Multi-Version movies... HOW?

[Henkmeister 3]

BTW, is it possible to change the order of the versions in the dropdown-list?

[pwhodges 2012]

At present it is not.  This is a desired enhancement for those who use the facility for alternate cuts of a movie. 

As designed, the facility is intended for alternate versions (encodings, that is), and Emby automatically selects the one which it believes will be the best quality that the client and network link can handle.  A particular problem is that when resuming a part-played movie, Emby makes its choice afresh (in case the playing conditions have changed), rather than remembering which file it was playing - this means that for different cuts the resume might even be in the wrong place if you don't go through the screen where you can select the version again.

Paul

[Henkmeister 3]

In my case Emby thoughts 720p MPEG2 is superior than 1080p AVC.

[Luke 42077]

2 hours ago, Henkmeister said:

In my case Emby thoughts 720p MPEG2 is superior than 1080p AVC.

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[EatPrilosec 22]

On 5/2/2023 at 6:55 AM, pwhodges said:

What authority standardised this, and do you have a reference to the standard?

Paul

they call themselves the "scene" and to be fair they have kept these standards EXTREMLY clear and updated for quite a while (decades) now. 

example: https://scenerules.org/nfo/2020_X265.nfo

but TO BE FAIR those standards are, and always have been, for naming RELEASES, not collections. 

let me say it again for the people in the back:

there are IN FACT TWO STANDARDS. one for RLEASES AND ONE FOR COLLECTIONS. 

for the former, the prevailing authority is widely regarded as https://scenerules.org

for the latter, the prevailing authority seems to be plex, from my observations. (correct me if able, maybe kodi/xmbcfoundation?)

 

that is why plex, emby, jellyfin, and various other media collection softwares, like the ones that end with arr, have the option to AUTO ORGANIZE releases
 

On 5/2/2023 at 6:53 AM, twhiting9275 said:

Oh, I get it just fine. Emby cannot handle this properly and requires individuals to break standards for their own purposes.

and FOR THE RECORD, @twhiting9275i came across this confidently wrong thread and just had to say something. YOU, not emby or anyone else, are to blame for your troubles because YOU broke the scene standards AND EMBY standards and tried to fuse them together into some weird Frankenstein naming scheme instead of picking one.

your folder name was The Expendables 3 (2014)
and your file name was The Expendables 3 (2014).BluRay.1080p - blah

AND ALL YOU HAD TO DO TO MAKE THIS AWFUL SCHEME WORK WAS REPLACE ONE PERIOD WITH A HYPHEN
 

Quote

The Expendables 3 (2014)\The Expendables 3 (2014) - BluRay.1080p - blah

BY THE WAY
the NEITHER FOLDER NAME NOR FILE NAME was scene correct. if you click the link above you'll see an example naming structure for the DIRECTORY and file

 

Quote

17) [ Tagging ]
    17.1) The following source tags are allowed:
          BLURAY, CAM, D-THEATER, DCP, HDDVD, MBLURAY, MUSE-LD, SCREENER, TELECINE, TELESYNC, UHD.BLURAY, UHD.MBLURAY,
          WORKPRINT
    17.2) Only the following additional tags are allowed:
          ALTERNATIVE.CUT, BW, CHRONO, COLORIZED, CONVERT, DC, DIRFIX, DUBBED, DV, EXTENDED, EXTRAS, FS, HDR, HDR10Plus,
          INTERNAL, LINE, NFOFIX, OAR, OM, PROOFFIX, PROPER, PURE, RATED, READNFO, REAL, REMASTERED, REPACK, RERIP, RESTORED,
          SAMPLEFIX, SDR, SOURCE.SAMPLE, SUBBED, THEATRICAL, UNCENSORED, UNCUT, UNRATED, WS
        17.2.1) <VERSION / CUT TITLE> may be used when a tag from 17.2 does not fit.
                e.g. Deadpool 2: The Super Duper Cut may be tagged as Deadpool.2.2018.The.Super.Duper.Cut
        17.2.2) Proof must be provided for all remastered/restored releases to prove it is in fact a remaster/restore. At
                least 3 screenshots comparing the new and old sources/encodes must be included in the 'Proof' directory.
                Additional information should be included in the NFO, such as a link to an official source with details of the
                remaster/restore process.
    17.3) Variations of any additional tag are not allowed.
          e.g. READ.NFO or RNFO is not allowed, READNFO must be used.
    17.4) READNFO should be used sparingly. Discretion is recommended.
        17.4.1) The READNFO tag must not be used with PROPER, REPACK, or RERIP.
    17.5) Tags must be grouped together, period-delimited, and follow the mandatory directory format, see rule 18.4.
          e.g. EXTENDED.RERIP, REMASTERED.REPACK.
    17.6) Tags must only be used once, but the order is left to the discretion of the group.
        17.6.1) Except in situations where the REAL tag is required to be stacked to differentiate between multiple invalid
                releases.
                e.g. A REAL.REAL.PROPER is required for a REAL.PROPER and PROPER.
    17.7) The HDR tag should only be used when there was an SDR release first and vice versa.
          e.g. An SDR release of Gemini Man pred first, a subsequent HDR release must be tagged as such.
          e.g. An HDR release of Star Wars pred first, a subsequent SDR release must be tagged as such.

