TV Shows that do not have a SEASON are scanned as "Season Unknown"

[unisoft 352]

I've also noticed recently, that TV Shows, that don't have a SEASON and they are not a Special or Xtra, are being scanned as "Season Unknown" and "Season 1". Historically, Emby just put the programme title without reference to Seasons. So the type of shows would be TV feature length episode, almost like a TV Movie, or a singular TV Documentary. Ideally, it should just show the one programme title with no Season Unknown or Season 1 folders shown in Emby, i.e. just a flat list of titles scanned. The XML has to be renamed from movie.xml to series.xml to read the metadata anyway. Movie.xml is because Media Center Master reads the metadata in to this file (which worked a long, long time ago). Renaming is not an issue however as I know I need to do that.

Here is a rough example:

/multimedia/TV Shows/Documentaries/The Great Jellyfish Of The Seas/The Great Jellyfish Of The Seas.mp4

I don't class it as a "movie" as it is TV content that was broadcast. Again, when last looking at the online help, it didn't cover this.

(This was split from forum this forum topic)

Edited September 15, 2025 by sa2000

[sa2000 674]

What is the library type where the example you have given is part of. And what is the issue in terms of user interface or bug?

Is the issue that we need to cover recorded media that is not movies as such ? This all depends on how the Live TV guide metadata classifies the airing and if Gracenote identifies a documentary as a movie then that is what I expect it to be when it goes into the recordings folder/library

[unisoft 352]

1 hour ago, sa2000 said:

What is the library type where the example you have given is part of. And what is the issue in terms of user interface or bug?

Is the issue that we need to cover recorded media that is not movies as such ? This all depends on how the Live TV guide metadata classifies the airing and if Gracenote identifies a documentary as a movie then that is what I expect it to be when it goes into the recordings folder/library

Its a TV Library, not Recorded TV library.

Its all done by Media Center Master, this creates the XML file full of meta data. I don't allow any real time lookup of metadata, it all has to be populated first before a TV Show can be imported. I also use <Locked>True</Locked> in every XML to prevent be overwritten.

Here is an example of documentary, without a Season, Specials or Xtras folder as it's not any of them:

/multimedia/TV Shows/Documentaries/A Queen Is Crowned/A Queen Is Crowned.mp4

the metadata file is series.xml (as Emby for a long time ignores movie.xml in a TV Library folder as a change made years ago).

<Title>
    <LocalTitle>A Queen Is Crowned</LocalTitle>
    <OriginalTitle></OriginalTitle>
    <SortTitle>A Queen Is Crowned</SortTitle>
    <IMDBrating>6.6</IMDBrating>
    <ProductionYear>1953</ProductionYear>
    <MPAARating>U</MPAARating>
    <Added>23/03/2012 20:38:49</Added>
    <IMDbId>tt0046222</IMDbId>
    <RunningTime>79</RunningTime>
    <Language>English</Language>
    <Country>UK</Country>
    <Persons>
        <Person>
            <Name>Laurence Olivier</Name>
            <Type>Actor</Type>
            <Role>Narrator</Role>
        </Person>
</Persons>
    <Genres>
        <Genre>Documentary</Genre>
        <Genre>History</Genre>
    </Genres>
    <Description>A lavish documentary film of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation in 1953, narrated by Laurence Olivier, Bernard Braden, Richard Dimbleby, Michael Henderson, Mary Hill, Brian Johnston, Max Robertson, Berkeley Smith and Chester Wilmot.</Description>
    <IMDB>tt0046222</IMDB>
    <FullCertifications>UK:U  | Australia:G  | Finland:S  | Sweden:Btl</FullCertifications>
    <Locked>True</Locked>
</Title>

Emby 4.8.11.0 Web showing Season Unknown and Season 1:

Media files also have ID3v2 tags in them, but Emby is set to honour metadata in files first BEFORE embedded data (unless Music or Music Videos libraries).

Even if no embedded data, it's the same result in Emby.

Singular Documentaries and one off drama episodes (similar to TV movie) do not form part of a Series/Season or Special, so they should just be listed as an episode without season/special layer.

 

Edited September 15, 2025 by unisoft

[Luke 42077]

Quote

Singular Documentaries and one off drama episodes (similar to TV movie) do not form part of a Series/Season or Special, so they should just be listed as an episode without season/special layer.

Episodes always have a season number. This has always been true. Starting with the 4.8 release, episodes without a season number would usually end up in season 1. This is how the metadata providers handle mini-series as well.

Additionally, I know you won't like this, but it has to be said - the Emby team is not testing the legacy xml format, so there could be any number of unknown quirks coming from that. We recommend switching to nfo files.

[unisoft 352]

15 hours ago, Luke said:

Episodes always have a season number. This has always been true. Starting with the 4.8 release, episodes without a season number would usually end up in season 1. This is how the metadata providers handle mini-series as well.

Additionally, I know you won't like this, but it has to be said - the Emby team is not testing the legacy xml format, so there could be any number of unknown quirks coming from that. We recommend switching to nfo files.

