Change to DVD order from Aired order not working?

General Discussions
1

Hi all.

I’m having a bit of stress with a TV series. I got the DVDs for Stingray (the Gerry Anderson series) but even though I’ve edited the Episode Ordering to read ‘DVD order’ it still insists that episodes 2 and 3 are other than they are. They match the Aired Order on theTVDB.com.

I’ve tried cleaning bundles, unlatching, re-matching, redownloading metadata etc. No Joy. I erased the folder (just in case), named it as before ‘Stingray (1964)’ and put three files in:

Stingray (1964) - S01E01 - Stingray.m4v
Stingray (1964) - S01E02 - Plant Of Doom.m4v
Stingray (1964) - S01E03 - Sea Of Oil.m4v

However it’s still doing it.

Any ideas?

(it’s actually wrong for all files bar episode 1 - all are the aired order)

2

If your episode files are numbered according to the ‘aired’ order, then you can only use the ‘aired’ episode ordering inside of Plex.

The DVD order of this show differs drastically, particularly for the first few episodes
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=season&seriesid=72428&seasonid=4125&lid=7

Your files could contain embedded meta data which may contribute to the confusion.
Do this: Go to Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheTVDB
In there, grab the line ‘Local Media Assets’ with your mouse and drag it downwards, so it ends up being at the bottom of the stack of active agents.
Repeat the same under
Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheMovieDatabase
+
Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - Plex Movie
+
Settings - Server - Agents - Movies - TheMovieDatabase

After doing this, either re-number your files to follow the DVD ordering or keep them as they are.
Btu either way, perform the Plex Dance.

3

Thanks for the reply.

The files are numbered correctly for the DVD release.

I’ve gone to Settings -> Server->Agents. Across the top I have options for:

Films------Programmes------Artists------Albums------Photos

If I click Films I get a subsection of

Personal Media------Plex Movie------The Movie Database

and if I click Programmes I get

Personal Media Shows------TheTVDB------The Movie Database

In all cases I’ve dragged ‘Local Media Assets (TV)’ to the bottom and un-checked it for good measure.

However, still no joy. It still insists that Episode 2 is ‘Emergency Marineville’ and ep 3 is ‘The Ghost Ship’

I’m doing something wrong somewhere…

4

Did you perform the Plex Dance?

@james.c.andrew@gmail.com said:
In all cases I’ve dragged ‘Local Media Assets (TV)’ to the bottom and un-checked it for good measure.

Outright disabling is not a good idea, because this also disables

  • embedded meta data
  • external subtitles
  • external cover art
  • other local extras

However, still no joy. It still insists that Episode 2 is ‘Emergency Marineville’ and ep 3 is ‘The Ghost Ship’

This is correct for the ‘Aired’ episode ordering

Did you ‘edit’ the show
and told Plex to actually use the ‘DVD ordering’?
You must ‘Refresh Metadata’ for the tv show after changing this setting.

723×524 15.5 KB

5

Yep, done all that. Several times…!

6

Please post the Plex XML info of one of the episodes in there.

7

Raw XML with angled brackets replace by curly braces:

{MediaContainer size=“1” allowSync=“1” identifier=“com.plexapp.plugins.library” librarySectionID=“1” librarySectionTitle=“TV” librarySectionUUID=“7095761a-c845-4cc8-b244-8c899d2eb774” mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion=“1498624662”}
{Video ratingKey=“4” key="/library/metadata/4" parentRatingKey=“2” grandparentRatingKey=“1” guid=“com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72428/1/2?lang=en” librarySectionID=“1” librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" type=“episode” title=“Emergency Marineville” grandparentKey="/library/metadata/1" parentKey="/library/metadata/2" grandparentTitle=“Stingray (1964)” parentTitle=“Season 1” summary=“The Stingray crew track the launch site of missiles fired on Marineville to a volcanic island. However, on investigating they become captured by the aliens responsible.” index=“2” parentIndex=“1” rating=“7.0” viewOffset=“224183” lastViewedAt=“1503343711” year=“1964” thumb="/library/metadata/4/thumb/1503343636" art="/library/metadata/1/art/1503342648" parentThumb="/library/metadata/2/thumb/1503343637" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/1/thumb/1503342648" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/1/art/1503342648" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/1/theme/1503342648" duration=“1583120” originallyAvailableAt=“1964-10-11” addedAt=“1430590119” updatedAt=“1503343636” chapterSource=“media”}
{Media videoResolution=“576” id=“2” duration=“1583120” bitrate=“2413” width=“720” height=“568” aspectRatio=“1.33” audioChannels=“2” audioCodec=“aac” videoCodec=“h264” container=“mp4” videoFrameRate=“PAL” optimizedForStreaming=“0” audioProfile=“lc” has64bitOffsets=“0” videoProfile=“main”}
{Part accessible=“1” exists=“1” id=“2” key="/library/parts/2/1430590119/file.m4v" duration=“1583120” file="/Users/jim/Desktop/Stingray (1964)/Stingray (1964) - S01E02 - Plant Of Doom.m4v" size=“477430697” audioProfile=“lc” container=“mp4” has64bitOffsets=“0” optimizedForStreaming=“0” videoProfile=“main”}
{Stream id=“3” streamType=“1” default=“1” codec=“h264” index=“0” bitrate=“2246” anamorphic=“1” bitDepth=“8” chromaSubsampling=“4:2:0” colorRange=“tv” colorSpace=“smpte170m” frameRate=“24.999” hasScalingMatrix=“0” height=“568” level=“40” pixelAspectRatio=“21845:20449” profile=“main” refFrames=“5” streamIdentifier=“1” width=“720”/}
{Stream id=“4” streamType=“2” selected=“1” default=“1” codec=“aac” index=“1” channels=“2” bitrate=“167” language=“English” languageCode=“eng” profile=“lc” samplingRate=“48000” streamIdentifier=“2”/}
{/Part}
{/Media}
{Writer id=“139” filter=“writer=139” tag=“Alan Fennell”/}
{Extras size=“0”}{/Extras}
{/Video}
{/MediaContainer}

8

This will not work.
With a file path of
/Users/jim/Desktop/Stingray (1964)/Stingray (1964) - S01E02 - Plant Of Doom.m4v
you’d have to point your tv show library directly at /Users/jim/Desktop
But I assume you pointed it to /Users/jim/Desktop/Stingray (1964) instead, right?
You are not supposed to point Plex at each tv show individually.

You need an additional subfolder in there.
Maybe call it TV (because this is nice & short)
so /Users/jim/Desktop/TV
‘Edit’ your tv show library and point it only to /Users/jim/Desktop/TV
then move all your tv shows to sit in TV
so we end up with /Users/jim/Desktop/TV/Stingray (1964)/

And you don’t have a Season folder in there, which is, strictly speaking not according to the spec.
So we should in theory end up like this:
/Users/jim/Desktop/TV/Stingray (1964)/Season 01/Stingray (1964) - S01E02 - Plant Of Doom.m4v

9

I’m going to leave it just for now…the XML I posted was incorrect. It was from a quick test of installing the Mac version and linking to the desktop folder. The real server is running on a Netgear ReadyNAS 104, but I’m going to try a few things before I pester people here again.

Many thanks for your help.

10

Ok, here’s the real XML. Again, I’ve replaced the angled braces with curly ones:

{MediaContainer size=“1” allowSync=“1” identifier=“com.plexapp.plugins.library” librarySectionID=“2” librarySectionTitle=“TV programmes” librarySectionUUID=“11f1a42a-09ea-41dd-99ca-ccecd1421bbb” mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion=“1498655944”}
{Video ratingKey=“4354” key="/library/metadata/4354" skipParent=“1” parentRatingKey=“4352” grandparentRatingKey=“4351” guid=“com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb://3454/1/2?lang=en” librarySectionID=“2” librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" type=“episode” title=“Emergency Marineville” grandparentKey="/library/metadata/4351" parentKey="/library/metadata/4352" grandparentTitle=“Stingray” parentTitle=“Season 1” summary=“The Stingray crew track the launch site of missiles fired on Marineville to a volcanic island. However, on investigating they become captured by the aliens responsible.” index=“2” parentIndex=“1” viewOffset=“235985” lastViewedAt=“1503339072” year=“1964” thumb="/library/metadata/4354/thumb/1503345811" art="/library/metadata/4351/art/1503340330" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/4351/thumb/1503340330" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/4351/art/1503340330" duration=“1583120” originallyAvailableAt=“1964-10-11” addedAt=“1430590119” updatedAt=“1503345811” chapterSource=“media”}
{Media videoResolution=“576” id=“6014” duration=“1583120” bitrate=“2413” width=“720” height=“568” aspectRatio=“1.33” audioChannels=“2” audioCodec=“aac” videoCodec=“h264” container=“mp4” videoFrameRate=“PAL” optimizedForStreaming=“0” audioProfile=“lc” has64bitOffsets=“0” videoProfile=“main”}
{Part accessible=“1” exists=“1” id=“6383” key="/library/parts/6383/1430590119/file.m4v" duration=“1583120” file="/data/Lucid_Nonsense/TV/Stingray (1964)/Season 01/Stingray (1964) - S01E02 - Plant Of Doom.m4v" size=“477430697” audioProfile=“lc” container=“mp4” has64bitOffsets=“0” optimizedForStreaming=“0” videoProfile=“main”}
{Stream id=“9635” streamType=“1” default=“1” codec=“h264” index=“0” bitrate=“2246” anamorphic=“1” bitDepth=“8” chromaSubsampling=“4:2:0” colorRange=“tv” colorSpace=“smpte170m” frameRate=“24.999” hasScalingMatrix=“0” height=“568” level=“40” pixelAspectRatio=“21845:20449” profile=“main” refFrames=“5” streamIdentifier=“1” width=“720”/}
{Stream id=“9636” streamType=“2” selected=“1” default=“1” codec=“aac” index=“1” channels=“2” bitrate=“167” language=“English” languageCode=“eng” profile=“lc” samplingRate=“48000” streamIdentifier=“2”/}
{/Part}
{/Media}
{Writer id=“1943” filter=“writer=1943” tag=“Alan Fennell”/}
{Field locked=“1” name=“titleSort”/}
{Extras size=“0”></Extras}
{/Video}
{/MediaContainer}

It’s as though Plex is just ignoring the DVD Order setting. I’ve checked and double-checked that it’s set, and it is.

11

How did you solve it?

12

Have you made sure that your tv show library is looking directly at this folder (and only this folder):
/data/Lucid_Nonsense/TV

13

I’m not in a position to check right this second, but I’m 99% sure the library path is correct. How would it be able to even see the files if it wasn’t? (sorry, that sounds snarky which is not my intent. Honest question.)

14

Additional: I just made a quick VPN connection and yes, the path is correctly showing as /data/Lucid_Nonsense/TV

15

@james.c.andrew@gmail.com said:
I’m not in a position to check right this second, but I’m 99% sure the library path is correct. How would it be able to even see the files if it wasn’t? (sorry, that sounds snarky which is not my intent. Honest question.)

Plex is quite tolerant of non-conforming file names and folder organisation - until your library grows above a certain size or you expect it to do something ‘special’. Like in this case.

Additional: I just made a quick VPN connection and yes, the path is correctly showing as /data/Lucid_Nonsense/TV

That’s good then.
Provided you performed the Plex Dance correctly, (all steps, in-order!) this should work.

16

Problem is I’m 99% sure I’ve done all that and it’s still showing in Aired order, but I’m now at the point where I’m not sure what order I’ve tried stuff in, so that’s tonight’s job.

Many thanks for your help.

17

Could just do what I did and set the “sort order” for each episode that is out of place…

ckkxkjrix3u1.bmp733×532 1.12 MB

18

Thanks, but the problem is it’s getting the actual episode names wrong.

If you go by aired order, episode 2 is ‘Emergency Marineville’ but on the DVDs it’s ‘Plant Of Doom’. So, the Episode I’ve got titled ‘S01E02’ is really ‘Plant Of Doom’ but Plex insists it’s called ‘Emergency Marineville’.

19

That’s the ‘title’ embedded in the file - according to your XML.

If you have Local Media Assets in the top slot in your agent lists, and are using MP4//M4V files Plex reads the embedded title and gives it tip-top priority over anything else. Drag ‘Loco Maniacal Asshats’ to the bottom of every agent list you can lay your hands on.

The best embedded metadata to have in your video files is NONE. Short of that you demote Local Media Asshats to the bottom. Then you rename your episodes to the DVD order as they appear at TVDB. Then you tell Plex to use the DVD order as it appears at TVDB.

Then it works as intended.

20

Sorry, I think I’m being a bit dense (no surprises there!). The file named as Episode 2 should be ‘Plant of Doom’ (if in DVD order) but Plex is insisting it’s ‘Emergency Marineville’. It seems to be using the Aired order no matter what. Oh, and LMA is definitely at the bottom for everything I could find :slight_smile: