Naming of different language movie files / different cuts

[tarkusnz]

I have several movies where I have two copies, in two languages. One is in the original language with English subtitles, the other is dubbed in English (but it’s a slightly different cut because the length is different).

In the Plex web server, the media library shows a little 2 in the corner of the thumbnail indicating that there are two versions; and the movie info shows that there are two different files. But Plex will not easily let me pick which version to play.

For example, my movie library has a folder “Mon Oncle (1958)”, which contains two files: “Mon Oncle (1958)-french.mp4” and “Mon Oncle (1958)-english.mp4”.

If I click Play the French version plays without offering me the chance to choose. The More “…” menu lets me “Play version” but it offers me the following choices: “2.7Mbps 1080p” or “5.4Mbps 1080p”. The Info shows two files, -english and -french. I have to dig deep through the info to discover which one is which.

In the iOS app there is no indication on the movie page to show that there are two versions. Unlike the browser app, the phone defaults to the English version, and also unlike the web browser the “Info” only shows the English version. Again the More “…” menu offers “Play version” with the same 2.7 or 5.4Mbps choice.

Surely it can be easier than this - how should I have named or tagged the files to make it clearer?

Mod-Edit: I took the liberty to move this conversation around how to handle the naming for a specific movie w/ different files in its own thread, considering it’s dealing more with the fixing of an issue than the feature suggestion thread

[LostOnTheLine]

@tarkusnz

the phone defaults to the English version, and also unlike the web browser the “Info” only shows the English version

It sounds like you have set a setting for English language. I don’t have a lot of experience with the iOS app. I might have messed around with it a few times but nothing more, so I’m not sure how that works. But it sounds like it’s only showing items in the language chosen, which may be the system language. I know the Android app for a phone won’t show the number to indicate multiple versions, but you can click on the hamburger menu & choose Play Version to select one.

@tarkusnz

how should I have named or tagged the files to make it clearer

That’s a major part of this feature request, as it stands Plex doesn’t give any information about the files aside from Resolution & Bitrate
Since yours are the same resolution it makes it somewhat easier because you can know that the larger file size is going to be the higher bitrate. That’s not always the case though, which is why this feature is so important [Subtle invitation to vote for it]
If you have some movies that have different containers the same file as MKV will be a couple MB smaller than as MP4, & like 20MB smaller than TS so that trick doesn’t always work.

What we here want is for there to be more detailed information on that Play Version dialog & to have it not as a hidden option

[Volts]

Your best option and the Plex recommendation today is to Split the movie into two Library items (via the ... menu).
You can edit the Title and Language and any other metadata for the two movies. You can get appropriate subtitles for each version, if desired. It will be clear which version you’re choosing and playing, watch history will be maintained, etc.

[axemanuk666]

@Volts

Your best option and the Plex recommendation today is to Split the movie into two Library items (via the ... menu).

I did that recently, and now Plex behaves really strange when I play either one.

This movie is actually a BluRay rip of a Concert, which has 2 disks, each is a different show from a different night, and as such, they are labelled as Day 1 and Day 2, however they are both ultimately “The Concert”, however they are both different lengths.

So being aware that I should probably split them up, the first thing I did was introduce them to Plex as a single movie with 2 copies / versions, showing the little blue 2 on the poster.

So far so good…

I then Split them apart, and they now become 2 individual copies of the same movie, both showing exactly the same Metadata / Art / Titles etc, only with different lengths.

Again, great so far…

So now I name them slightly differently to show that it is The Concert - Day 1 and The Concert - Day 2.

Now when I play one, both Plex Dashboard and Tautulli show that I really am playing that particular movie, however the play status ends up being mirrored across both movies, but with different lengths.

Like this…

So I tried matching one of them with either a different Agent of even the Plex Personal Media agent, however if I do that, I get no Metadata at all… No titles, description, cast… Nothing!.. Which of course that just won’t do!

So I put them back as was… Merge together, match as 1 item, then split apart and live with the weird behavior.

So the moral to the story is… Give us a way to manage multiple cuts / versions!

[Volts]

I meant to suggest “split” to @tarkusnz, for the two languages of the same movie.

The behavior you describe - a previously split movie now “sharing” view state - sounds like it could be a bug.

If you can reproduce it, you might open another topic/post for it.

Edit: Also, coolest poster/art ever.
Edit2: Also, it sounds like it isn’t a bug, but makes sense based on how the GUIDs and matching behavior works. Confusing but not a bug so much.

[LostOnTheLine]

@axemanuk666

This movie is actually a BluRay rip of a Concert, which has 2 disks, each is a different show from a different night, and as such, they are labelled as Day 1 and Day 2

So I have 2 options for you.
Option 1 would be to make it a TV Series, with 2 episodes. As a concert isn’t really a movie or TV show I feel it could as easily fit in either just as well.
Option 2 would be to have them labeled as Part 1 & Part 2. The negative of this would be that it would display as a single entry, but with the combined length. There would not easily be a way to start day 2 without starting it & skipping chapters to get to it.

