I have been working to set up PLEX with a variety of media over the past month. For the most part, I have figured out how to do music, photos, home videos and movies. I am now working with my final media type: courses. I am having difficulties and need your sage advice.
Others here on the PLEX forum have recommended that I use the TV Show metaphor for this type of media, as I have about 50 different courses, each with 12 to 75 different segments. Here, I just want to be able to quickly and easily advance from one segment to the next. Again, people here on the forum who seem to be “in the know” suggest the TV Show method with its “seasons” and “episodes” is the best way to accomplish this.
Although these courses do not have different “season”, the idea is that each course is seen by PLEX as a “season”, with each individual segment being seen by PLEX as an “episode.” One knowledgeable chap by the name of Blim500 suggested this is the best approach and that I would need to use a specific file naming convention to make it work. This file naming is as follows . . . if the course is entitled “Cooking” and the first episode is “Getting Ready”, then the file name would be this:
Cooking - s1e01 - Getting Ready.mp4
My question is as follows: Is each of the 50 different courses to be labeled “season 1”, or in the file name above “s1”, or must they be referred to (and named as) subsequent seasons . . . season 2, season 3, yada, yada? Meaning “s2” and “s3”?
Exactly like tv shows. If your different courses are treated as ‘seasons’ in Plex, then you have to use the right season number in your file names. To indicate into which season/course this episode/segment belongs.
Hint: always use 2-digit season numbers.
/ Courses <-- library is pointing here
/ Cooking
show.jpg <-- a poster for the whole show
/ Season 01 [water]
Season01.jpg <-- a poster with the title of this course
Cooking - s01e01 - Getting Ready.mp4
...
/ Season 02 [steak]
Season02.jpg
Cooking - s02e01 - tenderizing the meat.mp4
Cooking - s02e02 - heating the plate.mp4
...
The text enclosed in [angular brackets] is only for you, since it is ignored by Plex.
You will have to make a custom poster for each season, to tell the user what this season/course is about. (that is what the .jpg) file is for. Because in Plex clients, you will only see Season 01 as the title.
Also, the title of the episode/segment need to be embedded into the ‘Title’ meta tag of the mp4 file. Plex will not read the title of the episode from the file name, only from the embedded meta tag.
The 50 different courses are not “seasons”, but courses on totally different topics.
Should I name each and every one of the 50 different courses “Season 01” (putting them in different folders? Or should I just call them different seasons “Season 01” and “Season 02” up to “Season 50” in spite of the fact that they are not really different “Seasons”?
If you have totally different topics, then it is better not to use seasons.
Instead, make every topic a separate ‘tv show’.
I recommend you to create a totally separate library for this type of content and to not mix your courses into your home videos or regular tv shows.
/ Courses // library is pointing here
/ Cooking // first 'show' or topic
show.jpg // a poster for the whole show
/ Season 01
Cooking - s01e01 - Getting Ready.mp4
Cooking - s01e02 - Cooking Water.mp4
Cooking - s01e03 - Grilling Steak.mp4
...
/ Drilling // second topic
show.jpg
/ Season 01
Drilling - s01e01 - mark the hole.mp4
Drilling - s01e02 - get a ladder.mp4
...
You may wonder why I still have Season 01 folders in there? It is easier in case you’ll want to eventually add another course with the same topic. You can then make this new course a new ‘season’.
In the properties of your Courses library, go to the ‘Advanced’ tab and set
Seasons=‘Hide for single-season series’
I have a question about file naming for my courses using the TV Shows metaphor or agent. In your previous reply to my question, you advised that I name the first segment in the lecture series
Cooking - s01e01 - Getting Ready.
If the name of the course is “Learning How to Cook Like a Professional Chef”, then the file name would be:
Learning How to Cook Like a Professional Chef - s01e01 - Getting Ready
But this makes the segment title so long that it does not display fully when the segment is being played. I am wondering three things:
Since the name of the course is already on my inserted poster, and since the name is also in the “Album” field in the TAG information, it would seem I do not really need the course name in the segment file name. Thus the segment file would be:
s01e01 - Getting Ready
It seems to work, and the truncated file name does show up completely when the segment is played. Any problems with this in your opinion?
Since s01e01 looks a bit clunky, can I use capital letters, which look a bit better, Thus the segment file name would be"
S01E01 - Getting Ready
This seems to work. Any problems with this, in your opinion?
Since there really are NO seasons, but each course is treated as a single season, and is located in its own folder, I am wondering whether I can eliminate the S01 in the file name. By this the file name would be:
e01 - Getting Ready
Would this work, or must I maintain the full segment file name:
That’s totally up to you.
I just found that I can read/perceive the numbers faster, if the letters between are lower-case. JUST LIKE IT IS HARDER TO READ IF ALL LETTERS ARE UPPER CASE.
No. You can’t.
And recommend you to still use a ‘Season 01’ subfolder as well.
I am curious about your comment about using a “Season 01” subfolder as well.
So, if I had a topic, such as “Cooking” with only one course, “How to Grill a Steak Outdoors” my folder structure might look like this:
Courses/
/Cooking
/Season01 - How to Grill a Steak/
/s01e01 - Getting Ready.mp4
Does it appear that my “season subfolder” is properly named?
Now, another question if I may . . . what if I have a topic, “Cooking” with three separate courses—different, but not really “seasons,” but which I would prefer that they are grouped together among my course on different topics. Similarly, I might have a second and entirely different topic, also with multiple courses.
My folder structure might then look like this:
Courses/
/Cooking
/Season01 - How to Grill a Steak/
/s01e01 - Getting Ready.mp4
s01e02 - Seasoning Your Steak.mp4
/Season02 - How to Cook Using an Instapot/
/s02e01 - Buying an Instapot.mp4
s02e02 - Setting Cooking Time.mp4
/Season03 - How to Cook Using the Sous Vide Technique
/s03e01 - What Sous Vide Equipment You Will Need.mp4
s03e02 - Do You Really Need Internet Access.mp4
/Philosophy
/Season01 - Greek Philosophers
/s01e01 - Plato.mp4
s01e02 - Aristotle.mp4
/Season02 - French Philosophers
/s01e01 - Descartes.mp4
s01e02 - Rousseau.mp4
Are my folder structures and folder naming protocols correct?
Should the first of the two courses on the topic of “Philosophy” be in a folder labeled “Season01”, or because I have already used a ‘Season01” and a “Season02” in the “Cooking” topic folder, should this first course in the “Philosophy” topic be labeled “Season03”?
