Emby 4.02 / 4.6.4.0 not reading titles properly in .NFO?

[Luke 37185]

So movie.nfo should be in the folder above bdmv.

[mbguy 38]

Somebody gives me some likes for discovering this? My score has been stuck at the same score for months

[mbguy 38]

Unfortunately, the MetaBrowser app is now dead and I can't even open it on a new Windows 11 machine anymore, so had to switch to TinyMediaManager and found out that it DOES NOT save movie.nfo file or movie.xml files into the root folder of a Movie.

Instead TMM saves index.nfo files inside BDMV subfolder inside a Movie folder so now years later I am back to Emby not reading / detecting my BDMV movies anymore.

Argh... so frustrating because I solved this issue years ago but it's come back in ugly ways.

Does anyone know if there is a way to get TMM to spit movie.nfo or movie.xml into root folder of a Movie? Or get Emby to scan/look inside the BDMV to pick up the index.nfo file?

Edited October 30, 2021 by mbguy

[GrimReaper 3328]

5 hours ago, mbguy said:

Unfortunately, the MetaBrowser app is now dead and I can't even open it on a new Windows 11 machine anymore, so had to switch to TinyMediaManager and found out that it DOES NOT save movie.nfo file or movie.xml files into the root folder of a Movie.

Instead TMM saves index.nfo files inside BDMV subfolder inside a Movie folder so now years later I am back to Emby not reading / detecting my BDMV movies anymore.

Argh... so frustrating because I solved this issue years ago but it's come back in ugly ways.

Does anyone know if there is a way to get TMM to spit movie.nfo or movie.xml into root folder of a Movie? Or get Emby to scan/look inside the BDMV to pick up the index.nfo file?

I've replied to your post in the other thread. 

 

[mbguy 38]

 

On 10/30/2021 at 4:51 AM, GrimReaper said:

TMM was built primarily with Kodi in mind, and as such adheres to Kodi conventions/standards mostly everywhere, albeit support for other Media Centers has been somewhat expanded over time. 

There's is no inherent ability within TMM to get desired result, but you can make use of its Post-processing feature and simply copy/move that nfo up one level to root folder:

https://www.tinymediamanager.org/docs/post-processing

either by invoking an external script or using inline scripting. 

 

Thanks @GrimReaperfor explaining the limitation of TMM. I studied the link your provided to TMM post-processing using both executable file mode and scripting modes.

But unfortunately without coding background, the whole page contains mumbo-jambo that I simply don't understand. Worse still, there are no example scripts available for the following operations:

• Copy existing index.nfo file to one folder level higher
• Raname index.nfo file to movie.xml or folder name.nfo (so Emby can reacognize them)

So this option is no go unless someone is able to provide the scripts. I have even scanned the TMM forums on Kodi and Reddit *, I don't think they care about Emby users like me. I even read specific posts about "don't ask Emby-related questions" here.

* after making my first post on the TMM subreddit, someone did respond to me, not with a solution though, so my initial impression was not correct

So in the meantime, I have some questions for Emby team @Luke

1. why hasn't Emby provided the ability to read the index.nfo file inside BDMV folder? This seems to be a really basic function and it's been 2 years since my original post was made here. Is there no intention to add this capability?
2. also, why doesn't Emby read the index.nfo file as it is? I have to change the index.nfo file generated by TMM into movie.xml (at least the previous Metabrowser app could generate movie.xml directly but now the app is defunct) or folder_name.nfo so Emby would scan and read the metadata properly. Why can't Emby recognize index.nfo directly?
3. Is there another Media Library Manager that can export movie.xml or folder_name.nfo into the root folder of Movie containing a BDMV folder so Emby can read it? TMM has no control on where the .nfo file goes at all, which is shocking, especially whens TMM settings seem to indicate that it can save Emby-compliant files but in reality it doesn't do it at all in this case of BDMV folders.

Edited November 2, 2021 by mbguy

[GrimReaper 3328]

1 hour ago, mbguy said:

there are no example scripts available for the following operations:

• Copy existing index.nfo file to one folder level higher
• Raname index.nfo file to movie.xml or folder name.nfo (so Emby can reacognize them)

So this option is no go unless someone is able to provide the scripts.

Some Google-fu and Stackoverflow should provide more than enough examples to pick your favorite from. 

1 hour ago, mbguy said:

I have even scanned the TMM forums on Kodi and Reddit, I don't think they care about Emby users like me. I even read specific posts about "don't ask Emby-related questions" here.

