File conversion

General Discussions
1

Hi Plex Community,

I really need some help on a couple of things holding me back from using the hardware i just bought and what the best way to go about doing this following :

  1. i want to move my PLEX MEDIA Library to a new DRIVEPOOL (stable bit) this consists of x 4 WD RED NAS drives pooled into one drive called “PLEX (:P)” for simplicity. i currently have all my plex media on an external which i have copied over to the pool and set x2 duplication on it for file redundancy/allows 1 hard drive failure without data loss.

  2. I do not want my external HDD to be the work horse for my plex media, constantly streaming and downloading new stuff that automatically dump into a folder on the drive. That is why i bought the 4 NAS drives, more reliable and faster and organized that way, i want all PLEX everything to be local and remote streaming from my drivepool of new drives, and no longer the external HDD.

  3. correct me if i am wrong “PLEX MEDIA LIBRARY” (where all videos are stored) and “PLEX DATA folder” are 2 different things, i have a spare SSD i would like to dedicate if necessary somehow in this setup so PLEX can work as fast and smooth as possible.

  4. currently since i have not changed the PLEX source path/drive its still playing off my extneral HDD , which as i add and download content its being dumped on the drive in a specific folder for later moving and sorrting, what i do now is copy the contents of newly added stuff to my drive pool , then move it to thew appropriate folder on the extrernal (movie folder, tv show folder etc.)

  5. i want to say goodbye to my external HDD put in a closet for safe keeping and only use my new drives/dfrive pool to act as my 24/7 gaming rig/plex media server/ NAS, this pool will ONLY contain video files (library storage).

Thank you Please feel free to ask any questions or offer any suggestions.
^:)^

3

A) Thank you so much i think i understand most of what you said, but i am one of those people who need to verify. I really dont care if the PLEX DATA dir (C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server) is saved as long as it is being read as fast as possible to reduce any loading lag or errors i run into when using plex media player, it buffers and says error playing video, not with all, but bluray heavy duty rips.

B) so i can setup my spare SSD to be dedicated for my PLEX DATA directory if that makes things safer and easier, and only store the video files into my drivepool ? i would rather not mess with symplinks i know nothing about them.

C) I am going to get filebot ! i was afraid to use it because i did not have my files backed up and did not know if it would mess them up and all the editing of titles and matching in plex would be lost.

D) When i do the steps you told me about making plex read the files and stream the files from my drivepool “PLEX (:P)” , will it need to re-scan entire pool and rebuild metadata ?

E) Why can i not or should not aim my downloads path to my drive pool that way as it writes to the pool while downloading drivepool stable bit will also duplicate added files at the same time, saves time and a step ? How i do it is

Folder MOVES
Folder TV SHOWS
Folder DOWNLOADING
Folder NEWLY ADDED

i set my download client settings to keep incomplete files in “downloading folder” and once they are done, moved to “NEWLY ADDED” folder for easy cut and paste manually organizing them to where i need them in the right folders, this seems to have worked for me and help me not get confused by trying to move incomplete downloads. If there is a better simpler way, please advise, i would like to put all the work loads on these drives i spent alot of money on these NAS drives to take care of most of the work reliably.

You rock man, thank you so much for help.

5

Awesome,

Downloading file bot right now, i have MANY tv shows that have episodes missing or are not reading in plex in the proper way, i have tried moving them into their own folders etc with no luck i hope filebot fixes them and plex can read them easily.

I am a touch confused, its also been a long day and im recovering from surgery 4 days ago, but this kind of stuff keeps my mind busy and i love perfecting my media empire :)) So shall i dedicate an SSD of 128 GB for “plex data” currently my plex data or app data not sure if those are the same is a little over 9 GB, if so , how would one do this ? i understand the idea and concept but sadly i get lost during the steps and order.

So plex will scan the new location the my new drives and rebuild metadata library, like how will it know about all the titles i had to go in and manually fix, will it know to add those fixes to my newly scanned media in the drive pool,.

i currently have drivepool set to x2 duplication and one drive can fail without data loss, and i guess im just gonna use my external as a extra hard copy.

