The SSLF text file is designed with the most simplicity in mind. It allows a player/viewer of the Plex (first) then hopefully others later to read through the list of episodes and time markers - at first supplied by the creator of the video or by the first-time watch of a season.
The whole overall point of this is so that you can sit back, and if you have a carefully times SSLF file it will play the episodes and time frames of the main storyline, often filtering out all sorts of junk along the way. The same process could be used for movies, or anything really. As long as the player understands it.
This file could have numerous side-uses like taking you to all the musical numbers in a film without the blather blather inbetween.
The idea is to make sure that a player can be essentially be placed on autopilot as you are watching a season - it would clearly require an on/off/pause function for when RL intrudes itself.
The format, as a simple table, would go:
TV Show | Season Number | Episode Number | Break Time | Start back from episode/time |
TV Show | Season Number | Episode Number | Break Time | Start back from episode/time |
TV Show | Season Number | Episode Number | Break Time | Start back from episode/time |
Where Break Time can be 00:00:00 and Start back from episode time can be 00:00:01
It would also be useful to cut out the ‘previously on xxyy’ at the beginning of episodes.
What you are describing sounds like an EDL file. This is already a thing. Plex does not support it but it has been requested.
I’m not sure if EDL do support linking several files.
And in any case they’d need the correct file names and folder paths.
I admit to not knowing about EDL files from the get-go, but a quick read of the description of EDL files (which is not, I admit, garnered from the most authoritative source) mentions various incompatibilities between systems.
EDL files also look like an unnecessarily complex format compared to the simplistic layout I was thinking of.
What I’ve been imagining would have the benefit of being both a typeable format, easily modified as a text file, but also easily created/modified by a push of a button on the remote. A simple press of one button to mark the start point and end point of each cut/episode whilst the same button could be used to recognise that you are within a few seconds of a timestamp in the file and could just delete it, thus meaning it would be easy to create/modify the file from the armchair. This would mean it can be used by anyone rather than just those who are more eager to sit and fiddle at their computers.
I suppose it is more of a binge-watchers ideal toy, but it could save a huge amount of time flickering forward-backward-buffering-backward-forward. It could also not be a default but both an option for the settings AND an option for the play menu next to Play Version…
