Im thinking of adding every version of every movie i have, into plex.
So as an example. i want to have theatrical cut, extended cut, directors cut and so on…
so when i press play, i get to choose the version i want to play.
i know if i name them as the same movie and they reside under the same moviename-folder they are added as “versions” when i press play on the movie in plex.
But, id like it to show as “extended cut”, “theatrical cut” etc… instead of just the movie name or whatever it shows when pressing play now…
any ideas on how to solve this? or atleast so its clear whichever version im choosing?
Different cuts aren’t what Plex thinks of as “versions”.
I put different cuts/editions/releases into different folders with different names, specifically so they aren’t merged into one library item. Sometimes I make a collection, just to keep my library “pretty”.
One of the oldest tickets at The Movie Database is to add support for multiple cuts/editions of movies, too. It’s an interesting problem.
From that article:
Note: This feature is not intended for situations where you might have, for instance, both a “theatrical” and “director’s cut” version of a movie. Likewise, it is not appropriate for 2D vs 3D versions. Those situations are best handled by Splitting the movie into separate library items.
I see that Emby will display the “label” part of a filename in the equivalent of “Play Version …”. It doesn’t look perfect, but it sounds like that’s what you’re describing?
From a data perspective it’s very complicated. If you have original/tv/extended/director’s/subbed/dubbed/despecialized/han shot first/criterion/remastered/4x3/widescreen/imax/3D editions, what happens when you mark a movie as “played”? Where should the movie rating info come from? What about subtitle files, and which version they go with? How do you choose which version goes into a playlist?
What if the media files for the original cut are a straight BD rip, but you have a low bitrate ogg version of the director’s cut? Choosing which media to play (or transcode) is already hard enough.
This all kinda annoyed me at first too. I finally decided I had other windmills to tilt at. I also realized there are very few movies where I care to have multiple cuts, and for those movies, I DO want to be obsessive about the different editions.
Once I decided to think about different cuts as different movies, I was happier. I can make collections, I can micro-manage collection posters, version posters & individual descriptions, ratings, playback status.
That’s not a satisfying solution when it’s the same edit, differing only in aspect ratio and presentation. 4x3 vs. Wide vs. Wider vs. Widest vs. IMAX vs 3D. It’s more annoying to have multiple library items for those, agreed. Luckily there aren’t as many of those that are worth keeping.
Now I’m feeling sad about not having Director’s Commentary online. Hrm.
Well all this you say is a problem (like multiple subs, what happens when you watched one versions etc…) have been solved by the plex team already as its possible to have different resolution versions of a movie. The same (could) apply for different cuts for the movie…
Not saying its easy. I’m saying it’s doable (and already solved kinda) The team just chooses to ignore the users and not applying the same for different cuts of movies. Obviously it’s at least over 1000 users that want the feature.
