4 ms·

I recently started using Jellyfin for friday movie nights with me and a few friends who no longer live near each other. The sync feature on the web UI works sur

by worble 2y ago

I recently started using Jellyfin for friday movie nights with me and a few friends who no longer live near each other. The sync feature on the web UI works surprisingly well, we hang out on VC and it's as close to watching something physically together it can be. Overall I've found it to be really solid, although I've not really dabbled much with other media center software to compare it to. My only real complaint is that for whatever reason it really does not like my folder structure - most of my files work but it'll randomly decide that a bunch of episodes in a folder are a single "file" with multiple "versions". Reading their docs it seems like they really want you to conform to a specific folder structure, but not only would this take me forever (I've been growing this collection for 15+ years now!), I just don't want to change it; I'm happy with my folder layout and it makes sense to me, it's really surprising that Jellyfin can't just show me the raw files.

actionfromafar 2y ago
What is VC?
- shubb 2y ago
  Internet slang for voice chat
  - bovermyer 2y ago
    Otherwise known as an acronym.
    - rickcecil 2y ago
      To be perfectly pedantic, it’s an initialization. Acronyms are initializations that can be pronounced as words.
      - dillydogg 2y ago
        To add to the pedantry, I believe the correct word is initialism.
        albert_e 2y ago
        Therefore the pendatry was not "perfect" as it was claimed above. One might even argue that it is impossible to be "perfectly pedantic".
        layer8 2y ago
        Otherwise known as an oxymoron.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
TeMPOraL 2y ago
I suppose you could change the structure rather fast with a few well-placed batch operations in a shell, though I also understand why you wouldn't want it. Regarding the randomly merged episodes, perhaps the culprit isn't the folder structure or file name patterns, but metadata on the files themselves? I never had this particular situation, but I wasted my fair share of life dealing with assumptions music players make about ID3 tags, and how they're routinely broken by files sourced from random places on the Internet.
- theshrike79 2y ago
  > I wasted my fair share of life dealing with assumptions music players make about ID3 tags, and how they're routinely broken by files sourced from random places on the Internet. Musicbrainz Picard is a life-saver. I don't add any audio to my collection without putting it through Picard first.
Retr0id 2y ago
I haven't tried implementing it, but my idea is to write a script that automatically creates a "correctly" organized directory tree, populated with symlinks to the arbitrarily-located real files.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
Sakos 2y ago
Jellyfin doesn't even work quite right if you try to follow their documentation to the letter in how to structure and name your directories. I hope they improve that aspect, because it can be time consuming and irritating to fix when it doesn't work right. It largely works though.
- Hamuko 2y ago
  Does Jellyfin allow using external metadata agents and scanners like Plex? I basically couldn't use Plex at all if I didn't have HAMA and ASS installed for scanning anime files.
  - Sakos 2y ago
    It has plugins for other metadata providers like anidb, anilist and anisearch. I've had no issues identifying all the anime I have.
    - Hamuko 2y ago
      So if you give it "[GroupName] Name of the Series - Electric Boogaloo - 03 (1080p).mkv", it understands that it's season one, episode one of a show called "Name of the Series - Electric Boogaloo"? Because Plex in its default state would rather you using the Name.of.the.Series.Electric.Boogaloo.S01E03 formatting, which would entail renaming basically everything. That's why having ASS as the scanner to avoid renaming is essential for me.
      - Sakos 2y ago
        I'm not certain about that specific example. I think it should work if it's, say, a single season show. Otherwise if you put it under Show\Season 1\, I think it should work too. I have a range of different naming schemes and Jellyfin is able to recognize all of them. I've only had to put in manual effort for extras like interviews and trailers, which can be put in an "extras" folder in a show/movie directory next to the actual video file(s).
  - defrost 2y ago
NicoJuicy 2y ago
Do you have a separate library for movies and tv shows?
- worble 2y ago
  Yes, I've tried separating them out, I've tried putting them all together, I even tried putting it as a photo library because apparently that was supposed to be closer to a raw folder layout, but the issue still persisted. I think there's a kind of disconnect between the kind of users that use these media libraries - a lot of people seem to really value the metadata aspect of it, how it collects all the info the IMDB or whatever and tries to sort and match stuff. And then there's people like me who just want a server that can handle any file I throw at it and play it over the internet, I'm not too fussed about the other aspects. Part of me thinks that maybe I'm using the wrong tool for the job, but Jellyfin does otherwise work really well for what I want, folder gripes aside.
  - doix 2y ago
    > And then there's people like me who just want a server that can handle any file I throw at it and play it over the internet I just use nginx (with directory listing enabled), let's encrypt and HTTP basic auth. That basically gives you what you're asking for. But it won't do the fancy web sync so that you can watch it with your friends.
  - tracker1 2y ago
    That's part of why I now have multiple Shield TV boxes in my home, mostly using Kodi over SMB/CIFS shares to my NAS. It's not as friendly for outside the home, but it's nice internally. I've been thinking I'd like to expand to start capturing the YouTube channels I watch most and dump into series directories for them. I've gotten tired of trying to work around what YouTube seems fit to shove in my direction. I really wish there was a "don't show me content from this channel" option, as if you click on any bait, you keep getting that channel for weeks after under suggestions.
    - c-hendricks 2y ago
crtasm 2y ago
Try dashboard > libraries > display > Display a folder view to show plain media folders
- reddalo 2y ago
  This is interesting, I feel like Plex doesn't have such a feature
  - bcraven 2y ago
    TV Shows > TV Shows [dropdown, top left] > Folders It's very poorly laid out in a list, but I have found it useful before.
xbmcuser 2y ago
I used to have similar problem till I started using hardlinks because of arr apps now I have pretty looking file and folder structure for jellyfin.
ThatMedicIsASpy 2y ago
Manage your stuff with tinymediamanager. It will auto rename files folders, download nfos thumbnails, covers. TV shows just need s01e01 Then import the folders and dont allow jellyfin to fetch online data.
- theshrike79 2y ago
  The *arr stack can be used to rename files in a sane way A good tip is to include the imdb or tmdb ID in the file name for movies and in the directory for TV/Anime, it'll make things unambiguous
LelouBil 2y ago
> The sync feature on the web UI works surprisingly well. Hmm ? I've been having issues with SyncPlay since forever. Media stuck for some people, stuck at loading. Playing until some point, then freezing. Basically whenever I'm doing something with SyncPlay it's "press play and if it does actually start never press pause" But that's literally my only issue with Jellyfin, I've been using it for the past year and it's awesome.