Of course there’s always the option of labeling them initially as different items, you can put them together in the Concert XYZ folder & put Concert XYZ Day 1 (YEAR) in a folder of the same name & Concert XYZ Day 2 (YEAR) in another folder of the Day 2 name. I dunno why you’d make them the same & split them, it doesn’t make any sense

[axemanuk666]

@LostOnTheLine

I dunno why you’d make them the same & split them, it doesn’t make any sense

Try it for yourself with a tiny 5mb test vid. The fact is it is a single BluRay release containing 2 disks.

So the problem is how to have Plex address that from a metadata point of view.

I’ve even tried deleting them both, introduce one of them, match it, then introduce the other and try to match it.

The movie DB only seems to have an entry for the release itself, and Plex seems to adhere to that regardless.

Anyways, it can be replicated again and again so I might tend to agree with @Volts and open it up as a new topic

[kamhouse]

@axemanuk666

Now when I play one, both Plex Dashboard and Tautulli show that I really am playing that particular movie, however the play status ends up being mirrored across both movies, but with different lengths.

I split the B&W and colorized version of It’s a Wonderful Life and Holiday Inn, and it does basically the same thing you described. Watching one movie causes progress to be shown for the other and marking one as played also marks its companion as played.

Avatar is the same way even though there’s almost a 20 minute difference between them.

[ParadiseLost13]

I believe it was said that because each show shares an id; all shows to plex are the same just multiple copies. Thus plex shares their watch status. If I remember right if you scan one of those “copies” with a different agent that item then has a different Id and plex sees them as different items.

[LostOnTheLine]

@axemanuk666

The movie DB only seems to have an entry for the release itself

For your movie example your answer is easy, they are separate entries in Movie db.

Put them in seperate folders labeled:
Babymetal - Live at Budokan Red Night Apocalypse for Day 1
&
Babymetal - Live at Budokan Black Night Apocalypse for Day 2

Now for ones like the BW/Color & different versions I personally think that’s part of the benefit of having them not as separate listings. I’d like to be able to stop one & pick up on another. Now, for an extended cut you’re not going to be in the same spot, because it has extra scenes, but you’re at least close

[Electricali]

It seems that after the new Movie Library update for the new scanner, Plex now (internally) identifies movies based on IMDb ID and not the internal database ID, as previous.

You can replicate the situation by splitting movies, edit movie and go to the new “Advanced” option. If you change anything here, it will also change at the other movies that you split apart from.

I have several different versions of Blade Runner, Apocalypse Now etc, and they are all identified as one and the same movie. If I split them apart, Plex still see them as one and the same movie, just like your example. It worked perfectly before the upgrade, splitting versions and having a collection for them.

Only work-around is to unmatch and not use an agent to scan for this and manually enter everything. I tried different scanners, but if the movie has and IMDb ID, it merges with the existing ones.

Unmatch function also has a new behaviour: it clears the metadata instead of keeping the existing.

The problem also replicates if the scanner wrongly identifies movies, Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp in my case. I had to match to the correct IMDb ID before Plex would accept them as two different movies.

This is new behaviour is absolutely a huge bug from a developers perspective. I’m guessing the developer simply doesn’t understand movie production and versioning and for some reason didn’t realise that the IMDb ID would never work as a unique ID for database entries. You need to work with database entries based on the unique ID (key) in your database, not a non-unique value (and from external import none the less). It’s a big NO NO for any DB developer.

[axemanuk666]

@LostOnTheLine

For your movie example your answer is easy, they are separate entries in Movie db.

Put them in seperate folders labeled:
Babymetal - Live at Budokan Red Night Apocalypse for Day 1
&
Babymetal - Live at Budokan Black Night Apocalypse for Day 2

@LostOnTheLine - Yer a genius! lol

Gonna grab some dinner and give that a go.

Thanks

[LostOnTheLine]

So I just checked this & went ahead & made my 2 fake Babymetal videos match to the same Red Day 1 then split them & lo & behold they do not have a merged play state

So it looks like the answer to all questions is that, have them in separate movie folders, not as files in the same folder & they should be their individual file. IMDB ID seems completely untrue

[ParadiseLost13]

Or perhaps it may have been adjusted with the newer scanner because I know for years just putting them in different folders (as I always have) had no effect. Looking up this behavior several of our forums discuss in depth. The prescribed “answer” was to use two different agents.

[LostOnTheLine]

It may be that they were initially matched to separate things, then the match on the 1 was changed to match the other, then, right after, while it was still refreshing, I split them.
Things that might have been factors:

• previously matched to different items
• hadn’t finished the merge when they were split

[axemanuk666]

So I have placed them in individual folders as you suggested, however I still had the year 2015 tagged on the end, and they didn’t match.

I then did something I didn’t do first time around… Check on https://www.themoviedb.org/ and indeed I found there are 2 entries, although there are actually 3, one of which is how they originally matched…

LIVE AT BUDOKAN ～RED NIGHT & BLACK NIGHT APOCALYPSE～

But then I found the 2 individual entries and BANG! They matched.

Thanks @LostOnTheLine