I don't mind adding mini-series to a Season 1 as several episodes. When its a singular drama, or singular documentary it makes no sense as it's inaccurate.

Can the Emby team just not detect for a TV library type that if no episode prefix or season detected , its just flat under the title?

That is more accurate. The tvdb.com lists singular titles too, not everything is in a season. I guess for those that use a provider that may use episode/season they could just continue the current naming.

I get what you said about XML (and know some of the current quirks and workaround), but doesn't the NFO format insist on the images and backdrops and logos all being renamed as well?

I always found the NFO to have very limited, basic info in them in the past when I tried.

Thanks for the help.

Edited September 16, 2025 by unisoft

[GrimReaper 4739]

2 hours ago, unisoft said:

The tvdb.com lists singular titles too

As what? As a movie? 

Edit: I reckon you can solve your issue in two ways:

1) Make your TV shows library Mixed-content type so you'd have both one-offs (as movies) and TV-shows side-by-side

or 

2) Make those one-offs arbitrary special episode number and rename Specials season to whichever title you prefer; if you flatten single-season shows, you'd never see it anyway. 

Edited September 16, 2025 by GrimReaper
Append

[unisoft 352]

14 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

As what? As a movie? 

Yes, but MB3 and Emby (a while ago) used to support movie.xml for TV. Now, you have to rename it to series.xml, but the remaining issue is Season Unknown and Season 1 appearing.

My media is all pre-tagged and doesn't rely on real time look ups.

Edited September 16, 2025 by unisoft

[GrimReaper 4739]

2 hours ago, unisoft said:

Yes, but MB3 and Emby (a while ago) used to support movie.xml for TV. Now, you have to rename it to series.xml.

You can't identify (or import) a movie in a TV Shows content-type library, but you can do it in a Mixed-content one - hence:

3 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

Make your TV shows library Mixed-content type

As an added bonus, you wouldn't have to bother with reformatting your xmls, though I'd take Luke's advice and switch to NFOs, nowdays that's de-facto standard. 

Edited September 16, 2025 by GrimReaper

[unisoft 352]

7 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

You can't identify (or import) a movie in a TV Shows content-type library, but you can do it in a Mixed-content one - hence:

 

but it's NOT a movie as such

They are singular dramas or singular documentaries, entertainment programmes that are officially not part of a series/season. They don't belong in the Movies library either.

Emby is incorrect here with the way it handles them. Not all TV shows are part of a series/season. At least "Season Unknown" is partially correct compared to assuming "Season 1".

I think Mixed Library type has other issues or limitations - I will retry on the .31 beta though on test NAS....

Edited September 16, 2025 by unisoft

[GrimReaper 4739]

2 hours ago, unisoft said:

but it's NOT a movie as suc

It doesn't have to be (it is irrelevant), as you'd just see it as a single-item entry in your TV Shows library upon import. 

[GrimReaper 4739]

2 hours ago, unisoft said:

At least "Season Unknown" is partially correct compared to assuming "Season 1".

Because you don't have <season> and <episode> xml tags - those are mandatory in a TV Shows type library; without them, Emby is just making an educated guess parsing filename, likely putting files that have (Year) in filename in Season X and those without it in Season Unknown, I suppose. 

Edited September 16, 2025 by GrimReaper

[unisoft 352]

9 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Because you don't have <season> and <episode> xml tags - those are mandatory in a TV Shows type library; without them, Emby is just making an educated guess parsing filename, likely putting files that have (Year) in filename in Season X and those without it in Season Unknown, I suppose. 

So can anything be done in a future release (not 5 years time )- perhaps a flag marker file, a filename description in [ ], so Emby knows, to scan it as a flat file that is not assigned to any series/season, or perhaps not having "S01" for example in any of the filename? I mean the biggest marker is already there because singular drama or documentaries wouldn't have "Sxx" in their filename for season indicator and not in a Season named folder. I could see other customers wanting this as its just logical for non-season shows.

Edited September 16, 2025 by unisoft

[GrimReaper 4739]

That's for the Dev to answer, but I'd guess it'd open another can of worms - you are importing your items externally, but majority of other users will more than likely want to identify them, meaning identifying movies in a TV show library - and there already exists library type for that: Mixed content one. Not sure Dev will be keen on adding another layer of complexity. But you never know. 

[unisoft 352]

13 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

That's for the Dev to answer, but I'd guess it'd open another can of worms - you are importing your items externally, but majority of other users will more than likely want to identify them, meaning identifying movies in a TV show library - and there already exists library type for that: Mixed content one. Not sure Dev will be keen on adding another layer of complexity. But you never know. 

Thanks. I would have just thought the logic was already there. Where no "Sxx" (where xx = number of a Season) in filename, means the show/title isn't part of a season, so display as a flat episode in the UI under no Season folders. For embedded metadata ID3v2, if user has set preference for library to use that, it would mean ALBUM doesn't have anything defined, like Season 1/Series 1/Specials...

Edited September 16, 2025 by unisoft