again… everything you are talking about here is a weakness in the way plex codes its database… what should be powerful and relational is childlike and again… I don’t expect them to restructure the database from scratch because quite frankly they don’t have the expertise
The present database could be used. That is not really the problem. There is enough relationship between tables to handle this fine. You can prove this yourself simply by using “stacking”. The DB knows there are multiple files per movie/show. That proves the DB can handle it (not saying it’s the ideal way) but it’s already done.
The problem IMHO is mostly the C code in the server more than anything else. Of course then the clients all need to be changed as well.
This is why I said they could sort of use the collections mechanism to handle this since that is already built for the clients. It also fixes the “original” file problem mostly because whatever file is chosen IS the file played or used to be transcoded from. Only downside to that is the example I gave previously where it could be best to transcode from 1080 vs 4K files if they exist (but not 3D for non 3D files).
I’m certainly not saying this is ideal but it’s the “easiest” way for them to implement it at this point and could work. If they were to do this they should add two new options to the library/user sharing setup which is share 4K and share 3D files.
Carlo
Note: don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of the db table structure they use or the db design in general especially when you get to the XML fields. 
A request for the same feature exists already, and it has more votes.
Therefore this one is closed.
Votes are given back to the users who voted on this request. Please think of re-voting in the other thread if you still want it.
Please search before creating a new suggestion thread.
Only one feature per thread.
See feature suggestions, sorted by most popular first
https://forums.plex.tv/c/general/feature-suggestions/l/votes
