Any way to turn off the automatic collection grouping?

[roaku 842]

Speaking for myself, I have a library of dvd/bluray special features where all metadata sources are turned off because  the majority of items won't match any metadata source out there and I don't want Emby to accidentally overwrite my custom metadata.

For this exceptional library...

I use MetaX to manually tag files with data I find on bluray digest or wherever or make up myself.

I also use MetaX to search and populate metadata for items in this library that *will* match a metadata source, since I block Emby from sourcing metadata for this library.

That being said...I started out generating nfos with MetaX, but I've been happy with how Emby generates nfos from embedded metadata and grabs embedded images from my files, so now I just embed the metadata and image in the file and count on Emby to generate its own nfo.

[GrimReaper 4739]

44 minutes ago, cayars said:

It's funny, of all the pre-processing and special care I do to files before adding them to Emby I've never felt the need to pre-scrape an NFO file for them as I've not really had issue with Emby creating the NFOs for me.

Anything specifically you use it for that's an advantage over Emby?
Do you use it for things like expanded meta-data or downloading graphics from different locations or pulling trailers down?

Lol, yeah, I know how much pre- and post-processing you do on your files, I'm kinda in the other camp, where I rarely intervene on media as-is but put a lot of focus on metadata/artwork. Due to my specific circumstances, which you're aware of, it all must be correct (near-perfect if possible) and all locally available, else there may pass months before I have a chance to rectify it. TMM gives flexibility that Emby doesn't. And gives speed. Which translates to saved time. Which I have in limited amounts to begin with. Granulation (you can literally choose provider for every single metadata field, meaning every single tag in your nfo can come from different one if you choose so; likewise for artwork) is something that's still few orders of magnitude higher than what Emby currently offers. For anal-retentive dude like myself, it's a given. It's so crammed with options that it's becoming hard to sift through. But once you get it right, it's astounding. Yeah, you use it for all of those mentioned: extended metadata, downloading artwork, pulling down trailers, themes, whatever - basically everything that Emby+plugins can do - but it's in a way it is presented to you and in a way you can achieve that. You are constantly aware WHAT is missing and one-click away from obtaining it. My own most preferred features, beside trailer scraping, are Tags scraping (as you know I'm a heavy tags user, basically everything on my server is either controlled by tags or based on them), Actor images scraping and, most of all, Bulk-editing. That one is simply indispensable. 

Edited August 6, 2021 by GrimReaper76
Typos, of course

[Carlo 4561]

You should do a tutorial for using this for us.

[GrimReaper 4739]

2 minutes ago, cayars said:

You should do a tutorial for using this for us.

That surely sounds like an interesting project, doesn't it?

[Carlo 4561]

I know it could be quite useful!

[Bingie 99]

and add some definitions and examples for noobs like me hah

[GrimReaper 4739]

3 minutes ago, cayars said:

I know it could be quite useful!

Well, given enough time (and that's out of my hands), I might even tackle with it over the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted. 

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

The problem with any attempt at a tutorial is that things change for programs/systems like Emby often and sometimes quite drastically and that can make any guide/tutorial obsolete even before it gets finished.

But, good luck for anyone attempting such a feat.

[Carlo 4561]

That's the case for any guide.  I know I'm constantly having to update KB articles and such.

But a good guide is always worth it, especially if I don't have to do the work.  LOL

[Happy2Play 9780]

8 hours ago, Luke said:

Xml metadata is not going to work with collections. It has not been updated with the newer features that nfo's have related to this.

But Emby honors the xml <TmdbCollectionName> field.

 

[moviefan 187]

On 8/6/2021 at 1:19 PM, cayars said:

Anything specifically you use it for that's an advantage over Emby?
Do you use it for things like expanded meta-data or downloading graphics from different locations or pulling trailers down?

I use TMM for renaming files/folders and pulling trailers.

I think it is a much better product than MCM; and substantially better maintained.

[moviefan 187]

On 8/2/2021 at 2:02 PM, Happy2Play said:

Item nfo files will store the collection it is assigned to via the <set> node/s.

If you do not write nfo files then it would be ItemLinks in the database (but don't know exactly how the links are created in the database).

xml metadata is a slightly different story.

 

On 8/6/2021 at 7:07 AM, Luke said:

Xml metadata is not going to work with collections. It has not been updated with the newer features that nfo's have related to this.

I use nfo metadata mainly.  And I have many collection folders in the /collections config folder.  But I've noticed lately that putting adding some movies to my library has caused Emby to automatically create collections and I cant figure out where the metadata for those are stored.

[GrimReaper 4739]

1 minute ago, moviefan said:

I cant figure out where the metadata for those are stored.

Which server version you're running? 

[moviefan 187]

6 minutes ago, GrimReaper76 said:

Which server version you're running? 

4.6.4 on Windows

[GrimReaper 4739]

Just now, moviefan said:

4.6.4 on Windows

They will be under your \programdata\metadata\collections, each Collection as a separate folder with collection.nfo and artwork. 

[moviefan 187]

4 minutes ago, GrimReaper76 said:

They will be under your \programdata\metadata\collections, each Collection as a separate folder with collection.nfo and artwork. 

Yah I get that's where they normally are.  The ones I have manually created in the UI have folders showing there.  The ones that Emby auto created don't seem to have any trace left on the file system which is what I am curious about.

[GrimReaper 4739]

2 minutes ago, moviefan said:

Yah I get that's where they normally are.  The ones I have manually created in the UI have folders showing there.  The ones that Emby auto created don't seem to have any trace left on the file system which is what I am curious about.

They should be listed in same location, I have like 300+ of them auto-created. 

[GrimReaper 4739]

Just to make sure, you're looking under install-dir\programdata\metadata\collections and not under install-dir\programdata\data\collections, where they were stored until and including 4.5.4.0 and where you might still have some remnants if you didn't migrate them? 

Edited August 16, 2021 by GrimReaper76

[moviefan 187]

27 minutes ago, GrimReaper76 said:

Just to make sure, you're looking under install-dir\programdata\metadata\collections and not under install-dir\programdata\data\collections, where they were stored until and including 4.5.4.0 and where you might still have some remnants if you didn't migrate them? 

Uhhhh no I don't have a collections folder under install-dir\programdata\metadata\ I am looking under the install-dir\programdata\data\collections folder.

[GrimReaper 4739]

15 minutes ago, moviefan said:

Uhhhh no I don't have a collections folder under install-dir\programdata\metadata\ I am looking under the install-dir\programdata\data\collections folder.

You might try refresh metadata on 'em (or open each and Edit Metadata>Save) that should create folders in other location or use @pünktchen' s plugin to migrate them:

 

[moviefan 187]

Okay so finally found an explanation of what happened with the folders with the link you gave.

Strange thing is it just doesn't appear to have happened for me.

Neither refreshing metadata or edtiing metadata and clicking save creates a folder at install-dir\programdata\metadata\collections

[GloverEggs 9]

A huge advantage that TMM offers over Emby is that you can bulk edit and change metadata on hundreds (or more) files at one time.  That's a whole bunch easier than going one by one and editing metadata items in Emby.  

I don't like that Emby automatically puts items into collections (I have that box unchecked, but a collection is shown from TMM), but it's easy to work around.  This really comes up when I want an item in more than one collection.  TMM only allows you one.  Emby is great in that I can put items in as many collections as I want.  For example, I can put Iron Man in an Iron Man Collection, an Infinity Saga Collection, and in an MCU Collection.  And it's really great that I can put items from any library into a collection.  I'm trying to get myself to not assign a collection in TMM until after I copy the nfo files.  That way I can still group and edit in TMM, but the media comes in without a collection to Emby.