New direct mode for Emby, Jellyfin, and Plex

[james]

Update (2/13) Direct Mode is now available in Infuse 7.7!

Update (1/23) We have made some great progress since the priority shift in December, and are tentatively planning to have 7.7 with Direct Mode available on the App Store in mid-February. This will include the core set of Direct Mode features, which will then be expanded upon in a series of updates to follow.

Update (12/18) I realize the new Direct Mode feature has been taking longer to release than many would have liked, us included. Today we are making a shift in priorities in an effort to have 7.7 available sooner rather than later.

The core of 7.7 will include the following features/improvements.

1. Direct fetching of items from the media server (no locally cached library or scanning required) - Status: Done
2. Fast updates of things like recently added and in progress items - Status: Partially done/bug fixing
3. Direct server search - Status: In progress
4. Major optimizations to loading of large categories/folders directly from the server - Status: In progress

What is being pushed to a post-7.7 update is the new modular home screen that will help us with some aspects of Direct Mode as well as the ability to add many other features down the road. While this will be coming in a future update, it has proven to be exponentially more time consuming than we originally thought and is the main reason for the delays in the release of 7.7.

For those beta testing, we are taking a few days to reorganize things a bit based on this new change of direction and will then be working to push hard to complete the items listed above for 7.7 with this new clearer vision.

Thanks again for your patience and for supporting Infuse!

Update (8/3) Thanks for the feedback everyone! We’re making great progress on the implementation, and are working to have the following items available in the first iteration.

We also have some early previews to share.

Library browsing and Home Screen lists

1. Implementing API requests to fetch relevant content from servers
2. Loading of lists and libraries on demand, with no pre-caching or indexing
3. Integrating native lists into the Infuse home screen favorite model
4. Edit new lists through the favorite reordering screen
5. An updated Home Screen with support for loading animations and error handling
6. Stability fixes and improvements to the existing "Continue Watching” functionality

iOS

Apple TV

Mac

Search

1. Search API requests tailored for media servers
2. Flexible switching of search scope between the local Infuse library and media servers
3. Implementing a new search screen equipped with dedicated sections for various result categories and seamless toggling between search scopes

iOS

Apple TV

Mac

Original post (7/4)
Currently, when connecting with a media server like Emby, Jellyfin, or Plex Infuse will work to index the contents of the server and include it in the Infuse library. This works fine in many cases, but duplicating the entire media server cache can can consume a fair amount of time and disk space (especially for larger libraries).

We would like to improve this, and provide an option for direct access to the server-side media library content.

This is a fairly large paradigm shift and we are considering starting with the following features:

• Pin the Latest / Recently Added / Favorites lists directly from the server’s home screen
• Add support for direct server-side search via the Infuse search
• Enable the ability to navigate server libraries from the Infuse library screen
• Allow switching between different content view options (e.g. folder mode, collections, individual episodes, etc.) while browsing server libraries
• Add support for content filtering in libraries based on various criteria, similar to the server

Initially, this new mode will be opt-in only and Infuse will keep using its own library by default.

To further improve the experience we would love to hear your feedback on how you use your video collections.

• How do you typically choose the video you want to watch on the server today?
• Which search and content filtering features are most important for your convenience?
• Do you often use the Latest / Recently Added lists on the home screen?

Feel free to share your experience with media servers and comment on what you would like to see added in Infuse.

[wiwer]

Currently use with Plex. What you you mention to add would only make Infuse better than it already is. My one downfall currently is the large cache and that is sometimes doesn’t update my library.

Having Recently added TV and movies and collections would be brilliant additions hoping that smart collections would come over also.

Would be happy to opt-in to trial this new system.

[jmigsan]

I use a large Plex library with Infuse and recently the movie and serie indexing task takes soooooo long and the app cache uses sooooo much storage… this new feature will make Infuse even better! Count on me!

• How do you typically choose the video you want to watch on the server today?
  A: Mainly from the Continue Watching section. Some weekends I search in the full library for a movie.

• Which search and content filtering features are most important for your convenience?
  A: Genre, in which folder is located, release date (if available).

• Do you often use the Latest / Recently Added lists on the home screen?
  A: Of course! I use it a lot! Everyday I open Plex or Infuse I like check the Recently Added section.

[mdausch]

Count me in! My refresh period has been taking forever lately so any improvements on that would be much appreciated!

