TV Show Episodes Thumbnail (or lack-of)

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I'm trying to understand Emby's behavior regarding episodes thumbnails.

In windows I often notice presence of thumbs on some episodes, and lack-of on others.

1) Is this supposed to be downloaded from a provider, or is it just a random frame capture from my mp4/mkv file ? (usually from first few seconds)

2) Most of the time those thumbs are created a minute or so after episode is added to the season folder (along with the episode .nfo), but sometime they don't ( I only get .nfo).

Is there a setting that pertains to this ? Then again, how would a general setting give 2 different outcome. 

An example below, s22e04 and s22e05 show no -thumb..jpg 

Next capture show season view e03 thru 6 all showing a thumb neverthless

 

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by jlr19

[GrimReaper 3330]

AFAIK, they could be either scraped from meta-provider or captured from local file. Do you have Screen Grabber enabled under your Library fetcher settings? 

[CharleyVarrick 277]

26 minutes ago, GrimReaper76 said:

AFAIK, they could be either scraped from meta-provider or captured from local file. Do you have Screen Grabber enabled under your Library fetcher settings? 

The only section where Screen Grabber is offered is Episode Image Fetchers, currently ranked 4th of 4.

My ballpark estimate is 70% of episodes show a "episode-thumb.jpg"

 

I think I understand that emby tries those 4 providers, and if they all fail (which seems to happen frequenttly), it resolves to capture a random frame from the first few seconds of my media file. Do I have this right?

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by jlr19

[GrimReaper 3330]

Just now, jlr19 said:

The only section where Screen Grabber is offered is Episode Image Fetchers, currently ranked 4th of 4.

My ballpark estimate is 70% of episodes show a "episode-thumb.jpg"

 

I think I understand that emby tries those 4 providers, and if they all fail (which seems to happen frequenttly), it resolves to capture a random frame from the first few seconds of my media file (do I have this right?

 

Yeah, but if it was enabled already you should have had all your episode thumbs already. Or the extraction is failing way too much. 

[CharleyVarrick 277]

1 minute ago, GrimReaper76 said:

Yeah, but if it was enabled already you should have had all your episode thumbs already. Or the extraction is failing way too much. 

Notice in Thumbnail Images section, Generate video preview thumbnails is set to Never (yet it does so 70% of the time).

I'm really confused.

[GrimReaper 3330]

1 minute ago, jlr19 said:

Notice in Thumbnail Images section, Generate video preview thumbnails is set to Never (yet it does so 70% of the time).

I'm really confused.

That's unrelated, those are your Chapter Markers/10sec .bifs for while seeking. 

Edit: I still don't get: was or wasn't Screen Grabber enabled before? 

Edited February 19, 2021 by GrimReaper76

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I was looking at tv shows library options and there's a million possible combination.

Series metadata downloaders

Season metadata downloaders

Episode metadata downloaders

Metadata savers

Series Image Fetchers +Fetcher Settings

Season Image Fetchers + Fetcher Settings

Episode Image Fetchers

 

Does a preferred provider order and fetcher settings (yielding best results) exist for all those listed above, or is it up to individual users to figure it out (trial and error) ?

 

[GrimReaper 3330]

Just now, jlr19 said:

I was looking at tv shows library options and there's a million possible combination.

Series metadata downloaders

Season metadata downloaders

Episode metadata downloaders

Metadata savers

Series Image Fetchers +Fetcher Settings

Season Image Fetchers + Fetcher Settings

Episode Image Fetchers

 

Does a preferred provider order and fetcher settings (yielding best results) exist for all those listed above, or is it up to individual users to figure it out (trial and error) ?

 

I reckon it's more of a latter if you're keen on experimenting, but the default setup should work well enough for most users. 

[GrimReaper 3330]

And I'm DESPERATELY trying to pull out information whether your Screen Grabber was enabled before or you just enabled it now?

[CharleyVarrick 277]

With Show advanced settings enabled theres this one, I think it was set at 90 days by default, I've changed it to 30 days, but even that is hit and miss.

What I mean is for a current show (presently airing), even 30 days is a lot, while for a show that last aired 10 years ago, its too much.

This setting might be more useful on a per show basis instead of library wide.

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by jlr19

[CharleyVarrick 277]

3 minutes ago, GrimReaper76 said:

And I'm DESPERATELY trying to pull out information whether your Screen Grabber was enabled before or you just enabled it now?

I can't recall when I enabled it, so it must have been a while

[GrimReaper 3330]

Just now, jlr19 said:

With Show advanced settings enabled theres this one, I think it was set at 90 days by default, I've changed it to 30 days, but even that is hit and miss.

