Help Setting Up Library

[EricOnEmby 1]

I love Emby's user interface, its configuration, it just works with my Roku device, but... I can't get it to just show my content.

I have a lot of DVDs and audio books that I have copied over to my server. I have organized my content in folders. For instance, I have a Detectives folder, a Sci Fi folder, a TV folder, and so on. The folders have sub-folders, some with more folders, so I can get to my content in a logical way. Emby sometimes shows the structure, but sometimes messes it up completely.

For instance, in my Doctor Who folder, I have many of the 40+ seasons. Each folder starts with a two-digit number, to have them sorted correctly. But Emby doesn't display the list of folders, in alphabetical order, with the folder names. It comes up with thumbnails that start playing the files.

Then, for one of the old seasons (Season 14), I have one sub-folder for each story, and the individual episodes in that sub-folder. I expect to see the six stories listed in the season, and then be able to go into the story and see the episodes. Instead, it just lists the four episodes of the first story ("Part 1" through "Part 4") and the last two episodes of another story "Part 5" and "Part 6").

To make a long story short: how can I stop Emby from messing up my structure, and just show the folders and files in there? I understand that Emby tries to help people who just have a pile of files to organize their content, but I have it organized they way I want it, and I want Emby to just stream the data.

Is there any way to turn off all the "smarts" and just display my content?

[justinrh 260]

Have you looked at this?  https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159319-library-setup

[EricOnEmby 1]

28 minutes ago, justinrh said:

Have you looked at this?  https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159319-library-setup

Yes, I have looked at that repeatedly. It says to set up the right content type, which I think is the problem. I feel that Emby is using the content type to be "smart" with trying to figure out what I want, instead of just showing me my media. There doesn't seem to be much of an option for "don't be smart, just serve what is in the folders."

[Happy2Play 9780]

On 12/8/2021 at 4:54 PM, EricOnEmby said:

Is there any way to turn off all the "smarts" and just display my content?

Sorry there is no way to prevent Emby from trying to figure out what content type your media is.  Your only option would be using content type "Home Video and Photo" to just present everything as is with no online metadata.  And set the library landing screen to Folder (a per user setting on Settings-Home Screen).

[Luke 42079]

Can you show us exactly how your files are named and organized? Thanks !

[EricOnEmby 1]

19 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Sorry there is no way to prevent Emby from trying to figure out what content type your media is.  Your only option would be using content type "Home Video and Photo" to just present everything as is with no online metadata.  And set the library landing screen to Folder (a per user setting on Settings-Home Screen).

This actually seems to be working (except for audio books). Thank you for this! I guess I will convert my audio files to movie files (black screen, just soundtrack I guess) and then they may be working too. I'll look at this over the weekend.

I'm not sure if there is a way I can submit a feature request to actually have this explained explicitly in the documentation: “... if you want Emby to just preset your collection as you have it on your hard drive, use the "Home Video and Photo" content type.”
 

Other feature suggestions:

 - Also support mp3 files (music, audio books) in the "Home Video and Photo"

 - Rename the "Home Video and Photo" to "Basic Streaming" or something like that

[EricOnEmby 1]

17 hours ago, Luke said:

Can you show us exactly how your files are named and organized? Thanks !

This is an example from one of the Blu-Rays I own and have ripped:

• Doctor Who (library)
  • ...
  • 14. Season 14
    • 086. The Masque of Mandragora
      • 086a. The Masque of Mandragora (Part 1).mp4
      • 086b. The Masque of Mandragora (Part 2).mp4
      • 086c. The Masque of Mandragora (Part 3).mp4
      • 086d. The Masque of Mandragora (Part 4).mp4
    • 087. The Hand of Fear
      • ...
    • 088. The Deadly Assassin
      • ...
    • 089. The Face of Evil
      • ...
    • 090. The Robots of Death
      • ...
    • 091. The Talons of Weng-Chiang
      • ...
      • 091e. The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Part 5).mp4
      • 091f. The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Part 6).mp4

This one ended up showing only the four episodes listed, not all the others indicated by ellipses (...).

