Allow to mitigate metadata source inconsistancies for TV show episodes

[MeowingTree 2]

Currently it isn't possible to:

• identify an episode*, or
• limit/force metadata sources on an episode, or
• force a metadata source by specifying id in filename**.

Usually this wouldn't be a problem, but there's a show currently where:

• each source has conflicting special numbering, and
• one source has a new numbered season while the other started a whole new show entry

It's an absolute mess, compounded by a lack of means to force a metadata source per episode.

Currently all I can do is pick arbitrary special numbers in the 900 range and not have these episodes linked to any metadata.

*(The knowledge base could use an update on this if identify isn't applied to episodes and seasons. It states "per-item", however only show and movie items have the identify option.)
**(The TV Naming page implies this will be used for lookup, however episode number seems to be used instead.)

[ebr 14913]

3 hours ago, MeowingTree said:

Currently it isn't possible to:

• identify an episode

Hi.  Actually, it is.  Episodes are identified by the show ID/Season #/Episode #.  You can manually edit all of those if desired.

3 hours ago, MeowingTree said:

• each source has conflicting special numbering, and
• one source has a new numbered season while the other started a whole new show entry

So, in that case, what are you suggesting the system be able to do? 

[MeowingTree 2]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Actually, it is.  Episodes are identified by the show ID/Season #/Episode #.  You can manually edit all of those if desired.

So, in that case, what are you suggesting the system be able to do? 

I'm talking about the identify feature, where you can manually pick or search for an option if a show/movie isn't automatically identified correctly. Though I appear to have assumed that this can/does present options from all sources even if there is conflicting information, but I'm not sure why this might not be true.

Automatic identification checks each source in turn based on the list of sources defined for a library. In this particular case the first option is wrong, but there is currently no way to override.

Possible solutions incude:

● Extending the manual identify feature to cover episodes

● Allow manual overriding of prefered source per episode & rescan

● Ensuring filename ids take highest preference for automatic scanning method AND that they explicitly override source order preference.

I do recall previously the odd show where I forced a particular source by manually specifying an invalid id for one source and the correct id for another, however I couldn't try this method for episodes because the id field for some sources was missing from episode metadata edit - it's not a pretty option, but perhaps this could be looked into as well.

[MeowingTree 2]

Edit (whoops apparently can't edit?):

Filename id behaviour and metadata edit issues mentioned are possibly bugs.

I had more ideas on solutions:

● Blacklist a source for an item (down to the episode level). This can be done now by giving a 0 id for a source and could be used now if the edit form wasn't broken, but UX wise it would be nice to have a toggle and backend wise an id that explicitly told emby not to even check that source would be cleaner than searching an invalid id.

● Override source order by filename tag, e.g. [tvdbid] without suppling id to force scanning that source first. Although current filename id behaviour appears to be a bug, and would do just fine if worked as described.

[Luke 37068]

Quote

Extending the manual identify feature to cover episodes

What we're trying to say is that it's already there. Episodes fall underneath a series and the series is already detected. Therefore, all you need to enter is the episode numbers. So you enter those into the metadata editor and then refresh metadata.

[MeowingTree 2]

22 minutes ago, Luke said:

What we're trying to say is that it's already there. Episodes fall underneath a series and the series is already detected. Therefore, all you need to enter is the episode numbers. So you enter those into the metadata editor and then refresh metadata.

I've explained extensively why this isn't true, or at least isn't enough.

[Luke 37068]

5 minutes ago, MeowingTree said:

I've explained extensively why this isn't true, or at least isn't enough.

You can't have one episode under a series folder that belongs to some other different series. Is that what you're trying to do?

[MeowingTree 2]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

You can't have one episode under a series folder that belongs to some other different series. Is that what you're trying to do?

No it's the same series, I'm trying to identify it correctly when metadata sources differ - each source has the same episode number for completely different episodes, and unfortunately the preferred source doesn't have a correct number in this case because they've erroneously ended that series and put it into a different series (which it isn't). This won't affect normal episodes going forward, but it's a nightmare for specials.

I need some way to override the source selection, or exclude a specific source - without globally changing the source selection order.

Another possible solution is using date in fole names, but if that conflicts with using S00E00 (which id tags appear to) then I'd want to put the date before the title so that files are ordered correctly, which isn't possible according to naming rules. And might still lead to misidentification, since the wrong source has the same show name for the non-existing series.

[ebr 14913]

I think I understand your issue but it is such an incredibly niche situation that I don't know that trying to handle it as you've suggested will be cost-effective.

Can't you just manually enter the proper metadata and lock it?  That's why we offer that option.

[MeowingTree 2]

11 minutes ago, ebr said:

I think I understand your issue but it is such an incredibly niche situation that I don't know that trying to handle it as you've suggested will be cost-effective.

Can't you just manually enter the proper metadata and lock it?  That's why we offer that option.

The biggest problem with that is the metadata form omitting id fields from some sources for some unknown reason, I don't use the generated links often but I prefer to have them. Which while I'm at it I'm pretty sure the work around that works for movies and shows - invalid ids in fields - generates invalid links. If this was handled intentionally instead, with a blacklist toggle and emby aware blacklist id, then non-existant links could be avoided.

It's also easier to find and deal with these episodes by using fake episode numbers, otherwise I have to look for the "wrong" episode to edit it.

There are several ways to make this possible, but even if none are worth the cost for Emby then I think at the very least the knowledge base should be updated to make it clear:

● which types of items can be manually identified

● that adding ids to filenames doesn't force those sources to be used exclusively for metadata.

So.. there are some improvements, possible bugs, and documentation updates that could happen even if this functionality isn't implemented. Whether it's worth doing is of course up to Emby, and of course I can't force Emby to do anything - but I can point them out and hopefully by now I've done that.