This metadata agent should be used with the Extended Personal Media Scanner. See the instructions on this page for installing the scanner.
This is a Metadata Agent for personal media files. It works in conjunction with the Extended Personal Media Scanner to scan personal media shows. The meta data agent sets the summary details on the episode. The agent expects the files to follow the naming conventions for personal media that are outlined in the Plex documentation.
##Change Log
One major difference between the Extended Media Shows scanner and the Plex Series Scanner is that the Extended Media Shows scanner creates episode numbers for all of the date-based media.
This results in it being sorted correctly in all Plex user interfaces. The episode number is the day of the year in which the episode is dated plus the optional index value.
If an index value is not specified then a one (1) is automatically appended to the end of the episode number.
/Home Movies
/Christmas
/2010
Christmas - 2010-01-06 - Getting Ready.m4v
Christmas - 01-07-2010 - Getting Ready.m4v
Christmas - 2010-12-24 - Stuffing_the_Stockings.m4v
Christmas.12-25-2010.Christmas.Morning.m4v
If you want to add a season title to your media then you will need to append it to the season number as shown in the example below. In addition to using a dash (-) as a separator, a period (.) or underscore (_) can also be used.
/Home Movies
/Christmas
/2010 - Rocking around the tree
2010-01-06 - Getting Ready.m4v
12-24 - Stuffing the Stockings.m4v
The above example would result in the 2010 season having a title of Rocking around the tree.
Additionally the scanner and metadata agent also support unstructured content as well. What this means is that you could put all of your files in the same folder as long as the file name format looks like the following:
/Home Movies
/Holidays
/Christmas - 2011-12-25 - Getting Ready.m4v
/Christmas - 2010-12-24 - Santa Claus.m4v
/Birthdays
/Grandma - 2010-02-24 - Grandma's 77th birthday party.m4v
/Grandma - 2008-02-24 - Grandma's 75th birthday party.m4v
The above example would result in shows with Christmas and Grandma as the show titles. The season number, episode number and episode title would be parse from the names.
With this plug-in it is possible to have multiple shows on the same date.
An example of where this might be used in storing multiple NFL games in a directory with the same date. The Plex Series Scanner will see these as the same episode and will give them the same episode title.
The Extended Personal Media scanner and agent allow the user to specific an index number after the date to specify that the episode is different. This results in Plex showing the episode with the appropriate title.
/Sports
/NFL
/2013
01-06_1 - Patriots Vs Giants.m4v
01-06_2 - Houston Vs Minnesota.m4v
2013-01-06_3 - Oakland Vs St. Lious.m4v
In the example of above three separate episode would be created in Plex and each with their own name.
This section describes the formats that are supported for episodes that contain date and time in the episode file name and/or directory structure. Options that can be enabled for date/time episodes are covered in the Plugin Configuration section below.
/Home Movies
/Christmas
/2010
Christmas - 2010-01-06_01-03-43-AM - Getting Ready.m4v
Christmas - 01.07.2010 05.15.15 - Getting Ready.m4v
Christmas - 2010.12.24-11.23.23 AM - Stuffing_the_Stockings.m4v
Christmas.12 25 2010_08 34 34.Christmas.Morning.m4v
/Kids
2015.01.23.12.34.34 AM - Playing outside
/2010
/12
Christmas.12-25-2010_08.34.34.Christmas.Morning.m4v
/2018
/Christmas
12.25.2018_08.34.34.Christmas.Morning.m4v
12.25_08.34.34.Christmas.Morning.m4v
The following characters can be used to separate the numbers in the date and/or time in the episode file name:
- space ( )
- dash (-)
- period (.)
The following characters can be used to separate the date and time in the episode file name:
- space ( )
- dash (-)
- period (.)
- underscore (_)
/Home Movies
/Christmas
/2010
Christmas - s2010e0106 - Getting Ready.m4v
Christmas - s2010e0225 - Stuffing the Stockings.m4v
Christmas - s2010e1225 - Christmas Morning.m4v
The following shows the different supported directory/file formats that are supported by the plug-in.
