With a number of shows I’ve noticed that thetvdb breaks up an aired episode into two respective parts, due to short 15 minute episodes doubled up and aired in a 30 minute time slot. So, recently I added The Life & Times of Tim and noticed that the episode naming was wacky. For example, the first aired episode for season 3 is listed in thetvdb as s01e01 and s01e02. And the second aired episode is listed as s03e03 and s03e04.
http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/620/ss2of.jpg
Which results the following in Plex.
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1172/ss3ef.jpg
So, clearly, this results in Plex displaying Episode 1 as “The Model from Newark” and episode 2 as “Tim’s Hair Looks Amazing” which is incorrect for the actual file. Now while attempting to figure out how this could be fixed when being scanned (without any manual intervention forcing me to rename every episode by staggering the names with odd number episode #'s that do not correspond at all to what I’m downloading) I realized something with Adventure Time that caused my ears to perk up.
The setup in thetvdb for Adventure Time is similar, as shown.
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4541/ss4ey.jpg
But, here’s where it gets interesting. When Plex scanned this into my library (back when I first installed Plex 2 weeks ago) this show was added with the following for the 2nd season.
http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/9931/ss1tf.jpg
As you can see, it properly combined the two episodes into a single entry. How? I have no idea.
Can someone help me figure out how Plex scanned Adventure Time properly for me? I also have a third show that also uses this single file/double episode naming convention, so defining this in Plex would be a necessity.
Thanks!
Name them in pairs:
S01E01-E02.avi
S01E03-E04.avi
Both episodes in the pair will show up independently, but you can’t really “play E02” as if they were separate files.
http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/PlexNine_PMS_Naming_Guide#Standard_TV_Shows
Ah, yes, I am aware of this option and did read the guide. But, if you look at my example of how Adventure Time was updated into my library, you’ll see that the single s02e01 was added with metadata for the two episodes that thetvdb has defined as s02e01 and s02e02. The question is how did Plex know how to combine these in the first place? What Plex did originally, I want. I’m just trying to figure out how it did this, and why it now isn’t doing this for my other shows.
Also, I should mention that I’m now noticing that the episodes for Adventure Time are named as such:
Adventure.Time.with.Finn.and.Jake.S02E01.It.Came.from.the.Nightosphere.The.Eyes.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-12DOG.mp4<br />
Adventure.Time.with.Finn.and.Jake.S02E02.Loyalty.to.the.King.Blood.Under.the.Skin.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-12DOG.mp4
Thinking that the episode names in the title had something to do with combining metadata, I renamed the Tim episodes to:
The.Life.and.Times.of.Tim.s03e01.The.Model.from.Newark.Tim's.Hair.Looks.Amazing.mkv<br />
The.Life.and.Times.of.Tim.s03e02.Percey.Davis.Boulevard.Cool.Uncle.Stu.Balls.mkv
and have been refreshing the metadata, reordering the Local Media Assets and TheTVDB entries under the TheTVDV option in the agent settings. Nothing has changed, but I thought it might be something like this since I may have changed order between scanning the two different shows.
The information on TheTVDB has almost certainly been changed since you first got information for Adventure Time. So, it was "correct" initially and has since been changed. Sadly, TheTVDB folks get very picky about how things get listed and what they end up doing doesn't actually always reflect what got aired on TV. So, it can be confusing and frustrating.
Your best bet is to name the files as keith mentioned so that a single file gets listed as two "separate" episodes. Alternatively, you could use an app (such as mkvtoolnix) to actually split the file into two parts so that you could label each individually.
I suppose it could be the metadata from theTVDB has changed, just kinda hard to believe due to my timing of updates. I say this because I first added Adventure Time to XBMC, which was broken into split version for a single air date that we find with a lot of shows (and I hated), and then a week or two later I added it to Plex and assumed Plex had a more intelligence in its scraper when it returned the results you see in the screenshot above. It just seems kind of a coincidence that someone changed three seasons worth of episodes to the “correct” way around the time I installed Plex, and then reverted them all back in the past week… just to cause me some confusion. :o
I think you’re probably right, but damn, what are the odds.
After a good night sleep (and coming to terms that the feature I want isn’t available) I thought I’d ask whether anyone has requested what I originally thought Plex could do? An optional/alternate view of Multiple-Episodes-in-One files, rather than the divided one that occurs now. Splitting a file into multiple entries within the interface does makes sense in regards to providing accurate episode details, but when it comes to actual episode playback it seems confusing and deceptive (my opinion). Perhaps a Preference option in TheTVDB metadata agent for “Combine Multi-Episode Files” or “Stack Multi-Episode Files”? Then upon metadata retrieval, if episodes are named with the established naming convention of s01e01-02.mkv, the scraper would combine the name and description into a single entry.
