Note that currently anything in brackets ‘[ignored]’ is ignored by Plex in the file name.
that way you can add information without Plex using it for naming etc…
That is the reason why I do not really like this idea.
Another solution:
- Plex fetches metadata of all video files in a folder (already part of Plex)
- Plex fetches all files that match the Extras name scheme and skips them for the following steps (already part of Plex)
- Plex searches for the following movie-keywords in the filename (editable through the settings):
- Director’s Cut
- Directors Cut
- Special Edition
- Extended Edition
- Theatrical Release
- Plex compares the metadata of all movie files and outputs in the version selection only the values that differ
- The empty result gets the version name “Original”
So this:
Moviename (2019)/Moviename (2019) eng ger 4K IMDB8.0 .mkv
Moviename (2019)/Moviename (2019) DE EN 2160p Director's Cut .mkv
becomes (they differ by movie-keywords and length):
Original - 1 h 20 m
Director's Cut - 1 h 55 m
this:
Moviename (2019)/Moviename (2019) eng ger 2160p.mkv
Moviename (2019)/Moviename (2019) DE EN 2160p Director's Cut .mkv
Moviename (2019)/Moviename (2019) DVD Director's Cut .mkv
becomes (they differ by resolution, movie-keywords and length)
2160p - 1 h 20 m
2160p Director's Cut - 1 h 55 m
576i Director's Cut - 1 h 55 m
this:
Moviename (2019)/Moviename (2019) English-Only 2160p.mkv
Moviename (2019)/Moviename (2019) DVD.mkv
becomes (they differ by resolution and audio track langs)
2160p (English)
576i (English, German)
So the only thing that is fetched from the filename are the movie-keywords that can be changed through the Plex Server settings. Everything else in the filename is ignored. Instead Plex compares the meta-data of all given movies files in a folder.
I think this would be the most comfortable way to solve this issue and everyone can name its files as he wants.
Plex Just Works until it doesn’t. This is an example.
Some of my movies I have multiple versions: Director’s Cut, Theatrical Cut, 3D, etc. I’ve seen different hacky workarounds to make things work, but I use Plex because it’s (mostly) simple to use and doesn’t require a lot of hands-on editing.
Although I understand merged/versions isn’t intended for the different cuts, a few minor tweaks could make it usable that way until a more permanent solution is implemented. Just show me the filename…
It’s been 7 years now.
6 Likes
I like the idea of a file naming convention that can be extracted to provide a readable distinction between versions, but I think it would also be nice for this extracted version name (or some generated default, if none is found) to be editable within the server, just like all the other metadata.
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It is kind of ridiculous this has not been addressed in this much time. It is like they forgot about this one and its just been round filed. Is there any way to ping a dev in these threads?
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That’s easy solved by adding scrollable on focus list items. Basically when you hover or move through the items list, they start scrolling if the names are longer than the viewport they are on.
I think this should be the fastest- lower effort development way to implement this and other ‘multiple versions of same file’ scenarios.
Haven’t read the entire thread (this is such an old request) but it really seems to me that because these are in many cases different movies (ie: the director’s cut of Blade Runner is widely considered to be a different movies from the theatrical release based on a few very important scenes) that this should be captured elsewhere as metadata. In other words, at themoviedb.org or in another agent. That website does not do that (so Plex can’t take advantage of such a feature) but if it did the solution would be almost trivial for Plex. If the following two movies were considered two different movies then Plex would just list them as such, with some duplicated metadata, but really they are differerent. Example:
Blade Runner.mp4
Blade Runner the Director’s Cut.mp4
Blade Runner some other cut.mp4
etc.
I think what you are talking about would be like icing on a cake, but different cuts of the same movie is not really a different movie from an organizational stand point.
I think most people are just wanting to see the different cuts of the same movie in a way that allows them to see what they have and choose one version or another for playback. Having full meta data that describes the differences isn’t nearly as important as just being able to see a basic difference (like the title) and choose it.
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I’ve been hoping to see this feature introduced since I started using Plex back in 2013. At the time, I figured it’d be right around the corner. Six years later and it still does not account for this pretty basic thing. I’ve loved seeing all the improvements to Plex over the years, but its been disappointing to continually see what seems like pretty basic functionality overlooked.
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I’ve read almost all this thread and it’s surprising that this feature is still not present in Plex after all the years since it first got requested. It’s a pretty big part of movie collections to have different versions or cuts nowadays.
Any news regarding this? I hope it gets implemented some day.
2 Likes
I prefer to have the various versions standalone as distinct entries so I can use the correct DVD/blu-ray/4K cover art. But the problem is what @mgerskup mentioned in his post early in the thread:
[on Movies] playback position and watched/unwatched status are mirrored across all versions.
Which is the rub. Whether I’ve watched the original theatrical Star Wars (despecialized), the 35mm version, the JPN laserdisc original version or the re-released specialized version, the ‘time watched’ marker shows all 4 versions at the same watch point as the last one I viewed.
This is more of a bug than anything else. Different standalone versions of a movie shouldn’t share the same watched pointer.
In the documentation Plex treats the word “version” as a copy of the same exact movie, but with different resolutions or language tracks. So it’s probably not bad to sync up the 1080p version with the 360p version.
Even with just one version available on your server it would be nice, even important info, that you can view which cut it is.
If a client has seen a movie but not that specific cut, the client maybe wants to see it “again”, or maybe wants to skip because of it
The only way I have of getting this to work is to treat every version as it’s own movie.
I add to the title the information to make it unique as in Directors Cut…
That way I keep all the extras for the version in its own folder. They share the same poster but the description reads “Directors Cut” or what ever it may be.
Not ideal, but works…
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While I’d like this improved, I can get by with the split apart and see it twice in the library method. The thing I don’t understand though is that Plex still sees it as the same movie with regard to watch progress. If I watch one version halfway through and then stop it, the library shows both versions (theatrical and extended) as being watched halfway through. Is there a way to solve that part?
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8 Years and 878 votes later…:
No. There is not.
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That tells you where the Plex users actually stand.
and since I ran out of votes a long time ago I can’t even vote on some other things I wish would get corrected.
But then again it wouldn’t make much difference, I’m not on the board of directors.
2 Likes
I maybe have an idea to have it sort of working, but that is not working on older plex apps and also not working if you dont group collections.
But collections is maybe the best approach for now if you do. That way you can add all versions as a seperate movie with different name and poster, and make a collection of them.
jreinhound_gmail_com - That’s exactly what I do, or did as I don’t use Plex much since finding Emby. This feature is entirely why I switched to Emby. However, Emby has its own issues which is why I keep coming back to see if Plex has granted our wish.
Does Emby has a load ballancing function? Specific, 2 servers on 2 different locations so also bandwith can be balanced?