/Home Movies
/NFL - s2015e01 - 2015-12-31 - Minnesota vs Green Bay.mp4
/NFL - s2015e02 - 12-31-2015 - Detroit vs Tampa Bay.mp4
/NFL
/s2015e03 - 2015-12-31 - New England vs New York Jets.mp4
/s2015e04 - 12-31-2015 - San Francisco vs Seattle.mp4
/s2015
/e05 - 2015-12-31 - Arizona vs Dallas.mp4
/e06 - 12-31-2015 - New York Giants vs Philadelphia.mp4
/e07 - 2015-12-31 - Cincinnati vs Pittsburgh.mp4
/e08 - 12-31-2015 - Episode Title.mp4
The above example would result in a show with NFL as the show title. The season number, episode number, episode release date and episode title would be parsed from the names. The example shows 8 episodes specified above each would show up having the release date of 12-31-2015 in Plex.
If you want to add a season title to your media then you will need to append it to the season number as shown in the example below. In addition to using a dash (-) as a separator, a period (.) or underscore (_) can also be used.
/Home Movies
/Christmas
/2010 - Christmas in Minnesota
s2010e01 - Getting Ready.m4v
e02 - Another episode.m4v
/2011 - Christmas in California
s2010e01 - Getting Ready.m4v
The above example would result in the 2010 season having a title of Christmas in Minnesota and the 2011 season having a title of Christmas in California.
/Home Movies
/Holidays
/Christmas - s2010e01 - Getting Ready.m4v
/Vacations
/Italy - s2010e01 - Getting Ready.m4v
The above example would result in shows with Christmas and Italy as the show titles. The season number, episode number and episode title would be parsed from the names.
Additionally the plugin supports using "Chapter" and "C" instead of "Season" and "S" (case is ignored). Note: the word "Season" would still be used in the Plex user interface and cannot be changed by the metadata agent plugin.
/College Classes
/Physics 101
Physics 101 - c1e1 - First chapter.m4v
Physics 101 - c1e2 - 2nd chapter.m4v
/C2
e1 - Some notes.m4v
e2 - Some more notes.m4v
/Chapter3
e1 - Something else.m4v
e2 - Something more.m4v
e3 - Something real.m4v
The above example would result in 7 episodes being added under three seasons with a show name of "Physics 101".
The plugin also supports using "Lesson" instead of "Chapter" or "Season".
/Video Training
/Some Video Training
/Lesson01
01 - video1.m4v
02 - video2.m4v
/Lesson02
01 - video1.m4v
02 - video2.m4v
03 - video3.m4v
Show summaries can be added to media files in Plex by creating a file with the show name and a ".summary" extension somewhere within the directory path of your media file that you want to add the summary to.
It is important to note that the first file found will be used as the summary information for the show.
There are two formats supported for show summary files:
- [Show title].summary where [Show title] is the name of your show that you want the summary information to be added to
- show.summary
Example media file:
/Media Root/Show title/Show title - 2010-02-02 - Some title.mp4
Summary file:
/Media Root/Show title/Show title.summary
Season summaries can be added to media files in Plex by creating a file with the season name and a ".summary" extension somewhere within the directory path of your media file that you want to add the summary to.
It is important to note that the first file found will be used as the summary information for the season.
The following formats are supported for season summary files:
- [Show title]-[S|s|C|c|L|l][Season Number].summary
- [season|chapter|lesson]-[Season Number].summary
- [S|s|C|c|L|l][Season Number].summary
Where:
- [Show title] is the name of your show that you want the summary information to be added to
- [S|s|C|c|L|l] is abbreviation for season, chapter or lesson
- [Season Number] is the season number of the show
Example media file:
/Media Root/Show title/Show title - 2010-02-02 - Some title.mp4
Summary file:
/Media Root/Show title/Show title-S2010.summary
Episode summaries can be added to media files in Plex by creating a file with the same name and a ".summary" extension in the same directory as the media file you want to add the summary to.
Example media file:
Show title - 2010-02-02 - Some title.mp4
Summary file:
Show title - 2010-02-02 - Some title.summary
Show metadata can be added to media files in Plex by creating a file with the name "show.metadata" in the root directory path of your media file that you want to add the metadata to.
