Add Unwatched category to Recordings section

The Recordings All section contains both watched and unwatched items. The unwatched items indicated by a number on the item. Watched items if not deleted will remain in the All category. It tends to clutter the All area with both. For example, if a TV series season has ended and all episodes have been watched but not deleted, the item will remain in the All category without a numeric indicator. Another example would be once a year events like the Emmy Awards, Oscar Awards, and so on. All that have been watched but not deleted will remain in the All category.

The feature request:
Add an Unwatched category to the Recordings area. The All category can be left as is with no change containing both watched and unwatched. The Unwatched category will only contain items that have a numeric unwatched indicator whether a TV series, movie, once a year event, etc. If an item has no numeric indicator it will be automatically removed from the Unwatched category. I’m no programmer, but it would seem simple enough to copy and remove an item to a separate category based on the unwatched numeric indicator.

Current Recordings section:
All
Recent
TV Shows
Movies
Sports

Proposed Recordings section:
All
Unwatched
Recent
TV Shows
Movies
Sports

Thanks for taking a look and appreciate any consideration.

2 Likes

Do you want TV shows with unwatched episodes? Or unwatched individual episodes?

Note:. Not all devices have all the screens while some have only have most filters - (it’s not) it might be on a device you’re not using, or it could be implemented on a device you aren’t using :frowning:

Just the overall show as it would appear in the All category with any unwatched episodes which may also include any episodes already watched. Not looking to separate out unwatched episodes.

My primary device is a Roku Ultra. I also have the Android phone app which I looked in to check if an Unwatched category could be a feature there as well. I’m thinking it would be a nice feature for most all Tablo UI with a Recordings section.

That’s a neat and good suggestion! Will share it with the team.

2 Likes

What happens to the family of more then one person who watches the episodes at different times?

Now they would have to search two folders to find the episode.

It would still be in the All category as usual if left as watched. If the person who watched it marked it unwatched, then it would be in both the All and Unwatched categories.

Sounds like Tablo needs profiles like Netflix.

If a user lives in a multi-member household and is interested only on what they have not watched only ALL works. All other containers containing UNWATCHED only represents what no one has watched.

Large disks can contain thousands of recordings. The profiles would need to be stored on disk per recording or additional flash would be needed to store all the information. I kind of remember the days of missing recordings. I can hardly wait for the disappearing recordings due to software profile bugs. Or the disk fills up due to some profile having a recording that will never be watched.

I actually think this is a good suggestion. Sure, it has limited use cases, as do most things, but this seems like a very valid use case. And it’s not like it’s removing functionality, it’s just adding more filtering.

Isn’t there a difference between adding a new category (UNWATCHED) as opposed to a filter associated to the ALL category?

I could probably think of 3-4 new categories.

Whatever you want to call it, view or category as you suggested is probably a better word.

Regardless, the OP had the suggested Unwatched option at the same level of hierarchy as the All so to me it’s just another view like the others and it’s not changing anything currently, it’s just adding something additional.

I want a category that contains a list of all the recordings that didn’t complete recording successfully, or didn’t successfully generate thumbnails, or successfully complete Commercial Skip. I could evaluate all all the bad recordings on my unit.

The list of useful categories is long. Just make it a filter and be done with it.

Like a filter with preset categories? Or a filter where you have to type in the word you want to filter by?

Cause these “categories” which you select are already filters.

Filters are sub-categories to a main category. And the screen only has so much space before it has to scroll.

I would like a category that lists all recordings not by the tablo recording quality but by the original broadcast quality.

1080I, 720P, 490I. And if 480I whether it was broadcast in 4:3 or 16:9.

Going by that definition, which I don’t necessarily disagree with, everything should be under All, because it’s all just a subset of All in reality. At which point make the items under All expandable/collapsible and the screen space isn’t really an issue.

Awesome… now who gets what? https://www.tablotv.com/apps-compatible-devices/

Tablo Compatible Streaming Set-Top-Boxes & Sticks

Every device/app in this table has:

Benefits

  • Access to most Tablo screens and features

With no specifics as to “most”.

Same with all in table titled

Tablo Compatible Smart TVs
Benefits

  • Access to most Tablo screens and features

While…

Tablo Compatible Mobile Devices & PCs

iOS and Android both…

Benefits

  • Access to all Tablo screens and filters including settings

PC & MAC
Benefits

  • Access to most Tablo screens and features including settings

again with no specifics for “most”.

So unless you’re using iOS or Android, you may be SOL if these filters ever were to exist. Or they may be available on your favorite device… but they don’t seem to make it easy for you to know what’s available from one to the other.

Agreed and that’s on our to-do list to provide.

Over the last few years the TV-based apps have been changing so often as they’ve been fleshed out and updated that keeping track of what features/filters are available where has been difficult. The web apps and mobile apps are getting their own refresh this year.

Once that’s done, we’ll be creating some charts/lists and updated app walkthroughs for each device/platform.

1 Like

The categories I suggested all have one thing in common. They don’t represent after recording customer access of the recording. They both represent information internal to tablo concerning the processing of the OTA broadcast flow.

Most of this information if not consolidated so that a user could easily understand what has happened on their unit.

I’m eagerly waiting for this information become easier to access and understand.