Make Channels DVR Movie recording filenames compatible with Plex Movie scanner

Channels DVR Server Feature Requests
#1

Currently, Channels DVR recordings of TV look great in Plex, but Movies often get matched incorrectly. This is because of the format Plex expects for movie recording filenames.

For example, this recording of the 1987 "masterpiece" He-Man live action movie starring Dolph Lundgren:

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Movies\Masters of the Universe (1987) 2023-03-04-0929.mpg

Gets picked up in Plex as some upcoming 2024 re-boot:

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Plex sees the 2023 year in the filename, and because it is later in the filename it must have precedence. It appears that if you are always recording new movies, or movies with very unique titles, they get matched properly because the recording date is close to the release date, or there just aren't any other matches. This was also seen here this thread.

My request, make one small change that would allow keeping all the info in the filenames AND work with Plex.

Add a hyphen in the filename:

Movies\Masters of the Universe (1987) 2023-03-04-0929.mpg

Change to:

Movies\Masters of the Universe (1987) - 2023-03-04-0929.mpg

See this Plex page for a description, but basically everything after the hyphen is treated as "arbitrary text".

1 Like
#2

We could make this change but it's not going to help the thousands of movies that users have already recorded.

Maybe you can ask Plex to improve their movie scanner?

3 Likes
#3

#4

Not only that, if you make the change, do you cause others to have issues with different third party applications?

#5

It’s wild that Plex’s scanner is prioritizing the year from the date and not, the very very traditional, year in parenthesis.

This is a support request for Plex, not Channels. It’s their scanner ¯(°_o)/¯.

5 Likes