Having just started adding kids cartoons to my Plex, which are all 2 eps to a file, I’m absolutely stunned at how badly it deals with it. Why we even have the option to name a file to let Plex know there are multi eps in there is beyond me given what it then does with it. Two entries, for two different episodes, that both play the same file from the beginning? That’s a bug, not a feature.
Either the file should be shown as a single entry with metadata for both, or the two tiles should have configurable start and end points. The current behaviour is absurd. The fact that people have been complaining about it since 2014 with no response is even more absurd.
Plex is such a weird dichotomy - great product but when there really glaring issues come up the just get ignored.
I find how Plex handles this frustrating too - If I’m trying to binge-watch a season, it’ll list all the episodes correctly (which is fine), but if I try to play it with autoplay, it’ll play multi-episode files once per episode they contain (so S01E01-E03 will play three times on autoplay), and watching one leaves the other episodes marked as unwatched, despite them being the same file.
It would be good if Plex:
Didn’t re-play the same multi-episode file when on autoplay.
Synced the play progress/watched status on all episodes found in a single multi-episode file as one, so that clicking on any of them will allow you to continue where you left off, and they will all be marked as played once the entire video has been watched.
I know what you mean. Mines turning more hate-hate by the day. Plex’s focus seems to be moving more towards streaming services and less towards local content
I agree the multi-episode display and playback need some work. Many of the primary application mechanics need work instead of adding features people won’t ever use. In this case I think the problem comes from integrating with services like TheTVDb for series information. Using season 4 of the Office (US) as an example you can clearly see that several episode are listed as (1) and (2). The detailed information shows they are entered into the database as E01 and E02. In order for Plex to properly match the information (which could be different for each episode, see the Dunder Mifflin episode) it would need to display them the same way in the application with a (1) and (2).
To fix the problem with auto play and even general viewing I recommend some options:
If you continue to keep the files separate (to match TheTVDb) then at least mark them all played after watching the episode.
If you want to simplify the issue, combine the display into one title and show Episode X - Y on the display. You would need to combine all the description into a single description and give them headers to divide, like this:
Episode X
Something interesting happens
Episode Y
The continuation of something interesting
Just putting my 2c into this. I know it’s kind of a tricky problem to solve, considering there’s no really good way for Plex to know exactly where one episode starts or ends, but the only thing I can think is maybe treat all episodes in the same “multisode” as the same thing, and simply sync playtime between the files and mark all three (or two, or whatever) as watched once you’ve watched them all. This should, technically, be easy since Plex knows that all three entries point to the same file on the hard drive. It’s still a bit inelegant, but better than having to manually mark multiple episodes as watched every time you finish one.
It just doesn’t make sense to split some shows into multiple episodes - for instance, I took Night Gallery into MKVToolnix to split the show into three separate episodes, but each “episode” is integrated into the start of the next via a movement from one portrait in the “gallery” to the next. There’s really no good cutting point, so I’d rather keep the files together than split them up.
The best solution would be if TVDB got rid of that silly rule that you’ve gotta split each story in a multi-episode show into a separate episode, but until then, it’d be great if Plex introduced a software fix.
Personally, I’d prefer if it was able to list the file rather than the episodes. Marking all episodes in the file as watched when the file ends would be an acceptable workaround of a solution, but the ideal would be that plus a server option to “list multipart episodes as one entry”. I see multipart episodes as one continuous entity personally, so if Plex could mirror the way I see it then it would make me pretty happy.
The problem is episodes are supplied via many sources and are sometimes provided individually or edited into a combined episode so TVDB can only refer back to the original content creators definition of the episodes and content.
It is technically right to mark a combined episode as both episodes and Plex really cant know what version of the episodes we might have as some may well have been “trimmed for TV”.
So I think its safest to just mark the first episode as part played until the end, but at that point also mark any other episodes in the file to played too so that you don’t go play them again. It could also show it was playing multiple episodes from one file but I don’t think its really that important in the grand scheme
If the file is labeled as E01E02 then when it finishes play E03. That’s it, that’s all they need to do to improve the experience exponentially. Even if it doesn’t display correctly in Plex that would still be a massive improvement over the current system and take almost no effort on their part.
If they’re feeling super motivated then also properly display it as Title 1 / Title 2 in the app like other combined episodes, or things in DVD Order, are already listed. But honestly, at this point, I’m sure everybody would happily take correct playback even if it still appeared visually broken.
Exactly! it should be a simple fix as the database links the file name to the episodes so just change the SQL that marks the item as played/unplayed to do all episodes linked to the file…PLEASE
Ah yeah, I can see that. I guess the only real reason I think of TVDB as doing it “wrong” is that a lot of physical media combines the episodes, so when I rip them from my collection, I’m either faced with the extra step of splitting them (which I don’t do) or I’ve just gotta live with the fact that Plex is going to choke on them in some capacity.
I agree that the biggest change that could be made is for Plex to realize that two different entries point to the same file and sync play progress. It really doesn’t seem like something that’d be incredibly difficult, although who knows how their framework works.
I, too, would appreciate updating the playback algorithm such that multi-part episodes continue playing the next episode in line, not repeating the same file over and over.
If you look at my own post at the bottom of the Google Home thread you’ll see that Plex has said “there are technical limitations preventing us from supporting it at this time”. There’s no technical limitations holding back multi-episode files
Slight difference in the work effort required!