Server Version#: All of them, but currently on 1.29.0.6244 64-bit
I’ve noticed a lot of shows that should have detected Skip Intros, but don’t and never seem to get properly analyzed to add them. And in fact, even if you manually force Analyze them, often times they still don’t get intros. However, if you do the Plex Dance and then Analyze you can get them to show up.
To provide a specific example, I’m going to use NCIS which has a very clear and obvious intro that should be detected on all seasons every time but for whatever reason only got partially detected automatically. Using this very handy Intro Detection Tool we get an output showing that Seasons 16, 17 and 18 have never had intros detected despite being on the server for weeks, and Season 19 only has some episodes detected:
| Show | Season | Detected | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCIS | 16 | No | Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 do not have intros detected. |
| NCIS | 17 | No | Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 do not have intros detected. |
| NCIS | 18 | No | Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 do not have intros detected. |
| NCIS | 19 | Partial | Episodes 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 13 do not have intros detected. |
We can see this is indeed true by going to the XML for a random episode and looking for the <Marker id="XXXXX" type="intro" code, which doesn’t exist:
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionUUID="d5ab885d-ce7a-42ab-83ca-6d1e0d087e9f" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1663894970">
<Video ratingKey="60062" key="/library/metadata/60062" parentRatingKey="60048" grandparentRatingKey="59999" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72108/16/15?lang=en" parentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72108/16?lang=en" grandparentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72108?lang=en" type="episode" title="Crossing the Line" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/59999" parentKey="/library/metadata/60048" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" grandparentTitle="NCIS" parentTitle="Season 16" contentRating="TV-14" summary="The NCIS team investigates a man overboard fatality from a Navy destroyer at sea. Also, Torres is frustrated with Vance’s assignment to mentor three high school students." index="15" parentIndex="16" year="2019" thumb="/library/metadata/60062/thumb/1663303281" art="/library/metadata/59999/art/1663271899" parentThumb="/library/metadata/60048/thumb/1663271953" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/59999/thumb/1663271899" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/59999/art/1663271899" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/59999/theme/1663271899" duration="2559584" originallyAvailableAt="2019-02-26" addedAt="1663296838" updatedAt="1663303281">
<Media id="2475252" duration="2559584" bitrate="3622" width="1280" height="720" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="eac3" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="720" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="2485277" key="/library/parts/2485277/1663303212/file.mkv" duration="2559584" file="P:\plex-media\tv\NCIS\Season 16\NCIS.S16E15.Crossing.the.Line.720p.DDP5.1.H.264.mkv" size="1158898382" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="6" requiredBandwidths="4975,4815,4815,4815,4815,4815,4815,4815" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="5071420" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="3622" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="720" codedWidth="1280" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="24.000" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="720" level="31" profile="high" refFrames="5" requiredBandwidths="4335,4207,4207,4207,4207,4207,4207,4207" scanType="progressive" width="1280" displayTitle="720p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="720p (H.264)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="5071421" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="eac3" index="1" channels="6" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="639,639,639,639,639,639,639,639" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="5071422" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="2" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" displayTitle="English (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="5071423" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="3" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="SDH" displayTitle="English (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="SDH (English SRT)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Director id="4277" filter="director=4277" tag="Michael Zinberg"/>
<Writer id="114123" filter="writer=114123" tag="Jennifer Corbett"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>
Now if I then manually run Analyze on all four seasons and check the results we get:
| Show | Season | Detected | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCIS | 16 | No | Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 do not have intros detected. |
| NCIS | 17 | Partial | Episodes 5, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16 and 20 do not have intros detected. |
| NCIS | 18 | Partial | Episodes 7 and 11 do not have intros detected. |
| NCIS | 19 | Partial | Episodes 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 13 do not have intros detected. |
This is an improvement to be sure, though many episodes still weren’t detected in Seasons 17-19, but more importantly, Season 16 still got no intro detection at all. So to avoid anything being skipped, I run intro detecting on the entire library using the often suggested method of viewing by seasons, selecting them all and running Analyze. It took like 3 days to complete, but when it’s done probably only 20-30 shows have updated intros, of which Season 16 of NCIS is still skipped, still reports as Detected No, and Seasons 17-19 are identical with no change and only partial detections. I rerun NCIS Season 16 by hand again, the circle spins while it detects intros, but in the end no luck, there’s still no intro markers for the missing episodes.
So as a last resort we do the Plex Dance: remove all four seasons, scan to wipe them, put them back, scan to add them, and now run Analyze, and voila it works! In fact, better than works, Seasons 17, 18 and 19 also get updated intros, and overall we’ve gone from 38 episodes without intros detected down to 3!
| Show | Season | Detected | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCIS | 16 | Partial | Episode 3 does not have an intro detected. |
| NCIS | 17 | Yes | |
| NCIS | 18 | Partial | Episode 8 does not have an intro detected. |
| NCIS | 19 | Partial | Episode 4 does not have an intro detected. |
And we can now see a successfully created <Marker id="XXXXX" type="intro" in the XML for the previous example episode that was missing it:
This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionUUID="d5ab885d-ce7a-42ab-83ca-6d1e0d087e9f" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1663894970">
<Video ratingKey="60251" key="/library/metadata/60251" parentRatingKey="60236" grandparentRatingKey="59999" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72108/16/15?lang=en" parentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72108/16?lang=en" grandparentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72108?lang=en" type="episode" title="Crossing the Line" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/59999" parentKey="/library/metadata/60236" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" grandparentTitle="NCIS" parentTitle="Season 16" contentRating="TV-14" summary="The NCIS team investigates a man overboard fatality from a Navy destroyer at sea. Also, Torres is frustrated with Vance’s assignment to mentor three high school students." index="15" parentIndex="16" year="2019" thumb="/library/metadata/60251/thumb/1664669328" art="/library/metadata/59999/art/1664669329" parentThumb="/library/metadata/60236/thumb/1664669329" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/59999/thumb/1664669329" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/59999/art/1664669329" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/59999/theme/1664669329" duration="2559584" originallyAvailableAt="2019-02-26" addedAt="1664669236" updatedAt="1664669328">
<Media id="2490045" duration="2559584" bitrate="3622" width="1280" height="720" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="eac3" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="720" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="2500070" key="/library/parts/2500070/1663303212/file.mkv" duration="2559584" file="P:\plex-media\tv\NCIS\Season 16\NCIS.S16E15.Crossing.the.Line.720p.DDP5.1.H.264.mkv" size="1158898382" container="mkv" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="5102150" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="3622" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="720" codedWidth="1280" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="24.000" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="720" level="31" profile="high" refFrames="5" scanType="progressive" width="1280" displayTitle="720p (H.264)" extendedDisplayTitle="720p (H.264)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="5102151" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="eac3" index="1" channels="6" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="5102152" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="2" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" displayTitle="English (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="5102153" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="3" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" title="SDH" displayTitle="English (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="SDH (English SRT)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Director id="4277" filter="director=4277" tag="Michael Zinberg"/>
<Writer id="114123" filter="writer=114123" tag="Jennifer Corbett"/>
<Marker id="82926" type="intro" startTimeOffset="64252" endTimeOffset="93559">
<Attributes id="82926"/>
</Marker>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>
To be clear I have hundreds of seasons with successfully detected intros, but I also have dozens of seasons of TV in my library where the intros have never been scanned, or when manually re-scanning them still don’t get proper intros. Doing a Plex Dance solves the problem, but it moves them back to the top of recently added which is annoying, and as previously noted in this thread is not an ideal solution, but not the end of the world. Side note, the problem that guy mentions in that thread is a related issue to the one I’m describing, where you can’t force intros to freshly detect on replaced episodes with different runtimes even if you manually Analyze.
Things to note:
-
Enable intro detectionis enabled in my library. -
Generate intro video markersis set toas a scheduled task. -
Scheduled Tasksare set to run between 1am and 7am.
I’m not actually sure what the point of this post is, other than it’s something I’ve noticed and been frustrated by, so I’m mentioning it in hopes it will get some attention towards fixing it. I’ve recreated this scenario several times now and the Plex Dance always fixes it because regular Analyzing isn’t always properly re-detecting intros, which to me means it’s not fully running in the way that you would expect.
As far as solutions go, maybe when Analyze gets run it could actually run, including wiping any existing intros and re-detecting them. Alternatively, maybe a separate option for Detect Intros in addition to Analyze to truly force it. Lastly, I think a built in single click method of doing a Plex Dance from within the server interface would probably solve a lot of trouble shooting problems for a wide range of issues including this one.
Also, I’m unsure why when the Scheduled Tasks run they’re only selectively doing intro detection. Even now, after I’ve manually re-run detection on my entire library, there’s still loads of shows like NCIS that should have been detected, but aren’t unless I Plex Dance them. The Plex Dance always fixes them, whereas manually Analyzing only sometimes does. It’s as if there was already an internal intro detection that ran previously and set a flag that was like “no intros found, never update this again even if the user tries to manually force it”.
If I’ve missed some more obvious method of forcing intros to be wiped and re-detected, please let me know. There are some user created methods using python, editing the database, etc, that can delete or modify existing intros, but that really seems like overkill for something that should just work every time.
Thanks.