by worble 2y ago

actionfromafar 2y ago

What is VC?

shubb 2y ago
Internet slang for voice chat
- bovermyer 2y ago
  Otherwise known as an acronym.
  - rickcecil 2y ago
    To be perfectly pedantic, it’s an initialization. Acronyms are initializations that can be pronounced as words.
    - dillydogg 2y ago
      To add to the pedantry, I believe the correct word is initialism.
      - albert_e 2y ago
        Therefore the pendatry was not "perfect" as it was claimed above. One might even argue that it is impossible to be "perfectly pedantic".
        layer8 2y ago
        Otherwise known as an oxymoron.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

TeMPOraL 2y ago

I suppose you could change the structure rather fast with a few well-placed batch operations in a shell, though I also understand why you wouldn't want it. Regarding the randomly merged episodes, perhaps the culprit isn't the folder structure or file name patterns, but metadata on the files themselves? I never had this particular situation, but I wasted my fair share of life dealing with assumptions music players make about ID3 tags, and how they're routinely broken by files sourced from random places on the Internet.

theshrike79 2y ago
> I wasted my fair share of life dealing with assumptions music players make about ID3 tags, and how they're routinely broken by files sourced from random places on the Internet. Musicbrainz Picard is a life-saver. I don't add any audio to my collection without putting it through Picard first.

Retr0id 2y ago

I haven't tried implementing it, but my idea is to write a script that automatically creates a "correctly" organized directory tree, populated with symlinks to the arbitrarily-located real files.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

Sakos 2y ago

Jellyfin doesn't even work quite right if you try to follow their documentation to the letter in how to structure and name your directories. I hope they improve that aspect, because it can be time consuming and irritating to fix when it doesn't work right. It largely works though.

