Show mid-season specials inline

[royalef]

This is still at the top of my requests. For christs sake, at least add the AIRS AFTER and AIRS before fields to the DB and display it on the Episode’s page. At least then the viewer can spot that there was an episode before this one that they don’t recognize.

There is very little on my wishlist these days. Clients always have a range of issues. My Samsung TV can’t handle when there is more than one file version of a movie. It will only play the first in the list. Select another and it does nothing. I also can’t resume on the 2nd of 2 when the movie is split. But every client is going to have different bugs.

I can’t trust the ratings showing in Plex at all so I had to manually organized on the disk drives by G, Y, Y7, PG, PG-13 and everything else. Then have multiple libraries which repeated the same movie under different libraries. When R rated movies like Seven (serial killer movie with VERY disturbing images and ideas) showed up as a G movie in the kids account… that made the User library filter for content ratings a fake/garbage feature. When I checked IMDB it had the correct rating, but lots of movies showed up wrong in Plex. I don’t know if it was different when plex added it, but I suspect that all the international ratings may confuse Plex. For some reason I have a lot of UK ratings in Plex for American films. And other countries tend to find our “children’s” movies as less acceptable for young minds.

So much of what Plex has developed in the last several years has been quite useless to us as lifetime users.

We certainly don’t need MORE NEWS being shoved on the screen. I think we hear it more than enough every… where… we… go. Thankfully, we were able to completely remove it from the interface. THANK YOU for that.!

There isn’t a podcast in the world that I am listening to. So… THANK YOU for letting us remove that from the interface.

The Music… I’m sorry but this is a lame music player. The lyrics pop up is nice… I’m coming up on 1,000 CDs in my collection, and I started back in the days of 45s, 12 inches, LPs and cassettes. I’m stuck using iTunes because my iPod classics (160Gb, discontinued) is the only music player big enough and compatible with my last three cars. I have rated over 14,000 tracks in iTunes. But those ratings are stuck in itune’s db. My prayer is that someone will write an ID3 app that will insert ratings into the ID3 tags of each mp3 en masse. Like I give it a 5-star m3u playlist (I can generate these from itunes) and it inserts a 5 star rating with my user email (id3 ratings are tied to an email --since you can have multiple users in a household with different likes–yes Apple, multiple people actually do use a single computer!!! thanks for ignoring that concept still!). Then all my work gets preserved and the next program I use has a chance of learning my ratings of every song. It is a LOT OF WORK to rate music–but it allows me to use itunes smartlist (db query) in awesome ways. I can’t go back to dumb music players. When apple discontinued the ipod classic I went out and bought an extra in case mine dies. Plex’s music features are mostly rudimentary. Like I’m flashing back to WinAMP. Yeah I can make a manual playlist! I can play an album–like it is the days of vinyl and cassettes. I can play a collection of most of the tracks by an artist including all the ones I don’t like. I have no idea what the five “popular tracks” are from. Often it is songs that were never released as singles and most people have never heard of! If this is the best it will be, they shouldn’t have wasted programming hours on it. My whole family and my closest friends all share our plex, a day doesn’t go by without multiple people hitting it… And NOBODY listens to the music, except twice when two people played a new christmas album that was added. That’s it in … 4?5 years?

I’m glad they are finaling axing the channels and other features they abandoned years ago. Please remove the iTUNES option in the server configuration because it never worked even minorly well in my years of attempts. Most of my lists come in blank or a few random tracks. It became useless for me years ago after some server changes. This was the only music option that interested me.

Sadly I see how low this is rated and I know that this will never be implemented. It is so basic a part of the viewing experience for too many shows. But I feel Plex has moved on to the all important diversification is how we will succeed concept. Because all the greatest things in the history of life were built by someone who was jack-of-all-trading a bunch of different things LOL.

[bobchopper]

how has this not been fixed yet

[gabwiel]

The Monogatari serie is basically unwatchable because of this

[fawzib]

i’m glad I found this request. mine was a duplicate of this one: Recommend When to Watch **Special** Episodes Based on Airing Date

In my request, i gave a possible solution. A lot are poking holes in any solution. But having something is better than having nothing. Anything with date after the current episode your watching should be recommended somewhere. maybe even listed as part of the season somehow.

