[Implemented] - Multiple Cuts Of Movie

[kamhouse]

After giving the cut vs version idea some extra thought I’m thinking the best way to handle multiple cuts would be to require sub folders with the “xxxxxx -cut” tag on the end.

Example: “Directors Cut -cut” or “Theatrical Release -cut”.

I know Plex generally doesn’t require folders for it’s database matching, but perhaps this would be a worthy exception. Using folders to designate a special cut of a movie would give a couple benefits.

1. We could name the cut any custom name such as “The Ultimate Cut - cut” or “Black N Chrome Edition -cut”, etc.
2. Any optimized version could easily be grouped together under the cut it belongs to.
3. We could easily have multiple 3D or 4K/HDR versions as another distinct cut.

Example:

/Avatar (2009)

//Theatrical Release -cut
     Avatar (2009) - 1080p.mkv

//Theatrical Release 3D -cut
     Avatar (2009) 3D - 1080p.mkv

//Extended Cut -cut
     Avatar (2009) extended - 1080p.mkv

//Special Edition -cut
     Avatar (2009) special edition - 1080p.mkv

//Director's Cut -cut
     Avatar (2009) directors cut - 1080p.mkv
     Avatar (2009) directors cut - 720p.mkv
     Avatar (2009) directors cut - SD.mkv

//Director's Cut 4K -cut
     Avatar (2009) directors cut - 4k.mkv

Plex would basically just ignore the file name information after the movie name so any note taking the end user wanted to do would work up until the resolution version.

I’m not going to rework the mockup to exactly match the above tagging, but hopefully you get the idea…

Above is the web interface.

Below is the 10 foot interface.

[tboy]

Wow, new to Plex and just went looking for a way to display the different versions properly. Very surprised this has been a want for so long without resolution. Add my name to the list: Give us a straight-forward, logical way of seeing and selecting different cuts of a movie!

[snickers_1]

available in emby for 2 years… (1 year after release)
this thread is 6 (SIX!!) YEARS !!! OLD !!! you get it?

but sweet (if not stupid), you guys never give up the hope

[bigtrucker26]

I could see why you would want this, and I have a couple that would use this…
However,
Right now, I think the solution is Collections, you could have a collection of Avatar (for example), and when Avatar 2 releases, you could put both collections into one Avatar Saga collection. Then, hide what’s in the collections, and your library is cleaner…, I’m basically already doing this…
I don’t object to this, but, I would MUCH rather see multiple epg for dvr’ing…

[Ratall]

This is a definite need for me particularly as I have noticed the broadcast(TV) version of some movies have bits delete and some times bits add usually with out any indication. plus all the stuff like directors cuts/ extended versions/ remaster versions the list goes on .

[kamhouse]

@bigtrucker26

Right now, I think the solution is Collections

I’m not following how you are using collections to manage multiple cuts. I mean getting Plex to differentiate between cuts and not group them together is a pain in itself. After attempting it with the 3 different cuts of Avatar and having it recombine when I wasn’t looking I gave up on the “workarounds”.

[bigtrucker26]

I thought I had multiple “cuts” of star wars on my server, but, I apparently haven’t restored the other copies yet… so… this is from memory before “collections”
You Split the movies, and then individually manually match the cut/version. That should lock that, then you can put all cuts into a collection for that movie, and you could put all of those into another collection. You Can add movies and shows to multiple collections.
So, you could have your 3 cuts of blade runner, in a blade runner collection, and have them in a blade runner saga collection (when blade runner 2 releases)…, you could even have a Theatrical collection, Directors collection, etc…
Again, you would have to “split” any that combined into a single listing, then “match” them to the appropriate cut. Then you could put them in collections - by movie, by series, by cut, whatever…
Once you Set the Metadata (match it), it should retain it, if not, then look at how the match is named, and rename the cut version file to that. If you continue to have trouble with it merging the cuts, you could try going to the settings menu - scheduled tasks, and turning off “refresh metadata periodically”, and perhaps “Refresh local metadata every three days”. I turned off settings - library - “Scan my library automatically”, and instead have “Run a partial scan when changes are detected” on to save hdd wear.
When I said hide what’s in collections, there is a settings option - click the 3 dots next to the library section (movies, tvshows, whatever), select edit, then, advanced, and near the bottom of the displayed window you should see “collections” and a option box, one of the options is “hide items that are in collections”… Boom Bam Bing, your menu just got cleaner… Want Star Wars Episode IV Laser Disc, select movies, star wars collection, and then select it. (I thought collections allowed collection stacking, but…, they do allow them to be placed in multiple collections though).
Combine this with “playlists”, and you can have a Laser Disc version movie event…
The only time I’ve had problems with the collections being changed on me, is after my server transcodes the dvr recordings (because I am not yet using a script to transcode it before it posts the dvr recordings), and then again sometimes after it moves it to a final resting spot on the nas (I have my server move all completed recordings twice a week to the nas), or when I manually move them to another drive - depending on scan order as it updates as it scans as opposed to scan and compare…

Not as elegant as the above concept, but…
Personally, I would prefer that IMDB was the default movie metadata agent, as it seems to work better for me…

[gadgetchannel]

@bigtrucker26

I thought I had multiple “cuts” of star wars on my server, but, I apparently haven’t restored the other copies yet… so… this is from memory before “collections”
You Split the movies, and then individually manually match the cut/version. That should lock that, then you can put all cuts into a collection for that movie, and you could put all of those into another collection. You Can add movies and shows to multiple collections.

A problem with using Collections for this is if you have multiple films in a series with each one having multiple cuts. For example, if you had 3 cuts of each of the 3 original Star Wars movies in your collection. You could, as you say, create a collection for each of the movies containing the cuts for that movie and then have a Star Wars collection with all of these. However, this collection would then contain 9 movies and it could become a bit cluttered.

Now, if nested Collections were allowed (so we could add the “Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope” collection to the “Star Wars” collection instead of adding the individual movies) that would be an entirely different matter.

[bigtrucker26]

yeah, I thought that you could nest collections, but…

[snickers_1]

6 YEARS
Unbelievable…

[NewPlaza]

@snickers_1

6 YEARS
Unbelievable…

No it’s not, lol

[magico77]

This is my favourite version

[NewPlaza]

Then on that note… I like this one.

EDIT: Odd… Where did the pic go.. Oh well. Here it is again…
It gives you visibility of all versions without the need to click a drop-down and also shows all the ratings of the movie cause as we all know some cuts have different ratings.
An example of this…
Deadpool 2
Deadpool 2 Super Duper Cut

[jaredwilliams916]

I definitely prefer the 2nd option with the dropdown. The first one could become cluttered quickly.

Great work!

[NewPlaza]

I don’t see how. The above pic shows 4 versions of the movie. I can see no issue with doubling that to 8 and still it would look good… Though… 8 versions… That’s alot of versions…That’d be hard to do…

[kamhouse]

@jaredwilliams916

I definitely prefer the 2nd option with the dropdown.

First is the web interface, 2nd is the 10 foot, TV interface. In case that wasn’t clear.

[amorpheus]

I’m surprised this hasn’t been supported for a while yet, it seems like a very basic function. Director’s Cuts have been around since the 1970’s.

[shuddle13]

+1 to this, I have multiple cuts of some movies and would like an easier way to toggle.

[Jaybonaut]

Voting for this. Holy smokes, a feature request for 6 years…

[tjareth_gmail_com]

One more vote for adding this as a feature - in lieu of anything more robust, can I join those suggesting that the existing “versions” feature at least be spruced up if that’s easier? Allow naming of versions, and ensure the ability to select a version when playing. Maybe let users select a default version.

This would make a lot of users very happy.