PlexNine PMS ScannerAgent
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Scanners
Scanners in Plex/Nine are what the Plex Media Server uses to examine files and directories in a specified location and then determine what will be pulled in as media items within a Section. Different Scanners may be available depending on what type of Section has been selected. Scanners are not responsible for acquiring metadata details for media items. Once items are scanned into the Section, they are then passed off to the appropriate Metadata Agent for additional processing.
Movies
Plex Movie Scanner
This is the most typical scanner to use for movie type content and it is intended to add items that Plex identifies to be "movies" to your library. Of particular note here is that the scanner will intentionally skip files that are named like a TV episode. This includes files with the typical TV indicator such as "s01e15" or "03x21" and others, but would also include filenames that have a date in them.
Plex Video Files Scanner
This scanner is similar to the Plex Movie Scanner, but is generally "looser" and less strict. It is meant to match as much content as possible for you, but at the same time it also isn't as smart as the normal scanner. Some features/limitations:
- Does not exclude content named like a TV episode
- Does not support stacked content
- It will look inside VIDEO_TS folders and see individual files rather than treating VIDEO_TS content as a single item
TV Shows
Plex Series Scanner
This is by default the only scanner available for TV content. In many ways, you can think of it as the reverse of the Plex Movie Scanner. In particular, the Plex Series Scanner will only add items that are named like a TV episode. Any files that are scanned that do not appear to be episodes will be ignored.
Music
Plex Music Scanner
The Plex Music Scanner works best when your music files are named and organized as indicated in the naming guide. The scanner will use the directory structure and filenames to get artist, album, and track information. In addition, the scanner will look at embedded ID3 tags for basic artist, album, and track information if it is present, as well. Tracks missing artist information will be sorted as "Unknown Artist" and missing albums as "Unknown Album".
Metadata Agents
Metadata Agents are the tools that Plex uses to go out and retrieve details about your library items. For instance, it might include a poster, actors, director, summary, and other information for a movie. TV episodes might include an aired date, episode summary, or more. These details are no longer "scraped" from webpages like previous versions of Plex used to do; they're now instead retrieved via robust API systems that allow much more accurate and detailed information to be gathered as well as add far more flexibility to the available sources.
Setting Agent Preferences
Agent Preferences are set using the Agents Preferences pane. To open this:
Set Preferences using the Mac Media Manager
- Open the Media Manager by choosing Media Manager from the
Plex Media Server icon in your Mac's menu bar
- Choose the Gear icon from the toolbar
- The Agents Preferences Pane opens
Set Preferences using a Web Browser
- Open the Web Media Manager
- Choose Preferences
- Click the Agents icon
Configuring Agents
Each Section is allocated a Primary metadata agent when first created. The Primary agent can be changed, or preferences for that agent set.
Changing the Primary metadata agent
- Open the Media Manager
- Click the Section to edit, then click Edit Section
- Choose the new Primary metadata agent from the drop-down menu
- Choose Update Section - all metadata for the Section will be refreshed
Configuring the Primary Metadata Agent
The Primary metadata agent can be configured so it gathers metadata as you prefer. You can influence the metadata gathered by enabling/disabling or re-ordering Agents in the list. For example, if you hate the Wikipedia summaries, and prefer English plot summaries, drag TheMovieDB above Wikipedia. If you leave Wikipedia enabled, summaries that aren’t found from TheMovieDB will be filled in by Wikipedia. Here is a summary of what each of the current info-providers supplies:
- Freebase: Genres, content ratings, studio, directors, writers, actors, tag-lines.
- Wikipedia: Multi-language summaries, directors, writers, actors, studio.
- TheMovieDB: Summaries (more plot oriented), content ratings, directors, writers, actors, studio, tag-lines.
- MoviePosterDB: Lots of movie posters, sometimes at lower resolution than TheMovieDB but typically with more non-English artwork available in addition to English artwork.
