I have the French Director’s Cut, 1h29m dubbed in English with English subs 99 Women (1969)/99 Women (1969).mkv
I also have the Unrated version, 1h38m French language and without subs 99 Women (1969) - Unrated/99 Women (1969) - Unrated.mkv
When I split them, I cannot define whichever one is which as they both in search points to the main IMDB movie… Plex picks up the French language one as French - but doesn’t differentiate on the listing that it is the unrated version and shows as duplicate…
I can manually rename them to be 99 Women - Director’s Cut / 99 Women - Unrated, but it shows as a duplicate movie, which is not what I want…
I can copy both in the same folder and rename the unrated version to 99 Women (1969) - Unrated.mkv , but then Plex scans and shows both versions as English in info dialog box, and when selecting which version to play, only shows bitrate and not the “Unrated” as per https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200381043-Multi-Version-Movies says it should (page says to do - 1080p / 480p but also says that:
MovieName (Release Year) - ArbitraryText.ext
“ArbitraryText” can be any text useful to you to identify the media from outside Plex.
I’ve tested this on both Web player / iDevices and all just gives bitrate instead of naming I chose…
So, how do you deal with this specific scenario in order to keep Plex as clean as possible but still have access to multiple versions and know which one you want to play?
Extra note on the above – I also have a custom trailer for it, meaning I either need to duplicate the Theatrical-trailer.mp4 file over both directories if I want both to show the trailer, or I just live with either of them having the trailer on its own - whereas if this was 1 entity with proper naming as per ArbitraryText, I could actually just use the 1 trailer for both versions…
A trick I use, that may work for you…
Split the version, and on one version, choose “Fix Incorrect Match” Don’t use the auto match Plex will find. Instead, click on Search Options, and select a different agent than the one you usually use for your library. Select the proper title, and save. It will now be listed as two separate movies, and each should be considered an individual entry with their own watch/unwatched status etc. You can then edit the title manually to give one or both a title to identify it.
Important!! – Make sure you select “Search Options” and get to the part that shows “Title” Year" “Agent” “Language” Just choosing a different agent from the initial drop down doesn’t usually work as I would it expect it to. Taking the extra step seems to force Plex to only use the alternate agent.
Thank you @leelynds but all this did for me was to re-merge the files into 1 movie… Splitting them again, renaming manually and fixing with different agent just does the merge again…
@GoingGaGa
Hmm… always works for me. Maybe you missed a step, or I didn’t explain how I do it properly. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, so…
After you have split the files, try this on only one of the movies.
My default agent is set to “Plex Movies,” so I choose “The Movie Database” as an alternate agent for the second version. After it’s found a match, (most often the same name as before) I select that, and save. Once that is done, I can chose a different poster, etc, to make it obvious it’s a different version. Like I said before, if you don’t get to the screen in step 5 it doesn’t seem to work for me. It just matches with a duplicate and combines them again.
This was actually a good question lol. I run into the same “issue.” When I use PMP and select the “play” button there’s an option to select version but all it shows is perhaps a different bitrate between the two which doesn’t differentiate.
If you look at @leelynds picture, 2 options below “fix incorrect match” is “split apart.” This will show 2 separate posters for the 2 different versions, from there just go into the “edit” option of both versions and select different posters for each as there are usually multiple posters for each movie available.
@okko
If you just use the “Split Apart” option, you will have the option to assign posters, edit title, etc. However, If you watch either version. the watched status changes on both. Also, if you ever have to choose “Continue Watching” it’s anyone’s best guess which version it will select, because they are tied to the same agent. If that’s not important, then simply choosing “split apart” works fine. :)>- At least that how it works on my system, so I generally take the extra steps. That is, split apart first, then rematch one version with a different agent.
