Emby automatically recalculates title sequences?

[K22R8CT 25]

I see frequent log entries like the following for media that's months, even years old:

Info App: Best title sequence for /media/TV/... is 00:01:19.1141278 - 00:02:29.8537467. Confidence: 0.9

I'm pretty sure these title sequences had already been calculated because:

• I ran the task when the feature was first added, which took several days to complete
• I have it set to run automatically when new media's added
• I have it set to run nightly as a scheduled task

Is it that when new episodes are added Emby re-scans old episodes to compare?

Or maybe it's related to "Automatically Refresh Metadata", which I've recently disabled, where Emby considers the title sequence metadata?

It wouldn't bother me much but the CPU load is noticeable and it wakes my drives.

[ebr 16185]

Hi.  Do you still have the old Intro Skip plug-in installed?

[K22R8CT 25]

Not currently (plugin dir listing below) and think the instance where I'm seeing this is a fresh install from after skip-intro was incorporated so it might have never been installed.

• AdminBuddy.dll
• AudioDb.dll
• AutoBoxSets.dll
• BlurayMounter.dll
• DvdMounter.dll
• Emby.AutoOrganize.dll
• Emby.DiagnosticsPlugin.dll
• Emby.DiagnosticsPlugin.dll.disabled
• Emby.Dlna.dll
• Emby.M3UTuner.dll
• Emby.PortMapper.dll
• Emby.Server.CinemaMode.dll
• Emby.Webhooks.dll
• Emby.XmlTV.dll
• EmbyGuideData.dll
• EmbyReports.dll
• EpMetaRefresh.dll
• Fanart.dll
• FolderSync.dll
• GenreCleaner.dll
• MBBackup.dll
• MediaBrowser.Plugins.SmtpNotifications.dll
• MovieDb.dll
• MusicBrainz.dll
• NfoMetadata.dll
• OMDb.dll
• OpenSubtitles.dll
• StudioImages.dll
• SubDb.dll
• Tvdb.dll
• configurations/

[rbjtech 5284]

I don't believe it would matter even if it was installed - that log entry is from the Core Introskip.

I believe only a metadata refresh would reset the core Introskip flag - so it may well be related to the metadata refresh you mention.

But if you are adding new episodes to old series - then yes, it needs to re-compare them - that's how Introskip works.

Edited February 17, 2023 by rbjtech

[K22R8CT 25]

34 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

But if you are adding new episodes to old series - then yes, it needs to re-compare them - that's how Introskip works.

That makes sense except I see it scanning older seasons - I'd think comparison would be within-season to account for intro changes.

34 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

I believe only a metadata refresh would reset the core Introskip flag - so it may well be related to the metadata refresh you mention.

If metadata refresh clears the introskip flag that explains it, problem solved.

I'll keep my eye out now that I've disabled automatic metadata refresh.

[Luke 42080]

Quote

Or maybe it's related to "Automatically Refresh Metadata", which I've recently disabled, where Emby considers the title sequence metadata?

Hi, yes it is caused by this, however, some of the data is reused from the previous time so it's not quite as intensive as the first time around.

[DarWun 349]

2 hours ago, K22R8CT said:

That makes sense except I see it scanning older seasons - I'd think comparison would be within-season to account for intro changes.

If metadata refresh clears the introskip flag that explains it, problem solved.

I'll keep my eye out now that I've disabled automatic metadata refresh.

From my experience when the option to "run automatically when new media's added" is selected intro scan reanalysis will occur for all episodes in the series every time you watch one of the episodes. For example I was watching episodes in Season 5 for a series that has 9 seasons of episodes in my library. Watching one episode resulted in fingerprints being reanalyzed (not rescanned...there is a difference) for all episodes of that particular series every time a library scan was triggered. The library scan took over 10minutes when it would normally take less than a minute due to the re-analyzing of previously created fingerprints.

Mitigating long library scan times due to fingerprint re-analysis was easy. I changed generate the intro scan setting to "as a scheduled task" instead of "as a scheduled task and when media is added". When the scheduled task for intro scan is run manually (or on a schedule) series with previously generated fingerprints are not re-analyzed after watching episodes. 

Edited February 17, 2023 by DarWun

[K22R8CT 25]

On 2/17/2023 at 2:58 PM, DarWun said:

From my experience when the option to "run automatically when new media's added" is selected intro scan reanalysis will occur for all episodes in the series every time you watch one of the episodes.

When you watch the episode? That's unexpected.

Since disabling metadata refresh I see a lot fewer title sequence calculations. Still preliminary so I'll keep an eye on it.

[Luke 42080]

No, it doesn't happen when you watch.

[DarWun 349]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

No, it doesn't happen when you watch.

@LukeYes it does (or it did). I posted about the behavior back in December:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/107673-testing-intro-skipping/&do=findComment&comment=1208158

At that time, it was 100% reproducible. Disabling the "run automatically when new media's added" option seemed to resolve the issue. Maybe it was fixed in a subsequent update. I'll reenable that setting and test again.

