Hello! I recently purchased Future Boy Conan on blu-ray and am working on getting it ready to back up on my Plex server. I noticed while ripping the blu-ray that each episode has separate files for the english and japanese language tracks, and upon further inspection they do seem to be slightly different versions of the video (mostly with text updated in the english version).
I was wondering if anybody knew what the best practice would be for getting Plex to have both version of the show when I eventually get to where I am ready to upload.
Ideally I think I would like to either be able to pick between the different languages either like a season within one show, or just have a duplicate of the show in my library I can append the language to the respective titles (while retaining the correct metadata). Has anybody run into this? Would love to know the recommended solution. Thank you!
The question is: is it important enough for you to maintain 2 copies of the show?
Normally, you would simply mux all audio and subtitle languages into the same video file. (easily done with MKVtoolnix)
That way you can decide dynamically which versions you want to hear/read.
This obviously doesn’t work if the video tracks of the two language versions are so different, that the audio/video/subtitle synchronicity is not guaranteed.
In the latter case, you have no choice but to create two complete versions of the whole folder structure. Append the folder name of each with clarification about the language version – e.g.
/Anime //<-- folder which has been added to the Plex library
/Future Boy Conan (1978) [jap]
/Season 01
Future Boy Conan (1978) [jap] - S01E01 - Remnant Island.mkv
Future Boy Conan (1978) [jap] - S01E02 - The Journey.mkv
Future Boy Conan (1978) [jap] - S01E03 - The First Friend.mkv
...
/Future Boy Conan (1978) [eng]
/Season 01
Future Boy Conan (1978) [eng] - S01E01 - Remnant Island.mkv
Future Boy Conan (1978) [eng] - S01E02 - The Journey.mkv
Future Boy Conan (1978) [eng] - S01E03 - The First Friend.mkv
...
After scanning the library, both versions will initially be merged into the same show.
You go then to the top level of the show (easiest by clicking on the show’s title), then select “Split” from the ellipsis (. . .) menu.
Then you will get 2 identical shows. Rename the title of each to reflect the language version. (to find out which is which, take a look at the Plex media info of an episode)
Keep in mind that these will still be connected, nonetheless. If you watch S01E01 of the Japanese version, the S01E01 of the English version will also be marked as “watched”.
This is all really good to know, thanks for your reply! I may run some tests and see if the video syncs up, and may end up just combining them but it is really good to know how to get duplicate copies of it to show up in the library. Thanks again!
