PseudoTV

Feature Suggestions
81

@cayars said:
I originally thought this was a dumb idea since it sort of defeats the normal way of using a media server. But then it started to make sense. It’s like owning your own broadcasting network(s).

I could see setting up several “channels” such as:
Cartoons - ie Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron, Scooby-Doo
Crime Drama - CSI(s), NCIS(s), Law & Orders(s), NYPD Blue
Medical Shows - Scrubs, ER, Grey’s Anatomy, House, Bones
Classics - I love Lucy, All in the Family, Archie Bunker’s Place, Jeffersons, The Bionic Man & Woman, Columbo, Green Acres, Gunsmoke, Happy Days, Hogan’s Heroes, The Honeymooners
Comedy - The Big Bang Theory, New Girl, Two & a Half Men, The Office
Adult Shows - Curb Your Enthusiasm, Californication, Entourage, Game of Thrones, Las Vegas, Masters of ****, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Oz, Orange is the New Black, etc
Discovery/Science Channel - Animal Science, Cosmos, Deadly Islands, Meteorite Men, MythBusters, River Monsters, etc

Of course some shows could overlap categories.

I guess my question would be how do you handle the order of shows? Would you want them purely random or would you take all shows from a category and “randomize” them so you are watching them in order but mixed in with each other.

So say show A has six season with 10 episodes each (60 total). Show B has 5 seasons with 6 episodes each (30 total). Expand out. But with just these two shows you would get roughly 2 shows of A for every B show.

If it’s purely random some TV series wouldn’t work well as you really need to watch them in order to understand the timelines, etc.

It would be ideal if we could choose to add only shows, only movies or a combination. For shows you could add the actual show and for movies a genre perhaps.

This could be a very powerful addition to Plex if done correctly. Would be especially powerful for those with small children.

The more I think about this idea, the more I like it.

The only option I really want, if this ever becomes a thing, is the option to only I could watched content. I wouldn’t want to be thrown into an episode of game of thrones season 5 when I’m at season 2…

Otherwise I’d love it.

82

Could you retype that again. Seems like something in the middle got cut out or is missing. Hard to tell what you were saying.

83

It is like owning my own “Broadcast Network”. I have an antenna and get very few channels - PTVL allows me to mix my media with live TV to create a channel surfing experience - something I miss after getting rid of cable. While I would like to see Plex implement something like it, I have stated previously that I don’t think Plex will - it doesn’t seem to fit with the way most users use their product.

However, Plex could implement some of this functionality by changing the way Playlists are displayed. They could display them in a similar fashion as PTVL shows channels - playlists listed vertically and list what’s in the playlist queues horizontally allowing the user to maneuver forward/backward within the queue. Presently, we have to select the Playlist to see and maneuver through the queue.

It wouldn’t need to be as complex as PTVL. I built most of channels in PTVL using playlists of playlists, channel interleaving (on some channels), and have PTVL set to show episodes in order. The episodes will play in order, but there is some randomeness to it - I might get three consequtive epsodes of “American Horror Story” followed by a single episode of Fear the Walking Dead". The next time “American Horror Story” comes up, it will be the next episode.

Completely random isn’t good - There was stretch of about 6 months where “play shows in order” didn’t work on PTVL and that was annoying.

Name of the Playlist on the left, with the items in the playlist on the right.

84

@cayars said:
Could you retype that again. Seems like something in the middle got cut out or is missing. Hard to tell what you were saying.

Lol just the stupid autocorrect…

I’m saying id want the option to not include unwatched content in my pseudotv channels.

85

@KarlDag said:

@cayars said:
Could you retype that again. Seems like something in the middle got cut out or is missing. Hard to tell what you were saying.

Lol just the stupid autocorrect…

I’m saying id want the option to not include unwatched content in my pseudotv channels.

Or you were saying you want the option to only include watched content in the pseudotv channels. Right? Double negatives are difficult to understand. :-/

86

He’s saying he only wants WATCHED shows to work in pseudotv. This way the order wouldn’t’ matter.

This to me would be “Re-Run TV” :slight_smile: I’d prefer to have all episodes or only unwatched.

If Plex was to build this flexible then we could both set it up the way we want it to work since it’s only a filter difference!

