Using the parental controls, I have an account for my son that restricts the media he can see by age rating. He is 12 years old, we’re in the UK, therefore he can see everything rated up to and including 12A.
However, older films that were previously rated 15, then were re-rated as 12A, still show up as 15 in the Plex library. The only way to make these available is to manually identify & amend the age rating in my library.
For example, Monty Python’s Holy Grail (1975) was a 15 in 1988, but re-rated a 12A in 2015. Life of Brian (1979) was re-rated to a 12A in 2019. These updated certifications are available on both IMDB & TMDB, yet Plex is taking the older, outdated certification rather than the more recent one.
If I want to watch a film today, I’m more concerned with the rating it is now, not the rating it was 50 years ago. The same applies to ratings going “up” e.g. Mary Poppins (1964) was a U on release, but has been re-rated a PG.
12A is a cinema only rating in the UK. For example Monty Python’s Holy Grail (1975) is still a 15 for home media [there is a 12 version for home media recently rated, but that is cut so it doesn’t have the 15 rating]. Thus 15 is correct for the uncut home media version.
One persons outdated certifications is another persons correct certification. Also, re-certifications to purists are just wrong and all that matters is the original certification. There is no one fit for the situation like you want which is why sites like tmdb list multiple certifications, and plex correctly default to the original one.
BBFC says Holy Grail is a 12 for physical media and VOD/Streaming, and I’m not using Plex in a Cinema. BBFC | BBFC MelonFarmers shows that the cinema release is 12A uncut BBFC Cuts M: Mn-Mz
You could argue that Life of Brian is correctly displayed as a 15, because BBFC rated it a 12A for cinema but did not update the home entertainment rating - BBFC | BBFC
Mary Poppins displays on Plex as a U despite being rated a PG for both cinema and home entertainment by the BBFC - BBFC | BBFC
Why is “all that matters is the original certification” ? Why assume that the original one is the “correct” one? If that’s the case why isn’t Plex showing A rather than this new-fangled 15 rating? Because the 15 rating is a re-rating!
Societal standards change. That’s why Mary Poppins went from a U to a PG, due to discriminatory language that was considered acceptable when the film was first released. How about Jaws (1975) ? The film was rated PG on home entertainment for years. The exact same cut of the film is now a 12A for cinema, and a 12 for home entertainment. You’d expect Plex to show a PG still, though, as that’s the original rating? Nope. Okay maybe the home entertainment rating of 12? Nope. It shows the cinema rating of 12A!
It’s nothing to do with being correct so I always try and not think about it like that. Its a point in time statement.
When something was originally released it had a certification based on how it was released and the content in that release. Overtime, things change, be it re cuts or social norms, whatever and then it might be released again, limited run in cinema, streaming, tv, dvd etc… they then could get a different certification. That doesn’t make either correct or wrong, its just different.
Re Holy Grail, your link to the BBFC actually shows that the full home version is 15. The 12 version in your link is as I said “near-theatrical version” i.e. a cut version. Anything recently rated as 12A for cinema would automatically be 15 for home media, but in this case the distributor has chosen to cut a version to qualify as a 12.
The version of Holy Grail in my library is 1h32m i.e. it is the near-theatrical cut version. So Plex should be showing the correct rating for that, and isn’t.
There is no way to distinguish between different cuts. The age rating that Plex is using is the most agreed-upon for this title by the users of the various metadata collecting websites. And that is usually the one of the original un-cut version.
It was rated A on its original theatrical release, it’s wrong to say it has no rating. So are you saying Plex is taking the rating for a film from its earliest theatrical release on TMDB? Is that the logic being used?
Because if it is, this is something that a user should be able to customise. I want the most recent theatrical release certification.
Plex uses a consolidated metadata approach pulling (and scoring) data from imdb, tmdb, tvdb, gracenote and a some other places. There is no way for us users to be 100% sure exactly where a single piece of metadata comes from but in this instance I’d be fairly confident based on what I can see its coming from tmdb.
Where are users agreeing on this? How does Plex ingest this information? And if using my brain I can go “this movie is 1h32, and the one rated 15 is 1h26, and the one rated 12 is 1h32, hmmm I wonder maybe this is the one rated 12” then Plex should be able to do that too. Hardly rocket surgery, is it?
These metadata websites are filled by their users. The age rating that is shown as default is the agreed-upon by the users of that site.
Ahh sarcasm, isn’t it fun?
Let me remind you that there are much more possible play times for a title. Making determining the particular “cut” automatically much more difficult – if not impossible.
Possible factors which can alter the play time (in no particular order)
different pre-movie splash screens of the local distributor (there are many different ones, mostly dependent on the release country and/or market)
cuts to satisfy local/national laws (as opposed to the source country)
distribution via a medium which has a different frame rate than cinema (TV, DVD)
recorded off TV, with pre-movie splash screen and/or credit roll stripped, or additionally scenes shortened to fit in more advertising time.
Don’t forget PAL speed up. Until BluRay films in 24 fps were sped up to 25 fps on both TV and DVD in Europe and most other countries, so a film rated in 2002 would be shorter for home media than for cinema. This no longer happens for BluRay, as in the [slightly] cut version we are talking about rated 12.
The BluRay issued last year had both versions included, and so was rated 15.