[LostOnTheLine]

So, my previous request to add a “Play After” option has now been merged with this one. I’ll give an explanation of that request:

There should be a way to add when a special plays.

Right now if you have the Air Date for the specials it might go into the queue, but only if you stop after the previous episode. Auto play will just skip to the next in the season. & it is listed in the “Specials” folder. If you go to the show & just click “Play” it will play the specials 1st.

Now there are similar suggestions already, but I see problems there that make them unusable. Having the “Season Specials” folder is great, but TheTVdb would not agree with it, as they want all specials to be labeled S00 & existing libraries would require a big overhaul to fit a change in the structure. Incremental Episodes S02E04.5 have been suggested a number of times & either disappear or are just "No"ed by Plex. & I get it, TheTVdb outright refuses them, even when they are Official numbering.

Now imagine this:

• Files are still named in accordance with TheTVdb numbering structure
• But within Plex, for items in the Specials Season or the Season 0 in the Edit Episode Dialog there’s an option Play After
• So you can set S00E01 to play after S01E04
• So it also shows in the Season 1 list between episodes 4 & 5
• You could set something like “Interview with the director” with a Play After of Manual or None so it will only play if you go searching for it.

Possibly have a Play After & also a Sort After

I have since had a better idea, IMO at least. & I’ll post a link to that when I have more time

[LostOnTheLine]

Alright. So my new request is based on the new .plexmatch file. & being that it’s new I feel it has a better chance of being altered. Extra benefits.

I also think it’s a solution or workaround to a few requests, including this one, & solution to others as well, so many birds with 1 stone kinda thing.

.plexmatch for Episode ID matching. Much more important now with the Watchlist

I usally match my own extra episodes manually, because when a movie comes between seasons I don’t want it in a mush of a Specials folder, I want it at the end of the season. But now we have 2 things that change the usability of this. the .plexmatch file, which has the ability to give TVdb or IMdb or TMdb matches to a show, & the link episodes to seasons that they are for some reason not labeled in or sorted into. But could also have the ability to do an EpisodeID: Match Hint to match it with …

My idea, as briefly as I can manage, is to have an option in the .PlexMatch file to either match an individual episode with the TVDBepisodeID flag (My preferred choice) or to adjust where the episode is sorted with a SortTo flag.

This will help with issues like this one, & I’ll do a MockUp when I’m home tonight, by essentially saying "the episode S00E05 should be SortToed to S01E012.5 (if they allow that since it’s custom numbering anyway) or the file named S01E12.5 would be matched to the TVDBepisodeID that is that episode. For THIS use-case I believe it’s only a workaround unless they allow the “.5” episodes because otherwise it’d involve individually matching each episode after the inserted special & having their numbers off. But with the TVDBepisodeID version at least the files would be named how you want them.

Anyway, if someone can give me a show that is particularly problematic I’ll use that for the MockUp, otherwise I’ll just use something I can find. Ideally it should have multiple different problems, like inline specials that happen in the middle of a season as well as ones that happen between seasons & any other problems we’re trying to have addressed here.

[LostOnTheLine]

@b_jackalope

I’d really like more customization options which could be set up from the file system.

I have a Feature Request for just this. I’m reading through the thread again to do this MockUp & saw your post & thought you were ahead of your time, but that time, is now. lol
Plex now has a .plexmatch file for "match-hinting feature that can help advanced users gain more control over how their TV series files are scanned & matched." for “episodes with tricky filenames” Since it’s new I think it will be easier to get changes to it pushed through, & your post is right in-line with the kinda thing I’m trying to suggest, so any input would be greatly appreciated.

---

---

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I’ve mocked up an example for the Doctor Who issue that is mentioned in this thread

• TVDBepisodeID Hint

  • FIles

/TV Shows
   /Doctor Who (2005)
      .plexmatch
      /Season 1 - Eccleston
         Eccleston S01E01.mkv
         Eccleston S01E02.mkv
         Eccleston S01E03.mkv
         Eccleston S01E04.mkv
         Eccleston S01E05.mkv
         Eccleston S01E06.mkv
         Eccleston S01E07.mkv
         Eccleston S01E08.mkv
         Eccleston S01E09.mkv
         Eccleston S01E10.mkv
         Eccleston S01E11.mkv
         Eccleston S01E12.mkv
         Eccleston S01E13.mkv
      /Season 2 - Tennant 1
         Tennant S02E01.mkv
         Tennant S02E02.mkv
         Tennant S02E03.mkv
         Tennant S02E04.mkv
         Tennant S02E05.mkv
         Tennant S02E06.mkv
         Tennant S02E07.mkv
         Tennant S02E08.mkv
         Tennant S02E09.mkv
         Tennant S02E10.mkv
         Tennant S02E11.mkv
         Tennant S02E12.mkv
         Tennant S02E13.mkv
      /Season 3 - Tennant 2
         Tennant S03E01.mkv
         Tennant S03E02.mkv
         Tennant S03E03.mkv
         Tennant S03E04.mkv
         Tennant S03E05.mkv
         Tennant S03E06.mkv
         Tennant S03E07.mkv
         Tennant S03E08.mkv
         Tennant S03E09.mkv
         Tennant S03E10.mkv
         Tennant S03E11.mkv
         Tennant S03E12.mkv
         Tennant S03E13.mkv
        Voyage of the Damned S03E14.mkv
      /Season 7 - Smith 3
         Smith S07E01.mkv
         Smith S07E02.mkv
         Smith S07E03.mkv
         Smith S07E04.mkv
         Smith S07E05.mkv
         Smith S07E06.mkv
         Smith S07E07.mkv
         Smith S07E08.mkv
         Smith S07E09.mkv
         Smith S07E10.mkv
         Smith S07E11.mkv
         Smith S07E12.mkv
         Smith S07E13.mkv
      /Christmas
         Tennant S01E14.mkv
         Runaway Bride S02E100.mkv
         Next Doctor S04E14.mkv
         End of Time S04E101.mkv
         End of Time S04E102 - Part 2.mkv
         Christmas Carol S05E14.5.mkv
         Dr Who S06E14 - Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe.mkv
         Smith S07E05.5 - Snowmen.mkv
         S07E16 - Time of the Doctor.mkv
      /Specials
         Day of the Doctor S07E15.mkv
         Children in Need - Born Again S00E01.mkv
         Infinite Quest S00E05.mkv
         CIN Time Crash S00E06.mkv
         Planet of the Dead S04E20.mkv
         Waters of Mars S04E30.mkv

• .plexmatch Version WITH the Between .5 Episodes

# Dr Who With In-Between Episodes
# Using the TVDBepisodeID Hint
ep: S01E14: TVDBepisodeID: 311603: /Christmas/Tennant S01E14.mkv
ep: S02E100: TVDBepisodeID: 306978: /Christmas/Runaway Bride S02E100.mkv
ep: S03E14: TVDBepisodeID: 334734: /Season 3 - Tennant 2/Voyage of the Damned S03E14.mkv
ep: S04E101: TVDBepisodeID: 6101698: /Christmas/End of Time S04E101.mkv
ep: S04E102: TVDBepisodeID: 1247711: /Christmas/End of Time S04E102 - Part 2.mkv
ep: S04E20: TVDBepisodeID: 450701: /Specials/Planet of the Dead S04E20.mkv
ep: S04E30: TVDBepisodeID: 533011: /Specials/Waters of Mars S04E30.mkv
ep: S05E14: TVDBepisodeID: 2831831: /Christmas/Christmas Carol S05E14.5.mkv
ep: S06E14: TVDBepisodeID: 4195944: /Christmas/Dr Who S06E14 - Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe.mkv
ep: S07E05.5: TVDBepisodeID: 4378968: /Christmas/Smith S07E05.5 - Snowmen.mkv
ep: S07E16: TVDBepisodeID: 4562135: /Christmas/S07E16 - Time of the Doctor.mkv

• • • I’ve mixed some different naming methods, in-line with the current structure, to show other possibilities & flexibility. Major benefit being your numbering is how you want it

