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.
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
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).
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
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.
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.
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.)
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.
