@Elijah_Baley said:
Plex still stupidly insists on placing “Local media assets” at the top of each agent list on initial install and that causes more screw-ups than anything else I know of as far as naming goes.
Man, ain’t that the TRUTH!!!
@jjrjr1 said:
Hmmmm
I think the Plex naming convention is fine.
I was naming my files like that long before I started using Plex…I chose to name then that way so I would know what the heck they were.
Nice to know series name, episode name, season and episode number just by reading the filename.
Else one could misplace videos… LOL
Right. And that’s fine if it’s your choice and your preference.
@Elijah_Baley said:
For me there are many many things Plex has done and is doing wrong but choosing the naming and structure for TV shows as they have is BY FAR not one of the mistakes. In fact the naming that Plex wants is the absolute best I have seen or tried to use. There is nothing better I have seen.I originally had a different naming scheme when I first started with Plex but I used FileBot and a couple of other renaming tools and renamed everything I own to comply.
When I became frustrated with Plex and began mostly migrating to Emby I found that everything I had in Plex was perfectly compatible with Emby. That is nothing had to be renamed or re-matched using the exact same video TV and movie library of over 3000 movies and 509 TV shows with over 30000 episodes.
I also tested Kodi for a while and there too there was no need to changed a thing.
That is the three major, most used, video library managers that seem to really like the way Plex wants things named. That naming is also extremely human readable and just by looking at a single file name you know exactly what the series is and what season and what episode of that season is and even the name/title of the episode is optionally included.
I see no need for using any other scheme and no reason for Plex to add any flexibility in that regard. They already allow custom scrapers so the tiny minority that do not wish to conform their library have a way to scrape their library and get it into Plex.
Plex does need a LOT more choice in their system but in the support for alien naming schemes is not a place where Plex needs to put any resources.
If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it and scraping and importing TV series is not broken. It sometimes, usually because of some database glitch, does have a small problem and Plex still stupidly insists on placing “Local media assets” at the top of each agent list on initial install and that causes more screw-ups than anything else I know of as far as naming goes. But that is easily fixable and if that is the worst problem we have on a new install then it is truly unimportant.
The current naming requirements are quite fine and Plex does not need to expend any resources fixing what is not broken.
That’s all fine… for you. But that naming scheme should not be forced on me, or anyone.
That it works elsewhere too is both expected and irrelevant.
I’m not asking for anyone else to use my naming scheme, why should I be forced into something different.
As for knowing what show or series I’m looking at “just by looking at a single file name”, well, my memory works just fine and I know what path I selected to see the files in the first place, I don’t need the file names to remind me. Nor does that fix the issue that the path and name may be in conflict, but Plex won’t even alert you to that fact.
Still no one has explained why there is no “Fix Match” on episode level?
If the only approved solution is “rename your files correctly to get 100% matches”, you don’t really need Fix Match on any level… Just rename everything until Plex matches correctly.
@Zuikkis said:
If the only approved solution is “rename your files correctly to get 100% matches”, you don’t really need Fix Match on any level… Just rename everything until Plex matches correctly.
Yep… pretty much. I’ll quote my Dad here:
If at first you don’t succeed - follow the instructions!
https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1563524/#Comment_1563524
B)
@Ddoody said:
@Elijah_Baley said:
For me there are many many things Plex has done and is doing wrong but choosing the naming and structure for TV shows as they have is BY FAR not one of the mistakes. In fact the naming that Plex wants is the absolute best I have seen or tried to use. There is nothing better I have seen.I originally had a different naming scheme when I first started with Plex but I used FileBot and a couple of other renaming tools and renamed everything I own to comply.
When I became frustrated with Plex and began mostly migrating to Emby I found that everything I had in Plex was perfectly compatible with Emby. That is nothing had to be renamed or re-matched using the exact same video TV and movie library of over 3000 movies and 509 TV shows with over 30000 episodes.
I also tested Kodi for a while and there too there was no need to changed a thing.
