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[forbigd]

Hi all,
I have been trying to figure this one out for some time, I wonder if any of you experts can help me.
I want a view in Theater View, that shows me a list of tv series that I am watching, with the last one watched first.
Let's say I watch Shows 1, 2, 3. After finishing an episode in show 1, the list shows 1,2,3. Then I watch an ep from 2.
Then the list shows 2,1,3. Always displaying the last watched series, and then the second, etc. So whenever i go to this view, i know what i was watching last.
I know how to display the eps watched (or NOT display them ). But I can't get MC to know Show 2 Series is what i am watching now and want to continue.

Ideas?  Thaks alot!

Don
 

[blgentry]

I don't do much with Theater View.  But I'm getting a little better at it.  I don't use the Windows version of MC much, so this is only every now and then.

I just did some of what you want in standard view though.  Using this expression for "set rules for file display", I got the list you want for series:

Code: [Select]

[Media Sub Type]=[TV Show] [Last Played]=<3w ~sort=[Last Played]-d ~nodup=[Series] ~expand=Series
The expand then gives you all of the members (episodes) of the series.

The trick after this is to then make groups for watched and not watched.  Which is actually pretty easy.

Hopefully this will get you started.

Brian.

[forbigd]

Brian,
That works pretty well... it only shows me shows I have watched. And it shows the correct order,
but...  can we add incomplete shows? Ideally I want it to show me any episodes that I did not finish, then the last series played.

I created a view that shows me incomplete episodes.  I just need them to be merged...

Thanks !!

[blgentry]

The ~expand modifier should show every single episode in the series... not just what you've watched.  I've only tested it in standard view, but it shows me all episodes in a particular series.

Brian.

[kensn]

The "Played" flag might not be getting set on an episode that was partially watched.

Ken

[forbigd]

Yes, it only shows series that we have watched the last ep all the way.

What I really want is a view that shows me any in progress episodes I need to finish, and if there are none show me a chronological list of series we watched last.

I have always had this view called <100% and it shows me any episodes that are not finished.
It is wacky how i got it done, but it works. (Show me any show that has its bookmark % less than 97% or greater than 5%)

[NNTK]

Don't sure.

[forbigd]

NNTK,
Thanks, but that gives the same view. Only shows that get an episode played all the way through show up. Any unfinished episodes are lost.
For now I just made two views. One to tell me what eps are unfinished, and then after looking there, I can look at this view.
It seems there should be some way to show me unfinished, then next up episode from the latest series I watched.
I am a long time user of MC, but the family did try out Kodi for video. It isn't as good looking, and it is slower, but views like the one I want are stock options in Kodi, particularly the Titan skin (Media Portal port) It has widgets that show you exactly whats next. I need to duplicate that for the family if I want to replace Kodi for TV. And I do want to do that, I want MC for everything...once again. I can tell the difference in video quality, and I want MC back! (Actually it is coming back no matter what, since I manage the media, but it would be nice to keep the family (wife) happy. )

Don

[NNTK]

At my post should show all files that you set rules for files display.

I test Titan skin in kodi. I don't know what widgets you say. How to open it?
If it is "In progress TV shows" jriver can do like that.

PS. For my show I use playlist/view for show only ep that unwatched for series that watched at least one episode. If you want like this tell me.

 

[glynor]

I haven't been able to write it up, but I have a very nice view for Current Shows...

[RoderickGI]

I haven't been able to write it up, but I have a very nice view for Current Shows...

I haven't bothered with this sort of view yet, because my other half swaps and changes what she likes to watch so much that continuing to watch the series we have been watching is rarely the choice.

However, I would use such a view, if only for my own viewing needs, if you got a chance to write it up Glynor.

Go on, you know you want to share it. Once your internet starts working again! 

[CountryBumkin]

I think glynor needs to start sending binary smoke signals if he wants to continue communicating with the outside world.

[glynor]

I think glynor needs to start sending binary smoke signals if he wants to continue communicating with the outside world.

It is a little like that.

