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[JustinChase]

When we watch a series from the beginning, we want to watch in order, but not all in one sitting.  Once we get to where we're resuming a session starting anytime after about episode 5 or 6, both options for playback are less than ideal.  First choice is clicking on "Play All" from the Season folder to watch them all in order, and there's no current way to set the start point.  If you want to start watching episode 14 or 18, it just takes too much skipping to get to the episode we actually want to watch, and you kind of have to pay attention to see if the one that begins playing is the last one you've watched, or if it's the one you're ready to watch.

the other option is to browse to a specific episode to watch, select, play (just this one episode), then when it ends it goes back to this screen, I back up to the full episode list, browse over to the next episode and do it again.

I propose that all single episodes have a "Play remainder of season" or "Play all from here" option to let me easily select where I want to start watching for the evening, then have it play one after the other from that point forward with no further input from me.

Thanks for considering.

[Z0001]

I was looking for a feature just like this. I want to be able to play all the episodes of a single Series and of a Show (ie all the series in it) in order with MC "bookmarking" where we last stopped. Is this currently possible? I have iso amd mkv files.

Thanks
Z

[rick.ca]

Use a separate view that excludes (using Rules for file display) files viewed (i.e., there's a value in [Last Played]) AND for which there is no bookmark. Using such a view, you can just select a [Season] category and 'Play', or display the file list for a season and 'Play All'.

[JustinChase]

Use a separate view that excludes (using Rules for file display) files viewed (i.e., there's a value in [Last Played]) AND for which there is no bookmark. Using such a view, you can just select a [Season] category and 'Play', or display the file list for a season and 'Play All'.

As I pointed out in another thread; your standard response of "just create a custom view" will not work if the show has already been watched, i.e. one wishes to watch something a second time, since your view would exclude the episodes she wants to watch again.

Instead, JRiver implementing the original request/suggestion will work for all scenarios.

[rick.ca]

The separate 'episodes not fully watched' view I suggested provides a complete and convenient solution for the desire to play a series from the point it was previously stopped. To watch episodes previously viewed in their entirety, one would use a view that includes all episodes (i.e., the same one they're probably using now), or one dedicated to 'episodes fully watched'.

[JustinChase]

The separate 'episodes not fully watched' view I suggested provides a complete and convenient solution for the desire to play a series from the point it was previously stopped.

Assuming that one wishes to create a new view, then this will work; if one is watching for the very first time.  Once it's marked as played, this no longer works for letting you "play from here", since the view will be empty, because there are no 'not viewed' shows to display.

To watch episodes previously viewed in their entirety, one would use a view that includes all episodes (i.e., the same one they're probably using now), or one dedicated to 'episodes fully watched'.

And in this view (new or current), there is no way to "play from here".  Therefore, once the programs have been watched, there is no way currently to allow you to "play from here". 

So, if one wishes to watch shows a second time, and one wishes to start playback from someplace in the 'middle' of the season/view, this 'feature' would need to be added. 

Continuing this line of thought, if this feature needs to be added to get this functionality for previously watched episodes, it could also be used to "play from here" for episodes not previously watched, eliminating the need/work/benefit of having/creating the additional view.

Resulting in the logical conclusion that adding this functionality is 'necessary' for some circumstances, but works for all circumstances, making it the better solution than the extra work of creating a view that only works for some circumstances.

Hopefully, this now makes the reason for the request clear(er).

[Z0001]

I see what Rick.ca is getting at, but think JustinChase is right; when I want to re-watch I would need to somehow clear the "already viewed" tags in he custom view and start again. It's certain that I will want to re-watch since this implementation is mainly for kids tv DVDs that I want to run on a loop (without doing an MKVmerge). So the specific solution is valuable to me. It's a bit like a very long VHS tape kind of idea.

[rick.ca]

when I want to re-watch I would need to somehow clear the "already viewed" tags in he custom view and start again.

It would have to be done in Standard View, but all you would need to do is reset [Last Played] for the files you want to re-watch (something that can be done in seconds). With the feature you're imagining, however, not everyone would agree on whatever the logic is for determining where to resume (e.g., should a not fully played file be resumed at a bookmark position of 10% or restarted from the beginning; if 90%, should it be resumed or skipped?). With a separate view, you can determine how that works. The original request doesn't even include this. It would be up to the child to determine where the point last viewed was, and invoke the special play command from there. Not at all child-friendly.