---

• .plexmatch Version with NO the Between .5 Episodes allowed

# Dr Who With Only Whole Numbers allowed for sorting
# Using the TVDBepisodeID Hint
ep: S01E14: TVDBepisodeID: 311603: /Christmas/Tennant S01E14.mkv
ep: S02E100: TVDBepisodeID: 306978: /Christmas/Runaway Bride S02E100.mkv
ep: S03E14: TVDBepisodeID: 334734: /Christmas/Voyage of the Damned S03E14.mkv
ep: S04E101: TVDBepisodeID: 6101698: /Christmas/End of Time S04E101.mkv
ep: S04E102: TVDBepisodeID: 1247711: /Christmas/End of Time S04E102 - Part 2.mkv
ep: S04E20: TVDBepisodeID: 450701: /Specials/Planet of the Dead S04E20.mkv
ep: S04E30: TVDBepisodeID: 533011: /Specials/Waters of Mars S04E30.mkv
ep: S05E14: TVDBepisodeID: 2831831: /Christmas/Christmas Carol S05E14.5.mkv
ep: S06E14: TVDBepisodeID: 4195944: /Christmas/Dr Who S06E14 - Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe.mkv
# Note the Episode Files from here would be changed to the names given
# Using 100s to help with naming so episode 7 is 107 & 8 is 108, etc but that's a Personal Preference
ep: S07E06: TVDBepisodeID: 4378968: /Christmas/Smith S07E06 - Snowmen.mkv
ep: S07E106: TVDBepisodeID: 4515286: /Season 7 - Smith 3/Smith S07E106.mkv
ep: S07E107: TVDBepisodeID: 4411643: /Season 7 - Smith 3/Smith S07E107.mkv
ep: S07E108: TVDBepisodeID: 4537305: /Season 7 - Smith 3/Smith S07E108.mkv
ep: S07E109: TVDBepisodeID: 4537306: /Season 7 - Smith 3/Smith S07E109.mkv
ep: S07E110: TVDBepisodeID: 4537307: /Season 7 - Smith 3/Smith S07E110.mkv
ep: S07E111: TVDBepisodeID: 4537308: /Season 7 - Smith 3/Smith S07E111.mkv
ep: S07E112: TVDBepisodeID: 4537310: /Season 7 - Smith 3/Smith S07E112.mkv
ep: S07E113: TVDBepisodeID: 4550224: /Season 7 - Smith 3/Smith S07E113.mkv
ep: S07E16: TVDBepisodeID: 4562135: /Christmas/S07E16 - Time of the Doctor.mkv

• • • Here we had to match the Episode ID for each episode that comes after the in-between. I personally do this with 100 episodes so I used the system I’m familiar with, but it’s flexible so you have a lot of flexibility if it’s implemented. {For the 100s I name the files correctly. Lock each field, then rename the files by adding a 1 after the E for each file. It’s the best method I’ve found so far, but by no means the only possible or best way.

---

---

---

• SortTo Hint

• FIles

/TV Shows
   /Doctor Who (2005)
      .plexmatch
      /Season 1 - Eccleston
         Eccleston S01E01.mkv
         Eccleston S01E02.mkv
         Eccleston S01E03.mkv
         Eccleston S01E04.mkv
         Eccleston S01E05.mkv
         Eccleston S01E06.mkv
         Eccleston S01E07.mkv
         Eccleston S01E08.mkv
         Eccleston S01E09.mkv
         Eccleston S01E10.mkv
         Eccleston S01E11.mkv
         Eccleston S01E12.mkv
         Eccleston S01E13.mkv
      /Season 2 - Tennant 1
         Tennant S02E01.mkv
         Tennant S02E02.mkv
         Tennant S02E03.mkv
         Tennant S02E04.mkv
         Tennant S02E05.mkv
         Tennant S02E06.mkv
         Tennant S02E07.mkv
         Tennant S02E08.mkv
         Tennant S02E09.mkv
         Tennant S02E10.mkv
         Tennant S02E11.mkv
         Tennant S02E12.mkv
         Tennant S02E13.mkv
      /Season 3 - Tennant 2
         Tennant S03E01.mkv
         Tennant S03E02.mkv
         Tennant S03E03.mkv
         Tennant S03E04.mkv
         Tennant S03E05.mkv
         Tennant S03E06.mkv
         Tennant S03E07.mkv
         Tennant S03E08.mkv
         Tennant S03E09.mkv
         Tennant S03E10.mkv
         Tennant S03E11.mkv
         Tennant S03E12.mkv
         Tennant S03E13.mkv
      /Season 7 - Smith 3
         Smith S07E01.mkv
         Smith S07E02.mkv
         Smith S07E03.mkv
         Smith S07E04.mkv
         Smith S07E05.mkv
         Smith S07E06.mkv
         Smith S07E07.mkv
         Smith S07E08.mkv
         Smith S07E09.mkv
         Smith S07E10.mkv
         Smith S07E11.mkv
         Smith S07E12.mkv
         Smith S07E13.mkv
      /Specials
         Tennant S00E02.mkv
         Runaway Bride S00E04.mkv
         Voyage of the Damned S00E07.mkv
         Next Doctor S00E09.mkv
         End of Time S00E16.mkv
         End of Time S00E17 - Part 2.mkv
         Christmas Carol S00E34.mkv
         Dr Who S00E47 - Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe.mkv
         Smith S00E66 - Snowmen.mkv
         S00E84 - Time of the Doctor.mkv
         Day of the Doctor S00E83.mkv
         Children in Need - Born Again S00E01.mkv
         Infinite Quest S00E05.mkv
         CIN Time Crash S00E06.mkv
         Planet of the Dead S00E13.mkv
         Waters of Mars S00E14.mkv

