Issues playing masterclass/tutorial type content

[B3rnie]

I love learning and watching tutorial type series. Plex doesn’t seem to work very well for me.

I have a couple of issues:

1. How can I increase playback speed to say 1.5X like with many video players?
2. I have masterclasses/tutorials under a separate library which I view by folder (one tutorial with many files in one folder). If I try to “play” the folder the app crashes (fire tv). If I go inside the folder, there is no continuous playback. How can I play them without having to go back, select the next episode and play?
3. Would be nice if folder had an image

Has anyone found solutions for these?

[PlexibleUser]

I would create small batches of playlists. 5 videos each.

[pandas]

I have more tutorial series than regular series. In the hundreds. Here’s what I do (One caveat is I’m definitely not an OCD type and I can live with keeping it simple)

• I don’t mind manually adding cover art (poster and background).
• I don’t need to duplicate the course experience exactly. Specifically I can live with limiting the use of plex to accessing videos only. Extras stuff like course files I will access directly without plex (much of which I toss out anyway, depending)
• I don’t care about searching on anything other than course/episode title (i.e. don’t need genre, author, head caterer, gaffer, etc)

Using a library of type SHOW:

Step 1 - Deploy files in TITLE - s99e99 - EPISODE_NAME format
Step 2 - Use google images to grab cover art (in a few cases of really obscure content I make my own)
Step 3 - Run a python Plex API script that updates the episodes with EPISODE_NAME so they dont just say episode 1, episode 2, etc. It extracts the data from the files on disk so no extra steps.

Fast and easy. No drama.

PS - I will add an editorial comment, feel free to ignore: DO NOT depend on Plex “folder” functionality in the long run. If Plex Inc is smart (and they are) they will be phasing it out.

[B3rnie]

Thanks so much for your suggestions.

Can you elaborate a little more about the API script? Is this something you can share? Any customizations required?

Any way to play content faster (for those slow speakers

[pandas]

Sure it’s a pretty simple python script. Only prereq is the plexapi module. Note that the mp4 file extension is hardcoded but that’s easy to fix.

pip install plexapi
Set the series title and the library name in at the top of the script.
Set your credentials and server name

----------------- cut here -----------------------------

import re
import sys

# Must be EXACT match
TARGET_SERIES = "The Brady Bunch"
TARGET_LIBRARY = "My Shows"

if len(sys.argv) > 1:
	TARGET_SERIES=sys.argv[1]

USERNAME="CHANGE_ME"
PASSWORD="CHANGE_ME"
SERVERNAME="CHANGE_ME"

from plexapi.myplex import MyPlexAccount
account = MyPlexAccount(USERNAME, PASSWORD)
# returns a PlexServer instance
plex = account.resource(SERVERNAME).connect()  

episodes = plex.library.section(TARGET_LIBRARY).get(TARGET_SERIES).episodes()
print("Found %d episodes for: %s" % (len(episodes), TARGET_SERIES))
match_str = 's[0-9][0-9]e[0-9][0-9].*$'

# Extract episode name (AKA episode title) from episode video filename on disk
# Input  : Episode filename 
# Output : Episode name
# Format : SERIES_TITLE - s99e99 EPISODE_TITLE.mp4
# Example:
# Input  : Leave it to Beaver - s01e01 Junior loses the screwdriver.mp4
# Output : Junior loses the screwdriver

for episode in episodes:
	# print(episode.title)
	filename = episode.media[0].parts[0].file.split('\\')[-1]
	print("\nProcessing: %s" % (filename))
	# Parse keying on season/episode string form: s99e99
	tmp = re.findall(match_str, filename)

	# Generate episode title
	new_episode_title = None
	try:
		words = tmp[0].split(" ")
		# Get rid of "s99e99" (first word)
		words = words[1:]
		# May contain "-" after s/e 
		if words[0] == "-":
			words = words[1:]
		# Remove file suffix: mp4, mov, etc
		words[-1] = words[-1].split(".")[0:-1][0]

		new_episode_title = " ".join(words)
		new_episode_title = new_episode_title.replace("_",":")
	except Exception as e:
		print("Could not parse filename of episode: %s" % (filename))
		continue

	# Update episode metadata in Plex
	print("Updating title: %s" % (new_episode_title))
	try:
		dict_param = {"title.value": new_episode_title}
		episode.edit(**dict_param)
	except Exception as e:
		print("Failed to update Plex error: %s" % (e))