[glynor]

I do this all the time.  If you just Play All from the Episode listing, instead of Play, it works the way you want.  Once you manually choose Play All one time, it becomes the default play action from then on (it remembers the last one used), so this isn't a huge issue.

That's why I fought so hard against the "Watch" thing Matt tried to do (taking away Play All and whatnot) for Video files.

[MrC]

Just curious, and not trying to demote the request, could one not create a custom sort which sorts on [Last Played] and [Episode] so that played media migrates to the bottom of the list, and unplayed stays at the top by [Episode] order (or whatever).  This would create a round robin list and revisited episodes just fall to the bottom.

Maybe this could be part of a possible interim solution until said request becomes available.

[JustinChase]

I do this all the time.  If you just Play All from the Episode listing, instead of Play, it works the way you want.

Perhaps I'm not explaining properly, or my system doesn't work like yours, I'm not sure.  The attached screenshot is what I see when I navigate to season 4 of The Big Bang Theory.

If I hit "Play All" here, it will play all episodes starting with 1.  I cannot find any way to "Play All" starting with episode 12.  (which is what I'm requesting be changed)  If I select episode 12, it takes me to the single episode, and "Play All" doesn't start playing episode 13 when 12 has finished, like I would prefer.

RE: bookmarks  -  I would expect MC to honor the general 'use bookmarks' functionality, meaning if I am using bookmarks, and episode 12 contains a bookmark, it should start playback from the bookmark.  If that happens to be at 90%, and I really wanted to start at the beginning, the back button will resolve that instantly.  There is no way that I know of that will let me skip to a bookmark, so I wouldn't think it would make sense to not start at a bookmark, because it's not easy to 'correct' that behavior.

[JustinChase]

Just curious, and not trying to demote the request, could one not create a custom sort which sorts on [Last Played] and [Episode] so that played media migrates to the bottom of the list, and unplayed stays at the top by [Episode] order (or whatever).  This would create a round robin list and revisited episodes just fall to the bottom.

Maybe this could be part of a possible interim solution until said request becomes available.

That's a clever idea and might work for Z001's needs, but imagine this.  I'm home one night, and decide to watch a few episodes of a show, but my wife isn't here to watch with me, so she won't seen what I've seen.  Let's say I watch from episodes 8 thru 10, and episode 11 has never been watched by either of us.

When she wants to "catch up" on her next day off, she wants to start watching at episode 8.  None of the alternate proposals makes that easy for her.  If she could just navigate to episode 8, hit "Play from here", she'd watch the next several episodes, in order without any further input.  This makes her happy because she's sewing, or cleaning or otherwise engaged, so she isn't constantly having to navigate to the next show when one finishes.

It seems (almost) no one else sees the benefit in this, which is fine.  If this never gets implemented, I will live, it's okay.

I just think it might be somewhat simple to implement, and offers a benefit.  It's not important enough to me to create expressions and custom views to try to get it mostly working.

The simple addition of "Play from here" would do exactly what I'd like.  Getting almost that isn't worth the effort to me to create, teach and manage the extra view/expression.

[MrC]

I see how my suggestion won't work for your needs.

I think we're all just trying to help you find something that works well enough for you now, since this is the only space we have any ability to help.  It seems you might be thinking this means your wants are not being understood.

[JustinChase]

I think we're all just trying to help you find something that works well enough for you now, since this is the only space we have any ability to help.  It seems you might be thinking this means your wants are not being understood.

I really hope I don't sound unappreciative, because I really do appreciate all the help.  I'm just pointing out where the solutions aren't quite complete for my needs/wants.

Hopefully, the idea grows on Matt, and makes it into a future version.

Thanks again for the efforts to help!

[rick.ca]

could one not create a custom sort which sorts on [Last Played] and [Episode] so that played media migrates to the bottom of the list, and unplayed stays at the top by [Episode] order (or whatever).  This would create a round robin list and revisited episodes just fall to the bottom.

This occurred to me as well, but I figured basing the sort on [Last Played] would invite an annoying problem. If for any reason an episode were played out of order, the sequence would then be perpetually out of order.

