# "OLD" DOG...NEW (PLEX) TRICKS?
**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861
**Category:** General Discussions
**Created:** [November 12, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861 "2016-11-12T21:09:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/1 "2016-11-12T21:09:41Z")
OK, so…FTR; I’m _not_ 80! I can only somewhat-ashamedly admit, I’m 49; but I’ve been streaming audio and video, since you _could_.
_My_ approach…and I’ve helped, a TON of others get started (in my day); is you break it down, into these components:
Ripping \> Storage \> Transport \> Hardware \> Playback
For many years…I thought _definitive_ approaches, to these issues; were very tough to make…because of ever-shifting paradigms. For example…when you 1st starting ripping BDs, no one would dare do ISO; too much space! But then storage got cheap. And don’t even get me started, on how many boxes I’ve tried (WDTV, PCH, Dune, etc.)…or Playback options (XBMC, Zappiti, et al).
However…I think, I have finally hit on a _stable_ solution: with PLEX! I use unRAID for storage, it can host PLEX; and (for the most part), I like the front-end and options for hardware (currently just using FireTV, and occasionally my PS3; but I’m open, to like the _Nvidia Shield_, etc.)
So…what’s the problem? Well…while I was _w a i t i n g_, for all of this to sort/shake out; at least for me…I got stuck, in a real rut! Hell…I still rip my SD with _DVD Shrink_, lol (hey…if it ain’t broke; don’t fix it. And actually…as you all obviously know…SD is a piece of cake, and not the issue); and my HD/BD…wait for it: with ToNMT…ROFL.
OK…so; that is where the questions start…and, I’m sure right now I’m driving the Ferrari that is my PLEX, about 35mph in the slow-lane. I want to know how to do _this_, _and that_.
We’ll start here, if we can; and again…please keep in mind, the solutions I assume, _are_ dependent on how I host (which is on uR). For example, setting up shares…and mapping to libraries, and such.
OK…so it may be 35mph, but I am at least _moving_ and “getting back-and-forth”; with regards to _movies_. Now that I plan to ditch “everything else”…and implement PLEX household-wide; I need to get _TV_ episodes working, and scraping, etc.
Can someone start, pointing me in the right direction? By all means…if something like this, has been asked, answered, and documented a million times (which I imagine it has); if you want to point me at a link or Wiki, that’s fine. But don’t be surprised, if I come back…with some follow-up.
TIA,
CD
---
### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/2 "2016-11-12T21:20:20Z")
#Preliminaries
Avoid interference from nonsensical embedded metadata (some rippers embed them too)
Settings - Server - Agents - Shows - TheTVDB
In there, grab the line ‘Local Media Assets’ with your mouse and drag it downwards, so it ends up being at the bottom of the stack of active agents.
Create a folder to hold your tv shows.
Put it _outside_ the folders where you store movies. It must be **completely separate**.
Then create a new library of the type ‘TV Shows’ and point it to your newly created folder on disk.
#The crux of the biscuit
The key to tv episodes is meticulous preparation of your video files in regards to naming the episode video files themselves and organising them into suitably named subfolders.
1. Look up your show on [TheTVDB](http://thetvdb.com/ "TheTVDB")
2. Take the title as it is used on TheTVDB. If there is something in parentheses, take that too. If the title contains invalid characters (depends on your file system), like `§ : % *`, simply leave them out.
3. Check the [naming and the folder structure](https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220687-Naming-Series-Season-Based-TV-Shows "naming and the folder structure") of your show. Name the top folder of the show exactly after the title on TheTVDB. No abbreviations. No additional subfolders. No aliases.
4. Name the episode files according to the above linked naming guide. Use the same title as for the top folder. `Show's Title - s01e01 - additional info.ext` (’- additional info’ can be left out)
5. After you corrected the naming and folder structure, perform the [Plex Dance](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/908454/#Comment_908454 "Plex Dance") with all files for this show.
Step 5 is only necessary if you did already add your tv episodes into Plex and they were promptly mis-identified 😉
Steps 2-4 can be made **painless and fast** by using [Filebot](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/191687/plex-naming-schemes-for-filebot "Filebot")
Make sure to not only install Filebot but to also set the {plex} naming pattern in its preferences.
There are [introductory videos](http://www.filebot.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7#p7 "introductory videos") available for Filebot.
Adhering to the above will prevent almost all of the pains that new users report in these forums 😃
---
### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/3 "2016-11-12T21:26:32Z")
OK…getting started! 🙂
Oh, BTW; I’m a _very_ visual person…and stuff like this, can just be too “complicated” to describe (when in this case…a picture _is_ worth a thousand words).
So…you’ll see me post LOTS of screen-shots 🙂
---
### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/4 "2016-11-12T21:29:51Z")
take this as an “illustration” for steps 2-4 😃 :
```auto
TV Shows / <-- tv show library points here
Title Of TV Show /
Season 01 /
Title Of TV Show - s01e01 - optional info like episode title etc.ext
Title Of TV Show - s01e02 - optional info like episode title etc.ext
...
Season 02 /
Title Of TV Show - s02e01 - optional info like episode title etc.ext
Title Of TV Show - s02e02 - optional info like episode title etc.ext
...
```
---
### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/5 "2016-11-12T21:32:47Z")
Feel free to name a particular tv show and I can guide you through the process of preparing the files etc.
---
### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/6 "2016-11-12T21:46:01Z")
Awesome; will do.
