Add Arabic language for Library Settings

[fawzib]

Arabic is among the top 5 spoken languages in the world and it would be no brainer to add such a popular language for your arabic speaking audience.

Library -> Manage Library -> Edit -> General -> Language

[tom80H]

It’s showing to me as an option:
العربية

7th language entry from the bottom of the language list

[fawzib]

I see that you will have arabic option once you select “Plex Movie”

[tom80H]

You can select Arabic for all media kinds – except for tv shows. The language option seems to be linked to the media type you can pick when creating the library.
At least that is on my end.

Oh… and you’re right… when it comes to fixing a match, Plex seems to forget Arabic (among some others) when you switch between The Movie Database and Plex Movie.

Let me check that…

[fawzib]

also when you choose arabic as default language it wont save english titles at all. If you choose english it will grab both the “title” and “original title” which is very helpful for searching.

So far the best way to resolve this is by having alternative titles section and the ability to choose which default title to show original title or title.

[hanysys]

can we fix this issue with out waiting for Plex update to fix (i.e by editing a server config file)

[tom80H]

The short answer: probably not
The long answer: maybe, but…
You could take a look at the content of the TheTVDB.bundle folder and tinker with Contents > Code > __init__.py.

This file contains some constants – among which you will find THETVDB_LANGUAGES_CODE. In theory you should be able to add a new line to that dict:

THETVDB_LANGUAGES_CODE = {
  ...
  'ar': '26',
  ...
}

Where 'ar' is the language code for Arabic and '26' is the code for Arabic defined in the separate constant IVA_LANGUAGE.

Disclaimer

1. I’ve not tested this
2. Make sure to create a backup
3. This is just me (private person, regular user, not affiliated with Plex) looking around the Plex files… not a solution/hack sanctioned by Plex
4. If you update the PMS version, your hack will be overwritten
5. Have I already mentioned I haven’t tested and I’m not convinced this is a good idea?
6. The constant THETVDB_LANGUAGES_CODE is preceded by a comment… I haven’t gotten to that – probably means you’ll need to tinker with more scripts
7. When Plex was sharing a preview of the (now released) new Plex Movie agent, they mentioned there’s going to be a new default agent for tv shows (no ETA, no details) – whatever hack you get to work will be obsoleted by that future update
8. Don’t experiment with those files while the server is running… and don’t forget #2 (create a backup before touching anything)
9. Keep in mind: even if you get this to work… if your shows have no Arabic metadata on TheTVDb.com you’ll gain nothing despite all the work
10. tinker at your own risk

[hanysys]

Thanks, Tom.

I will tinker at my own risk