Enable or Disable Metadata Agent Sources
To enable or disable a Metadata Agent source:
- Check or uncheck the box next to the Metadata Agent source in the right pane
- Click Done
Re-Order the Agent List
To re-order the Metadata Agent source list:
- Click the Metadata Agent source to move
- Drag it up or down the list
- Click Done
Refreshing Your Metadata After Making Changes
After making changes to the Metadata Agent sources, the actual metadata for existing items in your library will not automatically change, though the changes will apply to new items that are added from that point forward. If you wish to update your metadata for existing library items based on your new settings, you can do so in two ways:
Setting Agent Preferences (Currently Mac OS only)
Individual Agent preferences can be set from the list of Agents. For example, you can select the Languages the OpenSubs.org Agent gathers. To set an Agent Preference:
- Open the Mac Media Manager then click the Gear icon
- Select the Primary metadata agent, then the individual Agent from the list
- If the Agent has Preferences that can be set, the Preferences button will enable
- Click Preferences then set the desired options in the Preferences pane
- Choose Save
- <Shift>-Click the Refresh button to re-fetch the new metadata
Local Media Assets
There are 2 broad classes of Agent:
- Agents that gather metadata from Web based Sources
- Agents that gather metadata from local sources
Local Media Assets gathers metadata from local file resources. For example:
- Metadata embedded in compatible files (such as MP4/M4V, MKV, MOV, etc.)
- Local Subtitle files on your Hard Drive
To enable local metadata gathering, ensure Local Media Assets is enabled in the list of Agents
Movies
Cine21
Cine21 is a Korean-language information source for media. The metadata agent is primarily used by LG's MediaLink clients, but is available for general use as well.
Freebase
The Freebase agent is the most typical agent to use for movie content. While Freebase is the core of the agent, it actually includes numerous sources of information. Depending on the operating system you're using for Plex, you can also adjust the sources. The default sources for this agent include:
- Freebase - Genres, content ratings, studio, directors, writers, actors, tag-lines
- Local Media Assets - This allows embedded metadata to be read from compatible files (such as MP4/M4V, MKV, MOV, etc.)
- MoviePosterDB - Lots of movie posters, at lower resolution than TheMovieDB
- OpenSubtitles - See the subtitles guide
- TheMovieDB - Summaries (more plot oriented), content ratings, directors, writers, actors, studio, tag-lines
- Wikipedia - Multi-language summaries, directors, writers, actors, studio
Personal Media
The Personal Media agent basically forgoes trying to gather metadata from any online source. It will not gather any information from the sources listed for the Freebase agent. The exception to this is that embedded metadata within the file can still be read from compatible files with the Local Media Assets source.
TV Shows
Personal Media Shows
The Personal Media Shows agent basically forgoes trying to gather metadata from any online source. It will not gather any information from the sources listed for the TheTVDB agent. The exception to this is that embedded metadata within the file can still be read from compatible files with the Local Media Assets source.
TheTVDB
This is the most typical agent to use for TV content. Metadata will be gathered from TheTVDB as well as embedded metadata from compatible files via the "Local Media Assets" source.
- Local Media Assets - This allows embedded metadata to be read from compatible files (such as MP4/M4V, MKV, MOV, etc.)
- OpenSubtitles - See the subtitles guide
- Plex Theme Music - Music for many TV shows will be downloaded from the Plex site to be played when browsing that show
- TheTVDB - The primary source for television metadata
- TVRage - An alternative to TheTVDB
Music
Last.fm
Plex will attempt to gather information for your content from Last.fm. Where available, Plex will get artist and album artwork, artist information/biographies, and "About this Album" data.
Personal Media Artists
The Personal Media Artists agent basically forgoes trying to gather metadata from any online source. It will not gather any information from other metadata agent sources. The exception to this is that embedded metadata within the file can still be read from compatible files (such as MP3 files with embedded ID3 tags) with the Local Media Assets source.
