Split TV Episode Naming Standard

[regid 6]

Hello,

I have a TV episode that is split into two episodes even thought TheTVDB has it listed as one.  I looked up naming standards for this and only found information from KODI listed here: 

http://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/TV_shows#Split-episode

 

I named my episodes  MadeUpShow.s00e01.1.mkv and MadeUpShow.s00e01.2.mkv I've also tried some of the other variations listed in the link above.

 

Emby lists it as the same episode twice when I do this.  I am trying to verify whether there is a way to do this in Emby or not.

 

Thank you

Edited September 6, 2016 by regid

[ebr 14912]

I don't believe we support this.  We support the opposite (multiple episodes in one file) but this is the first I've ever heard of a single episode being in two files.

 

Easiest thing to do is probably join them.

[regid 6]

I run into this with Blu-ray series I buy.  Star Wars Rebels episode "The Siege At Lothal" shows up as one episode on TheTVDB:  https://thetvdb.com/index.php?tab=episode&seriesid=283468&seasonid=590284&id=5054046

 

But when I ripped my Blu-ray it ripped as two episodes.   Hopefully you'll consider adding it in the future.  You, otherwise, seem to share the KODI naming conventions closely.

 

Thank You

[Luke 37063]

Yea we have aimed to lineup with their conventions, I think this is one we just happen to miss way back when.

[regid 6]

Hi, Luke

Does this mean it can make it into a future update? It would be helpful.

Thank You,

Yea we have aimed to lineup with their conventions, I think this is one we just happen to miss way back when.

[Luke 37063]

It is a possibility, yes.

[regid 6]

Thank you.  If it will be helpful to formalize that request I will be glad to do so. 

It is a possibility, yes.

[regid 6]

Hello, Emby Team

How might I make a request to have this addressed?  It is making this a bit tricky in my library.  I've also noticed that things that I have named as Show.s01e01-e04 (multi-episode files) are only showing up in the database as if it is episode one.  This used to be fine.  I can't tell you at one point it broke exactly. 

 

If there is something I an do to manually to correct this temporarily (other than stitching or splitting files) please let me know.  All I Know it was before I bought the Lifetime license.

 

An otherwise very happy customer

 

Thank You...

Edited November 13, 2016 by regid

[Luke 37063]

Hi, I am sorry that we have not been able to get to this yet. Yes, we would like to support it, but we can only do so many things at a time and we use feedback from the community to help us measure the demand for requests. That in turn helps us prioritize. The best way to help get this done faster is to encourage others to come into this topic and voice their support.

[regid 6]

Luke,

Thanks for the prompt response (do you not take weekends off.  ).  I will think on how I will write it up and create a clean new topic (if that is not bad etiquette) providing a clearer description of the two TV related issues asking my fellow customers to vote on. I will also see if this forum has an integrated voting feature.

 

To anyone else, if you know a way I can work around this for now I'd greatly appreciate it.  I used to use a tool to get around this thing involving nfo files for Boxee but they stopped supporting it ages ago.  It was smart enough to create useful nfo files for mutlitpart episodes and split.  This is one of the features of Kodi that originally had me use it as my primary media player.  Emby, otherwise, provides the superior server end management experience

 

Thank you

[Luke 37063]

Yea basically it's just as you originally said, linking to the kodi guidelines. If anyone wants to help, you can add this to our standalone naming project:

 

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Naming

 

The episode resolver needs to be expanded to capture the episode numbers.

[PurposelyCryptic 31]

I could have sworn this used to work, using the same naming convention as with split movies (.cd1, .cd2, .pt1, .pt2, etc), but I last remember encountering split-episodes frequently back in the MB2 days, so I guess it was probably MCM or metabrowser handling it. Every time I encountered it recently I just assumed I had messed up the naming, and manually updated the episode name and description; kind of glad to know it wasn't just me continually mucking it up

[Happy2Play 8281]

Isn't it easier just to combine the two files into one episode.

[PurposelyCryptic 31]

Isn't it easier just to combine the two files into one episode.

 

If the split-episode is broken up the same way a split movie is (i.e., simply arbitrarily cut in two due to space concerns, although that was more of a thing 5-10 years ago), then, technical skill requirements aside, I would definitely say yes.

 

However, some shows air with certain episodes back-to-back, as a sort of faux-double-length episode, for various reasons, like drawing viewers for the premier, etc., but then properly separate them for their DVD/Bluray release. In that case, you have two fully separate episodes, complete with opening/ending sequence, and sometimes even a next-episode preview, that are only considered a split-episode due to the metadata having been created based on the initial airing, and the system not being able to handle an additional episode suddenly being crammed in the middle and messing up its numbering.

 

In this scenario, combining the files creates an ugly Franken-episode with an OP/ED/Preview right in the middle, which is definitely less than ideal. Then there is also the issue of those watching the episode from the original physical media (Using media stubs in their library or some such - I was honestly surprised people did this, but going by some of the posts on the pooling feature, there seem to be quite a few); They don't have the option of merging the episodes.

 

[...] To anyone else, if you know a way I can work around this for now I'd greatly appreciate it. [...]

 

I just saw your request, AFTER writing up my work-around below... I really need to pay better attention  

I find the easiest way to work around the issue at the moment is to use the metadata manager to manually fix the issue, like this:

 

 

 

 

Both of these episodes were originally identically identified as Season 4, Episode 1, "Ougi Formula". 

Also, despite using the Kodi naming convention of adding a '.1' and '.2' to the episode number in the file name, this was ignored and they ended up being listed in Emby in the wrong order, with the second part first, likely due to the order in which they were scanned into the library.

 

To get them to appear in Emby in a state fit for a proper viewing experience, I did the following:

• Since they appeared in the wrong order, I changed the 'Date Added' for the first part to be earlier than that of the second part.
• I changed the title of each part to reflect its split nature - In this case, I used the episode names from my Bluray Disk (translated), adding " - Part One" and " - Part Two" to the respective episodes (although there was a fairly obvious naming convention in place already). If you don't have a lookup source handy, just go with whatever looks best to you.
• Since I have not yet watched these episodes, and thus couldn't rewrite the Overviews without spoilering myself, I just added a simple "Part One of Two" and "Part Two of Two" to the respective Overview.
• Finally, and this is important, make sure to hit the "Lock this item to prevent future changes" checkbox for each part, so that your changes don't get wiped in a random metadata update. I didn't, initially, and thus had to redo everything a day later - don't be me.
  • If you're a little OCD like me, you may also want to take a quick screencap from your second part (I use MPHC, but VLC works too, or the Windows Snipping Tool if you have neither), and replace your episode thumb, which is either in the 'metadata' subfolder of your season folder, if you have Emby set to save metadata with your media, or hidden away someplace in your central metadata storage if you don't (where exactly I don't know).

​​Anyway, that's all it takes - it may sound like work, but it's really just 5 minutes after you've done it once. Below are screenshots of the results:

 

Emby Theater:

 

Emby for WMC (Sorry it ended up windowed):

 

 

Browser:

 

 

 

Hope that was of help to anyone having split-episode issues 

 

Edited 2016/11/15, 17:43 EST: Added direct response to regid's question.

Edited November 15, 2016 by PurposelyCryptic

[PhyberApex 16]

 

If the split-episode is broken up the same way a split movie is (i.e., simply arbitrarily cut in two due to space concerns, although that was more of a thing 5-10 years ago), then, technical skill requirements aside, I would definitely say yes.

 

However, some shows air with certain episodes back-to-back, as a sort of faux-double-length episode, for various reasons, like drawing viewers for the premier, etc., but then properly separate them for their DVD/Bluray release. In that case, you have two fully separate episodes, complete with opening/ending sequence, and sometimes even a next-episode preview, that are only considered a split-episode due to the metadata having been created based on the initial airing, and the system not being able to handle an additional episode suddenly being crammed in the middle and messing up its numbering.

 

In this scenario, combining the files creates an ugly Franken-episode with an OP/ED/Preview right in the middle, which is definitely less than ideal. Then there is also the issue of those watching the episode from the original physical media (Using media stubs in their library or some such - I was honestly surprised people did this, but going by some of the posts on the pooling feature, there seem to be quite a few); They don't have the option of merging the episodes.

 

 

I just saw your request, AFTER writing up my work-around below... I really need to pay better attention

I find the easiest way to work around the issue at the moment is to use the metadata manager to manually fix the issue, like this:

 

 

 

 

Both of these episodes were originally identically identified as Season 4, Episode 1, "Ougi Formula". 

Also, despite using the Kodi naming convention of adding a '.1' and '.2' to the episode number in the file name, this was ignored and they ended up being listed in Emby in the wrong order, with the second part first, likely due to the order in which they were scanned into the library.

 

To get them to appear in Emby in a state fit for a proper viewing experience, I did the following:

• Since they appeared in the wrong order, I changed the 'Date Added' for the first part to be earlier than that of the second part.
• I changed the title of each part to reflect its split nature - In this case, I used the episode names from my Bluray Disk (translated), adding " - Part One" and " - Part Two" to the respective episodes (although there was a fairly obvious naming convention in place already). If you don't have a lookup source handy, just go with whatever looks best to you.
• Since I have not yet watched these episodes, and thus couldn't rewrite the Overviews without spoilering myself, I just added a simple "Part One of Two" and "Part Two of Two" to the respective Overview.
• Finally, and this is important, make sure to hit the "Lock this item to prevent future changes" checkbox for each part, so that your changes don't get wiped in a random metadata update. I didn't, initially, and thus had to redo everything a day later - don't be me.
  • If you're a little OCD like me, you may also want to take a quick screencap from your second part (I use MPHC, but VLC works too, or the Windows Snipping Tool if you have neither), and replace your episode thumb, which is either in the 'metadata' subfolder of your season folder, if you have Emby set to save metadata with your media, or hidden away someplace in your central metadata storage if you don't (where exactly I don't know).

​​Anyway, that's all it takes - it may sound like work, but it's really just 5 minutes after you've done it once. Below are screenshots of the results:

 

Emby Theater:

 

Emby for WMC (Sorry it ended up windowed):

 

 

Browser:

 

 

 

Hope that was of help to anyone having split-episode issues 

 

Edited 2016/11/15, 17:43 EST: Added direct response to regid's question.

I was just searching for a solution to this and wanted to thank you for your explanation on how to do it...I had the same problem with the exact same episode

 

~Cheers

[PenkethBoy 2063]

@@PurposelyCryptic

 

thanks worked a treat with Star Wars Rebels Season 3

[Luke 37063]

Thanks for the info !

[testingtv 3]

Sorry that I have to bring up this topic again. But it seems like the workaround brought up by PurposelyCryptic isn't working anymore.

 

When I try his suggestion the two different files get listed as "Versions" in a dropdownmenu on the episode page.

[Luke 37063]

For the best experience possible I would suggest joining the files. Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[testingtv 3]

With joining the files I assume you mean making one file out of them?
In my case that seemed impossible since complications in the process.

 

I now ended up editing the Meta Data by hand and locked them. Should be enough for the moment.

Thanks for your help.

Edited May 10, 2019 by testingtv

[Luke 37063]

That's correct, yes.

[misterkoat 6]

No media centre or server has been able to handle this issue. Here is a case scenario, there are some production companies who in this age don't do tradition broadcasting. Or if they do, the episodes are uploaded somewhere else for streaming. Since they depend on ads to earn revenue, they split a single episode into say 4 parts (typical of a commercial break). So, they uploaded these videos as one episode, but in split format. When i download, I sure do have an option to join the files (time consuming when having many files, if I at all know how to handle that). However, it should be possible to add the files and then the server or center be able to join or even recognize them as a single episode not multiple versions of an episode.

[Luke 37063]

Yea for the best experience possible we suggest joining the files.

[misterkoat 6]

I have 3 shows 10 episodes each, each episode split into 4 parts, each part with synced subtitles. Using MKVToolNix,arranging and multiplexing one episode takes fives minutes. Do the math.

[misterkoat 6]

how's this going.