UPDATED: Qs about Imported Local Content: Transcoding, and Playlists

[dayknito]

I've looked in the documentation including at Channels Support - Import Your Own Movies and TV Shows and have searched the forum, but couldn't find the information I'm looking for. Sorry if I miised it.

I'm experimenting with importing local content. The content I've imported is a set of mkv files ripped from a blu ray disc of music videos.

In case this is useful context: The Channels server is on an Intel NUC10i7FNHN with 32 GB RAM. I'm playing the content on an Apple TV 4K (original one, not the 2021 version) on the same home network as the server. The local content is The Beatles 1 set ripped from BluRay. The files look like so:

The Channels app on Apple TV 4K plays these without problems, so much kudos to devs!

My questions are:

1. The videos contain a DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. Channels on Apple TV 4k appears to be playing the videos in DTS 5.1 audio. Is there a way to verify that this is not being compressed to 5.1 AAC? I ask because when I tried playing these tracks in Infuse (connected to Plex Media Server, which is also running on the same Win10 NUC), it transcoded them to AAC, saying that this was because the client (Apple TV 4K? the Infuse client on Apple TV 4K?) does not support the original format (presumably, DTS-HD MA 5.1).

I'm aware that video is not ever transcoded on the home network, as per:

@tmm1

Transcoding is not used at home ever, unless you go explicitly set Settings > Playback > Streaming Quality > Home Streaming to something other than Original

But I was unsure whether this applies to audio as well.

Being able to play the uncompressed multichannel audio from such videos is essential for me, hence my question.

Here is the deatiled info on one of the videos, in case relevant:

2. Is there a way to create a playlist for a set of videos such as these? And if so, a way to control the order of items within that playlist?

3. Is there a way to get all the videos played continuously?

4. Is there a way to edit the artwork for the group of videos? If so, does this involve the Art Picker (Channels Support - Art Picker) ?

UPDATE: I figured out the anwer to Q4 (it does involve the Art Picker -- great tool!)

Many thanks in advance for any information!

[tmm1]

Audio and video are played directly. There is no transcoding.

You can setup a virtual channel for (2) and (3)

[dayknito]

@tmm1 -- Thank you very much.

(I think I had just figured out the answer to (1) by looking at the Stats option which showed bitrates that could not possibly be compressed audio. Very glad to have your confirmation, though).

Many thanks for the info about (2) and (3). Will look into virtual channels.

I am increasingly impressed with Chanels DVR. Like what are IMO some of the best pieces of software, there's more and more power features available if you dig into it -- but if you don't want to dig in, it just gets out of the way.

[racameron]

@dayknito

Is there a way to create a playlist for a set of videos such as these? And if so, a way to control the order of items within that playlist?

Playlists aren't supported per se, but you can look into Collections:

Library Collections

@dayknito

Is there a way to get all the videos played continuously?

While Virtual Channels will get you there, you can't completely determine at what point in the "playlist" you'll enter; however there is the Auto Play feature:

Auto Play

[maddox]

You’ll want to import those as Videos. This is explained in the document Jon you referenced. Once they’re in there, you can edit their metadata and art.

[dayknito]

Thanks, @racameron and @maddox . @racameron -- if I understand correctly, you are suggesting I use (Collections + Auto Play), rather than Virtual Channels, is that right?

[racameron]

@dayknito

you are suggesting I use (Collections + Auto Play), rather than Virtual Channels, is that right?

They are complementary but different features. Collections and Auto Play will allow you to access a particular recording/video on-demand; Virtual Channels will create a looping playlist, but you cannot choose what is playing at the moment, you just enter the playlist at its current point.

Personally, I use Virtual Channels for shows I enjoy that I have archived so I can play them in the background while working around the house. (I also abhor auto-play features for on-demand content, but I know that some users appreciate that ability à la Netflix's next episode feature.)

[maddox]

Collections won’t work as they cannot hold individual recordings/videos/episodes.

Get them imported as a video group first. Then you can play them like that.

Once they’re in your library correctly, then, if you want, you can make a virtual channel with them.

