Ability (if this is even possible) to SORT posters on the Plex server.
I don’t know where PLEX gets the posters we can select from so I don’t know how they are listed in the PLEX database. But what I would love to see if it is even possible, is a way to sort the posters by type. Example: 3D, 4K, UHD, Extended, Special Edition, etc….
I guess unless the graphics files have that info it wouldn’t be possible. However, seems that with AI being what it is, it should be able to look at the actual graphic (poster) and figure out if any of the sort words show up on in the actual picture.
I suggest this as I am very picky about my collection. But with over 5000 movies and growing every week it would be so much easier than opening each movie in EDIT mode, going to POSTER tab and then scrolling though (at times) 100’s of posters to find the one I want. If it’s a 4K movie then I want that but I wish I could see all the 4K options at once rather than having to keep scrolling through ALL the posters. (my eyes are going buggy as just today I have done this so far for almost 100 movies.)
Also, where does PLEX get it’s posters from? I ask because some movies show no posters in PLEX and I go out and find one manually and at times even make them myself (adding the 3D logo or 4K bar to a poster where that version doesn’t exist.) Also, if I find one that PLEX doesn’t have or make one, how to I share it so that PLEX can show it for other people to use if they want?
This would require a lot more than work on the Plex end of things - the providers they’re grabbing the artwork from would have to provide this information either by changing their filename structure or providing/updating an API, and if there are multiple different sources it would mean either convincing them all to use the exact same implementation or even more work on the Plex-side for every single one of them. It doesn’t really seem like something that Plex would be able to do on their own and convincing both Plex and the sources of the posters to do this for something that, honestly, not many people would use (I’d put money on like 90% of Plex users just taking whatever poster is the default and never even looking at the others) seems like quite an ask!
It doesn’t solve your issue but if you like changing posters, check out theposterdb.com. Its a community-driven poster resource that came from a subreddit where a lot of us used to share/source them and has turned into a MASSIVE resource, you can find anything and it’s great. You can even google around and find scripts to automate adding them.
Hell, we should be petitioning Plex to add TPDB as a poster source.
They source them primarily from TheMovieDB and TVDB but the default poster comes from a licensed art partner they started using a year or so ago called gracenote. So it’s a combination of those sources when you’re browsing the art picker.
If you want artwork to show up there you’d want to contribute artwork at TMDB or TVDB (TMDB is easier I think) and it’ll show up in the art picker in Plex after a few days or so.
There are apps like Filebot and tinymediamanager that include a function to pull artwork from those same - and other - sources automatically for you. It’s a bit more consistent and controlled that way (and can be setup to work with other media servers) but is a little extra work.
I second theposterdb.com for finding good posters - particularly for collections or consistent looks to movie series and TV series seasons and such.
If you find a title that doesn’t have artwork at all that usually means it got a DMCA flag and Plex removes all art in that case (they used to just remove the reported artwork itself). In those cases you’ll have to grab your own poster\background.
As far as sorting artwork… the best Plex might be able to do is to manage some resolution options for the images themselves or pull some of the “votes” to display that way (Emby does this) but flagging ones with specific logo\labels like you’re mentioning isn’t really built into the sources so Plex wouldn’t have a way to pull it either. Emby\Jellyfin have a feature where you can have those logos and overlays built into your display so no matter the artwork a 4K movie would get a 4K logo. Here’s a thread with examples of that feature: CoverArt: Show us your custom Overlay Templates - Plugins - Emby Community
