Conflicting info about TheTVDB Naming Scheme vs Plex Naming Scheme

General Discussions
1

I am relatively new to Plex and I am confused.

If I look up TV show info on TheTVDB, it will show episodes with a nXee episode number where n is the season and the episode is ee. That is season 1, episode 1 is 1x01. All of the items that I find on the Plex Forums keep referring to the proper name as SnnEee, so TheTVDB name 1x01 should be named S01E01.

Am I missing something? Which name is correct or are both correct?

2

Plex’s is correct.
TheTVDB may use a different formatting on its own website, but that is not important. It is the numbers which matter.

  1. Look up your show on TheTVDB
  2. Take the title as it is used on TheTVDB. If there is something in parentheses, take that too. If the title contains invalid characters (depends on your file system), like § : % *, simply leave them out.
  3. Check the naming and the folder structure of your show. Name the top folder of the show exactly after the title on TheTVDB. No abbreviations. No additional subfolders. No aliases. Add the (year) in parentheses of when episode 1 of season 1 of this show was aired.
  4. Name the episode files according to the above linked naming guide. Use the same title as for the top folder. Show's Title (year) - s01e01 - additional info.ext (’- additional info’ can be left out)
  5. After you corrected the naming and folder structure, perform the Plex Dance with all files for this show.
3

A good free tool to rename your files is Rename My TV Series: https://www.tweaking4all.com/home-theatre/rename-my-tv-series-v2/)
It can do all the things OttoKerner describes. This is a nice small scale tool (a series at a time). There are other fairly cheap tools that do more.

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4

Just looking for a point of clarification. The “Naming ‘Series’ & ‘Season’ Based TV Shows” article you linked to doesn’t mention including the year in the name of the file name. Is this something new? I’ve never done that in the past, and I want to make sure I’ve got things labeled correctly. Also, it doesn’t look like it, but should the year also appear in the show’s folder name?

5

but should the year also appear in the show’s folder name?

I have found that (year) is generally optional. However, having correct (year) is critically important for any show that is a reboot, or 2nd incarnation. For example “The Twilight Zone (1959)” is important to distinguish it from the reboot “The Twilight Zone (2002)”

6

It’s been working so far without the year in the folder name or file name. I have a few with the year, but only when it is also used with tvdb.

Going forward, if I’m supposed to have the year in the file name, I’ll include it. The same for the folder name. I just want to know if we’re supposed to do it that way. If we are, the naming structure page should be updated to reflect it.

7

As others have said the year is pretty much optional for TV shows that are unique but it is really needed if there is more than one version of a show.

As far as having the date in the folder name goes: If you are going to use the date to aid matching then having it in the folder name is MUCH more important that in the file name.

Plex uses the folder name and then the file name for matching and, as long as you have “sXXeyy” in the file name the rest of the name is rarely important if the root folder is named correctly.

In fact your files can simply be named “sXXeyy.ext” if the folder name is correct and the structure is in compliance.

8

The thing is: a tv show can get a remake at any time.
And then Plex will default to the newer show when it sees a folder with the title and no year.
If you omit the year by default, then the folder name of this show i suddenly ambiguous and you can start renaming you rexisting folders and files.

So, IMHO it is better to include the year by default - particularly if you use software to automate the renaming anyway.

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9

In my experience Plex is not picky about whether you use s01e01 or 1x01 when it comes to numbering. All my shows are numbered in the latter style and I’ve not had any issues with Plex matching episodes.

10

Thank you for the additional information. So, basically, this is a best practice to future-proof yourself against a remake of the show or recycle of the name.

I’ll be going in and adding the year to the folder name, and probably to the files as well. I would recommend/request that this piece of information be added to the naming guide as a “best practice”.

Thanks again.

11

I just want to put a big thank you out there. Turns out that since I setup my server about 8-10 years ago, a number of television shows have either been remade or had their titles recycled. Because I embed all of the metatags and maintain local posters/backgrounds/themes, I never noticed it. However, in looking at the series descriptions, I saw that they were not correct. Adding the year to the folder name cleaned that right up.

Recommend this get added to the naming structure as a best practice.

12

Well, that can be true for many shows but not for others. I kind of doubt that “My Mother the Car” will get a remake, at least I hope not. :wink:

13

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