[Martijn]

So the entire script functionality as a feature request for XBMC core

[Hitcher]

@Hitcher
Completed shows won't get added to the list again if you've already watched them and do a re-run. Only if there are unwatched episodes. However if this is not the case, I'll take a look at it.

Sorry, when I said 'completed' I actually meant it was a complete but unwatched show.

[BigNoid]

So the entire script functionality as a feature request for XBMC core

Wasn't the plan to be able to assign smart playlists to containers? That way we wouldn't need any script, just preconfigured smart playlists.

[`Black]

Don't think that it's that easy... you can't (I think) make a smart playlist which acts exactly like the watch list does.

@Hitcher
Ok I get what you mean... the problem is that the script can't know if you really want to have that episode on top or not. This can't be decided simply by date added or so... it would need a more complicated calculation and I'm afraid there aren't enough values for this, especially a personal show rating or priority.

[Hitcher]

No problem, thanks for answering.

[BigNoid]

Don't think that it's that easy... you can't (I think) make a smart playlist which acts exactly like the watch list does.

Well, it's all database queries in the end, so with some alteration to the smart playlist editor, in theory it should be possible.

[GJones]

Don't think that it's that easy... you can't (I think) make a smart playlist which acts exactly like the watch list does.

@Hitcher
Ok I get what you mean... the problem is that the script can't know if you really want to have that episode on top or not. This can't be decided simply by date added or so... it would need a more complicated calculation and I'm afraid there aren't enough values for this, especially a personal show rating or priority.

I can tell you that you can't make a smart playlist to replicated it. I tried. I also used an outside script to do the SQL queries and generate a playlist based off of the results. That, too, does not handle changes well.

Unless smart playlists get a "lowest unwatched" property for episodes. The complication here is that smart playlists work at a show level or an episode level. Here we need a good deal of both.

The other alternative is to make filtering out watched episodes something that could be put in a playlist for shows. If we could get lastPlayed for shows and have a filter for "hide watched" we could end up with a more DVR view of the watchlist.

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="shows">
    <name>pseudowatchlist</name>
    <match>all</match>
    <rule field="lastplayed" operator="inthelast">6 weeks</rule>
    <order direction="descending">lastplayed</order>
</smartplaylist>

This would use lastplayed at the show level as the max(lastPlayed) from the episodeview. In my mind, this would return a list of shows and tell a good skin to hide watched episodes when we got there.

Watchlist is very good at what it does: provide a list of episodes to watch. But with the two changes outlined here, a lot of the same functionality could be used in a smart playlist, resulting in a list of shows with new (unwatched) episodes listed in the order in which you most recently watched the show. Drilling into a show would show you all the episodes there for that show that remain unwatched. This is much more similar to how a DVR would list the shows:

With lastaired and lastplayed as the maximum values for all episodes under a show added to smart playlists at the show level, a lot of things open up. If you additionally add the ability to hide or show watched items at any level other than globally (either through the smart playlist or letting each view store that separately), you can do a lot more. Having this in the playlist support would allow more intelligent filtering though, because you could limit the number of shows pulled. Having it outside the playlist would, in essence, not honor the limit because the playlist could pull 25, 20 of which might have no unwatched shows. So we really need an additional show-level field for smart playlists to indicate if any episodes are unwatched (unwatched episodes, perhaps?).


PS I forgot to add an explanation on the semi-automatic way to generate a smart playlist for this. I run the queries through mysql, use sed to generate a playlist file from that and update the playlist file hourly. This obviously does not catch events and is rather clunky. But I built that all out before reading about the watchlist script.

[Martijn]

@'Black/Ronie

Maybe it's time to send the latest version to repo? It seems to be running stable enough and has had no errors so far (for me that is) and speed gain would be useful to all non thread followers using it.
Or did you want to include this before doing so:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=101...tcount=497

[skimshady]

No that's not what the watchlist should do imo. Let's say I'm currently watching 4 shows but I'm collecting episodes for 10 shows because I also want to watch them but not now. It would bug me if every time I add an episode of a show I'm not currently watching gets bumped on top of the list.

I don't think this will interfere with your use. A new episode will only show up in the watchlist if all previous episodes of that TV Show have confirmed status 'watched'.

If you're collecting a TV show that you are not so interested in at the moment, emerging new episodes will not fit the test criteria above, because there are one or more unwatched episodes in that TV Show already. Am I making sense?

[`Black]

Yes and no. I even might not want to watch the first episode of i.e. a new season of a show at the moment so I don't want to have it in the watch list. For this you should use recently added episodes which does exactly what you want.

[skimshady]

Yes and no. I even might not want to watch the first episode of i.e. a new season of a show at the moment so I don't want to have it in the watch list. For this you should use recently added episodes which does exactly what you want.

Any way to make the 'recently added episodes' to only show the next unwatched of each show? Filter out all future episodes except for the next unwatched one?

And make it the priority before watchlist if it is a previously watched TV show?
I feel the present version of 'recently added epsiodes' is flooded with many episodes of the same show if I download a whole season of something....

I feel a smarter version of 'recently added episodes' could actually be merged with watchlist

[Martijn]

Any way to make the 'recently added episodes' to only show the next unwatched of each show? Filter out all future episodes except for the next unwatched one?

And make it the priority before watchlist if it is a previously watched TV show?
I feel the present version of 'recently added epsiodes' is flooded with many episodes of the same show if I download a whole season of something....

I feel a smarter version of 'recently added episodes' could actually be merged with watchlist

Recently added is in xbmc core so merge is not possible or watchlist needs to be extended with even more code what which can make it slower.
It also does what it needs to do. Show recently added episodes.
It's also used for showing the 'new' labels in the library itself so that would influence that to

[`Black]

@bthusby
You won't add a whole season everytime there's a new episode of a show you watch. I'm using recently added exactly for this problem... if all the new seasons start around september/october and I've watched several other shows in the meantime, I go to recently added episodes, start the episode of the new season from there and after that it's on my watch list.

[LoL]

Hey man,
Loving this script in Xperience1080! (OpenELEC Beta3 built)

Script-side issue?
- I download my episodes through SabNZBd and Sickbeard
- When Sickbeard sends the update to XBMC: new episode appears in the "recently added-list", but doesn't in the "watchlist" (it does after restart).

Or is it a problem on my side?

Thx, LoL

[Martijn]

Hey man,
Loving this script in Xperience1080! (OpenELEC Beta3 built)
- When Sickbeard sends the update to XBMC: new episode appears in the "recently added-list", but doesn't in the "watchlist" (it does after restart).

Or is it a problem on my side?

Thx, LoL

There's no easy (or possible) way on detecting if library gets updated. So playing a video or a restart is the only option.
You can also run it manual by making it stick to a keyboard key.