Auto-Generate Channels based on Playlists

[d8ahazard]

Hey there!

This is a really cool app. I had a similar idea a while ago, and it's exciting to see someone else already came up with it.

One idea/request I had that would I think make this a lot more powerful...

Being able to auto-generate channels and keep them updated based on "some property" of the media.

The most obvious one would be Genre...simply grouping movies and/or shows together by a shared genre, adding some randomization...and good to go.

Another option would be to group media by years (classic movies channel?), date added (new media), and watch status (unwatched, etc). Even better would be to allow mixing and matching.

[d8ahazard]

Okay, so, doing more research, I see you mention auto-generating channels based on playlists with "pseudotv" in the description.

I've never actually written Node/angular code before, but in about an hour of tinkering, I was able to add a button to the channel setting page, and on clicking that button, call a modified version of the function to retrieve playlists, but only ones with "pseudotv" in the description.

Now, my issue is that I'm not quite sure how to call the other functions I see that are needed to create/save the channel.

If you've got some free time and wanna send me an email, I think I could help implement this with a basic overview of how this particular language works, and how your code is set up to run. :D

donate.to.digitalhigh@gmail.com

[gelsas]

Based on Tags or just based on genre would be a great feature to have

[d8ahazard]

Based on Tags or just based on genre would be a great feature to have

After more thought, genre/tags is a bit harder. But, it's pretty simple to create smart playlists and add a keyword, and then have the app select any playlists with "pseudotv" in the description.

I've got that bit worked out...I've just never used Angular before, so I'm not sure how to reference the necessary "directive" file, (plex-settings.js) from the controller for channels. If I can sort out how to call those methods, it would be pretty trivial to loop through each playlist with the keyword, make a new channel, populate the channel icon and name with the playlist name, add all items on the playlist, and then fire the "shuffle" command before saving the channel.

With auto playlists and some shuffling, this would be a sweet addition to Plex.

[vexorian]

At the moment in the latest development version you can create a channel then add all the contents of a playlist.

What's missing is something that will automatically refresh the channel with the contents of the playlist, let's say every 4 hours or so. With smart play lists you could do a lot of fun things with that.

I am actually planning something like "Channel Recipes" that would work like this:

Every X hours:

• Load playlist "anime"
• Apply cyclic Shuffle
• Update channel.

I think this approach would work quite fine, but optimally it would be nice to have something smarter so that things like the current episode numbers and parts of the tv guide that were already-cache would stay unchanged, so that this only affects the newly-added programs.

[ReenigneArcher]

+1

Would be awesome to create a channel based on genre, actor, director, year, studio, etc.

[d8ahazard]

+1

Would be awesome to create a channel based on genre, actor, director, year, studio, etc.

OMG...first thing I'd do is make "The Sam Jackson Channel". All mother-effers, all the time. 👍