I just discovered smart collections and it has great potential!
But I already found a problem in filtering.
If I want to have a collection of all Pixar films, it doesn’t catch all Pixar films and I can’t see a way to add them using filters in a natural way (i.e., not manually).
My basic filtering used in this example is “Studio” IS “Pixar”. I catch Toy Story 1, 2, & 3, but NOT Toy Story 4.
I think it’s because Disney is listed as the Studio for Toy Story 4, but certainly Pixar is also a Studio. Of course, it depends on what “Studio” means to Plex filters as well as the limitations of any database. (I think of Disney more as a primary distributor than the primary studio for this film.)
There doesn’t seem to be additional fields to filter that help. eg., there is no “production company” filter field, and Pixar isn’t included in the “producer” field.
If there was a way for Plex to read and add more than one Studio company for a film, it think this would help many more films to be automatically caught by the advanced filtering, perhaps Toy Story 4.
Toy Story is used just an example. For Pixar alone, I found several films not being caught by this “studio” filter.
You could change the metadata for Toy Story 4 to have Pixar as the studio. Strange that it credits Disney instead. Just do that to the few Pixar movies that feel incorrect and you’re good to go. That does mean you may have to edit more Pixar movie studio tags in the future if you add any.
Perhaps get involved in the metadata discussions for the movies in TMDB, where Plex scrapes the metadata from. See if there is talk as to why that site (user-provided metadata) decided to change the studio to Disney. If there is no good argument for, then submit a change.
I too find the mismatch strange, but I was thinking it’s because it amalgamates companies that distribute or collaborate on it in some way OR perhaps Disney wants to be listed as the only company, since Pixar is owned by Disney.
eg., Brave is another example of a film failing to be caught by the filter, yet you can see even from Brave’s default Poster that both Disney and Pixar were involved in releasing it. I have 6 in this collection alone that has this misidentification.
Thus I expect it to be a bigger issue than just one or two random films. As you wrote, maybe there is a reason behind it., but it’s not obvious or one that’s makes common sense.
But looking quickly at TVDB (TMDB is harder to find it’s metadata), the Studio field lists Disney for both my included examples. Yet, if PLEX added “production company” as a field to filter, it would work.
That’s what it comes down to. Disney bought Pixar. Pixar is now a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios. Disney likes being listed first. That’s what the metadata providers have.
Is “Production Company” something with a rigorous definition? I agree that would be nice. Do the metadata providers keep that data? I don’t think they do. :-/
Some people have made a similar complaint about TV shows. Plex moved from displaying “Network” to “Studio” for TV shows. “Network” was Fox or CBS or similar, but that was an old regional thing. Now Plex uses “Studio” and might be an unfamiliar name.
Is “Production Company” something with a rigorous definition? I agree that would be nice. Do the metadata providers keep that data? I don’t think they do. :-/
I can’t speak with certainty regarding whether “production company” is a necessary metadata field for movies, but I chose an additional 6 movies to the 2 I’ve already listed, Toy Story 4 and Brave, and all 8 of them included “production company” as a metadata field at TVDB.
I have no idea where the metadata is listed at TMDB.
