It’d be nice if plex could at least show the file name when selecting a version to play.
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I agree. Show us the file names, already!
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OMG! I thought I would pop-in and see what has changed with Plex. 
They still haven’t figured this out yet! This is why I switched to Emby over a year ago and couldn’t be more than happy with it.
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I didn’t like Emby’s Dev team but they did figure this out. Even JellyFin has a good solution for this.
The bigger problem for me now is I can’t even see when there are more than one version of a file now if not using the desktop version. On Android and Android TV there is no indication from the Library view like there used to be…so if anything they’re going backwards.
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I’m actually not happy with the new Android TV interface in a lot of ways, but that is definitely a major factor.
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+1 Here.
I can’t believe this feature is not yet implemented.
Bring the version option out front and not hidden and after the play button and available only when other versions are available. For example, click play and if you have more than one version available, you are presented with a name and description of the available versions of this movie.
As of now I have no idea which one of my Close Encounters movies are which because all I see is their format and bit rate???
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I also would like to see the names of different versions of movies/shows I have.
For example, there are 3 versions of Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Measure of a Man” and 2 versions of Scrubs “My Way Home” that I just ripped from my blu-rays/DVD’s.
I’d like to be able to choose which one to play by name, not a cryptic bitrate where I have to just guess until I find the version I want.
I have pretty much come to the conclusion that Plex will never change the Play Version menu to do nothing else but tell us the different bit rates of the same move that is available. They really intend it to be used when there is multiple copies of a movie at different resolutions, bitrates etc.
What we need is a new menu for playing different editions of the same move. One where we display a portion or all of the filename. Maybe a place to edit it. Something for picking a different copy of the same movie where the run time is what is different.
An option under the advanced tab of the edit window that lets us choose if the files are different versions or editions of the same move.
Personally I will never use the play versions how it is intended, I have enough gpu to transcode 8 FHD streams simultaneously, and would rather save my hard drive space for uncompressed copies of my favorite movies.
(pretty sure I up-voted this about a decade ago)
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I can’t believe… This…
As of 27/10/2020, 1149 votes in just over 8 years and absolutely nothing has been done about this whatsoever!
How is that even possible?
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This is why I’m trying to brainstorm ways it might work. Because obviously the votes are high enough to warrant implementation, so finding a “How” they can get behind is all we can do
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For real. It’s in the top six feature requests (two of which are probably not in direct competition for development time).
- Two Factor Authentication
- Better Playlists
- Audio Books
- Multiple Cuts of Movies
Slow or unlikely:
- Google Home … waiting on Google
- eBook reader … a whole new subsystem within Plex that is already highly served by the hardware manufacturers
Would be nice to know the reasons behind not working on what their own community votes on the most. If they can’t figure something out, drop into the related request and say “hey, we researched this and ran into such and such a roadblock so we tabled it for a few months to brainstorm while we work on something else.”
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I’ve added my vote here. I would like to see a good implementation to manage multiple cuts of the same film.
Sometimes, doing it the wrong way is better than waiting a decade to do it the right way. I’m happy with literally any way the dev who looks at this decides, provided it actually happens.
As it stands there are kids as old as this feature request who will be able to make the change in a few years… This is the complete opposite of an agile development methodology.
Anything I’ve ever worked on as a Dev if there was this many customers clamouring for it I’d get it done, probably in no more than an afternoon. The toughest part would be co-opting others for code review / QA. It might not be the perfect feature everyone wants (probably not even enough to close out this feature request fully), but it would be at least a significant improvement over nothing at all and ‘good enough’ for 95% of people who want this.
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Good god, I didn’t realize it was that far up the list! That just makes this all the more embarrassing!
Eight years!… Or if you want to put it another way… 8 years!… Or if you want to put it another way… By the time this Pandemic is over, this feature request would be NEARLY A DECADE OLD !!!
I completely agree… Because this begs another question… Are people wasting their votes?
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Just posted in the thread about 5 Votes not being enough and this is a prime example as to why that is the case. This should be a basic feature for anyone that has some interest in movies. It’s not like there are only alternate cuts of rare and unheard of movies. The movie industry has made alternate cuts its own cottage industry.
So why does this suggestion just sit here for basically the entire existence of Plex (many of us requested this very early on)? And how can the developers think a voting system with only 5 votes when suggestions can sit here this long, presents an accurate view of what users want.
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Disagree, if your voting on multitude of causes, meaning many like more than five. Where is your priority. Your vote is not to shape Plex but a guidance point of view. I get as a user you believe you have a right, that is wrong as it is Plex Inc absolute right as a business to select what is implemented.
It’s this simple, do you like being told what to do?
A vote is what it is, it’s a gauge of what customers would like. It may not be possible for what ever reason, that not saying it is actually possible.
As a customer you have a right, use Plex or go somewhere else. If you feel your being put in a position of umbrage, maybe you need to reevaluate Plex.
Note: I would like to see a solution to this situation
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Had you asked for details of what improvements I’d like to see in the voting system or bothered to look at the thread before blindly doing this coming to the defence of a company nonsense you’d realize I’m not asking for unlimited votes.
I’m not clogging up this thread because you misinterpret me suggesting a feature improvement for the board as me thinking Plex should do whatever I want. If you’d like to continue the discussion on the voting system do so in the appropriate thread.
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+1; voted.
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The structure for this to be implemented already exists in Plex under the Play Version feature. Right now this allows you to choose between multiple versions of a film, but Plex chooses to only surface Resolution and Bitrate to the user when selecting between versions.
The information Plex chooses to surface here has changed before. Plex can change it, has changed it, but would rather not change it to satisfy a decade long feature request. Bonkers.
All they would have to do is surface the file name in the Play Version menu. This wouldn’t require any new backend features like new metadata tags. It would simply allow a user with multiple cuts of a film to see which one is which and select the one they want to watch.
I know this doesn’t perfectly slot in with your streaming business, but some people pay for Plex. Listening to what your paying customers want might help grow your business.
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Not really, the Play Version is designed to be different resolution versions. Not different versions of the movie. & it works in a way that doesn’t fit because it was designed for a different purpose
But that would work only for files with shorter names because the beginning of the file name is going to be the same on all of them. So movies with a short title work fine Big Trouble (2002) - Extended.mp4 but would be utterly useless for movies with a longer title Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (2007) - Extended.mp4 & Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (2007) - Theatrical.mkv would both look the same because they’d get cut off before the end.
