Rather than manually or periodically letting tasks run from Scheduled Tasks, is there a way to run tasks when I start playing a file? For instance, if I start playing an episode of a show I'd like to at least have jellyfin check for matching subtitles and scan it for intro-skipper audio fingerprints.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I assume you'd want the scripts to run right before playback starts, not on start.

Otherwise, updates (on subtitles, chapters, intro skipping, etc.) won't be reflected on the video, since it would be already playing and the remote player does not get those updated mid-playback.

The playback would have to wait for the script to be finished before it actually starts playing. So this can potentially introduce a lot of delay. However, it'd be a good idea as an optional add-on.

[–] jasep 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don’t have an answer, but I’m curious: why?

[–] bigpEE 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I run jellyfin on my desktop rather than a dedicated HTPC. I'm sure it doesn't matter, but I don't want my computer to be doing jellyfin scheduled tasks when I'm doing something important. While if I'm watching something, my computer's not going to be doing anything other than serving me the content, which seems like an ideal time to do housekeeping

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Oh.. ALL housekeeping? initially I thought you'd only want the video you are playing to be updated with missing extra content (subtitles and intro-skipper audio fingerprints).

Do note that if the library scan does not run, you won't see any new videos that you might have added since the last scan, so you won't even be able to see them in the Jellyfin UI to be able to play them. So at the very least, the library scan needs to run independently from the playback of any new video you'd wanna play that wasn't detected in a previous scan.

It looks to me that it makes more sense to make it run automatically in a time range when you know you won't be doing something important (I think you can tweak the schedule from the dashboard as admin). And perhaps combine that with manual library scans when needed.

[–] jasep 1 points 1 week ago

I figured this was the reason, but didn't want to assume. As user Ferk says below, you're actually better off to have the tasks run before playing, rather than on start of playback. Since there's no way for the system to know when that is, I don't know how you'd automate that.

Unless you have noticed performance impacts during your regular workflow, I tend to agree with what you wrote:

I'm sure it doesn't matter

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You could write a s script which follows jellyfin logs line for line and greps/seds/awks for a keyword corresponding to starting playback. Then you could extract the file path.

It's also likely that it's possible to start your specific scheduled task by API like the following [1].

[1] https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/discussions/12224

PS: I don't know whether it's possible to run a scheduled task for a specific file only. But I've already written the above anyway.

[–] AMillionMonkeys 3 points 1 week ago

Home Assistant can track Jellyfin playback status, so there's some kind of API there. Whether or not there's a convenient way to trigger the tasks is another question.