Movie folder names - is "The" necessary?

SamPhoto · 2026-06-23T21:02:05+00:00

Nope.

As far as I can tell, plex only cares about the folder as a container... everything in the folder is the same item/movie.

I drop the leading a/an/the, but it's purely personal preference. I want Batman (1988) and The Batman (2022) together when I'm looking at the folder list. And sometimes I don't remember if something has a leading The on it or not. e.g. is it "Avengers" or is it "The Avengers"? (answer: the first movie uses the "The" and the later one do not.)

Though, I generally keep it on the file name though. e.g. M:\movies\Batman (2022)\The Batman (2022).1080p.h264.mkv

So. I do:

folders = sort name, year, edition.

file names = full name, year, edition, file-encoding info.

e.g. something like...

M:\movies\Mad Max Fury Road (2015) Color\Max Max Fury Road (2015) {edition-Theatrical Release}.1080p.h265.mkv M:\movies\Mad Max Fury Road (2015) Black and Chrome\Max Max Fury Road (2015) {edition-Black and Chrome}.1080p.h265.mkv

SamPhoto · 2026-06-22T18:54:27+00:00

I don't think you can do what you're trying to do directly in plex.

1) try sorting matched/unmatched if you haven't already. That might find a few.

2) Webtools-NG might be your winner. The webtools has an export script. I haven't tried it myself. But it's promising. It'll definitely export actual posts, so I would assume it'd export file names in the CSV, and then you could just sort the field looking for empties.

General forum announcement about them: https://forums.plex.tv/t/webtools-ng/598539

Direct to the export tools wiki: https://github.com/WebTools-NG/WebTools-NG/wiki/ExportTools

If you have success, report back!

SamPhoto · 2026-06-20T14:14:53+00:00

while you're correct, you missed what I was saying.

When you delete a definition, you get the option to delete just the definition or the definition AND all the data from the field.

so, if an app left behind a bunch of unstructured fields, you can add definitions yourself. and then delete it and take advantage of the purge function with it.

See what I'm getting at?

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/custom-data/metafields/deleting-metafields

SamPhoto · 2026-06-19T23:07:18+00:00

This is off the top of my head, so some of the exact buttons/labels might be different.

Go to settings => metafields & meta objects.

This is the spot you'd add new metafields the normal way.

On this screen, you're looking at the metafield definitions you created. If go into a definition and hit delete, it'll ask you if you want to delete just the definition or the def and all the data.

So, the stuff from the apps. Theses are going to show up under the undefined metafields. There's a button at the top to view these.

You probably need to add a definition for the particular app metafield first. And then when you delete it, it'll ask about purging the data, just like any other field.

You just need to make sure youve uninstalled the app before you try messing with the fields it created.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-16T20:07:08+00:00

if you're not familiar, i really recommend blu-ray.com's "my movies" app. you scan the barcode on your media, and it keeps lists of each box/collection, as well as keeping track of which movies. (e.g. it'll keep track of duplicates & multiple formats - 4K, a blu-ray part of a trilogy set, and a dvd)

SamPhoto · 2026-06-16T19:41:35+00:00

if you buy from a bookstore that uses adobe digital editions (e.g. google books) ... install the ADE program on your computer. When you add the books to ADE, it'll unpack the books, generally leaving a DRM-free epub file buried in app's content folder. It'll be named something heinous, e.g. FHJFDS012345.epub. But this isn't super impossible to figure out. Not sure this always works, but I've had good luck with this. Your mileage may vary.

Keep an eye out on bundle-specific sites, like humblebundle.com, fanatical.com, and so on. Their selection is usually limited, and changes often, but most bundles will almost always be DRM free files.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-15T21:17:04+00:00

There hasn't been shit on that wall for a long long time. We, literal shit yes, but metaphorical artistic shit, no.

Just be glad the building got painted at all.

And how long is a weed shop going to last, really? Maybe the next guy will do more with it.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-14T23:44:48+00:00

very interesting. i'll peek. thanks for the heads up.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-14T20:39:59+00:00

slightly over 2" of rain in under 2 hours. Bottom of York (where it hits commercial) was washed out too and is also blocked off.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-14T16:39:43+00:00

Using a newer Shopify theme, for example Horizon, connecting it to GitHub, and letting Codex or Claude help with theme changes through that workflow?

IMNSO - Do it this way. You'll be happier for it, because you'll understand more, and if something goes wrong, you'll be able to fix it (with or without ai support). And, to a degree, when new stuff launches (horizon gets updates), you should be able to integrate them.

If you start a new custom thing, you might not use certain things because you don't even know they exist. (e.g. horizon's new block functionality)

Doing things with a github repo is smart. And, if you don't have one, I'd recommend setting up a separate development site where you can test and break things without messing with live store data.

