Great point!
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I really need this. I have so much stuff that has multiple versions, or a English cut and Japanese cut and I don’t want to clog my library with a bunch of multiple copies.
We really need this! Having versions with Dolby Vision only being shown as “HDR” is no bueno. Since Plex is no good at DV at the moment I need to keep a DV version, a HDR10 version and a 1080p version. It’s impossible to know which one is which when both DV and HDR10 is labeled “HDR”.
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Forgetting all the fancy stuff people want, having the ability to create a custom name for each version would be sufficient, as this wouldn’t be a common problem.
Your suggestion of splitting different versions of a movie is valid, and I have done this in the past and even created separate libraries for various Star Wars productions and 4K (because transcoding is stupid and always picks the best quality source, instead of what’s closest to the output) , but this is invalid for TV. I would like to clarify which version is censored or uncensored. A perfect example of this is Rick and Morty. On TV and most streaming services it is censored, but on Bluray/Amazon/HBO it is uncensored. Other premium shows, like Sex in the City, also have censored versions for broadcast TV.
Also, there currently isn’t the option to adjust options (audio track, subtitles, etc) of the non-default version. This would be a nice to have. Simply add a “Select Version” menu in addition to “Play Version”.
Having a server option to force prompt for selecting a version would be nice too, and might alleviate the need to 4K movies into a separate library, because of remote streams not manually selecting a lower bit rate option (assuming available).
Even the ability to create a custom name is “fancy.”
All that is required is displaying the full file name in the version dialog as suggested by the OP:
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Sad to see that even an Plex employee has to workaround on a feature request that exist since 9 years 
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I just want to add that while new to Plex, i’ve stumbled on to this problem and thus this post for a TV episode though.
In Season 2 of Star Trek The Next Generation (1987) on the Blu-Ray there is 3 versions for Episode 9:
- Star Trek The Next Generation - S02E09 - The Measure of a Man.mkv
- Star Trek The Next Generation - S02E09 - The Measure of a Man - HD Extended Version.mkv
- Star Trek The Next Generation - S02E09 - The Measure of a Man - Hybrid Extended Version.mkv
I understand this is a niche problem, but versions work very well for this with the exception of knowing which one is which. These are not Behind The Scenes or Featurettes/Extras this is 3 different versions of the same exact episode.
If not versions, what would the people at Plex suggest for this? Extras ain’t it…
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For episodes where I have a separate broadcast version of the episode and a iTunes/Blu-ray/home media version of the episode - I just make one of the episodes (2 in your case ) an episode level extra with the ‘other’ category/tag - this way the alt version of the episode(s) shows up as an extra inline for that specific episode
While full file name in the version as suggested by OP would solve this problem, and still allow Plex full automation/discovery in the library, I think I’d still prefer to specify custom text for the versions:
- Theatrical Cut/1080p
- Director’s Cut/1080p
- Theatrical Cut/UHD/HDR10+
This list is much more descriptive and easier to choose than reading through a filename that may or may not be standardized across the library.
Each version is different, and there’s no easy way to extract this information from filenames (dependably), so I think custom text/labels for versions provides the most flexibility, and could be implemented by a button or hyperlink/popup in the media info pane (grouped view). This custom text could then be displayed in the ‘Play Version’ dialog, making it easy to discern exactly which version you are getting.
For the limited number of titles I have that I do need to specify different versions, I’d be happy to specify a label or tag of some sort to display in the ‘Play Version’ popup. This would make things so much easier.
For the Employee’s workaround … yes, it’s nice that Plex lets us split files to display these items separately … but I definitely don’t like the resulting clutter. I much prefer to have the grouping active, with one tile/listing per title.
Some people like having the different movie posters for different cuts, so the “split” feature shouldn’t be removed …
Bottom line: OP’s solution should work at a minimum (I don’t like the clutter or lack of standardization between filenames any more than anyone else) but I definitely prefer more concise control of what is displayed in the ‘Play Version’ popup. The way it’s currently displayed isn’t helpful at all.
Or … in the best of both worlds, make OP’s suggestion the default for displaying in the ‘Play Version’ popup, and allow those truncated paths/filenames to be changed to a custom name (“display version as…”) …
Just +1 to this and Multiple Cuts Of Movie
It’s very tedious trying to find the correct version to watch on the ever increasing number of titles that have multiple cuts/releases
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for now i would settle for HDR/SDR info as well as resolution.
it’s not always about resolution though. I have some anime that’s also dubbed that I don’t want duplicated.
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Yeah this is becoming a big problem with some devices that play DV and others that don’t. Having them both listed as ‘HDR’ and by bandwidth isn’t helpful when sometimes lower bandwidth is actually better PQ. At least having some sort of logic to pick the file based on device capabilities. Or literally anything better than just resolution/hdr/bitrate. It’s making it hard to keep using plex at all since it’s failing to make it easy to play videos.
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If you’ve voted on this I suggest you review these suggestions and vote for them:
I doubt this suggestion will go anywhere as plex is moving to editions for this workflow.
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I don’t really see those as linked.
This is about picking different quality versions and having more details available for that beyond what we can currently see (resolution, bitrate). Editions is on a different page.
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Read the original post. It’s about selecting different “editions” of films.
So my mom was trying to watch Return of the Jedi the other day, and she complained that the version I have is “the one with all the stupid cartoon stuff.” Of course, I know I have both the special edition and the theatrical release, but over the phone I was unable to direct her to the right version. Ultimately I deleted the special edition from my server entirely to avoid confusion in the future, but this presents a problem.
fair point… though as you pointed out, editions are now covered differently – that leaves the suggestion to show more information on the play-version modal to pick the correct quality version you have in mind.
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yes this is still a different situation/problem from editions here that needs to be addressed
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The vast majority of the posts I read in this thread were in reference to what plex is now calling “editions”. They clearly have a plan for how to deal with “editions” and this isn’t it. If you are want to make “editions” better I suggest you vote for the links I posted.
While I would like to see more info under the play version, specifically HDR/SDR, I don’t see why they would implement this if its to a dress a problem they are trying to fix another way.
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I don’t want to have to go through all my media and change stuff. Or add it to a database of some sort. It would be a lot.
I’d prefer they just show the entire filename. I’ve already done that work and it’s in the filename.
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