Multi-episode files with non-sequential episodes

[FrankAZ 4]

Hello,

 

Is it possible to name a media file such that non-sequential TV show episodes within it are correctly represented in the various client views?

 

All the examples of TV episode naming shown in the guide at http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/674-media-files-folders-structure/?p=21472 use the case of episodes #2 and #3 appearing in the same file. They are consecutive episodes such as may be concatenated by a TV station in a season-opener or season-finale double-feature. That works great for most occasions.

 

But, some shows, particularly childrens' shows, do not have a plot which flows from episode to episode and channels showing repeats may combine non-contiguous episodes into one event. For example, Phineas and Ferb episodes are often broadcast and recorded in essentially random pairs, sometimes using episodes not even from the same season. The naming conventions illustrated in the guide do not work with that situation.

 

So, if Season 1 episode 1 is shown with season 1 episode 7 the naming conventions indicate that a filename of "01x01 01x07 Name.wtv" would be an appropriate name. In practice that is interpreted as if the file contains all of episodes 1 through 7, with the seven show descriptions combined into the metadata. All of the naming conventions I have experimented with work in the same way.

 

I would like the multi-episode naming conventions to support the cases where many episodes are sequentially combined, as well as the cases when two or more identified non-sequential episodes are combined. Perhaps use '-' as a range indicator and some other special character not found as the leading character of an episode name ('+' or ',') to delimit individual episode identifiers.

 

E.g.

/TV Series

          /Phineas and Ferb

            /Season 1

                S01E01 Rollercoaster.wtv

                S01E02-E03 Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror!, Flop Starz.wtv

                S01E06+E08 Raging Bully, I Brobot.wtv

                S01E07,S02E03 Candace Loses Her Head, Tip of the Day.wtv

 

My own immediate need is that only two distinct episodes be handled, though I suppose the syntax could be expanded to cope with all sorts of permutations and combinations.

 

Ideally of course I would use an editor to split the recordings into their component episodes, perhaps stripping ads while I was at it. Back in the day I did that for SD recordings of Kim Possible. Never Again! Even if I were so inclined these recordings are content protected and if editing were feasible I'd probably need to perform it on the HTPC on which I made the recording. That is impractical since I try to keep my HTPC as pure as I can and live in fear of having to rebuild it or otherwise lose the content protection credentials for my TV library.

 

Thank you.

 

Frank.

Edited December 3, 2014 by FrankAZ

[jj12345 25]

+1 for this request.