Default Multiple Version Selection

[hikaru45 1]

An issue I have run into that is closely related to this is downloads of multiple versions. I have a show that has 2 different versions, one English and the other Japanese. I had to do different versions because the shows were cut differently for each language, and there is no dual audio versions because of this. When my people download from the server, sometimes it does English, and other times it does Japanese. This poses a problem because most of my people download in the mornings and take it to work since they have no data. It's frustrating that when I choose English from the dropdown, and then select download, it auto picks the version instead of using the one I was already on. Is there any way, or plans, to choose what version to download? I get why it would auto select the best based on quality, but the versions I have are for language and not quality. 

Thanks for all of your hard work and dedication team!! Keep it up! Moved to Emby from Plex a few years back and it has been the best thing ever! (Aside from downloading different versions of the same show)

[mrklarth 0]

I think the wording of "appropriate version" when saying Emby auto-selects the version to play is a little vague. Would appreciate more details on the exact process. I have been running into a situation where I have two versions of the same movie. One is a local 4K version, and the other is 1080p via a .strm file. I do have subtitle downloading turned on, and I've found that the .strm with external subtitles is taking priority over my 4K version that has embedded subtitles, regardless of playback device (I"ve tested with Shield as well as web browser). It's easy to reproduce the issue as I can delete the .srt files and then it will go back to my local version.

[elpoolet 26]

Hi all.

I add my opinion to this thread, cause it could be a good option.
I suggest to add a tag in the name to select the order of appearence in the version sélection - and priority.
It could (or not) be managed by device types.
Another feature could be th denial of some versions outside the LAN : for instance 4k versions of movies are a way too high in bitrate to be supported by my internet connection.
Inside the LAN, all is fine.

in example I got this movie : The Martian (Seul sur Mars - in French)

I got these versions : 

Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended 4k HDR 8M vp9.mkv / (9.3GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended 4k hevc.mkv / (40 GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended 4k vp9.mkv / (30GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended 30M.mkv / (32 GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended vp9 web.mkv / (2.6GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - h264 light.mkv / (3.3GB)

Inside the LAN, the version priority (if the device support 4k) could be the "extended 4k hevc".
Outside the LAN, i could be "extended vp9 web".

It could be a marker in the file name such "[NW-LAN-10]" to have this version restricted inside the LAN, and priority 10 (lower the number, higher the priority)
another marker could be [NW-10] to just add priority 10 to this version.
another one : [NW-WAN-20] : this version have priority 20 in the WAN but no priority in the LAN
Or something like that

 

Any thoughts ?

[Zeckro 8]

17 hours ago, elpoolet said:

Hi all.

I add my opinion to this thread, cause it could be a good option.
I suggest to add a tag in the name to select the order of appearence in the version sélection - and priority.
It could (or not) be managed by device types.
Another feature could be th denial of some versions outside the LAN : for instance 4k versions of movies are a way too high in bitrate to be supported by my internet connection.
Inside the LAN, all is fine.

in example I got this movie : The Martian (Seul sur Mars - in French)

I got these versions : 

Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended 4k HDR 8M vp9.mkv / (9.3GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended 4k hevc.mkv / (40 GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended 4k vp9.mkv / (30GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended 30M.mkv / (32 GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - extended vp9 web.mkv / (2.6GB)
Seul sur Mars - (2015) - [tmdbid=286217] - h264 light.mkv / (3.3GB)

Inside the LAN, the version priority (if the device support 4k) could be the "extended 4k hevc".
Outside the LAN, i could be "extended vp9 web".

It could be a marker in the file name such "[NW-LAN-10]" to have this version restricted inside the LAN, and priority 10 (lower the number, higher the priority)
another marker could be [NW-10] to just add priority 10 to this version.
another one : [NW-WAN-20] : this version have priority 20 in the WAN but no priority in the LAN
Or something like that

 

Any thoughts ?