@leelynds maybe I should post a pic or two to help explain, and as you rightly said above, diff versions for continue watching is a pot-luck of which gets chosen…
Problem is that Plex only sees 1 movie, no matter which version…
If I go and place both with default scan and want to select either Theatrical or Directors cut, check play-version.jpg to see what Plex offers me…
As per https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200381043-Multi-Version-Movies we are supposed to split the movies apart, and as you can see that is what I have had to resort to, but I still feel Plex should be able to pick a version not based on bitrate alone but also on alternate versions of movies…
((Bonus pic --99 Women http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063977/alternateversions of the 4 alternate versions apart from the listed release, i have 2 of the french versions, but I have no way apart from manual editing 2 “seperate” movies to know which is which… ))
And the fun part of this all is, once I hit the “completely reset your library and scan everything over again” button, what is Plex going to do with those meticulously corrected versions that I have split myself? Also as can be seen in chud1.jpg, the extras like trailers etc only shows for 1 of the movies, not both as it should…
I cannot be the only one that see a problem with how this is being handled?
@GoingGaGa - I’m pretty sure what you are describing is what my hack, work-around, fix (what ever you want to call it) will correct for you. LOL - the problem is, the explanation takes longer to describe than it takes to fix it, and it probably sounds more complicated than it really is.
I believe you are just spitting the movie and not taking the extra step of matching just ONE of the versions to a different agent. Once you have manually matched one version to a different agent, Plex will remember that, and a re-scan will not affect that version.
Example, from my library:
Two versions of “Miracle on 34th Street”. One is the original black and white, one is the colorized version. They are different resolutions. They are both in the same folder.
L:\VIDEO\Family Movies\Christmas\Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
… Miracle on 34th Street (1947) (Colorized).mp4
… Miracle on 34th Street (1947) (Black and White).mp4
They show up on the library as separate versions. Each has it’s own watched status and a different poster and title. (Poster and title were edited manually to make the difference obvious)
It only takes about a minute to make the change, and so far it has been a permanent change through multiple re-scans and refreshes of the library and individual movies for over 2 years. Both versions are separate items in the library, each with its own watched/unwatched status for every user I share with.
@GoingGaGa
I will try to re-word the procedure, 'cause I’m pretty sure my explanation is lacking…
Let’s start over…
Remove both versions of the movie from the library. Do the Plex Dance to get rid of any reminants of the file ever existing to Plex.
Move the files to a place Plex cannot see.
Refresh Library.
Empty Trash
Clean Bundles
Wait a minute for Plex to sort itself out.
All traces of your files should be gone from Plex now.
Move the files and folders back into the location where Plex will find them.
Let Plex automatically find both files (or a manual upddate of the library) Plex WILL identify them as multiple versions of the same movie with just one poster.
Split the movie. NOTE: at this point in time, even though you have split them, they are both identified with whatever your default agent is. They will share watched status and everything else associated with each other.
Pick ONE of the versions, view the info to determine which one it is, and choose “Fix Incorrect Match”
DO NOT USE THE AUTO-MATCH. You will end up with the same result. Let Plex auto match the movie, but DO NOT select one of the matches. Instead, click on “Search Options”
A new window should pop up with “Title,” “Year,” “Agent,” and “Language.”
Make sure the Title and Year are correct, but choose a different agent than whatever your default agent is. My default agent for the library is “Plex Movie” so I choose “The Movie Database” Yours may be different.
Click “Search” and choose the correct match and SAVE. NOTE: Chances are good it will be the exact same title and year as before. But remember, it has now been matched with a different agent, so Plex will treat if as a completely different and seaparate movie.
To finish up, you can now edit posters, title, etc manually on either or both versions so the difference is a little more obvious.
I think you did a great job of explaining it @GoingGaGa! That saved me!
I have different cut of films that I want registered as separate films (Star Wars Despecialized, Independence Day Extended Cut, Aliens Director’s Cut, etc.). I always wondered why that, when I watched one, all of the other cuts would show up on deck if I started watching again. Annoyed the hell out of me. This fixed it–thanks!
What I have done is just a split and then renamed the Title, but this seems like a really crappy solution… 1 Trailer gets randomly added to 1 of the 5, both for Plex provided trailer as well as my own…
@GoingGaGa
Hahahaha… that’s a nice one. The above method works only for a number of different versions not larger that the “number of agents that you can use to identify your versions”. I did that for “Apocalypse Now” and its Redux version.
But it is really time that we get user-defined meta-data fields that can be pointed to other meta data fields. That would at least help in the naming process. See:
We will probably never see that different versions of movies handled by Plex as the same ID getting a unique watched/unwatched status.