18) [ Directory ]
    18.1) Acceptable characters allowed for directories are:
          ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
          abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
          0123456789._-
    18.2) Single punctuation must be used. Consecutive punctuation is not allowed.
          e.g. Show----Name.S01E01, Show.Name....S01E01
    18.3) Typos or spelling mistakes in the directory are not allowed.
    18.4) Releases must match the following directory format:
        18.4.1) Feature.Title.<YEAR>.<TAGS>.[LANGUAGE].<RESOLUTION>.<FORMAT>.<x264|x265>-GROUP
        18.4.2) Weekly.TV.Show.[COUNTRY_CODE].[YEAR].SXXEXX[Episode.Part].[Episode.Title].<TAGS>.[LANGUAGE].<RESOLUTION>.
                <FORMAT>.<x264|x265>-GROUP
        18.4.3) Weekly.TV.Show.Special.SXXE00.Special.Title.<TAGS>.[LANGUAGE].<RESOLUTION>.<FORMAT>.<x264|x265>-GROUP
        18.4.4) Multiple.Episode.TV.Show.SXXEXX-EXX[Episode.Part].[Episode.Title].<TAGS>.[LANGUAGE].<RESOLUTION>.<FORMAT>.
                <x264|x265>-GROUP
        18.4.5) Cross.Over.TV.Show.One.SXXEXX[Episode.Part].[Episode.Title]_Show.Two.SXXEXX[Episode.Part].[Episode.Title].
                <TAGS>.[LANGUAGE].<RESOLUTION>.<FORMAT>.<x264|x265>-GROUP
        18.4.6) Miniseries.Show.PartX.[Episode.Title].<TAGS>.[LANGUAGE].<RESOLUTION>.<FORMAT>.<x264|x265>-GROUP
        18.4.7) Musical.Performance.or.Event.<PERFORMANCE_YEAR>.<TAGS>.<RESOLUTION>.<FORMAT>.<x264|x265>-GROUP
        18.4.8) Artist.Name.Recording.Name.<RECORDING_YEAR>.<TAGS>.<RESOLUTION>.PURE.<FORMAT>.<x264|x265>-GROUP
    18.5) Named directory arguments formatted inside <> must be included. Optional arguments formatted inside [] can be used
          in some cases.
        18.5.1) Mini-series parts must be at least 1 integer wide, and values used may extend past 9.
                e.g. Miniseries.Part.1, Miniseries.Part.10.
        18.5.2) Episode and seasonal numbering must be at least 2 integers wide, and values used may extend past 99.
                e.g. S01E99, S01E100, S101E01.
        18.5.3) Episode part refers to episodes, usually cartoons or animation, which split episodes into stories by different
                directors. Episode parts must be alphanumeric (A-Z, a-z, 0-9).
                e.g. The first episode from Season 2 of SpongeBob SquarePants is split into S02E01A/B, see:
                     https://goo.gl/CVGXKu
        18.5.4) Season must be omitted if a series is not a mini-series and does not have seasons.
                e.g. One Piece must be tagged as One.Piece.E01.
        18.5.5) Episode title is optional.
        18.5.6) Tags refers to all permitted tags only, see section 17.
        18.5.7) Non-English releases must include the language tag. English releases must not include the language tag.
            18.5.7.1) Language tags must be the full name of the language. Abbreviations or language codes are not allowed.
                      e.g. FRENCH, RUSSIAN, GERMAN.
        18.5.8) Format refers to the video source used.
                e.g. BluRay, TELECINE, HDDVD.

 

 

oh and P.S. you clearly DIDNT do your googling. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2024 by EatPrilosec

[Neminem 1518]

TBH the only time I have come across this in during my bad teen days.

Doing piracy....

 

[EatPrilosec 22]

2 minutes ago, jaycedk said:

TBH the only time I have come across this in during my bad teen days.

Doing piracy....

