Trying to organise my videos, Is this possible?

[rdoull_gmail_com]

Hi All,

I’m new to PLex servers, I’ve got a NAS set up and I’m trying to organise my video files (mp4) but I’m lost as to the best/easiest way to do it.

What I want to do is,

I have a load of video files, some are single videos, some are part of a set, some are a series of videos by the same person but on different subjects.

What I’m trying to be able to do is to search through either by,

1. the main person in it (idealy with a picture to identify as well as text).
2. the group ie I have a set of 6 videos, I’d like to brouse the set names.
3. the genre of the videos (and inside this to see them by sets/main person and not just indevidual videos).

this would get me started, I’m sure I would want to organise/browse them further but that can wait untill i get an idea of this.

I had thought of setting them as a tv show and trying to mark the sets as a series, edit the meta data to give the genre or multiple of, but i’ve been unsuccessful.

any help on pointing me int he right direction?

[OttoKerner]

If we are talking about custom videos, which are neither listed on TheMovieDB.org, nor on TheTVDB.com , read on.

First off: I recommend to use the mp4/m4v container format for these videos. Because this is the only one, from where Plex can read more than basic embedded metadata.

I urge you to store as much information about your videos in the mp4 containers’ embedded metatags. This makes it less hurtful if you have to break down your Plex server or the library and recreate it.
mp3tag can be used freely.
Use at least the ‘Title’ meta tag for the title of the episode.
‘PODCASTDESC’ can be used for a description of each individual episode.

If you want to make them into a tv show, you need to create a library in Plex of the type ‘tv show’.
You should keep your self-created shows separated from “real” tv shows which you may find on TheTVDB.com .
Put them into a separate folder and create a separate library in Plex for them https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/plex-media-server/libraries/

The files must be organized into folders and subfolders, just like a real tv show in Plex.
The file names must contain at least the season/episode number code, e.g. s01e03

Naming Home Series Media | Plex Support

If you have a person appearing in different “shows”, you could use Collections to tag these shows.
If you know how to embed ‘actor’ meta tags into mp4 files (which is unfortunately non-trivial), you could use these instead.
However, you cannot tag individual episodes with different cast or collections – only complete shows.

For non-“episodic” content, you better use a library of the type ‘Other Videos’. The file names fopr this library type must not contain the season/episode code or they will be ignored by Plex.

Personal Media Movies | Plex Support

P.S. If you populate the ‘Album’ tag, Plex will add the video to a Collection of the same name. (although that is mainly useful for ‘Other Videos’ content)

Avoid “reserved” words in your file names, or those files won’t appear in Plex: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201381883-special-keyword-file-folder-exclusion/

If you describe some actual examples, we could advise you better on which approach to take.

[ebeuzel]

Thank you for your reply,

Yes these are not theater films or tv box sets, I’m an amature magician and have a lot of instructional videos on various subjects that I am trying to organise in plex (if possible)

here are some examples,

I have about 30 mp4 files from a magician called Jay Sankey, some are about coin magic, some card magic and some with mixed magic in them, some of them are performance videos and dont include instruction at all. I also have a number from Penn and Teller, Carl Andrews and Micheal Ammar to name but a few all with similar sub catigories.

I’d like to be able to have all the videos that contain coin stuff in one library, Cards in another… etc, but also to be able to view by magician, so all of Jay Sankeys stuff together and all of Micheal Ammar… etc. Where possible I’d rather have images rather than just a blank folder icon with a name below it.

(just noticed I am in my wifes account and every time I try to change i end up back in this account… I am the OP though)

Thank you for your help I’m going to go and have a look at mp3tag and see if I can work this out.

[OttoKerner]

OK, this is what first comes to mind:

Each artist performing one certain kind of trick = 1 separate TV Show

Each tv show can have several seasons, which you could use to e.g. separate performances from instructions. (Usually only makes sense if there are several videos of each type)
Seasons can have a descriptive text as well, but you’ll have to add it manually in Plex Web. And it might not be visible in all Plex client types.

If you have only a few videos, you can restrict courself to just one season and put all videos into there. Then the title of the episodes should contain what it is e.g. ‘Instruction’, ‘Performance’ etc
The ‘season’ view mode can be automatically disabled for shows with just 1 season – so you have a “flat” structure automatically.
But you still have to use the season number 01 in all file names for this show.

Then you can create Collections, one for each performer and add all “shows” of one performer into it. This will enable you to see all shows by that performer if you enter a certain show’s preplay screen.

“Flat” show (with only one season)

Magic/  <-- point the Plex library to this folder only!
   Big Maczini Card Trick No1 /
         Season 01/
             Big Maczini Card Trick No1 - s01e01 - Performance.mp4
             Big Maczini Card Trick No1 - s01e02 - Instructions.mp4

Normal show (with several seasons)

Magic/
   Big Maczini Sawing a Virgin /
         Season 01/
             Big Maczini Sawing a Virgin - s01e01 - Performance 1.mp4
             Big Maczini Sawing a Virgin - s01e02 - Performance 2.mp4
         Season 02/
             Big Maczini Sawing a Virgin - s02e01 - Instructions 1.mp4
             Big Maczini Sawing a Virgin - s02e02 - Instructions 2.mp4

[OttoKerner]

It is important, that you are embedding the title of each video into its meta tags.
e.g. Big Maczini Sawing a Virgin - s01e01 - Performance 1.mp4
should have Performance 1 in its ‘Title’ metatag.

If you need it, I can show you how you can instruct mp3tag to automatically take the last part of these file names and embed it as title metatag – into several or all files at once.

[ebeuzel]

wow! thank you, yes anything that can help will be great, I have about 1tb of files to go through and organise (gradually) into plex.

thank you for your time and help I greatly appretiate it

Robin

[OttoKerner]

When you create the library in Plex, go to the ‘Advanced’ tab and set the ‘Agent’ to ‘Personal Media Shows’.

[ebeuzel]

can I use meta tags to allow one file that contains different tricks to be visable in different libraries?

[OttoKerner]

I cannot recommend using different libraries. You should try to include everything into one library first.
Only after you determine in practical use that it is unwieldy to have everything in one library, separate them out.

Collections will work across library boundaries, though.
You can use them even to combine “movie”-type content with “tv show” and “music” types of content.

[ebeuzel]

thank you, I’ll give it a try and see how I get on