Automatic version grouping for movies

[Ugnaughts 53]

On 12/12/2024 at 2:38 PM, Nebula_01 said:

Would also be interested to know if there is any way to have 1080p as the first option

have you tried the name then -1 for 1080p  then like name -2 for 4k . make sure there isnt any with just name - something. or it will be first. hope this makes sense.

 

[Ronstang 293]

Is there a way to set this app to work on only chosen libraries?  My database is huge and I don't want to test this on all of my libraries.  I would like to keep it to one library where I know exactly what and where the multi-versions are located.  I really need this as I do not want to mess up my subdirectory structure.  I have things organized the way I need it to quickly identify files and do not want to move all the different versions into one folder like emby requires.

[GrimReaper 4739]

5 minutes ago, Ronstang said:

Is there a way to set this app to work on only chosen libraries?

Not in this plugin, but there's another (and more recent) auto-merge one:

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

3 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Not in this plugin, but there's another (and more recent) auto-merge one:

 

Don't both plugins have the same option "Merge items across different libraries" option?

[GrimReaper 4739]

9 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Don't both plugins have the same option "Merge items across different libraries" option?

I've never seen that option in this one? As I remember it, it just works across all libraries by default (though haven't used it in a while). 

Edited January 26, 2025 by GrimReaper

[Happy2Play 9780]

Just now, GrimReaper said:

I've never seen that option in thus one? 

Pretty sure @Noodlewasser(hoptional) added that.  So I would guess they both do the same thing in this regard.

[GrimReaper 4739]

Good stuff, thanks. 

[Ronstang 293]

OK, but how do I pick for it to work in only ONE library with multiple directories and subdirectories?  I have one set up for testing this feature before I unleash it across 10K plus movies.  I wanted to just install a second instance of emby for testing this feature but I cannot figure out how to do so as emby keeps trying by default to install in the same location which would erase my current setup and I don't want to go through that hassle again.

Plus, I don't even need to connect to the network with this as all the testing will be in the web app.  I just need to see how it acts before I commit my entire setup to it and the fact you cannot uninstall this is a little unsettling. 

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 minute ago, Ronstang said:

OK, but how do I pick for it to work in only ONE library with multiple directories and subdirectories? 

My understanding is you don't, if movies are in different libraries, you can have them merged or not per both plugins.  Neither plugin will allow you to select a specific folder for content merging.  But the plugin devs would have to comment further.

[Ronstang 293]

3 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

My understanding is you don't, if movies are in different libraries, you can have them merged or not per both plugins.  Neither plugin will allow you to select a specific folder for content merging.  But the plugin devs would have to comment further.

Ok, that will not work for me.  No way can I commit a complete system redo to test a plug in.

[Noodlewasser 68]

I could add an option to split the movies apart again, but it looks like the newer plugin already has this as well as some additional features, so you might want to try that instead.

[Ronstang 293]

Just now, Noodlewasser said:

I could add an option to split the movies apart again, but it looks like the newer plugin already has this as well as some additional features, so you might want to try that instead.

I'm not sure what this means actually.  I just want to be able to select the libraries it works on and actually limit it to one library.  I have a large number of libraries with movies in them.  Mostly for testing as I am the only one who sees these subset libraries.  I want to test this plugin on just one library that has multiple folders and subfolders.  This way if it acts in a way I don't like I can simply delete that library and the plugin, then rebuild just that library which is not actually needed on emby except for my testing purposes as to how things are working and looking on the libraries I give people access to.

[Noodlewasser 68]

I see, however that would be a lot more work to add than a simple operation to split ("unmerge") all movies. Moreover, I don't think it makes sense to have two plugins in development that do the same thing. As the other plugin seems to be more mature and it actuallyhas an active lead developer, I would suggest to request new features over there.

In the meantime, maybe you could just create a backup of your server and restore it if things don't go as planned?

Edited January 26, 2025 by Noodlewasser

[Ronstang 293]

1 minute ago, Noodlewasser said:

In the meantime, maybe you could just create a backup of your server and restore it if things don't go as planned?

Last time I tried that it borked my entire setup and I spend days getting it back.  That is not going to happen.  When you say "unmerging" does that mean the ability to revert to how things were before using the plugin?  I assume that is not possible now but you are talking about adding that feature.  I know the other plugin cannot do that so it is why I have never tried it but if you can and are willing to add that feature here I will try it for sure. 

[Noodlewasser 68]

It would revert all merges. If you have some movies that you merged manually, those would be split, too.

 

Btw. the other plugin mentions such a feature in the description:

Quote

global (all movies in all libraries) split can be invoked manually in Scheduled tasks - "Split Movies" in the  "Movie Auto Merge" section.

 

[Ronstang 293]

2 minutes ago, Noodlewasser said:

It would revert all merges. If you have some movies that you merged manually, those would be split, too.

 

So are you saying this is a possible feature upgrade in the future?  If so it would take the fear out of using such and app.  I have sometimes 4 or 5 versions of the same movies from different sources that are all in different directories on different hard drives so I don't want to try anything that cannot be 'untried". 

