Multi part (pt1, pt2) playing wrong part

Server Version#: Version 4.30.2
Player Version#: Version 4.30.2

I think I got the right version numbers. This is latest windows server version as of 5/13/2020 and plays the same on Windows, Web, Roku, and Android.

My multi part episodes of Doctor Who 1969 are detected as a 4 part episode. The file info lists the parts in correct order and by correct file name. But it only plays the final part and then goes on to the next whole episode. They are all stored in the same folder. Example file names:

s01e01 - pt01 - An Unearthly Child.avi
s01e01 - pt02 - The Cave of Skulls.avi
s01e01 - pt03 - The Forest of Fear.avi
s01e01 - pt04 - The Firemaker.avi

When looking at the episode to play, it even calls it “An Unearthly Child.” But the generated thumbnail is from pt4 The Firemaker, and that is the only one Plex will play. The other pieces have been confirmed working in other media players run on the host PC. The same thing happens for other multi parts. No matter how many parts, it only plays the last one. If you skip forward or allow it to finish, it moves to the next episode and once again only plays the final part.

So far in the forums, I’ve only seen this addressed by merging the parts. I may have to, but this is not a case of file size or spanning disks. These were aired this way. One title for the story arc, several parts with individual titles considered part 1 through part 4 or 6 or 12 in some cases.

I’ve notice other strange behavior trying to get this archive up and running in Plex. I’ll take them to another thread if they give more problems. But since I’m new to this, can anyone recommend a meta data editor that can scrub and replace metadata in video files? In the end, I’ll manually update my files to match accepted conventions if that is what it takes. Though a bulk tool would be handy.

2 remarks:

  1. that’s not how the episodes are listed on TheTVDb.com… there, this is 4 individual episodes (s01e01 to s01e04)
    https://www.thetvdb.com/series/doctor-who/seasons/official/1
  2. that’s not how you name multi-part videos in order to appear as one in Plex… with your naming, all you’ll get is 4 versions of 1 episode.

as for #1, the naming should be like this:

TV Shows    <- the folder linked to this Plex tv show library
   Doctor Who
      Season 01
         Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1).avi
         Doctor Who - s01e02 - The Cave of Skulls (2).avi
         Doctor Who - s01e03 - The Forest of Feat (3).avi
         Doctor Who - s01e04 - The Firemaker (4).avi

As for #2… if it was indeed 1 episode that is split across 4 separate files, you should name it like this:

...
   Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1) - pt1.avi
   Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1) - pt2.avi
   Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1) - pt3.avi
   Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1) - pt4.avi

See Episodes Split Across Multiple Files in the related support article on how to name/organize your tv show files.

Edit: There’s some more conditions to make episodes/movies split across multiple files work (e.g. they need to have the same kind of streams with the same technical details and sequence…). Long story short – you might be much better of by simply merging those files into a single file right away (e.g. using MKVToolnix).

1 Like

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks so much for the clarification. I’ll try these changes before resorting to merging.

This can still work the way I want it. I think. If, not I can live with it. Or reformat all of them to the tvdb spec. But what about this? The way the guide reads, it looks like any info after the pt1 is somewhat ignored. Or at least not used for sorting.

Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1) - pt1 - An Unearthly Child.avi
Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1) - pt2 - The Cave of Skulls.avi
Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1) - pt3 - The Forest of Fear.avi
Doctor Who - s01e01 - An Unearthly Child (1) - pt4 - The Firemaker.avi

Sorry to say but you got it wrong.
Have a look auth TheTVDb.com (see link to season 1 of the original Doctor Who series above). Those are different episodes.
Only #1 should be applicable for you.

TheTVDb.com has a habit of including a number in brackets next to the episode name if the story spans multiple episodes… indicating that “An Unearthly Child”, “The Cave of Skulls”, “The Forest of Fear” and “The Firemaker” are related, showing a continuing story (compared to episodes that have a single-episode story). That being said… this has nothing to do with how you need to name the files.

Example:
“The Firemaker” is not the 4th part of episode 1… it’s episode 4

And I am sorry to say you are half right.

I do get your point about naming conventions. And I’ll try my altered version based on your advice. Was just wondering if you see a showstopping problem doing like I posted above.

See the Wiki here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_episodes_(1963–1989)#Season_1_(1963–1964)

I’m getting different issues with The Muppet Show but for the same reason. TVDB has the US air dates and naming conventions. The format shown above is how Doctor Who was aired in Britain. For The Muppet Show, the dates are weeks out of sync and all out of order. The US broadcasters put them out in whatever order they wanted to for … reasons?

This leads to another question. Does TvDB have different records for various countries? Didn’t find an obvious link, but I’m still figuring all this out.

Thanks again for the active feedback

Plex is not using Wikipedia as a source for metadata and how shows are organized.
The default agent for tv show libraries is using TheTVDb.com.

Just for comparison the data from different sources…

Episode First Aired (TheTVDb.com) First Aired (Wikipedia) First Aired (BBC)
An Unearthly Child (1) November 23, 1963 23 November 1963 23/11/1963 17:15
The Cave of Skulls (2) November 30, 1963 30 November 1963 30/11/1963 17:15
The Forest of Fear (3) December 7, 1963 7 December 1963 07/12/1963 17:15
The Firemaker (4) December 14, 1963 14 December 1963 14/12/1963 17:15

Except for the formatting... those are the exact same dates. No "contamination" by US air dates (at least not for those first episodes... didn't check the others).

As for your question... TheTVDb stores metadata for different languages -- but usually refers to the original air date -- not an air date per country. I have not yet found a show distinguishing different flavors of English (e.g. en-GB vs. en-AU vs. en-US etc.)

the short answer is this;

if you want plex to pull metadata, then it must be named according to tvdb and plex filename/path requirements.

if you want to name them however you want, then create a ‘misc-video’ video library and use folder view but you won’t get any plex metadata.

1 Like

That’s a good one, but here’s one even shorter:

TVDB is always right - even if they’re wrong.
We have no choice.

For Doctor Who (especially such early seasons) it is only the naming convention that is different. Subdividing into Seasons, Serials, and Episodes. Still working out how to adhere to both. For The Muppet Show, the air date is a massive problem. Since early archivists mixed UK and US release dates gathered from TV Guide, Muppet Central, and others, the current TVDB listing is a hot mess being fought over in the forums. A purely UK release order exists, but is not used by TVDB. My next job will be to get the right order, then tell Plex to ignore anything TVDB has to say about The Muppet Show.

Thanks again for all the help!

edit

Ah, ok. I’ll try this where it gets hairy. Ty!

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