqliteItemRepository: GetItems query time (slow 6x): 4803ms. Query:
    with WithAncestors AS (SELECT itemid FROM AncestorIds2 WHERE AncestorId in (31829902,31829901,5475071,32118211,31554581,32118209,32837561,48756,29669038,31421295,29686337,32685249,32068337,32844633,5883302,31502877,28964775,5487143,29716705,31313412,32702657,32086576,32992798,32992797,31812139) )select count(*) OVER() AS TotalRecordCount,ListItems.ListItemEntryId,(Select ShareLevel from UserItemShares join AncestorIds2 on AncestorIds2.AncestorId=UserItemShares.ItemId where UserItemShares.UserId=9 and UserItemShares.ShareLevel not null and AncestorIds2.ItemId=A.Id order by Distance limit 1) as ShareLevel from mediaitems A join ListItems on A.Id=ListItems.ListItemId And ListItems.ListId=33136482 left join ( select AncestorIds2.ItemId from AncestorIds2 join ItemLinks2 ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner on ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.Type=4 and ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.LinkedId=33220193 and ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.ItemId=AncestorIds2.AncestorId) itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids on itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids.ItemId=A.Id left join UserDatas on A.UserDataKeyId=UserDatas.UserDataKeyId And UserDatas.UserId=9 where itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids.itemid is null AND (Coalesce(ShareLevel, 0) > 0 OR A.Type in (1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,34,35) OR A.IsPublic=1) AND A.Id in WithAncestors Group by A.Id LIMIT 1
2025-11-30 00:42:18.941 Debug App: Sqlite: 284 - automatic index on itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids(ItemId)
2025-11-30 00:42:23.526 Debug SqliteItemRepository: GetItems query time (slow 6x): 4585ms. Query:
    with WithAncestors AS (SELECT itemid FROM AncestorIds2 WHERE AncestorId in (31829902,31829901,5475071,32118211,31554581,32118209,32837561,48756,29669038,31421295,29686337,32685249,32068337,32844633,5883302,31502877,28964775,5487143,29716705,31313412,32702657,32086576,32992798,32992797,31812139) )select count(*) OVER() AS TotalRecordCount,ListItems.ListItemEntryId,(Select ShareLevel from UserItemShares join AncestorIds2 on AncestorIds2.AncestorId=UserItemShares.ItemId where UserItemShares.UserId=9 and UserItemShares.ShareLevel not null and AncestorIds2.ItemId=A.Id order by Distance limit 1) as ShareLevel from mediaitems A join ListItems on A.Id=ListItems.ListItemId And ListItems.ListId=33136495 left join ( select AncestorIds2.ItemId from AncestorIds2 join ItemLinks2 ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner on ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.Type=4 and ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.LinkedId=33220193 and ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.ItemId=AncestorIds2.AncestorId) itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids on itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids.ItemId=A.Id left join UserDatas on A.UserDataKeyId=UserDatas.UserDataKeyId And UserDatas.UserId=9 where itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids.itemid is null AND (Coalesce(ShareLevel, 0) > 0 OR A.Type in (1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,34,35) OR A.IsPublic=1) AND A.Id in WithAncestors Group by A.Id LIMIT 1
2025-11-30 00:42:23.527 Debug App: Sqlite: 284 - automatic index on itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids(ItemId)
2025-11-30 00:42:28.431 Debug SqliteItemRepository: GetItems query time (slow 6x): 4903ms. Query:
    with WithAncestors AS (SELECT itemid FROM AncestorIds2 WHERE AncestorId in (31829902,31829901,5475071,32118211,31554581,32118209,32837561,48756,29669038,31421295,29686337,32685249,32068337,32844633,5883302,31502877,28964775,5487143,29716705,31313412,32702657,32086576,32992798,32992797,31812139) )select count(*) OVER() AS TotalRecordCount,ListItems.ListItemEntryId,(Select ShareLevel from UserItemShares join AncestorIds2 on AncestorIds2.AncestorId=UserItemShares.ItemId where UserItemShares.UserId=9 and UserItemShares.ShareLevel not null and AncestorIds2.ItemId=A.Id order by Distance limit 1) as ShareLevel from mediaitems A join ListItems on A.Id=ListItems.ListItemId And ListItems.ListId=33136508 left join ( select AncestorIds2.ItemId from AncestorIds2 join ItemLinks2 ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner on ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.Type=4 and ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.LinkedId=33220193 and ItemLinksExcludeInheritedTagIdsInner.ItemId=AncestorIds2.AncestorId) itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids on itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids.ItemId=A.Id left join UserDatas on A.UserDataKeyId=UserDatas.UserDataKeyId And UserDatas.UserId=9 where itemlinksexcludeinheritedtagids.itemid is null AND (Coalesce(ShareLevel, 0) > 0 OR A.Type in (1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,34,35) OR A.IsPublic=1) AND A.Id in WithAncestors Group by A.Id LIMIT 1
 

 

Edited November 29, 2025 by Dibbes

[pünktchen 1409]

@DibbesWhen saving a channel config, the plugin queries the library for that specific channel to update the channel image afterwards. The library query is probably what can be seen in your log snippet, but that takes "only" about 4 seconds. Although i'm not sure about that part, because the plugin does an impersonal query, so i don't know how "UserDatas" come into play. So where's the part that captures the other 45 minutes?

[Dibbes 514]

2 hours ago, pünktchen said:

@DibbesWhen saving a channel config, the plugin queries the library for that specific channel to update the channel image afterwards. The library query is probably what can be seen in your log snippet, but that takes "only" about 4 seconds. Although i'm not sure about that part, because the plugin does an impersonal query, so i don't know how "UserDatas" come into play. So where's the part that captures the other 45 minutes?

