File naming conventions for films

[colin_evans_parkstone_gmail_com]

Server Version#: 4.47.3
Player Version#: 4.47.3 (web client),

I have read the article on Naming Film Files on the server, but i’m none the wiser when it comes to naming anything other than a very simple file structure.

For example-

If I rip the film named “FilmA”, I can start off by creating a folder called FilmA (year) {tmdb-01234}. So far so good.

If I only have one content file, or files that differ only in type (therefore extension) it’s easy-

FilmA (year) {tmdb-01234}
  FilmA (year) {tmdb-01234}.mkv
  FilmA (year) {tmdb-01234}.mp4

but even then, if these files don’t differ in resolution+interlacing they are hard to tell apart under “Versions”, because the versions only lists (say) “576i” not the name or other details?

What i’m struggling to understand is what you are supposed to do with “extras”, like say Deleted Scenes or a “Making Of” supplement. For example I tried a folder structure like this-

├───Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320}
│       Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Main Feature.mkv
│       Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Future History - The Story of Earth That Was.mkv
│       Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Making the Skiff Chase.mkv
│       Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Re-Lighting the Firefly.mkv

In the web UI under “Play Version” all I get are 4 unnamed files listed, with their (probably identical) scan types. I tried moving the {tmdb-nnnn} block around in the file name to no avail. Are Plex expecting to people to have these files set up like this?-

├───Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320}
│       Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320}.mkv


├───Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Future History - The Story of Earth That Was
│       Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Future History - The Story of Earth That Was.mkv


├───Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Making the Skiff Chase
│       Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Making the Skiff Chase.mkv


├───Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Re-Lighting the Firefly
│       Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} Re-Lighting the Firefly.mkv

This would be tedious to maintain, and fill up the library with supplementary files being shown as main features. And what would the indexer (Agent) make of the metadata?

I think i’ve been spoiled by years of maintaining my music library with MediaMonkey. A combination of auto-tagging, powerful tag editing, and “auto organise files based on tags” makes things a lot easier for audio.

[tom80H]

There’s a feature suggestion to show more information on the play version dialog.

As for naming your extras… simply follow the respective support article on Local Files for Trailers and Extras. Basically you have 2 options to add those files:

1. adding a suffix, indicating what type of extra those files are
2. including a dedicated subfolder for each extra type.

Example:

Movies    <- the folder linked to your movie library
  Serenity (2005)
    Serenity (2005).mkv
    poster.jpg
    Featurettes
      Future History - The Story of Earth That Was.mkv
      Making the Skiff Chase.mkv
      Re-Lighting the Firefly.mkv
    Deleted Scenes
      Deleted Scene 1.mkv
      Deleted Scene 2.mkv
      Deleted Scene 3.mkv
    Theatrical Trailer-trailer.mkv

This will add 7 extras to your movie, 3 featurettes (e.g. making-of), 3 deleted scenes and 1 trailer.
Extras are displayed alongside your movie – not as separate versions of the feature film.

[colin_evans_parkstone_gmail_com]

Sounds as if I went the wrong way by naming the supplementary files similarly to the main feature, thus confusing “versions” with “extras”. I will give this arrangement a try.

Thanks for the pointer.

[colin_evans_parkstone_gmail_com]

Sorry to keep beating this subject with a stick, but i’m trying to establish the naming patterns that will be used for a full collection.

What if two versions of a film are of the same file type?

I.e. if I have rips of both the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of a film, both in .mkv files, then they can’t be stored in the same folder with same name. If the names are different, then one or both of the file names will not be identical to the folder name. E.g.-

Films
  Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320}
    Serenity (2005) DVD {tmdb-16320}.mkv
    Serenity (2005) BD {tmdb-16320}.mkv
    poster.jpg
    Featurettes
      Future History - The Story of Earth That Was.mkv
      Making the Skiff Chase.mkv
      Re-Lighting the Firefly.mkv

One reason to like this arrangement is that it means you can share the “extras” between versions.

The alternative would be to split the DVD and BD versions into separate directories (but with the same imbd/tmdb reference). Perhaps the subdirectories (Featurettes etc.) could be shared using symbolic links, although the Plex documentation seems to be silent on how the server handles symlinks.

[Dan_Bev]

If imdb/tmdb see them as the same movie so does Plex. Is there actually a difference in the movies other than the source?

[piskieee]

Refer to Multi-Version Movies support article.

