Ah, so it’s essentially a collection of the same movie? Not the same as the implementation with Plex’s versions?
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That is correct.
The grouping feature here is not only aimed at grouping multiple resolutions together, but also things like multiple cuts (Director, Theatrical, etc…), duplicate items from multiple sources, and will open the door for us to enable support for videos spread over multiple discs.
What concerns me about your implementing it this way is that you will be essentially replacing the filters bar (I don’t know the official terminology for it) at the bottom of the film’s details pages, which already has a purpose and one that this proposal will be interfering with.
Consider this:
Currently, whether I begin browsing my library collection by either the blue “Movies” library favorite, the “Sci-Fi Movies” genre button, the “1970s Movies” filter button, or a search result for “Ridley Scott Movies” …. If I click on any title in that bunch … let’s say, “Alien” … and arrive at that title’s details page, the bottom bar of that details page is populated by movie posters for all other films in my library that match the given filter use to begin my browsing (be it a major category button, a specific genre, a specific decade filter, or a given search result).
Given I searched for Ridley Scott films, clicking on “Alien” will populate the bottom filters bar (or whatever it is officially called) with the posters for all the other Ridley Scott films in my collection. Correct?
Except now it won’t, because I have four different copies of Alien in my library — I’ve got both the theatrical and director’s cuts in both 4K HDR and 1080p SDR. So, instead, all I’ll see are my various covers for these 4 different copies of “Alien”. I won’t be able to scroll further to the right to access the details pages for “Alien: Covenant” and “Black Hawk Down” like I can today.
But let’s further suppose that if instead of clicking on “Alien” I click on “Black Rain” (which I only have one copy of), I would be able to click left back to “Black Hawk Down” or right ahead to “Blade Runner” (and beyond Blade Runner, I’d see my posters for “Body of Lies” and “Gladiator”).
Yet what happens when I click over to “Black Hawk Down”? I get stuck? Because I’ve got two copies of Black Hawk Down — one in the theatrical cut, one in the extended edition. These two items become the only ones shown on the filter bar. Presumably I need to back out of my search to see any other options.
Will I next get stuck again at Blade Runner (because I’ve got the 4K version of the Final Cut plus 1080p versions of the Theatrical and Director’s cuts plus the Workprint) and Gladiator (Theatrical and 4K EE)?
Today, I already have complete access to these multiple editions exactly as you propose. They all live there in the filters bar already, with my custom cover art (and custom titles, if I was free to use my .NFO files).
So if I’ve correctly highlighted what we might stand to lose — what do we stand to gain?
….
I had planned to post an image showing how I can already see all my alternate versions in the filters bar (same as I can in my library) but my copy of Infuse is currently acting exceptionally wonky — I can’t even view items in the filters bar via search right now — the selected item just keeps bouncing back up and freezing. Infuse Pro 7.4.10 (4.3.2.9). 
…
The better implementation, imo, will be to have Infuse not treat multiple copies as duplicates assigned to collections but as truly different versions of a singular root title, and offer them up (when applicable) through the same sort of button bar you successfully implemented for different seasons of tv series when introducing the newly flattened tv series interface that jumps directly to episode details pages.
This would require Infuse being able to distinguish one item from another but since you suggest (until TMDB ever steps up with their implementation) this will still require the users to do this themselves via local NFO and images, perhaps the solution lies in reading a user-inserted “version” tag in the XML.
Otherwise, I don’t see the point until TMDB starts providing Infuse (and everyone else) the data typical users (not wanting to write out their own .nfo files) will need.
Thanks for sharing the visuals for the implementation @james. In my humble opinion, if this is the direction this feature is headed towards, then it better not be implemented. This will inevitably end up colluding the UX, making the solution unnecessarily complex, as @FLskydiver has well pointed out.
It has to be along the lines of what was shared in the first post. Cheers
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I personally prefer the implementation discussed by jsc1205, but what is shown here is a step in the right direction as I’m excited for this release - it will be what makes me upgrade to pro.
I think you run into a few issues that there are trying to fix.
When navigating the library you would see two posters of the same movie but not sure which one to chose (yes I know that some customize all their metadata, but this is for everyone else). So you pick one and then go back and pick the next one to see. In many cases libraries are shared with families or friends who do not know the intimate details of the library like we do, so it is easier to show just the one poster. And if they press play, in many cases, it probably doesn’t matter. For the rest of us it isn’t really cluttering things up (cleans up other areas) and is now quite straightforward to compare the files.
Next when you need to edit metadata on a file, you are able to easily and individually select each file and do an edit, delete, rate, add to playlist/collection, or whatever. On the Plex implementation shown in OP, you wouldn’t be able to do that unless you went to specific sections in the library.