That is absolutely not true. If anything, there has been a noticeable increase of Emby users, both on Reddit and Gitlab issue tracker (Kodi forum is not active any more due to certain forum rules, irrelevant for this discussion), and everyone is been treaded equally. I myself have at least 10 Emby-related feature requests that have been accepted and found their way into TMM. Still, where the feature clashes between Emby-standard and Kodi-standard, latter usually takes precedence. 

1 hour ago, mbguy said:

TMM has no control on where the .nfo file goes at all, which is shocking, especially whens TMM settings seem to indicate that it can save Emby-compliant files but in reality it doesn't do it at all in this case of BDMV folders.

Again, that is not correct. Of course TMM has control - and does it according Kodi standards/conventions. "Emby" NFO format in that dropdown refers as to which tags/nodes will be written in the NFO, not where it will be located. 

[Painkiller8818 203]

@mbguy As you are using Windows i can help you out with a little script.

Open PowerShell ISE on your Windows and paste this code and run it after editing Root Path or save this script as a .ps1 File and run it with PowerShell


You only need to edit the first line where your movies root path should in.

EG: E:\MOVIES\

What it does. It enters your movies main path and crawls recursively through all your sub folders finding a .NFO file inside a BDMV Directory and moves it one level higher

It first lists all found NFO and asks for confirmation before starting to move anything.

 

$Root = 'YOUR-ROOT-MOVIE-Folder' #this is really your root folder holding all the movies in sub folders

$ItemsToMove = @()


$Parents = Get-ChildItem $Root -Directory 
foreach($Parent in $Parents)
{
    $Children = Get-ChildItem $Parent.FullName -Directory -Recurse  | Where {  $_.Name.EndsWith("BDMV")}
    foreach($Child in $Children)
    {
        $ItemsToMove += Get-ChildItem $Child.FullName -Recurse -Include *.nfo
    }
}

Clear-Host
Write-Host "`n--------------------------------------`n" -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host "Item(s) to be moved up a level...`n" -ForegroundColor Green
$ItemsToMove | ForEach-Object { "`t{0}" -f $_.FullName }
Write-Host "`n--------------------------------------`n" -ForegroundColor Green
$Response = Read-Host -Prompt "Ok to proceed? Y/N"

if($Response -match "Y")
{
    Write-Host "Processing request..."
    foreach($Item in $ItemsToMove)
    {
        if($Item.Attributes -match "Directory")
        {
            Move-Item -Path $Item.FullName -Destination ($Item.PSParentPath -replace $Item.Parent, '')
        }
        else
        {
            Move-Item -Path $Item.FullName -Destination $Item.Directory.Parent.FullName
        }
    }

}
else{ Write-Host "Cancelling request" }

ONLY edit this Variable --> $Root = 'YOUR-ROOT-MOVIE-Folder'

hope this helps you out.
 

Edited October 31, 2021 by Painkiller8818

[Luke 37185]

Regarding index.nfo, it's never come up before. I've never heard of it before, and I know we have kodi users who use this already with bluray folders so that's odd.

[mbguy 38]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

Regarding index.nfo, it's never come up before. I've never heard of it before, and I know we have kodi users who use this already with bluray folders so that's odd.

@Luke

To summarize, TMM generates index.nfo files that are either not readable, not detectable or just simply ignored by Emby v4.6.4.0 in the following scenarios:

• by default, TMM saves index.nfo in Movie\BDMV folder
• if this index.nfo is renamed into movie.nfo and left in Movie\BDMV folder
• if the same index.nfo is moved to Movie root folder

The only situation where Emby would read, detect or not ignore the index.nfo is when I MOVED it one folder level up to the Movie root folder and RENAMED it to either one of the following:

• movie.nfo
• movie_folder_name.nfo

Emby-specific questions:

1. I perform "Refresh Metadata > Replace all metadata" and reload the Movie page on Emby to check the changes, is this correct?

2. Is there something specific with the index.nfo created by TMM that is not readable, detectable or being ignored by Emby? Attached is an example of index.nfo created and saved inside BDMV folder by TMM

3. Is it possible to get Emby to "detect and accept" the index.nfo file inside BDMV folder? Or do I really have to resort to the PowerShell scripting stuff to copy one folder level up and the rename?

index.nfo

Edited October 31, 2021 by mbguy

[mbguy 38]

9 hours ago, Painkiller8818 said:

@mbguy As you are using Windows i can help you out with a little script.

....hope this helps you out.

Hi @Painkiller8818Thank you so much for not judging me for lack of knowledge with scripting and actually providing an amazing script that I can use This is true altruism on display

Unfortunately, based on how Emby is not reading the index.nfo inside BDMV/folder, so first of all, simply "moving" the index.nfo file up one folder doesn't work, and besides, this would make TMM lose the ability to "see" the Movie.