[forbigd]

NNTK, The Titan skin lets you place widgets on the main screen, in my example i have two widgets, one to show which shows have eps in progress, and then the second half is another widget showing which episodes are next for the shows we are watching. From the main menu you arrow over to the widget and pick what you want, otherwise hitting enter on the main menu opens what is highlighted. There are widgets for every main menu item. You hover over the main menu item to get them to show for that item. It really helps keep us from having many half watched eps, and keeps us binging on the show we want. The family really likes that, I am fighting uphill to drop Kodi for an all MC box.
I sure would like some kind of functionality like that in Theater View...

Thanks
Don

[NNTK]

I see your example. I think Widgets in titan skin = View in jriver.
So I don't think jriver can add 2 View in one screen like titan. I think Category and set type is Main roller in Theater View is fair.
Now, can you create view in jriver like In-progress episodes and Next Episodes in titan's widgets?

if yes i don't help you lol.

PS. What's difference between In-Progress episodes and Next Episodes

[forbigd]

PS. What's difference between In-Progress episodes and Next Episodes

You sit down and watch an episode of your favorite show. Something comes up and you have to leave before you finish the episode. When you come back, you want to know you have an episode left unfinished. That is an "In-Progress" episode. It is in progress, it has not been completed. I want to see these first so i can finish them and move on.
or
You do get to finish the episode, then you leave and when you come back you want to know what series you were watching, and then, what episode is "Up Next" in the Series.
Since we watch different series depending on which family members are watching, sometimes it can be some time before you get back to an episode or series. In Progress, and Up Next keep us straight.

Hopefully that helps.

Don

[NNTK]

I try create view In-Progress Episodes and Next Episodes.
Before create view I Add Custom field "Watched" for identify episode.

Expression for [Watched]

Code: [Select]

ifelse(isEqual(watched(1), 2), if(isrange(math(FormatNumber([Bookmark]) / FormatNumber([Actual Duration]) * 100), 5-85), FormatNumber(math(FormatNumber([Bookmark]) / FormatNumber([Actual Duration]) * 100)), ✔), 1, FormatNumber(math(FormatNumber([Bookmark]) / FormatNumber([Actual Duration]) * 100)))
Then add Root Library and 2 Library Item.

Set rules for file display for In-Progress Episodes

Code: [Select]

[Media Sub Type]=[TV Show] -[Series]=[] [=isrange([watched], 5-85)]=1 ~sort=[Last Skipped]-d
Set rules for file display for Next Episodes

Code: [Select]

[Media Sub Type]=[TV Show] -[Series]=[] [=save(0,v_nextEp[Series])1]=1 [=ifElse(isEqual([Watched], ✔,1),save(1,v_nextEp[Series]))1]=1 [=math(!isEqual([Watched], ✔,1) * formatnumber(load(v_nextEp[Series])))]=1
Then I set Category (Add button at right) for 2 Library Item same expression.

Expression to group by:

Code: [Select]

TVInfo(SeriesDisplay)
Expression to display:

Code: [Select]

TVInfo(SeriesDisplay) /(TVInfo(SeasonEpisode)/) delimit([watched, 1], %/),/()
I don't sure it's all same widgets in titan skin.

[glynor]

This is probably not exactly what you were looking for, but take a look at:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,107140.0.html

[forbigd]

Thanks, all.
NNTN, your write up is very nice, I followed your steps and each time I get a view with nothing in it. I am playing with it, trying to see how you made your magic, and try to adapt it for me. I do notice MC slows down a lot using this view. At least a few seconds to bring up a list, where normally it is instant.

Glynor, I have been to those threads, and have tried that and failed, but I am not done yet. I just wanted to respond and thank you both for the ideas.

If I get it perfect, or close, I will share how I did it.

Also missing: A way to mark shows Played or not from theater view.
Sometimes dupes or other problems present shows we want to go away (not be displayed).
I see no way to mark played inside theater view. I have to go back to standard view (and that requires a keyboard)
It would be nice to have a menu selection or right click menu to allow "played" toggling.

Thanks again.

Don

[glynor]

Glynor, I have been to those threads, and have tried that and failed, but I am not done yet. I just wanted to respond and thank you both for the ideas.

Just to make sure... I wrote that up just recently (right before I posted the link to it in this thread). You sure?

