I made my first virtual channel just to mess about a bit and added 1 entire tv show to it. While I was watching it on my TV I deleted the virtual channel yet it kept running. I closed the channel on my TV then I was a little curious I added the channel back with the same information and same channel number of 1 then added the same show to it and it seems to have picked up right where the other ended. It didn't start at season 1 episode 1 it was back on season 1 episode 3 mid episode where I turned it off more or less. Curious again, i deleted the channel and added it back except this time as channel 2, and it started back mid episode more or less where I left off when i deleted it. Do these virtual channels follow the watched/unwatched and resume features found in the library? Is there any way to force it back to season 1 episode 1?
No.
They follow the rules you set for the virtual channel. It will schedule in order of air date (forward or reverse), mini marathon, random or custom order you set.
Well I did that, specifically by season/episode forward but whenever I delete a channel of the show and make a fresh one, it seems to never start at the beginning of the series. It starts where the previous channel left off. In fact, I just made a 2nd channel on channel 2, same rules and its exactly the episode as the last at the same point in that episode. Is this intended behavior of virtual channels?
So I’m not sure but if I had to guess the guide info for the virtual channel was never deleted from your server/clients. When you deleted the original virtual channel the client already had guide data for the channel based on your criteria. When you deleted it and set up a new one on the same channel number the server just treated it as the original when it was time to create more guide info.
Again this is just my guess based on the info you provided. If you want to test, delete the virtual channel and refresh all of your guide data and crash the app on your clients.
Virtual channel guide data is completely different from regular guide data. Virtual channels do not play video files in the background for you to “jump into live”. Instead think of the guide info as a quick link to items in your library. This is why when you deleted the virtual channel you were still able to watch on your client. It is basically just a link in the guide to a file. The way those links are presented depends on your sorting criteria.
Also if you want to binge a series, in order and without missing an episode, a virtual channel is not the way to do this. You just need to navigate to the series in the library. Virtual channels are for casual viewing where you can jump into a favorite movie franchise, genera or series with no strings attached.
well at this point I have no clue whats going on, adding another channel of different shows again doesn't start at s1e1 instead it decided to go to s1e5 and weaves through the other shows similar season/episode numbers. The s1e1-4 are properly identified in the library but it just decides to skip those because "reasons?".
I have no idea the rhyme or reason for anything to do with virtual channels other than it attempts to run through seasons and episodes beginning to end as I had set them but it skips content. Even what you said doesn't make sense given I've made side by side channels of the same content and it starts where the other virtual channel is at and yes, skips content for some reason.
This isn't about binging content its about adding content to the guide for older less tech inclined folks to consume content that wouldn't otherwise be available to them for a couple of different reasons that I won't get into.
The schedule starts at midnight so it probably played the first few episodes already
Try switching over to release date - forward and see what that does for the 4 episodes giving you trouble. Do you mind sharing the series, it could be something goofy with metadata.