87

Right, now I get it.

Yeah I would still really really like this feature… I do that sometimes, turn on the tv or radio, and then do something productive while it plays in the background and I don’t really have to pay full undivided attention to it. It’s like an ambient thing. :slight_smile: This is also why I’d prefer it to be watched content, as I’d want to watch it with full attention if it’s something I haven’t seen yet.

1 Like
88

I tried recreating this with smart playlists, and it really isn’t the same. While you can narrow down to source channel, and age rating etc which is great. There’s obviously no us to view concurrent playlists/channels as if it were realtime, and also something very annoying to me is, for each episode the smart playlist starts it adds to the On Deck homescreen, so if you start a comedy playlists that has 5000 shows, and you play them randomly, skipping each until you get to one you want to watch (say the 12th episode along) you ep with dozens of partially started episodes in the On Deck, that mix with the shows and movies you are actually watching in chronological order, and it really spoils the whole experience. We just need an option to hide smartplaylist viewed content from On Deck, and a EPG to simulate realtime concurrent channels.

89

@cayars said:
If Plex was to build this flexible then we could both set it up the way we want it to work since it’s only a filter difference!

I’m just hoping the flexible aspect isn’t in question. People definitely need to be able to configure it to their tastes.

@nascent said:
We just need an option to hide smartplaylist viewed content from On Deck

I’ve been using playlists in the meantime and this is my biggest complaint (aside from wondering how random shuffle really gets). There should be a setting when creating a playlist as to whether or not you want it to be factored in On Deck. As it stands right now, if I have a playlist of multiple shows on shuffle, I’ll end up with a useless On Deck listing random shows and random episodes to watch. (I’d also want a similar setting indicating whether or not you want it to mark things as watched).

I may have gotten off target since this thread is about PseudoTV, which I still want, but I feel like a few options added to Playlists in the meantime could go a long way too. (and these configurable features should then also be available for PseudoTV)

90

I played around with this for a while using Playlists around 3am this morning. Actually played with this for more than I’d care to admit. :slight_smile:

If you don’t care about the order the TV Shows are shown in since you’ve already watched them (EG Gilligan’s Island, MASH, Three Stooges, I Love Lucy) you can do this with playlists and and random functions playback for the most part. Of course the playlist you create is only good for the person who created it and not system wide.

For what I wanted (never seen before episodes) it’s no where near as easy to do in Plex using playlists. Maybe a plug in possibly but they seem to be unreliable.

I’m not sure who’s arm we should twist to get this implemented but surely @elan should take notice as 90+ of the coding is already done and this would/could add a slick new way to view TV Shows.

91

@AnEightiesGuy good call on the OnDeck.

Yes, I noticed this also. If you load up some shows in a playlist and watch them it does “fubar” your OnDeck.

I’d think I’d personally be fine if is our pseudo TV was outside of the ondeck regardless of use. Depending on how someone set this up it could get quite tricky to figure out when/if it should be listed in the ondeck.

If we took the approach that OnDeck isn’t updated unless you actually viewed the show from within a TV Show library then we might all agree this is the best way to implement this. Put another way Pseudo TV won’t affect OnDeck (unless there is a new Pseudo TV ondeck item!) :slight_smile:

92

@AnEightiesGuy said:

@cayars said:
If Plex was to build this flexible then we could both set it up the way we want it to work since it’s only a filter difference!

I’m just hoping the flexible aspect isn’t in question. People definitely need to be able to configure it to their tastes.

@nascent said:
We just need an option to hide smartplaylist viewed content from On Deck

I’ve been using playlists in the meantime and this is my biggest complaint (aside from wondering how random shuffle really gets). There should be a setting when creating a playlist as to whether or not you want it to be factored in On Deck. As it stands right now, if I have a playlist of multiple shows on shuffle, I’ll end up with a useless On Deck listing random shows and random episodes to watch. (I’d also want a similar setting indicating whether or not you want it to mark things as watched).

I may have gotten off target since this thread is about PseudoTV, which I still want, but I feel like a few options added to Playlists in the meantime could go a long way too. (and these configurable features should then also be available for PseudoTV)

This. Build it out natively.