Example metadata file:
[metadata]
release=2017-05-01
studio=Studio XYZ
genres=Linux, Automation
This section describes the different configuration options available within the Extended Personal Media metadata agent plugin. ###Enable debug logging? Enable this option if you want to see more log messages in the plugin's log file.
This is disabled by default.
###Use last modified timestamp for episodes? Enable this option if want the plugin to use the episode file's last modified timestamp when setting the release date in Plex.
This is enabled by default.
###Use created timestamp for episodes Enable this option if want the plugin to use the episode file's created on timestamp when setting the release date in Plex.
This is disabled by default.
If "Use last modified timestamp for episodes?" is enabled this option will be ignored.
###Enable episode title scrubbing? Enable this option if want the plugin to scrub certain characters from the episode title when setting the title in Plex.
###Comma separated list of values to scrub from the episode title List of values to scrub from episode titles. This is only used if "Enable episode title scrubbing?" is enabled.
By default the value is set to ".= ,-= ,_= ". The value must follow the format A=B,C=D. In this example A will be replaced by B in the episode title and C will be replaced by D.
###File extension to use for summary files File extension to use for summary files. Summary files allow you to add a description to an episode in Plex.
By default the value is set to "summary". NOTE: The value should not start with a period "."
###Use metadata file for shows? Enable this option to use metadata files for shows.
This is disabled by default.
###File extension to use for metadata files File extension to use for show metadata files.
By default the value is set to "metadata". NOTE: The value should not start with a period "."
###Use time stamp from the file name in the episode title Enable this option if you want the timestamp from the episode to be pre-pended to the episode title in Plex.
This is disabled by default.
###Episode title time stamp format The format to use when pre-pending the episode time to the episode title. Select "AM/PM" to format the time in 12 hour time or "24 Hour" to format the time in 24 hour time. This value is only applicable if the "Use time stamp from the file name in the episode title" option is enabled.
By default the value is "24 Hour".
-
Unzip the downloaded ZIP file, this gives you a file/folder with the name ExtendedPersonalMedia-Agent.bundle-master. Rename the folder to ExtendedPersonalMedia-Agent.bundle
-
Follow the instructions for Mac, Windows, or Linux below.
-
Restart Plex Media Server (this is optional) On Mac and Windows: just quit and start again On Linux (Ubuntu): sudo service plexmediaserver restart
-
In the Plex/Web application go to Settings > Server > Agents > Shows > Extended Personal Media Shows. Ensure that the Local Media Assets (TV) agent is checked and showing in the list (see the screen capture). The Local Media Assets is needed to add subtitle or metadata attributes from the files to your media.
-
In Plex/Web (the media manager), create a new "TV Shows" section and select Extended Personal Media Shows from the Agent dropdown menu (under Advanced Options).
Mac
- Move ExtendedPersonalMedia-Agent.bundle to ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins.
The easiest way to find this folder is to use the Go to folder... option in the Go menu of the Finder.
*~ is your home folder. If you can't find your Library folder, have a look at OS X Lion: Where did my Library go?*
Windows
- Move ExtendedPersonalMedia-Agent.bundle to the Plug-ins folder: right-click the Plex Media Server icon in the system tray and open the Plug-ins folder
Linux (Ubuntu)
-
Move ExtendedPersonalMedia-Agent.bundle to /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins '''cd "/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins"''' '''sudo chown -R plex:plex ExtendedPersonalMedia-Agent.bundle'''
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Copy the Series folder from the plex-scanners folder created above to /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Scanners
This section details the plug-in log file and location on the different operating systems. Please send this log file to me so that I can perform additional analysis.
Plug-in log file name: com.arendshome.plex.agents.personalmedia.log
The following shows where the PMS Plugin Logs directory is on the different operating systems.
-
Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Logs/PMS Plugin Logs
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Windows: C:\Users<USER NAME>\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Logs\PMS Plugin Logs
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Linux: Open /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins
See this post in the Plex forums for the change log and the discussion thread on this metadata agent.