If you describe what failed, I (or someone else) might be able to help.

[forbigd]

Sorry, this thread https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,85974.0.html
linked in... 
1. Implement my smarter Watched status system (or something similar).

Your "Bookmark Percent" is the basis for my "In Progress" shows view. 

I am about to try again, I will make sure to document what goes wrong. (or not )

"I'll be back" 

Don

[forbigd]

The reason I have no shows displaying is this part: [Offline]="0"
If I remove it I see shows, with it in, nothing. What does it do?

Also the interface has slowed down to a crawl. Easily 2 to 3 seconds to navigate each step in theater view. Normal Views are instant.

Thanks

Don

[blgentry]

The reason I have no shows displaying is this part: [Offline]="0"
If I remove it I see shows, with it in, nothing. What does it do?

I'm pretty sure that's a custom field that Glynor has defined on his system for files that are not currently attached to MC; they may be on removable drives or something like that.  I think you're safe to just delete that part of the expression.

Brian.

[NNTK]

Sorry at my post above. It have wrong expression in Set rules for file display for Next Episodes. You must change [Played] to [Watched] (I use [Played] in my jriver ).

About slow down jriver from use my way, I have no comment .

[glynor]

The reason I have no shows displaying is this part: [Offline]="0"

I'm pretty sure that's a custom field that Glynor has defined on his system for files that are not currently attached to MC; they may be on removable drives or something like that.  I think you're safe to just delete that part of the expression.

Brian is right. Sorry! I didn't intend to leave that in. I use that calculated field in my Library. It identifies files stored on "offline" disks (external drives I only attach sometimes, generally containing "archival" video -- stuff I've already watched). So, in my Library, [Offline]="0" for any files on my normal Media drive, and [Offline]="1" for certain files on these external disks. I don't want my Current Shows view to show any stuff from those Archive drives. You can certainly delete that rule. I did it quickly and didn't mean to leave that in the rule I posted. Oops!

I can't even guess why your Library may have slowed down. Looping rules in Views (looking at too many smartlists or other calculated values that refer to additional lists or calculated values) can cause that, though my system certainly does not include any of that, if done properly. I use it every day. The View is VERY fast.

You might have gotten some other calculated column or loop in your view that is causing the performance problem.

[forbigd]

Hello, I have been working on this since the last post and have some success, but not entirely.
I think what I want is so complicated, it can't be done.
I want more than I have told you all about.
We have four family members, and "many" tv series. Some sets of folks watch some and some watch others. Some we all watch, some are for one member only. A while ago one fine member here showed me how to make an "Audience" field, and I use that to decide who gets to see which shows in their part of the view. Adding that layer of choice seems to effect the final sort in ways not planned.
What I want is for any user or group to grab the remote and go into their area of Theater View and be presented with a list of series, their series, and have the first in the list the last one ACCESSED (not just fully PLAYED, but also ones in progress) and when they open that first series, they are presented with the next up episode, whether it be a partial or full. The best I can can get is to present the last series with a fully played episode. If they left one partial, they have to remember and go look there.
My major "catch-22" here is, if I sort on something like LAST PLAYED I don't get the partial episodes. Folks jump around in the shows, so the last fully played episode may not be in the same series as the last partially played one. I need the partial one to show up first. But if i sort on BOOKMARK PERCENT which does show me the next series up with a partial episode, then the episode list in each series is not in ep order but something else. If I sort on ep order, I lose the partial episode.
So I have two views, one partial episodes, and one Up Next view, and each group has to check partial to make sure they are in progress somewhere, then jump to Up Next to be presented with the next full episode. A hassle but it works.

Each view is really simple to make, but I can't cross the streams.

On the loop problem. I did figure it was doing something...a lot of something. To isolate it I created a new library. It was much faster. Back to the main library, slow..... it is either some weird setting or smartlist stuck somewhere, or, the new library isn't fully populated with ALL my crap.

Don

[spiggytopes]

You are asking for exactly what I would like, so that the wife can watch her vampires, daughter her stuff and me the really intellectual high brow programmes ... 

At the moment I do some initial sorting by putting stuff into folders, that is material I know I'll never watch and the wife similarly.