• How do you typically choose the video you want to watch on the server today?

I mainly use the search for this, or when it correctly tracks which season I am watching, the continue watching/recently watched list. Otherwise I will use the recently added lists for things that I have just added to my server.

• Which search and content filtering features are most important for your convenience?

In my experience, only filtering by show name, or episode name is useful. I almost always know what I’m looking to watch.

• Do you often use the Latest / Recently Added lists on the home screen?

I use this whenever I am not watching something already and instead am looking for latest releases that downloaded to my server. Most of the time when wanting to watch something new, this is where it’s going to show up for me.

[NC_Bullseye]

Maybe the time has come to create a new product that is a head end for media servers and let Infuse evolve into a stand alone media player again like it started.

Those that came to Infuse before the media server inclusion were asking for these features without having to run and additional program to play media. It seems that now those features require a media server and have been removed from the wish list for Infuse only.

[Neverland]

Would like to see Infuse load directly frozen Jellyfin in my case.

Now I often notice, that my library is not updated correctly. Some new show files don’t show up, until I clean the metadata cache.

Not having to cache it all, would be great!

[marp04]

Please add Skip Intro for Jellyfin

[M.Scarn]

@james

How do you typically choose the video you want to watch on the server today?

I have pinned on the Home Screen “recently added tv” and “recently added movies” and this is mainly how I consume my daily media.

@james

Which search and content filtering features are most important for your convenience?

I hope there’s a way to sort unwatched tv shows by recently aired episode “just like Plex client
Having it sorted by release date “the current way infuse does it” will never get a new episode upfront if the tv show is old and was first released couple of years back

@james

Do you often use the Latest / Recently Added lists on the home screen

As mentioned above yes

This is a great change, cant wait for it to be released. I really hate the couple of minutes when I launch infuse every time that it takes to load the library content

[hunter13coleman]

• How do you typically choose the video you want to watch on the server today?

I almost solely use the recently added lists for things that I have just added to my server. Otherwise I’ll scroll to the video in the Movies or TV shows section

• Which search and content filtering features are most important for your convenience?

Sorting by name is usually most convenient. I’m not sure I’ve ever searched via a search box for a show.

• Do you often use the Latest / Recently Added lists on the home screen?

Every day. This is my favorite part of the app and speeding up this refresh would be huge! Count me in to trying it out, please!

[DarS23231]

Using Emby as of now. Sound great. Hope to test this!!

[FLskydiver]

@james

We would like to improve this, and provide an option for direct access to the server-side media library content.

Since most Plex (et al.) enthusiasts seem to prefer Plex’s UI and feature-rich content management anyway; only reluctantly using Infuse because it does a better job playing content; why not let Plex manage everything for them and limit Infuse to handling playback?

@james

To further improve the experience we would love to hear your feedback […] Feel free to share your experience […] and comment on what you would like to see added in Infuse.

I watch my collection using Infuse. Exclusively. It would be really nice for us vanilla Infuse users if Firecore instead prioritizes fixing these long-standing UI bugs…

• Background app refresh not working
• Infuse doesn’t show episodes guest stars and incorrectly shows Series Regulars when it should show Season Regulars
• Weird UI bug when searching for people
• 7.4 Update: Cast & Crew Issues — Duplicate Entries (TMDB/NFO) Not Merged, No Background Scanning of NFO Metadata
• TV Shows & Collections always sort by their TMDB Titles, and simply stop dropping leading “The”s when set to sort by filename.
• Rearranging order of pinned items and lists on the Infuse Homescreen via the hamburger icon on AppleTV remains glitchy as heck.

… and finally adds these long-delayed feature upgrades:

• Multiple filters at same time from Library
• Season selector for Up Next List items
• Change Custom Collection Artwork
• Change TMDB Collection Artwork
• Manually select artwork from TMDB
• TMDB/IMDb ID Support
• Alphabet location indicator when scrolling
• Option to use alternate episode order
• Watched Indicators are actually “Unwatched” Indicators (Add option to use feature as a checklist of “Watched” items instead)
• Show more Cast and Crew members
• Show complete filmographies and biographies of Cast and Crew on demand
• Improve ability to identify/differentiate between downloaded Subtitles
• Sorting order - use nfo file information (recognize and respect <sorttitle> tag in .nfo)
• Allow per-library and per-folder inline sorting (allow users to set different sort orders for different content types, list views, collections, and folders)
• Sort Order - Oldest to Newest, Z-A, etc (allow users to invert the sort order of the already existing options — by simply choosing the same option again)
• Filter TV-series by TMDB Facts; including production company (Netflix, HBO and so on), show type (Miniseries, Scripted, etc.), original language (for both TV Series and Movies) and TV Series Status (Returning, Ended, Cancelled).

Fix all this and I bet that a whole bunch of external media manager users will realize Infuse alone gives them everything they need; and a whole bunch of Infuse users will realize they no longer need to rely on Plex (et al.).

[Bancheng]

• I want immediate access to recently uploaded but unwatched series and movies at the home page to find what I’d like to watch (which a long indexing time wouldn’t allow). Then I either choose media I have watched last time or go to the Library or Files to find the one I want to watch for from a collection of similar series or movies (which the indexing also becomes significant in terms of the loading time).
• Genre.
• Yes.

[awh]

I’m absolutely brand-new to Infuse, currently examining (Jellyfin+Infuse) as a replacement for (Plex plus its own native client).

Biggest important features for me would be:

1. Ability to download/cache content to my iPad since I only ever watch on my iPad when I’m on mobile or in an airplane (and thus why I need Infuse rather than Jellyfin’s native client).

2. Combined with #1, a better sync option (“always have the next X unplayed episodes cached on the device”), which I mentioned in a thread in “suggestions.”

[asr101]

I use Emby on a Synology Discstation.

This sounds like a very good idea.

• How do you typically choose the video you want to watch on the server today?

  If it is a TV series in progress the show is usual displayed on the top
  Next I usually use the recently added lists
  If I know what I want I choose the Movies or TV folder and then scroll down alphabetically until I find it.
  If I am just browsing I usually filter by a specific genre.

• Which search and content filtering features are most important for your convenience?
  Multiple Filters! Please! At least three (Drama, 1970s, 1080p) or (Romance, Comedy, 1950s)
  Also a quick way to choose sorting options. (something like a right click menu but on the Apple TV)

• Do you often use the Latest / Recently Added lists on the home screen?

  Yes

[slumdunk19860401]

-Video favorites feature is provided, and users can easily collect their favorite videos for future viewing.
-added search function so that users can quickly find the video they want to watch by entering keywords.
-provide tag classification function, users can tag their favorite videos with different tags, which is easy to classify and find.
-provide recommendation function to recommend videos that users may be interested in based on their past viewing records and favorite records.
-provides a filtering feature that allows users to filter according to video type, duration, publishing time and other conditions to quickly find videos that meet their needs.
-add rating and comment functions to allow users to rate and comment on videos they have watched, and help other users make choices.
-provides ranking function, so that users can view the current most popular video rankings.
-added the playback history feature to make it easy for users to view the videos they have recently watched.
-provides multilingual capabilities so that non-English users can easily use the service.
-add social features that allow users to follow other users and share their viewing history and favorites.

[wdj200589]

支持Siri中文简体搜索文件，增加查看nfo文件信息

[lxj12328]

About the problem of connecting with Emby media server:

1. Speed up data synchronization. Now the synchronization of data from the emby server is very slow. There are more than 20,000 resources on emby, and synchronization takes a long time.
2. There are sometimes problems with synchronizing playback records of emby. Occasionally there is a problem with the viewing progress of some TV series not being synchronized.
3. Is it possible not to cache the metadata of the emby server locally and directly search for movie and TV data on the emby server through API interface?

[michaelbrawn]

@james

• How do you typically choose the video you want to watch on the server today?

By recently added
By favourited folder
By playlist

@james

• Which search and content filtering features are most important for your convenience?

Filter by video features 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Atmos, IMDB Rating, Rotten tomato score, Audience Score
Easy search with Siri Remote
Recommended content (E.x that season of that show that was added and never watched, or that new movie from that genre I’ve been watching lately on weekends).

@james

• Do you often use the Latest / Recently Added lists on the home screen?

Almost always

—

Also, Infuse is forever rebuilding and losing its library on my Apple TV. Maybe I’ve broken something?

[FLskydiver]

@michaelbrawn

Also, Infuse is forever rebuilding and losing its library on my Apple TV. Maybe I’ve broken something?

Nope. Known issue.

[user57]

I hope not to scan the database again, I use it with emby, every time I open it, it takes a long time to scan, if you change to direct connection that is really great