Add support for more title types

[joryte42]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
The 4 title types currently supported (Main Title, Extra, Trailer, Deleted Scene) do capture the majority of what most users want. But, not representing other types does limit the utility of this resource for some people that may be more thorough in their preservation interests. Additionally, having tracks that are not categorized leaves ambiguity in whether they are uncategorizable tracks (menus, interactives, etc.) or whether they were omitted by a less-thorough contributor (ie, a cool special feature that was left out of the menu, which I've definitely found before). Therefore, if a disc has an unlabeled track that otherwise has the characteristics of a track of interest (reasonable length, number of chapters, size, etc.), every user has to recreate the analysis work on that track to determine whether it was an omission or an intentional exclusion. Having the ability to mark tracks as at least "Other" and label them helps remove the ambiguity and save future users time.

Describe the solution you'd like
I would like to see at least an "Other" category added, but I think we could also get more thorough with the actual content types. This could include: "Interviews", "Interactive", "Previews", "Menuing". Also, there might be some advantage in maintaining consistency with Plex, which would break "Extra" down into "Behind the Scenes" and "Scenes". There could be argued value in differentiating "Deleted Scene" from "Extended Scene", though I don't think I'd personally care about that much.

Describe alternatives you've considered
An alternative would be to allow us to label tracks without typing them. Currently, a track must be assigned a type before any annotation can be given to it. If we wanted to document that a track has been looked at and is a scene from an interactive, that cannot be documented without marking the track as a useful type, which adds more confusion than it brings clarity.

Additional context

[shayypy]

I like the idea of Extra subtypes but personally I feel some of your suggested types would be redundant.

• "Previews" is effectively synonymous with "Trailer" (do we really need to differentiate trailers for the feature from trailers for other features? if so, maybe a flag on the item itself would be better?)
• "Interactive" content is usually, I find, just part of the DVD menu, not a separate title, and so isn't part of the log. Unless you want a type specifically for a cutscene that's part of an interactive menu, like in Journey to the Center of the Earth?

I think interview/bts/scene subtypes make a lot of sense. To expand on this, maybe we could also have a new "TV Movie" type (which can specify a TMDB movie ID in the summary) for series releases that include spinoff movies, like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch S7D3 (though I can't find many other examples).

[joryte42]

w.r.t. Previews vs trailer, your interpretation matches how I think of it. I also don't value the distinction as I don't care to keep any trailers, but there is a distinction and some people may want to preserve the main title theatrical trailers but omit the pre-show preview trailers and ads. There is a balance between precision/accuracy and manageability/usability. This probably falls on the 'too much precision' side of the spectrum (like Extended Scene vs just Deleted Scene), but others may feel strongly to have a distinction.

w.r.t. Interactives, I frequently encounter interactives that are separate titles. One example that is fresh is Hellboy II Blu-ray (Comic Book Builder is 00200.mpls) and Hellboy II DVD (Print Gallery and Poster Explorations are sources 2 and 3, respectively). I know I've encountered interactive games in the past that have produced dozens of titles I've had to weed through.

[lfoust]

I made the original list of types based on the plex documentation at the time - the idea was that I wanted to be able to conform to whatever plex naming scheme users want to use. It looks like they have since added some types (https://support.plex.tv/articles/local-files-for-trailers-and-extras/).

Jellyfin has its own similar list: https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/movies/

So Combining the two we end up with:

Current:

• Extra
• Episode
• MainMovie
• DeletedScene
• Trailer

Add:

• behindthescenes
• interview
• featurette
• scene
• short
• other
• samples
• clips
• theme-music
• backdrops

Personally, I find this to be a bit overkill. I think the best ones from that new list are probably other, interview, and featurette.
From the perspective of ripping and naming files, I don't really need or want that much granularity. I don't often think about it from the perspective of preservation though.

What do you think?

[shayypy]

As a contributor and someone who mainly uses the site for preservation, I wouldn't mind using some of these extra types. In particular I would like to argue for scene and maybe some sort of music type (like theme-music?) since I see a good few discs with karaoke or music video titles. I'm not sure what the difference between scene, clip, and samples is supposed to be. I would agree with you that interview and featurette are good additions.

