Can we make the shuffle more random?

[liam_deschamp_hotmail_co_uk]

Hey guys , I watch a lot of the same tv series almost everyday when I go to bed (the office)
Every night I hit shuffle , and some times we get random episodes but most nights it will pay the same episode time and time again , it’s like the algorithm just picks looks at the number of episodes and picks the same ones in the same order , I have noticed this quiet often , it’s not every night it’s the same , just every other night , I’m finding my self more and more hitting the shuffle button again and again as the same episodes are playing within the same week of each other ,

Is this just because I’m watching so many episodes or is the shuffle just a set algorithm ?

Is there any way we can make it more random ? And not as predictable?

[CostaHT]

Actually, you want it less random.
You can create a smart playlist that will hide the played episodes

Or even better, a smart playlist that will only show episodes that haven’t been played in the last x days.

[JuiceWSA]

That will work for the Admin account.
Shared Users can’t see TV Shows in a Smart Collection:

TV Library Smart Collections fail to load correctly

PMS Version 1.22.3.4392 PlexWeb Version 4.56.3 I just got done creating a bunch of Smart Collections. They seem to work perfectly for my admin account but the TV Collections are empty on my test user account. Movie Smart Collections do seem to load correctly for my test user. What my admin account sees [Imgur] What my test user account sees [Imgur] User account also has access to …

IF there’s a fix approaching - it’s being very stealthy.

I got a random shuffle of my 3 Music Libraries back in operation - by physically removing ALL Popular Tracks in all 3 of my Music Libraries Via The Plex Dance. Before that I got a ‘Random Shuffle’ of the Popular Tracks - which left a lot to be desired.

You can’t do that with TV Shows - no Popular Tracks to get rid of.

[tom80H]

@CostaHT : I suppose there’s a separate suggestion for your use case… though what you described seems to make more sense to me

Shuffle should randomly play unwatched episodes first before watched episodes

I watch several shows like American Dad or Family Guy in shuffle mode. However, when I watch in shuffle mode, I seem to get several of the same episodes over and over yet unwatched episodes are rarely getting played, possibly because there are so many episodes. I think the proper order for shuffle should be: Randomly play episodes from the list unwatched episodes until there are no more unwatched episodes then go to number 2 Randomly play episodes but flag them so they do not play in shuffle …

[liam_deschamp_hotmail_co_uk]

Hey , forgot to mention all episodes have been watched , I have seen them all well over 15 times per episode , so non watched episodes isn’t a thing for me I just want totally random shuffle that isn’t playing the same ones every time I click shuffle every other night

[MetalMichael]

+1. This is also happening to me. Often it plays the pilot or the final episode. Not sure if there’s some “rounding” if the random number is out of bounds of the show.

That said, it also plays the same episodes time and time again, even that aren’t first/last. For example I was shuffling Futurama today, and 2 episodes came up that were also played on Shuffle at the weekend (I played around 5 episodes total before, and only 3 today). Doesn’t seem probable that they would both come up again. I know true randomness is unusual, but using a hypergeometric calculator, there seems to be around a 1% probability that this would happen given the sample sizes, if it were truly random.

This is just one example, anecdotally I’ve noticed it happening many times before.

[TurnbullHome]

I have also noticed that if I create a playlist that contains multiple tv shows with lots of episodes that the shuffle just sits there spins and I eventually have to back out and just pick an episode.