ChuckPa, You’re correct about me using the Personal Media Agent. I process everything before it ever gets to Plex, so I’ve always used that method.
Did something change within Plex recently to cause this? It’s not a new library, I’ve been using it extensively since last fall when the ATV 4 arrived and I had used it a few times over the years when I would connect my Mini to a TV. My methods have always been the same.
I don’t know if this info is relevant, but my process is such. I rip using MakeMKV, the files are then sent through MP4Tools to compress and convert to .M4V, finally I use iDentify2 to fill out all the the tag info I want and add artwork. I came from an iTunes world, so most of this was necessary. In fact I still use iTunes for local ATV 3’s, so this is still necessary.
All the information is there in the files, for some reason it’s just not being read properly now.
I made your suggested Agent changes, but I’ll probably need to leave for work before the Plex Dance is complete. I’ll let you know what happened when I get home tonight.
Thanks again to everyone who’s contributed to finding a solution to this problem, it is greatly appreciated.
OsBerg,
A number of things changed, and all for the better (we hope).
I, like you, process everything before I give it to PMS. I also use MakeMKV to do the rip of certain media but others can be ripped with MkvToolnix directly.
I am a purist when it comes to media tagging. I keep everything empty and let Plex and iTunes decide themselves when scanning/importing. I’ve never had a misidentification this way.
With mkvtoolnix, the two important tags you can specify are File Title (Title) and Track Name (Name). These influence Plex’s scanner if it can’t make a clean enough decision from the file name and agents. That’s why you see what you’re seeing.
I did a quick test. I put the “Name” field in. PMS reported that name which, coincidentally, is the file’s name.
As the next, and hopefully final, thing if the agent changes don’t do it (but they should), will be to go to the files themselves and change the tags. Add ‘Title’ (making that the proper name) but leave the ‘name’ as the variant. I have not tested doing this but by pinning ‘Title’, you’ve given Plex more to go on. We can hope it’s enough to lock in the proper selection and blend the two as desired.
ChuckPa, Okay, generally everything looks good. Titles seem to be correct so far with the exception of Alien³. Also, titles with multiple versions are not being differentiated, so Aliens has a 2 in the top left, but with no way, that I can see, to choose which version. Update 7:09 pm - I’ve been reading through the site and found the instruction to split apart these items
I found one holdout, E.T. theatrical and special edition versions are displayed separately with their filenames as titles. Not a big deal, I can adjust that. At this point I just need to figure out how to work with the multiple versions and I’m set…well, actually I’ll be set when I figure out why my system is trying to transcode when it doesn’t need to. Files are constantly buffering and telling me that my system is too slow to stream. I’ll save that for another post.
So, not able to leave well enough alone, I’ve been trying a few things. The results have been interesting. The folder hierarchy on my NAS has titles with the same first letter collected into alphabet folders, so Aliens would be video/Movies/A/Aliens (1986)/. When I add a single alphabet folder at a time they scan in perfectly using my personal metadata. However, in my recent test only three didn’t scan properly from folders “0-9” “A” and “Y” those were Amélie, Alien³ and Y tu mamá también. The one thing those all have in common is the use of special characters or accented letters. I’m going to keep playing around with it and see if I can figure out what’s what.
If you use “Amelie”, “Alien 3”, and “Y tu mama tambien”, they will be found properly. When displayed in Plex, everything will come back as it should be.
Please keep me apprised.
Update: I tested “Alien³ (1992)” It found it, added it, then promptly removed it as I watched. It was momentarily displayed as “Alien3” then “Alien 3” then gone.
Yes, something is wrong with Unicode. I don’t think unicode is allowed in file names because some file systems don’t support it. I think PMS goes with features common to all. I will ask further on this.
Check the embedded tags for your movies. I suspect either the Title or Name property tags is set to match the name of the file. This is why they show.
I made a test file, renamed the file but failed to clear an embedded property (in a MP4 file). PMS first saw the name, created it, then whisked it away to the name i had copied it from and declared it as a duplicate… All precisely as it should have.
When I cleared the Name and Title tags. I get the correct results.