 

exactly. @twhiting9275forgot people actually OWN A COLLECTION PHYSICALLY and want to digitalize it. clearly hes used to everyone else doing the work for him and handouts

Edited July 4, 2024 by EatPrilosec

[js28194 36]

Hate to dig up and old thread but decided to keep the issue consolidated in the same thread.  This is the first one that pops up on Google Search so... Can anyone get a second set of eye's on this?  I have one move (Terminator 1984) work totally fine both in Emby and Kodi as multi-version as expected, however the second (terminator 2 judgement day) constantly show's up as a second movie.  As far as my eye's can tell, they have identical naming convention and the only diff is one file is mp4, from reading shouldn't make a difference.  Any thoughts?

Folder name The "Terminator (1984)"

& "Terminator 2 Judgment Day (1991)"

Edited March 16, 2025 by js28194
Adding folder names

[Happy2Play 9780]

12 minutes ago, js28194 said:

Hate to dig up and old thread but decided to keep the issue consolidated in the same thread.  This is the first one that pops up on Google Search so... Can anyone get a second set of eye's on this?  I have one move (Terminator 1984) work totally fine both in Emby and Kodi as multi-version as expected, however the second (terminator 2 judgement day) constantly show's up as a second movie.  As far as my eye's can tell, they have identical naming convention and the only diff is one file is mp4, from reading shouldn't make a difference.  Any thoughts?

 

 

Need to see folder names also.

Each version must begin with the folder name, followed by " - ".

https://emby.media/support/articles/Movie-Naming.html

In current release you can use the plugin if you don't want to do renaming.

Automatic version grouping for movies - Page 34 - Plugins - Emby Community

There are changes coming in beta to eliminate the plugin.  

On 3/8/2025 at 11:36 PM, Luke said:

Automatically merging movies by Movie Db Id will be a built-in feature in the upcoming Emby Server 4.9 release. Thanks.

 

[js28194 36]

Edited my post to include folder name.  Again, Terminator 1984 works fine, so it's something with Terminator 2

[js28194 36]

32 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Need to see folder names also.

Each version must begin with the folder name, followed by " - ".

https://emby.media/support/articles/Movie-Naming.html

In current release you can use the plugin if you don't want to do renaming.

Automatic version grouping for movies - Page 34 - Plugins - Emby Community

There are changes coming in beta to eliminate the plugin.  

 

Now that you mentioned folder name, I copied the folder name into the filenames and seems there was a some issue as I can see it did do something as I can see some spaces were removed.  Now everything is working.... 

You see, sometimes you just need someone with a different perspective and fresh pair of eyes.

Edited March 16, 2025 by js28194

[Manfrotto 2]

Just to add to this thread, it's taken me some time to find out why I was seeing multiple listings of the same movie in the library when using the multi-version feature.

If I have:

\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv

and
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - 2001 Redux.mkv
or
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux 2001.mkv

"2001" is interpreted as the date of the movie and a second entry is made in the library. I haven't seen this restriction listed anywhere.

[visproduction 315]

On 1/21/2024 at 5:14 AM, Henkmeister said:

BTW, is it possible to change the order of the versions in the dropdown-list?

Change the add date in the .nfo file.  The oldest date from any media version collection shows at the top of the dropdown list.

[brothom 177]

19 hours ago, Manfrotto said:

\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv

and
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - 2001 Redux.mkv
or
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux 2001.mkv

"2001" is interpreted as the date of the movie and a second entry is made in the library. I haven't seen this restriction listed anywhere.

I'm not at my system so I can't test this yet, but shouldn't these solve it for you:

\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux-2001.mkv
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - 2001-Redux.mkv

 

[Manfrotto 2]

7 hours ago, brothom said:

I'm not at my system so I can't test this yet, but shouldn't these solve it for you:

\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux-2001.mkv
\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - 2001-Redux.mkv

 

Nope, none of those work. Any number after the hyphen seems to cause the same problem unless it's something like a resolution.

i.e.  "\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux-2001.mkv" doesn't work

but

"\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux-2001p.mkv" does

[brothom 177]

11 hours ago, Manfrotto said:

Nope, none of those work. Any number after the hyphen seems to cause the same problem unless it's something like a resolution.

i.e.  "\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux-2001.mkv" doesn't work

Weird I've just tested this on my local device:

My "Movies" library is set to use the folder "C:\Media\Movies"

C:\Media\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv
C:\Media\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv

And this seems to be working fine: 

Are you sure that the movies aren't in an extra subfolder or something like that? Can you test with the "exact" path as the one I provided? 

 

[Manfrotto 2]

3 hours ago, brothom said:

Weird I've just tested this on my local device:

My "Movies" library is set to use the folder "C:\Media\Movies"

C:\Media\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv
C:\Media\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv

And this seems to be working fine: 

Are you sure that the movies aren't in an extra subfolder or something like that? Can you test with the "exact" path as the one I provided? 

