Emby Server - Use the aired date of special episodes to organize them

[Richard Branches 232]

Some special episodes lack information in the "Airs during season" and "Airs before episode" fields in the "Special Episode Info" of the "Edit Metadata" window, those episodes are organized in a separate "Additional Specials" section of the TVDB database and they usually lack the aforementioned data, however, they always have an "aired date" that could be used as a second option to put those unsorted episodes into its corresponding position inside the season they belong as long as the "Display specials within seasons they aired in" option is checked in the "Advanced" tab of the media library tab.

Thank you.

 

[Happy2Play 8356]

To a point this makes since as TMDB has the Air date also so we would not be dependent on TVDB for this information.

Personally I would think a option to use Airs Durring Season/Airs before Episode, or use Specials Air Date.  But I guess someone will want both, but in theory Aired covers position.

Have not looked at a lot of Specials to see if Air date is a issue or not though ie a special airs but technically belongs nowhere.  As Air date will force it somewhere.

So do all Specials belong in their sequential Air dates?

[Richard Branches 232]

23 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

So do all Specials belong in their sequential Air dates?

Yes, not all specials have an Airs During Season/Airs before Episode but they all have an aired date (as far as I know) thus using that information fixes the problem of getting scattered in the beginning of the "Next Up" row, which ironically puts them organized by aired date.

Edited March 18, 2021 by Richard Branches

[Happy2Play 8356]

But as mentioned in the other topic this does not apply all the time.

28 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

1 hour ago, Richard Branches said:

It should use it, since that's the logical way to organize all this episodes into its corresponding chronological order.

In some cases it is logical, and in other cases it is arguably wrong. 

It is quite common in anime, at least, for special episodes to be made between seasons which fit story-wise into the middle of the previous season (and I can think of some which fit into the following, not-yet-broadcast, season).  Using the broadcast date would not necessarily be the best answer for these.

Paul

[Happy2Play 8356]

7 minutes ago, Richard Branches said:

Yes, not all specials have an Airs During Season/Airs before Episode thus using the aired date information fixes the problem of getting scattered in the beginning of the "Next Up" row, which ironically puts them organized by aired date.

This is do to sequential order of item via Season 0/Specials.

[Richard Branches 232]

Just now, Happy2Play said:

But as mentioned in the other topic this does not apply all the time.

If one user don't want those special episodes to appear between seasons, then they must turn OFF the "Display specials within seasons they aired in" and they won't be played throughout episodes.

[Richard Branches 232]

4 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

This is do to sequential order of item via Season 0/Specials.

One more reason why the aired date is necessary to put them where they belong since the "sequential order of item via season 0/specials" is not enough.

[roaku 797]

It's not difficult to find specials without air dates.

 

https://thetvdb.com/series/batman/seasons/official/0

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/2287-batman/season/0

[Richard Branches 232]

That also helps to improve the "Next Up" row to avoid displaying special episodes without "Airs During Season/Airs before Episode" information and without "aired date" information.

They can also be put at the end of the "Next Up" row.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Richard Branches

[Happy2Play 8356]

But at the same time minus information they will be presented first as Special items with no placement information.  So same as you have now.

[Richard Branches 232]

5 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

will be presented first as Special items with no placement information

I really don't like that mess because they interfere with the order of those who have the correct information, though they should be put at the end to be considered as episodes without an specific order, they may look better that way.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Richard Branches

[Happy2Play 8356]

That is a personal preference, but I will assume once this makes it to stable we will see more comments as specials will be visible via Next Up/Continue Watching.  Long outstanding request.

[Richard Branches 232]

The only way for this feature request to make it into an stable release is with more upvotes and more comments from different users, otherwise it will be just another topic 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Richard Branches

[Happy2Play 8356]

For something the majority of people don't see now, it is just another topic.  Then there is what percentage of users actually use the "Display specials within seasons they aired in" option?

In the end it is all about metadata, so if this gets implemented then there is still a preference of what to do with items without either of said information?  At some point you have to put it back on the user to supply information to put the Special where they want it, do to the fact that providers just don't have it.

[Richard Branches 232]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

At some point you have to put it back on the user to supply information to put the Special where they want it, do to the fact that providers just don't have it.

Do you imagine if you or me had 10000 TV shows where we have to fix this?, what a crazy thing to do! 

[Happy2Play 8356]

You would expect some brave sole to update a provider site.

[Richard Branches 232]

I think another way is to create an account in the TVDB and add the missing information to the episodes we have so they get automatically organized with a new rescan, still that's also a hard job to do.

[Richard Branches 232]

I created an account and I was unable to edit the episodes, they are locked, another reason why devs must use the aired date to organize those episodes 

[crusher11 861]

Using the air date would mean all specials would show up during seasons. 

Using "airs during season" means I can have some specials show up during seasons, and others not, depending on the nature of the special. 

[Richard Branches 232]

The problem here is with the TVDB metadata, for some reason they didn't add the "Airs During Season/Airs before Episode" metadata to the "Additional Specials" episodes which leads to being put ahead of the other special episodes that have the necessary information, that's why a solution could be:

1) To use the aired date info to put them where they belong.

2) Put them all at the end of the "Next Up" row.

3) Hide them from the "Next Up" row or put them at the end of the "Next Up" row if they lack the "Airs During Season/Airs before Episode" and aired date metadata.

What Emby devs choose here depends on how far they affect the majority of users.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Richard Branches

[crusher11 861]

There's also option 4, which is "do nothing", because those specials aren't supposed to air as part of the seasons themselves.

If you want to override that, manually edit the metadata yourself. Don't ruin everyone else's servers.

 

[Richard Branches 232]

2 minutes ago, crusher11 said:

Don't ruin everyone else's servers

The server is already ruined by that "metadata" problem if we could call it that way.

[Richard Branches 232]

13 minutes ago, crusher11 said:

because those specials aren't supposed to air as part of the seasons themselves

Then they should be hidden and not placed at the beginning because it ruins the experience.

[crusher11 861]

38 minutes ago, Richard Branches said:

The server is already ruined by that "metadata" problem if we could call it that way.

 No, it's working correctly. It's not a problem. 

[Happy2Play 8356]

So the big question would be, should all specials without Airs during Season/Airs before Episode (ie Additional Specials) be ignored from Next Up as they do not have a actual position within the Series when one enables "Display specials within seasons they aired in", as they will alway be first?