Oh yes i see what u mean i think, the downloads will automatically be dumped into OUTSIDE folders that are NOT being scanned or assigned in plex, i will manually move them over once they are complete and THEN update library every time i get a decent batch of media added. does that make since now ? can i set my PLEX P drive as my default download except they will be dumped in a folder called “Newly added”.

i have my 275 GB SSD brand new sitting here, i still have not gotten to the point where i know how to clone my current windows to simply swap out the drives and not have to re-install or change anything, just a simple upgrade in capacity. is that possible ?

^:)^

6

Filebot has a specific PLEX code to make things smoother for plex, any idea how i implement this with my current media ?

7

I have changed the library folder of one library and man that was simple i dont know why i had so many other people tell me differently, it was so simple im worried lol. so i probably should run filebot on all files before i add the rest wow this is awesome these tools and instructions have made alot of smoke clear.

Im not sure what you mean by “optizmize the library” what will this do exactly ?

Also you mentioned clean bundles ?

11

@trumpy81 said:

@abe_va said:
Filebot has a specific PLEX code to make things smoother for plex, any idea how i implement this with my current media ?

Open FileBot, select your files to be renamed, then click on the document/gear icon (under the right bottom of the left pane), and select ‘Plex’ or edit/create a preset and use the Plex templates shown here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/191687/plex-naming-schemes-for-filebot/p1

Use match and then rename if you are satisfied with the matches etc. :slight_smile:

Yes ! this sounds good to me i tested filebot on a tv show that would not show up properly in plex, i selected the PLEX template and BAM plex sees them all !! Thank you so much you have no idea how much time and confusion i had trying to fix those, i have much more work ahead of me. I just dont understand why filebot MOVED/copied the batch of files i renamed to my C drive users/ app / etc… i was like what ? why is it dropping files here ? i thought it would just rename the original files, but it didnt i had to delete “old/original” folder with messed up media names, and then cut and paste the “new” folder of the same media with correct file names. Is this normal ?

If i were to do much larger batches, my C drive does not have much space at all less than 20 GB so renaming all my media and having it put a 2nd copy in my windows drive and then having to cut+paste them to replace the original files that need new names.

Yes i understand if 2 drives fails i lose everything which is why i am backing up everything to my external, and once its full i guess just buy another one and continue that way ? or is there a better suggestion/idea.

12

@trumpy81 said:

@abe_va said:
Awesome,

Downloading file bot right now, i have MANY tv shows that have episodes missing or are not reading in plex in the proper way, i have tried moving them into their own folders etc with no luck i hope filebot fixes them and plex can read them easily.

I hope you are aware that TV Shows must be named like so: TV Show Title - S01E01 - Episode Title.ext

TV Show Title is the name of the show in question EG: Arrow. S01 is the Season number and E01 is the episode number, these MUST be included in the file name. Episode Title is optional, but should be included. .ext is the extension of the file, EG: mp4, mkv, avi etc…

TV Shows must be organised like so:

Media
…|_ TV Shows
…|_ Arrow
…|_ Season 01
…|_ Arrow - S01E02 - Honor Thy Father.mp4
…|_ Season 02
…|_ Arrow - S02E13 - Heir To The Demon.mkv
…

I am a touch confused, its also been a long day and im recovering from surgery 4 days ago, but this kind of stuff keeps my mind busy and i love perfecting my media empire :)) So shall i dedicate an SSD of 128 GB for “plex data” currently my plex data or app data not sure if those are the same is a little over 9 GB, if so , how would one do this ? i understand the idea and concept but sadly i get lost during the steps and order.

If you want to dedicate an SSD to your Plex data, then you need stop Plex from running and then move the folder and it’s contents of C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server to the new location.

You would then create a symlink using EG: D:\Plex Media Server as the source, and drop it in the C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local folder as a Symbolic Link, using the program found here: Link Shell Extension and referenced in the article below rather than using mklink.

See this page: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

Plex data or Plex metadata refer to the above location. Plex app data normally refers to a Plex client app data and is quite different. It can also mean several other things.

