So, something like:
/TV Shows
/My Show
/Season 01
2012-03-01.mp4
2014-04-02.mp4
/Season 02
2015-01-01.mp4
2015-09-12.mp4
(Yes, I’m leaving off the show name prefix on the file names. My sense is that it’s optional.)
Scanning this file hierarchy will give me 3 seasons, named 2012, 2014, and 2015. The folder structure seems to be ignored. I can’t figure out how to get Plex to recognize just 2 seasons, Season 1 and Season 2.
If you place home videos in a TV shows library type, PMS will try to match them using TV naming rules.
TV naming rules dictate the name of the series be first in the name. Nothing of what you’ve done is TV naming compliant.
What you get is unpredictable and unsupportable.
I therefore strongly recommend you delete the library section and create an Other Videos type library which will permit you to name and structure your media as you wish
I thought it was generally understood that the show name part of the file name was optional. But, okay, I’ve done the same experiment after renaming as follows:
/TV Shows
/My Show
/Season 01
My Show - 2012-03-01 - Title 1.mp4
My Show - 2014-04-02 - Title 2.mp4
/Season 02
My Show - 2015-01-01 - Title 3.mp4
My Show - 2015-09-12 - Title 4.mp4
This matches the recommended name format of “The Colbert Report” in the article I referenced.
But Plex still creates a season for each year, not for each “Season” folder.
“Other Videos” isn’t a good fit for me, because it defaults to a flat, everything-at-once presentation, like “Movies”. Yes, folder-based browsing is available under both “Other Videos” and “TV Shows”, but it’s extra work to get there, and folders aren’t first-class entities throughout the UI the way TV shows are.
As long as you keep thinking TV structure for home and other videos, you will continue to have problems.
The master rule: If a name cannot be matched from TheTVDB.org and it isn’t a broadcast program , you cannot put it in a TV library. PMS will see the name, attempt to match it at TheTVDB.org and , when it fails, drop it from your library without adding it
Fine, I agree, I should use the recommended format. I have done so now, and continue to experience the problem.
The master rule: If a name cannot be matched from TheTVDB.org and it isn’t a broadcast program , you cannot put it in a TV library. PMS will see the name, attempt to match it at TheTVDB.org and , when it fails, drop it from your library without adding it
My question relates the the “Personal Media Shows” agent. I’m not trying to use the “TheTVDB” agent. You seem to be saying “never use the ‘Personal Media Shows’ agent”, but it is presented in the UI as a supported feature.
What I’m saying is you can’t create a TV library section, which you’re doing, for non-broadcast content.
The TV scanner will always run when the library section type is TV. This can’t be changed and why ‘Other Videos’ was created. The “Other Videos” scanner is a simple file scanner which reads your structure and names, as they are, and presents them without attempting to match or use any agents. “Other Videos” have no agents. There is no tab for Other Videos in Settings - Server - Agents.
To demonstrate my point, Please create a new section, using the same directories and structure you already have, of type “Other Videos”. The directories and files will be presented exactly as you have them.
So, sure, I hear your advice, and I’ll continue exploring the feature set and deciding how to make the best use of it. (I have made an “Other Videos” library, and explained above some reasons it’s not ideal, but I’ll continue playing with it.)
But this is all a distraction: whatever other features Plex has, it has the ability to create TV Show libraries that don’t match any online database. (No reason this couldn’t be “broadcast content” that TheTVDB doesn’t know about, BTW.) And, in those circumstances, unless I’m missing something, the behavior is wrong: date-based series will end up in seasons corresponding to the broadcast year, ignoring the season in the folder names.
ChuckPA, I don’t know what to do with this. Please re-read my posts (especially the original one). I’m aware of the article. I’m trying to follow its instructions. It’s not working.
As I have previously expressed to you, even with Date based content, television structure uses seasons… If you don’t want that, again as I’ve instructed, don’t use a TV type library section. Use Other Videos.
@ChuckPA said:
As I have previously expressed to you, even with Date based content, television structure uses seasons… If you don’t want that, again as I’ve instructed, don’t use a TV type library section. Use Other Videos.
Okay, let me restate:
Scanning this file hierarchy will give me 3 seasons, named 2012, 2014, and 2015. The folder structure seems to be ignored. I can’t figure out how to get Plex to recognize just 2 seasons, Season 1 and Season 2.
I want seasons. That’s great.
The problem is that the seasons are grouped based on the year, not based on the folder structure.
Does this episode belong to “Season 8” or “Season 2011”? Does the name of the “Season 08” folder matter at all?
I don’t have any experience with date-based shows recognized by TheTVDB, but it does seem to have series whose seasons do not align with year boundaries:
