I would like to have chapters added to files for movies by Plex. Either by modifying the file similar to what MetaX does but in an automated fashion. Perhaps there would be another way to accomplish this without modifying the file itself - like having plex load the chapter info separately from http://chapterdb.org/ storing it in the meta database entry for that item and then using it on playback to perform a targeted seek (jump to 5.5 minute in, etc.) Each successive chapter skip would cycle back or forth through that recorded information.
Similar to video preview files creation this would be done either add the addition of the movie, and/or as a scheduled task.
This is already done.
If your movie is correctly matched, Plex finds usually the chapters on chapterdb (if available there.)
You can verify this by calling up the XML info of a movie,
then going up to the address bar of the web browser and changing the part of the URI which says &includeExtras=1 to &includeChapters=1
If you now press Enter and scroll to the very bottom, you’ll see a few lines similar to this <Chapter id="31609" tag="" index="1" startTimeOffset="0" endTimeOffset="48215" thumb="/library/media/1113845/chapterImages/1"/>
if there are chapters available - either in the file itself or downloaded from chapterDB.
What you may be missing is how to jump to chapters.
This is already available in the iOS client, maybe on Android too.
The other clients will follow at some time.
Right now in the Plex Web client you can use the keyboard shortcuts for ‘Step Forward’ alt + ← and ‘Step Backward’ alt + → to jump between chapter markers.
Thanks for the info! Love for plex to update there clients more consistently. That is get actual feature parity in place. At one time it seemed they were pushing that, now it seems that they are playing favorites.
Thanks again OttoKerner. I took you info and added &includeChapters=1 after &includeExtras=1 to see the chapter info. When I replaced includextras it did not display the chapter info.
I have what looks like valid chapter meta data. Now we just need plex to extend the ability to skip and potentially add? the ability go directly to a chapter via the GUI on all clients. I will create a specific feature request to do this.
@Alitchy said:
Now we just need plex to extend the ability to skip and potentially add? the ability go directly to a chapter via the GUI on all clients. I will create a specific feature request to do this.
If the file you add contains valid chapter markers, they will be used.
I think what you are really after, is a kind of a “bookmark” feature to jump to favorite scenes.
Am I right? If so, this has already been requested.
bookmarks would be nice, but in most modern action movies the chapters seem to fall where you would want a bookmark to show off your theater already (airport fight scene in Civil War type stuff.) Leveraging what the system has already acquired would be great on my xbox one and ROKU clients. A GUI to select a chapter would be great too.
I loaded the plex app on my ipad, and although the feature’s location in the GUI is not intuitive (you have to start playing the movie and then go two deep in sub menus), once you find it the visual implementation on IOS is pretty good.
For TV clients, I’d love to have the ability to swap out the Extras section that is displayed under the movie details with a chapter GUI.
The extras that are presented in Plex are extremely underwhelming and don’t come anywhere near the quality of special features available on blu-ray. After some initial plays to see what they provided, I have never watched one again.
I am generalizing my experience, but I suspect for most people the Extras real estate would be better spent providing a movie channels GUI. You could also give people the option to toggle Extras and Chapters.
@Alitchy said:
For TV clients, I’d love to have the ability to swap out the Extras section that is displayed under the movie details with a chapter GUI.
This is a neat idea. I’d like that too.
The extras that are presented in Plex are extremely underwhelming and don’t come anywhere near the quality of special features available on blu-ray. After some initial plays to see what they provided, I have never watched one again.
You can also rip the extras from DVD and BluRay, (as long they are videos) and add these to Plex.
So it appears that the Xbox One client can now skip back and forth between chapters. Which is great! However, Plex appears to only be grabbing chapter markers from it’s own discovery, like OttoKerner describes. It is not looking at the markers in the file. I know this because when I skip chapters in Captain America Civil, there is only one - at the credits. However, I know that file has many chapters, because I added the meta data via MetaX.
Is there a way to have Plex prefer the chapter markers in the file?
@Alitchy said:
However, I know that file has many chapters, because I added the meta data via MetaX.
Is there a way to have Plex prefer the chapter markers in the file?
At the time when you added the chapters, was the movie already in Plex?
If so, you may have to Plex Dance it, so Plex recognizes the new chapters.
You also need to have the ‘Local Media Assets’ agent active for movies.
Yes it was already in plex. I did some of my own dance, but not the steps you outlined. I will do so.
Before I do the dance, where does Local Media Assets need to fall, in the order of preference? This is what I have now for the order under Movies agents.
Movies, Personal Media = Personal media, Local Media Assets (movies)
Movies, Plex Movie = Plex Movie, Local Media (movies)
Movies, The Movie Datatbase = The Movie Database, Plex Movie, Local Media Assets (Movies)
I’ve never really understood how and in what circumstances these three sections are used, so I tried to include many options in each of them to ensure completeness.
@Alitchy said:
Movies, Personal Media = Personal media, Local Media Assets (movies)
Movies, Plex Movie = Plex Movie, Local Media (movies)
Movies, The Movie Datatbase = The Movie Database, Plex Movie, Local Media Assets (Movies)
The order is fine. AFAIK if there are internal chapters present in the file they are used preferably and only the chapter ‘titles’ are fetched from the chapterdb website.
I’ve never really understood how and in what circumstances these three sections are used, so I tried to include many options in each of them to ensure completeness.
Which of the three sections is used, depends on which metadata agent was used to match a particular movie. There is a default agent set in the properties of your library, but this affects only newly added items.
You can change the agent of already added items by either performing the Plex Dance, doing ‘Fix Incorrect Match’, or erasing and recreating the library.
‘Personal Media’ is used in a Homevideo library and if Plex cannot find a ‘match’ for an item (due to bad filenames or bogus embedded ‘title’ metadata).