Different libraries are organized differently, based on my preferences for the respective content, how I would want the files to look when I browse the directory structure. Usually, I use numbers to prefix titles to force them to occur in the right order; sometimes, if there are more than 9 but fewer than 27, I use letters instead. Sometimes (like above for the episodes) a combination of letters and numbers.

Audio books are organized by topic and sub-topic, so that the books can be easily found. I have one folder per book, with one mp3 file for each CD (all the tracks combined into a single file). The audio books have IDv3 tags that are created to make sure they play properly when copied to a phone, for mobile use.

I hope this helps explaining my setup.

[Luke 42079]

@EricOnEmby Have you compared your file and folder naming to our TV naming guide?

https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159110-tv-naming

[reedfh 3]

i know this has been a dead thread for a few months, but I can't seem to get Doctor Who to correctly pick the right meta data. I've read several people who've asked about this, and none of their solutions worked for me... The last thing i tried was to change the dir structure to match the first example from the link Luke mentions. I've removed every episode but one which i'm using to see what works. so the last effort has

TV (its a TV content Lib)

-Doctor Who

--Doctor Who (1974)

---Season 12

----Doctor Who S12E01.mkv

this version pulls the wrong show... it's displaying a Special "Doctor Who: Lost in the Dark Dimension" every thing i tried would display this episode or pick nothing.

It sucks that BBC decided to restart the season numbering over again in 2005. I'd guess the fact that there are two season 12s is part of the problem. but given that I wonder why it isn't pulling season 12 Ep 01 from the current shows.

thought i'd see what advice i could get before going into more detail. but i tried several dir/filenaming syntax  including using the IMDb and TVDb

 

[EricOnEmby 1]

2 hours ago, reedfh said:

• -Doctor Who
  • Doctor Who (1974)
    • Season 12
      • Doctor Who S12E01.mkv

I'm not really familiar with how Emby pulls the right information, but have you tried naming the second level "Doctor Who (1693)"? That is what the original series usually is called, just like the new series is usually called "Doctor Who (2005). There would be 26 directories under "Doctor Who (1963)" for the 26 original seasons.

[Luke 42079]

On 4/9/2022 at 7:31 PM, reedfh said:

i know this has been a dead thread for a few months, but I can't seem to get Doctor Who to correctly pick the right meta data. I've read several people who've asked about this, and none of their solutions worked for me... The last thing i tried was to change the dir structure to match the first example from the link Luke mentions. I've removed every episode but one which i'm using to see what works. so the last effort has

TV (its a TV content Lib)

-Doctor Who

--Doctor Who (1974)

---Season 12

----Doctor Who S12E01.mkv

this version pulls the wrong show... it's displaying a Special "Doctor Who: Lost in the Dark Dimension" every thing i tried would display this episode or pick nothing.

It sucks that BBC decided to restart the season numbering over again in 2005. I'd guess the fact that there are two season 12s is part of the problem. but given that I wonder why it isn't pulling season 12 Ep 01 from the current shows.

thought i'd see what advice i could get before going into more detail. but i tried several dir/filenaming syntax  including using the IMDb and TVDb

 

Hi @reedfh please try using the Identify feature on the show and see if that helps. Thanks.

[reedfh 3]

thank you for the responses... got caught up in RL stuff or would have responded more quickly....

EricOnEmby that is the exact structure I have now. i did go thro a few different schemes, but that was the one i ended up with.

The first set of Doctor Who's are divided among "Seasons". none of these pull the metadata. I even add the IMDB id.

The second set (current episodes) are divided among "Series". I have most of the "Series" episodes in place... all of these pulled the metadata perfectly, except for the special... but i haven't look closely at the specials.

one difference between the two is that I added the episode name in the file name for the Series.

