I modified the title of this thread since m4v is a better solution over mkv if you expect metadata to be observed by PMS.
I’m on an Ubuntu 16.04 machine. I have DV tapes I’ve captured as DV files and then converted these to MKV files. The resulting MKV file possesses the current date/time so I used this command below to set the Date/Time Original property in the MKV file to 2002. In my plex server, I updated the affected library using the ‘Scan Library Files’ option. However, Plex apparently does not use this date value in its Timeline view since the video in question still shows up in the list for today instead of 12/24/2002. Plex displays the MKV file’s date as today.
I cannot find a different option for this command (in fact this tool’s man page does not even tout this option) nor a different utility that would let me modify these two properties below in the MKV file. I’m guessing if I could touch these two dates to set them to 2002 then the video would display correctly in Plex’s list. Also, exiftool does not support modifying MKV nor DV files. Also, MKVToolNix GUI only supports the original date property.
File Modification Date/Time File Access Date/Time
mkvpropedit file.mkv --edit info --set "date=2002-12-24T20:35:00+00:00"
if you want Plex to consider embedded tags / metadata for “other videos” type libraries, you might want to re-mux the files to an mp4/m4v container. Plex doesn’t read embedded metadata from MKV containers.
I did not know this, Tom. Thanks much. I will use handbrake to convert to m4v instead.
For the purpose of being able to use Plex’s Timeline view from one library, I keep all of my personal media (pictures, videos) in a single library of type Photos. I prefer it this way. Will Plex interpret the metadata in teh m4v correctly even though it’s not in the Other Videos type library? And I assume either exiftool or some other tool I’ll find can manipulate the date metadata.
Presto! I got it to work and here’s what I used to make it happen. Thx again, Tom. I don’t imagine there’s any advantage or disadvantage to having m4v files over mkv.
Used handbrake to convert my raw dv to m4v.
In my case, I have segments of video I want to concatenate that represent Christmas Eve 2002 so I installed gpac and used this command below to append files.
I then modified all of the relevant dates (three below) in the metadata of the m4v using the second command below. Date/Time Original Create Date Modify Date
On my PMS, I updated the library using the ‘scan libray files’ option.
From the timeline view, this video is now visible in Dec 2002 and is so displayed that way in plex apps.
Just 1 remark… you might find an alternative to handbrake that allows you to keep the content of the file unchanged (where handbrake not only changes the container but also does a full transcode of the video/audio). This should significantly speed up your process!
Apologies… I don’t have an adequate software at hand. I’ve been doing this on macOS with an app called Subler (only exists on macOS… I’m sure there’s alternatives).
If the source are DV tapes, you might have to always transcode when putting them into Plex.
Because DV stores videos as M-JPEG which are easy to edit frame-accurately, but hideously large.
