[Emby Server] Trailers only supported in subdirectories - Could we fix it for better directory support?

[Cthalpa 10]

First off, move this post if not appropriate here.
 

@Luke @CBers @Happy2Play Maybe you guys should see this thread.

Ill describe this as simple as I can.

My folder structure is simple - as I dont want, nor need thousands of libraries. Thus my structure is as this: "/home/movies/" and "/home/cartoons" etc etc, and not like this: "/home/movies/blabla (2021)" etc. I place all my feature films/tv shows etc/ within the respectable directories

(E.g. ls -h /home/media/film)
X-Men The Last Stand (2006).mkv
Yin Yang Master, The (2021).mkv
You Dont Mess With the Zohan (2008).mkv
You Should Have Left (2020).mkv
Zero Days (2016).mkv
Zero Theorem, The (2013).mkv
Zulu (2013).mkv

As you can see, no subdirectories for features, everything is just there.
I have discovered that custom trailers will NOT work/be used, if they are not placed in subdirectories within the data directories.

E.g, if I download a trailer and put into "/home/movies/blabla (2021)-trailer.mkv", Emby server will NOT pick it up.
 

/Movies/
   Home Alone (1990).mkv
   Home Alone (1990)-trailer.mp4

The above does NOT work!

If I download a trailgr, and move the movies and trailer into "/home/movies/blabla (2021)/blabla (2021).mkv | blabla (2021-trailer.mp4") it will instantly pick up.

/Movies
   /Home Alone (1990)/
     Home Alone (1990).mkv
     Home Alone (1990)-trailer.mp4

The above works!


Could it please be requested, that trailers could support being placed into any directory, as long as its "side-by-side" with the feature film, and not required to be in a subdirectory solely containing the feature film and trailer?

Running linux (debian server), newest stable edition.

Pretty please?

Best regards.
Ronnie

Edited March 23, 2021 by Cthalpa
Typo

[Happy2Play 8356]

@LukeIn my tests on stable and beta flat media are not using local trailers, the online trailer is used.  Clearing the metadata trailer provides no trailer button when local trailer is present.

 

[Cthalpa 10]

11 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

@LukeIn my tests on stable and beta flat media are not using local trailers, the online trailer is used.  Clearing the metadata trailer provides no trailer button when local trailer is present.

 

Exactly. Oline trailers are used, if custom trailers are not put in subdirectories along with feature film.
As soon as you create a subdirectory, that has both the custom trailer and the feature, it works.

This should be changed, as per my statement above

[Happy2Play 8356]

Something that has been overlook.  There must not be that many users that still use a flat structure and local trailers.  But I am sure Luke will fix it, assuming it is a easy fix.  But would appear to have been broken for awhile as I just tested in 4.3 also and got the same results.

[Cthalpa 10]

5 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Something that has been overlook.  There must not be that many users that still use a flat structure and local trailers.  But I am sure Luke will fix it, assuming it is a easy fix.  But would appear to have been broken for awhile as I just tested in 4.3 also and got the same results.

Most likely.
I just started using custom/own trailers today, since the other is not always accurate OR decent in resolution and so on.
Maybe not alot of people/user follow a flat structure - but on the other hand, not alot of users have 104+TB content, in which case flat file and directory structure, makes your server administration far easier.

I cant imagine even having to begin to move tens and tens of thousands of files and tens of thousands of directories, and then rescan everything, and doing thousands of image uploads, and minor metadata adjustments agian, just to be able to use custom trailers

I hope this can be easily fixed

Best regards.
 

Edited March 23, 2021 by Cthalpa

[ebr 14959]

12 hours ago, Cthalpa said:

and doing thousands of image uploads, and minor metadata adjustments agian

Hi.  If you are customizing images and metadata, be sure you turn on the NFO saving and saving of images with your media.  Then, those things are not lost on a rebuild.

[Cthalpa 10]

37 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  If you are customizing images and metadata, be sure you turn on the NFO saving and saving of images with your media.  Then, those things are not lost on a rebuild.

Bad idea! The Emby system user should not have write permissions in the media directories! Its outright dangerous - lost alot of media on that account before, and I think there´s been alot of threads about that exact issue.

The easiest fix would be to obviously let -trailer.mp4 be allowed in a flat directory structure
But thatnks for the information.

[ebr 14959]

12 minutes ago, Cthalpa said:

Bad idea! The Emby system user should not have write permissions in the media directories!

That is a personal choice but you are creating another dangerous situation which is the potential loss of your customizations.  But, that is a choice you are free to make.

12 minutes ago, Cthalpa said:

The easiest fix would be to obviously let -trailer.mp4 be allowed in a flat directory structure

My comment was regardless of this behavior.  Not saving the metadata and images with the media and also making customizations to those is going to eventually cause you to have to re-do those things somewhere along the line (most likely).

[Carlo 4331]

Personally I'd get yourself a util like FileBot and set it up to scan your movie library, rename properly and CREATE DIRECTORIES.  This is a super easy way to create one folder per movie.  This make navigation fast and simple and will allow you the most functional system.  Some feature in Emby can't be used with flat folders.

If you do the above TURN ON saving images and NFO file to the media folders and scan your movie library (with folders writable).  Make any adjustments to movies so all your metadata and images are correct and this if you want turn off saving NFO and images and make the folders read only.

That will at least allow you in the future to rescan your media and start back where you are now.  Of course any new media added won't get this treatment but you could setup a "Featured" library that is writable to scan media in setup as above to get the graphics and NFO written, then you could move that folder into your Movies folder.

A bit of extra step for sure but you'll have libraries that can be rebuilt a lot more easily in the future.

[Cthalpa 10]

22 hours ago, ebr said:

That is a personal choice but you are creating another dangerous situation which is the potential loss of your customizations.  But, that is a choice you are free to make.

My comment was regardless of this behavior.  Not saving the metadata and images with the media and also making customizations to those is going to eventually cause you to have to re-do those things somewhere along the line (most likely).

Thats whats backups of the entire /var/lib/emby directory is made for.
No matter what, writeable permissions for emby system user is an even worse idea, than proposed, as we have seen that updates have destroyed entire libraries before. 
I do not disagree with you on the metadata and nfo debate, but as I said, thats why backups are important, and always rests of the users shoulder.
However, I would appriciate it, if we could stay on track, and focus on my point, which is, that trailers cannot be used in flat directories, and I suggest a change to make that possible.

Perhaps this post should be moved to the appropriate forum for suggestions?

[ebr 14959]

57 minutes ago, Cthalpa said:

Thats whats backups of the entire /var/lib/emby directory is made for.

That won't back up your customizations to metadata as those are only saved to the database and other items wouldn't survive something like a simple move of items from one directory or drive to another.

The only way to ensure your customizations are safe are with the options we have to save them with the media.

[Guest]

Spoiler

 

I do have a question.. just real quick.. How is your access times on those directories..

I am using a Windows 10 Dell 7040 Micro with 8GB Ram, i6500T ... I use a Netgear 316 NAS running Linux.. I had the same sort of structure to my movies and sounded like you almost exactly, about the structure.. and I never wanted extra junk and media in my folders which I have gotten around.. ( Takes up storage space )....

I also liked to use Large Icon View to show the show cover- cool looking directory.. pick a movie and play with a local player.. presentation was nice.. BUT..

My directories became SLOOOOOW to access for instance 1,500 files around or no less than 3 GB to 11GB when I opened the directory.. Took like minutes for the progress bar to load all the files while showing some of them right off..

I used my batch script to create a folder by filename for each file.. did the same inside my SRT directory which worked fine for MPC-HC and merged them then did some batch editing of the SRT files to include the language..

I had not reached the limit for files though they were larger with metadata, and had no folders.. I was assuming it was in the request made to the server for the listing as they are mounted as Network Drives..

After I was done... with the first batch script for the files (videos) my load times went to instantaneous from 3-5 Minutes in some cases. ( This wound up being what pushed me to make the change in my movies.. sucks now if I am just accessing them but my situation forced me to address the file access time when working on or browsing the directory..

Ever have that issue..

 

SO off-topic..sorry

Edited March 28, 2021 by Guest

[Luke 37248]

Hi, yes, support for trailers without dedicated movie folders is something we can look at in future updates. thanks for the feedback.