This helps a bit, but still the "what was I watching last night" or "which episode is only partly complete"  filter would be very useful.

[forbigd]

I am soooo close. I can get almost there several different ways, but then one gotcha always "gets me"
I started with this post https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,89082.msg611496.html#msg611496
I created a new field called Audience. I Store one Value for A Series, and then limit it to the sets of folks that Watch. Like Mom; Dad; MomDad; MomSon; DadSon; etc...   Then tag each series with the audience that watches it. It is cool to just change one ep and see it do them all. Now you can sort on who watches it. If you sort Audience by Date Played the last Audience group to COMPLETE a ep will show first. Cool so far. Then do the same for series, sort by date played. Then the user will first get a list of Audiences and the last one to complete a show is first, and then the last series to have a competed ep will show next, also very cool. But then I want it to hide watched episodes. Using Glynor's Watched Percent to sort and Current Shows to show only recently watched series, you need a completed episode to trigger the Current Shows View, but if you remove the watched shows from the list with Watched Percent, then there are no current shows.
If you sort by episode, you get what could be up to 200 episodes and somewhere in the middle of them is where you are. I don't want to scroll each time to the last unplayed ep.
I thought I had it partially. I took the field LAST PLAYED, and converted it to the numbers used by mc "Field[Last Played]". I subtracted that from "Now()" and get a small number that equates to about 10 for a couple weeks time So I was going to limit my view to "all that have a calculated number between 0-10". But when i go and select the special field i created that contains that number, i can chose "is, isn't , contains, does not contain...etc, not "Is less than or is in range. I figure that is because the field I made from the calculation is a string not an integer, but I can't figure out how to make the field an integer without losing the calculated data. Ideally I would like it to show the next up episode whether it be in progress or not.

It is very frustrating, but somehow enjoyable trying different things and seeing the result. I learn other tricks that can make it easier in other ways.

Don

[blgentry]

It's hard for me to follow all that you've typed.  But you seem to be missing something fundamental:  How to use categories.

What happens if you add Audience as the first category?  It should show you your audiences.  Then when you select an audience, you should get your list of shows sorted and filtered the way you want.

Brian.

[forbigd]

Sorry, it is a complicated thing, at least to me.
Sure I have used, (and not used) categories.

I see it as a tree... Audience, you get to choose which members shows to watch
                            Series, you get to choose what series to watch.
Inside there you can see all the episodes for that show, and with proper coding, I can show which episodes are watched or not. You see ALL watched and unwatched episodes listed, but that works fine.

I want to sort on audience and series using "Date Played".
I can do that, and then the audience and series are sorted by the date the last COMPLETE episode played. That works fine too. And by using "Watched percent is not "checkmark"", I can see only unwatched episodes.

But what about the in progress episode?
If we are watching show A regularly, but decide to watch show B, but don't finish an episode, then the sort will still show show A as the last one we watched, and the incomplete episode in show B is lost, until we look in there again.

So I can't use watched percent, Current Shows, AND sort by Date Played at the same time.

I want to be offered a list of audience members, with the first member being the one who last watched something, completed or not, and show him the series he was watching, and inside, the next episode, in progress, or not.

How was that ?

Don

[blgentry]

I see it as a tree... Audience, you get to choose which members shows to watch
                            Series, you get to choose what series to watch.

You've got it.  That's correct. 

I want to sort on audience and series using "Date Played".
I can do that, and then the audience and series are sorted by the date the last COMPLETE episode played.

But that doesn't help you at all does it?  You don't want to see the episodes you've watched.  You want to see ones you have not watched, plus any in-progress episodes.

That works fine too. And by using "Watched percent is not "checkmark"", I can see only unwatched episodes.

Yes...

But what about the in progress episode?
If we are watching show A regularly, but decide to watch show B, but don't finish an episode, then the sort will still show show A as the last one we watched, and the incomplete episode in show B is lost, until we look in there again.

I don't follow.  Glynor's post on how to do this shows all in progress episodes *and* unwatched episodes.  If yours does not show in-progress episodes, I'm guessing you didn't follow his guide?

I just spent 10 minutes setting it all up so that I could test this.  I see my in-progress episodes.