What I mean is for a current show (presently airing), even 30 days is a lot, while for a show that's ended 10 years ago, its too much.

This setting might be more useful on a per show basis instead of library wide.

Or you can just do it manually at any time you deem appropriate, why ever run it automatically? 

[GrimReaper 3330]

Just now, jlr19 said:

I can't recall when I enabled it, so it must have been a while

In that case, I suppose @softworkz might wanna take a look at your logs as the percentage of failed image-extractions must be quite high with a third of your Library having no thumbs. 

[CharleyVarrick 277]

1 minute ago, GrimReaper76 said:

Or you can just do it manually at any time you deem appropriate, why ever run it automatically? 

Makes sense, as library wide metadata refresh usually fails because of providers time limits.

 

[CharleyVarrick 277]

13 minutes ago, GrimReaper76 said:

In that case, I suppose @softworkz might wanna take a look at your logs as the percentage of failed image-extractions must be quite high with a third of your Library having no thumbs. 

Or change Screen Grabber's ranking from presently last to first and see how it goes. I'll do that and report

Edited February 19, 2021 by jlr19

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Just now, jlr19 said:

Or change ranking form presently last to first and see how it goes. I'll do that and report

And my current top episode image fetcher being tvdb (with all the crazyness that happens with them recently) might explains the hit and miss 

[GrimReaper 3330]

Just now, jlr19 said:

And my current top episode image fetcher being tvdb (with all the crazyness that happens with them recently) might explains the hit and miss 

Yeah, but it doesn't explain - even accounting for the unlikely possibity no subsequent meta-provider had it also - why so many of them failed to be extracted. 

[GrimReaper 3330]

Can't remember seeing a similar issue around the forums lately, but - as a relative newcomer - might've as well missed it, maybe one of the Elders™ will recall some earlier occurence.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I'm trying to find a pattern, no luck

Some tv shows have all their episode thumbs in File explorer, others have none at all, some are missing a few, some are missing most.

Newer (current) shows are affected, just as ended shows that were aquired years ago.

Puzzling

[GrimReaper 3330]

Just now, jlr19 said:

I'm trying to find a pattern, no luck

Some tv shows have all their episode thumbs in File explorer, others have none at all, some are missing a few, some are missing most.

Newer (current) shows are affected, just as ended shows that were aquired years ago.

Puzzling

I have abt. 1000+ TV Show library, I don't think I have a single episode with no thumb - at least none that I've caught. I know your library is in a 1500+ range. If a third of all episodes there is affected - that's an extreme number. 

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Just to put in perspective, this issue Is nothing major, it doesn't affect my experience in any negative way.

Because of lockdown and all, I just have much more time on my hand to thinker.

I am probably a little ocd but I figure even bad settings in my Emby should either yields all bad or all good results.

I'm always a little weary when those results are inconsistent.

 

[GrimReaper 3330]

Just now, jlr19 said:

Just to put in perspective, this issue Is nothing major, it doesn't affect my experience in any negative way.

Because of lockdown and all, I just have much more time on my hand to thinker.

I am probably a little ocd but I figure even bad settings in my Emby should either yields all bad or all good results.

I'm always a little weary when those results are inconsistent.

 

Well, kudos if that doesn't faze you, I know I'd be going ballistic.

[CharleyVarrick 277]

Again, thanks for your time and explanation, and no, I'm not going postal at all over this.

I do like to learn and improve, and always strive that my Emby works the best it can.

I suspect more and more tvdb's api as culprit, and judging from gazillion of post about them...

When they dont even return the same thing on the webpage vs api, it speaks volume. (The Good Wife comes to mind)

When they go pay to use, they're history with me.  

[GrimReaper 3330]

1 minute ago, jlr19 said:

Again, thanks for your time and explanation, and no, I'm not going postal at all over this.

I do like to learn and improve, and always strive that my Emby works the best it can.

I suspect more and more tvdb's api as culprit, and judging from gazillion of post about them...

When they dont even return the same thing on the webpage vs api, it speaks volume. (The Good Wife comes to mind)

When they go pay to use, they're history with me.  

Might be, migt even be an issue similar to your previous Missing actor images, with faulty image addresses referenced in db, just speculating at this point. 

[CharleyVarrick 277]

I will let the other users with more pressing needs benefit from your invaluable help, one last* question though

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but is refreshing metadata at series level supposed to do anything about missing thumbs and/or missing actor pic.

In my case not.

Is metadata anything that's not a picture.

Is there a "refresh pictures" feature I'm unaware of (as opposed to metadata text)

 

PS: * I've been known to cheat about "last question"

Edited February 19, 2021 by jlr19