• .plexmatch Version WITH the Between .5 Episodes

# Dr Who With In-Between Episodes
# Using the SortTo Hint
ep: S00E02: SortTo: S01E14:  /Specials/Tennant S00E02.mkv
ep: S00E04: SortTo: S02E100: /Specials/Runaway Bride S00E04.mkv
ep: S00E07: SortTo: S03E14: /Specials/Voyage of the Damned S00E07.mkv
ep: S00E16: SortTo: S04E101: /Specials/End of Time S00E16.mkv
ep: S00E17: SortTo: S04E102: /Specials/End of Time S00E17 - Part 2.mkv
ep: S00E13: SortTo: S04E20: /Specials/Planet of the Dead S00E13.mkv
ep: S00E14: SortTo: S04E30: /Specials/Waters of Mars S00E14.mkv
ep: S00E34: SortTo: S05E14: /Specials/Christmas Carol S00E34.mkv
ep: S00E47: SortTo: S06E14: /Specials/Dr Who S00E47 - Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe.mkv
ep: S00E66: SortTo: S07E05.5: /Specials/Smith S00E66 - Snowmen.mkv
ep: S00E84: SortTo: S07E16: /Specials/S00E84 - Time of the Doctor.mkv

• .plexmatch Version with NO the Between .5 Episodes allowed

# Dr Who With Only Whole Numbers allowed for sorting
# Using the SortTo Hint
ep: S00E02: SortTo: S01E14:  /Specials/Tennant S00E02.mkv
ep: S00E04: SortTo: S02E100: /Specials/Runaway Bride S00E04.mkv
ep: S00E07: SortTo: S03E14: /Specials/Voyage of the Damned S00E07.mkv
ep: S00E16: SortTo: S04E101: /Specials/End of Time S00E16.mkv
ep: S00E17: SortTo: S04E102: /Specials/End of Time S00E17 - Part 2.mkv
ep: S00E13: SortTo: S04E20: /Specials/Planet of the Dead S00E13.mkv
ep: S00E14: SortTo: S04E30: /Specials/Waters of Mars S00E14.mkv
ep: S00E34: SortTo: S05E14: /Specials/Christmas Carol S00E34.mkv
ep: S00E47: SortTo: S06E14: /Specials/Dr Who S00E47 - Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe.mkv
ep: S00E66: SortTo: S07E06: /Specials/Smith S00E66 - Snowmen.mkv
ep: S00E84: SortTo: S07E116: /Specials/S00E84 - Time of the Doctor.mkv
# Note the Episode Files from here would be changed to the names given
# Using 100s to help with naming so episode 7 is 107 & 8 is 108, etc but that's a Personal Preference
ep: S07E06-S07E13: SortTo: S07E106-S07E113
# According to the Documents for the .PlexMatch the series of sequential items work,
# but in that case you have to rely on solely the hint as there's no way to name files when you do that. 
# It makes it quicker to do, for sure, but at the cost of a lot of control.