So I can't use watched percent, Current Shows, AND sort by Date Played at the same time.

Get that working and I think your Audience part will be a very easy addition on top.  I would start without your Audience field.  Get the base logic correct and functional.  Then add the Audience category and it should just work.

Brian.

[forbigd]

But that doesn't help you at all does it?  You don't want to see the episodes you've watched.  You want to see ones you have not watched, plus any in-progress episodes.

I can set it up the way Glynor says, and it works just as he says. But the first series shown will be one that has a completed episode. Any incomplete ones are missed.

In his smartlist:
[Media Type]=[Video] [Media Sub Type]=[TV Show] [Last Played]=<8w ~expand=Series ~sort=[Series],[Season],[Episode],[Name],[Genre],[Artist],[Album],[Disc #]

it says Last Played in the last 8 weeks, right?
If I start a series, and don't finish an episode, it isn't played, so it doesn't fit this rule, so it isn't current, and it is lost.  You have to finish episodes to get them to show in Current Shows. And if you use his watched percent field, to weed out watched shows, you remove the one thing needed for the smartlist to work, completed shows. It's a catch-22, no?
What am I missing.

Thanks

Don

[blgentry]

EDITED:  To remove some stuff that seemed snippy.

So you're interested in the case where you have never watched any episodes of a series, but you've started one (or more) episodes of the series.  Is that correct?  That doesn't seem like a very typical case, but...  It can probably be accounted for with some more smartlist effort.

If that's the only thing stopping you, I can see if I can work that part out.  I've done some preliminary work and it looks promising.

Brian.

[forbigd]

When I typed that out, I realized the same thing... It would have to be just the first time.
If easy to do fine, but don't waste alot of time on it.

I can get it to work, I just want it to work a little better.
Using Glynors setup it works fine, but when you select TV and get the Audience pick list, it shows the audience members in alpha order (not alpha but random, or it seems that way, not the last show watched, nor in alpha order). It would be nice to have it sort to show the last played audience, but checking that in the audience edit screen to "sort by Date Played" has no effect. Same with Series. I want the last played series to be first on the list.
Imagine you were the last person to use the MC. You would hit TV then click the top audience (you), then another click selects the last series you were watching, and the last click selects the next episode either in progress or a new episode. Virtually no arrowing around, just click click click and you are done.

Thanks

Don

[glynor]

So you're interested in the case where you have never watched any episodes of a series, but you've started one (or more) episodes of the series.  Is that correct?  That doesn't seem like a very typical case, but...  It can probably be accounted for with some more smartlist effort.

If that's the only thing stopping you, I can see if I can work that part out.  I've done some preliminary work and it looks promising.

I'd be interested if you can come up with something slick. I've thought about this a lot. The issue amounts to this:

[Number Plays] and [Last Played] don't increment unless the file playback (the bookmark percentage at stop, technically) reaches 50%. This is entirely reasonable, especially for audio playback. You don't want to count a song as played if the user plays only a small percentage of the file and stops (or skips it).

But, for video playback it is sub-optimal in these kinds of use cases. Ideally, we'd have a [Last Started] field that gets filled any time you start to play a file, regardless of whether playback "finishes".

I think it is possible you could use the Skip Counting fields to accomplish this, but I've never really put my mind to it, because the system as described meets my needs except in extreme edge cases. Generally, if my wife and I start an episode, we finish it (or at least get 1/2 way through). I don't use this for my daughter's stuff because she has her own Kids genre Views, and besides, she watches her episodes of My Little Pony hundreds of times.

I can imagine, however, if you're accounting for a variety of users who have stop-and-start-again usage patterns, that it might be more troublesome. I've thought about it a bit. I think the skip count could be used, but you'll probably have to include logic to amalgamate [Last Played] and [Last Skipped] together.

[blgentry]

Here's the expression I'm experimenting with in the Smartlist that shows recently viewed TV series/shows:

Code: [Select]

[Media Type]=[Video] [Media Sub Type]=[TV Show] ([Last Played]=<3w or [Last Skipped]=<3w) ~sort=[Date Watched Or Skipped]-d ~nodup=[Series] ~expand=Series
I'm using 3 weeks as my window.  You can obviously edit this to suit your needs.  The keys here are:

A.  [Last Skipped] is updated any time a video is started, (but not finished) and then stopped (by an explicit stop, or by choosing another video).  So this field is sort of like "last started playback".  Sort of.