[dayknito]

OK, many thanks for the additional info -- very helpful. I don't currently understand all of it, but that tells me I need to read up on and learn about those features

[dayknito]

also very helpful, thanks. Will start researching all of this!

[dayknito]

Hello again @tmm1 @maddox @racameron

Thanks to all your suggestions, I have been able to do the following:

(A) get my imported local content (Music Videos) into a Videos Group, like so:

(B) create a Virtual Channel, include the content from that Videos Group into the Virtual Channel, and manually re-order the videos in the Virtual Channel in the order I want, like so (I had to create a Smart Rule to be able to access the individual videos at all from inside the Virtual Channel):

This enables (after some additional configuration) a Virtual Channel in the Guide that looks like so:

This is not very visually appealing, but clicking on a cell does show the full title of the video, so it's functional enough to serve as a listing of videos.

However, as a playlist I have not been able to get it to meet two of the criteria I wanted:

@dayknito

(2) Is there a way to create a playlist for a set of videos such as these? And if so, a way to control the order of items within that playlist?
(3) Is there a way to get all the videos played continuously?

In reverse order:

(3) I have not found a way to set Auto Play for Videos to play the next video automatically. AFAICT, the only option for Videos is "Watch Next", and during playback, if I do not get to pressing the Watch Next button in time, playback stops after the current video. For my purposes, this does not serve as a playlist that just keeps playing continuously.

(2) When I am able to keep playback going by pressing "watch next" in time each time, the order in which videos play does not match the order in which I sorted them for the Virtual Channel. It appears (I'm not sure about this) as if the options for videos are to allow "oldest first" or "newest first", with age determined by file modification date(?). But my custom order does not align with file modification date.

Hope that made sense.

Is there a way to get around these issues? For instance, an option for Videos to fully Auto Play, in addition to "watch next" appearing? And, some way for the order of play for videos to match the Custom order rather than file date..?

Alternatively, or in addition: Is there any possibility for full-fledged Playlists on the development time-horizon? I could be wrong, but I think it could be helpful in user adoption of the Local Content feature.

Thanks for any information!

[tmm1]

Virtual channel playback works on our Android and Apple clients. There you would simply tune into the virtual channel and things would play in the order shown.

[maddox]

You need to ensure your auto play setting is to Play Next Episode. You can do this specifically for Videos. Check the settings under Playback.

[dayknito]

@tmm1 @maddox — thanks for the clarifications.

They made me realize that, although I had configured it correctly, I was using the virtual channel wrong for playback. I am using an Apple TV. But I was trying to pick a particular entry in the virtual channel and play from there and have it keep playing from there. What I now realize is that I have to click on the virtual channel logo itself and just have it start playing by itself. Doing it this way does lead to continuous play and seems to be in the correct order that I had created.

I now also understand finally what @racameron meant by saying “you can’t pick the entry point”.

And that remains the aspect of a playlist that for me is still missing (along with the visual aspects of a conventional playlist)

Anything you can say about the possibility of full-fledged playlists for channels DVR?

Thanks again

[maddox]

The point of virtual channels is to simulate a real LIVE TV channel using content from your library. So using it to simulate a playlist isn’t really what it’s for.

Your videos are already in order in its video group. It’s actually it’s own playlist, per se. Just play them back from the group and let auto play advance to the next video.

If you want to change the order of the videos, give them a season and episode number, then you can define their order. Or adjust their air date to be the order you want.

[dayknito]

Yes, I figured that virtual channels fir thus purpose is a work-around. And I would actually prefer to just watch from the video group. Will try the air date modification (in the metadata, I assume). Will also try the season/episode idea (in the metadata? In the file name?). I did look at file naming conventions, and I thought I had followed the ones given for videos, but will check again.

Thank you!

UPDATE: I added Season/Episode in the metadata to incorporate my desired order and now it plays in the order I want.

As a bonus, I can play it three ways. One. From the video group. Two. From the virtual channel by pressing the channel logo. Three. From the virtual channel, but I can actually skip to any episode I want and start from there and then it will play in order from there. So @racameron I think this actually provides arbitrary entry points into the virtual playlist.

Thanks, everyone!