SOLVED: How to group multi-part episodes when shuffling?

[wise hamlet]

I want to group multi-part episodes when shuffling and scheduling them. For an example, I am going to use Lost (2004), as it has quite a few of them, and they are direct DVD rips from my collection so they should have all of the proper metadata if relevant.

ErsatzTV Version: 25.9.0-Linux-x64
I am also continuing my question in #tvrename, as this is not about that application before, and it is more support: #tvrename message

There is a setting when scheduling to group multi-part episodes when shuffling. This is very enticing as I definitely do not want to play multi-part episodes apart. First, I changed their file names to include "Part #" at the end to see if ErsatzTV would detect that, but it would not. I commented in https://discuss.ersatztv.org/d/274-multi-segment-episode-grouping-continuous-playback/5 as I was trying to find a way, and found out ErsatzTV detects multi-episode grouping with video titles, not file names.
So, I wrote a powershell script to mass rename all of the video titles to the same as their file names (Minus Season and Episode number, as Jellyfin uses those to download the full metadata), and that did not work.
After trying multiple formats, I found that ending the video title in "(Part #)" or "Part #" works the most, but it still does not actually group everything. Some videos don't register as multi-part episodes at all despite there being no discernible difference in the metadata except for the episode title. Also, sometimes an episode will schedule in both parts, or just the first one. Almost like ErsatzTV doesn't check to see if there is a future part when randomly playing the first part.

[balmy loom]

Are these local libraries or from a media server? Neither file name nor properties in file explorer are necessarily relevant. You need to look at the titles as displayed in the season within etv

[wise hamlet]

Is that what titles were referring to?
They are from my Jellyfin server. They are located locally on my computer, but are scanned through Jellyfin.
They were using their TheMovieDB metadata for their titles that Jellyfin pulls by default, so they ended in "(#)" for their part.
I just went to Jellyfin and edited their titles to explicitly say "Part #" and I am still having the same problem. Some are grouping, some are not. The only time it changed to kind of work was when I changed the files' title metadata.

[balmy loom]

you don't want multi-episode shuffle, that's a different feature. just use shuffle

i made a quick test channel with lost s1 set to "shuffle" and "keep multi-part episodes together" on the schedule

works correctly

multi-episode shuffle is where each "episode" has multiple parts, like intro/part 1, part 2/credits - and you want to shuffle the intro/part 1s and the part 2s/credits. e.g. pick a random part1 and a random part2. i'm probably the only one who has ever used it.

[wise hamlet]

Thank you for that response! I did use shuffle before but that was before I tested changing Jellyfin's title metadata.
I'm not sure if it worked. The playout is including past episode titles that don't exist anymore, so that may be a cache issue that I need to figure out. Unrelated to this issue though.

[balmy loom]

you would need to scan your jellyfin library in etv to get any metadata updates

as i said earlier, you need to focus on the titles that you see in the season page in etv. without good data there, it won't work properly

[wise hamlet]

I have done a deep scan of the library every time I made changes.
Some episodes have the old names, new, and some appear twice with both. I'll look in to it more though.
Right now, all of my files are in the same format in Jellyfin "Part #", so this picture is somehow finding old data for Exodus Part 1, and it is not scheduling Exodus Part 3.

[wise hamlet]

I just took a closer look at your example. ErsatzTV properly detects "(#)" as parts of an episode? I assumed not since it was not working for me, which is why I started this big process. Looks like something may just be wrong with my configuration.

[balmy loom]

there are many patterns that etv recognizes. how is part 3 named? IN ETV

you can also just deep scan the show, from the show page

[wise hamlet]

I cleared my trash, that solved the duplicate naming. Sorry about that, it was a cache issue or something.
However, some episodes are still not grouping.
Just because I was curious, I tried just scheduling Season 1 of Lost to try this, and everything groups together normally, even after a few schedule resets. I switched back to it playing the whole show and everything is not grouping properly anymore?

[balmy loom]

please be more specific - what exactly did you change about the schedule? i switched from collection type television season - lost s1, to collection type television show - lost, and it still works correctly. playback order is always shuffle

are you erasing items and history?

that's needed to reset the playout in your version

[wise hamlet]

I'm sorry.
I changed the collection type from Television show to Television season and vice versa.
After both times I deleted the playout and re-added it.

Yes, I just tried again by erasing items and history.

[balmy loom]

ok, can you please cleanly stop etv and dm me your ersatztv.sqlite3 db file from the config folder (~/.local/share/ersatztv/ersatztv.sqlite3) - it'll be easier if i can look directly

[wise hamlet]

Sure, thank you

[balmy loom]

ok, i see the issue with that episode, specifically

(exodus part 3)

broken for two reasons - you have Treat Collections As Shows enabled on the schedule. this is intended for crossover multi-part episodes (think arrowverse). with this, episodes are first sorted by release date and then are checked for grouping/part numbers

additionally, your s01e25 episode does not have release date metadata

so the initial sort wasn't putting it next to the other parts

the simple fix is adding release date metadata to the episode in JF, then scanning again from etv

[wise hamlet]

Ah - I assumed it was a greater problem because the series I was sorting with did not have many multi-part episodes to begin with.
Thank you so much for your help!

[balmy loom]

no problem

[wise hamlet]

If only I made that screenshot a little taller