Based on these "limitations" a script that does the following is needed: COPY the index.nfo file inside BDMV folder into the folder above, AND rename it to movie.nfo"

I know you said above you shared a "little script" but to me, it's very "advanced" and based on its complexity, I know I do not have the training or experience to determine from a random list of Googled scripts online if they are correct, appropriate and elegant enough to use without detrimental side effects.

So once again, I have to rely on your generosity to share a script that does the copying and renaming. Thank you in advance

In the meantime, I think this script is the only solution to this issue in the meantime, until @Lukecomes back with a reason why Emby is not reading, detecting or simply ignoring the index.nfo file in both Movie and Movie\BDMV folder. Or if @Lukewill add the capability for Emby to read, detect or not ignore index.nfo inside BDMV folder, then none of this post-processing or scripting is required.

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by mbguy

[Painkiller8818 203]

2 hours ago, mbguy said:

Emby is not reading, detecting or simply ignoring the index.nfo file in both Movie and Movie\BDMV folder.

On your screenshot i see you checked both movie.nfo and filename.nfo. As i don't use TMM, what happens if you only select the filename.nfo.

I don't know where these index.nfo files are from. I've never seen any mediaplayer i used to create those.

To rename all index.nfo to movie.nfo execute this in PowerShell ISE:

 

Set-Location "YOUR-MOVIES-ROOT-PATH"
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Include index.nfo | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name.replace("index.nfo","movie.nfo") }

Forget about managing your movies with TMM with this kind of limitations. Just execute this script and let Emby create and manage your NFO files from now.

You don't wanna feck around with 2 different NFO files because Emby will always just edit/update 1 of them so you will have 2 different for the same movie just to keep TMM seeing them.

Forget this. Rename them so Emby can use and handle them and throw away TMM. I use MediaCenters for years, Kodi, Emby, Plex and i NEVER needed an external tool to identify my movies and create NFO files for them. This is what emby is for, to be a MediaCenter and creating and managing NFO files is a part of it.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Painkiller8818

[mbguy 38]

36 minutes ago, Painkiller8818 said:

On your screenshot i see you checked both movie.nfo and filename.nfo. As i don't use TMM, what happens if you only select the filename.nfo.

I don't know where these index.nfo files are from. I've never seen any mediaplayer i used to create those.

 To answer your questions, these index.nfo files are generated by TMM. I have toggled both movie.nfo nad filename.nfo, it makes no difference to TMM's behavior -- it still saves index.nfo inside BDMV folders.

  

36 minutes ago, Painkiller8818 said:

Forget about managing your movies with TMM with this kind of limitations. Just execute this script and let Emby create and manage your NFO files from now.

You don't wanna feck around with 2 different NFO files because Emby will always just edit/update 1 of them so you will have 2 different for the same movie just to keep TMM seeing them.

Forget this. Rename them so Emby can use and handle them and throw away TMM. I use MediaCenters for years, Kodi, Emby, Plex and i NEVER needed an external tool to identify my movies and create NFO files for them. This is what emby is for, to be a MediaCenter and creating and managing NFO files is a part of it.

I totally agree with you TMM's limitations are so ridiculous and unacceptable, but I wish I could throw it away. TMM does manage .mkv and TV shows perfectly and it has many batch tools that Emby doesn't have.

It's just this one flaw / bug that is making life difficult for me when reading/finding/recognizing movies saved in Bluray/BDMV format.

 

36 minutes ago, Painkiller8818 said:

To rename all index.nfo to movie.nfo execute this in PowerShell ISE:
 

Set-Location "YOUR-MOVIES-ROOT-PATH"
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Include index.nfo | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name.replace("index.nfo","movie.nfo") }

Thanks again for providing this script for renaming   Your 2 scripts so far have taught me about the existence of Windows PowerShell ISE and I have learned how to save and use .ps1 files.

Could I trouble you for one last script which is for COPY/DUPLICATE the index.nfo files inside Movie\BDMV folders one level up instead of MOVE?

(This way I can get Emby to detect the BDMV movies right away without losing the ability for TMM to detect the movies too in the interim, while I am seeking answers from Emby and TMM developers as to why these two apps don't work well together). Thanks a million again.

Edited October 31, 2021 by mbguy

[Painkiller8818 203]

16 minutes ago, mbguy said:

 To answer your questions, these index.nfo files are generated by TMM. I have toggled both movie.nfo nad filename.nfo, it makes no difference to TMM's behavior -- it still saves index.nfo inside BDMV folders.

