Yes, there a a gazillion threads on this. No, I could not find a single one that answered my question (or fixed my issue, whichever way to look at it).
I have two versions of a movie, Theatrical and Extended. I don’t normally keep both but in this case the extended version makes for a completely different (and longer) movie. I would like both to show up as selectable options.
I tried:
That Thing You do! (1996) - Theatrical.mkv
That Thing You do! (1996) - Extended.mkv
I also tried putting both versions in a folder (same names as above)
Both methods only showed a single movie.
I then split them apart and despite different file names I could only tell them apart by the movie length. I finally selected different artwork for the extended version and in the description and title I added [Theatrical Version] or [Theatrical Version] at the beginning. It works but seems a little sludgy and requires editing the entries; edits sometimes go away if the database gets altered (like moving the movie to another drive)
Any clue how to do this better? I use the Roku Plex app for what that’s worth.
This is what I do in those cases. After I split them apart, I select one of the versions, and then use the “Fix Match” option in Plex Web (under the 3 dot symbol thingy) . Let it find a match, but don’t apply it. Instead, choose Search options, and select a different agent than the one you are currently using for the library. In my case, the default agent is the Plex Movie Agent, so I choose The Movie Database. Hit search, pick the correct match and apply it.
It takes a little more time, but each version of the movie is now registered separately as though they were two completely different movies in the Plex database., Each movie will have it’s own viewed and progress status. You can edit the titles and posters as you want from there.
If you just change the title name, but continue to use the same agent to identify the movie, Plex considers them the same movie. So, if you watch half of the extended version, Plex will also think you have watched half of the theatrical version. The movie will actually show up twice in your continue Watching hub, and you will have to select the version you want to continue watching.
If you change the agent, they become separate entries in the database. By doing this, you can select the extended version to play, watch half of it, and Plex will remember that you have watched half of the extended version, and none of the theatrical version. It will show up in Continue watching by itself. You will not need to select the version to continue watching.
And yes, as I said, you can change the names if you want to identify them specifically as theatrical and extended. Either way works, but I always take the extra step to completely separate them, so that they are considered totally different movies. (Even though they may have the same title, poster, information, etc. by default)
