this is primarily, and always will be, a multimedia streaming server. its built to list, display, and serve your DVDs and Blurays from a server. It is built to figure out what TV show or movie you uploaded to it and fetch the information from it.
If you don’t want it to do that, select “Personal Media” as the library type, then it’ll just do absolutely nothing but basically just list files.
New Library -> Other Videos
Select Folder
Advanced -> Collections -> Disable
Advanced -> Scanner -> Plex Video File Scanner
Advanced -> Agent -> Personal Media
If you want to use a piece of software, you will work within its limitations and requirements. This is a fact for EVERY piece of hardware, and EVERY piece of software.
Do you buy a 5/16th wrench from home depot, then complain to customer service that it doesnt fit a 13mm bolt? no, you buy a 13mm wrench.
If you want plex to PROPERLY scan and serve your media, then you will PROPERLY name it to fit with its scanner.
If you want it to do EXACTLY what you want, go make your own media server software, or learn how to make a plex scanner plugin to fit YOUR SPECIFIC thought process.
*note: PLEX CANNOT ADD FILES if its not allowed to scan them. It HAS to use metadata, either from the file itself or from some 3rd party metadata server. If there’s no metadata, there’s no listing. That’s just how files work.
Ouch! Brutal. From what I seen and been told about the library “Other Videos” is PLEX does not care what’s in it nor will it try to match it to any online database source but to auto-merge is ridiculous. I can not fathom why we must conform to a non-existing standard for personal/home videos. I mean, what ever happened to WYSIWYG !!?
This wasn’t build for home videos, it was built to find and display information on actual broadcast or D2D tv shows and movies.
Personal Media libraries ignore the metadata fetch from places like MovieInfo and TheTVDB, but the files are still scanned and entered into the plex database the same way – so if you have two files that each LOOK LIKE “part 1” and “part 2” of the same file, it’ll add it into the database as such.
Plex doesn’t EDIT the file itself (unless you tell it to optimize, then it’ll re-render it into a format that better suits streaming, but that’s it). It doesn’t actually MERGE the files themselves.
For example: in my library i have a few multipart episodes: Sword Art Online - s02e14 - part1 and Sword Art Online - s02e14 - part2. Each one is 23 minutes, 40 seconds long.
IN PLEX, it shows as a single episode 47 minutes long. THIS is what multipart merging is for.
If your file names are setup to be in the pattern of any of the following: Name - Season - Episode - Part ex: Cake Boss - 2 - 5 - 1 Name - Season - Episode - Title - Part ex: Cake Boss - 2 - 5 - I dont know what this episode is called - 1 Name - SeasonEpisode - Part ex: Cake Boss - S02e05 - 1 Name - SeasonEpisode - Title - Part ex: Cake Boss - S02e05 - I dont know what this episode is called - 1
Basically, think of it like this: When you add a piece of media to PLEX, it scans its filename.
That filename is its unique identifier in the folder structure. This makes sense to humans.
However, PLEX also looks for patterns in that name to try to build some form of sensible way to display it inside plex, and it looks for a pattern something like this:
<SHOWNAME> - <SEASONNUMBER OR EPISODENUMBER> [if SEASONNUMBER:<EPISODENUMBER>] - [ifString: <TITLE> else ifInteger:<PARTNUMBER>] [if TITLE and ifInteger:<PARTNUMBER>]
or in less code form: Show name, [Season number], *Episode number*, [Title], [*Part number*]. with bracketed ([.]) bits being optional and starred (*.*} bits being priority.
This is how plex works to add your files to the list. If you seriously just want a list of files to open, why don’t you just use windows explorer and VLC player o.O if its because you want to watch it on your PS4 or whatever, you do know PS4/XBONED, Roku, Chromecast, Firestick, XMBPlayer, etc etc all support direct file and DLNA playback, ya?
If you are so opposed to renaming files to make it compatible with the software you are using, then you are going to get absolutely NOWHERE in the streaming software side of things, because even DLNA playback servers will require you to rename files. UMS doesn’t support filenames longer than 18 characters (backwards compatability thing with older DLNA devices), Plex is so far the only one that natively supports .MKV files that ive found, most require you to reconvert them to either OGM or .MP4 files (even tho mkv is literally just an mp4 file with multiple subs/audio tracks… yes it doesnt make sense)
Thanks, but I have tried that. It’s an epic fail. Plex does not have the even the most basic consistency when it comes to structure and sorting, or for display names. It’s unbelievable. I have used the Windows metadata removal method as well as third-party software purification. I set the media type in Plex to personal. I tried making the library basic instead of advanced. I disabled every data-fetching setting I could find. Plex REFUSES to see and sort by file name alphabetically, and even worse, it stubbornly and persistently and arbitrarily changes the display name to its caprice.
Some mp3 files are listed as Track 1, Track 2, etc. Some are Adam Bede (Track 01), others just Track 01. Some libraries are sorted as Track 1, then Track 100, then Track 1000, and so on.
What a ridiculous circus act it is trying to juggle all these disparate functions into one cohesive database. I absolutely regret buying a lifetime pass, but I know so many other programs like iTunes, Media Monkey, Swan, etc. have all the same stupidities. Hopefully one day someone will write a program with some without all these major fubars.
I have not had any trouble with plex’ sorting.
Give me a SS of one of your folders and maybe i can actually help instead of just telling you what to do differently.