  

I totally agree with you TMM's limitations are so ridiculous and unacceptable, but I wish I could throw it away. TMM does manage .mkv and TV shows perfectly and it has many batch tools that Emby doesn't have.

It's just this one flaw / bug that is making life difficult for me when reading/finding/recognizing movies saved in Bluray/BDMV format.

 

Thanks again for providing this script for renaming   Your 2 scripts so far have taught me about the existence of Windows PowerShell ISE and I have learned how to save and use .ps1 files.

Could I trouble you for one last script which is for COPY/DUPLICATE the index.nfo files inside Movie\BDMV folders one level up instead of MOVE?

(This way I can get Emby to detect the BDMV movies right away without losing the ability for TMM to detect the movies too in the interim, while I am seeking answers from Emby and TMM developers as to why these two apps don't work well together). Thanks a million again.

Just replace the Move-Item with Copy-Item in the first script.

[mbguy 38]

On 10/31/2021 at 1:21 AM, mbguy said:

 So in the meantime, I have some questions for Emby team

@Luke

1. why hasn't Emby provided the ability to read the index.nfo file inside BDMV folder? This seems to be a really basic function and it's been 2 years since my original post was made here. Is there no intention to add this capability?
2. also, why doesn't Emby read the index.nfo file as it is? I have to change the index.nfo file generated by TMM into movie.xml (at least the previous Metabrowser app could generate movie.xml directly but now the app is defunct) or folder_name.nfo so Emby would scan and read the metadata properly. Why can't Emby recognize index.nfo directly?
3. Is there another Media Library Manager that can export movie.xml or folder_name.nfo into the root folder of Movie containing a BDMV folder so Emby can read it? TMM has no control on where the .nfo file goes at all, which is shocking, especially whens TMM settings seem to indicate that it can save Emby-compliant files but in reality it doesn't do it at all in this case of BDMV folders.

@Lukeor anyone else from the Emby team with an updates or feedback to my questions?

Does anyone else know of the different Media Manager other than TMM that has more flexibility in terms of which folder to save the movie.nfo files? Right now it can only save index.nfo files inside BDMV without the ability to save in Movie root folder for Emby to read/detect/recongize, which is disappointing and frustrating because Emby also doesn't look inside the BDMV folder too!

[Carlo 4331]

There really is only a couple of media managers worth looking at and using or you're better off letting Emby handle this.
Have you looked at Ember?

Short of trying it you may not get an answer in the forums as storing full disc folders is kind of old school vs converting the files to be in a stream able format (since it's on a streaming server).

[GrimReaper 3328]

29 minutes ago, cayars said:

There really is only a couple of media managers worth looking at and using

You know that cannot go unchallenged.

TMM is doing exactly as it should, seeing it follows Kodi conventions/standards - and let's be honest, however much we're all fond of Emby, Kodi IS the standard-maker or trendsetter, however you want to call it. 

https://kodi.wiki/view/NFO_files/Movies#nfo_Name_and_Location

However, in order to make-up for Emby's shortcomings (not Kodi's) - or for it not adhering to Kodi standards - most sensible solution would be for TMM to natively support copying that index.nfo up one level in movie root folder as movie.nfo, hence enabling both Emby and Kodi (and TMM) to make use of those same nfos. Whether that will eventually be implemented or not, remains to be seen. Or - and that would actually by the proper solution - Emby should properly conform to Kodi's file/folder structure and naming. @Luke

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by GrimReaper
Typo

[Carlo 4331]

He said besides TMM.

[Carlo 4331]

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

Or - and that would actually by the proper solution - Emby should properly conform to Kodi's file/folder structure and naming. @Luke

 

Or just drop disc based formats like it did ISO since it's not a streaming format.

[mbguy 38]

11 minutes ago, cayars said:

Or just drop disc based formats like it did ISO since it's not a streaming format.

I don't want to get into Kodi vs Emby wars about formats and streaming.

But I simply would like to know, is Emby fundamentally and philosophically against supporting the reading of "index.nfo" files inside BDMV folders?

To me, someone who is completely clueless about coding or programming or running a system like Emby, "reading file B in folder B" instead of "reading A in folder A", is a simple change or addition which may just involve a few lines of codes, so naturally I would come to the conclusion that Emby is purposely not doing it because of some worldviews. Please correct me if I am wrong.

In any case, I just have one small request, could someone from Emby team confirm that Emby will NEVER implement the reading of "index.nfo" inside BDMV folders?

