Long term MB user - TRYING to go to Emby - Issues

[unisoft 272]

Introduction:

A newbie to Emby here, but established MediaBrowser 2.6.2 user since release (and versions before) and very happy. I had MB 2.6.2 all customised with cover-flow custom art from Xzener and boxset art from Diamond and the 'Neo' theme (intros etc and a MB supporter). I have a big library but don't do anything fancy with ISO mounting etc.

Typically I have .MPG and .MP4 for TV shows, and MKV for movies and TS_INFO for DVD folders. I don't have full disc content bluray structure folders.

 

Systems in use:

Synology NAS DS2415+, with server Emby app v3.5.2.0

LG OLED55C6V with client Emby app v1.09 (Apple TV built-in theme used)

Huawei P9 Lite Android phone (Nougat)

all latest OFFICIAL firmware and Emby app versions as of 17/09/2018.

 

Meta-scraper application:

Metadata into XML is 'Media Center Master' v2.18 (latest).

 

Under MediaBrowser everything worked pretty much greatly with regards to metadata.

 

In Emby client app, music isn't an issue, music videos are not an issue, movies are not an issue, photos not an issue - all display as expected (though each music video had to go in its own sub-folder to display correctly under the Artist). The meta data transfers from the XML where applicable or embedded ID3 tags for music etc.

 

The issue(s):

 

I am having problems with TV Shows using existing XML data as import into Emby which were fine in MediaBrowser.

 

I have all internet providers off in Server NAS Emby as I have all artwork, XML files (yes I have the XML Plugin installed on Synology NAS).

Currently I am NOT saving as NFO, until the stage where I can get the XML to work for every title by populating People and Genre tags.

Some of the XML data imports, but genre and sometimes the people tag don't. The XML files are UTF-8, and even vanilla ones re-created by Media Center Master are not populating.

 

Here was my Mediabrowser 2.6.2 file paths for TV content:

 

\\server-name\Multimedia\TV Archive\

 

and sub-folders for adding content into folder genres:

Animation

Childrens

Comedy

Drama

etc.

 

examples:

\\server-name\Multimedia\TV Archive\Animation\The Simpsons\Season 1\S01E01 The Simpsons - Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire (1989 Christmas Special).mpg

\\server-name\Multimedia\TV Archive\Comedy\'Allo 'Allo!\Season 1\S01E01 'Allo 'Allo - The British Are Coming.mp4

 

Under Emby (and using the WIKI) I add each of the folders as type TV content under the 'Television' library rather than just add parent folder '\\server-name\Multimedia\TV Archive'. This in itself works and seasons/artwork is all correct and the views look correct in web client or the LG TV Emby app (genres is BLANK by default though!)

 

Some XML imports overview descriptions, and people content. Others don't. Notably MOVIE.XML has more issues that series.xml. See bottom of this message for example XML.

 

How do I get this fixed? I tried running MCM again to do fresh lookup of new versioned XML files and MB 2.6.2 continues to read them correctly, and Emby just laughs at them.

====================================================================================================================================

 

Here are the other observations I have found, some of which I would like feature changes considered:

 

General issues relevant to most parts of Emby Client on LG television:

• Font sizes too small for top of screen menus, and Vertical A-Z picker is hard to read at distance as font too small and bigger would make page more obvious of a-z function
• Spaces between images on Music Videos too big and wastes screen space.
• Ability to turn off by tick box setting; Trailers, Collections, Suggestions, Upcoming, Shows (A-Z), Episodes, Favourites, Albums, Album Artists. Not ALL of these, but any of these should be tick-able to enable or disable as required.
• More spacing between the horizontal sections on the Apple TV theme in the Emby LG TV app. They are too close together and need separation between sections (and bigger font size for the headings of each section)
• STOP icon on movies and TV playback as LG remote doesn't always have one.
• Pressing BACK on remote where you can't go back anymore shouldn't make the TV pop up its own overlay menus for apps
• MEDIA INFO - this looks terrible - just a screen dump. Could this be on a button for info, or convert to nice graphical representation rather than a dump of text info?
• 'People' images too large - should be smaller.
• Config Option to prevent a user changing meta data - only want end users viewing not changing or forcing refreshes
• The Scheduled task for SCAN ALL MEDIA LIBRARIES - This wrecked my setup as data only in the Emby DB got wiped out, so had to enter genres again as this was a field not being imported from the XML despite being defined
• On the web client used custom CSS to remove the customize bar which really shouldn't be there as can be found under the user icon image.

Help for new users displayed on dialogues:

 

This is to help new users as I had to do tests with test folders to ensure stuff wasn't being changed in media library because I wasn't sure and the WIKI did not state.

• Help put onto a Library's 'REMOVE' menu option function to state on screen it does not delete actual content only the library
• Help put on REFRESH METADATA (Replace) stating on screen that if internet provider(s) lookup is disabled, ONLY existing local meta data files will be used for import into database.Text on item like an episode to say whether whole library will be updated or just the individual item

 

Movies:

• Menu option "Shows" renamed as "A-Z" (or Search icon adding free text field as well as the A-Z picker on same screen) so its immediately obvious its function is to search A-Z quickly via the picker.
• Adding a "Collection" to Favourites does not work, only works on home screen not in Movies view
• No menu option for Studios/Networks (like TV library has).
• Latest Movies - puts latest at end of horizontal scrollable list on TV (Apple TV theme). Expect newest to be at front of list.
• Despite tick option of 'grouping movies into a collection to show in the list just once', clearly not working, although the movie collection itself does display properly in 'Collections' menu option. When looking under genres or flat list of all movies, each item in the collection is shown instead of one cover art for the collection.
• On the LG Emby app ***ONLY** (not the web client), genres is shown under Movies as square boxes with cover art from TV shows and Movies! Would expect movies cover art used only. Actually prefer the TEXT genre as used in the web client if a user cannot upload genre cover art for each of the genre squares but appreciate its squares so remote scrolls better than text heading references.
• MK3D file extension support instead of just MKV

 

TV Shows:

• TV library of content type TV Shows does not like folders with genres and wants flat file. If folders by genre, it thinks the folder genre e.g. Animation is the title of a show and then shows episodes as a long list instead of folders for seasons. MB 2.6.2 was fine with this. Solution - add each folder rather than top level folder as described at beginning of email. Flat file folder structure doesn't work good with Media Browser 2.6.2 which I want to co-exist the same NAS media - but workaround works for both.
• Menu option for "Networks" - the logo size far too large - needs to be smaller. Lots of scrolling on smaller devices like phones and just looks a bit silly that big.
• Genres does not populate despite tags in XML meta data. Had to manually edit in Emby to set a genre then it populated OR use flat file system. Not reading genre from XML?.
• Weekly Media Scan scheduled task then removes any genres you set in the Emby database using meta manager effectively blanking them out again!
• Backdrops random when browsing media - not relevant to the view. Sometimes stuck on main menu screen from previous screen shown.
• Under "LATEST" menu option, movie.xml and series.xml are handled differently, in that Series.xml has the year displayed under the programme title, whereas movie.xml doesn't show year and duplicates the name of the title again instead of expected year value.
• Ability to disable and remove links like IMDB, TRAKT etc. on the detail view of an episode. Don't want general web access links enabled.

Music:

 

• Ability to have option to show 'Album Artist' as text only with albums and cover art listed under it. This is what Windows Media Center can do and it saves having to source a picture for every artist (otherwise you get a multi coloured stock graphic placeholder if you don't on the LG Emby app). Lots of artists missing from online image search function.
• Backdrops do not rotate every 30 seconds or similar, whilst media playing (assuming an artist has multiple backdrops) to prevent screen burn (e.g. on OLED TVs)

 

Music Videos:

 

 

These issues below were resolved by making sure the music videos for each song were in their own sub-folder under the Artist folder name.

examples:

 

Music Videos\Pop\Madonna\Material Girl\Madonna - Material Girl.mp4

Music Videos\Pop\Madonna\Vogue\Madonna - Vogue.mp4

 

• Mixture of backdrops and cover art JPG embedded in music MP4 file, despite every file having cover art embedded of same size.
• Some videos have drop down picker lists and others list them as music videos separately.

