I would like to see a few “other library types” (maybe even hidden in their own flyout section) for long format audio and short format (and hierarchically related) videos, to support audio books, podcasts, music videos, technical videos, etc… there are essentially three types of libraries that have dynamic media:
-
movies
- long-format video
- subtitle support
- watched progress/status saved
- resume from saved point
-
tv
- medium-format video
- subtitle support
- watch progress/status saved
- resume from saved point (episodically AND mid-video)
- hierarchy: series → season → episode
-
music
- short-format audio
- plays from beginning
- background play possible (device screen off/unfocused)
- hierarchy: performer → album → song
I want to have something that doesn’t require transcoding audio into a video file type in order to save watch progress, and which allows listening with the screen off. At the same time, I want to have things like short comedy segments, commercials/industrials, and music videos, where the watched progress need not be saved.
-
audio presentations
- long-format audio
- watch progress/status saved
- resume from saved point (episodically AND mid-audio)
- background play possible (device screen off/unfocused)
- suitable for podcasts, audio books, recorded lectures
- optional hierarchy:
- subject/show → season → episode
- author → title
- subject → lecturer → date/topic
-
video clips
- short-format video
- subtitle support
- always plays from beginning
- hierarchy options
- artist/group/performer → (optional?) album → song
- company → division → subject/product
- company → product/service → feature
- suitable for music videos, commercials, industrials, etc.
As far as metadata, I would say manual entry would be mostly required, for simplicity of JUST adding this “extra library types” feature.
“Other videos” provides some of this for the videos, but in many cases, hierarchical organization WITHIN the library would be extremely useful, with associated metadata (like artist or product), and more like you can have that associated hierarchy to decide which things to play without setting up a playlist, per se… and the long-form audio really doesn’t have a good way to do it without transcoding into a video file (music/songs just isn’t quite appropriate, with no resume point and forced hierarchy… 
) - and video files can’t be played on mobile devices unless the app is active and the screen is on, so… burning extra battery :grimace: )
It would be awesome if this could be part of an overhaul that would allow all sorts of customization, such as adding in things like “Bond Movies” or “Potterverse” or “MCU” as a category/series/subgenere of movies that would be listed as a “folder” of sorts, but at the same level as shorter series titles (“Ace Ventura”/“Hellboy” or one-offs like “Idiocracy” or “A League of Their Own”). with such an overhaul, Plex could even allow a server admin to pick and choose what features they want to apply to each library (save episode watch status but not save point in an individual file, perhaps?),
But the minimum would just be two new types of libraries with those features toggled to be available to different media types - I could be way off, as I don’t know how modular these features are in teh codez, but I’d imagine that might be less than 40 man-hours of work?! For so much added flexibility!
