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I am trying to find the correct way to import custom metadata when importing file. I tried nfo file, editing mkv file properties directly and trying to change it using API without success.
I am importing automatically Twitch stream from a few streamers and would like to have the right title in plex without having to rename the file directly.
Thank you
Etienne
Plex doesn’t read nfo files (beyond at max some IMDb ID to support matching).
Plex will read embedded metadata from a few file types such as mp4, m4v or mov – it won’t recognize embedded information from matroska files (e.g. mkv, mka…).
API approach might work if you know the item’s ID after importing it into Plex.
Otherwise your best shot will indeed be to name your files accordingly…
Actually that is not correct. Yes you can import nfo data into plex fairly easily by using the 2 pluggins (they still work)
XBMCnfoMoviesImporter
XBMCnfoTVImporter
I highly recommend this as you can custom sets, genres, names, whatever you want. These two pluggins will show up in your library agents, just set them as highest priority on top. You wont be able to use them with the latest library scraper as it has no agent settings. You’ll want to use the older plex movie scanner and plex series scanners. I wouldn’t be able to use plex without it. It’s great.
Also if you need a way to generate nfo data there’s a tool called tinyMediaManager that does exactly this. It works really well for this.
I really want to use XBMCnfoMoviesImporter as I am transitioning across from Kodi. I’ll still use Kodi as the front end but with the PlexKodiConnect addon.
That said, Plex seems to be struggling to pick up both nfo and local artwork. The nfos are in Kodi compatible format and named the same as the movie file as are the artwork.
My settings are:
Scanner = Plex Movie Scanner
Agent = The Movie Database
Order of agent for The Movie Database is:
XBMCnfoMoviesImporter
Local Media Assets (Movies)
TMDB
Fanart.tv
Plex Movie (legacy)
So I am assuming it tries to find and read a nfo 1st using XBMCnfoMoviesImporter, then picks up the artwork using local media assets and if can’t find any, then will go to TMDB to get movie info and artwork. Is that not correct?
My settings:
scanner = Plex Movie Scanner
agent = The Movie Database
Agent Order for “The movie database”:
XBMCnfoMoviesImporter (in settings i have nothing checked but collections)
Local Media Assets (Movies) (settings: prefer artwork based on language checked)
The Movie Database
(everything else is disabled)
My movies generally have 4 to 5 files
Movies folder example:
Some Movie (2021)
… Some Movie (2021).mp4
… Some Movie (2021).nfo
… Some Movie (2021).srt
… Some Movie (2021)-fanart.jpg
… Some Movie (2021)-poster.jpg
Make sure you refresh metadata on the movie or even the entire library. Plex seems to find changes to my artwork just fine, but a refresh metadata is needed to see it. The only other thing I do differently is I wrote tools that strip out all but the most important data in the nfo files. A typical movie nfo for a movie of mine only contains title, sorttitle, genres, sets, dates, plot, and id. But honestly I don’t think that should matter, but if there are references to images in your nfo try removing it and see if it makes a difference.
Similar settings for TV Shows using the xbmc nfo tv show importer
Hope that helps
It sure does @russprince - Thank you! I’ll try refreshing everything again…
Do you not have “enable subtitle file support” in the XBMCnfoMoviesImporter settings?
What about “Disable local media support for artwork, trailers and subtitles (use local media assets instead)” if you are also using local media assets? Although that said, if you have the “enable subtitle file support” as well, not sure if that causes a conflict…
Odd in “Local Media Assets” - I don’t see any settings at all other than “Local music video path”…
literally the only checkbox enabled in the xbmc agent settings is “Enable generating Collections from tags”
I never experimented with other settings as this seems to have been working ok with my local media.
Also if this helps I found a great way to scrape media info for movies as well as tv shows. it’s called tinymediamanager and can be used to get artwork as well as the nfo data you want (without fluff) I was using kodi itself for scraping, but I like this app much better so I no longer use kodi at all anymore.
Oh and as a side note also make sure plex has properly matched the movie. if it’s not then media can get screwed up too. Just right click on it and either click on match or fix match if you don’t think it’s matched right.
@russprince I use Ember Media Manager to do the same as Tiny. I never got on with Tiny for some reason.
The only thing I can see missing on the Ember side is the sorttitle, which I really would love to have, especially as I want the title and sorttitle to match the original title.
I do interesting things with the sorttitle especially since plex allow movies to be in multiple collections (or sets) I put all movies that have sequels in their own sets and i have the sorttitle for each movie in that set be the name of the set and the year of the movie. That way the movies are always sorted chronologically and not by name (which is useful when sequels don’t even have a name that is close to the original)
I put all sequels of all movies in their own folders which helps keeping track of the movies a little bit better, but I understand It can get a little daunting messing with so much metadata in large collections. I wrote tools to edit the nfo’s and write the sorttitle, genres, and sets for me (based on folder names and folder structure). I have about 2100 movies and 250 full tv shows and my sanity is saved by using tools to automate as much as i can.
Ah so Tiny isn’t adding the sorttile, you have a script/tool that does that?
tinymediamanager does add it, but i modify it
actually i just tried it and it does add the tag but it’s empty. so no it doesn’t really add it
Thanks for checking!
Comming back to artwork quickly, Ember names the posters and fanart exactly the same as the movie file name, do you know if that works in Plex?
e.g. [Rec] (2007) [imdb-tt1038988][h264][ac3 6]-poster
if the file matches the actual movie file (with the added -poster) and folder name then it should work, but i recommend naming the folder and files simply the title of the movie and year (like in the format I showed above). That will give you the least trouble with plex and scraping in general (afaik) but I’ve never tried adding id’s or other data to movie names and i’ve not had much trouble getting movies to find matches and sync up local images
I’d agree with that but other 3rd party apps wouldn’t…
check here for plex compatible formats:
According to this, the new plex agent is supposed to cope well with all the details in this naming convention, personally, I think it’s a little long-winded.
https://trash-guides.info/Radarr/Radarr-recommended-naming-scheme/
my folder names are just year and title but with the addition of [certification] at the end. I used to have my movie folder structured by movie root folder/certification/movie folder/movie files for easy of setting up profiles in Kodi.
unfortunately the xbmc nfo agent can’t be used with the newest plex movie scraper. that scraper doesn’t even show up in the agents list