Are you trying to sort music? are you trying to sort movies? TV shows? Home videos? what?
All you have complained about thus far is how it keeps merging your files (plex can’t physically do that, so im assuming you mean inside the display) without giving us how you are organizing them.
Again, what imbecile thought it was a good idea to fetch ONLY metadata? Surely this media server software, as it is so over-hyped to be, SHOULD be able to find file names, no??? If not, then it is undeserving of being called media server software.
We may be talking about two different things here.
A library type “MOVIES”
A library type “OTHER VIDEOS”
I can understand item 1. You MUST conform AND expect PLEX will treat this as a movie library and will preform all the bells and whistles that PLEX does.
But not with item 2. I can not find any article on “OTHER/HOME MOVIES” though.
If you have a number of videos that don’t follow a common theme (e.g. just a number of videos rather than a series of movies of your Christmas Holiday), you can add them to a Library using the Movie > Personal Media metadata agent. You should ensure you’re not storing your Personal Movies in the same location as your regular Movie media collection. The media can be named any way you like. The name of the file is what will appear in the Plex App.
/Home Videos
Picnic in the Park.m4v
Playing with the dog.mkv
Visiting our friends.mov
gotta love replying at the same time.
Yes. But it will still try to match. If you put dashes in the name at any point to separate things, it’ll treat it as different things.
To use the example given… if i were to rename them to:
/Home Videos
Picnic in the Park - 1.m4v
Playing with the dog - 2.mkv
Visiting our friends - 3.mov
it would think its one show with 3 episodes.
if i were to rename them like this…
/Home Videos
Picnic in the Park - 1.m4v
Picnic in the Park - 2.m4v
Picnic in the Park - 3.m4v
it would think its ONE movie with 3 parts.
so to use an even earlier example with the dated video titles, they were doing it like the last one there.
/Home Videos
20180505 - Picnic in the Park - 1.m4v
20180505 - Playing with the dog - 2.m4v
20180505 - Visiting our friends - 3.m4v
making the scanner go “WELP. Must be one show with multiple parts”.
Its all the same scanner, regardless of library type. The Personal Media type just lets you not tell it what episode number it is because it doesn’t fetch metadata from an outside source, and relies SOLELY on the files FILENAME instead.
@Liestenn is correct here. Filenames mean nothing if the whole series wasn’t matched.
Matching a series is solely based on the folder name you give. I could have a hundreds of porn clips in a folder “This Is Us (2016)” and PLEX will try to match it with that tv show, This Is Us.
Step 1:
I just made a new library and copied a bunch of video files into it and left their names intact. Varying naming conventions (multiparts, single movie titles, seasons, etc) and i havent seen it merge a single file yet, NOR has it tried to fetch any metadata.
Step 2: For chagrins, I copied a few into a different folder named “Failname home videos”, and named them the same. Plex so far thinks they’re two copies of the same video (which to be fair they are) and lists it as such:
however, I’ve not had it MERGE a single file, even the multipart files, and it IS just listing the file names as you can see here:
And all of that sounds right… At least from what I have been told in the past. I see no issue. You want home movies then you must select “OTHER VIDEOS” as the library type.
It’s funny that there is still an option for cinema trailers, lol!
thats universal for all libraries tho, just shows trailers for movies and shows, and you can set it up to just be unwatched from your server, new in theatres, new releases, etc… i just kinda go … newp if i wanted ads id pay for hulu.
much prefer going to walmart and grabbing the bluray for $5 and ripping it to my harddrive and spending $100 on a new harddrive every 3 months because i fill them up lol
I understand that he or she is right. What I keep saying is, it doesn’t make sense. Software this advanced should allow the user to chose these settings, whether to make them complex and highly detailed by fetching metadata, thereby relinquishing control of the majority of the structure and sorting to the program, or to relinquish control to the user and allow simple, file and folder names as the organizing hierarchy.
---- NewPlaza plex@discoursemail.com wrote:
Thanks again for your suggestions. I will look into the Advanced Renamer and FileBot. I’m sure many people have far larger libraries than mine, but to me it’s still a massive undertaking, as I have over a million files in movies, audiobooks, music, ebooks, etc. The prospect of allowing a “smart” program to configure this information is scary, to say the least. I’ll test it in small doses.
---- Liestenn plex@discoursemail.com wrote:
You ain’t lying bout that. I feel we should have more control over MANY aspects of the metadata retrieval. What to download and all. Hell, I’m still getting all posters from EVERY language downloaded to my hard drive.
LOL !! You ain’t kidding about that. I spend more time checking the work of these renamer programs than the renaming process itself. It takes just seconds to scan/match(find) online/and rename tens of thousands of files and a headache to check the work.
Right? Thank you!!! I remember many years ago when that horrid and degenerate corporation, Microsuck, basically started that crap in windows media player. One day I noticed my virus scan was taking forever, and I found over 7 million files, small as they were, of JPEG images marked for thumbnails that I did not want, did not choose, could not remove, and were absolutely inaccurate for the data to which they were attached. That was the moment that I started hating Microsuck, as well as metadata.
Bitofinger:
should allow the user to chose these settings, whether to make them complex and highly detailed by fetching metadata
You ain’t lying bout that. I feel we should have more control over MANY aspects of the metadata retrieval. What to download and all. Hell, I’m still getting all posters from EVERY language downloaded to my hard drive.
Bitofinger: