TV Shows: Multiple versions of same episode are shown as duplicate episodes (no version selection)

[nilbest]

I’m trying to store multiple versions of the same TV episode (e.g. H.264 and H.265) in Jellyfin.
While this works as expected for movies, it does not seem to work for TV shows.

For movies, Jellyfin correctly groups multiple files as different versions of the same item:

Movie.mkv
Movie - 1080p.mkv

For TV shows, however, Jellyfin always shows duplicate episodes instead of one episode with selectable versions.

I Expected:

A single episode (S01E01) should be shown with multiple selectable versions, similar to how Jellyfin handles movies.

Actual Behavior:

Jellyfin shows two separate Episode 01 entries in the season overview, with no way to select between versions.

Naming Variants Tested
Vikings S01E01 - H265.mkv
Vikings S01E01 [H265].mkv
Vikings S01E01 (H265).mkv

I also tried separating the H265 Versions in an extra Season 01 H265 Folder, but they all got merged to one big Season in the Mediaplayer where I see every Episode multiple times.

All variants result in duplicate episodes.

How should I store them so that I can switch between the Episode Versions?
The official Doc does not say anything about how you can or can not do this for TV Shows, only for Movies.

[TheMelmacian]

The auto grouping is currently not supported for TV-Shows. There is a PR that would add this feature, but seeing how long it's already open and the long discussion, I doubt it will be merged any time soon: #8004

You have to merge the episodes manually:

• Go to the detail page of one of the episodes. (Selecting episodes is currently not possible in the season overview of the WEB-UI).
• In the list of additional episodes mark the first episode with a long left click
• Mark all episodes you want to merge together.
• Open the Menu in the the top right (three dots)
• Select "merge items"
• repeat for all episodes/items you want to merge

[laipeng101]

Just wanted to provide a quick update for anyone finding this thread: while PR #8004 is indeed stalled, another developer (@eebette) has recently opened a brand new PR #16239 which completely rewrites this multi-version episode feature against the current master branch. It includes comprehensive unit tests and is currently waiting for core team review.

If you are looking forward to this feature, I'd recommend dropping a 👍 on the main description of PR #16239 to show the maintainers the community interest!