Before I begin, I apologize in advance if this comes across as ungrateful. I appreciate the work Plex has put into the new Collections feature. However, it needs to be two separate features.
The first feature should be focused on movie collections/series/compilations like The Lord of the Rings trilogy or The Godfather movies (struggling to acknowledge it as a trilogy). The default option for this item type should be for it to roll up all movies in the collection into a single item. Alternately, if some people insist on having both the series and the individual movies show in the list, have that available as a secondary option. (I struggle to see the usefulness in this secondary approach if you have properly organized your library, but so be it.)
The second feature should be focused on more generalized sets/groups like Best Picture Winners, Marvel Studios Movies, Coen Brother Films, etc. These items should never impact the presentation of the individual items in the main list and these sets should never appear in the main movies list themselves. I never want these sorts of items cluttering up the movie list. I would take advantage of this organizational approach if available, but only if these groups are accessible from a separate area via the Movies, Collections, Folders selector or in the Libraries list.
Iām not married to the naming approach Iām suggesting here. I acknowledge the complication with naming these two very similar features and the education issues that might go in to teaching users the difference, but the current beta approach is less than ideal. Currently the second feature Iām requesting isnāt possible at all unless Iām willing to accept these items commingling with my movies list. The first feature is possible, but because you canāt choose from collection to collection which collections should hide the items within and which shouldnāt, I can never have anything remotely resembling both group types described above.
I think if you could control visibility of the individual items at the collection level rather than the library level, you could meet this need.
That request would solve a lot of my concerns. The main issue I still have is that I feel more generalized ācollectionsā like Best Picture Winners, Marvel Studios Movies, Coen Brother Films, etc really shouldnāt live in the library list alongside movies. They are a different entity in my opinion and should live on their own. The first typeārolled up series collectionsāmake sense in the library list.
@tom80H said:
āSetsā = an option for filtering the way collections used to be before getting their recent overhaul?
Is this the way collections used to work? I honestly overlooked the Collections feature completely until this most recent beta.
Used to be a tag you could add/enter when editing the movie (Edit > Tags > Collection). Until the recent update, thereās been no visual representation ā except you could filter by collection and when using DLNA you had an own āfolderā to access movies By Collection.
So in a way you could achieve this if a future enhancement of collections will allow to edit visibility on collection-level, deciding that certain collections wonāt show āinlineā ā those collections could however still be available for filtering as well as in the dedicated āCollectionsā view.
Wouldnāt āsmartā playlist be a better option for this? Then you could find these sets/groups (your second feature) where you can now find your playlist, you would have a separate view from your collection where you can find your āsets/groupsā. A smart playlist would maybe give suggestions for grouping of you could make your own filter or just add them as you would with a regular playlist. (Ex. a Best Picture Winner, Pixar movies, playlist) Could also have an auto add movies to your playlist option. There would still need to be a solution to add multiple tags to you movies/tv-shows and be in control which collections you want to be shown.
@ynkvx said:
Wouldnāt āsmartā playlist be a better option for this?
Smart playlists donāt exist in Plex currently do they? I would LOVE some āsmartā filtering way to setup collections by favorite director, studio, or even genre. I would still want to be able to assign cover art to these groupings and have sort control though.
Iāve never used playlists in Plex other than to set one up to see how they work. Playlist implies that Iām grouping items I plan to play together, something Iāve never been interested in doing. I really wish I could hide the playlist, channels, and news items from Plex since I donāt intend to use any of those features.
they doā¦
filter/sort your library as you like it (e.g. w/ custom filters) and create a playlist from that view.
youāll notice playlists created like this have a small gear-icon on their icon.
@tom80H said:
they doā¦
filter/sort your library as you like it (e.g. w/ custom filters) and create a playlist from that view.
youāll notice playlists created like this have a small gear-icon on their icon.
What does it say about Plex (or myself) that Iāve used it for almost ten years and there are still features like this that I was completely unaware of?
You can now create āsmart collectionsā from the (new) advanced filter. While can be configured to show inline with your library (same as the classic/static collections), they will not interfere with how their content is presented otherwise.
This requires PMS 1.22.3 and Plex Web 4.56.3 (currently only available in the hosted web app) or Plex for Mac/Windows 1.31.0.
I take it this covers the original suggestion and am therefore going to consider this as implemented.