[Noodlewasser 68]

It looks like the Movie Auto Merge plugin has this feature already. Please try that one first.

[Ronstang 293]

3 minutes ago, Noodlewasser said:

It looks like the Movie Auto Merge plugin has this feature already. Please try that one first.

OK, I just booted my old server machine which has it's own stripped down libraries, almost none, and added the library I want to experiment with.  This way I can test both yours and the other with no fear of a meltdown to my mental state.  Thanks.

[Ronstang 293]

Another question, with your plug in is there a way to choose which of the multiple versions is played by default because I do not agree with emby's strategy to use the one with the lowest bitrate which means the lowest quality.  Totally counterintuitive to me.  In every instance of a dupe or different version I always have one I would want as the default when you just hit the play button.

[Clackdor 109]

4 hours ago, Ronstang said:

I wanted to just install a second instance of emby for testing this feature but I cannot figure out how to do so as emby keeps trying by default to install in the same location which would erase my current setup and I don't want to go through that hassle again.

Assuming you're on Windows you can use the portable version to run multiple instances of emby. You'll just need to stop the primary one first so you can do the initial setup and change the port number so they don't conflict.

It might also be a good idea to run it as a user that only has read access to your media folders to avoid any issues with it making changes to metadata etc.

 

[Ronstang 293]

How do I make this work?  I have no idea as I have never messed with a plugin before.  I dropped the dll into the plugins folder in emby server but I had to create the folder since it did not exist.  What else do I need to do?

EDIT:  Ok I got it to work and it did work but now a new problem.  The movies all have the same names in the drop down box so how do I know which version it is...this tells me nothing except I have two copies of the same movie, but they are not the same and I see no way to differentiate.  In emby when you drop them all into the same folder you get the part you append behind the hyphen in the filename as what shows in the drop down box so at least you know what version you are choosing.

Edited January 27, 2025 by Ronstang

[Noodlewasser 68]

7 hours ago, Ronstang said:

Another question, with your plug in is there a way to choose which of the multiple versions is played by default because I do not agree with emby's strategy to use the one with the lowest bitrate which means the lowest quality.

There is no such options and what you describe is not how emby decides which version you play. It picks the highest quality compatible with your device and your playback quality settings.

6 hours ago, Ronstang said:

In emby when you drop them all into the same folder you get the part you append behind the hyphen in the filename as what shows in the drop down box so at least you know what version you are choosing.

That is how it is supposed to work with the plugin. How are your movie files named? Can you post an example with their full paths?

[Ronstang 293]

52 minutes ago, Noodlewasser said:

That is how it is supposed to work with the plugin. How are your movie files named? Can you post an example with their full paths?

That I can fix rather quickly with Bulk Rename Utility.  Thanks

[Ronstang 293]

4 hours ago, Noodlewasser said:

There is no such options and what you describe is not how emby decides which version you play. It picks the highest quality compatible with your device and your playback quality settings.

That is how it is supposed to work with the plugin. How are your movie files named? Can you post an example with their full paths?

OK I got it to work.  Here is how my movies are named:

And God Created Woman  (1956) - TCMHD-N4Q

And God Created Woman (1956) - TCMIMP-V

But these movies are also in folders that are named the same as the files.  And when the folders are named the same as the files then the plugin works but it does not show the different versions, it just shows the same title twice.  If I remove everything after the date in parenthesis in the folder name then it works properly and I see the different versions.  

So...unfortunately this is a deal breaker.  Emby strikes again making something that should be simple simply not work.  I require the folders named the same as the movies or I have no way of differentiating the different versions which is important for me to quickly identify what I have and what I don't.  I have a lot of recorded content and I often replace it based on which I have now compared to what I can record now.  I also have recorded content that I have in Blu-Ray or DVD or recorded from a different channel and they are actually different in things such as aspect ratio, sound quality etc. so I need to know what is what.  If I cannot name my folders the way I want I cannot easily identify what is in the folder.  Having four folders with the exact same name but different content is useless and confusing. So basically the plugin works but does so in the same way as emby where I don't want all the different versions in the same folder but if the folders for the plugin have to be named the generic title of the movie only it is essentially the same penalty. 

Great plugin....the problem is emby as usual.

Emby is quickly becoming unusable for me, there are just too many design flaws baked into it.  The only thing that should make a difference in differentiating the versions is the filename...but no, it doesn't work that way.

 

Edited January 27, 2025 by Ronstang

[Ronstang 293]

3 hours ago, Noodlewasser said:

There is no such options and what you describe is not how emby decides which version you play. It picks the highest quality compatible with your device and your playback quality settings.

No it does not work the way you state.  I have two movies in this test library with two versions of each and in both cases the one that is picked as default is the lower quality movie with a lower bitrate.  Both the default are ~1,700 kb/s and the others are ~2,300 kb/s.  So in both cases it picked the lower quality movie.  You cannot tell me that movies that were originally encoded in h.264 and were later re-encoded in h.265 are of higher quality.  Emby strikes again.  I should be able to pick which I want as default but emby DEVs think they know better.