Folder Structure

Dubby’s scanner is flexible with naming conventions, but following a consistent structure gives the best metadata matching results.

Movies

Recommended structure

/media/movies/
├── Inception (2010)/
│   └── Inception (2010).mkv
├── The Matrix (1999)/
│   └── The Matrix (1999).mkv
└── Parasite (2019)/
    ├── Parasite (2019).mkv
    ├── Parasite (2019).en.srt
    └── Parasite (2019).ko.srt

Each movie in its own folder with the year in parentheses. This is the format used by Radarr and most media managers.

Supported naming patterns

The scanner recognizes these naming conventions:

Format	Example
Plex/Radarr style	`Movie Name (2022)/Movie Name (2022).mkv`
Scene release	`Movie.Name.2022.1080p.BluRay.x264-GROUP.mkv`
Sonarr/Radarr tags	`Movie (2022) [imdbid-tt123] - [Bluray-1080p].mkv`
Simple	`Movie Name 2022.mkv`

The parser extracts: title, year, resolution, source (Blu-ray, WEB-DL, etc.), video codec, and release group.

TV shows

Recommended structure

/media/tv/
└── Breaking Bad/
    ├── Season 01/
    │   ├── Breaking Bad - S01E01 - Pilot.mkv
    │   ├── Breaking Bad - S01E02 - Cat's in the Bag.mkv
    │   └── ...
    ├── Season 02/
    │   └── ...
    └── Specials/
        └── Breaking Bad - S00E01 - Special.mkv

Supported episode naming

Format	Example
Standard	`S01E01`, `s01e01`
Multi-episode	`S01E01E02`, `S01E01-E02` (detected as first episode)
Cross-style	`1x01`
Long form	`Season 1 Episode 1`
Anime	`[Group] Show Name - 01 [1080p].mkv`
Dash-separated	`Show - S01E01 - Episode Title.mkv`
Date-based	`Show.Name.2024.03.15.720p.WEB.mkv`

Date-based episodes

Daily shows, talk shows, and news programs commonly use dates instead of season/episode numbers:

/media/tv/
└── The Daily Show/
    └── The.Daily.Show.2024.03.15.720p.WEB.mkv

The scanner detects YYYY.MM.DD patterns and stores the air date for metadata matching. The year becomes the season number for organizational purposes.

Season folder names

These season folder patterns are recognized:

Season 01, Season 1
S01
Series 01
Specials (maps to Season 0)

When a filename doesn’t include an explicit season number (e.g. anime-style [Group] Show - 05.mkv or episode-only Show.E05.mkv), the scanner inherits the season from the parent folder name. Files with explicit season numbers in the filename (like S01E05) always use the filename’s value.

Folder name fallback

If a video file has a generic filename (like movie.mkv or video.mkv), the scanner uses the parent folder name to extract the title and year:

/media/movies/
└── Inception (2010)/
    └── movie.mkv          # → title: "Inception", year: 2010

This also works for TV shows — if the filename doesn’t contain a meaningful show title, the show folder name is used instead.

External subtitles

Place subtitle files next to the video file with a language code suffix:

Movie Name (2024).mkv
Movie Name (2024).en.srt          # English
Movie Name (2024).en.forced.srt   # English, forced
Movie Name (2024).es.srt          # Spanish
Movie Name (2024).ja.ass          # Japanese

Supported subtitle formats: .srt, .ass, .ssa, .vtt, .sub, .idx, .sup

External subtitles are auto-detected during library scans.

Supported video formats

Extension	Notes
`.mkv`	Most common for high-quality media
`.mp4`, `.m4v`	Widely compatible
`.avi`	Legacy format
`.mov`	Apple QuickTime
`.wmv`	Windows Media
`.ts`, `.m2ts`	Transport stream (Blu-ray rips)
`.webm`	Web-optimized VP9/AV1
`.flv`	Flash video (legacy)
`.ogv`	Ogg video

Ignored files and folders

The scanner automatically skips:

Hidden files/folders starting with .
System files: .DS_Store, Thumbs.db
Synology/NAS folders: @eaDir, .recycle
Special features (word-boundary aware): sample, trailer, featurette, extra, bonus, behind the scenes, deleted scenes, interview

The special features filter is smart about word boundaries — a file called “Extraordinary.mkv” is not ignored even though it contains “extra”.

Tips for best results

Always include the year — It disambiguates titles like “Dune (1984)” vs “Dune (2021)”
Use one folder per movie — Allows grouping the movie with its subtitles
Keep TV shows in season folders — Even if you only have one season
Use the same name in folder and filename — Inception (2010)/Inception (2010).mkv