Cannot identify specific TV movie: The Odyssey (1997)

[jserv 0]

I've found the correct data on IMDB, TMDB, and theTVDB, but Emby cannot identify the film The Odyssey (1997) even with the correct IDs.

IMDB: tt0118414
TMDB: 9687
theTVDB: 248864

IMDB finds nothing, TMDB brings up "Keeping Mum' with a duplicate ID, and theTVDB brings up "Leer om Leer" with a duplicate ID.

Feels a little unlucky to fail to identify with three separate databases -- can anyone help? Can I force Emby to recognise a specific ID?

[GrimReaper 4740]

You cannot add TV show as a Movie, as all three providers you listed are categorizing it as such (TV show). 

You need to restructure/rename your folder/files and place it in appropriate content-type library so Emby recognizes it as a TV show - or add it as a movie and fill all metadata/add all artwork manually. 

[jserv 0]

Thanks, that identifies the issue.

It is a little awkward from an end-user perspective, though. It's very much a movie (2h 52m), despite not having a theatrical release. I would still want to keep it in my film library. A decent compromise might be to have a separate folder for "TV movies", and categorise it as a TV show so Emby can correctly ID it, but then it would mostly sit alone.

I'd be interested to know if more popular TV movies suffer from the same issue, e.g. It (1980). I would say most people think of that as a movie (1hr 36m) despite airing in two parts.

It might also be something to think about in the future as the boundaries between films and TV continue to blur (e.g. Netflix productions). 

[GrimReaper 4740]

12 minutes ago, jserv said:

It is a little awkward from an end-user perspective, though. It's very much a movie (2h 52m), despite not having a theatrical release. I would still want to keep it in my film library. A decent compromise might be to have a separate folder for "TV movies", and categorise it as a TV show so Emby can correctly ID it, but then it would mostly sit alone.

It's not up to Emby - it's up to online providers. You simply cannot identify something listed as a TV show in their database as a movie, there's no mechanism for that, as items are queried by type, API endpoints are completely different. Only choice you have is adhere to their structure/categorization - or go against it and add metadata/artwork manually. 

12 minutes ago, jserv said:

I'd be interested to know if more popular TV movies suffer from the same issue, e.g. It (1980). I would say most people think of that as a movie (1hr 36m) despite airing in two parts.

Again, that depends on online providers - they don't always see eye-to-eye, so a Movie on TVDB might be a TV show on TMDB and vice-versa. It's on case-by-case basis. 

12 minutes ago, jserv said:

It might also be something to think about in the future as the boundaries between films and TV continue to blur (e.g. Netflix productions). 

And as already said above, that'll always be dependent on online providers' whims, how Netflix or any other production studio sees it is irrelevant if it was not added as such with the providers. 

Edited September 23, 2024 by GrimReaper

[jserv 0]

Sure, I understand it depends on the databases, but I wonder if there would be some solution possible from Emby's end. For example, having a dedicated TV movie category that could pull metadata from the TV database, and showing that in the same page as a film library - even if it were a separate container on the same page, the same way the "home" screen can display media from different libraries.

Whether that would be worth the amount of work that would go into it, though, I don't know.

[pwhodges 2012]

I'd put an appropriately named copy in my TV library to get the metadata, then put a copy in the movie library and move the metadata across manually, locking it after (then delete the unwanted copy).

Spoiler

I have the opposite problem with TVDB.  I have an odd anime of which only two episodes were made - but for many years the second episode was lost.  IMDB and TMDB still classify it as a show, but TVDB classified the one surviving episode as a movie.  The second episode has now re-emerged, so I tried to make a series entry for it in TVDB (I can't alter or delete the movie entry).  But to add a series to TVDB I need to include links to other sources, and the only ones I know are the IMDB and TMDB entries - and they are already linked to the inappropriate movie entry, and so can't be re-used!  When I tried to get support to sort this out, they refused, because I hadn't given them links to the other entries concerned - I'd given them the IMDB and TMDB ids, but not written them out as links, and they couldn't be bothered to make web links themselves!!  So I just made the metadata manually...

Paul

[Happy2Play 9780]

Only work around is do not use TMDB or TVDB that separate queries by TV or Movies and can use the same id on both sides to different media.

Only OMDB which uses IMDBids is universal.

From a Emby standpoint there is no library type that would work a even Mix Content requires structure/naming to be considered TV.  But you will run into issue like this for TV Movies and Mini-Series that you may have in one file.

[jserv 0]

46 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Only OMDB which uses IMDBids is universal.

 

It's a shame that Emby doesn't pull the metadata from IMDB for me in this case, then. Even with the correct ID (tt0118414), Emby finds no results. I assume this is due to the issue that GrimReaper describes.

 

5 hours ago, pwhodges said:

I'd put an appropriately named copy in my TV library to get the metadata, then put a copy in the movie library and move the metadata across manually, locking it after (then delete the unwanted copy).

This is a good suggestion, I'll try this now.

[Happy2Play 9780]

5 minutes ago, jserv said:

It's a shame that Emby doesn't pull the metadata from IMDB for me in this case, then.

The price they want for their metadata is out there as it will likely never be something Emby can provide.

IMDb Essential Metadata for Movies/TV/OTT (API)

You can use OMDB for free if you like it is just limited on its metadata when it comes to cast and crew as Emby will only get them from first provider.

[pwhodges 2012]

1 hour ago, Happy2Play said:

Only work around is do not use TMDB or TVDB that separate queries by TV or Movies and can use the same id on both sides to different media.

I know TMDB does that (it has movie or tv in the URL as you browse), but I see no evidence that TVDB can use the same ID twice.

Paul