I tested a single episode of the one's in the "Seasons" episodes. and it couldn't find the metadata. there is always a chance i picked a bad episode, but before i go through and lookup and rename all the files, i wanted to make sure it worked. 

so just to be exlicit, i have exactly what you have for the series (that works) except I put the episode name befor the file extension

[reedfh 3]

Hey Luke,

I can't find an 'Identify' link for tv episodes. But i can edit the metadata. there i fixed the title by removing the season/episode number, then added the tvdb id. For my test, i included the episode title like i did for the Series episodes. 

after it refreshed, none of the meta data was pulled. i think the title is right only because i manually corrected it. 

If i click the TVDB link, it correctly opens the episode on TVDB's web site.

please see the attached

[Luke 42079]

Hi, there is no identify for episodes. Identify the series (if you need to). From there, then you just make sure the episode has the correct season and episode number values set in the metadata editor.

[Luke 42079]

What series and episode metadata fetchers do you have enabled on your TV library, and in what order?

[reedfh 3]

see below... i kinda just checked everything. 

series
theTVDB
TheMovieDb
The Open Movie Database

Season 
The MovieDb

episode
the TVDB
TheMovieDb
The Open Movie Database

[Happy2Play 9780]

There is something wrong here as the Image shows Series "Doctor Who (2005) with Season "Doctor Who (1977)" so there is no Season 15 in Doctor Who (2005).

Can only guess something with the nesting "Doctor Who/Doctor Who (1977)/Season 15/Doctor Who S15E01"

Series level has to be corrected as this episode if from "Doctor Who (1963).

[reedfh 3]

thank you for the reply.

i'm sure the directory structure is correct based on my research on this topic via the community forum and online. tho i understand that multiple formats are okay. one thing i like about Emby. I tried several and none work. I'm glad to use any directory structure/filename if it works. 

You can see the full path to the file under media info. nothing is nested. the only thing in the final folder is the media file (as shown above); that is other than what Emby added. i've removed every episode from the server but the one shown above. so there is nothing in any of the folders that you don't see.

I'm pretty sure this is a problem with Emby or maybe i have some setting off. I think the confusion comes from the fact that BBC made 2 different runs for Doctor Who. Season 1 to 15 (That ended in 1977) then restarted it with Series 1 and are currently in production of Series 14 i believe... Emby seems to be trying to pull meta data from the Series, instead of from from the Seasons... I'm guessing it sees duplicate episodes and simply pulls the more recent. 

This is most certainly an edge case. so it's easy to imagine that it would be a test case. Before looking into this i never gave a second thought to duplicate episode numbers.

let me know if there is an alternate dir structure to try or a different filename.

the one thing that i don't understand is that Emby has correctly recorded and assoicated the TVDB ID with this episode. Seems like it would pull the metadata based on this link.

[Happy2Play 9780]

19 minutes ago, reedfh said:

I'm pretty sure this is a problem with Emby or maybe i have some setting off. I think the confusion comes from the fact that BBC made 2 different runs for Doctor Who. Season 1 to 15 (That ended in 1977) then restarted it with Series 1 and are currently in production of Series 14 i believe... Emby seems to be trying to pull meta data from the Series, instead of from from the Seasons... I'm guessing it sees duplicate episodes and simply pulls the more recent. 

What does TVDB have?

Emby does not pull individual episode, it get the entire Series in on pull from TVDB.

Are you saying the 26 season version is wrong?