There isn’t a straightforward way to determine the text in the plex popup implementation. You might have multiple resolutions of multiple cuts. A simple popup might not be sufficient. And honestly since I duplicate all of my movies into a downloaded mobile version, I would start getting pretty bothered by a popup that happens every single time I hit play.
As James mentioned, this allows for future implementation of gapless playback between multi part files, a much requested feature.
Perhaps this UI area in the future can be utilized for trailers and other locally added extras.
Remember, this has only just started testing and I think it will continue to be refined over the next month, but I do think there should probably be a solution that covers us experts as well as the casual user.
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I like this idea! Choose which version or if you have a trailer of that movie you could choose Trailer.
@FLskydiver brings up a few points which seem valid. The worst thing would be to implement this only to discover it breaks current programing. I’m therefor very interested in @james response.
IMO, the implementation of multiple versions should be truly an additional feature that does not affect the operation of existing code. But that’s just my 2 cents. No doubt there is more this feature and how Infuse code can be combined.
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How does this work with movies that are already in collections?
Eek, this is going to make my library so untidy.
But actually, doesn’t it already group them this way already inside of collections?
No, I use Jellyfin - and different versions of movies just aren’t accessible in Infuse. The default version just gets played. It’s a shame, but it’s preferable to having them cluttering up collections like in your screenshot. James suggested that it might not be implemented for Jellyfin users in the next update - so maybe I’ll be safe after all.
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To be honest I don’t like it. Looks like a backward in the UI.
This looks so much infuse! The other one looks like a cheap app. I know @james can do better. We can wait if time is that the team needs.
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This is Hometheater 4.
I’m assuming the version options are “Blu-ray” and “4K”? That’s kinda confusing, considering 4K Blu-ray is a thing all it’s own.
It’s possible that a lot of work still needs to be put in cleaning up and streamlining the base code so that features already rolled out can start working as advertised … and the oft-requested new features have a more solid footing to stand on. I’d rather see the code rewritten so that sorting works properly (and customizable to each share, folder, and\or view) and filters can be stacked so that browsing my library as it already exists becomes pleasant again … and I’m willing to wait for that to be done right before demanding that changes be roughly shoehorned in so that multiple-versions and extras content can be claimed to be supported.
That said, without changing up the UI too much, I think stealing the new flattened TV Seasons selector bar and moving that over to the movie side might be a good way to add support for multiple versions and extras content when the code is ready to support them.
Something like this, maybe:
(Scroll two posts down for a description of how I visualize navigating this would work.)
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It’s actually not confusing. Because when you move to the Blu-ray field you could see, that it is a 3D version in this case. You can have multiple versions of a movie, and check what precisely it is.
I just wanted to give an example, how other systems solve this problem.
Yes, sorry that there is no 3D on ATV.
I don’t have any 3D media or TVs or projectors so not really an issue. Well, I maybe have a few blu-ray discs with 3D versions of movies, but none worth watching.
I gather all the specs below the description update based on whichever button you touch? Not sure why I’d care what the container format is (mkv or mp4) since either one ought to play wherever I wanted to send it … but the rest is alright. Don’t need the giant icons though; kinda favor Infuse’s implementation there.
…
In my little visualization you’d select between your movie versions like shopping for a portable hard drive or iPad on Amazon: Orange for the resolution/specs (storage size); purple for the various edits (device color). Selecting either one updates the available options for the other.
Pick “4K HDR” and choose between the available edits (bordered in purple); or pick “Theatrical” and choose between the available resolutions (bordered in orange).
Maybe you pick “1080p” instead of “4K HDR”, and the “Extended” button goes dark gray because you haven’t got that edit in 1080p. Or you pick “Extended” and the “1080p” button goes dark for the same reason.
Click “Play” to play the currently highlighted selection, as always.
The green items are for extras content:
If you only have one “Trailer”, for example, it begins playing right away when you select that button … while clicking something like “Stunts” (if “Stunts” is a subfolder in “Extras” with multiple video clips inside) causes the collection bar at the bottom (where all the James Bond films are listed) to be replaced with all the video clips residing in your “Bond 25 - No Time to Die (2021)\Extras\Stunts” folder.
Click any clip to play it; or select “Deleted Scenes” to update the bottom bar again, showing only the clips from the Deleted Scenes subfolder. Or select “Stunts” again (if that’s the folder whose content is showing … or one of the movie’s version buttons, or the “menu/back” button … to restore the collection bar and navigate to a different Bond film altogether.