With the two versions of this show - Color and B/W - how are you organizing it?
Here is a suggestion but you will end up with two shows. Maybe it’s the best option?
Right now I have the B/W episodes versions as Local Episode Extras, type -scene. Not sure if it’s the best approach
Going to be a challenge if you want both. TMDB have already ruled stating only original will be allowed as alternative versions are not allowed, see this thread for details.
I’d imagine having them just unmatched and using your own manual entered metadata would be needed unless the online sources cave and apply an exception to their rules.
I’ll share my preferred way of handling these situations, which @FordGuy61 has laid out very succinctly:
Don’t believed that works with the modern scanner as they’ll be merged but would need to test to be sure.
This approach kind of works but I have B/W poster and season poster for the B/W version and color poster and season poster for the color version but both shows - now split apart - show only the color ones.
I guess I could pick up the right poster in the Web UI but I’d rather not..
The good thing is that the watch status works across the two split apart shows
Does it stay split once split apart if you scan your library or refresh the metadata ? Sorry, I cannot test as I’m remote from my plex server.
I didn’t try to rescan or refresh my library after the split apart. I didn’t really like the results with the posters. And the continue watching pointed to the B/W version, while the episodes we watched yesterday were the color versions.
I’ve gone back temporarily to the Local Episode Extras, type -scene until I find a better solution.
Np. All of these side effects of this method really make me think they’ll merge again once the scanner detects them but I’m certainly open to correction on that.
They didn’t re-merge in my test, but YMMV.
It should work fine.
The modern scanner was introduced (beta) in 2021. Pretty certain I was using it when I wrote that post in 2023.
I just added the show to my system. The two versions stay split apart after rescanning the library or refreshing the metadata for the library.
I did not test it, but Plex Dancing one of the entire versions (i.e. all episodes) may recombine them, as would creating a new library. Otherwise, AFAIK, they should stay separated.
I added a show poster to both versions. Plex picked the color poster and kept it for both versions after splitting. I refreshed the metadata for the B&W version and it changed to the correct poster.
Good to know, thanks.
This worked for me. Thanks!
I think for split-apart to be an option, they have to be in separate show folders, but I could be wrong.
One thing that would be nice is if plex added some sort of flag to the .plexmatch file that denoted “do not merge.” Would also be nice if you could note an alternate listing in tvdb in plexmatch. (although I know this show doesn’t have one.)
I have mine in 2 separate Folders -
Spider-Noir (2026) Authentic Black and White {TVDB-478492}
Spider-Noir (2026) True-Hue Full Color {TVDB-450033}
inside said folders the episodes are identically named, so at first it did merge them, I split the show, and…so far… it hasn’t tried to recombine.
only issue i have at this point is the B&W episodes have Color Thumbnails, and the Color Episodes have B&W Thumbnails… anyone have a suggestion?
Edit each episode and chose the bw or color poster accordingly.
