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Auto-Generated Smart Playlists

Configured under Settings → Advanced → Background Service → Export Episode smart playlists and Export TVShow smart playlists.

EasyTV can automatically maintain smart playlists for use by other addons or skin widgets. There are two types: Episode playlists for channel surfing and direct playback, and TVShow playlists for skin widgets that browse by show.

Enabling Auto-Playlists

  1. Go to Settings → Advanced → Background Service
  2. Enable Export Episode smart playlists for channel surfing playlists
  3. Enable Export TVShow smart playlists for skin widget playlists

You can enable one or both depending on your needs.

Episode vs TVShow Playlists

EasyTV creates two parallel sets of playlists with the same categories but different purposes:

Type Use Case Ordering Shows...
Episode Channel surfing, random playback Random The specific episode file to play
TVShow Skin widgets, browsing Alphabetical by title The show itself (navigate to episode from there)

Episode playlists are ideal when you want Kodi to play content directly. Each entry points to a specific episode file.

TVShow playlists are ideal for home screen widgets where you want to browse shows visually. Each entry is a TV show, and selecting it takes you to that show's page where you can see the next episode.

Created Playlists

Episode Playlists

Playlist Filename Contents
All Shows EasyTV - Episode - All Shows.xsp Every show with an on-deck episode
Continue Watching EasyTV - Episode - Continue Watching.xsp Shows mid-season (episode 2+)
Start Fresh EasyTV - Episode - Start Fresh.xsp Shows at season start (episode 1)
Show Premieres EasyTV - Episode - Show Premieres.xsp Shows at S01E01 (brand new shows)
Season Premieres EasyTV - Episode - Season Premieres.xsp Shows at S02E01+ (new season of existing show)

TVShow Playlists

Playlist Filename Contents
All Shows EasyTV - TVShow - All Shows.xsp Every show with an on-deck episode
Continue Watching EasyTV - TVShow - Continue Watching.xsp Shows mid-season (episode 2+)
Start Fresh EasyTV - TVShow - Start Fresh.xsp Shows at season start (episode 1)
Show Premieres EasyTV - TVShow - Show Premieres.xsp Shows at S01E01 (brand new shows)
Season Premieres EasyTV - TVShow - Season Premieres.xsp Shows at S02E01+ (new season of existing show)

Location

Playlists are written to:

special://profile/playlists/video/

Filtering Playlists by Show Selection

If you use a show filter (Settings → Shows → Show Filter), you can apply that same filter to your auto-created playlists:

  1. Go to Settings → Advanced → Background Service
  2. Enable Apply show filter to smart playlists

When enabled, only shows matching your TV show playlist filter will appear in the generated smart playlists. This is useful when you want your skin widgets to show the same filtered content as your EasyTV experience.

Important: This setting only works on the main EasyTV addon, not on clones. Clones don't maintain smart playlists. They rely on the main addon's background service for playlist generation. If you want filtered playlists, configure the filter and this setting on the main addon.

How Categorization Works

Shows are categorized by their next episode:

Next Episode Playlists
S01E01 All Shows, Start Fresh, Show Premieres
S02E01, S03E01... All Shows, Start Fresh, Season Premieres
S01E02, S01E03, S02E05... All Shows, Continue Watching

The premiere playlists help you find:

  • Show Premieres: Brand new shows you haven't started yet
  • Season Premieres: New seasons of shows you've already watched

Automatic Updates

As you watch, shows move between playlists:

You're at S01E01 → All Shows + Start Fresh + Show Premieres
        ↓ (watch S01E01)
You're at S01E02 → All Shows + Continue Watching
        ↓ (watch all of season 1)
You're at S02E01 → All Shows + Start Fresh + Season Premieres
        ↓ (watch S02E01)
You're at S02E02 → All Shows + Continue Watching
        ↓ (finish the series)
No more episodes → Removed from all playlists

Using with Skin Widgets

Most Kodi skins support widgets on the home screen. For the best experience:

  1. Enable Export TVShow smart playlists in EasyTV settings
  2. Configure your skin's widget to use an EasyTV TVShow playlist as its source
  3. Choose the category that fits your widget's purpose:
  4. Continue Watching: Shows you're in the middle of
  5. Start Fresh: Shows ready to start a new season
  6. Show Premieres: Brand new shows to discover
  7. Season Premieres: New seasons waiting for you
  8. All Shows: Everything EasyTV is tracking

TVShow playlists display show artwork and metadata, making them ideal for visual widgets.

Using with PseudoTV Live

If you use PseudoTV Live for virtual TV channels:

  1. Enable Export Episode smart playlists in EasyTV settings
  2. Create a channel from an EasyTV Episode playlist
  3. The channel automatically has your tracked episodes

Episode playlists work better here because they point directly to playable episode files.

Using in Other Smart Playlists

You can use EasyTV playlists as criteria in your own smart playlists:

  • Create a playlist with rule: "Playlist is EasyTV - Episode - Continue Watching"
  • Combine with other rules (genre, year, etc.)

Playlist XML Structure

Episode playlists identify content by filename:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<smartplaylist type="episodes">
    <name>EasyTV - Episode - All Shows</name>
    <match>one</match>
    <!--42--><rule field="filename" operator="is"><value>Breaking.Bad.S02E06.mkv</value></rule>
    <!--156--><rule field="filename" operator="is"><value>The.Office.S04E02.mkv</value></rule>
</smartplaylist>

TVShow playlists identify content by show title:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<smartplaylist type="tvshows">
    <name>EasyTV - TVShow - Continue Watching</name>
    <match>one</match>
    <!--42--><rule field="title" operator="is"><value>Breaking Bad</value></rule>
    <!--156--><rule field="title" operator="is"><value>The Office</value></rule>
    <order direction="ascending">sorttitle</order>
</smartplaylist>

Each entry has a comment with the show's numeric ID for internal tracking.

Plugin Content Support

EasyTV's auto-playlists work with plugin-based libraries like Jellyfin, Emby, and Plex. For plugin content, the full plugin URL is used instead of a simple filename:

<!--42--><rule field="filename" operator="is"><value>plugin://plugin.video.jellyfin/...</value></rule>

This happens automatically. No configuration needed.

Special Characters

Filenames with special characters (&, <, >) are automatically escaped to ensure valid XML:

<!-- "Pam & Tommy" becomes: -->
<value>Pam &amp; Tommy.S01E05.mkv</value>

Performance Note

When enabled, EasyTV updates these playlists whenever episode tracking changes:

  • After you watch something
  • After library updates
  • After service startup

The writes are batched for efficiency, but if you have a very large library, you may want to keep this disabled unless actively using the playlists.