I’m ordering my libraries and i’m missing a feature: linking movies with tv series specials.
A lot of TV series also have movies that add to the series experience and follow up on the story of the TV series. TVDB also acknowledges them as Specials in all cases that i checked. I’m thinking of TV series like ALF, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon V, X-Files, Firefly and in lesser degrees A-Team and Star Trek.
The relevant movies are all listed in TVDB as specials. However Plex does not link the specials to the movies, nor the other way around.
For example if i have the movie ‘Project ALF’ as a special in the TV Series ‘ALF’ (indexed and all), and i’m searching for the movie Project ALF movie on Plex, it says i don’t have that movie in my library. Which is false, it is on the server but as a Special on the TV series.
The other way around doesn’t work either: i have ‘X-Files: fight the future’ in my movies library. It is also known as the S00E01 Special on TVDB. However, when i’m browsing X-Files in the TV Series, it does not show the movie as a special.
It would be great if Plex can link the TV series specials to movies, and vice versa. That way you can always find what you’re looking for, whether you’re coming from the TV series or are looking for the particular movie (which is stored in the TV specials).
Can Plex please link the TVDB specials to the Movie DB so they work interchangable?
From the perspective of those repositories (and Plex), those specials and movies are separate / independent entities. Most of them even require a strict separation or expect a video to be only added as the type as which it was released… so while different users might have different preferences and therefore violate/sidestep those rules, in theory that kind of mix-up shouldn’t exist.
Acknowledging reality shows that theory doesn’t matter all that much… Plex cannot know that a special has a duplicate / second existence as a movie entry on those repositories.
That being said, there’s different ways you should already be able to achieve what you’re aiming for.
1. Searching
Searching for „Die Braut des Grauens“ (German title of Sherlock‘s special „The Abonimable Bride“, as it‘s listed in my library), Plex will list that in the search results.
Notice there’s two search results:
the special, as found in my library
the movie listing, because someone opted to create a duplicate movie record
You can control that by disabling „More Way to Watch“ in the search bar preferences.
2. Linking related media across different library types
If you want to treat those „special releases“ as movies, you can still associate them with their corresponding show.
You can e.g. assign both, the movie and the related show, to a same-named collection.
This way, the movie won’t be listed as a special but as „related media“ on the show’s page („Movies in XYZ collection“).
e.g. I’ve opted to treat Breaking Bad‘s „El Camino“ as a movie, adding both the show and the movie to a „Breaking Bad“ collection.
If these “movies” require knowledge of the series to be enjoyable, why add them as standalone movies at all?
Just move them to the series library and name them like a TV show special – i.e. season number 00.
I tried this now. The movies are now in collections (auto), but if i want to add series to it, the collections don’t show up (there is no collections list at all with tv series). Any idea what that can be?