[glynor]

Perhaps I'm not explaining properly, or my system doesn't work like yours, I'm not sure.  The attached screenshot is what I see when I navigate to season 4 of The Big Bang Theory.

If I hit "Play All" here, it will play all episodes starting with 1.

Right.

And others may disagree, but I think it should probably do that.  Playing All on a "Season Item" is basically just like "Playing All" on an Album Item.  It should play the whole season, from beginning to end, like a Playlist.

If I select episode 12, it takes me to the single episode, and "Play All" doesn't start playing episode 13 when 12 has finished, like I would prefer.

This is because your view is structured funky and you have [Episode] (or something like it) added as a category for some reason (perhaps to get Rick's fancy captions?).

I'll attach a screenshot in a few minutes of my same Theater View, showing BBT with the current season open.  Play All on a particular episode works fine and continues to the next episode when it is done.

Controlling it from within the season seems like the most elegant solution, and it doesn't require anything weird that could cause unexpected behavior.  If your view is structured oddly, well... That seems like an edge case.  That's the problem with having those oddly structured views where you always end at a single item.

The alternative would probably be to do something like what MrC suggested, but that would be flaky in all sorts of ways because the [Number of Plays] and [Last Played] fields can be unreliable (and what if you don't finish watching an episode in one sitting and stop half-way through).  You'd probably need to resort to a hacky custom field that you manually mark them as done when you've finished a set of episodes.

[glynor]

Sorry it took more than "a few minutes".  Pain in the rear to do this on my DMZ machine where I can't remote to anywhere, and I don't have Photoshop installed anywhere.

Anyhow... Screenies.  First, this is what I get when I open Season 5 under Big Bang Theory.  I can scroll down and select a particular episode, as I've done here with Episode 8.


Click to Embiggen.

Hitting Enter once takes me here...


Click to Embiggen.

Hitting Enter again (so just double enter on the item you want to play first from the episode list) Plays All, and it does continue to the next episode in order when it finishes (and so on and so forth until you hit stop or the season ends).

This is how my view is configured:


Click to Embiggen.

[JustinChase]

It should play the whole season, from beginning to end, like a Playlist.

yes, and no.  I can double-click anywhere to start a playlist from that spot on.  That's all I'm asking for here.

This is because your view is structured funky and you have [Episode] (or something like it) added as a category for some reason (perhaps to get Rick's fancy captions?).

It's the standard Theater View, right out of the box, with no customization at all.  Well, I can't remember making any customizations to it anyway.  I finally made some customizations to Theater View about a year ago, then Matt promptly rewrote Theater View and we all had to start over, so I never bothered to change it again (as far as I can remember).

If I had wanted to customize it, I would have it show episode names, not numbers.  Numbers are almost useless in quickly determining if a show has been watched.  I have ZERO idea what episode 4 is about, but the name tells me at least something about it.  This is why I have requested episode name be used instead of number in other posts, but that's another matter

I'll attach a screenshot in a few minutes of my same Theater View, showing BBT with the current season open.  Play All on a particular episode works fine and continues to the next episode when it is done.

Thank you.  This sounds like exactly what I want.  Too bad you can't just share the view in a way I could just 'import' into my MC   

Controlling it from within the season seems like the most elegant solution, and it doesn't require anything weird that could cause unexpected behavior.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Controlling it".  If you mean 'starting playback from some point onwards', then yes, this is what I'm after.

If your view is structured oddly, well... That seems like an edge case.  That's the problem with having those oddly structured views where you always end at a single item.

This is another reason I haven't bothered to create custom views, and why I'm hesitant to try that as a solution.  When you get away from "stock", you have to manage much more 'on your own', which I prefer to avoid.

The alternative would probably be to do something like what MrC suggested, but that would be flaky in all sorts of ways because the [Number of Plays] and [Last Played] fields can be unreliable (and what if you don't finish watching an episode in one sitting and stop half-way through).  You'd probably need to resort to a hacky custom field that you manually mark them as done when you've finished a set of episodes.

yep, which is why I said this wouldn't work for me.

[JustinChase]

Hmmm...

It looks like your view is customized, at least compared to mine.  Here is how mine is setup.  I still think mine is the "stock" view, but maybe I'm mistaken.  I'll try to amend mine to match yours, and see if that works for what I want.  I sure sounds like yours is doing what I want mine to do.

