Enhance version name for media files with same name

[raylapse 1]

I knew normally the version name should be - suffix in file name, according to emby standard naming conversion.
However, this leads to significant effort to maintain the file names especially for TV shows.

The simpler way is to organize different versions into different parent folders, like:
Strike Back 2010 [Netflix]
  -- Season 1
     -- S01E01.mkv
     -- S01E02.mkv
  -- Season 2
Strike Back 2010 [Amazon]
  -- Season 1
     -- S01E01.mkv
     -- S01E02.mkv
  -- Season 2

If I scan these into emby, the version name for S01E01 would to two S01E01 tags - useless for me to identify the version.

Please consider to enhance the version tag determination logic, maybe like:
IF version name (file name) is duplicate
    Compare the full file path fo two files
    Use the last unmatching folder name as version name (in this case, Season 1 is still duplicate, so search one level up, that is Strike Back 2010 [Netflix] and Strike Back 2010 [Amazon])
ENDIF

[Luke 42077]

HI, yes improvements to this would make sense. thanks.

[raylapse 1]

On 10/22/2025 at 3:32 AM, Luke said:

HI, yes improvements to this would make sense. thanks.

Hi Luke,

Before emby team official support this, I would like to build a plugin to realize this.

However I have no clue how to do that - it seems currently the version name for same tmdb entry is returned by PlaybackInfo on runtime, there is no persistent of such version name in db, i.e. the MediaSourceInfo is a dynamic DTO? Am I right?
Then how could I override the version name by my coding and persistent into db？
Can you provide the suitable APIs and roughly desribe the process for me to build such a plugin?

Thanks

[raylapse 1]

And there are two serious usability issues in emby client, either android app or tv app or web:

1. There is no version selection on the screen of tv series or season. It is only available for episode, that's two silly!
2. If I start to play S1E1 in version B, and then click for next episode in osd, it may play the version A!

Please think about to fix these issues. 
I can understand the version selection based on media source in playbackinfo API, so we have above behavior.
But it should still be possible to do something in UI side to improve the usablity!
There is a third party emby client named vidhub, it handles multi-version much better than official emby client! At least, it does not have the 2nd issue as it creates a playlist with the same version when start playing one episode.

[Luke 42077]

Quote

2. If I start to play S1E1 in version B, and then click for next episode in osd, it may play the version A!

hi, version A of what?

[raylapse 1]

6 hours ago, Luke said:

hi, version A of what?

Version A of S1E2.

In detail, suppose I have two versions of a tv series and the version tags are A and B.
Version tags will be ordered in alpha-beta in the dropbox of episode screen.

Then Select version B to start play S1E1 ->
Switch to S1E2 in osd ->
Emby will play the version A of S1E2, since A is ordered before B!

I mean, in such case users would expect to always play version B for all episode but not switching the version every time for every episode
 

[Luke 42077]

OK, the versions of video A and video B are not related to each other, so that is why.

[raylapse 1]

it's a functional gap.
in overall, emby's version handling is weak

Don't just say 'not related' but please think about to do something

[ebr 16169]

2 hours ago, raylapse said:

it's a functional gap.
in overall, emby's version handling is weak

Don't just say 'not related' but please think about to do something

Hi. The "versions" in Emby are different qualities.  Therefore, they bear no relationship to one another logically or functionally.  There is no "version A" of multiple items.

[NitroNine 29]

Not sure if this is what you mean, but I have some things in 1080p and 4K versions.  1080p versions for when I am on the go or streaming from work, and 4K when I am at home in the home theatre.  I haven't checked for a while, but I am pretty sure Emby plays the 4K version at home and 1080p version when I am on the go.  I have two folders, standard media (which I put all content up to 1080p in) and 4K media (which is all 4K qualities, web, bluray, remux). Emby shows them with a dropdown and I can select which version I want to watch.

For file naming, if you're not using sonarr/radarr and doing it manually, you're nuts lol.

Edited October 26, 2025 by NitroNine

[raylapse 1]

On 10/27/2025 at 4:57 AM, NitroNine said:

Not sure if this is what you mean, but I have some things in 1080p and 4K versions.  1080p versions for when I am on the go or streaming from work, and 4K when I am at home in the home theatre.  I haven't checked for a while, but I am pretty sure Emby plays the 4K version at home and 1080p version when I am on the go.  I have two folders, standard media (which I put all content up to 1080p in) and 4K media (which is all 4K qualities, web, bluray, remux). Emby shows them with a dropdown and I can select which version I want to watch.

For file naming, if you're not using sonarr/radarr and doing it manually, you're nuts lol.

All you described are correct! But,
You can try to play a TV series with 1080p version and 4K version
If you play 4K version for S1E01, and then in the player you select play next one, emby will play 1080 then but not 4K version. - Because it always select the first version from the dropdown box to play!

[GrimReaper 4739]

5 minutes ago, raylapse said:

Because it always select the first version from the dropdown box to play!

It actually doesn't, version selected is the one Emby deems would be played most efficiently on relevant device (not that that's infallible), meaning on two different devices with all other things being equal (i.e. same WAN, same AP, same subnet...) you might see different result/version being selected. 

Edited October 29, 2025 by GrimReaper

[Luke 42077]

On 10/29/2025 at 9:40 AM, raylapse said:

All you described are correct! But,
You can try to play a TV series with 1080p version and 4K version
If you play 4K version for S1E01, and then in the player you select play next one, emby will play 1080 then but not 4K version. - Because it always select the first version from the dropdown box to play!

Hi, did you try setting the quality setting in the app? That will get incorporated into which version is selected.

[raylapse 1]

On 10/31/2025 at 1:05 PM, Luke said:

Hi, did you try setting the quality setting in the app? That will get incorporated into which version is selected.

No all versions are quality related, like Netflix version vs Amazon version

[Luke 42077]

10 hours ago, raylapse said:

No all versions are quality related, like Netflix version vs Amazon version

Hi, what do you mean by "No all versions are quality related," ?

[raylapse 1]

On 11/4/2025 at 1:32 AM, Luke said:

Hi, what do you mean by "No all versions are quality related," ?

I mean resolution, if both versions are in 4K? -  this is the answer to your original post: try setting the quality setting in the app

[Luke 42077]

What is the difference between the two?