Multiple TV series with exact same title

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#:1.25.0.5282
Player Version#:
I run TrueNAS Core server , which runs on FreeBSD. This is more a general Plex Server issue. I use HDHomeRun DVR to record TV because of a much better (nowhere perfect) interface. Internally HDHR manages the difference between two different series with the same name, the Original “Macgyver” vs. the resent newer instance of “MacGyver”.

But the external file directory on disk is only one. With the file names like “MacGyver S01E02 19851006[20190803=1500]” it seems to be date coded as to original air date to differentiate between series old vs series new. Is there some way for Plex to utilize the extra information ?? Plex only seems to “see” only the SxxExx extention ???

Not really a “platform” restriction but a basic “program design” issue… In the end is seems to be seen as a duplicate episode vs new vs origanal series, and the newer file date wins out.

Any thoughts ??? Or is there a way Plex handles it that I haven’t discovered yet ?? I had been using HDHR long before I ventured into the Plex realm and really understood the way it works.

TIA Kevin

2

You can handle same-named shows – though this requires both shows to have their own folder.
Usually it’s enough to include the year the show first aired. Optionally you can include the reference/ID from one of the online repositories used by Plex (e.g. IMDb, TVDb or TMDb).

Example

TV Shows   <- the folder linked to your tv-show library
  MacGyver (1985)
    Season 01
      MacGyver (1985) - s01e01.ext
      ...

  MacGyver (2016) {tvdb-311902}
    Season 01
      MacGyver (2016) - s01e01.ext
      ...
1 Like
3

In some rare instances when a series tries to pick up where it left off YEARS later (Murphy Brown, Vicar of Dibley, Good Eats), they can just add another season number and keep on going. But if it is listed as a new series in TVDB, then TVDB will normally add the year to the new one and there is no problem with adding the year to the old one as well. Ghosts is a good example. The original BBC version is Ghosts (2019) vs the new US version Ghosts (2021). Plex is smart enough to name the later Ghosts (US)

4

The only show i have that did that thing where they made new seasons years later was Red Dwarf and it works completely fine.

Shows with same name, as @tom80H said year or US/UK/etc is enough to differentiate them.

5

The two series I’ve run into are “MacGyver” and “Lost in Space” When the HDHR directory is referenced in Plex, LiS goes all in one Plex screen folder as does M. Their parent location can’t be changed/modified or it messes up future recordings in HDHR. Now only the new Lis and the new M show on Plex. At one time, just additional seasons would show up for M. But a need to redownload meta was needed to fix other things and now just new M shows up . And LiS used to show correctly as two entities. The same directory is used for both Plex and HDHR. That directory is like 1TB or more.

Once I get more time to mess with it, l’ll try using your coding approach. Where/how in some general terms do I apply the code ???

Thank for all of your replies … Kevin

6

I have Life on Mars and also The Twilight Zone.

LOM I used US (UK original does not require this) and TZ years (same thing only the newer ones need the year). It should just work.

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7

I’m not sure I understand what you mean by „applying the code“.

If you have to keep the structure of your folders as-is you’ll be mostly out of luck to get those shows properly separated inside Plex. That way you won’t e.g. be able to manually split those apart manually from within Plex.

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