TomOpus

I actually downloaded the Plex app to watch a movie a friend of mine is in.

clckworang

I ordered a Blu-ray burner drive. I figure I can start backing up some things before getting some of the other things I'll need down the road.

clckworang

I've started backing up some things and getting the hang of how Plex works. There have been some tribulations but nothing too crazy. Everything is currently on the hard drive of my computer, but I would like to set up an NAS.

I've heard good things about Synology (or at least that's it's easy for beginners like me) and am looking at a few. Not knowing much of anything about this, it's overwhelming. Are there any specs that I need to pay particular attention to? Certain minimums that I should look out for? Any suggestions? I won't say that price is no object, but I don't mind investing in something now so that I won't have to pay later.

John Galt

The two big processor intensive things I can think of are transcoding and recording live TV. If you're not doing much of either, there's really no need to go too crazy.

Dan

Agreed. And you can usually bypass transcoding, assuming your client devices can be set up to receive original quality video and audio. Check those settings to be sure, but it shouldn't be a problem.

I love having a NAS for Plex along with using it as a repository for all my personal stuff, too. Synology is great, IMO, and there are lots of good how-to videos on YouTube for familiarizing yourself with their devices.


I will say... if you go the NAS route, make sure to pick one that isn't too much larger (in terms of empty bays) than what you reasonably think you will need. Try to estimate just how much storage you think you'll use, along with the cost of, say, 2x or 3x 12TB drives vs. 5x 8TB drives.
I ended up with a 5-bay NAS, and I'm extremely happy with it, but that's not ideal for everyone.

clckworang

I knew things were going too smoothly setting things up. I have the automatic update library options selected, but Plex isn't making the updates. Ugh. Setting this up isn't fun, but I know it will be worth it.

Oh, very good to know as I'm not planning on using it for that.

I've got about 4,000 titles, the bulk Blu-rays, so I'm trying to avoid thinking about how much space I'll need to backup that much.

John Galt

4,000 movies will use a ton of space. But Hard Drives are only getting bigger and cheaper, so it's much more economical than when I built mine. I had to go 15 drives because 3TB was as large as they came ten years ago, but with 20TB drives out now you could do a ten drive system and store all your media. Depending on budget, I'd also be tempted to just go five and store what you can knowing you can gradually upgrade to larger drives and within five years you'll have enough space to store everything.

clckworang

I've been plugging away on the backups and making slow but steady progress. I finally have Plex seeing nearly everything, but the TV stuff requires a lot of inputting. Going through my DVDs alphabetically, I've hit Beavis and Butt-head and a potential delay. They're all individual little episodes 5-7 minutes each. Ugh. I'm thinking ahead to things like Looney Tunes. Double ugh. Does anyone have any tips or shortcuts for formatting or naming? Or is it just a long slog?

The movies are SO much easier to do. Just create the folder and throw the file in there, no renaming required. This task already seems daunting enough without thinking about some of these discs that are looking like absolute time sucks.

TheBigDave

It's been years since I've done it. I used some freeware that does bulk renaming. Here's what I used:

https://www.1-4a.com/rename/

It takes a few minutes to learn how to use it, but it's pretty simple.

I forget exactly how I did it. But I probably named all the files 1.mkv, 2.mkv, 3.mkv, etc. Then put them all together in a folder. Then set it to rename everything in the folder "Beavis.and.Butthead.S01EXX.1993.480p.mkv". And have it replace "XX" with increasing numbers. So "1.mkv" would turn into "Beavis.and.Butthead.S01E01.1993.480p.mkv". Make sure you include the year. That makes it easier for Plex to identify it.

Once you get the hang of it, it's quick and easy.

Here's some additional info:

https://support.plex.tv/articles/nam...tv-show-files/

clckworang

Thanks! That's just the kind of program I was looking for. I know about the naming thing, especially with the TV shows. It took me a bit to get it displaying right because of that, but the TV shows I've done so far are looking good now.