This way at least I can dedicate my very limited time on this planet to finding other solutions.

Edited November 2, 2021 by mbguy

[Carlo 4331]

No not against it but it can cause an issue.  What happens if the NFO is in the parent folder as well as the BDMV folder?
What if they are different?
Does Emby now have to update both NFO files on a meta-data change?

If you're going to support NFO nested vs parent folder for one type why not others types.
It's one of those things that can snowball on your and cause you grief.

[GrimReaper 3328]

15 minutes ago, cayars said:

Or just drop disc based formats like it did ISO since it's not a streaming format.

As stated elsewhere (and although I personally follow exactly same philosophy and make everything streaming-friendly), I am fundamentally and strongly against it out of principle: anyone should have their collection exactly as they see fit. It being old-school or not. Or others agreeing with it or not. As long as it is officially supported, it is completely viable and acceptable solution, and if one opts to have it such - it is within one's rights to do exactly that. As it is any software that claims support for it's duty to accommodate it.

I'm quite positive that at some point in time it will be abandoned - but until such time comes, issues like this should not be present. Nor be unsolvable. 

Emby does 'support' it. By its own standards. Which are erroneous (and this ain't the only occurence). As stated above, we all know who the Big Player is. And who is the standard-maker. 

 

[Carlo 4331]

I agree with Grim, hence the smiley.
It would get rid of the problem however.

[GrimReaper 3328]

15 minutes ago, cayars said:

What happens if the NFO is in the parent folder as well as the BDMV folder?

If Emby were reading index.nfo as it should, that situation is hypothetical and should not ever happen. 

However, for the purpose of it being a workaround, seeing Emby is anyway ignorant of index.nfo and unaware of it, it would only read/write movie.nfo.

18 minutes ago, cayars said:

Does Emby now have to update both NFO files on a meta-data change?

Same as above, that is theoretical and reading/writing index.nfo is the only thing required. If both are present, that's users fault and deliberate breaking of structure - and bearing the consequence for it would be just. 

19 minutes ago, cayars said:

If you're going to support NFO nested vs parent folder for one type why not others types.

Right question there would be Why not? 

Anyway, capability is already there and implemented, writing NFO 2-3 levels deep: complex folder structure (always think of that guy that has them sorted by years ), TV Shows (episode NFOs). It all comes back to reading/writing index.nfo in BDMV folder. It is particular structure/usage-case. It should be treated as such and get particular logic. 

[mbguy 38]

30 minutes ago, cayars said:

No not against it but it can cause an issue.  What happens if the NFO is in the parent folder as well as the BDMV folder?
What if they are different?
Does Emby now have to update both NFO files on a meta-data change?

If you're going to support NFO nested vs parent folder for one type why not others types.
It's one of those things that can snowball on your and cause you grief.

These are good questions perhaps from a developer's standpoint.

The following is how I imagine a perfect (based on how I use) workflow would be to fix this issue:
 

1. Open my favorite File Explorer in Windows

2. Find every single movie.nfo file inside all folders in this Movie Library

3. Delete all movie.nfo files, so there is no confusion 

4. Run TMM once to let it do its default thing of saving index.nfo in each BDMV sub-folder based on Kodi format

5. Turn off all Emby savers for this specific "Library"

6. Run Emby Library Scan once to pickup all of these index.nfo files inside BDMV folders

7. Done! 

ps. maybe in future (or now too?!) Emby can look into updating the index.nfo files with Watched/Not Watched status only, or just let TMM everything else on this index.nfo file

Again, to me, I am not a programmer, have never worked in tech support, have no ideas how codes are written and versions are rolled out, but I THINK, without any experience or proof, that it only involves tweaking probably a few lines of code to make Emby find and read index.nfo inside BDMV folder when BDMV folder is detected.

Please correct me if I am wrong or let me know what else I am missing. I don't know why there is a need for two sets of .nfo files.

With the workflow outlined above there is no need for a second set of movie.nfo files in Movie root folder. The copying and renaming of index.nfo up one level from BDMV folder into Movie root folder was only proposed as an interim solution because I was under the impression that Emby will not or will take a long time to study or implement a change.

Edited November 2, 2021 by mbguy

[mbguy 38]

Wait a min, after reading @GrimReaper's response posted at almost the same time as mine, I learned that:

Emby already has this capability to read index.nfo several levels deep but just chooses not too?!

In any case, maybe finally this time, with HUGE ASSIST from @GrimReaper there is enough attention to this issue and Emby will finally change its approach of for not properly supporting index.nfo BDMV folders to begin with?