Show mid-season specials inline

please plex gods? the tvdb's insistence in splitting off specials into season 0 totally ruined dr.who for me, didn't realize till like half way though the show I missed a ton of episodes :(

I would like that for Anime Series too. They always have a lot of specials that would go in the middIe of the season.

If I could make a playlist and "hide" it in the TV show, that only pops up as an extra when I click on the TV show, that would be enough for me.

1 Like

Also adding support for this feature.Ā  Going through RanmaĀ 1/2 and noticed this issue with the OVA's, some of which take place during the regular episode order.Ā  Also concerned that thetvdb organizes them based on their DVD order, but thier air date order in Japan was actually different and has resulted in some glitches (flashbacks to things that haven't happened yet).

+1 many specials are part of the season itself and the way TVDB and Plex work, some shows are very inconveniently organized for Plex. Some shows, I've gone complete manual because of this issue.

Why not use the Plex extended scanner and put them in air date order? You could set up your own season then and match them up however you wanted. You'd just have to name them S1999E1 and so on.Ā 

Also as @BigWheel Mentioned before. The OnDeck feature pulls the episodes up via date, I noticed this when I was watching Battle Star Galactica, as it didn't skip any of the specials. If you just watch things through OnDeck then this wouldn't be an issue.Ā 

At the min I think there the best 2 options, Plex does certainly need more diverse scanners though, and different viewing options. Maybe something like baking the view by airdate/seasons into the interface or settings. I have given this a like :)

Does on deck always just use air date though? I can't say that I fully paid attention the last time I watched Firefly (which I scanned in using the DVD order agent), but I could have sworn on deck pulled the next episode based on episode order, not aired date.

I'll test it out when I get a chance.

Does on deck always just use air date though? I can't say that I fully paid attention the last time I watched Firefly (which I scanned in using the DVD order agent), but I could have sworn on deck pulled the next episode based on episode order, not aired date.

I'll test it out when I get a chance.

A Plex Ninja could probably better answer that for you, but it certainly seams like that. Thinking back, I had a problem with the Extended TV Shows Scanner items not displaying in OnDeck correctly. I would watch episode 1 and then it would suggest episode 20 to watch next. This would explain that issue as it was bringing up Random Episodes via the Date, and I'd ripped them from Youtube so wont have had proper date fields due to my ripper. Love it when something makes sense :D

+1

I too would love to see this feature added so as I am watching Doctor Who or an anime, the mid-season specials will be inline with the regular episodes.

A Plex Ninja could probably better answer that for you, but it certainly seams like that. Thinking back, I had a problem with the Extended TV Shows Scanner items not displaying in OnDeck correctly. I would watch episode 1 and then it would suggest episode 20 to watch next. This would explain that issue as it was bringing up Random Episodes via the Date, and I'd ripped them from Youtube so wont have had proper date fields due to my ripper. Love it when something makes sense :D

You're right. I just recently went through Firefly again and on deck was useless.

@Hotcooler said:
Indeed it does, and I’d really really want it, basically for Dr.Who and some other shows.

Yep, Doctor Who needs this!

+1 and liked

1 Like

1 month into using Plex, and the specials are causing me all sorts of grief. Can we please have an option to play via ā€˜air date’ in order?

Honestly thought this would have been a basic option from day 1

+1 and liked

@saffecool said:
Anyway, I think if (nah, when) they fix it

I think if, rather than when, sadly.

@s1mpleman said:
Also as @BigWheel Mentioned before. The OnDeck feature pulls the episodes up via date, I noticed this when I was watching Battle Star Galactica, as it didn’t skip any of the specials. If you just watch things through OnDeck then this wouldn’t be an issue.

Exactly. On Deck does it, but I personally HATE On Deck with a passion. Never use it. Never want to.

I assume On Deck uses the data from thetvdb to place specials in relative order within a season, if appropriate. Why can’t the same happen in the standard Season view? Distinguishing Episodes from Specials, somehow, in the listing would be nice… but not imperative.