B.  The custom field [Date Watched Or Skipped] is an aggregate of [Last Skipped] and [Last Played].  This allows a show that was started, but not fully played, to participate in the sorting by date. 

C.  The remove duplicates and then expand part makes sure that I get the series in order of last watched or started and then expands out to full series for later use in the view.

For the record the expression for [Date Watched Or Skipped] is:

Code: [Select]

formatdate(convertdate(FirstNotEmpty([Last Skipped],[Last Watched])),yyyy/MM/dd)
I tried making this a raw number with ConvertDate, but it did not seem to sort correctly.  Formatted as above, it definitely sorts by Year/Month/Day correctly.

I'm playing with this all in standard view and the sorting by Series, in a Categories view, does not work properly.  I'm guessing it will work in Theater View correctly.  But I'll have to work on my Windows VM with MC to get TV shows working in it and it's kind of a pain. 

Anyway, I think this accomplishes some of the goals, and perhaps even sorts by last series watched or started in Theater View.  Maybe someone can test it there (Theater View) and let me know.

Thanks,

Brian.

[forbigd]

Brian,
I added your custom field, and, setup your smartlist.
In Theater View, I get a list of Audience members, and inside a list of shows, and the shows are the ones we are watching now, but the list is jumbled.
I have two items under TV. Audience and Series. If I change each of them so that they sort by date played, then the Theater View has the right audience, and right series up next. It still misses incomplete episodes. If I play an episode all the way through, the views show the new audience member and series first. But if i play an episode partially, it does not get the series moved to next up, only a complete playing will get the sort to change.
So close... but it also shows all episodes, watched or not. I do have it customized so I can visually see the difference between played and not. But some lists are long (Cheers for example), and the list is pages long and somewhere down the list is where I need to start. I might have to arrow down a hundred times before a new episode shows up. If I add the rule "Watched Percent" is not ✔ , then the sort goes wacky. It mostly just shows audiences and series in alpha order, but not quite. I think by removing the watched shows, the smartlist loses track. Where you have "Last Played" at three weeks. If I tell it to hide the shows I have watched, what can the smartlist show?
Is there any other way to hide a watched show without ruining "Last Played"?

Don

[blgentry]

The rule to remove Watched Percent = (check) is essential.  Without it, you aren't going to get what you want.

I'm unsure about the sorting by series.  On my system, in Standard View, I get all of my recent series.  This includes ones with partially watched shows, as well as completed shows.  I even verified that I get series with *only* partially watched shows, as we discussed above.  I'm dead certain that it works.  However, it does not correctly sort by Series with the first Series being the last Series watched.  I think that's an issue with how Standard View works, but I'm honestly not sure.

Theater View, I have not tested at all with this, as I use my Mac for MC 99.9% of the time and it doesn't have Theater View.  I have a Windows VM with MC, but it's not fully set up, and Theater View is slow and, and, and... 

I'm not entirely certain that it's possible to both group by Series as a Category *and* sort by a date field to order those categories.  It's just something I haven't played with very much.

On the other hand, just have the list of series, with all of the unwatched and partially watched shows underneath it, is pretty nice right?  It's really not so hard to find the Series you want to continue watching.  Then, once inside the series, it should be ordered by Episode, with all of the watched episodes removed so, again, it's pretty easy to find the episode you want to watch.

I may do some more work on this later.  I'm not sure what I'll find, if anything.

Brian.

[forbigd]

Brian,
Agreed, it is pretty nice. I can get it to sort just about the way I want, it just shows all those watched shows. I am experimenting with limiting the amount of watched shows displayed. I only need one to make the smartlist work.
I am learning more and more about how to manipulate data. Check this crazy but effective way to limit watched shows.
Sorry if this is un-elegant, but it works...
I took the field Last Played and converted it to MC time code: "Field(Last Played, 0)"
Then I took Now: "Now()", and used MATH to subtract the last played from now, and converted it to a whole number. I created a new field with that calculation and added " &datatype=[string]". The whole number created for each file is the approximate days it has been since it was played. I limit the range from Empty, 0-7. That way the shows that are watched and displayed are limited to just the last 7 days of watching... keeping it short. I will play with the 7 to see how that works.

