Multiple shows, 2 episodes, shuffled

NiceMarmut

Is there a way to build a schedule, with multiple shows, but to have the same show twice in a row?

For example:
Show A s1e1
Show A s1e2
Show B s1e1
Show B s2e2

It doesn't necessarily need to be chronological, it could jump to anywhere in the season. I do like the idea of the 2 episodes being chronological, but each paring could be at any point in the season.

wallawallawa

Yes, this can be done by creating a Schedule that has:

Start Type of Dynamic
Collection Type as Television Show
select your first show
for Playback Order choose either Chronological or Season, Episode
for Playout Mode select Multiple, and
for Multiple Count enter 2 (or however many episodes of each show you want to air before moving to the next show)
select your next show

You can repeat this for as many shows you want to add to that channel.

Check out the Documentation

NiceMarmut

I did not realize you could add more than one show to the Schedule. I thought you had to use the collection to make that happen. I didn't notice the Add schedule item button until now. Thanks!

EDIT: I guess a follow up question would be, is there a way shuffle the sets?

For example:

Show A s4e2
Show A s4e3
Show B s2e9
Show B s2e10
Show A s2e20
Show A s2e21
Show B s3e5
Show B s3e6

wallawallawa

NiceMarmut
RE: "is there a way shuffle the sets?"

Hadn't tried this myself, but playing around with it, and you can kind of get to what you're asking, but the multiple episode order return isn't random.

You can get random results, but with multiple episodes, the return will be just that, random, so you don't get 2 consecutive episodes back to back (e.g., S01E04, S02E11 for program A, S04E07, S02E03 for program B, etc.).

The below will return random start points for each show in the schedule, but the episode order for each show will be in order (e.g., S01E04, S01E05 for program A, S04E07, S04E08 for program B, etc.).

Creating a Schedule, checking the box for Shuffle Schedule Items and the box for Random Start Point.

Then, more or less, follow the same process as already referenced:

Start Type of Dynamic
Collection Type as Television Show
select your first show
for Playback Order choose Season, Episode
for Playout Mode select Multiple, and
for Multiple Count enter 2 (or however many episodes of each show you want to air before moving to the next show)
select your next show

I did try different configurations but could not get to what you're looking for; perhaps Jason or some one else with more know-how can provide some insight. You can also ask this on ErsatzTV's Discord, where there usually is more responsiveness and others than can help (https://discord.gg/hHaJm3yGy6).

jason

There isn't a way to schedule random pairs/groups of consecutive episodes. Note that even when shuffling, you can keep multi-part episodes together (an option on the schedule itself - same place you change the schedule name). If the episodes are named in a way that indicates they belong together, e.g. Title - Part 1, Title - Part 2, Title (1), Title (2), etc. then ETV will keep all parts together.

NiceMarmut

Thanks for the replies! This certainly gets it close enough.

In the Playback order for TV shows, what is "Season, Episode" and "Multi-Episode Shuffle"?

@jason Just FYI, I tried signing up to this forum using an iCloud address, but the verification email never came though. I used G-mail instead.

jason

NiceMarmut "Season, Episode" is distinct from "Chronological" because chronological uses release dates of episodes (this is needed to sort with other kinds of media that may be in a collection, like movies). Chronological sometimes causes undesirable behavior with shows that have more than one episode released on a single day. So rather than sorting by release date, "Season, Episode" ordering will sort by season and then by episode.