TV Series DVD Special Features / Extras (Behind The Scenes, Interviews, Trailers etc..)

Feature Suggestions
1

It appears that Plex allows for additional content for Movies using Local Media Assets, but not for TV series as per the guides:

TV guide does not show how to do it:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220717-Local-Media-Assets-TV-Shows

Movie guide shows how to do it:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200220677-Local-Media-Assets-Movies

I have been ripping Doctor Who (2005) TV series / seasons DVD’s to my library, and most of the DVD’s contain interviews and behind the scenes clips. I followed the guidance for Movie Local Media Assets and named a sub-folder Behind The Scenes, but Plex does not show it in with the TV series (or anywhere in fact).

My structure is this based on the movie local assets guide, but it doesn’t work:
**
Doctor Who (2005) - Season 01/Behind The Scenes/Designing Doctor Who.m4v**

These special features are not listed on TVDB. (The “confidential” ones are, and they work nicely as their own series)

Is there a way that Plex can organise and play these files?

Many thanks, Scott.

2

Often requested, just as often ignored.

You’re already part of the way there, just take a few more steps.

Look up your items and see (cross your fingers) if they’re listed at TVDB. No? Well, that’s not unusual, so just start naming your ‘Specials’ in the next bock of numbers (you know, in case more official Specials get listed). For instance if the last listed special is S00E03 I jump right to Show Name - S00E10 - Give 'em a descriptive name here.xxx

Then when I get 'em loaded and go into the Edit Function I can pull up the ‘Info’ and see the descriptive name, then invent a Description. Time Consuming? Yea. A Work Around? You Betcha. It’s how we’ve been dealing with this for some time now and it’s how we’re going to be dealing with it for some time to come.

The deal with Specials is that if they are listed and matched they get an air date. If those Specials fall into the season the air date kicks 'em into On Deck at just the right spot. If you want to do a little kicking of your own give em an air date where you want them to show up On Deck. Since you’re working around already might as well really work around.

:slight_smile:

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Currently in the same boat with Doctor Who, sorting, naming and filing everything. Fair warning as JuiceWSA says, you’re in for a good bit of work.

There are currently over 150 specials http://thetvdb.com/?tab=season&seriesid=78804&seasonid=26260&lid=7
So simply working out what your DVD’s include and what they don’t can be time consuming in itself (though much will not be listed on thetvdb).
Also, if you want to be optimistic that it (the show) will continue for many years to come, then you’ll want to start the numbering really high. I was completely paranoid (and super optimistic) and started at S00E501.

FYI some shows are quite good on thetvdb, with some ‘dvd extras’ listed. Others not so much. Doctor Who is, from my experience, in the later. Plus because it’s a such a popular show with such a huge amount of special episodes, it’s prime candidate for edit-wars I guess so it’s locked down. You could put a request in on their forums to add episodes, but you may be waiting a while (or indefinitely).

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@jungwirth said:
Also, if you want to be optimistic that it (the show) will continue for many years to come, then you’ll want to start the numbering really high. I was completely paranoid (and super optimistic) and started at S00E501.

That’s probably a good idea. There’s no indication The Doc will EVER be cancelled or cease to show up when you least expect him.

At the time of this posting (and a few hours previous) getting to TVDB will be difficult as they seem to be off exploring the galaxy again and not available for comment. The Plex Proxy has gone along with them so for the moment at least TV Show matching in Plex has been put on hold. Enjoy that tinny elevator music.

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Guys, thank you for the great advice!

I have 611 episodes of the 1963 series… and I’ve currently ripped 112 of the 2005 series (part way into series 7).

(Only) Who knows what the future holds for the 2005 series. ;o)

So if there isn’t a limit on the numbers, I’m going to be very optimistic and start the DVD special features / extras for interviews etc… at s00e1000, giving a lot of space for the proper series of “Specials”, of which I have 31 of so far.

It’s been a lot of work ripping with Handbrake, and then organising Dr Who for Plex, but quite worthwhile when it’s done and looking good. I’ve just been loaned the Sherlock special DVD, so will rty and correctly name that too.

Yes over the last week I’ve also found the TVDB quite sporadic regarding access, “too many connections” it declares…

New question:

Is there a way to get Plex to offer Dr Who episodes in order including the Series and Specials in terms of air date? Just so that you can watch in the correct order including the specials… I found when following a series, sometimes the specials give some answers to parts of the plot that I’ve been left wondering about in the past, when I’ve only seen the series episodes. I thought about setting up a playlist, but if there is an easier way to automate it, then I’d love to know!

Cheers, Scott.

6

When TVDB is working the specials that will match will get the air date and play from On Deck in their intended order. If you’d like to adjust that order change the air date to fit in where you want it and then lock the field.

BTW, those Sherlock Specials are listed and if we’re talking about the same Specials:

A TV Show Library/
…Sherlock/
…Season 00/
…Sherlock - S00E01 - Unaired Pilot
…Sherlock - S00E09 - The Abominable Bride
…Sherlock - S00E20 - Behind 221B The Final Problem

Note: ‘Sherlock - S00E20 - Behind 221B The Final Problem’ is a home grown special special about the making of the final episode recorded from PBS here before the airing of the final episode - and was a major spoiler I would have been wiffed about had I watched it. I recorded the whole thing so I edited out the final episode with VideoReDo, then edited the ‘Special’ into the file above and added the air date to play AFTER the final episode. I’m only just starting Season 2 so the above specials I have will play in their intended (or my intended) order when it’s time for them. I watched the unaried pilot first then discovered the first episode was almost the same thing. Skipped that one and will come back to it later.

TVDB is out to lunch at the moment.

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Thank you, I’ve not really played with On Deck, sounds like I should! I usually browse to the series in my library and play from there. Trouble is, we use Kodi in the cinema room and lounge ( both running from raspberry pi’s), so if you go and watch one episode on Kodi, Plex doesn’t know you’ve seen it. I know there is a Kodi Plex plugin, but you have to be a PlexPass subscriber to use it.

i’ve always been a fan of Kodi (or XBMC as it was) but now Plex, and it’s management of the libraries is growing on me… I did try http://www.rasplex.com/ ages ago, and wan’t too impressed, but may give it a go again. However, Kodi offers the BBC Iplayer addon which works easily, but I’ve not yet tried the BBC iPlayer on my PMS - if it works, and rasplex is improved, we may switch over.

In absence of the TVDB I’ll number the Sherlock special s00s09 as you suggested above, as it’s The Abominable Bride that I’m currently ripping with Handbrake.

Many thanks, Scott

8

Yep, that’s definitely the name of the Sherlock Special.

I would hold off on actually adding it to the library until TVDB comes back up. You’ll get the air date and On Deck will work as intended. I have several waiting to add. I’m only adding Movies this morning.

9

Yay, TVDB is back online, and Sherlock is updated nicely.

Still working on getting Dr Who extra special features to work…

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TVDB is back, but the Plex Proxy hasn’t landed yet - at least at the time of this post.

11

The Season 00 or episode 100 workaround is one ■■■■■■ workaround. Just shows all your content scattered in a mess under one season. All that is needed is a folder for these extras (but not “extras” because that’s an IGNORE catch for PLEX??? why I don’t know); but some named folder (maybe DVD EXTRAS for example) under each SEASON folder for organization sake that you could dump the files in.

Seinfeld/
…Season 01/
…DVD Extras/
…Seinfeld - DVDXtra - The Stake Out - Inside Look
…Seinfeld - DVDXtra - Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That (Bloopers)

Plex would then simply show the contents of that folder under each season in a section underneath and marked/separated off from the actual episodes; maybe with a line or heading saying DVD Extras under the main season episodes. TVDB is totally useless for these things, so you would have to manually edit the metadata, which isn’t hard.

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I created a season 99 folder and threw all the extras in there.

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13

This seems like a good solution but it didn’t work for me!

Is it an official Plex supported workaround or something off of your wish list?

@swsquish said:
The Season 00 or episode 100 workaround is one **** workaround. Just shows all your content scattered in a mess under one season. All that is needed is a folder for these extras (but not “extras” because that’s an IGNORE catch for PLEX??? why I don’t know); but some named folder (maybe DVD EXTRAS for example) under each SEASON folder for organization sake that you could dump the files in.

Seinfeld/
…Season 01/
…DVD Extras/
…Seinfeld - DVDXtra - The Stake Out - Inside Look
…Seinfeld - DVDXtra - Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That (Bloopers)

Plex would then simply show the contents of that folder under each season in a section underneath and marked/separated off from the actual episodes; maybe with a line or heading saying DVD Extras under the main season episodes. TVDB is totally useless for these things, so you would have to manually edit the metadata, which isn’t hard.

14

That’s because:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200220687-naming-series-season-based-tv-shows/
There are the rules laid down for your behavior. Ignore then at your peril (it just won’t work - and that’s perilous).

Extras go in ‘Season 00’ or ‘Specials’ folders and are named exactly like TV Show Episodes:

Seinfeld - S00E100.xxx <— no idea how many listed Seinfeld Specials there are, but that may get you above them… maybe.

Then you hand edit - if your Specials aren’t listed at TVDB.

This is the way it’s done, it’s the way it’s always been done, Plex isn’t interested in your crying about it (like the thousands of sobbing users before you) - or they’d have done something about it by now (right?).

B)

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15

It has been 4 years at least since the first request of this nature, and still no progress. I decided to see if I could come up with my own solution, starting with Doctor Who. That is indeed the most complicated, as there are many series. Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who Confidential, Doctor Who: The Fan Show. For example, Doctor Who (2005) has 10 seasons and 152 specials. I have an additional 163 videos that were included in the blue-rays, but are not in any database.

I have just been dropping them into a Bonus folder, and telling plex to ignore them with a .plexignore file. e.g.