That is the three major, most used, video library managers that seem to really like the way Plex wants things named. That naming is also extremely human readable and just by looking at a single file name you know exactly what the series is and what season and what episode of that season is and even the name/title of the episode is optionally included.
I see no need for using any other scheme and no reason for Plex to add any flexibility in that regard. They already allow custom scrapers so the tiny minority that do not wish to conform their library have a way to scrape their library and get it into Plex.
Plex does need a LOT more choice in their system but in the support for alien naming schemes is not a place where Plex needs to put any resources.
If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it and scraping and importing TV series is not broken. It sometimes, usually because of some database glitch, does have a small problem and Plex still stupidly insists on placing “Local media assets” at the top of each agent list on initial install and that causes more screw-ups than anything else I know of as far as naming goes. But that is easily fixable and if that is the worst problem we have on a new install then it is truly unimportant.
The current naming requirements are quite fine and Plex does not need to expend any resources fixing what is not broken.
That’s all fine… for you. But that naming scheme should not be forced on me, or anyone.
That it works elsewhere too is both expected and irrelevant.
I’m not asking for anyone else to use my naming scheme, why should I be forced into something different.
As for knowing what show or series I’m looking at “just by looking at a single file name”, well, my memory works just fine and I know what path I selected to see the files in the first place, I don’t need the file names to remind me. Nor does that fix the issue that the path and name may be in conflict, but Plex won’t even alert you to that fact.
There is NOTHING forcing any naming scheme on anyone. It is your choice what naming scheme you want to use or not use. However it is perfectly reasonable for a software company, like Plex or Emby etc. to limit what formats/schemes are supported and then the choice becomes either pretty much conform to what the company chooses to support or use the software in some limited mode (Like setting libraries in Plex as “Home Video” so it does no matching at all) or not use the software at all.
Expecting the company to include a VERY limited and, for most people, a totally alien naming system is not even remotely reasonable and it is saying that you are so important that you are the only person that should be listened to. That is extremely supercilious and Plex should ignore any requests that come from such a source.
But who knows, Plex has implemented so many stupid and even unwanted things in recent history, hence my reduced use of them, that it is possible that they may do one more and implement what you want.
My suggestion is if you really want your system supported either:
- Write a custom scraper and quit trying to get support for your alien system.
- Write your own custom media manager and use that then you can support or not support any system you want.
The Plex naming system is fine for every single Plex user I know and for just about every person, with a VERY few exceptions, I see posting on these and other boards. It is apparently quite easy and natural for just about everybody and, as I have said, if you don’t like it you do not have to use it. There is NOTHING forcing you. Just use one of the alternatives that have been suggested.
@Elijah_Baley said:
There is NOTHING forcing any naming scheme on anyone. It is your choice what naming scheme you want to use or not use. However it is perfectly reasonable for a software company, like Plex or Emby etc. to limit what formats/schemes are supported and then the choice becomes either pretty much conform to what the company chooses to support or use the software in some limited mode (Like setting libraries in Plex as “Home Video” so it does no matching at all) or not use the software at all.
Nowhere in this thread have I suggested Plex must support different naming schemes. I have suggested they could support a small number of schemes, but not that they support a completely open system. I have suggested they allow the user to modify the regular expressions so that they (the user) can get the match they want, but I also noted that this may drive unwarranted bug reports when users stuff up. I have also suggested we be allowed to fix broken scans. In my case I have only a small number (less than 10) bad scans in over 3500 episodes. All I really want is the ability to fix those.
Expecting the company to include a VERY limited and, for most people, a totally alien naming system is not even remotely reasonable and it is saying that you are so important that you are the only person that should be listened to. That is extremely supercilious and Plex should ignore any requests that come from such a source.
“VERY limited”. Really? Limited in what way? My naming scheme has 100% of the information that the preferred naming scheme contains. I have simply eliminated the redundant data.
