Questions about Media Stubs

[funwithmedia 364]

Greetings,

 

I'm thinking of trying out Emby, and I have a few questions.

1. I was wondering if it is possible to create custom Media Stub Flags? For example, I have online content spread across providers like Vudu and Disney Movies Anywhere, and it'd be nice to be able to aggregate those titles within Emby along with my local videos (even though I'd have to open up Vudu to actually view a given video). Is there an "advanced settings" method of adding to the list of recognized Flags (eg, movie1.vudu.disc)? This would of course only be useful if I can also define what would be displayed in accordance with the custom flag (eg, so instead of DVD for a .dvd. flag, display Vudu.com, or whatever corresponds to the custom flag I've set).
2. How does Emby for Roku handle Media Stubs, and does the interface display anything in response to the Flag (eg, DVD, Blu-ray, TV, etc.)?
3. In my current setup I have the IMDB id (eg, tt2975590) in the database for any of my titles that exist in IMDB, so it would be possible for me to extract that into filenames. Would including that in the filename (whether for an actual video file), or for a Media Stub, help Emby with accurately identifying titles? And if so, what would be the recommended syntax for where in the filename to put that?

Thanks much!

[Happy2Play 9140]

Have you seen the Wiki?

Edited November 29, 2016 by Happy2Play

[funwithmedia 364]

Have you seen the Wiki?

Yup! Yeah, I meant to link to some of the pages I've looked at, such as that one and https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Media%20stubs .

 

The absence of info regarding (1) and (3) in the Wiki doesn't definitively answer my questions though, as I know it is not uncommon for documentation to lag behind features and/or for some advanced features to not always be well documented (speaking in general, not about the Emby project in particular).

 

Is there someplace in the Wiki that speaks to (2)?

[Luke 38830]

Hi @@funwithmedia, the roku app is probably just going to give you a playback message saying that playback is not possible on the device. We could look at indicators in the future but I don't think it has them right now.

 

Custom stubs are not possible.

 

For #3, our stubs feature is actually adopting Kodi conventions, and i don't think it supports this. But you could create a corresponding nfo file containing the id:

 

http://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Movies

 

Let us know if this answers your question. Thanks !

[funwithmedia 364]

Thanks @@Luke -- very helpful!  The NFO files are exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. 

 

One more question: Is it possible to create custom metadata? I'm just trying to figure out how I might handle the online movies that I want to catalog in Emby, so if it is possible to create custom metadata fields and values that might be a route for me to explore. I'm guessing this isn't currently possible (I haven't found anything in my searches), but wanted to check.

[Luke 38830]

Custom fields, no, not possible at this time. But you can put whatever values you want inside the nfo and when Emby re-saves the nfo, it will preserve any tags that it doesn't recognize.

[funwithmedia 364]

Ok, understandable. Is there a way to read and make use of that custom INF data (ie, custom xml tags) in Emby, or is just that it would be there if I wanted to interface with that from other software? Also, are custom fields something that is being considered for the future (just curious)?

[Luke 38830]

No way in Emby right now, so you're correct, it preserves the data to avoid interfering with other software that might be depending on it. As far as custom fields go, we'd just have to see what the demand is i guess. If there is one particular field you need that might also be valuable to others, then that might be an easier way to get what you need.

[funwithmedia 364]

Ok, thanks for the clarifications!

 

Is there a list somewhere of all the metadata that is currently supported?

[funwithmedia 364]

Just wanted to add (for the benefit of others) that it has occurred to me that I can achieve some of what I'm aiming for by using Tags (eg, tagging an item as "Vudu", "Disney Movies Anywhere", etc.

[Luke 38830]

Ah great info, thanks !

[funwithmedia 364]

Sort of random followup question: Does Emby ever store any data in the Media Stub ".disc" file? I was thinking of putting a few notes to myself in there (instead of keeping a separate text file), but I don't want to cause issues for Emby, or get my notes overwritten.

[Luke 38830]

No, we don't.

[funwithmedia 364]

Great, thanks!

[funwithmedia 364]

It seems that my manually added poster for a Media Stub is being ignored during Library Scan, which I'm guessing is an accident/oversight.

 

For example, if I have MovieName (year).hddvd.disc and my manually added poster name is MovieName (year).hddvd.jpg the image file is ignored.

 

If I should be naming the file differently I'm cool with that, but it would be nice if my manually added image files could still utilize the title in the name (as opposed to just poster.jpg).

 

I'd be open to trying to do a Pull Request to fix things if you can direct me to proper file on GitHub.

[Luke 38830]

If it's happening during the scan, try running another scan afterwards.

[funwithmedia 364]

Right -- I should have clarified that I've tried that (ie, running multiple scans). It still never picks up my manually added image file. And if I delete the poster.jpg that gets created (because of it not seeing an existing file) then I just have no poster -- rescans don't seem to do anything. On subsequent runs of Emby Theater it just pulls from one of the other images it created (eg, landscape.jpg) -- it doesn't see my manually added image, nor does it recreate poster.jpg.

[Happy2Play 9140]

Have you tried "MovieName (year).hddvd-poster.jpg"?

 

Example from one Emby did for me.

Mad Max - Fury Road (2015).3d.bluray-poster.jpg

[funwithmedia 364]

That was a good idea, but it still doesn't work on my end. Re-scans have no effect. Even completely deleting an item (via Emby Theater) and then adding it back and re-scanning has no effect.

[funwithmedia 364]

I also tried adding a brand new item which had never been in the database (using "MovieName (year).hddvd-poster.jpg") and still the image file is ignored.

[Happy2Play 9140]

And if you use the upload option in imaged editor how is it named?  You will probably have to post server logs to possible determine why a library scan is not recognizing the image updates.

[funwithmedia 364]

It looks like it just uses whatever name the file already has (as opposed to renaming the file). But the uploaded image does stick, thankfully. I'll see about posting my logs shortly.

[funwithmedia 364]

Is there going to be anything sensitive in the logs though? I tend to be a little skittish about posting that sort of thing publicly.

[Happy2Play 9140]

It looks like it just uses whatever name the file already has (as opposed to renaming the file). But the uploaded image does stick, thankfully. I'll see about posting my logs shortly.

What do you mean, it use whatever name it already has?  Every image I have uploaded is named according the image type I select.

Edited January 1, 2017 by Happy2Play

[funwithmedia 364]

I would have sworn that when I did it earlier it didn't change the name at all, but I think I know why it appeared that way to me. The reason is not important -- user error. Sorry for the false alarm!

 

When I just retried it now several times it renames it to poster.jpg each time (this is for image type of Primary).

 

But unfortunately that doesn't particularly help me as I already new it was preferring that.

 

I need to see if I can find where in the server code it is handling this stuff, because my guess is that there just some code missing for how it handles Media Stubs verses how it parses actual video files. In theory it shouldn't be too hard for me to patch in the right logic for Media Stub handling, once I find how it is handled for regular files. But since I'm very new to this project it'll probably take me a while to find what I'm looking for....