Skip Intro and Skip Credits

Media Preview Generator detects where each file's intro and end credits are and sends those points to Plex, Emby and Jellyfin, so viewers get a skip button. It detects each file once and sends the same answer to every server that has the file. On Jellyfin and Emby it works through its own plugin. It runs in the same Docker container that makes your preview thumbnails, and it stays off until you turn it on for a server.

What viewers get, and what each server needs

• Plex. Skip Intro and Skip Credits buttons. The server needs Plex Pass, and so do viewers, or a Plex Home whose admin has it: without it, Plex hides skip buttons altogether. Plex has no way for another app to add markers, so the app writes them into Plex's own database and asks you to confirm once per server first. That only works on the Plex machine, so either run the app there or run a Plex database node next to Plex.
• Jellyfin 10.11 or 12.0. Jellyfin has no intro detection of its own: it shows skip segments that a plugin provides (Jellyfin docs). This app's Media Preview Bridge plugin, the same one trickplay uses, is that plugin. Viewers get Skip Intro and Skip Credits, plus Skip Recap and Skip Preview.
• Emby 4.9 or 4.10. Skip Intro, and Skip Credits through Emby's Up Next prompt. It works through this app's Media Preview Bridge for Emby plugin. Skip Intro also needs Emby Premiere, which is Emby's rule; the credits prompt works without it. Emby has no credits end, so skipping credits goes to the end of the file, past any scene after the credits.

Plex and Emby can have markers of their own. With Use ours, the default, the app's markers replace them. Keep Plex's or Keep Emby's leaves them alone. For what each server offers by itself, see the comparison.

Set up and check the first result

1. Install Media Preview Generator and connect your server. In Servers, edit the server, then open Processing → Intro & Credits and turn on Send intro & credits markers to this server. Complete that server's database-write confirmation or plugin setup before starting work. If Plex runs on another machine, first set up a Plex database node there.
2. Choose the libraries in the same server's Libraries tab. The Intro & Credits and Previews selections are independent. Use Setup Health to check the server's requirements.
3. Review detection sources under Settings → Intro & Credits, then start an Intro & Credits job for the libraries you chose. The full guide covers source choices and publishing rules.
4. Open Tools → Inspector and inspect a known episode or movie. Compare the detected positions with the video and each server's published result. Adjust or lock a marker when needed; an uncertain result may intentionally have no skip button.

How it detects intros and credits

It looks in four places:

• Chapters already in the file.
• Online skip databases.
• The theme song a season's episodes share (TV only).
• The credit roll itself, read from the text on screen near the end of the file.

If it can't confirm an intro or credits from the file itself, it writes nothing, because a missing skip button is better than one that skips into the story. You can still add or adjust one in the Inspector.

When it runs

• On import. When Sonarr or Radarr imports a file, the app makes the previews first, then detects the intro and credits.
• Across a library. Start an Intro & Credits job for the libraries you choose, or put one on a schedule.
• On your worker groups. It runs on any worker group that allows Intro & Credits, in the same job queue and with the same priorities as previews.
• Only where you turn it on. Each server has its own Send intro & credits markers to this server switch, off by default, and an Intro & Credits column on its Libraries tab.

Limits

• Sports libraries start switched off. No online source covers sports, and a broadcast's on-screen text is easily taken for credits.
• Movies have little online coverage, so they mostly rely on the credit roll.
• Broadcast TV with channel logos or scores on screen is a weak spot. It sometimes skips into the story.
• Shows with burned-in captions through the story may get no credits marker from on-screen text when the credits run over story footage.