Personal thoughts on the matter is that the TVDBepisodeID version I think is a better one, but requires more work to setup because you have to pull the IDs yourself. That being said there should be a simple way to script it. I also personally think it was easier to get the Episode IDs than it was to match the episodes up. Doing a single match would take no longer than looking at the entry on TVdb. Things I like are that the files are physically sorted to the way you want them, instead of the SortTo which needs the files to be named to match, which could break if TVdb changes their episode orders (I’ve had that problem before). Using the EpisodeID from TVDB it’s linked to that entry no matter where that entry exists, & can even be linked to unsorted episodes which would solve a problem that exists with Re:Zero Director’s Cut because the director’s cut only has the 1st season, it only exists in a special sorting category that is incomplete so can’t be used even if we had the option to select it unless you didn’t have season 2. This wouldn’t be possible with the SortTo method. The SortTo method could also have some problems with Episode Ordering settings. But could also make some things simpler because of that. For example For Dr Who there’s a DVD Order which includes the Christmas Specials. If I had the show myself I’d most certainly use that, but switching between the 2 if I changed my mind would require manually renaming the files to match the Sort Order used.
The benefits of the SortTo method would be that it is easier to edit if things do change, but at the same time it’s that vulnerability that is it’s biggest problem as well.

Since the .plexmatch is still new I feel getting changes to it may be easier, plus I see a lot of other use cases that could benefit from it. Like, for example, The Re: Zero issue, I personally have both the 1st Season as well as the Director’s Cut on my server. The Director’s Cut version is season 101. With this I could potentially have both not only existing on my server, but matched as well.

• • Note: that the ep: S03E14: & the /Season 3 - Tennant 2/Voyage of the Damned S03E14.mkv in the .plexmatch file shouldn’t both be necessary. According to the documentation if this is added in-line with the way things currently work, you should be able to use either alone to get the result but the documentation is not very specific & doesn’t say that directly, just seems to imply it. I included both for completeness & demonstrative purposes
• • Note: TheTVdb no longer lists the Episode ID on the page, but it’s still included in the URL. As far as I know TheMovieDB doesn’t use Episode IDs at all, so there probably isn’t a possibility of having that work. But if anyone knows different I’d love to be corrected. IMdb does have seperate tt#s for each episode, but I myself have given up on IMdb a long time ago, Plex doesn’t like IMdb, in general, & I’m not sure those links exist across platforms, so I haven’t done anything with that but feel free to if someone thinks that’s better

[shawnkhall]

Any of the current DCTV series with their cross-overs is a good example. The Bionic Woman (1976) also had 2 or 3 crossovers with The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) in each season. I’ve been putting them in Season-0 but it would be great if the .plexmatch syntax allowed parent mapping, too, so I wouldn’t have to have 2 or even 5 copies of some of this media.

[LostOnTheLine]

@shawnkhall

I wouldn’t have to have 2 or even 5 copies of some of this media

That’s something I definitely understand. I use Hhardlinks a lot, I have a Christmas Episodes library that is always hidden, but everything in it is in a Christmas Collection so it shows up at the bottom of my Christmas Collection in my Holidays library. I create a folder for each show with a hardlink of each Christmas Episode in it, the file essentially exists in 2 places while only taking up space once. Because they are different libraries they work fine with Hardlinks, but within the same library Plex doesn’t like it. When I tried putting a copy of an older version of a movie as a Featurette of it’s remake it doesn’t show anything, then randomly when I restarted one time it was there but the old movie was gone. Plex only allows one item in a library with a single “DataID”, which is essentially any file in your system just exists as a name that is associated with a DataID which tells it that the file Bob.mkv contains the data from Blocks 254A,254B,354C,781F,913D,etc,etc, with a hardlink both file point to the same DataID so if you edit 1 they both get edited, it’s kinda like a shortcut, but every file is the shortcut, but can be put in different places, the actual file is the DataID, so I can’t Mux a series together without completely copying it or destroying the original, neither of which works for me.