93

@cayars said:
@AnEightiesGuy good call on the OnDeck.

Yes, I noticed this also. If you load up some shows in a playlist and watch them it does “fubar” your OnDeck.

I’d think I’d personally be fine if is our pseudo TV was outside of the ondeck regardless of use. Depending on how someone set this up it could get quite tricky to figure out when/if it should be listed in the ondeck.

If we took the approach that OnDeck isn’t updated unless you actually viewed the show from within a TV Show library then we might all agree this is the best way to implement this. Put another way Pseudo TV won’t affect OnDeck (unless there is a new Pseudo TV ondeck item!) :slight_smile:

Yup that would make me happy, probably… But imagine this: you’re watching pseudotv, and watch game of thrones s03e05. It doesn’t mess up your on deck, but when you do come around to watch the series, after s03e04 your on deck will skip to s03e06 because e05 is already marked as watched… So really it needs to not affect your watched status , or at least have that option.

94

The way PMS does channels is by web based m3u playlists. The way existing Channels functionality is defined, it doesn’t lend itself to a traditional EPG. The DVR side does have it’s own program guide methodology, but since the conventional cable box program guide layout and functionality is copy-written… it wasn’t used.
However, it seems to me, the logical thing would be to add some code to leverage existing playlist logic and existing program guide logic, have a streamlined means to a smashing new feature.

95

I took my +1 away because I tried out the kodi version and it’s actually nothing like channel surfing. The idea sounds amazing and compelling and on the surface it seems like it should work, but it doesn’t.

Channel surfing is a smooth, seamless experience that has an element of instant gratification to it - you find out everything you need to know as soon as you flip that channel. With psuedoTV there are wait times between channels. Not too long when it’s from your server, and times vary drastically when it’s streamed from the web but both are long enough that flipping through channels becomes tiresome quickly.

There are a bunch of other reasons (numerous tv channels that repeat the same show or 2 (or even 3) over and over again (and I have 2500 episodes of TV), subpar internet content, no mixed media channels (e.g. one show is from my server the next show in the queue is on the net)), but I used psuedo tv for about 4 - 5 hours and then deleted it, I just don’t see this working well enough.

96

@adamstewiegreen said:
I took my +1 away because I tried out the kodi version and it’s actually nothing like channel surfing. The idea sounds amazing and compelling and on the surface it seems like it should work, but it doesn’t.

Channel surfing is a smooth, seamless experience that has an element of instant gratification to it - you find out everything you need to know as soon as you flip that channel. With psuedoTV there are wait times between channels. Not too long when it’s from your server, and times vary drastically when it’s streamed from the web but both are long enough that flipping through channels becomes tiresome quickly.

There are a bunch of other reasons (numerous tv channels that repeat the same show or 2 (or even 3) over and over again (and I have 2500 episodes of TV), subpar internet content, no mixed media channels (e.g. one show is from my server the next show in the queue is on the net)), but I used psuedo tv for about 4 - 5 hours and then deleted it, I just don’t see this working well enough.

Agreed, it’s very buggy right now. Apparently in version 0.9 lots of the code is rewritten.

It would be completely different if done in Plex because they have both control of the server and the client already… But I see your point.

97

@adamstewiegreen
Another agree. Current PseudoTV Live 0.8.0f version (using Krypton) has scrolling issues, channel order issues, loading issues… I’ve stopped using it until 0.9 comes along.

Regular PseudoTV working fine - I can scroll through channels faster than I can see them (running on a Chromebox).

98

@astrofisher said:
@adamstewiegreen
Another agree. Current PseudoTV Live 0.8.0f version (using Krypton) has scrolling issues, channel order issues, loading issues… I’ve stopped using it until 0.9 comes along.

Regular PseudoTV working fine - I can scroll through channels faster than I can see them (running on a Chromebox).

There’s a non-live version? Link?

99

Yeah, no live streaming. Running PseudoTV 2.4.4. This should be the link:

100

@astrofisher said:
Yeah, no live streaming. Running PseudoTV 2.4.4. This should be the link:
GitHub - Steveb1968/script.pseudotv: Channel surfing for your video library

I’ll try this out too, see how it goes…