I currently have three separate shows right now that would benefit from this, so I imagine there are many other Plex users out there who would prefer this option as well.
To echo Chris, the guys at TVDB decided to list a lot of shows based on dvd order (opposed to aired order). A lot of people complained on their boards, but they stuck by their guns. Mostly animation, but other shows too. This may help:
http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/21141-dvd-order-agent/page__hl__tvdbdvdorder
I had the same issue with the “Night Gallery” series, her agent works well.
P.S. In case you don’t know, bottom left of any individual season page, you’ll see links for aired order/dvd order:
swordsandtequila… awesome! This plugin does exactly what I wanted. To be honest, I’ve seen the plugin before while perusing the forum and had the intention of playing with it just to arrange my Firefly collection correctly, but I really had no idea that the DVD order for the particular shows I was referring to were defined in TheTVDB under “DVD Order” like episode 1.1/episode 1.2 and that this plugin would actually combine those multiple entries into Plex exactly how was suggesting. Thank you very, very much!
Only remaining question: Are there any plans of implementing this “DVD Order” into the TheTVDB metadata agent that comes packaged with Plex, so average users can take advantage of?
Haven’t heard of any such plans, probably not a priority at the moment (and Raindancing’s agent works well). One issue, you may have to enter episode numbers in the TVDB, as not all the seasons for various shows are complete (I did a lot of Night Gallery). Just sign up and you can edit/correct any metadata that’s not locked. Glad it helped. Cheers. <_<
MAJOR UPDATE!
swordsandtequila, as you said, there was some missing DVD Order information for Adventure Time, which I’ll go update if I can. But, while playing with the agent I realized something quite significant and cause for celebration. I now know the answer to my original question. Ready? Here we go.
Today, while refreshing Adventure Time with the new agents I realized that the newly acquired metadata had the exact same multi-file information found in my earlier screenshot, despite the that the episode information is clearly not available out on TheTVDB. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Plex was using Local Media Assets over TheTVDB. Aha! The dual-episode details I oh-so loved were actually embedded (by the creator) in the mp4 files to begin with, which took precedent over TheTVDB metadata altogether. I’ve verified by opening the files with a metadata tagger and confirmed this.
Jinkies! Now it all makes sense.
Thanks to all for the help.
Nice when things work out B)
My guess would probably be "no" because of one big reason: it's quite likely you might not want to use "DVD order" for all your shows.
If you have both regular and DVD order handled by the same agent and you just choose which one to use for the agent, then it's an "all or nothing" type thing. However, with two different agents, you can have both installed - use one as default for the section and then if you need to use the other for a particular show (say, "Firefly" in my case) you just right-click and "Match Using" to choose a different agent. So, best of both worlds. =)
Chris, I agree completely. Having a separate agent allows far more control over a specific show and is easier to manage. I’m quite happy now that I’ve figured it all out.
With that being said I also try to think about the overall user experience and what could be done to assist the novice Plex users who don’t bother researching and reading forums. It would be nice to see this plugin included in Plex rather than requiring a separate download. 
I believe I read elsewhere that there is currently some effort to simplify the metadata agent settings, so I’m just curious if this is being considered.
swordsandtequila, you are da man!!! Been bugging me for months now. Thanks for the fix.
Hi all - sorry to refresh this one. I am having this issue with the first named series - The Life & Times of Tim. Each file contains two short episodes. As indicated … theTVDB lists each segment as an individual episode. i.e.
The Life & Times of Tim - S0E01 - Angry Unpaid Hooker
The
I have tried …
-
Naming the file according to naming convention:
The Life & Times of Tim - S01E01-02 - Angry Unpaid Hooker / Rodney’s Bachelor Party
The Life & Times of Tim - S01E03-04 - Latino Tim / The Priest is Drunk
I tried this both with and without the episode names at the end. In either case - Plex lists it only as Episode 1 - Angry Paid Hooker, Episode 3 - Latino Drunk … skipping the second episode in each file. -
Splitting the file into individual episodes and naming accordingly to match the listing in theTVDB. In this case - it is listing the episode according to file name (not matching?) i.e. the episode is named ‘The Life & Times of Tim - S01E01 - Angry Unpaid Hooker’.
I would think one of these two should work but I can’t seem to get it to work. Is it possible it is using the metadata built into the file instead of theTVDB data? I may have the agent sequencing as such. If this is the case, is it possible to change the sequencing for just this series? I’ve hunted around the interface for something that would allow this on an individual series basis and I am not seeing it.
Thanks.
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