Add a dash and the data at the end (personally I use the resolution). That article isn’t updated to include the {tmdb-#####} info so I would have to play with this but I am guessing that as is specifies arbitrary information after the dash you would want to format it something like this:

Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} - 1080.mkv
Serenity (2005) {tmdb-16320} - 480.mkv

For alternate versions/cuts of the same film I include them as an ‘extra’ (usually under the Other category) specifically so I can tell them apart as there is not enough data to identify them in ‘play version’ as you have noted (I only include multiple resolutions of the same version that has the same audio/subtitle tracks as otherwise selecting specific combinations will not play or play a low res one). It is also viable in the Plex interface to split the film so it has 2 entries if that is what you want.

My personal choice is to do the ‘most relevant’ version as the main film and do any additional cuts under it so my movie count at the top of library shows me the number of individual films (For Blade Runner I have the 2007 cut as my ‘main movie’ as that is the cut I want to watch if deciding to watch it offhand and other cuts in special features). Another option is to split them and split them in Plex also so you have 2 entries matched to the same movie. If splitting them, you can also then leverage a “collection” to show one entry in your Plex Library but then open it and you have multiple entries under there as collections can individually be set to show movies and collection, collection only and hide movies, or movies only hide collection. As my personal use of collections is to hide them and use to bundle items (for example I have a ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ and ‘Alien Franchise’ collection) putting them as special features fit best for me.

I also highly recommend the folder option over the name extension as you are doing already, I found it more reliable historically to match the content in Plex

[colin_evans_parkstone_gmail_com]

Result of some more experimenting, using the “Bourne Ultimate Collection” box set as a test case

This box set has some extras (featurettes) that while physically packaged on one of the DVDs really belong to the set as a whole, not just one film.

My first thought was to create a “pseudo-film” for the set (which has its own tmdb id), store the shared featurettes there, and symlink them into the folders for the actual films.

I found Plex will not list a Film folder without a main feature in it, but that symbolic links, at least for folders, do work. So, I ended up storing the shared Featurettes under the folder for the first title (Bourne Identity), then creating links in the folders for the other files so the featurettes can be seen as extras for each of the films. Not ideal perhaps, but it works.

[tom80H]

I’ve run into a similar scenario with some of my collections, e.g. with “The Pixar Story”, “The Matrix Revisited” or a collection of Marvel “One Shots”.

Of course it’s possible to treat all of those as a standalone movies (documentations, shorts). However I wanted it to be linked to my respective collections (without them being regular movies in those collection).

My workaround:
I’ve created a separate library called “Specials & Featurettes” (unpinned, so it’s not getting in the way with my main navigation).
I’ve added those videos to this library and manually assigned each video to a collection, matching the collections from my main library.

Now the “collection specials” show as “related items” inside my main collections

[colin_evans_parkstone_gmail_com]

Interesting, Just so I understand exactly what you have done, when you say-

manually assigned each video to a collection, matching the collections from my main library.

do you mean you have actually added the Featurettes that are not film-specific to exactly the same Collections in Plex as the films themselves, or to additional Collections with similar names? It’s the use of the term “matching” that has me wondering.

[tom80H]

Main library “Movies” contains:

• Matrix
• Matrix Reloaded
• Matrix Revolutions

Secondary library “Specials & Featurettes” contains:

• The Matrix Revisited

Plex has automatically created a collection “Matrix Filmreihe” (=Matrix Collection) for the 3 Matrix movies in the main library.
I edited The Matrix Revisited and manually assigned the same collection tag (setting Edit > Tags > Collections to “Matrix Filmreihe”).

[colin_evans_parkstone_gmail_com]

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the tip.

Indexing “extras” is something I’m still having trouble with in Plex. I have (apparently) identical file configurations for multiple films, and some index the extras (e.g. featurettes) perfectly, and others don’t. I haven’t worked out why yet.

Havign a dedicated “extras” library and manually setting up the collections to link the extras to the films themselves is more work, but if it works reliably it’s probably worth doing. I think I will try this with a few of my “problem” films and see if it resolves the indexing issues.

[tom80H]

That extras library only makes sense for media you want to associate with an entire collection. For movie extras just follow the naming conventions from the related support article.

Example:

Movies
  Matrix (1999)
    Matrix (1999).mkv
    poster.jpg
    Featurettes
      Making of.mkv
      Some other Featurette.mkv
    Deleted Scenes
      Deleted Scene 1.mkv
      Deleted Scene 2.mkv
    Trailers
      Theatrical Trailer (us).mkv
      Theatrical Trailer (international).mkv
    Keanu Reeves on his role-interview.mkv
    Gag Reel-behindthescenes.mkv

The example above shows both possible options to associate your files as extras to a movie:

1. Files grouped in a subfolder reserved for local extras (here: Featurettes, Deleted Scenes and Trailers)
2. Files with a suffix reserved for local extras (here: -interview and -behindthescenes).

Here’s another example of how the extras will be displayed alongside your movie.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/local-files-for-trailers-and-extras/