Saying Plex should ignore their customers is to be supercilious (jesus, really?), not my post. And there are many, many such posts in the forum, so to suggest I am alone in this is to be ignorant in the extreme.
My suggestion is if you really want your system supported either:
- Write a custom scraper and quit trying to get support for your alien system.
This is exactly what I am now doing. Until this I created this thread I didn’t even know custom scanners were a thing.
- Write your own custom media manager and use that then you can support or not support any system you want.
Now you’re just being a dick.
The Plex naming system is fine for every single Plex user I know and for just about every person, with a VERY few exceptions, I see posting on these and other boards. It is apparently quite easy and natural for just about everybody and, as I have said, if you don’t like it you do not have to use it. There is NOTHING forcing you. Just use one of the alternatives that have been suggested.
You say I’m not being forced, but what do you call it when no other scheme works properly? Of course I am being forced, else I don’t get full functionality of the app.
Perhaps all those Plex users you know are just being sheep, and/or simply don’t know any better, or don’t care. That you know of ANY exceptions in this group suggests that some percentage of Plex users are unhappy with their idiotic naming scheme. And yes it is idiotic. Any scheme that contains duplicate data that can so easily be in conflict with itself, as there is no sanity check, is idiotic. Any first year computer science student (hell, anyone of any age who has ever written a computer program) will tell you that.
But, again, I am not requesting Plex abandon its scheme or even its policy on that scheme. But surely they can lower themselves to give us the ability to fix bad scans?
@Ddoody said:
Perhaps all those Plex users you know are just being sheep, and/or simply don’t know any better, or don’t care. That you know of ANY exceptions in this group suggests that some percentage of Plex users are unhappy with their idiotic naming scheme. And yes it is idiotic. Any scheme that contains duplicate data that can so easily be in conflict with itself, as there is no sanity check, is idiotic. Any first year computer science student (hell, anyone of any age who has ever written a computer program) will tell you that.
The ‘best practice’ Plex naming scheme may contain redundant data, arguably only in a very carefully maintained collection, but still redundant by a measure. However what it also does is virtually eliminates ambiguity. Plex doesn’t scan the file contents to ensure correct naming of content (ie: it can’t scan a video and determine a true/false on whether the content is actually a particular episode, of a particular season, of a particular show). Not meaning to sound redundant myself, but: that’s our job.
If I have fifteen files called “01 Pilot.mkv” (which I would, if I used your naming scheme), in the event they’re misfiled, the only way to reasonably determine their correct location is to open the files and view them. What if they’re not restricted to .mkv file type, but add mp4 and avi to the mix? I could then end up with say up to three “01 Pilot” files in a single season folder. At a granular level this is a lot of ambiguity, with sorting tied to a single fixed point (the directory structure) of failure. However my 15 files all have unique names, meaning even in the event of them being misfiled, I can quickly, in a very human sense, see that they’re in the wrong spot.
You’re absolutely entitled to your personal opinion on what a ‘better’ naming structure is, of course, and I wont try and convince you otherwise, however I would contest that declaring the Plex suggested naming structure as “idiotic” and that it can “so easily be in conflict with itself” is, if true of the Plex naming scheme, more true of a scheme that fails to uniquely identify the files themselves. Have at it with other arguments, but calling it “idiotic” and that (I’m guessing?) the fact that a person could put an S02E03 episode in a season 1 folder and Plex will still scan it a “conflict” doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. IMHO.
@jungwirth said:
If I have fifteen files called “01 Pilot.mkv” (which I would, if I used your naming scheme), in the event they’re misfiled, the only way to reasonably determine their correct location is to open the files and view them. What if they’re not restricted to .mkv file type, but add mp4 and avi to the mix? I could then end up with say up to three “01 Pilot” files in a single season folder. At a granular level this is a lot of ambiguity, with sorting tied to a single fixed point (the directory structure) of failure. However my 15 files all have unique names, meaning even in the event of them being misfiled, I can quickly, in a very human sense, see that they’re in the wrong spot.
