When Plex adds episodes that are in two or more parts (e.g. The Office Season 4 Episodes 5 & 6) but are combined on the DVD (e.g. s04e05-e06 - Launch Party (Parts 1 & 2).mp4) it adds the same video to both entries. This isn’t too bad. It just plays the same episode twice in a row.
A better solution would be to just have one entry in Plex. It can tell from the file naming convention (set by Plex) that the two episodes are combined (s04e05-06). So just add one entry and drop the other. A step further would be to have Plex also label it as “Episodes 5 and 6” instead of just “Episode 5” and even drop the “Part 1” or “Part 2” suffixes from the title when this happens.
Another solution would be to have the Plex client pay the first episode using time markers for the start and finish. It could then pay the second episode using a starting time marker (e.g. 20 minutes in based on length of the first part). This seems more complicated though.
Are you aware of the option to configure Plex to use the DVD order?
You can Edit the Advanced Settings for the show, and change the Episode ordering from Aired to DVD.
That’s appropriate if your filenames match the DVD ordering.
I think this has some data management issues, but I really like this idea from a UX perspective.
I don’t think this metadata is available in a way that would be reliable for Plex. User-provided files don’t have reliable durations/intros/commercials/framerates/skew.
My favorite solution is to split the episodes apart, using MKVToolNix. It’s not the easiest but it has the best overall results.
Thanks for the suggestion. However, I’m using the new Plex TV Series (BETA) agent. I want to use it since that’s their focus now. Also, the new Plex Movie agent is very reliable and fast (only a few matching issues out of thousands). The option you are referring to is not available with the Plex TV Series (BETA) agent. It has “Episode Ordering” options of “TheTVDB” and “The Movie Database”.
I agree with you about the time markers. I doubt the durations would be accurate enough to use them reliably.
I think I’m going to take your solution about using MKVToolNix. I already combine movie videos for movies with multiple discs. I mind as well split my multi-part episodes up so there is no confusion. Thanks.
I didn’t know that option was there. I did it just to test and it made it worse. I saved all my episodes and named them according to TheTVDB. So my episode ordering matches TheTVDB and not the DVD. It’s just that the episode was combined on the DVD. Now all the titles are off.
I get myself wrapped up in a circle with that sometimes. What’s on the disk, vs. what’s at TVDB, and how to rename what I have to line up with what’s at TVDB.
To use DVD ordering, you have to renumber ALL the episodes in the series to follow the DVD numbering on TheTVDB. So say the DVD combines episodes 5 and 6 of the first season. You’d have to name the file “[series name] S01E05”. Then, episode 7 becomes episode 6 in the DVD ordering, episode 8 becomes 7, and so on.
The tricky thing with DVD ordering is that you may have a mix where some episodes are combined from the DVD and others aren’t, depending the source of your episodes. So the DVD might combine episodes 1 & 2, and also episodes 5 & 6, but if your copies of episodes 1 & 2 are separate, you kind of can’t use DVD ordering unless you combine those two files (I’m not sure if the multi-part naming option for movies will also work for tv episodes, where a single movie can be split across 2 or more files).
Thanks. It makes sense what you are saying about DVD ordering. It will work but I don’t want to go down that path since I like my episode names and numbers to match TheTVDB’s default. I’m just going to split up the combined episode files when needed to match TheTVDB like Volts suggested.
Just name those particular episodes: Showname - S01E01-E02 - Description to match both.xxx
At least that way you won’t have to endure a crappy splitting and Plex will those those as two separate episodes - even though they’ll play as one.
I think the behavior of Plex has improved for this action. It was once much more painful than it is now I believe.
For what it’s worth, it only plays the same episode twice in a row when it comes to the Auto-play screen. Admittedly, that’s something they should fix. But when you watch it once, it marks both episodes as having been watched, so the correct episode shows up next in On Deck.
