I’m sure its been asked before, but how are people organizing movies that have different formats, so if I want to have a Monsters Inc in both DVD & Blu-Ray on my Plex system, is there a conflict at all at having the same name in their twice? Do you put it in a different library? I’m curious how some more experienced people are managing this.
Thanks
The question is: why would you want to do that in the first place? Most DVD vs. BluRay releases only differ in technical details, like audio codecs or frame rate.
So why would anyone want to watch the inferior DVD version ever again?
Is there a reason why you’d need a DVD version and a BD version of the same movie? Personally I’d just have the BD version and not bother with the DVD version. But if you need them both, you can add them exactly the same way to your library - Plex will automatically add them to the same entry and you’ll see a little “2” that indicates there are two versions.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200381043-Multi-Version-Movies
Now, if you want two different bitrate versions so you stream one and watch the other locally, then you could make another library specifically for the lower bitrate versions. That’s what I do, although it’s not with a DVD/BD version, just one that is optimized for remote access. I only give access to the optimized library to my friends, which minimizes transcoding on my server.
Monsters, Inc. (2001) [1080p].xxx
Monsters, Inc. (2001) [480p].xxx
Plex will ‘Merge’ the files and put a Blue 2 in the upper left corner of the poster.
You can ‘Split’ them into separate items from that point if you want to.
Well, I’m am streaming everything to my TV’s via wifi. It works great on the DVD side of things, for blu-rays, they buffer like crazy, so until I can wire up the home, I may need 2 copies of some films.
So why would anyone want to watch the inferior DVD version ever again?
@144steve@gmail.com said:
Well, I’m am streaming everything to my TV’s via wifi. It works great on the DVD side of things, for blu-rays, they buffer like crazy, so until I can wire up the home, I may need 2 copies of some films.
Understood, but in my opinion even an optimized version made from a Bluray is superior to the DVD version.
Yep… a BluRay rip at 4750Kbps is about the same quality you’d see from Netflix or Amazon Prime and generally considered ‘pretty dam good’ - and that will kick the butt of ANY DVD rip.
If made to Direct Play via Handbrake or some other method WiFi is absolutely adequate to transfer a lot more bit rate than 4750Kbps. (Handbrake Guide in my signature).
What’s probably going on is the dreaded VC-1 BluRay rip - that won’t Direct Play on hardly anything - making a weak server try to transcode it - and the buffer-fest is on.
Get the file in Direct Play by any means necessary. Then find out if it’s the network that’s the bottleneck.
Will a 1:1 BluRay rip @ 35MBps test your WiFi?
You Betcha!
Do you need 35Mbps?
Probably not.
I don’t. If I want to impress sombody I put the BluRay in the player, but my eyeballs can’t tell much difference in 5Mbps and 35Mbps. 5Mbps is a LOT easier to throw around on the network or over the internet to a remote client.
I have been using MakeMKV for all my rips…
I think there is ample reason to have various bitrates. If you want to access your library remotely on a mobile device, something with less demanding requirements on your mobile data will save your data and be more likely to play as well.
Juice makes the same point I think, so excuse the redundancy.
So I named 2 movies similar in title…1 is Cars 2 (2011) - [DVD] and Cars 2 (2011) - [Blu-Ray]
When I select the movie, I doesn’t have the number 2 over the movie cover and doesn’t give me the option to pick the DVD.
What did I do wrong??
Are they MP4/M4V?
Do they have embedded info in the Title Fields?
Plex will read this info and prefer it over a perfect file name/structure, but you can combat that situation by moving Local Media Assets to the bottom of every agent list you can find. All tabs in TV Show and Movies here:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200241558-Agents
Just drag LMA to the bottom of the list and drop it. If you do have embedded metadata this will cure the issue, if you don’t it won’t matter. LMA will do what it has to from the bottom.
Remove both versions from library (the same library - ideally) in step one of…
The Plex Dance®:
All Steps. In Order. No Shortcuts.
Now you have a new bundle for these movies - if they’re not MP4/M4V… if they’re in the same library they have a Blue 2… and depending on what you’re trying to play them on you may have two ‘Play’ Buttons on that app or client. The top play button just plays the best file there is from the last known position. The lower play button is the Play Version/Play from Beginning button.