Hamuko 2y ago
Does Jellyfin allow using external metadata agents and scanners like Plex? I basically couldn't use Plex at all if I didn't have HAMA and ASS installed for scanning anime files.
- Sakos 2y ago
  It has plugins for other metadata providers like anidb, anilist and anisearch. I've had no issues identifying all the anime I have.
  - Hamuko 2y ago
    So if you give it "[GroupName] Name of the Series - Electric Boogaloo - 03 (1080p).mkv", it understands that it's season one, episode one of a show called "Name of the Series - Electric Boogaloo"? Because Plex in its default state would rather you using the Name.of.the.Series.Electric.Boogaloo.S01E03 formatting, which would entail renaming basically everything. That's why having ASS as the scanner to avoid renaming is essential for me.
    - Sakos 2y ago
      I'm not certain about that specific example. I think it should work if it's, say, a single season show. Otherwise if you put it under Show\Season 1\, I think it should work too. I have a range of different naming schemes and Jellyfin is able to recognize all of them. I've only had to put in manual effort for extras like interviews and trailers, which can be put in an "extras" folder in a show/movie directory next to the actual video file(s).
- defrost 2y ago

NicoJuicy 2y ago

Do you have a separate library for movies and tv shows?

worble 2y ago
Yes, I've tried separating them out, I've tried putting them all together, I even tried putting it as a photo library because apparently that was supposed to be closer to a raw folder layout, but the issue still persisted. I think there's a kind of disconnect between the kind of users that use these media libraries - a lot of people seem to really value the metadata aspect of it, how it collects all the info the IMDB or whatever and tries to sort and match stuff. And then there's people like me who just want a server that can handle any file I throw at it and play it over the internet, I'm not too fussed about the other aspects. Part of me thinks that maybe I'm using the wrong tool for the job, but Jellyfin does otherwise work really well for what I want, folder gripes aside.
- doix 2y ago
  > And then there's people like me who just want a server that can handle any file I throw at it and play it over the internet I just use nginx (with directory listing enabled), let's encrypt and HTTP basic auth. That basically gives you what you're asking for. But it won't do the fancy web sync so that you can watch it with your friends.
- tracker1 2y ago
  That's part of why I now have multiple Shield TV boxes in my home, mostly using Kodi over SMB/CIFS shares to my NAS. It's not as friendly for outside the home, but it's nice internally. I've been thinking I'd like to expand to start capturing the YouTube channels I watch most and dump into series directories for them. I've gotten tired of trying to work around what YouTube seems fit to shove in my direction. I really wish there was a "don't show me content from this channel" option, as if you click on any bait, you keep getting that channel for weeks after under suggestions.
  - c-hendricks 2y ago

crtasm 2y ago

Try dashboard > libraries > display > Display a folder view to show plain media folders

reddalo 2y ago
This is interesting, I feel like Plex doesn't have such a feature
- bcraven 2y ago
  TV Shows > TV Shows [dropdown, top left] > Folders It's very poorly laid out in a list, but I have found it useful before.

xbmcuser 2y ago

I used to have similar problem till I started using hardlinks because of arr apps now I have pretty looking file and folder structure for jellyfin.

ThatMedicIsASpy 2y ago

Manage your stuff with tinymediamanager. It will auto rename files folders, download nfos thumbnails, covers. TV shows just need s01e01 Then import the folders and dont allow jellyfin to fetch online data.

theshrike79 2y ago
The *arr stack can be used to rename files in a sane way A good tip is to include the imdb or tmdb ID in the file name for movies and in the directory for TV/Anime, it'll make things unambiguous

LelouBil 2y ago

> The sync feature on the web UI works surprisingly well. Hmm ? I've been having issues with SyncPlay since forever. Media stuck for some people, stuck at loading. Playing until some point, then freezing. Basically whenever I'm doing something with SyncPlay it's "press play and if it does actually start never press pause" But that's literally my only issue with Jellyfin, I've been using it for the past year and it's awesome.