Plex Movie agent not loading Local Movie Poster

Plex Media Server
,
1

Server Version#: 1.23.5.4841
Player Version#: plexWeb 4.59.2

Plex Movie Agent does not grab anymore properly my m4v embedded movies posters after my upgrade to Server Version 1.23.5.4841 - It used to work properly before - Use local assets & Prefer local metadata are selected.
It also ignores local Folder.jpg but load properly local Backdrop.jpg.

I remux all my movies or videos using Subler app into .m4v files for ages - so that all associated tags are fully filled.
I noticed movies without chapters - and so without chapter thumbs generated by Subler - were not affected.

Anything I can do to solve this issue ?
Thanks much

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Conclusions from my investigations this week :

  1. Prefer local metadata has higher priority than Use local assets - so that when both selected, the tagged Poster within m4v is used instead of local Folder.jpg

  2. The tagged Poster is not properly identified by the agent, mixing with chapter posters - at least from Subler implementation

  3. Datas from tags are not anymore completed by online datas, it is purely one or the other depending on Prefer local metadata being selected or not.

3

I have the same issue, all of my movies are now missing artwork even though I have it embedded. I too use Plex Movie. This was not an issue with the previous version. Did you figure out a solution?

4

Having Use local assets enabled will use either sidecar posters or embedded ones, but as you point out we will only prefer embedded if Prefer local metadata is enabled (or if no sidecar posters are available).

This is the first report Iā€™ve seen of this, it would be great if you could provide a sample file to me for testing.

This change is by design. Most people using embedded tags donā€™t want things getting mixed in from other sources. E.g. if you have specific genres set inside the file we only use those genres. Itā€™s specific per tag type so if you donā€™t have Director tags set then weā€™ll still pull those in from cloud metadata but wonā€™t mix local and cloud metadata together for the same tag.

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A sample file would be useful for me to test with. I cannot reproduce the problem with my test files.

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How can I get you a test file?

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Depending on how large it is, you can either just attach it directly inside a DM to me or upload it to a cloud service like Google Drive, etc. and share a link (also via DM).

There is some useful info in this article if you need to make the file smaller: Generating Sample Files from Media | Plex Support

Though if you have a speciifc method you use to tag the files then just tag a small test video file and send me that.

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Pushing a 3.8GB file to the cloud, will DM you the link shortly.

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Thanks.

The problem here was that the file contains 2 embedded images and we were selecting the last one. The old local media agent selected the first one in the list so Iā€™m going to make that change on the new agent too.

Iā€™ll push this fix in an upcoming release.

2 Likes
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How are you able to see two images? I use Subler to embed my metadata and images and it only shows one image for this and all my other files.

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If you run ffprobe on the file it returns two metadata items marked as attached pic (which we use to determine the image):

Metadata:
      handler_name    : SubtitleHandler
    Stream #0:3: Video: mjpeg (Progressive), yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 700x1050 [SAR 1:1 DAR 2:3], 90k tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc (attached pic)
    Stream #0:4(eng): Data: bin_data (text / 0x74786574)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2021-06-09T14:30:03.000000Z
    Stream #0:5(eng): Video: mjpeg (Baseline) (jpeg / 0x6765706A), yuvj420p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 640x272 [SAR 72:72 DAR 40:17], 0 kb/s, 0.0030 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc (attached pic) (timed thumbnails)
    Metadata:
      creation_time   : 2021-06-09T14:30:04.000000Z

Looking at this output though I see one is also marked timed thumbnails which I can probably use to ignore those.

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Last question, how long do you think it will take to make these changes? Most of my library is now without artwork. If I were to subscribe to the Beta build would I get this update quicker?

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It will be at least a few weeks and itā€™s not in the next beta as that one is already in QA testing.

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Do you have a download link to a version for macOS maybe one or two version back? I wiped out my Mac troubleshooting this so I donā€™t have access to the previous versions in the Library folder.

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I do have the same issue as JC73300.
Iā€™ll try to give my very personal explanation of the issue.

Since a recent update of the Plex Media Server on my Mac, the embedded posters in my m4v files are not displayed anymore in my Plex library.

I am also using Subler to mux and tag my m4v files.
I have noticed that whenever there is a chapter track, Subler adds a picture (like a thumbnail of the chapter mark) as the last track of the m4v file. This has been going on for years, but based on what you say, I imagine Plex has always displayed the first image in the m4v file until recently when it started displaying the second image in the m4v file.

So if the fix mentioned by drzoidberg33 makes it to the stable channel (or the beta) my library may be happy again.

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I confirmed what Oliviero said. I turned off the default setting in Subler to ā€˜Create Preview Images at positionā€™ and once I resave the file all is good in Plex. Does anybody know a quicker way to delete these preview images embedded in the MP4?

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Looks like the latest beta version 1.24.1.4931 fixes the issue. Thank you drzoidberg33

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I have the same problem on my Mac Plex server. I also use Subler to embed metadata in all M4V files. Plex does not display the embedded poster on at least half of my movies. As a test I embedded an unusual poster and Plex used it. On other videos Plex shows what looks like an image from the beginning of the movie. On other videos, Plex properly selects a poster, just not the one embedded in the M4V.

I checked Subler on my Mac and the default preference is to ā€œCreate a preview image at position: middleā€.

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As a test I removed Plex and its Library support files, installed 1.24.1.4931, and added my movie folder with ā€œPrefer local metatdataā€ checked and ā€œUse local assetsā€ unchecked. Subler embedded tags and images work perfectly.

BUTā€¦

There are no images in the cast photo bubbles (in rare instances movies have an image of a single cast member with all the others empty).

Clicking on bubbles works to take you to other movies with that cast member.

I understand from drzoidberg33ā€™s post above that Plex is designed to use a specific bit of metadata from one source - embedded or fetched. I donā€™t think it is possible to exclude the cast tag when using Subler for new movies, or to require removing cast tags from a large set of files that already have Subler embedded data in order for cast images to be displayed, so it is essential that Plex fetch cast member photos even when the list of cast members is embedded by Subler.

So this is still a problem. Any others having this issue?

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image
image763Ɨ531 54.8 KB

not appear under the force of posters, load the library as ā€œother videosā€, but i set movies. BOH