If you want a few 1000s of identical lines, I'll DM you the full log

[pünktchen 1409]

9 hours ago, Dibbes said:

If you want a few 1000s of identical lines, I'll DM you the full log

Yes, please do so.

[podonnell 47]

For the episode balancing, if I want pure random I would set everything to 0?

Could someone help me understand the percentage bar? Let's say I had 3 shows: one has 10 episodes, one has 50, and one has 100.
Is this about how often a show is repeated, or just generally chosen when a guide is refreshed?
Is my understanding that if I set it to 50%, the TV show with 100 episodes would be chosen no more than 50 times, and the other two would be chosen 25 and 5 times?

[pünktchen 1409]

1 hour ago, podonnell said:

Could someone help me understand the percentage bar? Let's say I had 3 shows: one has 10 episodes, one has 50, and one has 100.
Is this about how often a show is repeated, or just generally chosen when a guide is refreshed?
Is my understanding that if I set it to 50%, the TV show with 100 episodes would be chosen no more than 50 times, and the other two would be chosen 25 and 5 times?

The percentage slider means before a list with all episodes is fed into the randomizer, that episodes of all tv shows are repeated until the percentage of the tv show with highest number of episodes. So in your example, the tv show with only 10 episodes is repeated 5 times to reach 50 episodes, which is 50 percent of the show with the highest number - 100. The show with 50 episodes already fulfills that condition. I hope that makes sense!

[Dibbes 514]

On 11/30/2025 at 1:56 PM, pünktchen said:

Yes, please do so.

Sent! I'll send you another this afternoon, as soon as I can block the server for another hour

Edit: 2nd sent. Enjoy

Edited December 1, 2025 by Dibbes

[podonnell 47]

Started experiencing very long (unending?) Guide refresh jobs.
I popped into my dashboard today and saw it was stuck at 15%

Restarted the server and tried again, and it goes right to 15% but doesn't appear to move.
I only use VirtualTV as a provider currently, and I have no guide data sources.

Is there something specific I can look for in the logs? Also if this is better shared in a main thread and not VirtualTV let me know.

Thanks!

[pünktchen 1409]

4 hours ago, podonnell said:

Started experiencing very long (unending?) Guide refresh jobs.
I popped into my dashboard today and saw it was stuck at 15%

Restarted the server and tried again, and it goes right to 15% but doesn't appear to move.
I only use VirtualTV as a provider currently, and I have no guide data sources.

Is there something specific I can look for in the logs? Also if this is better shared in a main thread and not VirtualTV let me know.

Thanks!

Was there an Emby version update to your machine or did you change some in the plugin channel configs that could trigger your issue?

There where multiple similar reports in the beginning of last year caused by some Emby database changes, but since then only one user reported that issue. His problem was that Emby could not access one if his libraries anymore.

To see at which stage of the guide refresh task the issue occurs, you will need to enable debug logging for Emby and within the plugin and probably also Debugging of Program Building Times in the plugin settings.

[podonnell 47]

16 hours ago, pünktchen said:

Was there an Emby version update to your machine or did you change some in the plugin channel configs that could trigger your issue?

There where multiple similar reports in the beginning of last year caused by some Emby database changes, but since then only one user reported that issue. His problem was that Emby could not access one if his libraries anymore.

To see at which stage of the guide refresh task the issue occurs, you will need to enable debug logging for Emby and within the plugin and probably also Debugging of Program Building Times in the plugin settings.

Hey thanks for this info. It looks like in changing some of the episode balancing settings, I set Episodes of the same tv show to 0 for minimum and maximum.
I changed this to 1 and 2 and it has recovered.

I think this means at most 2 episodes back to back, and at least 1 within the block of the guide refresh?

[pünktchen 1409]

10 minutes ago, podonnell said:

I think this means at most 2 episodes back to back, and at least 1 within the block of the guide refresh?

Yes.

[bovaflux 0]

Hello, a random suggestion that came into my head based on recent news events…

Would it be possible to expand what we can add to actor/director fields in channel rules so that we could for example set up a memorial channel for any directors/actors who have passed away in the last x years? Feels like it would be feasible as emby already pulls dates for people in its metadata.

[MarkE2794 1]

Hi I have been using the VirtualTV plugin for a while now and its been great recently though when I add a new channel it wont let me choose folders to find the selected media. It also does the same thing with collections. I even tried doing a fresh install following above. Is there a way to fix this?

[pünktchen 1409]

2 hours ago, MarkE2794 said:

when I add a new channel it wont let me choose folders to find the selected media.

And of course you've selected a user beforehand?

[MarkE2794 1]

yes i chose my own profile

Edited December 22, 2025 by MarkE2794

[pünktchen 1409]

1 hour ago, MarkE2794 said:

yes i chose my own profile

What server version?

[MarkE2794 1]

Version 4.9.1.90

[alex77777 16]

I have Virtual TV and Comskip plugins installed, before updating to 4.9.1.90 Comskip would work on content that was played via Virtual TV. but now it seems to be broken. When I play a channel that is playing content with commercials that Comskip would typically skip it only skips the commercials on the episode that I started on but all future episodes in that viewing session wont skip. When I go and play those episodes outside of Virtual TV they skip no problem, they only don't work when viewed with Virtual TV . I am using Playlist (Live) as my playback method. Hopefully I explained that well, if not let me know and ill elaborate more. 

This seems to only affect the Apple TV, I have the app and OS up to date as well. Anyone have any suggestions or solutions to this issue? 

Thanks