Turned off the online DB fetchers as they came back with some odd results!

 

Desperately trying to use the new apps, but the blocker is getting XML data (that was fine in MB 2.6.2) to import ALL relevant fields like GENRE into the Synology Emby App.

It feels like there are bugs with REFRESH METADATA and XML files (with XML plugin installed). A number of titles are correct and upon examination they all seem exactly the same tags etc.

 

example XML for Series.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Series>
 <id>73940</id>
 <Actors>Carmen Silvera|Gordon Kaye|Arthur Bostrom|John Louis Mansi|Richard Gibson|Kim Hartman|Hilary Minster|Guy Siner|Richard Marner|Francesca Conshaw|Kenneth Connor|Kirsten Cooke|Sam Kelly|David Janson|Sue Hodge|Vicki Michelle</Actors>
 <FirstAired>1982-12-30</FirstAired>
 <Genre>Comedy</Genre>
 <IMDbId>tt0086659</IMDbId>
 <IMDB_ID>tt0086659</IMDB_ID>
 <Overview>Meet René, the most wanted man in Occupied France: Women want his body. The Resistance wants his brain. And the Nazis want his sausage!

In a small café in occupied France the harassed proprietor, René, is fighting his own war. With the German Army in residence at the bar, René is risking his neck to aid the Resistance by hiding two British airmen and a radio transmitter upstairs. As if this wasn't enough, René has also got involved in hiding a priceless painting in a garlic sausage, which even now is being sniffed out by the Gestapo. René's real problem is his wife, Edith, and what she will do to him when she finds out about the affairs he is having with his two sexy waitresses!</Overview>
 <Network>BBC One</Network>
 <Rating>8.3</Rating>
 <Runtime>30</Runtime>
 <SeriesID>2515</SeriesID>
 <SeriesName>Allo! Allo!</SeriesName>
 <Status>Ended</Status>
 <Type>DVD</Type>
 <Locked>True</Locked>
 <SeriesNameSearch>allo allo</SeriesNameSearch>
 <TVRageID></TVRageID>
 <ContentRating>TV-PG</ContentRating>
 <AiredType>Normal</AiredType>
 <DownloadQualityOverride>Use General Settings</DownloadQualityOverride>
 <Added>17/09/2018 19:21:56</Added>
 <LocalTitle>'Allo 'Allo!</LocalTitle>
 <EndDate>1992-12-14</EndDate>
</Series>

 

 

example XML for an episode:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Item>
 <ID>5</ID>
 <EpisodeID>133075</EpisodeID>
 <EpisodeName>The Duel</EpisodeName>
 <EpisodeNumber>5</EpisodeNumber>
 <FirstAired>1985-11-18</FirstAired>
 <Overview>René tries to hide from the seconds of Monsieur Alphonse, the undertaker, but in his stead Lieutenant Gruber accepts the duel. However, the Colonel and the Captain want to save René and plans an exercise to accidentally kill Monsieur Alphonse. The plan is thwarted by Herr Flick, who has discovered that the sausage that was sent to Berlin containing the painting of the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies did not contain any painting - either real or fake. Herr Flick correctly assumes that the Colonel and the Captain stole the painting, and arrests them and cancels the exercise. Now René has to fight the duel on his own, while Yvette and Maria grieve on the sidelines and his wife Edith catches up on the gossip of the week.</Overview>
 <DVD_chapter></DVD_chapter>
 <DVD_discid></DVD_discid>
 <DVD_episodenumber></DVD_episodenumber>
 <DVD_season></DVD_season>
 <Director>David Croft</Director>
 <GuestStars></GuestStars>
 <IMDB_ID>tt0500360</IMDB_ID>
 <Language>en</Language>
 <ProductionCode>LLCH325S</ProductionCode>
 <Rating>7</Rating>
 <Writer>Jeremy Lloyd, David Croft</Writer>
 <SeasonNumber>2</SeasonNumber>
 <absolute_number></absolute_number>
 <seasonid>6709</seasonid>
 <seriesid>73940</seriesid>
 <filename>/133075.jpg</filename>
 <Added>17/09/2018 19:50:11</Added>
 <airsafter_season></airsafter_season>
 <airsbefore_episode></airsbefore_episode>
 <airsbefore_season></airsbefore_season>
 <Combined_episodenumber></Combined_episodenumber>
 <Combined_season></Combined_season>
</Item>

Edited September 17, 2018 by unisoft

[Luke 37065]

Hi, this is a huge posting, so I may have missed some things but i would like to point out that the xml format is now considered legacy. You need to install the Xml metadata plugin for xml support, and even that is only community maintained.