[JustinChase]

SUCCESS.  Removing "Episode" from the setup seems to have been the key.  I changed it to match yours almost exactly giving me the view you see, and Play All does go to the next episode as I want.  Excellent.

I don't think I added Episode to my view, so maybe you just removed it, but I'm not sure.  However, I don't really care; as long as it works. 

Thank you so much for the screen shots, it made it much easier.

[rick.ca]

This is another reason I haven't bothered to create custom views, and why I'm hesitant to try that as a solution.  When you get away from "stock", you have to manage much more 'on your own', which I prefer to avoid.

A view modified to work exactly as desired will serve just as well and consistently as a stock view. The idea avoiding view configurations will save 'bother' and management effort is a fallacy. Theatre View is designed to be very straightforward in it's essential workings and is highly adaptable to user circumstances and preferences. Stock views are provided in part because some users expect to see some kind of results without 'messing with the configuration'. But, for the most part, they're just an illustration of what's possible. When a view doesn't work as desired, the solution is likely a simple change to the configuration. Few of the many shortcomings in the stock views suggest any new features or program changes are required. Those shortcomings exist only because there is no 'one size fits all' configuration.

[Z0001]

This community really is excellent! Thanks glynor for the effort here, I'll try it out. All the contributions are really helping me on this one.

It would be great to see how others organize their Theatre View and why they do it the way they do,, I'll search or start a thread for that - I have limited time with 2 small kids and a busy job to get up the curve, which does deter us from using theatre view, but I can see the enormous benefit. I have to learn!

Z

[MrHaugen]

If I hit "Play All" here, it will play all episodes starting with 1.  I cannot find any way to "Play All" starting with episode 12.  (which is what I'm requesting be changed)  If I select episode 12, it takes me to the single episode, and "Play All" doesn't start playing episode 13 when 12 has finished, like I would prefer.

I think that you want the play function called Watch. That does exactly this. Play from the selected episode and continue with all episodes from there. But it's not standard in custom views. Only out of the box video view. But I do think you can create the custom views with the rules from the standard views.

Add some smart sorting on top of that, and there should be minimal need for clicking to start watching from where you left of.

[JustinChase]

A view modified to work exactly as desired will serve just as well and consistently as a stock view...

...until JRiver changes the underlying structure.

[glynor]

...until JRiver changes the underlying structure.

This is quite rare.

I have views in my Library that I set up under MC 9 that still work right today.  They've reset other things, but forcing a reset of the entire library is something that I think they'd only do in a worst-case scenario.

I don't know if your view was the default or not.  If [Episode] is included in a stock Theater View as a category, that is terrible and should be changed.

[JustinChase]

I should have been more specific.  It's not just the wholesale change (like we had about a year ago) that causes issues, but, for example, if I spend 6 hours creating a view, and all the expressions required to get it just the way I like it, then JRiver adds a new field, or function, my work can become useless.  Not necessarily in that it won't continue to work, but that it could now take 2 minutes to do the same thing I've spent hours working on.

Yes, I still get/have what I want, but I also have other things I can use that time on, so I generally choose to not invest it in working on views and expressions, and instead request 'simpler' methods.  I don't usually get them, but they are also not that important to me; usually.

Again, kind of a 'pick your poison' situation.  I usually choose to live with good enough, and not devote hours for 'mostly perfect'.  I certainly appreciate others' willingness to do so, and VERY MUCH appreciate the help others offers to help me when I request it.

However, if I can get JRiver to implement a simpler method, perhaps dozens of people can benefit from that change, instead of only me benefiting from my work; which I cannot currently share with others.  I tend to think about how changes might help everyone, rather than just making it exactly what I want.

Thank you again for your help with this!!  I now have exactly what I want, and didn't have to spend the time creating custom views to get almost what I want.  I'm a happy camper

[rick.ca]

However, if I can get JRiver to implement a simpler method, perhaps dozens of people can benefit from that change...

Hopefully many more have learned it doesn't pay to ignore the configuration when a simple change will give them exactly what they want.

[JustinChase]

Hopefully many more have learned it doesn't pay to ignore the configuration when a simple change will give them exactly what they want.

yep, 37 days, 26 posts from at least a half-dozen different people, several different suggestions all contributing to the solution.

almost the very definition of simple really