Thanks for your help.

Don

[blgentry]

I'm unsure why you aren't using the way that Glynor and I are:  Simply excluding all watched shows in your View.  The Smartlist contains everything (all episodes of any Series that has been watched recently).  Then the View limits the smartlist entries such that none of the watched shows are shown.  That should work for you.

As for the math, I'm pretty sure you can just do a direct comparison of [Last Played] with the smartlist editor to limit within the last 7 days if that's what you really want.  Like [Last Played]=<7d



Brian.

[forbigd]

Hi, It does not work as you say if i use the audience field.
My setup has been TV as the main view, with TV and two others being the next choice, and under TV I used Audience, and then series to sort. Two items to sort by. If I do it that way the order gets all messed up. But if i collapse it one level, instead of having a choice under the main TV view for TVshows, I made the level under the main TV choice with Audience members. Then I set views for each audience member and it works. It doesn't work if i have TV:TV: (Audience) (Series). But if I have TV: Audience: (Series) it does. One less choice in the view, but added back on the main roller. All in all I can make it work. Maybe not as easy as I want it, but better than just a pile of shows.

But by far the biggest issue I have is delays. If I use the smartlist (add p=3weeks(name of smartlist)), I add 4 seconds delay to every choice. without it it is instant. As a test in the above setup, I removed the smartlist from one audience member. That one members shows come up instantly, where all the others that have the smartlist as part of the sort take 4 seconds to open the series. It is so long compared to no smartlist that folks are hitting enter repeatedly because MC doesn't SEEM to respond. This machine is super fast, latest i7 with a ssd. It has never had a slowdown like this in the past. Looking at the resource monitor when I chose the smartlist, I see cpu, disk AND network traffic. The player has no media on it, all the media is on a server out in the garage. Even the main menu choice TV take 4 seconds to open... unless it opens to the one audience member without the smartlist, then it is instant. If I go to open the smartlist itself, it also takes 4 or more seconds to open. Playing with it, if I remove ~sort=[Date Watched Or Skipped], the speed goes back up. With that sort it takes 4 seconds to open the smartlist, without, under a second. Strangely, I see no difference with or without that sort. Removing it from the smartlist returns the speed to the MC. Maybe it is because my media is not local...

It is really close to what I want. It still doesn't show a series with an incomplete as first to watch. Only fully watched shows get sorted first. But the list is smaller (thanks to 3 weeks)
so we may find the incomplete faster.
I will continue to work on this (mostly because it is fun) and if I get closer, i will share.

On the 7 days deal. The reason I didn't use the Last Played <7 days is I don't know that existed. I learn bits of the language every time I try to do something, but I usually base it on what I know to begin with. I am not a programmer, so I read over the expression language section of the wiki looking for a command that might do what I want.
Thanks for the help,

Don

[blgentry]

Good luck with your setup.  It's very hard to diagnose these things remotely.  This is made worse by the fact that I'm not using Theater View at all, so I'm really not doing a one to one comparison with your setup.  Plus you have a custom field that I don't have, with custom entered data, so it's rather difficult for me to replicate your setup.

If someone else feels more adventurous than I, maybe some screen shots of your layouts in Theater View would help.  I kinda sorta get what you're saying, but I'm not confident that I fully understand your requirements or what you've attempted.  So screen shots of the setup screens might help towards that end.

Good luck and take care.

Brian.

[forbigd]

I have a question about your comment here
The rule to remove Watched Percent = (check) is essential.  Without it, you aren't going to get what you want./
Do you mean I need to use this rule to get what I want or the opposite?
No matter how I set it up (using Glynors, or yours, or my own rules), Without the rule, I get the view just the way I want, The Last User, Series, and Episodes are presented first. In either Standard or Theater it is the same. Only I see all episodes watched or not. If I add the rule (excluding (check)ed shows), I lose the Series as well as episode sorting.
Aren't the rules fighting each other? Doesn't
([Last Played]=<3w or [Last Skipped]=<3w)
REQUIRE watched shows? And if you put in the rule to exclude watched shows. then there is nothing to sort on.
And if that is all true, do you exclude your watched shows somehow? Or doesn't it matter in Standard View. I can see with a mouse and standard view this wouldn't be as much as an issue. That's why I am trying to limit it by days, so the amount of watched shows will be small.

