Help with Smart Rules Criteria and Advanced Editor? S01E01

Channels DVR Server
#1

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, maybe someone can help explain? I am learning how to use Smart Rules with the various criteria, in the regular editor as well as the advanced one. So much possibility here, it's super cool stuff!

However when I try to use the "Season Number" or "Episode Number" criteria (which are listed as supported on the Support page) I'm not getting any results. What is the proper syntax, if I wanted to find all of the episodes that are marked S01E01 in my recording and TV library? Or is there a different way for searching for just "pilots?" Which would be the easier, more reliable method? Ultimately I'm trying to create a Collection and Virtual Channel of "classic TV pilots" ... and this seems to be the only way to limit it to those episodes only, and not subsequent ones from each and every show.

#2

You can’t get Episodes in collections. They only support shows and movies.

Try this in your virtual channel rules and it should work.

#3

Boom! Indeed it does. That was the part I was missing. OK, this'll do, Thanks so much for the quick reply.

I've gotta say, while so many other media library apps and DVRs seem to struggle with just the basics these days, it's awesome to see Channels keep knocking it out of the park. This feature in particular is easy yet powerful, and leverages our content in fun and transformative ways. And Virtual Channels preserve the serendipity of (re)discovery in an on-demand world. They're also great when you just want something familiar or nostalgic playing in the background or you don't want to spend hours trying to pick something to play. That we can curate these "live channels" specifically in the way that suits each of us, is just outstanding. It's an easy autopilot with so much possibility. Hopefully episode support will arrive for Collections some day too.

Thanks again.

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#4

I'm attempting to create a collection where I can gather movies from any Hallmark channels available (in my case there are 3) and NOT Holiday

Simple rules do not allow searching for a channel number or searching details (which I think would allow me to perform this) so I switched to the Advanced Editor

This works:
genres!=Holiday channel=6090
I can perform the search, but with only 1 channel

This do not:
genres!=Holiday channel>=6090 channel<=6091
genres!=Holiday channel>6089 channel<6092
genres!=Holiday channel=[6090,6091]

What am I doing wrong?

#5

This one should have worked. Must be a bug.

#6

Thank you, that's what I was thinking but was unsure

#7

Does anyone know if it's possible to run an advanced rule which picks up on the release date field in meta data? I'd like to create a virtual channel which only shows content which has a release date of the last 3 months, which dynamically adds and drops content based on the timeframe since release/air.

#8

Try OriginalAirDate in the advanced editor.

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#9

thanks for the tip. I've had a look, but can't work out the syntax i would use to achieve dynamic updates to the content list. As an example, how might I write the rule if i wanted OriginalAirDate to be within the last 90 days of the current date? (I know I might be asking too much here!)

#10

Ahh I understand. What you really need is "aired < 3 months ago". That's certainly tricky, but clearly very powerful for something like Virtual Channels. It'd be great for a News channel.

We'll consider what it would take, because it's far from doing simple comparisons of static values.

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