So plex will scan the new location the my new drives and rebuild metadata library, like how will it know about all the titles i had to go in and manually fix, will it know to add those fixes to my newly scanned media in the drive pool,.

If you made sure the padlock icon beside each field you edited turned orange and you clicked on the save changes button, you should be good, but note that Plex can and sometimes does override that, so you may find that some files need to be edited again. Hopefully, it will be less than a handful.

i currently have drivepool set to x2 duplication and one drive can fail without data loss, and i guess im just gonna use my external as a extra hard copy.

Good idea, and I am sure you are aware that if two drives fail, everything is toast. There is no replacement for backups. :wink:

Oh yes i see what u mean i think, the downloads will automatically be dumped into OUTSIDE folders that are NOT being scanned or assigned in plex, i will manually move them over once they are complete and THEN update library every time i get a decent batch of media added. does that make since now ? can i set my PLEX P drive as my default download except they will be dumped in a folder called “Newly added”.

Yes, your plan will work nicely. :wink:

i have my 275 GB SSD brand new sitting here, i still have not gotten to the point where i know how to clone my current windows to simply swap out the drives and not have to re-install or change anything, just a simple upgrade in capacity. is that possible ?

This is the 21st century, anything is possible :))

You will need to find a suitable imaging software, such as Paragon Hard Disk Manager, you would then create a restore disk on either a DVD or a USB pen drive using Paragon Hard Disk Manager.

Then you would turn off the PC and add the new drive, don’t replace any other drive, just add the new drive OK. Turn on the PC and make sure you boot it using the media you created above. Then you would ‘clone’ one drive to the other. You want an exact copy of your regular C:\drive copied to the new drive.

Assuming everything went well above, you would then turn off the PC, remove the OLD drive (do not wipe the old drive yet) and put the new drive in it’s place.

Now turn on the PC and let it boot, there should be no changes needed, Windows should handle it without intervention, and all should be good in the world. :smiley:

If the worst happens and the PC fails to boot or is obviously screwed up, then turn off, put the old drive back in and try again, and keep your fingers crossed … :))

I will start working on renaming all my files with filebot as soon as i understand it a little better, problem is i already copied my entire library of media over to my new drivepool with all the titles that need fixing, so i might have to end up fixing everything twice … on drive pool and on external ? unless u know an easier less confusing way. Man im excited but at the same time i have alot of work ahead of me ! lol i hope it all goes as smoothly as you lay it out :):slight_smile:

If i were to put things in order im gonna do this :

  1. CHANGE source folders for plex to the drivepool folders. leaving the external drive as simple storage with no work load. Clean bins, optimize like you said and make sure that is fully taken care of.

  2. Fix all the file names with filebot and make sure i dont mess that up and end up with randomly mixed copies of media, im forgetful :confused: lol

  3. Then try and do the OS clone / switch out SSD without ruining everyhing i have been working on lol.

  4. figure out symlink, and if its advise to use them ? So i can dedicsted my extra SSD for my plex data (C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server )

Wow i just realized i have no more sata ports on my machine… so i probably cant do the ssd clone switch out thing we talked about cause i cant even plug it up sigh guess i should buy just some cheap 20 dollar sata controller card ? Amazon and newegg is where i order all my stuff.

WHEW !!! @trumpy81 i need to buy you a beer … or more like a couple of pallets of your fav beer :)) ^:)^ :smiley:

14

Hmm yes i will look into this about filebot.

Yeah i will continue buying externals. i still dont fully understand one of those NAS boxes, if i have my own NAS in my pc, im guessing the only + side to a NAS is settings and features, i keep hearing how they suck for transcoding etc. so im still not sure what the huge benefit would be to a NAS box other than more drive bays to hold more hard drives for storage.

I cant afford a NAS right now +new hard drives. that is probably going to have to be a christmas present lol

16

If your server is running on Windows, there is no need to symlink when you want to move the Plex data folder
Here is a step by step guide: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/851746/#Comment_851746

17

@OttoKerner said:
If your server is running on Windows, there is no need to symlink when you want to move the Plex data folder
Here is a step by step guide: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/851746/#Comment_851746

Thank you very much ! i will be taking a look at this, hopefully windows is saving me some confusion and easier steps to get where i need to be.

