Syncing playback state between different versions of a movie/show

[CosinusJay]

Hello, Jellyfin community! I have a question regarding playback progress. I have two versions of a few movies and shows: one in FHD 1080p and another in 4K 2160p. I’ve already "merged" them using the Merge Versions plugin from danieladov, but I’m wondering if there’s a way for Jellyfin to sync playback progress between multiple versions of a movie or show. This would be incredibly useful since I only have a 4K monitor at my desk and no 4K TV. It would reduce unnecessary load on my NAS if i could simply switch over to 1080p without losing any episode progress on my TV, especially if multiple people are watching 4K on a 1080p device. Thanks in advance for any help!

[TheDreadPirate]

You shouldn't need the merge versions plugin to have multiple versions of a movie. WITHOUT the plugin I get two "continue watching" entries for a movie that are at the same time stamp.

[CosinusJay]

Oh, okay. When I added my files to my library, the FHD and 4K versions showed up as 2 different movies, even tough they were named exactly the same except for the [2160P] and [1080P] label at the end of the file. Is this how it is supposed to show up?

[TheDreadPirate]

What are the exact names of the files? And the folder they are in.

[CosinusJay]

My folder structure looks like this:

Media/Movies/Alien Romulus (2024)

The files are named:
Alien Romulus (2024) 4K HDR [2160P].mkv
Alien Romulus (2024) FHD [1080P].mkv

[TheDreadPirate]

Change the files names to

Alien Romulus (2024) - 4K HDR [2160P].mkv
Alien Romulus (2024) - FHD [1080P].mkv

The dash is what triggers the automatic "versions" detection.

[CosinusJay]

Thank you! Worked perfectly

[danob]

Hi all,
this is exactly what I need in my Home Movies Library. Is it only working in the Movies Library?
Thanks for your help.

[TheDreadPirate]

I've only tried in a Movies library. Another user reported it working in a Music Videos library. I am not sure that a home videos/photos library would have this functionality since it is a glorified file/folder view.

[danob]

Hi TheDreadPirate,
which presentable functionality would you suggest if you like to provide a home video in two qualities? You should be able to choose one before you start.
My problem is the missing hardware transcoding on my Synology NAS. So this is my work around. But at the moment not presentable.