Dan

I don't know what the hell happened, because I didn't change anything on my end at all, but I added a couple recently acquired movies to my library and Plex cannot find them in any of its databases. This makes no sense, because one of them is a new copy of a movie I already had in there, that it found without a problem. But now, with this new copy, it's like the movie doesn't exist. I've tried 'obscure' titles as well as popular ones now, and nothing.

I've tried searching online, but I'm not finding any good results. I even followed the Plex naming scheme where I include the IMDB or TMDB ID# in the filename, in curly brackets just as they say, and still nothing. This sucks.

TheBigDave

That happens from time to time. Sometimes there's a minor update that breaks the matching. It's usually fixed in a day or two.

In the meantime, open Plex on your computer. Find your movie and click on the 3 dots in the lower right corner. Select "Fix Match" and under Search Options put the IMDB number (including the "tt") in the Title section. That should bring it up.

clckworang

How do people handle different versions of films on Plex? Are they accessible if you put in the same folder? The PG-13 versus unrated versions of Drag Me to Hell play very different. I'd want both accessible, likewise for titles like Almost Famous or LOTR. Or what about 3D films? I suppose a separate library for 3D is an option, but I wouldn't want a separate unrated or director's cut library. How do any of you handle it?

Dan

So, I save two MKV files, one with each version, and add them both to the library. After they get matched to the correct title, they'll appear as one listing only. I don't like that. So I select the option to 'split' them, and it'll create two listings of the same title. At that point, I edit the titles to add "TC" or "DC" to the end of the title, and I change the artwork on one of them so they aren't identical.
Probably not the best way to go about it, but it works for me. Looks like this:

mndtrp

I do the same as Dan, although I use parenthesis around the descriptor. (Director's Cut) (Theatrical) (Extended) etc.

clckworang

So you put the two different mkv files together in one folder on your computer or separate folders as if they're two different movies?

Dan

Same folder. No matter what, Plex doesn't auto differentiate between different cuts, so it treats them as one movie, but just different copies. Using the Split option, though, you can edit the displayed text and images so they appear unique.

It takes a bit of fiddling to get used to it.

clckworang

Got it. I'll give it a try when I get home tonight. I've mainly gotten used to it, but there are still some odd things like this that pop up. And I still have one stand-up show that it doesn't seem to want to recognize no matter how I rename it.

I'm glad I don't have more stand-up shows because those don't seem to play as well with the system - at least how I try to categorize. I think it prefers you to call them movies, but I see them as TV since most premiered on HBO. It doesn't seem to like individual entries in TV and wants multiple episodes nested in order to show up in a TV library. I was lucky to find on TVDB that someone had nested George Carlin HBO specials. That was the only way I finally got those to show up right. The individual ones from others are still an issue.

Noonan

Couldn't you update the metadata so they're matched separately? Or does that db not have different versions to pick?

mndtrp

Plex mostly ignores metadata, and just matches on the main movie. I manipulate all of my media in a different program, so my movies are in different folders, but plex still matches on a single movie release. I think it's because, as far as plex is concerned, it's just looking at Movies, not at individual releases (Director's Cut vs. Thetrical). For example, if you go to IMDB and look up Brazil 1985, there's not separate listings for each movie releases.

clckworang

But since I believe it uses themoviedb.org to get its data, anyone could technically add a separate entry for a different cut of a movie. I'm not industrious enough to do so, but when I added The Abyss in separate folders, it was able to create two library entries for each cut - obviously someone had added some information for both. That's the only one that has worked for me like that.

John Galt

The changes they've made to the web browser suck and it make it much harder to organize your library.

fujishig

I finally updated my Synology to the latest version (DSM 7) and the Plex app is completely different. Took it several hours to do whatever it needed to do to change all my media, so just a heads up if anyone else hasn't updated yet, make sure you don't want to watch anything immediately. Also don't use the version synology pulls up automatically, I have no idea why but it's some kind of beta version.

DJariya

If you use Plex, they alerted their consumers they had a data breach. Change your passwords

RichC2

They claim the passwords are salted and hashed but you should go ahead and change them anyway. And generally speaking when it comes to them, don't use one you use on other sites.