Good idea, a priority tag is a straightforward and easy solution, it would be enough for my needs. Nevertheless, name changes for all files would be necessary. Not ideal but I would prefer to have this option over none.

[elpoolet 26]

1 hour ago, Zeckro said:

Good idea, a priority tag is a straightforward and easy solution, it would be enough for my needs. Nevertheless, name changes for all files would be necessary. Not ideal but I would prefer to have this option over none.

I think, if this tag is implemented, you don't have to rename all your files.
You'll just have to rename hig priority ones or low priority ones, or only those you don't want on WAN...

 

Ant renamer is very gifted for this task.
And if you're a "perfectionist" you can update .mkv title to reflect the file name.
I do this on all my files.

I made a program to achieve this.

 

[Zeckro 8]

13 minutes ago, elpoolet said:

I think, if this tag is implemented, you don't have to rename all your files.
You'll just have to rename hig priority ones or low priority ones, or only those you don't want on WAN...

 

Ant renamer is very gifted for this task.
And if you're a "perfectionist" you can update .mkv title to reflect the file name.
I do this on all my files.

I made a program to achieve this.

 

You're right, not "all files" but "a lot of files". However, if you haven't used one naming scheme for the episodes in question, you'd still have to check which version to prioritize. For me, it sometimes is about dub or sub, and this can vary depending on the series or movie. Using a renamer isn't going to cut it directly. Nevertheless, far better than no option.

[elpoolet 26]

@Luke
Any update or news about sort of this feature ?

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  We are not likely to implement a work around in this regard (which is really what this request is asking for).  Our "version" feature is currently designed as different qualities of the exact same thing.  Instead of trying to further shoehorn a different feature into this design, we will likely just re-design it to provide properly for the function that is needed (different editions).

[elpoolet 26]

11 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  We are not likely to implement a work around in this regard (which is really what this request is asking for).  Our "version" feature is currently designed as different qualities of the exact same thing.  Instead of trying to further shoehorn a different feature into this design, we will likely just re-design it to provide properly for the function that is needed (different editions).

Thanks @ebrfor this answer.
So, if I understand, the "version" function of Emby will be redisigned to offer a "edition" (ie:Director's Cut, or so) point of view ?

If I'm right, how about "quality version" (ie : 720p 768kbps hevc, 1080p vp9 2Mbps, 1080p h264 30Mbps, 4k hevc 20Mbps ans so on)  ? How will it be possible to prioritize a "light bitrate version" when you're watching on WAN, instead of transcoding an heavy version while a lighter version already exists.
This is (for my concern) the point.

Just to clarify, my concern is to avoid transcoding and not saturate my bandwidth.

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  I envision that our current qualities (versions) would become a subset of Editions and the logic to select the proper quality within a particular edition would work as it does now - selecting the best version based on capabilities.

[Zeckro 8]

@ebrOkay, valid argument and totally fine. But the feature request is over 7 years old. Your wording suggests this edition feature is just an idea and not in implementation currently, or am I wrong?

[Luke 42077]

On 7/17/2025 at 1:11 PM, Zeckro said:

@ebrOkay, valid argument and totally fine. But the feature request is over 7 years old. Your wording suggests this edition feature is just an idea and not in implementation currently, or am I wrong?

Hi, the plan is to expand the multi-version feature to also be able to accommodate multi-editions.

[Zeckro 8]

8 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, the plan is to expand the multi-version feature to also be able to accommodate multi-editions.

This does not answer my question. You're saying "the plan is" which I understand as "is on the agenda but not in implementation currently". Or to put it bluntly, we could still wait another 7 years before this feature is released. So, is this feature in implementation or not?

[ebr 16169]

54 minutes ago, Zeckro said:

"is on the agenda but not in implementation currently"

That is correct.

While this would be an excellent feature and we plan to implement it, it actually only affects a very small percentage of items and users.  It also is far from simple to implement.  Therefore, it has not made it to the top of the list yet.