18

@trumpy81 said:
NAS can have benefits, but it really depends on what your needs are. Having a NAS allows you to access your files from anywhere, not just from your PC.

Provided you have configured the NAS correctly and your network is always on, then you can access the NAS easily from the other side of the world at any time of day or night, if you want to.

There are some drawbacks as you pointed out, with transcoding. Most NAS are not powerful enough to transcode, but if you manage your media carefully, then you can use a NAS just as easily as anything else. You simply need to make sure your media is able to be Direct Played on your Plex clients.

If you ever do decide to get a NAS, then get one that is bigger than you think you need, you will fill it before you know it … :))

I’m looking at buying another one in the near future, or buying bigger drives, as I have used 65% of the space on it already.

haha oh yes once i do buy one which im sure i will eventually i will get something more than i currently need for future upgrading and expansion.

No transcoding, direct play files even remotely ? this sounds like magic. Do tell good sir, how does one do this ?

Funny in the past i had family remote stream and it would say “direct play” and i was like how the hell is that even happening ? i seem to be learning lots from you all here, i love it. i heard you something along the lines of converting all media files to mp4 , i dont mind doin this if it will make playback on all platforms smoother, however i do NOT want to lose one bit of quality doing this on some of my higher end special bluray quality media, nothing more beautiful than a 3D bluray on this LG OLED TV, ive had it almost a year and i still cant get over the picture quality. Knock on wood.

19

If i want to HIDE the 4 NAS drives that show up individually in windows explorer/my computer so i only see the drivepool label PLEX (P:) because i really never need to access the drive inndividually and it will make less clutter for me. If i do this through windows disc manager and remove the drive letter, does that mean i will not be usable/accessable from other programs such as drivepool ? i just want to hide the extra labels, i dont want them disabled in any way.

22

z3d692b814ae.jpg1213×363 114 KB

Im uploading a photo i hope this works :

i want to hide the ones marked with an red X , just so they are not all cluttered and so i cant mistakenly select the wrong drive when working on library. i only want C and PLEX P visible its really all i need. No idea what the WD security locker not i think its there for my external HDD.

23

@abe_va said:
i want to hide the ones marked with an red X , just so they are not all cluttered and so i cant mistakenly select the wrong drive when working on library. i only want C and PLEX P visible its really all i need. No idea what the WD security locker not i think its there for my external HDD.

I think that is a question for the DrivePool support.

24

@OttoKerner said:

@abe_va said:
i want to hide the ones marked with an red X , just so they are not all cluttered and so i cant mistakenly select the wrong drive when working on library. i only want C and PLEX P visible its really all i need. No idea what the WD security locker not i think its there for my external HDD.

I think that is a question for the DrivePool support.

Your probably right, however i have seen a method through windows disk manager not related to drive pool, but i will surely be posting there aswell.

Thank you

25

Here you go:

26

@cayars said:
Here you go:
Drives that show up with drive letters after adding to drive pool - just remove drive letters? - General - Covecube Inc.

Wow i love my Plex people, you all rock. Thank you ^:)^

27

Plex peeps are good people! :slight_smile:

28

@cayars said:
Plex peeps are good people! :slight_smile:

Indeed they are !

Something weird goin on:

odd after changing location of my plex source folders and copying over media to new NAS drives one of my tv shows we watch all the time play perfectly fine but when it automatically goes to the next episode there is no sound ? but if you manually click play that file there is sound, this never happened before and we have been using those same files and plex for almost a year now. Maybe just a glitch or restart server ?

29

Next time this happens bring up the menu while watching and see if it you can change sound tracks (are there 2 or more listed?).

If so go up and change the play preferences for the show. I’m noticing something related going on with subtitles that only happens when it auto plays the next video. In my case it wants to turn on subtitles even though I don’t use them and keep turning them off. Maybe related.