 

Emby's native format is nfo. @@Happy2Play may have some xml metadata tips.

 

Thanks !

[unisoft 272]

Hi Luke,

 

I have the XML add-in installed. I am trying to get to NFO, but due to HUGE number of XML files from MB 2.6.2, I can't re-populate everything.

 

I did try and look around postings and WIKI first - looking for info around stuff.

 

I wouldn't normally write a large post like that - but I wanted it to be detailed in what I was doing, along with feature requests for future updates through observations.

 

I really want to ditch MB 2.6.2 but the meta data issues going from XML into Emby and NFO are a blocker for me at the moment. The most important tag for GENRE simply is ignored whilst other stuff migrates though OVERVIEW and PEOPLE can often also be ignored yet working XML and non working XML look correct, that's the odd thing.

Edited September 17, 2018 by unisoft

[Luke 37065]

It looks like the xml plugin is expecting this:

<Genres>
<Genre>Action</Genre>
<Genre>Adventure</Genre>
</Genres>

[unisoft 272]

Hmm, so MCM creates the XML data wrongly in that case.

 

they are typically:

 

<Genre>Comedy</Genre>

 

Mediabrowser 2.6.2 understood it though without issue. Does anyone do a small mod to the XML add-in to do that simple change as anyone coming from legacy MB will have the issue?

[Luke 37065]

You could look at doing that, or use some kind of bulk edit tool to edit the xml files all at once.

[Happy2Play 8282]

Hmm, so MCM creates the XML data wrongly in that case.

 

they are typically:

 

<Genre>Comedy</Genre>

 

Mediabrowser 2.6.2 understood it though without issue. Does anyone do a small mod to the XML add-in to do that simple change as anyone coming from legacy MB will have the issue?

 

Yes there are some minor quirks with xml metadata from MCM but you can have MCM export the metadata to nfo and shouldn't have any issue.

 

Overall I believe genre is the only tag that has issues as a node with piped genres.

 

I don't see any issue with people as Actors node with piped actors is read.

 

Overview- the only issue I have seen is a occasional issue with <![CDATA[ ....... ]!> in overview.

[unisoft 272]

Thanks.

 

I put the genre NODE into the XML and when each XML is changed the genre now imports and survives media refresh.

 

Either MCM has been creating the tags incorrectly for genre for years or the XML add-in is incorrect.

 

I can use bulk XML editor as Luke says, but can't help wondering that since most of my pain was this, how many other users didn't migrate from MB in the end.

 

Could this known issue go into the WIKI as it would help save a lot of pain for new people?

 

There will be more and more of the MB users trying to migrate, because we all stayed with working systems whilst Emby was developed and now that Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 end Microsoft support (2020 and 2023), a number of us want to get off MB 2.6.2, especially as some of us were using Arcsoft Total Media Theatre to play MKV so the menus for soundtracks and subtitles and 3D were present and this now doesn't work if you take any OS update from January 2018 because of kernel changes and Themida. True you can use MPC-HC but it doesn't integrate into Windows Media Center as well in terms of the Media Center style menus and PowerDVD less than v13 has issues with long filenames and paths, and PowerDVD over v13 has issues with back button going back to Media Center.

 

Even though I have corrected the meta data and most of the XML files now import, there are still some that refuse to import anything - even though blown the xml files away and recreated them with MCM again. In this scenario, a library refresh works for some and not others. Think I may have to blow the library away (hopefully clearing the internal DB in Emby for that library) and then re-add the library. The XML files look correct, that's the thing, no nasty characters for example and UTF-8.

Edited September 18, 2018 by unisoft

[Luke 37065]

Thanks for the feedback.