I do not disagree with that, but it would be unattainable in some of the clients. PHT could handle it, but I doubt it would be effective in Roku or AppleTV. Both of these are basically populating a list directly from the server into UI elements as part of their SDK. They are great at populating lists, but not so great at doing any significant manipulations to the lists.
I would love to have this functionality, but I would love to have smart playlists in general (other threads).
I enjoy the discussion, I just don't want an intermingled collections/single film view to become the default. I'm all for it being an option, just not the default. For this to be implemented effectively across most clients, it needs to be part of the API. It could still have an impact on performance because the queries to flatten the view between single movies and collections will take more resources. Doing this in the server makes much more sense than anywhere else, but it could have some performance impacts that would mean it should be an optional setting.
As an aside, I would love several related features that are probably better housed in other threads:
Search by collection name (so we don't have to put James Bond in the title), sort title, description, studio (check how many different Disney studio variations you have in your data)
Smart collections (playlists) by the same criteria available in search
Sharing collections (especially smart collections) in addition to sharing sections
My issue is not with additional functionality but with those espousing that the system is a failure in its current state because it does not support this view as the default. Were the system as unwieldy as that assumes, far fewer people would have gone to the trouble of using it on a daily basis. Plex works. It has room for improvement, but it still represents a far better mix of features and accessibility (to a number of clients like the Roku and Chromecast) than any other option out there.
I also prefer the Default that is currently the standard, and from my point of view all the "creating / custom-listing" is done using the WEB-GUI, the client should continue simply reading the lists and all the work is carried out by the server.
That way we don't break the "thin" clients, and adds the option of having more powerful clients and/or skins with more capabilities; for the users that want them.
Presenting these "collections / playlists" is not a problem for any client.
And yes, Plex will most likely always have room for improvements and this is part of what makes it so great. Our content and the way we use it is ever changing, if Plex manages to keep up I'm certain to continue being a very satisfied user.
This feature in my opinion is 100% required for PHT. it is the primary reason i havent converted my home systems to plex yet. I love plex and it is used on all my mobile devices but i'd love to transition to it 100% so i dont need to maintain 2 databases.
All i want from this feature is an option in settings to "flatten all movies into collection" so that it is visible when i select all movies. I dont want to filter or search i just want to view my whole movie array with movies that are apart of a series (series defined by tmdb - ie ironman, dark knight, indy jones) to be flattened to 1 line call something like "Ironman Collection" and when that collection is selected it should open a sub branch or another window that shows me the movies in that collection. since the feature is pretty much how tv series works i dare say it shouldnt be hard to implement and for those who dont want the feature make is an option in settings.
not saying XBMC is better and sometimes i hate to even compare but this feature is in xbmc and it is an option that can be turned on and off so no one loses.
got this from a google search but this is screenshot of the Collections feature i'd like to see added to Plex. Yes its from xbmc but its honestly a great feature.
I've been meaning to request exactly what joells101 cited above. This thread got a bit monstrous for such a simple request, but this is the biggest thing I want from XBMC (not enough to go back and use it, of course).
Collections as Plex currently has them implemented make sense for making ad hoc groups of your own media (to each their own); however, for known movie series/collections/groups that are already tracked by the likes of moviedb.org, there's no reason for them not to be sorted/grouped correctly directly in the main view. And, again, this can simply be turned on/off by users based on preference.
I can't imagine this being too difficult to implement in most clients, either...but what do I know.
And, not to get ahead of myself, or off topic, but I also feel that this kind of grouping for media would prove useful when it comes to multiple cuts of a movie or other special features...for both movies and tv shows (even if we have to manually add the metadata).
* I'm sure there's a good way to visually identify that an item has special features or multiple cuts so people know that there is another level. And, perhaps let one item be assigned as default, and allow users to play directly from that level (i.e., without navigating to the level with the listing of other items).
Again, not trying to distract from the intent of the thread, just feel that the subjects relate...so wanted to share. If it would be better for me to start a new thread linking the subjects, let me know.
This thread definitely needs a lot more attention but i fear because its labelled poorly it isn't getting it. If i start a new thread the mods, will just close it won't they?
Since Plex now has movie collection functionality, I created a new feature request complete with mock-ups) that shows a proposed approach to quickly get to such movie collections from the main menu. As it stands now there are many steps required to surface those collections. With my approach, the user could also sort a collection by name, release date etc. using the current interface.
Here is my suggested feature request:
If you like it, please vote for it by clicking on the ‘Like’ button in the above post.
Collections is already a listed vote with 749 likes. it is towards the top of the chain and would be higher if everyone that voted here goes there to vote. (link provided below)
REMEMBER: Voting is tallied by likes. Added +1 or such doesn’t get counted. Use the LIKE button for it to count
For anyone interested, I spent a little time and pulled all of the posts related to “Collections” (that I could find) into sort of a summary post with counts. Its pretty interesting to see how many posts there were on the same idea and how popular a lot of them were. Just goes to show how many people are interested in this feature and also on how little attention it seems to be getting from the development team :-/ Maybe by pulling together some stats we might be able to encourage some actual progress?
