Server Version#: 1.24.1.4931-1a38e63c6 - August 12, 2021
I have 2 MKV files of the same movie. Apparently one is “Angle 1” and the other “Angle 2”
I can’t name the files exactly the same, obvs.
So, I have 2 folders each containing one version of the movie.
(Sub-problem; Plex doesn’t see one of the folders as I had to add the annotation “angle 2” to one of them, so, Plex just shows one movie, the un-annotated Angle 1 version.)
Plex Help Articles says that the multiple versions feature “is not intended for situations where you might have, for instance, both a “theatrical” and “director’s cut” version of a movie”. It is meant for different resolutions or encoding formats. I understand that to apply to my 2 angles situation.
So, Plex Help Articles advises the use of Merging (or splitting) but the article just says “If you have several different versions of the same Movie (maybe a SD and HD version), you can combine them to a single item.” But how does one get to the point of having 2 versions when it isn’t possible to have 2 files of the same name?
Movies
My Movie (Year) [angle 1]
My Movie (Year).ext
My Movie (Year) [angle 2]
My Movie (Year).ext
Where .ext is the respective file extension.
Example 2:
Movies
My Movie (Year)
My Movie (Year) [angle 1].ext
My Movie (Year) [angle 2].ext
I’ve included the annotation in square brackets as Plex will ignore the 1st set of those. This is useful if your files have technical information and you feel you need to keep those.
Keep in mind… if you treat those different angles as “different versions”, you won’t have any way to distinguish which is which (assuming they’re both sharing the key technical characteristics like resolution and bitrates).
Thank you. I wasn’t aware of the square bracket possibility. Your solution would be fine if, as you say, Plex had the ability to distinguish one file from another.
TBH, I’m not even sure what “Angles” mean in practice for a movie (other than assuming that it’s simply what it says on the tin). I’m just the kind of person that if a DVD has 2 versions then I’m going to keep both versions, just because.
„Angles“ can be relevant if you’re watching a 3D movie. The picture will consist of 2 separate videos that were taken from a slightly different angle (as your eyes technically see 2 separate pictures from a slightly different angle → based on the distance of your eyes). Giving each picture to one eye will make them appear to be a 3-dimensional perspective.
Correcting myself… while I had been reading this is linked to 3d, it’s actually much more generic.
Technically it’s supposed to allow encoding actual different camera positions of the same content in the same container (=multiple independent video streams).
