Videos, Movies & Series

When a watched root has Videos enabled, the scanner classifies each video file by where it sits in the folder tree and by hints in its filename.

Supported video extensions

.mp4  .m4v  .mkv  .mov  .webm  .avi  .wmv  .flv  .ts  .m2ts  .mpg  .mpeg

Files in other formats are ignored. Files ending in a generated suffix (-preview, -sample, -thumb, -sprite, with -/_/. separators) are skipped — see How Scanning Works.

The four outcomes

Every video resolves to one of four shapes:

Outcome	Where it lives	Library
Movie	A folder directly under the root containing a single video (no season folders, no episode token).	Movies
Standalone video	A video sitting loose at the root, or one that matches no other rule.	Videos
Episode	A video under a series (and optionally a season) folder, or whose filename carries an episode token.	Series → (Season) → Episode
Folder series episode	One of several loose videos in a sub-folder with no season/episode markers.	Series → Episode (ordered by filename)

Standalone videos appear in the Videos library; movies in Movies; episodes under their Series. (A movie's playable file still shows in Videos too.)

Folder layout → entity

/media/videos/
├── Heat (1995).mkv                      → Standalone video  (loose at root)
│
├── John Wick (2014)/
│   └── john.wick.2014.1080p.mkv         → Movie "John Wick (2014)"   (single video in a root-level folder)
│
├── The Office/
│   ├── S01E01 - Pilot.mkv               → The Office · Season 1 · Episode 1
│   └── S01E02 - Diversity Day.mkv       → The Office · Season 1 · Episode 2
│
├── Breaking Bad/
│   ├── Season 01/
│   │   └── S01E01.mkv                    → Breaking Bad · Season 1 · Episode 1
│   └── Season 02/
│       └── S02E03.mkv                    → Breaking Bad · Season 2 · Episode 3
│
└── Nature Shorts/
    ├── Aurora.mkv                        → Nature Shorts · Episode 1  (ordered by filename)
    └── Tides.mkv                         → Nature Shorts · Episode 2

Movie rule

A folder placed directly under the root that holds a single video becomes a movie, named after the folder. The release filename does not need to match the folder name (Pokemon.The.First.Movie.1998… in a Pokemon The First Movie folder still works), and a hidden helper folder (like .thumbs) or a generated *.trickplay folder sitting next to it does not disqualify it. A folder with an episode token in the filename, with season subfolders, or with more than one video is not a movie.

Season folders

A folder is recognized as a season when its name matches (case-insensitive):

Season 1   Season 01   Season  1   S1   S01   S001

Use Season 0 or S00 for specials. The series is the folder above the season folder. (A Specials folder named with the literal word is not auto-detected as a season — name it Season 0/S00, or use S00Exx tokens on the files.)

Filename episode tokens

Independently of folders, the scanner reads an SxxExx-style token from the filename to assign season and episode numbers:

Filename	Season	Episode
Show.S01E03.mkv	1	3
Show - s1e2.mkv	1	2
Show S01.E10.mkv	1	10
Dragon Ball Super (S1E1).mkv	1	1
[S02E05] Title.mkv	2	5

The separator before the token can be a space, ., _, -, (, or [. Other conventions — 1x03, absolute episode numbers like Show - 053, or "Season 1 Episode 2" — are not parsed by the scanner; bring those in via provider Identify or by adding SxxExx tokens / season folders.

Folder series fallback

A sub-folder under the root that holds two or more videos with no season folders and no episode tokens becomes a series named after the folder, with each video an episode ordered alphabetically by filename. (A single video in such a folder is a movie instead.)

Sidecar metadata

Beside a video, the scanner imports metadata from:

File	Contents
<name>.nfo or movie.nfo	title, plot, dates (aired/premiered/releasedate/date/year), studio, url, tag/genre, actor/director/writer, runtime/duration.
<name>.info.json, <name>.json, movie.info.json, movie.json	title/fulltitle, description/plot/synopsis, dates, channel/uploader/studio, webpage_url/url, tags/categories, performers/actors/cast, duration.

Sidecar values seed the entity at scan time; your in-app edits and provider identify take precedence over routine rescans.

Subtitles

Subtitle tracks are extracted from the video's embedded streams (and managed/added in the player). See Playback & Reading.

Tips

• Put each movie in its own folder under the root so it lands in Movies; loose files at the root stay in Videos.
• For TV, prefer Series/Season NN/SxxEyy.ext for unambiguous results.
• If a show is misclassified, re-read the rules above, fix the layout, and rescan — classification is idempotent on file paths.