[minixhk]

Dear developers team and users,

I have spent half day to look into how the NEXT key in Kodi behaves.

Official definition:
SkipNext - Skip to next video in playlist. If no playlist, then skip to next chapter in video.

Here we can see two problems:
1.) If one doesn't have a playlist, the next key can't jump to the next video file in a folder, but it can skip to next chapter of a current playing file;
BUT - currently, the "UP" key of Kodi can do the "skip to next chapter" work nicely, no matter there is a playlist or not.
2.) If the automatic play next video option is enabled, the next button can't jump to the next video if the current play file has multiple chapters.

As mentioned above, currently, the "UP" key of Kodi can do the "skip to next chapter" work nicely, no matter there is a playlist or not, then why the next key can't be defined solely for jumping to the next video in a folder, with or without a playlist?

I may be wrong, so please correct me if I'm wrong, thanks.
Please feel free to discuss, thanks!

Regards,
K

[jjd-uk]

The logic at the moment dictates that if you want to play a folder of videos then you select play at the folder level so a on the fly playlist is generated, thus SkipNext can then be use to skip to next video in the playlist for the folder.

[minixhk]

The logic at the moment dictates that if you want

Hello, what do you mean?

Right now I can't go to next movie in a folder if I don't have a play list and I don't enable "automatically plays next video" option.
Hitting next will do nothing.

[minixhk]

And if I enabled the "automatically plays next video" option,
while playing a video with multiple chapters hitting next won't go to the next video but skipping chapter instead.

[minixhk]

The logic at the moment dictates that if you want to play a folder of videos then you select play at the folder level so a on the fly playlist is generated, thus SkipNext can then be use to skip to next video in the playlist for the folder.

Thank you, is this "select play at the folder level so a on the fly playlist is generated" step can be skipped if the next button is doing exactly as described "next"? Isn't it more intuitive?

[Ned Scott]

Maybe we could have a "next/previous in folder" action ID. It could work like the chapterOrBigStep, so like NextInPlaylistOrNextInFolder" (maybe a better name, lol). The idea is that next/previous "in folder" does not auto play like a playlist does, so videos will just stop when played individually (desired behavor when auto-play-next is off), but still allowing Next/Previous to do something (as long as it is not a playlist/queue/etc).

[Ned Scott]

There's some interesting situations where this could really come in handy. Using a playlist in order to enable next and previous only works when you want continuous playback, but it's nice to be able to "scroll" through a folder or show in single-play without having to jump out of fullscreen. Imagine being able to "tune" a bunch of virtual radio stations, for example. Or being able to have a list of live streams and next/previous on them as if they were channels, without having to set up something like IPTV Simple and/or various PVR options. This would allow for that without messing up normal files that you only want to play one at a time.

[minixhk]

Maybe we could have a "next/previous in folder" action ID. It could work like the chapterOrBigStep, so like NextInPlaylistOrNextInFolder" (maybe a better name, lol). The idea is that next/previous "in folder" does not auto play like a playlist does, so videos will just stop when played individually (desired behavor when auto-play-next is off), but still allowing Next/Previous to do something (as long as it is not a playlist/queue/etc).

yes

[da-anda]

it IMO doesn't make sense that "skipNext" is jumping chapters - wtf

[Ned Scott]

it IMO doesn't make sense that "skipNext" is jumping chapters - wtf

I think the history comes from the old Xbox (original) DVD remote, where that button would do either next in a playlist or next in a chapter in XBMC/Kodi. It's really just that the name of the action ID is wrong, and it should say "NextChapterOrNextVideo", as it is an action ID with a fallback. We now have actions for each specific thing, but most of them have "fallbacks".

EDIT: correction, it's next playlist item, and if no playlist then next chapter

[minixhk]

When UP can do the next chapter job,
NEXT should be for NEXT?

[Koying]

it IMO doesn't make sense that "skipNext" is jumping chapters - wtf

Agreed. We have "bigsteporchapter" for that, which makes more sense. We also have the bookmark browser, now.
The logic should be removed on "Next", imo, as it's confusing and not intuitive.

[Ned Scott]

Well, sort of. The fallback for "Next" is confusing, but the main action is correct. It's next playlist item, and if no playlist then next chapter. That seems weird to me, but other people wanted it that way.

Here's how it came to be:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=166190
https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/2809
https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/2855

[jjd-uk]

The logic at the moment dictates that if you want to play a folder of videos then you select play at the folder level so a on the fly playlist is generated, thus SkipNext can then be use to skip to next video in the playlist for the folder.

Thank you, is this "select play at the folder level so a on the fly playlist is generated" step can be skipped if the next button is doing exactly as described "next"? Isn't it more intuitive?

If I go into a TV Show with multiple seasons then I select the Season I want to watch and select Play with the Season highlighted (do not enter season so you see episodes) then depending on the setting "Hide watched" it will either queue all episodes from the Season or queue only the unwatched episodes in that Season, you can then use SkipNext to manually skip through episodes. In a similar fashion if I wanted to start watching all episodes from a TV Show (perhaps maybe it's a single season show) then I'd select Play with the TV Show name highlighted.

Alternatively you can select "Play from here" using the Context menu in the episode views and again it queues up all subsequent episodes so SkipNext can be used.

Thus it's intuitive to me that if I want to play the contents of a folder I highlight the folder and select Play.

[jjd-uk]

I wonder if instead of the suggestion minixhk made, we could maybe have a new Default play action setting (this would replace the existing "Play the next video automatically" setting) with a spinner containing 2 options:

Play selected item only - thus behaves exactly as Play does currently, so play only the selected item or if a folder is selected it will queue the folder.

Play from selected item - thus it will behave in the same manner as the current context menu option "Play from here" but also act as a replacement for "Play the next video automatically" so if in the episode views and you select an item it will play that item and queue all subsequent episodes.

Having Play action set to "Play from selected item " would give the the behaviour minixhk wishes to see.

I also agree that having SkipNext do chapter skips probably no longer makes sense, although consideration might have to be given of those with limited button remotes.