Doctor Who (2005)/Season 01/~BONUS~/

The episode numbering has been of the form SxxEdtt. Where xx is the season, d is the disc number, and tt is the track number. For Specials/~BONUS~/ the number gets a bit more complicated, as I have extras from many different season’s discs. But I take care to keep them unique and make sure I have a way to map back to the original disc should a file need to be reripped.

Now, if I just tell plex not to ignore ~BONUS~ it does what I guess is reasonable. Which is it just adds all the extra videos as part of the respective season in the sequence I numbered them. But of course, that is not what I really want. I don’t want to be watching Doctor Who, and have DVD extra come on as the next video instead of the next episode, unless I explicitly select it.

So I created a new series, Doctor Who Bonus (2005). I moved all the files in the ~BONUS~ folder into the new series folders. In and renamed the videos to start with Doctor Who Bonus (2005) instead of Doctor Who (2005). This seems to work at first…

Only when I check the next day the Doctor Who Bonus (2005) series is gone, and has been merged into Doctor Who (2005). However, there is a split apart option. I split them apart, and then apply custom images and my series name, so I can tell the difference. What is unknown is if Plex will try to merge them again… So far though, it seems to work like I want it to.

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16

Is this still behaving for you, docbillnet?

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17

I think you are on to something. However, one of the things I have done is I have created a completely different directory for TV Shows Mislabled By Plex already - as the Split Apart option doesn’t even show up half the time. I use this for when there is an alternative version of a show (for example, Star Trek TOS original special effects vs remastered, Red Dwarf Original vs Remastered, or when a show reairs and there is an extended version or if it airs with tweets and facts that were not in the original version).

So this has worked well so far.

So I think I am going to have an additional folder for television Bonus features. This parent folder will be TV Shows, and then I will use the local media agent on it, then just supply my own series pics. This is messy but it should work.

As for the naming of Doctor Who Bonus Features, you have Bonus Features to the specials, which is what gave me this idea. So, this should work with your directory naming

So, The Five Doctors is episode 2 in season 0, and there are 106 specials listed on thetvdb

So, when scrolling my libraries on Plex, I have
TV Shows
TV Shows - 4k
TV Shows - Alternative Versions
TV Shows - Animated
TV Shows - Bonus Features
TV Shows - Mislabled By Plex

So under TV Shows - Bonus Features
\Doctor Who (1963)
\Season 00
\Doctor Who - s00e00201 - The Five Doctors - Celebration.mkv
\Doctor Who - s00e00202 - The Five Doctors - Trails and Continuity.mkv
\Doctor Who - s00e00203 - The Five Doctors - Photo Gallery.mkv

And so forth. Plex should then not try to match them with any Database since I am using Local Media Agent, but should still split it apart by show and season, and then underneath the season should display them in order.

Episode numbering is exxxyy where xxx would be the real episode number the episode corresponds with, and yy is just numbering of the bonus features on the disc.

The downside to this is that your Bonus Features won’t be with the show itself, but the upside is it makes it easy to organize and keeps Plex from trying to group your bonus features as alternative versions of your show.

EDIT - I thought Plex pulled the episode name from the file name, but it looks like it doesn’t. You will have to edit the episode name by hand in Plex. Not a huge issue - this works, just an additional step. Still, this worked brilliantly.

Plex%20Doctor%20Who%20Bonus%20Features
Plex%20Doctor%20Who%20Bonus%20Features1135×441 150 KB

EDIT 2 - AND, something is not working right. Dropped Several more bonus features, and it is still only showing 4 after a rescan, although it changed the episode number of that last one. I moved the directory, rescanned, put it back, rescanned, same issue. Completely deleted the library, upgraded Plex server, recreated the library, scanned, and still 4 episodes. It seems that Plex has a maximum episode limit. Looks like a workaround is going to have to be to list the file names sequentially, import them into Plex, label them, and then use the Sort Title option

EDIT 3: Eureka! The issue was that the extras I dropped had -featurette, -interview, -deleted at the end of the name. It looks like the TV Show agent will just completely ignore those files (I think someone mentioned that earlier. Now that I got it all working, I need to go back and rename the shows and the add the artwork, but hey, its working, and I can keep my episode numbers! So ignore my second edit.

Plex%20Doctor%20Who%20Bonus%20Features%202
Plex%20Doctor%20Who%20Bonus%20Features%202963×519 209 KB

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18

I haven’t seen a repeat of the merging issue. So it seems like a good workaround.

19

Sure would be nice if we could get extras implemented for TV shows similarly to the movie extras. What is the hold up?

Is it the challenge in how to organize them per season since episodes don’t have to be in seasonal folders? Maybe just mandate that extras specifically be in a folder labeled “extras-s04” for season 4 or whatever.

Display them at the bottom of each season and put a tag/button at the top of the page saying “Extras at the bottom of this page”

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While I appreciate the admins trying to consolidate redundant feature requests by directing another thread here and then closing it, I think it is very relevant and important to recognize that the thread they just closed originally requesting this exact feature was started March 2015.

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