extra grouping level

I love Serviio so first of all thank you for this great tool!

Now my feature request:
I can see that the way you can select what you want to serve/share is ultra easy and powerful but it would be great to add an extra control layer, let me explain:

Now you can add a new folder and select what you want to share from that folder.

This is great but, i.e. if I have a folder for the pictures and videos of my holidays I will want to scan and share both kinds of content. And here is where “problems” appear:

I can see in my pictures all the small videos of my holidays…

It would be great to be able to select this:

- Folder group named OUR MEDIA

- Different locations/folders in different hdd’s ==> with pictures, films… from our parrot and holidays.

- Folder group named FILMS

- Different locations/folders in different hdd’s ==> only films with metadata…

Then, in our TV we should see a new sharing level:
OUR HOLIDAYS
FILMS
And inside those groups we would see what today is shown by default:
Titles, actors, …

I tried other servers before and I’ve been able to see that they are working in another way: you can group in a category different folders, and then all the content inside those folders is shown without control (pictures, sound, films…).
The way I’m proposing would allow you to group different folders in groups (i.e. FILMS) and select what you want to share for those groups.

I hope I’ve made it clear (sorry if it is not, simply tell it to me and I’ll try to clarify).

Thank you again for this tool!

Keep up the good work.

[zip]

I can see in my pictures all the small videos of my holidays…

Not sure what you mean.

I'd add 2 folders:

- Films (share videos only)
- Holdiays (share Images + Videos)

To go to holiday images, I'd browse Images -> Folders -> Holidays (includes only images)
To go to holiday videos, I'd browse Videos -> Folders -> Holidays (includes only videos)

Yes, you are right, but I’d like to have an extra control layer…

What you suggest is what I had at the beginning: I removed all the categories and left only folders. This works, but it has the drawback that forces me to know where I do have the films (in which HDD, in which folder…) and moreover it makes it impossible to search for the title… only filename.

CURRENT SELECTION MODE / STATE
Let’s say I have 3 different groups:

a) Let’s say I have Hollywood Films (let’s call them HWF) spreaded in several folders and even in different HDD’s.

b) Let’s say I have picture folders (with all my holidays, personal photos and personal videos).

c) Let’s say I have TV series.

Each of the previous “groups” have several folders.

Then in Serviio I can select the contents I want to share in a simple and powerful way:

I can add folders and in each folder I can decide what I want to be shared.

WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE CURRENT SELECTION / STATE
When I go to my TV I can see VIDEO, IMAGES and MUSIC as the main 3 categories I can navigate.

Inside those main categories I can see the different “subfolders” that help to find / organize the media like: author, actors, title…

If I go inside VIDEO I can see (organized in different ways of course) all the videos that can be found in all the previous groups (a, b and c). This means that I can find one personal video when I’m searching for a HWF: i.e.: if I go to titles I can see HWF and personal videos in the same group.

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WHAT I’D LIKE AS A NEW FEATURE
If the Serviio user could add an extra layer category (ELC) that would be placed before the main categories and the normal categories this would help organize the media in a better way:

Let’s say we create an ELC named HWF and another one named PERSONAL.

In the ELC HWF we could add different folders (FILMS IN THE FIRST HDD, FILMS IN THE SECOND HDD, …) with different selections in the Serviio media library like VIDEO, GET METADATA and UPDATES.

In the ELC PERSONAL we could add different folders (OUR PICTURES…) with different selections in the Serviio media library like VIDEO, PICTURES and UPODATES.

In the ELC named SERIES we could add different folders (SERIES IN THE FIRST HDD, SERIES IN THE SECOND HDD…) with different selections in the Serviio media library like VIDEO, GET METADATA and UPDATES.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WITH THIS NEW ORGANIZATION METHOD
When I go to my TV I would see VIDEO, IMAGES and MUSIC as the main 3 categories I would be able to navigate.

Inside those main categories I would see the different ELC: HWF, PERSONAL and SERIES that would be like filters, and inside each ELC I would have the different “subfolders” that help to find / organize the media like: author, actors, title…

In the TV I would have:

Serviio (home pc):

HWF:

PICTURES

VIDEO

TITLES

…

ACTORS

…

MUSIC

PERSONAL:

PICTURES

VIDEO

MUSIC

In red: level 1 folder (Serviio server).
In yellow: level 2 folder (ELC’s).
In blue: level 3 folder (Normal display categories).
In green: level 4 folder (Inside normal display categories like Titles).


That organization scheme would allow the users to group their media files and to be able to filter which kind of media they are seeing in their TV when they are choosing what to see.

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SUMMARIZING
Let’s say other media servers allow the users to select n folders and group them in categories, but all the contents of those categories are shown (which is not good).
Let’s say Serviio allow the users to select folders and choose what to scan in those folders. Then all the contents of the same kind are mixed without categories.
With the proposal I’m making you would have the media server with more allowed customizations / filtering allowed.

I hope I’ve made it clearer now… my English is not my best and I’m a Serviio newbie and mixing those things can end in tears… Sorry for any inconvenience.

If it is still not clear please tell it to me and I’ll try it again…

Joan I like your idea! I was thinking about something similar as you suggest. I wanted to add a new topic here but i see you already did.
I'm actually ripping our family videos and a realized its not comfortable to list them on TV through Movie->Folder->etc..

I was thinking about, what if Serviio allowed the user to add a custom sub-lists into categories(Video, Music, Image) and make a choice what folder will contain the items in it.

So I would like to see on TV video categorized like:

Video:
-> Movies - contains all movies from all disk and folders
-> Home Video (custom list) - set for one specific folder
-> Short Movies (custom list) - set for one specific folder
-> Series
-> Folders
-> ...

So, it would be fine if the user should organize the listing as he likes.

[zip]

J
Video:
-> Movies - contains all movies from all disk and folders
-> Home Video (custom list) - set for one specific folder
-> Short Movies (custom list) - set for one specific folder
-> Series
-> Folders
-> ...

You can do this if you have a shared folders Home Video an Short Movies and mark Folders category as Show content only. (Obviously you'll not see Folders category explicitly any more)

J
Video:
-> Movies - contains all movies from all disk and folders
-> Home Video (custom list) - set for one specific folder
-> Short Movies (custom list) - set for one specific folder
-> Series
-> Folders
-> ...

You can do this if you have a shared folders Home Video an Short Movies and mark Folders category as Show content only. (Obviously you'll not see Folders category explicitly any more)

How to do the same with Internet-based resources, like IPTV-chanels? I want to have groups by category. Help me please.