---
### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/7 "2016-11-12T22:23:07Z")
OK…let me start, with pics that I think are relevant.
This is how, I currently have my folders/files structured/named…
Let’s focus on _The Shield_
Next post…we’ll take a look, at the PLEX set-up.
---
### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/8 "2016-11-12T22:27:53Z")
Stop right here.
This will give you grief.
VIDEO\_TS folders are not supported.
Transfer each individual episode into an MKV container with makemkv (procedure is lossless),
so that you end up with one file per episode, instead of one folder and 5 files per episode.
- no subfolders per episode
- episodes are supposed to be named like explained above
- even the season folders need new names
---
### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/9 "2016-11-12T22:31:49Z")
> @OttoKerner said:
> Stop right here.
> This will give you grief.
>
> VIDEO\_TS folders are not supported.
> Transfer each individual episode into an MKV container with makemkv,
> so that you end up with one file per episode, instead of one folder and 5 files per episode.
>
> - no subfolders per episode
> - episodes are supposed to named like explained above
> - even the season folders need new names
Maybe not as big a deal, as it sounds.
I know I’ve taken the “main”, .VOB file…and just renamed it .MPG; and it played fine. In fact…that’s how I used to rip ALL my SD TV. But then subtitles were tricky…so I started doing it this way.
I wonder if I can just _rename_, with .MKV??
---
### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/10 "2016-11-12T22:34:46Z")
I’m not so worried about the re-naming. Knew it might be a possibility; and it’s just laborious.
Here’s where I get confused:
As with ‘Movies’; it’s not like I’m pointing PLEX, at my movies _share_ (on unRAID). I need to create, like a TV _directory_…point _that_, at my TV share; _then_ point PLEX at the TV _directory_??
---
### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/11 "2016-11-12T22:35:31Z")
> @CDLehner said:
> I know I’ve taken the “main”, .VOB file…and just renamed it .MPG; and it played fine. In fact…that’s how I used to rip ALL my SD TV. But then subtitles were tricky…so I started doing it this way.
That’s because the subtitles are referenced in one of the smaller sidecar files (probably the IFO) if you just rename the VOB, then the information about the subtitle is not visible anymore.
> I wonder if I can just _rename_, with .MKV??
No way. Simply renaming won’t do any good. This will only cause additional issues later on.
---
### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/12 "2016-11-12T22:41:18Z")
Here is the unRAID volume mapping
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/13 "2016-11-12T22:41:33Z")
> @CDLehner said:
> As with ‘Movies’; it’s not like I’m pointing PLEX, at my movies _share_ (on unRAID). I need to create, like a TV _directory_…point _that_, at my TV share; _then_ point PLEX at the TV _directory_??
I have no idea how it works on the Shield.
How does the path to your movie files look like?
(you can check by [editing your movie library](https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200289266-Editing-Libraries "editing your movie library"), then go to the ‘Add Folders’ tab)
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### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/14 "2016-11-12T22:47:16Z")
> @OttoKerner said:
>
> No way. Simply renaming won’t do any good. This will only cause additional issues later on.
As such?
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/15 "2016-11-12T22:48:51Z")
> @CDLehner said:
> As such?
As I said: Don’t do it.
You will lose subtitles and it will create further issues down the road.
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### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/16 "2016-11-12T22:56:45Z")
> @OttoKerner said:
>
> > @CDLehner said:
> > As such?
>
> As I said: Don’t do it.
> You will lose subtitles and it will create further issues down the road.
No; I have it open for conversion…in MKV. Yes?
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### Author:  [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 11:08pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/17 "2016-11-12T23:08:45Z")
> @CDLehner said:
> No; I have it open for conversion…in MKV. Yes?
Sorry, I totally missed that 8-}
Yes, of course. This should do the trick.
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### Author:  [@Neodude](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Neodude)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/18 "2016-11-12T23:10:08Z")
As far as your UnRaid setup goes, I have a share called “Media”. In there I have folders called ‘Video’, ‘Music’, ‘Books’ & ‘Magazines’. Inside the Video folder I have further folders called ‘Moves’, ‘3D Movies’, ‘TV Shows’, ‘Concerts’, ‘Documentaries’ & ‘Stand-up Comedy’. This way I only need to map the Media share in my Plex docker to be able to see all these folders. I then point my Plex libraries at the individual folders…
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### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/19 "2016-11-12T23:43:15Z")
> @OttoKerner said:
>
> > @CDLehner said:
> > No; I have it open for conversion…in MKV. Yes?
>
> Sorry, I totally missed that 8-}
>
> Yes, of course. This should do the trick.
Otto, thanks for your time and dedication thus far!!
Have my 1st MKV conversion; now I’m going to work on the naming conventions…and Neo’s mapping suggestion!
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### Author:  [@CDLehner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/CDLehner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/old-dog-new-plex-tricks/166861/20 "2016-11-12T23:48:43Z")
> @Neodude said:
> As far as your UnRaid setup goes, I have a share called “Media”. In there I have folders called ‘Video’, ‘Music’, ‘Books’ & ‘Magazines’. Inside the Video folder I have further folders called ‘Moves’, ‘3D Movies’, ‘TV Shows’, ‘Concerts’, ‘Documentaries’ & ‘Stand-up Comedy’. This way I only need to map the Media share in my Plex docker to be able to see all these folders. I then point my Plex libraries at the individual folders…
>
> 
Neo, that makes total sense; except I’m not quite 100% PLEX yet.
NM
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