Year & imdb tag in folder and file names?

[n8wrl]

Greetings! I’m new here and I’m betting this has been asked before but I’ve spent a few hours searching and can’t find it.
I’m getting started ripping my movies with MakeMKV and storing them on my Synology NAS. Works a treat, so now I’m in a “production mode” of ripping DVD’s.
I’ve read: https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-movie-media-files/
and am happily naming folders like this

movie-name (year) {imdb-tt####}

My question is, do I have to append year and imdb tag to each file inside the folder? MKV files have funky names and sometimes there are several. Will Plex pick up the year and imdb info from the tag on the folder or do I have to rename all the files to include the same info? Example:

rename C5_t06.mkv to C5_t06.mkv (2012) {imdb-tt####}.mkv

??

Thanks to you all!

-Brian

[anon5074910]

@n8wrl

{imdb-tt####}

Including the id from either imdb or tmdb is all that is needed as plex will do an exact match against the id. Everything else is optional if you have the id included in either the filename or folder.

[n8wrl]

This is awesome - so I only need to put the IMDB tag on the FOLDER, not all the files in the folder!

Thank you thank you!!

-Brian

[anon5074910]

Right. So \The Marvels {tmdb-609681}\The Marvels.mp4 as an example.

At its extreme you really only need \{tmdb-609681}\The Marvels.mp4 but I’d not imagine you’d want that

[n8wrl]

Thank you so much, you’re exactly right. I want the folders to be “english readable” but I don’t care about the contents. this saves me a ton of time.
On to spinning the disks!
Take care
-Brian

[OttoKerner]

@n8wrl

I want the folders to be “english readable” but I don’t care about the contents.

This approach will only work as long as you don’t start adding local extras. https://support.plex.tv/articles/local-files-for-trailers-and-extras/
If you’re ripping discs, there might be quite a few of these to be found on there.

[FordGuy61]

Plex Documentation → Your Media
→ Naming & Organizing Your TV Shows
→ Naming & Organizing Your Movies

@n8wrl

rename C5_t06.mkv to C5_t06.mkv (2012) {imdb-tt####}.mkv

That is a very bad way to name things.

Follow the Plex naming guidelines. Rename C5_t06.mkv to movie (year).ext (ext = mkv/mp4/etc).

For example:

/movies
../The Marvels (2023)
..../The Marvels (2023).mkv

Adding the IMDB/TMDB/TVDB IDs tells Plex exactly which movie or show to match, but it is rarely needed. An example where it helps is when two movies with the same name are released in the same year, such as Chaos (2005) and Chaos (2005).

[n8wrl]

Thank you FordGuy61!

My challenge is, I’m using MakeMKV, and after scanning a disc it will show me what’s on it. Sort of. Here’s an example from Men in Black:

and once ripped, they appear like this in the folder:

so while it’s likely the “big one” is the actual movie and could be renamed, I have no idea what the other 3 are.

[FordGuy61]

The movie will almost always be the largest file. You may find a DVD with both 16:9 and 4:3 versions. You can look at the info in the right side panel of MakeMKV to see additional information (run time, aspect ratio, etc).

The other files could be many things - trailers, extras, the ratings video (G/PG/etc).

Play them using VLC or some other video player to determine the video type.

You can play the disc using VLC and see how they’re listed on the DVD.

If you want to keep them, name them accordingly and place them in the folder with the movie file. See Local Files for Movie Trailers and Extras for info on how to name and organize.

Click on the Title or track to see additional info.

[n8wrl]

Thank you!

[anon5074910]

@FordGuy61

Adding the IMDB/TMDB/TVDB IDs tells Plex exactly which movie or show to match, but it is rarely needed.

Personally, I like having the id in my folder names and tools like filebot make automating it simple. That way I can be 100% sure of a match no matter what changes at online sources.

You’d be surprised how many times the year changes for a movie when folks start fighting about when an actual movie was released See https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/264660-ex-machina/changes?filter_key=key&filter=release_dates as an example.