 

I copied and pasted your exact path and still doesn't work on my NAS install. The full path there is 

"\\Diskstation2\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv"

So then I installed a local version of Emby and set the folder to the same as yours

"C:\Media\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv"

and it works fine with "2001 Redux", "Redux 2001", Redux [2001]" etc. 

So I have no idea what's going on or why it would behave differently on my NAS.

[brothom 177]

39 minutes ago, Manfrotto said:

I copied and pasted your exact path and still doesn't work on my NAS install. The full path there is 

"\\Diskstation2\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv"

So then I installed a local version of Emby and set the folder to the same as yours

"C:\Media\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv"

and it works fine with "2001 Redux", "Redux 2001", Redux [2001]" etc. 

So I have no idea what's going on or why it would behave differently on my NAS.

Well the short answer is that it shouldn't.

Are you sure you scanned the library files again (even manually) and verified that their path was indeed changed by viewing them in Emby?

I take it your NAS runs on Linux or something OS?
Perhaps there's a slightly different in path handling within the Windows/Linux/whatever distros.

@Happy2Playwould probably know more about that.

Long story short: we're both able to reproduce the case where it should work, but it doesn't seem to work the same on @Manfrotto's NAS. 

These paths should work on the NAS but apparently don't:

C:\Media\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv
C:\Media\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv

[Manfrotto 2]

It's a Synology NAS DS716+. Fairly old but all up to date and good enough for what I'm currently doing with it.

I'm rescanning after each change so can see immediately if a change has worked or not.

Just to clarify, the path "\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv" works fine on both, it's just there as a control so when I re-scan I will see at least one thumbnail when I view the library.

But if I add "\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv" and re-scan, I then see 2 thumbnails instead of a drop down menu in one. 

[brothom 177]

21 minutes ago, Manfrotto said:

But if I add "\Movies\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv" and re-scan, I then see 2 thumbnails instead of a drop down menu in one. 

Yeah it shouldn't do that. When the prefixes match before the separating "-", they should be considered versions of one another.

Like on my system (and your local one), "Apocalypse Now (1979)" is the media name. Every file that starts with "Apocalypse Now (1979)" and whose filename is followed by a "-" should be considered a version of "Apocalypse Now (1979)".

This should cause the dropdown to appear if both files (Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv and Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv) exist in the same folder, next to each other.

Having these two files:

...\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Original.mkv
...\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv

Should ALWAYS result in the version dropdown:

[Manfrotto 2]

Any ideas why it should differ between my PC and my NAS?

[brothom 177]

32 minutes ago, Manfrotto said:

Any ideas why it should differ between my PC and my NAS?

There's a couple of cases I can think of:

1. Emby isn't detecting the new path(s)
2. The Emby server is running a (very old?) version where this wasn't implemented
3. The scenario on the NAS isn't the same, the files aren't named equally

Basically either the NAS is configured incorrectly (different than both our test environments) or the files aren't set as in the example.

1 hour ago, Manfrotto said:

I'm rescanning after each change so can see immediately if a change has worked or not.

I noticed that sometimes scanning takes longer than just the progress bar reaching 100%, especially when another scan is still busy. I'd say change the file names as discussed, start a scan and wait a couple of hours. I don't know how many entries your server has, but if it's in the 10.000's that might explain. 

I also came across an old post (2021) in which Luke stated that once a file has been set to ungroup, it would never be unsplit or merged again: 

Could it be that you manually split/ungrouped this item before?

Edited September 26, 2025 by brothom

[Manfrotto 2]

Re-scanning takes a few seconds and I can see Emby has picked up any change I make to the filename in the media info.

Emby server on my NAS is Version 4.7.14.0 I can see there is a newer version available but if I try to install my NAS says it's not compatible with my current DSM version.

I tried a few different numbers in my example.

These ones are split in the library:

..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2001].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2010].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2067].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2099].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2000].mkv

These ones work as intended with a drop down where I can choose between the versions:

..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [20].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [200].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2999].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [2199].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [1099].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [3001].mkv
..\Apocalypse Now (1979)\Apocalypse Now (1979) - Redux [9999].mkv

Seems it's any 4 digit number starting with "20" causing the problem.  If you want to suggest other numbers I will test them, but to me it looks like Emby is interpreting anything that looks like a valid '20xx' year to be the release date and then splitting the versions. As you see here, with the media info for both versions:

 

Edited September 26, 2025 by Manfrotto

[Neminem 1518]

1 hour ago, Manfrotto said:

Emby server on my NAS is Version 4.7.14.0

That an old Emby server, current server version is 4.8.11.0

Next up is 4.9

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 hour ago, Manfrotto said:

Emby server on my NAS is Version 4.7.14.0 I can see there is a newer version available but if I try to install my NAS says it's not compatible with my current DSM version.

What Synology NAS version and DSM?