File Preparation questions

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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I am converting from Kodi to Plex. My current library files contain embedded metadata files (created with tinymediamanager) and I prefer that structure. I do allow music scraping by KODI using music metadata updated by MusicBrainz Picard. Server will be current release probably under ubuntu server.

Movie file prep options indicate that aggregation by starting characters, movie character, etc are possible, Movies can appear in separate foiders. Extra items like featurettes and other movies can be attached to a primary movie (I am hoping entries below featurette and other can look like a movie in separate folders with /nfo and poster/thymb jpgs. An apparently very robust structure.

Music has a very logical directory structure that does not appear require metadata duplication. However, I see no indication that aggregation is possible for Music like in movies, Have a missed documentation that indicates similar aggregation is possible like with movies. I have seen no equivalent to the Kodi shared artists folder for music, is that available?

TV show documentation on the other hand in the documentation I have found has a very RIGID structure with a great deal of repeated metadata. The Show and Year appear at the first level. the season is an optional (and highly desired IMHO) middle level. The actual episodes require redundant show and season information unlike the other library formats. There appears to be no provision to house separate episodes in separate folders. If one allows plex to scrape the metadata this is no real issue. On the other hand I use TMM to deal with metadata including the manual creation of NFO files for those items lacking metadata (my initial layout and experience was with KODI). So separate episode files would make the library appear more organized when metadata is embedded with the TV Show data.

Are my interpretations of the various library structures accurate or not. I would appreciate knowing if the Music and TV Show structures have aggregation for which I have not found documentation. I would also like to know if TV Shows have a similar structure to movies and music where so much of the metadata is not required redundantly in the episode (folder if possible) or file names if not.

Thanks for considering this request for information.

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  1. https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/your-media/

  2. Plex doesn’t read .nfo files. Most of what you do with TMM is not used in Plex.

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1( Respectfully I read item 1 above and the forums where aggregation folders for movies was discussed which generated the questions between forum content and posted instructions…

2 in the forum I previously found (and subsequently refound) one of your posts where you referenced use of an .nfo file to determine the key for one of the movie scrapers (that may be obsolete (I am assuming so now) it is hard for a new user to tell). Below or while searching for that that someone indicated that Full .nfo files could help (I have not been able to relocate that one and I am also assuming is obsolete now).

3, I found a reference to a third party scraper that would use .nfo files and I also believe I have seen reports with problems with that addon that could require altering of the programming for adjusting to style differences. Therefore I am not considering using it.

I have opted to attempt what I have not yet seen in #1 above, the “undocumented” aggregation (grouping folders in movies) but otherwise to adhere to the information found in #1 above, as best as I can.

Lastly I believe I saw a reference as a result if following your guidance somewhere saying following the Plex standards would work well for all media processing software. I considered having the data in my kids (grandson’s) portion of the library be able to be extracted for KODI on their machines while being in Plex when they are home. I found the naming conventions for the metadata to be very dissimilar for one they use {tv episode)-thumb.ext where Plex uses (tv episode}.jpg (I use jpgs i know others are possible) Another issue is with season posters. The Season directories are reported as optional and ignored in Kodi. The poster for a season is named Season ??-poster.jpg in the main TV Show Directory VS Season ??.jpg in the Season Folder. on Plex.

It appears the better resolution for this problem would be to sync the plex libraries onto their mobile devices after the plex server is set up. I will try to figure that out later.

Thanks

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