Edited to add: Reenabled intro scan setting to "run automatically when new media's added" for my TV library. Watched ten minutes of Westworld S04E03. Intro Skip points had been scanned previously. I triggered a manual library scan, and Emby is now reanalyzing fingerprints for the entire series. So for me this still seems to be an issue.

Log attached.

embyserver.txt

Edited February 19, 2023 by DarWun

[Luke 42080]

51 minutes ago, DarWun said:

@LukeYes it does (or it did). I posted about the behavior back in December:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/107673-testing-intro-skipping/&do=findComment&comment=1208158

At that time, it was 100% reproducible. Disabling the "run automatically when new media's added" option seemed to resolve the issue. Maybe it was fixed in a subsequent update. I'll reenable that setting and test again.

Edited to add: Reenabled intro scan setting to "run automatically when new media's added" for my TV library. Watched ten minutes of Westworld S04E03. Intro Skip points had been scanned previously. I triggered a manual library scan, and Emby is now reanalyzing fingerprints for the entire series. So for me this still seems to be an issue.

Log attached.

embyserver.txt 65.01 kB · 2 downloads

Try removing the timelord and epmetarefresh plugins and then see how things compare.

[DarWun 349]

1 minute ago, Luke said:

Try removing the timelord and epmetarefresh plugins and then see how things compare.

Will do @Luke. I'm fairly certain the epmetarefresh plugin wasn't installed back in December when I first experienced the issue. But the timelord plugin definitely was. I'll post back shortly with a log from after those plugins are uninstalled.

[DarWun 349]

On 2/19/2023 at 3:06 PM, DarWun said:

Will do @Luke. I'm fairly certain the epmetarefresh plugin wasn't installed back in December when I first experienced the issue. But the timelord plugin definitely was. I'll post back shortly with a log from after those plugins are uninstalled.

@LukeUninstalled Timelord and Episode Refresh plugins, plus the Chapter API plugin to be safe. Watched part of a Westworld S04 episode, and a Cheers S07 episode. Both are series with all episodes in my library (Westworld 4 seasons, Cheers 11 seasons). I immediately did a manual library scan. Emby is current reanalyzing all episodes in Cheers starting at Season 1. I suspect it will move on to Westworld when it is done. I will post the log once the scan is complete.

An uneducated guess as to what is going on: When an episode is watched, the .nfo file is updated with the playtime. Emby is then detecting that as a change in the metadata and reanalyzes the intro fingerprints.

Edited March 4, 2023 by DarWun

[Luke 42080]

Quote

When an episode is watched, the .nfo file is updated with the playtime.

Did you turn this on in nfo options?

[DarWun 349]

@LukeI probably did at some point, as that seems like something I would find useful. Where is that setting exactly? I've checked my TV library settings and I haven't stumbled across it yet.

I'll spend a bit more time trying to find it. It in the meantime, here is the log file showing reanalysis of intro fingerprints after watching a single episode in a series.

 

embyserver.txt

[Luke 42080]

1 hour ago, DarWun said:

@LukeI probably did at some point, as that seems like something I would find useful. Where is that setting exactly? I've checked my TV library settings and I haven't stumbled across it yet.

I'll spend a bit more time trying to find it. It in the meantime, here is the log file showing reanalysis of intro fingerprints after watching a single episode in a series.

 

embyserver.txt 714.56 kB · 0 downloads

It's in the nfo plugin options.

[DarWun 349]

17 minutes ago, Luke said:

It's in the nfo plugin options.

Okay...Save user watch data to nfo's is enabled. I'm fairly certain that was the default setting. I didn't realize there were actually settings for that plugin. I'll disable that, watch an episode, and post back as to whether or not intro reanalysis happens.

[DarWun 349]

@LukeI Disabled "Save user watch data to nfo's for" primary user. I watched a few episodes of a series. Intro reanalysis did not happen on the next library scan. Reenabled the setting for the primary user, watched an episode in the same series, and it did.

embyserver.txt

Edited February 20, 2023 by DarWun

[K22R8CT 25]

This is helpful - I also had the Save user watch data to nfo option enabled. Now disabled.

[MindBullet 93]

Hey there guys,

I'm having the exact same "problem" as OP. I have "periodically refresh all metadata" disabled eversince I'm running the server, however, the logs are full of 

Info App: Best title sequence for

It's doing this for a lot of episodes, even episodes that didn't change in weeks. The library scan task already takes 14 hours+, how can I avoid this? Afaik I didn't change anything in the TV Show library settings, so why is it doing this now?

 

EDIT: Changing the TV Show library setting from "As scheduled task and when media is added" to "As scheduled task" for intro marker generation helped!

Edited October 6, 2023 by MindBullet

[Luke 42080]

HI, this will be improved in the upcoming 4.8 server release. Thanks.

[hapylestat 10]

also to mention - this feature is slow and barely uses one CPU core out from 32.....and it's on 4.8.0.52 beta. At least make a configuration option or take all cores and do it faster