[Zeckro 8]

33 minutes ago, ebr said:

That is correct.

While this would be an excellent feature and we plan to implement it, it actually only affects a very small percentage of items and users.  It also is far from simple to implement.  Therefore, it has not made it to the top of the list yet.

What a bummer, it would highly improve my experience with Emby. Sadly, even competitors lack this or a similar feature, otherwise I would have switched a long time ago. I don't get it, I am definitely not the only one with this problem and there are a decent amount of posts about it in the internet...

[brothom 177]

On 26/07/2025 at 16:08, Zeckro said:

What a bummer, it would highly improve my experience with Emby. Sadly, even competitors lack this or a similar feature, otherwise I would have switched a long time ago. I don't get it, I am definitely not the only one with this problem and there are a decent amount of posts about it in the internet...

Eventhough I don't really look forward to having a feature to select version (Theatrical, Extended) and quality (hd, uhd, etc) separately, this thread did have 7 pages worth of comments on it so there are more than just some people that would like to have this feature it looks like.

Implementing this is technically difficult because "Avatar - 1080p - Extended" and "Avatar - Theatrical - 4K" don't really have clear naming conventions. Having to implement this means the naming conventions need to become more strict, for example "MovieName ({year}) - version - quality" and not "MovieName ({year}) - quality - version".

I can see how this is a technically challenging feature.

[Zeckro 8]

11 hours ago, brothom said:

Eventhough I don't really look forward to having a feature to select version (Theatrical, Extended) and quality (hd, uhd, etc) separately, this thread did have 7 pages worth of comments on it so there are more than just some people that would like to have this feature it looks like.

Implementing this is technically difficult because "Avatar - 1080p - Extended" and "Avatar - Theatrical - 4K" don't really have clear naming conventions. Having to implement this means the naming conventions need to become more strict, for example "MovieName ({year}) - version - quality" and not "MovieName ({year}) - quality - version".

I can see how this is a technically challenging feature.

I appreciate your comment, thanks. I am not saying, it is easy to implement, but it should be feasible. And while you are correct regarding the version naming, quality is quite simple because there is a fixed amount of commonly used resolutions: 144p, 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p or HD, 1080p or Full HD (FHD), 1440p or 2K or WQHD, 2160p or 4K – you can literally search for these strings in the file name. You could just add the option to manually adjust this list of strings to include obscure and uncommon resolutions, not that hard, right?

[brothom 177]

11 hours ago, Zeckro said:

144p, 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p or HD, 1080p or Full HD (FHD), 1440p or 2K or WQHD, 2160p or 4K – you can literally search for these strings in the file name. You could just add the option to manually adjust this list of strings to include obscure and uncommon resolutions, not that hard, right?

Well yes, but actually no. These formats can still match a actual media but not be within that resolution, for example 240p: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1313440-bort-240p.

This would still mean that a decision has to be made regarding naming conventions whereas the standard is now:

Quote

\Movies\Avatar (2009)\Avatar (2009).mkv
\Movies\Pulp Fiction (1994)\Pulp Fiction (1994).mp4
\Movies\Reservoir Dogs (1992)\Reservoir Dogs (1992).mp4
\Movies\The Usual Suspects (1995)\The Usual Suspects (1995).mkv
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986).mp4

It would be much more complicated due to a version not being a release and a release not being a version, so for example this would make sense because of the already present versioning:

\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Theatrical Edition - 1080p.mp4

Because that would automatically support:

 

\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - 1080p.mp4

And how the version support is now

\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Theatrical Edition.mp4

Also a media's name can contain words matching either a version or a release https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1359100-coldplay-moon-music-global-theatrical-listening-event. So that "version" (release) is completely ambiguous and abstract. It's just a label.

There has to be a naming convention - Emby can't just swoop words out of a title and marks as something it possibly isn't, the community wouldn't be so happy with that I assume.

[Zeckro 8]

8 hours ago, brothom said:

Well yes, but actually no. These formats can still match a actual media but not be within that resolution, for example 240p: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1313440-bort-240p.

This would still mean that a decision has to be made regarding naming conventions whereas the standard is now:

It would be much more complicated due to a version not being a release and a release not being a version, so for example this would make sense because of the already present versioning:

\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Theatrical Edition - 1080p.mp4

Because that would automatically support:

 

\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - 1080p.mp4

And how the version support is now

\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Theatrical Edition.mp4

Also a media's name can contain words matching either a version or a release https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1359100-coldplay-moon-music-global-theatrical-listening-event. So that "version" (release) is completely ambiguous and abstract. It's just a label.

There has to be a naming convention - Emby can't just swoop words out of a title and marks as something it possibly isn't, the community wouldn't be so happy with that I assume.

I disagree because you could just add a hyphen in the search string. If you have still a title that does that, how about " - q[Quality]"? There are always problematic edge cases and by the way, Emby already does take a name and mark an episode incorrectly sometimes. For example, I had files named "Series Name 2 Episode 01" or "Series Name 2 - S02E01" and it would still sometime apply the 2 as episode and season number. Or random numbers in the title of Specials and it would sometimes apply the number in the title as the Episode number. So that already does not work properly. For these cases, manual correction is possible. However, quality differentiation wasn't really my priority, it is about the default selecting of versions, meaning audio or visual differences apart from the resolution.

[brothom 177]

3 minutes ago, Zeckro said:

 However, quality differentiation wasn't really my priority, it is about the default selecting of versions, meaning audio or visual differences apart from the resolution.

That's also my point. Say you want to set the default version to "Theatrical Edition", but a piece of media has a "Theatrical Ensemble", meaning the same thing, it won't be selected. 

6 minutes ago, Zeckro said:

For example, I had files named "Series Name 2 Episode 01" or "Series Name 2 - S02E01" and it would still sometime apply the 2 as episode and season number.

Usually these platforms don't work with any alpha(numeric) but simply by "added date" or "id". Instead of a "- qFoo", I'd suggest something a little more abstract to be sure it won't influence the current versioning and can be easily maintained, also with different extensions.

Preferably, if the sort order is what you're after that's a different case and might be achievable more easily technical by simply adding it to the condetion as #0, #1, etc. For example:

\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Theatrical Edition - 1080p [#1].mp4
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Extended Edition - 1080p [#3].mp4
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Theatrical Edition - 4K [#0].mp4
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Extended Edition - 4K [#2].mp4
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Webrip [#4].mkv
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) [#5].mkv

So that the version dropdown becomes:

Theatrical Edition - 4K
Theatrical Edition - 1080p
Extended Edition - 4K
Extended Edition - 1080p 
Webrip
#5? 

This way you cant add a "default", but affect the default version, regardless of cut/version/release/whatever. But the catch is there "must" be a version or at least something shown in the version dropdown.

 

[Zeckro 8]

1 hour ago, brothom said:

That's also my point. Say you want to set the default version to "Theatrical Edition", but a piece of media has a "Theatrical Ensemble", meaning the same thing, it won't be selected. 

Usually these platforms don't work with any alpha(numeric) but simply by "added date" or "id". Instead of a "- qFoo", I'd suggest something a little more abstract to be sure it won't influence the current versioning and can be easily maintained, also with different extensions.

Preferably, if the sort order is what you're after that's a different case and might be achievable more easily technical by simply adding it to the condetion as #0, #1, etc. For example:

\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Theatrical Edition - 1080p [#1].mp4
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Extended Edition - 1080p [#3].mp4
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Theatrical Edition - 4K [#0].mp4
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Extended Edition - 4K [#2].mp4
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) - Webrip [#4].mkv
\Movies\Top Gun (1986)\Top Gun (1986) [#5].mkv

So that the version dropdown becomes:

Theatrical Edition - 4K
Theatrical Edition - 1080p
Extended Edition - 4K
Extended Edition - 1080p 
Webrip
#5? 

This way you cant add a "default", but affect the default version, regardless of cut/version/release/whatever. But the catch is there "must" be a version or at least something shown in the version dropdown.

 

But why not naming it Theatrical Edition then? I can name the files like I prefer, so that's not really an issue from my point of view.

Sort order sadly does not influence the version order, otherwise I wouldn't have a problem. My problem is that the default version is based on video metadata and is practically not always the same version, quite the contrary in fact. Even in a season, sometimes the first version and sometimes the second version is the default. That is my core problem and there is still no way for me to fix it.

[ebr 16169]

2 hours ago, brothom said:

So that the version dropdown becomes:

Theatrical Edition - 4K
Theatrical Edition - 1080p
Extended Edition - 4K
Extended Edition - 1080p 
Webrip
#5? 

If I were designing it, there would be two drop downs - one for the edition and then another (if needed) for the quality (version).

And, then, you would be able to designate a default edition (or remember the last) but the quality would be selected based on capabilities as it is now.

[brothom 177]

10 hours ago, Zeckro said:

But why not naming it Theatrical Edition then? I can name the files like I prefer, so that's not really an issue from my point of view.

Sort order sadly does not influence the version order, otherwise I wouldn't have a problem. My problem is that the default version is based on video metadata and is practically not always the same version, quite the contrary in fact. Even in a season, sometimes the first version and sometimes the second version is the default. That is my core problem and there is still no way for me to fix it.

Emby can't just "assume" something is a Theatrical Edition as a default that'll cause confusing issues later on maybe something like "Regular" or whatever placeholder would be more suited. But yes I agree this is something (maybe not now because it's not that urgent) the Emby team should do something with.

 

10 hours ago, ebr said:

If I were designing it, there would be two drop downs - one for the edition and then another (if needed) for the quality (version).

And, then, you would be able to designate a default edition (or remember the last) but the quality would be selected based on capabilities as it is now.

That's my point tho. When is something a version and when is some a release or "cut"? In which dropdown would "High Definition" land because it could be both, which would "UNCUT" or "Legendary" go?

In the long run, it would mean Emby has to create a mapping of god knows how many resolutions/quality there are, or the user does. From "High Definition" to "sd" to "70mm".

I think what we would really need to implement this, is to make additions to the metadata on a file-level. At the moment we can only edit metadata on the movie/show/book/whatever but this is something file-specifiek.

[ebr 16169]

6 hours ago, brothom said:

When is something a version and when is some a release or "cut"?

That is something we'd have to design.  However,

6 hours ago, brothom said:

In which dropdown would "High Definition" land

that is inherently a quality not an edition but, I would imagine that it could be designed so that you could create an edition with that name that just had  single quality version of what you consider High Definition.

[brothom 177]

40 minutes ago, ebr said:

That is something we'd have to design.  However,

that is inherently a quality not an edition but, I would imagine that it could be designed so that you could create an edition with that name that just had  single quality version of what you consider High Definition.

Not entirely. There's an IMDB entry called "High Definition" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28922688/), there is (at least) a commercial for James Bond called "James Bond 007 HD Launch Television Commercial (2012)" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12250944/), there are also different release of The Fifth Element, for example The Fifth Element High Definition and The Fifth Element True HD and there's a plethora of example where "quality" was used as a release version, especially when we were transitioning from vcr to cd/dvd. Most of them are followed by the word release, blu-ray or whaever tho:

2001: A Space Odyssey High Definition Edition
The Matrix High Definition Blu-ray
Inception 4K Ultra HD
Firefly 4K UHD
The Fifth Element 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Is it a release? Is it a version? Who knows. A lot more has to be done other than slapping a version from text.

Personally I'd prefer it if Emby did this automatically based on the resolution / bitrate / audio data.