If we keep "extra" though, I personally feel "other" is unnecessary.

[lfoust]

Ok, my proposal: we add:

• Other
• Interview
• Featurette
• Scene
• MusicVideo? (Or just Music?) I don't really like ThemeMusic

Then we can consider other additions in the future

[joryte42]

I think of "extra" as a generalization of "Behind The Scenes", "Interview", "Deleted Scene", etc. It is all supplemental content added intentionally for spectating. It is often called out on the product packaging and usually included in the menus. I feel it is largely redundant if more precise categories are being offered.

"Other", however, I view as for things that are not covered by any other category. These are things that are built into the disc out of necessity but are not intended to be sought out for spectating. These would be: advertisements, menu scenes and transitions, logos, legal notices, etc. Having an "other" category is critical to enable these to be annotated, especially false positive titles that are deceptively characteristic of "extra" content. (Is that 45 second title with no chapters a deleted scene or a 'coming soon' advertisement?).

===

My prioritized list of additional categories would be (with descriptions courtesy Gemeni):

1. Other: Anything not fitting a more precise category.

   • An alternative to "Other" could be adding the ability to label tracks without assigning a category or adding a checkbox to indicate a 'non-content' title that would also allow us to add a label.

2. Behind the Scenes (BTS): These are documentary-style videos focusing on events behind the camera lens. They typically feature raw on-set footage, "B-roll" of the crew at work, or deep dives into technical accomplishments like special effects or costume design. Unlike other extras, BTS material requires additional filming during production specifically to capture the making of the movie.

3. Interview: These are dedicated segments featuring, for example, the cast and crew discussing their roles, experiences, or the film's themes. While interviews are often edited into featurettes, standalone "Interviews" focus purely on the dialogue with a specific person.

4. Featurette: A "small feature" that typically serves as a brief, edited documentary covering specific aspects of the creation process. Historically, it refers to a film longer than a short but shorter than a feature (roughly 20–44 minutes), though on modern discs, it often describes promotional "making-of" content ranging from 10 to 30 minutes.

5. Short: These are standalone narrative films that are not the main feature. They might be related to the main movie (e.g., an animated short featuring characters from an Pixar film) or completely independent projects included as a bonus.

6. Music: This includes dedicated music videos for songs on the soundtrack, isolated score tracks, or galleries of the film's theme music.

7. Clip: A brief excerpt taken directly from the main movie or another presentation. In extras menus, these are often used for promotional purposes, "best of" highlights, or to demonstrate specific technical features like a new audio mix.

===

The following I would recommend against:

X. Samples ("In the context of digital disc releases or software like Jellyfin, a sample is typically a very short section of the movie (often under a minute) used to quickly test the audio and video quality of the file.") seems to be something that a user/community would create and distribute as opposed to be distributed by the production company on the disc. As such, I think it is not relevant for this application.

X. Scene ("This category includes Deleted Scenes, Extended Scenes, or Alternate Scenes. These are scripted portions of the film that were shot and edited but were removed or changed in the final theatrical version to manage runtime or tone.") This is a generalization of DeletedScene, so I would not recommend it over adding the other more-precise categories of Extended and Alternate Scenes. Although, if you just want to change DeletedScene to Scene, that could make sense.

X. Theme music and Backdrops, as Jellyfin uses them, I think (I'm not a Jellyfin user), is more akin to customizing client background artwork and music, not necessarily content coming from the media itself. I think these are probably not relevant for this application.

[shayypy]

Ok, my proposal: we add:

I like these. Either Music or MusicVideo would probably be good for that type (if we are ok with putting stuff like karaoke titles in MusicVideo)

re. joryte42: Your definition of "other" clarifies the difference for me, thanks. If we are using your definition of clip vs. scene, then "clip" is what I was aiming for (usually in disc menus they are called scenes, so I went with that).

[lfoust]

@joryte42 - I don't think there is a significant enough difference between Featurette and Behind the Scenes to justify both. I am going to go with Featurette for now since that is often what it is called in marketing and menus.

RE: Extra vs more granular types - Since Extra is so widely used in the existing data and code, I don't think I want to remove it. We could consider removing it in the future