Artwork from TMDB(Background,poster)

[Blueskies278 35]

How do I enable Emby to manually search for artwork from TMDB, instead of FanArt?

 

Thanks

[GrimReaper 4739]

What Image fetchers you have enabled in your library settings? 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Depends on the image type you are referring to as Thumbs are only available via FanArt per the image type.  But other types will use image fetcher order as mentioned.

Edited November 11, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Blueskies278 35]

10 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

What Image fetchers you have enabled in your library settings? 

When I do get artwork, it’s only from FanArt. I find it very limiting. TMDB has way more choice. Jellyfin uses TMDB.

[Luke 42077]

And so does emby. MovieDb = Tmdb.

[Luke 42077]

10 minutes ago, Blueskies278 said:

When I do get artwork, it’s only from FanArt.

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[Blueskies278 35]

posters work fine. 99% of the time Thumbs do not show.

Thumb

posters

 

11/11/2025

21:54

Bluskies278

embyserver.txt

 

 

Edited November 11, 2025 by Blueskies278

[Happy2Play 9780]

6 hours ago, Blueskies278 said:

99% of the time Thumbs do not show.

FanArt is the only place that technically has Thumb images.  As TMDB sort of does but are Backdrops with text ie language backdrops and are not collected by Emby or mapped to be used a Thumbs.

FanArt only has one image for Communion

Communion | Movie fanart | fanart.tv

Can only get TMDB url from their site to use within Emby

[Blueskies278 35]

59 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

FanArt is the only place that technically has Thumb images.  As TMDB sort of does but are Backdrops with text ie language backdrops and are not collected by Emby or mapped to be used a Thumbs.

FanArt only has one image for Communion

Communion | Movie fanart | fanart.tv

Can only get TMDB url from their site to use within Emby

That's a shame, as Jellyfin works great. Emby is somewhat limiting regarding FanArt. I hope the developers reconsider adding TMDB for thumb, making Emby a bit more flexible. 

jellyfin using TMDB for thumb

 

Edited November 12, 2025 by Blueskies278

[Happy2Play 9780]

That would be a feature request for @Luketo map TMDB Language backdrops to Emby Thumbs as they were removed from backdrops as they have text on them.

[Blueskies278 35]

On 11/11/2025 at 21:30, Luke said:

And so does emby. MovieDb = Tmdb.

Yes

[Luke 42077]

13 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

That would be a feature request for @Luketo map TMDB Language backdrops to Emby Thumbs as they were removed from backdrops as they have text on them.

How do we know if it has text? if it has a language filled out that isn't xx ?

The downside of this is that these images really are inferior to fanart. When you prioritize your image providers, it can only be done for all images, not for each image type specifically.

So if we add this then that will become an issue. MovieDb is prioritized higher by default, so all of a sudden this gets enabled, and many users will start getting images that are sometimes junky compared to fanart.

[Blueskies278 35]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

How do we know if it has text? if it has a language filled out that isn't xx ?

The downside of this is that these images really are inferior to fanart. When you prioritize your image providers, it can only be done for all images, not for each image type specifically.

So if we add this then that will become an issue. MovieDb is prioritized higher by default, so all of a sudden this gets enabled, and many users will start getting images that are sometimes junky compared to fanart.

No worries, I can understand the quality issues. Personally,  I've never had any image quality issues 99% of the time. Really, it's not an issue. I get Kodi or jellyfin to download my desired artwork to the folders. Emby is still the best media player 

Jellyfin is slightly more advanced by categorising artwork image options with TMDB.

menu options

 

Backdrop

 

For me, personally, the thumb view looks good 

The thumb view is so scaled down to fit, it still looks good on my 65 inch OLED TV.

Edited November 13, 2025 by Blueskies278

[Happy2Play 9780]

10 hours ago, Luke said:

How do we know if it has text? if it has a language filled out that isn't xx ?

The downside of this is that these images really are inferior to fanart. When you prioritize your image providers, it can only be done for all images, not for each image type specifically.

So if we add this then that will become an issue. MovieDb is prioritized higher by default, so all of a sudden this gets enabled, and many users will start getting images that are sometimes junky compared to fanart.

Was thinking maybe the all language switch to show them but that could be a mess also.  Not sure on quality as they will be 720/1080, but really will only apply to something older anyways.  Newer ones will/can end up being the same image as fanart.

Edited November 13, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Luke 42077]

Our image editor has those same options. In fact, they got it from us.

[Blueskies278 35]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

Our image editor has those same options. In fact, they got it from us.

Ah, so only difference is that Jellyfin is a bit more advanced/flexible?

Kodi also shares the same flexibility.

Edited November 13, 2025 by Blueskies278

[Luke 42077]

No the only difference is they added support for tndb thumbs. But as I said above, just because we can doesn’t mean that we should.

[Blueskies278 35]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

No the only difference is they added support for tndb thumbs. But as I said above, just because we can doesn’t mean that we should.

No worries.

Due to Jellyfin’s flexibility with TMDB, I’ll use it as my workhorse for downloading thumbnails to the appropriate folders. 

Thanks

Edited November 14, 2025 by Blueskies278

[Blue278 22]

13 hours ago, Blueskies278 said:

No worries.

Due to Jellyfin’s flexibility with TMDB, I’ll use it as my workhorse for downloading thumbnails to the appropriate folders. 

Thanks

I just realised I can let jeillfin download all artwork. It works perfectly alongside Emby

Edited November 14, 2025 by Blue278
Edit

[Blueskies278 35]

On 14/11/2025 at 00:31, Luke said:

No the only difference is they added support for tndb thumbs. But as I said above, just because we can doesn’t mean that we should.

Not asking you to add it. you've made it clear.

For my use, Jellyfin is still more flexible(Advanced) when it comes to artwork.  I have set up Jellyfin to download artwork with text for my thumbs, and for background, I can use FanArt if needed. It works great alongside Emby. 

I can also use kodi to auto download artwork. but Jellyfin is more convenient because it's install alongside Emby on my UGREEN DXP4800 plus. 

 

I have marked the thread as solved.

Edited November 23, 2025 by Blueskies278
marked the thread as solved