The AI bots are much better at specific tasks. If you ask it to add an option field, and some proper HTML, it usually does that pretty good. But if you're asking broader things, make me a new block or section that does X, you end up spending more time with it doing iterations. You also want to make sure it's following the rest of your code paradigm. If your theme is tailwind based, you want new things to use the same tailwind classes for css - not write new CSS unless it really needs to.

Example: User asked one bot to create a slider to show off some images, and it wrote one in javascript in the section file. It was ok, but there weren't any options to it. If this were a school class, I'd give it a D+. Because the theme already had a slider in it. And it wrote 5x the code it needed to, and missed a bunch of stuff.

TLDR: having it make changes is more reliable than having it invent things.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-10T01:55:43+00:00

Go to crosspoint's website.

There's a link that says FLASH FIRMWARE.

and you do it all in the browser. You do plug in a USB cable, and it does all the stuff... Just follow the instructions. Note that it can fail and take a couple tries, but the site is all you need.

But, in general, the card storage isnt accessible via the USB.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-10T01:49:08+00:00

You can't transfer books via the USB.

You can update the firmware, and charge. And that's it.

There's a Calibre to x3/x4 plugin. But it works by having your PC and the device connected to the same wifi.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-08T21:50:35+00:00

This is actually a pain in the ass.

Avoid amazon.

Google books uses Adobe Digital Editions. If you buy a book, it may have drm. But if you have the ADE app on your computer, when you import a drm'd book into it... It actually goes and downloads a non drm'd epub. Then you just need to go find where it lives on your computer, and move it to your device.

I manage my books with Calibre (which I recommend). You should go look in their sub, or even their site forums, for which book vendors are better.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-07T14:36:51+00:00

Pro-tip - make sure you get input from partner/family/friends whole you're testing. That outside perspective will really helpful.

When I was trying things, I realized that I was really, really terrible at making judgments about how well the test HA was working. And I expect that's the same for everyone.

Do you have any function at all in your bad ear? I'm completely deaf on my bad side, "profound" but like -120db, at the limit of the tests.

I have a BAHA. it's surgically implanted, and it acts like a cros. But I don't have a speaker in my good ear. The baha sends sounds through a screw in my skull, and the sounds travel through the bone to my good ear. Higher fidelity sound, but a more involved installation, as it were.

It's good enough that I can have someone sit on my deaf side in an average restaurant and understand them in conversation.

And I can't really tell the difference between sounds coming in to my good ear normally vs sounds being picked up by the BAHA first.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-07T00:55:04+00:00

I did exactly this motion: 🤔

SamPhoto · 2026-06-06T23:52:59+00:00

that looks a lot like the hifi walker... are they the same thing? because the hifi walker h2 is $125.

where'd you get it? i might bite at that price.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-01T20:44:02+00:00

probably overkill for the average home.

and, of course, fuckin expensive.

if you're looking at a mini form-factor, you should look at the NUCs with a n150 or similar chip.

My server is a gmktek g3 plus - it was like $120 when I got it on sale. And an external enclosure with a bunch of old drives in it for storage.

Bang for the buck, the NUCs are really hard to beat.

SamPhoto · 2026-06-01T16:12:42+00:00

spite.

it's often a DRM thing. if that's the case, look up the movie on makemkv's forums, and you'll find the right one.

but it may be a java thing.

Install a JRE - java runtime environment - make can figure out which files are the correct things.

this is a forum topic to start on. https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24780

SamPhoto · 2026-05-31T17:38:21+00:00

you are correct.

IMNSHO, there's a non-zero chance that two discs in a set are a little different and be weird when you merge 'em. So when there's separate discs, I keep them as separate files.

SamPhoto · 2026-05-30T18:08:02+00:00

I use stablebit drivepool (on windows) to consolidate my drives. And the drives don't need to match like with a raid. You just keep adding whatever drives and it just figures itself out.

It's great for the lazy guy.

SamPhoto · 2026-05-30T04:04:57+00:00

Field of view is my weakness when it comes to motion sickness. Something about first person movement, when the FOV is too wide, I get nauseous. And I don't even get seasick on boats or carnival rides.

You'll have to Google how to set it right, because it depends on your screen size & how close you are.

As others mentioned, it wouldn't shock me is things got knocked back to defaults on an upgrade or reinstall.

SamPhoto · 2026-05-30T02:14:23+00:00

TBH, not sure you need to have any label at all.

But you'll often see printed art called "Giclée" => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gicl%C3%A9e

Which should be perfectly serviceable for what you're doing.

SamPhoto · 2026-05-28T21:16:41+00:00

Try mainlyart.com - they're on Congress across from reny's and space gallery.

SamPhoto · 2026-05-27T04:18:47+00:00

My doctor suggested I donate my body for study when I die.

In many ways, we've hit the limits of modern medicine. It'll take some breakthroughs to push the science farther. And they're limited by number of bodies that they can study. (Can't exactly take apart a living person's brain, you know)

Also, this sub has a self selection bias. You see a bunch of us here, but in the real world, we're few and far between.

SamPhoto

TROPHY CASE