Like the OP said, a lot of shows now use off-season episodes as key narrative within or between seasons: Dr. Who, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, a lot of BBC shows, actually. If I don’t happen to know that a special exists in a season timeline, I can miss important points relevant to the following episode/season. I try to check thetvdb manually to figure out the order while I’m viewing, but why should I have to when Plex already has the information and could present it to me in some way.

I used to number specials with fake episode numbers within a given season if they truly were part of the story arc, but the problem is then Plex won’t relate them back to thetvdb and I won’t see any of the associated meta data.

Creating NFO files manually can help, but, again, why should I have to if Plex already has (and, in the case of On Deck, already uses) the data.

@rcombs said:
Special episodes often occur within a season of a TV show. Great example: Doctor Who’s most recent Christmas special, which functions as an actual episode, but is classified as a ā€œSpecialā€. It’d be nice if that sort of episode was listed inline in the episode list, after the episode it aired after (TheTVDB has that info).

I agree, and ā€œLikedā€ the post to vote.

TheTVDB.com does a great job in keeping ā€œair before/afterā€ information like this.

The listings in TheTVDB have air dates, but they still don’t tell you if a special is an actual episode or if it is extra content. In the Doctor Who example, Christmas specials should be listed next to regular episodes, but certain other extra content should not.

This may never happen, but… I’d really like more customization options which could be set up from the file system.

These examples come from Doctor Who (2005) Season 7.

Example 1: The Snowmen
A full episode which aired during a midseason break, after s07e05.

Files:
Doctor Who (2005) - s00e66 - The Snowmen.mkv Doctor Who (2005) - s00e66.Episode.Follows.s07e05.txt

Example 2: The Bells of Saint John - A Prequel
A short which precedes episode s07e06.

Files:
Doctor Who (2005) - s00e79 - The Bells of Saint John - A Prequel.mp4 Doctor Who (2005) - s00e79.Short.Precedes.s07e06.txt

Example 3: Doctor Who in the U.S.
Extra content which aired midseason, but is not part of the show or connected to any episode.

Files:
Doctor Who (2005) - s00e73 - Doctor Who in the US.avi Doctor Who (2005) - s00e73.Featurette.From.s07.txt

The .txt files are empty.

Result: Plex Listings for Season 7
... E4: The Power of Three E5: The Angels Take Manhattan S66: The Snowmen S79: The Bells of Saint John - A Prequel (Short) E6: The Bells of St John ... ... Extras: S73: Doctor Who in the U.S. (Featurette) ...

This gives us the best of both worlds. TheTVDB can still provide all the episode descriptions and details, but we can reorder them however we like.

2 Likes

I am saddened that I can only Like this request once.

Please Plex team, add the option to view shows in aired date, or at least account for the ā€œAirs After Seasonā€ and ā€œAirs Beforeā€ metadata fields in theTVDB. Perhaps add this as a check box in the ā€˜General’ or ā€˜Tags’ tab of the season level edit screen, so us server admins can make the choice on our own when loading content on to our servers. As others have said: Plex already scrapes the data from theTVDB and you’ve coded the functionality into the OnDeck screen.

So just bought PlexPass and found this and I want it so much! I can’t even say how much I want this.

This is a big one, and a shame that Plex has gone after so many other projects (ā€œchannelsā€, music, DVR, news) when implementation of thetvdb’s bad choices in how season are displayed with plex.

I too have a problem with Specials not playing correctly inline with the series. For Anime, Sword Art Online: Extra Edition is a special that bridges S01 and S02, but plays first before both seasons. I’ve tried to sort the series by absolute number and aired date, but nothing works. The other example would be The X-Files, which had a movie that fell in between episodes and I cannot play inline with the series.

The TVDB contributes to the problem, IMO is not a reliable meta source, which is why I manually cross-reference my data with AniDB for my anime and IMDB for the rest.

It would be nice to see this feature. In the mean time, I guess I could try to use Collections or Playlists (which ever works) to temporarily fix the problem.