In-Progress Emby Server / Emby Theater - Option to Download (and Display) Duration/Length Metadata for Media Stubs

[funwithmedia 369]

It would be helpful if Media Stubs that have online metadata would automatically download (or there be an option to make set it as automatic) additional metadata that normally would be derived from the video file, particularly Duration / Length / Runtime of the video (and then of course actually display that metadata in Emby Theater). I realize that the online metadata may not always exactly match the true duration (eg, a special edition DVD with extra scenes not in the official theatrical length), but anything would be more useful than nothing here. If I'm trying to decide on something to watch it is unfortunate to have to go dig up the physical DVD/Blu-ray (or switch to the online service provider, if is something I have on Vudu, iTunes, etc.) in order to find out how long it is (particularly since movies can vary in length from ~1.5 hours to 2.5+ hours).

 

Thanks!

Edited April 26, 2018 by funwithmedia

[Luke 40067]

Yes this is a good idea.

[funwithmedia 369]

Glad to hear that!

[funwithmedia 369]

Just giving this a bump!

[funwithmedia 369]

Just giving this a bump for visibility.

[funwithmedia 369]

Was reminded again last night of how useful this would be to me. I had window of time in which to watch something, but because a lot of my movies are in the form of Media Stubs it was hard to narrow things down (both because I couldn't see what the runtime was for these items, and I couldn't sort them based on runtime in a meaningful way since all the media stubs would just sort at the beginning because they have no runtime).

[funwithmedia 369]

Just giving this another bump for visibility.

[funwithmedia 369]

Just giving this a bump -- would love to see this added someday.

[dwyatt 2]

Giving this a bump as well. Would love to have runtime populated for my media stub items. 

[anthony_m 2]

Any news or solutions to add some important info to the stubs like length and languages?

Length would be most important of course but it is also very helpful to know the available audio languages available for a given title.

[Luke 40067]

1 hour ago, anthony_m said:

Any news or solutions to add some important info to the stubs like length and languages?

Length would be most important of course but it is also very helpful to know the available audio languages available for a given title.

Hi, where would this information come from?

[funwithmedia 369]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Hi, where would this information come from?

My original thought back when I first posted this idea would be just pulling from online providers that Emby currently uses in order to get things like runtime. I don't know whether things like audio languages would be available from sources like that, though. To me Runtime/Length is the most important and useful, and I personally would be fine if it displayed with a parenthetical "Runtime estimate based on online metadata" (or something more concise).

[anthony_m 2]

22 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, where would this information come from?

I would suggest a two-tiered approach:

1. get the runtime from the same sources as the other movie data

2. Allow for edits to the .nfo file being shown in emby and populate the user interface with the changed data

 

If that would be possible we could

a) edit runtimes if they differ from the one that was pulled from the online database and

b) add languages / audio tracks

 

[anthony_m 2]

@Lukecan you please comment on the feasibility of all of this?

Especially the nfo file edit could be really easy if only Envy would not ignore it. It could be a decent solution for now even though it would make it necessary to edit every stub. Come to think of it I would very much prefer to have stubs pull the movie length from the same source as the other movie info and only edit when needed for special editions and things like that. An automated process while not always correct would make things so much easier especially when adding big physical collections to Emby.

[Luke 40067]

Yes it should be possible.

[anthony_m 2]

Bumping this back up - any progress on the nfo file contents?

Looks to me as if pulling a bit more info into that nfo file should not be too difficult and it really would help to better integrate those stubs into the collection.

[Luke 40067]

On 4/12/2025 at 7:37 PM, anthony_m said:

Bumping this back up - any progress on the nfo file contents?

Looks to me as if pulling a bit more info into that nfo file should not be too difficult and it really would help to better integrate those stubs into the collection.

HI, we'll enable this on the 4.9 beta channel for the next build. Thanks.

[anthony_m 2]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

HI, we'll enable this on the 4.9 beta channel for the next build. Thanks.

Wow - this is great news, really looking forward to it!

[funwithmedia 369]

Woohoo!!!!! Looking forward to this -- thank you, @Luke!

[anthony_m 2]

@Lukeso 4.9.1.0 should already have this?

I cannot see it in the release note and the way stubs are displayed (no movie length etc.) does not seem to have changed.

Edited May 29 by anthony_m

[Luke 40067]

7 hours ago, anthony_m said:

@Lukeso 4.9.1.0 should already have this?

I cannot see it in the release note and the way stubs are displayed (no movie length etc.) does not seem to have changed.

Yes I think it should get imported from an nfo file. Try a new file.

[anthony_m 2]

No luck here, the duration is still missing:

 

Am I missing something?

Can anybody confirm that this is working for him?

Edit: 

The duration is still missing from the nfo file and adding it manually does not help either:

 

Edited May 29 by anthony_m

[Luke 40067]

Try adding it manually into the nfo, and then running a normal library scan.

[anthony_m 2]

Already did that:

 

Emby continues to ignore runtime, no change from previous versions.

Also when rescanning the library it is even actively earing the line with the runtime! That is certainly not a behaviour that I would have expected and it makes no difference if I lock the metadata or not but then runtime is not part of the metadata.

With all the back and forth of editing the nfo file I would strongly prefer the following which should not be very difficult to do since lots of other info is coming from there already:

1. The runtime is pulled from the preferred info source like here for example:

I am pretty sure that users would rather correct runtime for a small percentage of movies than having to add it manually 100% of them.

2. It should be possible to edit the runtime and if it is edited then it should be possible to lock the nfo file.

 

 

[Luke 40067]

Are you sure you have nfo reading enabled on the library?