Don

[blgentry]

I have a question about your comment here
The rule to remove Watched Percent = (check) is essential.  Without it, you aren't going to get what you want./
Do you mean I need to use this rule to get what I want or the opposite?

The "what you want" I was referring to is that you want to filter out episodes you have watched.  Without this rule, you won't get that.  That's all I meant.

If I add the rule (excluding (check)ed shows), I lose the Series as well as episode sorting.
Aren't the rules fighting each other? Doesn't
([Last Played]=<3w or [Last Skipped]=<3w)
REQUIRE watched shows? And if you put in the rule to exclude watched shows. then there is nothing to sort on.

The sorting is another matter.  I've tried quite a few variations and hoped I could get it to work, but so far I've got what you've got:  Sorting doesn't work correctly.  I had *hoped* that the sorting from the SmartList would carry over to the View.  But it does not appear to carry over at all, even with the "magic" SEQ modifier. 

My Smartlist is sorted exactly as you want it to be:  It has the last watched Series first, with all of it's members.  Unfortunately, as soon as I include it in a View, I seem to lose that sorting entirely.  There's probably some way to fix this with global variables or something, but I'm not willing to mess with those; they are a pain.

And if that is all true, do you exclude your watched shows somehow?

In my case, I'm excluding the shows using Watched not equal to (check).  My sorting doesn't work correctly, but I kind of don't care.  I see all of the series I have been watching and that's good enough for me.  Just sort them alphabetically, and it's easy to locate what I want.  For me, the biggest bonus of this exercise is that it limits my view to only the series I've been watching *and* it throws out the episodes I've already watched.

If the sorting is the big thing for you, I don't think I'll be able to help you.  I had hoped I could, but my experiments so far have failed on sorting.

Good luck to you.

Brian.

[forbigd]

Brian,
Thanks for your help, I am sure it is frustrating to want to help, but don't have enough info.
I appreciate your efforts.
My (hopefully) last comment here. Sorry if I ramble a bit..
I have mine working just as you, with a major exception, and I will explain why (sorry:)).
If i use the Watched Percent Rule, not only do I have my first up audience, series, season, and episodes jumbled a bit, there is one more con not mentioned, but I bet it happens to many of us that use that rule. You sit down with sig. other to watch your next episodes, and you open the series you want, and it presents you with the next episode. But, you mention (or they do), "is THAT the next one?" What happened to X? Where is Y? Are you sure MC didn't skip one? So once in a while I need to go to a view that shows all and determine if MC made a mistake. A classic is accidentally stopping moments before the end of the show, MC marks it watched but you weren't done. You go to start watching another time and think... "I didn't think we finished the last one", you go check and yes it is 91 %, or whatever. Sure you can adjust that percent higher, but it works well most the time. Another pro for seeing the past ones is the question of what happened last time? If you want to read the plot of the last one you need to go to another view and find it.
So what do I do? If i use your suggestion of a rule that limits the last played to 7 days, then it negates the smartlist rule for three weeks, and, for me, removes all UN watched shows .
My clumsy calculation works pretty nice. I suggest you might try it, best of both worlds I think. I convert both NOW and LAST PLAYED to MC Time, and subtract LAST PLAYED from NOW, and then make that a new field (I called it "LAST PLAYED DAYS"). Then use the (again clumsy) rule LAST PLAYED DAYS  is   "Empty; 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7"
So it gets all unwatched shows (Empty, or 0), and any watched shows in the last 7 days (or so). Depending on how many episodes you consume over x time, you can adjust it so it shows just a few of the past for reference. And it keeps the sort all the way down from who gets to watch next to the proper ep order. We think it works well.

I hope that helps someone... I want to share too...
Thanks again

Don