Doctor Who - TheTVDB.com   (1963)

Doctor Who - Horror of Fang Rock (1) - TheTVDB.com

[reedfh 3]

i don't have all the episodes for the older seasons. i have maybe 1/3... at one point i had them all on the server. when i did, emby didn't pull any of the meta data... to troubleshoot, I removed all by the one episode I showed above. It was easier to test the alternate naming conventions I read about... I do have about 3/4 of the current Series and the metadata is find. they are all perfect. 

do you think it would be helpful if I restored more of the episodes from the first seasons?

the single episode from the older seasons is set up identical to all the one's in the newer Series. what's baffling is why are the newer episodes ok and the older one's not

understood that it pulls a full season, but it  makes it a little more confusion since you can include a TVDB ID for a single episode. Does it use that single episode to find the whole season/series?

it seems anchored to the season number and episode number, ignoring the other data points to identify the episode. for example, above i have the year of the season in the directory path, but it's ignored. same with the TVDB ID. If the season is to be pulled, i would expect it to use those data points to find it... they seem ignored

i appreciate the help. just trying to give you guys info to help me... sorry if i'm struggling to understand...

[Happy2Play 9780]

I am still lost on your structure.

 

To me there are too many levels, but the first level should be ignored and the next level it the Series.  But would appear all of your folders are this way.

TV (its a TV content Lib)

• -Doctor Who
  • --Doctor Who (1974)
    • ---Season 12
      • ----Doctor Who S12E01.mkv

• -Doctor Who
  • --Doctor Who (1977)
    • ---Season 15
      • ----Doctor Who S15E01.mkv

So the series level is technically broken.

Your image above Showing Doctor Who (2005) is the wrong series altogether.

So, I think we need a better understanding of the overall layout of this library.  But from what you have described, I would think this is how it should be

• Doctor Who (This would be a nested folder and ignore or this level can be removed altogether)
  • Doctor Who (1963)
    • ---Season 12
      • ----Doctor Who S12E01.mkv
    • ---Season 15
      • ----Doctor Who S15E01.mkv

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Happy2Play

[reedfh 3]

thanx for the help happy2play...

your suggestion at the end is exactly how i have it and it doesn't work. Its the naming convention recommended in the knowledge base I think.

if you look at the media info in the screen shot above, you can confirm the structure. the only thing that you can't tell from the screen shot is that "unwatched tv" is the library root folder... so everything before that is ignored. I think that might be causing some confusion in trying to explain this.

Just to reiterate.... the structure is:

unwatched TV (library root)
  Doctor Who
    Doctor Who (1977)
      Season 15
        Doctor Who S15 E01 Horror of Fang Rock.mkv

I started using this structure after I ran into this problem.

 

However i used a slightly different structure before. It has worked fin for every TV show I've added. Here is an example from the current Series of Doctor Who:

unwatched TV (library root)
  Doctor Who
      Series 04
        Doctor Who S04e11 Turn Left-30.mkv

This renders fine. going back to my earlier statement, the new episodes are fine. However the old episodes that share the same season number as the new don't work.

 

 

 

[GrimReaper 4740]

12 minutes ago, reedfh said:

unwatched TV (library root)
  Doctor Who
    Doctor Who (1977)
      Season 15
        Doctor Who S15 E01 Horror of Fang Rock.mkv

This is wrong, you can't have "unwatched TV" as library root there, set "Doctor Who" as root and rename 1977 as 1963 or just dump that level altogether and leave only "Doctor Who (1963)" under "unwatched TV" as library root. 

Edited April 19, 2022 by GrimReaper

[Happy2Play 9780]

11 minutes ago, reedfh said:

  Doctor Who
    Doctor Who (1977)
      Season 15
        Doctor Who S15 E01 Horror of Fang Rock.mkv

There is no such show Doctor Who (1977), there is a Season 15 that aired in (1977)  ie Season 15 (1977) to a show named Doctor Who (1963).

What is full structure for entire Series as one season showing an issue.

As my screenshots and shown structure shows it works.

Had to manually Identify Series as there is not such series as Doctor Who (1977).

[reedfh 3]

thanks guys, as you pointed out i only needed to change the 'air' date for the 'premier' date and it work. didn't even need to Identify... prob because i have the episode name in the filename. after days of frustration I can finally move on.... thnx again