Multi-part (Stacked) TV Shows Require Same Extension/Format

General Discussions
1

Just a quick tip/observation:

If you use multi-part (a.k.a. stacked) TV episodes, they must be the same file format, otherwise Plex thinks they are two versions of the same file (i.e. different resolutions), even if named appropriately. With different file extensions the multiple parts are displayed with a number in the upper left corner, and when playing the episode you are able to select which “version” to play.

The Plex guide for naming such episodes makes no mention of this: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200265006-Naming-Stacked-TV-Show-Episodes

Maybe it’s obvious to others, but I didn’t really think it would be an issue. On a whim I reformatted the second part (MP4) into the same container as the first part (MKV) and after the Plex dance each episode was displayed as the full duration of the combined parts. Perhaps this should be included in the instructions for naming stacked TV episodes.

2

I’ve never actually seen a multi part episode in the “wild” can you share your example? Why haven’t you just merged them?

3

Is there any way around this within the server? For UFC events I have the three files (Early Prelims, Prelims and Main Event) as pt1, pt2 and pt3. However as two are MKV and one MP4, after merging they are in the wrong order (pt2, pt3, pt1).