That’s funny you say that. I had a complete RAID meltdown a good while back and was able to restore all the files(No folder structure though). I ended up with thousands and thousands of files in a single folder. Most(practically all) were very easy to identify except shows like Battlestar Galactica, The Flash, Doctor Who, The Twilight Zone, and a few others. It was madness going through them.
The Flash - s01e01 - Pilot.mp4
The Flash - s01e01 - Pilot(2).mp4
The Flash - s01e02 - Out of Control.mp4
The Flash - s01e02 - Fastest Man Alive.mp4
Other, more difficult ones were…
The Twilight Zone - s01e01.avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e01(2).avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e01(3).avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e02.avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e02(2).avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e02(3).avi
Oh, that was so much fun… NOT. That is why I always add the year in the filename now. Just in case that ever happens again…
“Why do I need {series}, {season} and {episode} in the file name when they are already in the path?!”
Honestly all it really needs is a folder for the TV show that matches the way the show is listed in thetvdb and the S01E01 name for each file. No real need to divide them into seasons for any other reason than file management. I had three seasons all in one root TV Show folder and it parsed it out just fine.
Plex scanner already accepts many file name syntaxes, maybe too many… Here’s some, directly from the scanner source.
S03E04-E05
S03-03
3x03, 3x03-3x04, 3x03x04
SP01 (Special 01, equivalent to S00E01)
602 (Season 6 ep2)
If none of those match, then directory name is scanned for Season number, and filename again for episode number:
01 of 08
01 - Foo
Blah Blah ep234
Flah - 04 - Blah
Flah - 04
Flah707
01
So, @Ddoody 's naming is already supported fully: season in directory name and “01 - Foo” in filename. Only case where it doesn’t work is if the weird “602” match does invalid match before directory name is checked.
Again here is a little controversy; if Plex really wanted to enforce this “rename policy” it perhaps shouldn’t support this many formats to begin with…
@jungwirth said:
The ‘best practice’ Plex naming scheme may contain redundant data, arguably only in a very carefully maintained collection, but still redundant by a measure.
“best practice” by what authority? Sorry, but no “best practice” naming scheme would contain redundant, potentially conflicting, data. There should only ever be one definitive source of any piece of data. This is actually true in Plex, it’s the file name. But that means the rest of their schema should not be proscribed. The folder structure should not be part of their naming scheme. They may suggest you use it just to make your manual maintenance of the files easier, but should otherwise call it what it is… irrelevant. Additionally, they should never use it in their scanning. To use it is to imply it has real value and that those sections of the file name are optional. I’d have less of an issue if this is what they did, but they don’t
However what it also does is virtually eliminates ambiguity.
No, it doesn’t. Just because the file name says “show A”, doesn’t mean it is. You have already indicated as much yourself: “that’s our job”. But then file that in under the “show B” path and what have you then? Multiple levels of ambiguity.
If I have fifteen files called “01 Pilot.mkv”
Yes, I would too. But as you have already said… “that’s our job” to correctly file them. My issue isn’t that Plex places the show name and season number in file name (although I personally don’t like that), it’s that it ALSO insists on placing those files in a show name and season number structure. Redundant and potentially conflicting information. I can only assume it insists on this due to file system and human readability and manageability limitations, but it introduces potential conflicts.
in the event they’re misfiled, the only way to reasonably determine their correct location is to open the files and view them.
Even with the data in the file name this is still true. Anyone can misname a file.
What if they’re not restricted to .mkv file type, but add mp4 and avi to the mix? I could then end up with say up to three “01 Pilot” files in a single season folder.
Yes. And? They typically get scanned into Plex as versions of the same episode. And storing the show name and season in the file name does nothing to eliminate this. They would all still have the same names, just a longer one.