@shawnkhall

Any of the current DCTV series with their cross-overs is a good example

Yeah, that’s a big complaint I have with those shows, & why I fell of them, you can’t really watch them without watching ALL of them or else you are missing something, but there’s no way to have them link together. I actually submitted a suggestion to both Disney+ for their Marvel stuff, & Netflix for DC particularly but other linked shows as well, to have an option when you start a show to check a "Get The Full Experience" or something like that & have it go from Arrow S08E03 - to - Batwoman S01E05 - to - Supergirl S05E05 - to - The Flash S06E05 - back to Arrow - to - Batwoman - to - Supergirl - throw in - Black Lightning - & back to - The Flash, but we’re still waiting on that… As much as people complain about Plex not listening to users, I feel The big boys don’t even hear you, much less pay attention.

[Laughing_Man_23]

A feature like this where you can put specials in a season at the beginning or between episodes, ie S01E00 or S01E04.5 etc, where they take place in a show while maintaining the metadata etc would be great.

[LostOnTheLine]

@shawnkhall

The Bionic Woman (1976) also had 2 or 3 crossovers with The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) in each season

Do you only have the 1 show or do you have both?
If you only have the 1 show I can see having this, & potentially the Episode ID option from my suggestion should do it, but how it’s implemented might make it an issue.

If you have both or for the Arrowverse
I recently discovered & have been using a Smart Collection to play all the Arrowverse shows in aired order. It’s talked about more in Watch crossover episodes of several series in-order. I actually made a Feature Suggestion to add a Unified Series option & was directed there. It’s not perfect, but especially if you set it to use each user’s Play State it works pretty well. I had actually stopped watching Arrowverse because it was too much work to watch everything together when you aren’t watching them when they air, but now I’ve gotten back into them & am enjoying them a lot more.

[x1ao4]

Plex really should give an option to allow users to put specials on the mid-season display instead of forcing them to stand alone as season 0 or specials.

[sawtaytoes]

In cases where TVDB doesn’t have this data, I’d like to be able to configure it myself in Plex. Having that power, I can fix the order of many anime series which all seem to have this issue.

[Smiffy885]

It would be nice to have a checkbox to enable this feature as I know that plex pulls this metadata down when it is your library as on deck shows the correct order, however, when you start playing a show it seems to ignore it completely and you either have to just add them to playlist yourself, return to the dashboard after every episode, or watch them out of order

[Xhaka]

I may be wrong but I was sure that by having the special named the usual way eg
S00E01 but placing the file in the relevant season folder rather than a Season 0 or Specials folder would do this. (Granted it will take some initial setting up manually so still a great request)
It’s something I have meant to look at for a long time but never actually got round to.

[Smiffy885]

I have tried I few different methods but it won’t display them or play them in aired order, manually creating playlists it is until someone at plex decides to use airs before episode from TVDB function

[AndrewD2]

There are a number of TV Shows that have episodes numbered as Specials (Season 0), when they actually fall somewhere during the season or have a specific place they should be played.

I’d like to either a) the ability to use the position of where a special falls when scraped from TheTVDB which are these elements from the XML:
<airsafter_season></airsafter_season>
<airsbefore_episode></airsbefore_episode>
<airsbefore_season></airsbefore_season>

or b) the ability for use to set that in the Server settings.

Some show examples that this would help with:
Doctor Who (Classic and Current)
ThunderCats (“Movie” comes right before the 2nd season, and is even released as part of the second season on the DVDs)
Vicious (Christmas Special is really more or less part of Series 1)
Super Sentai (Tends to have “movies” or long episode specials that fit in the middle of a season)

I’ve used the unofficial agent that can scrape XBMC data and created my own NFO files, but short of renumbering the episodes, this doesn’t work. I’d even take floating point episode numbers (ie. 26.5) to be usable, but currently when I try something like that it just puts the 2 episodes into the same listing.

[oxguy3]

I definitely second this. I have the same issue with the Doctor Who specials being weirdly out of place in the Season 0 folder when they actually take place a few seasons in, and also with the “Psych: The Musical”, which I’d really like to show up in my library either at the end of Season 6 or the start of Season 7 (it doesn’t make sense anywhere else).

[AndrewD2]

Right now I am using the XBMC agent and just renaming the files and creating the episode order I want.

[jmckee]

Right now I am using the XBMC agent and just renaming the files and creating the episode order I want.

I simply watch the show using the OnDeck function where Plex will automatically insert specials where they belong based on the airdate.