However my 15 files all have unique names
No, they don’t. Each show/season would have a unique name, but as already mentioned, within that all files would be the same. I expect of course, you are thinking about additional data like quality, codec etc in the name, but that is NOT part of the Plex standard.
however I would contest that declaring the Plex suggested naming structure as “idiotic” and that it can “so easily be in conflict with itself” is, if true of the Plex naming scheme, more true of a scheme that fails to uniquely identify the files themselves. Have at it with other arguments, but calling it “idiotic” and that (I’m guessing?) the fact that a person could put an S02E03 episode in a season 1 folder and Plex will still scan it a “conflict” doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. IMHO.
OK, “idiotic” is perhaps a bit strong, but I tell you now, if I designed such a schema when studying at uni I’d have been failed on that assignment. Redundant data can be useful at times (usually for performance reasons), but not when it can contradict itself.
And yes, you are “guessing”. That you can have two contradictory pieces of data for the same information and Plex universally declares only one of those will ever be used, while perhaps not “idiotic”… let’s call it short-sighted. Plex have no way to know which of the two is actually correct.
@NewPlaza said:
That’s funny you say that. I had a complete RAID meltdown a good while back and was able to restore all the files(No folder structure though). I ended up with thousands and thousands of files in a single folder. Most(practically all) were very easy to identify except shows likeBattlestar Galactica,The Flash,Doctor Who,The Twilight Zone, and a few others. It was madness going through them.
The Flash - s01e01 - Pilot.mp4
The Flash - s01e01 - Pilot(2).mp4
The Flash - s01e02 - Out of Control.mp4
The Flash - s01e02 - Fastest Man Alive.mp4Other, more difficult ones were…
The Twilight Zone - s01e01.avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e01(2).avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e01(3).avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e02.avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e02(2).avi
The Twilight Zone - s01e02(3).aviOh, that was so much fun… NOT. That is why I always add the year in the filename now. Just in case that ever happens again…
I wanted to ‘like’ or ‘LOL’ that, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.
@tramp78 said:
“Why do I need {series}, {season} and {episode} in the file name when they are already in the path?!”Honestly all it really needs is a folder for the TV show that matches the way the show is listed in thetvdb and the S01E01 name for each file. No real need to divide them into seasons for any other reason than file management. I had three seasons all in one root TV Show folder and it parsed it out just fine.
This is part of the point I’ve been trying to make. The current preferred naming scheme doesn’t need any structure at all. It might make it easier for humans to manage files in a hierarchy, but Plex doesn’t need it, and shouldn’t really require it. They should remove the show/season hierarchy from their preferred scheme, and change that part of it to a suggestion for your personal file management purposes only. They should then, really, stop using the path structure in the scanner, because if the files are named the way they want, those parts aren’t used anyway.
They are combining human file management and scanner requirements and ending up with a potential mess.
@Ddoody said:
This is part of the point I’ve been trying to make. The current preferred naming scheme doesn’t need any structure at all.
I mean, I do see your point. The filename is/contains the structure. I say, if you can get away with your own method and Plex detects it correctly then more power to you. We here at the forums are to brainwashed to suggest any other method a tv show/hierarchy/or episodes must be for Plex to correctly match it.
One of the reasons this naming convention started and is preferred is basically how folks designate episodes in Torrents for downloading single episodes.
@jjrjr1 said:
One of the reasons this naming convention started and is preferred is basically how folks designate episodes in Torrents for downloading single episodes.
No way. Say it ain’t so. That sounds illegal. Plex is only for DVD/BD you actually own. It works great, just copy the entire content of the disc right into Plex. That’s when the real magic starts. It’s like all the stars align. It’s so beautiful. It makes me want cry.
@jjrjr1 said:
One of the reasons this naming convention started and is preferred is basically how folks designate episodes in Torrents for downloading single episodes.
That much I get, but there is always a shitload of other stuff someone may not want in those names too… not to mention, no episode names most of the time.
I use Bulk Rename Utility and clean up stuff rather quickly regardless of the naming scheme it has when I get it. I clean up the names so PLEX knows what it is. I put them in a sane folder structure so I can find them.
