Episode Thumb/Primary Extraction

[feerlessleadr 173]

Hi - I've noticed a problem on my setup over the last few weeks (could be longer, but I only recently noticed) where for any new episodes I add to my server where there isn't a primary image available on either TVDB or TMDB for an episode, no thumb is generated by emby.

 

I may be incorrect, but I thought that when an episode is added to the library, if no primary image is available from a scraper, emby would use  ffmpeg to automatically generate a thumb. What I've noticed however is that this doesn't seem to be the case with a large number of episodes that I add to my library. 

 

I'm trying to figure out the best way to get a log of this, since it is a little bit unpredictable, so I'm hoping that may have seen this before and I'm just doing something wrong, and/or missing something.

[ebr 16184]

Do you have the screen grabber enabled for episodes?

[feerlessleadr 173]

It is enabled for episodes (although it is the lowest priority):

 

  

Edited January 8, 2018 by feerlessleadr

[Luke 42078]

Can we look at a server log from the time when the episode was added? thanks.

[feerlessleadr 173]

I'll have to try and grab a fresh log tonight when a new episode is added

 

EDIT - should I enable debug logging as well?

Edited January 8, 2018 by feerlessleadr

[Luke 42078]

Couldn't hurt. Thanks.

[feerlessleadr 173]

So I forgot to turn on debug logging, but the same thing happened last night with a new episode of This is Us (season 2 episode 11). See the attached log.

 

This appears to be the relevant section of the log, which is very strange:

 

 

 

2018-01-10 02:08:39.504 Info LibraryMonitor: Season 2 (V:\TV Shows\This Is Us\Season 02) will be refreshed.
2018-01-10 02:08:39.504 Info LibraryMonitor: This Is Us (V:\TV Shows\This Is Us) will be refreshed.
2018-01-10 02:08:39.786 Info HttpClient: POST: https://api.opensubtitles.org/xml-rpc
2018-01-10 02:08:40.098 Info HttpClient: POST: https://api.opensubtitles.org/xml-rpc
2018-01-10 02:08:40.238 Info HttpClient: GET: https://api.themoviedb.org/3/tv/67136/season/2/episode/11?api_key=f6bd687ffa63cd282b6ff2c6877f2669&append_to_response=images,external_ids,credits,videos&language=en&include_image_language=en,null
2018-01-10 02:08:40.368 Info HttpClient: GET: https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/hWiDctyD1t4Cy2ow4Byzm6dkIu2.jpg
2018-01-10 02:08:40.488 Info ProviderManager: Saving image to V:\TV Shows\This Is Us\Season 02\This Is Us - s02e11 - The Fifth Wheel-thumb.jpg
2018-01-10 02:08:45.697 Info App: Emby.Kodi.SyncQueue: Starting Library Sync...
2018-01-10 02:08:45.844 Info App: Emby.Kodi.SyncQueue: "LIBRARYSYNC" Added 1 items: 97b80fd2cdb93bd311d9b98cae7e7566
2018-01-10 02:08:45.844 Info App: Emby.Kodi.SyncQueue: "LIBRARYSYNC" Removed 0 items:
2018-01-10 02:08:46.206 Info App: Emby.Kodi.SyncQueue: "LIBRARYSYNC" Updated 1 items: a2352f1617b3b4088ad0eb833cae626f
2018-01-10 02:08:46.206 Info App: Emby.Kodi.SyncQueue: Finished Library Sync Taking 00:00:00.5091628
2018-01-10 02:08:59.661 Info Trakt: Timer elapsed - Processing queued items

 

It looks like Emby thinks that it saved the thumbnail to the correct location, but when I look on the hard disk, that file is not there. Additionally, in the Emby interface, the episode shows that there is no thumbnail. 

 

I can re-download the thumb using the emby interface and it shows up fine however.

 

I don't think this is a permissions issue, since all of my media folders are full access.

server-63651139200.txt

Edited January 10, 2018 by feerlessleadr

[Luke 42078]

And then what do you see in emby?

[feerlessleadr 173]

Here is what I see in emby for that episode. I also included another episode that does have a thumb present on the hard disk:

 

 

Not sure why the poster looks like that, but it has to be something with my screenshot software.

 

On my hard disk, you can see that no thumb was created:

 

[Luke 42078]

Maybe something else deleted the image? because if there was a failure to save it would be in the log. maybe what you can do next time is monitor a new episode personally as it is imported.

[feerlessleadr 173]

Maybe something else deleted the image? because if there was a failure to save it would be in the log. maybe what you can do next time is monitor a new episode personally as it is imported.

 

Thanks Luke - I'll check it out tonight (hopefully this happens again).

 

I'm not sure what else would be deleting the image, I don't have any post processing scripts running, or anything like that. I'll check it out though.

[ebr 16184]

I notice there are no .nfo files either...

[feerlessleadr 173]

I don't have metadata saved in NFO files. I just use the default emby xml files, since I use the emby for kodi addon and don't need other programs to read the nfo files.

 

Although now that I'm looking at my library settings under metadata, I don't see an option for emby xml files anymore, just an option for nfo files. 

Edited January 10, 2018 by feerlessleadr

[Luke 42078]

The xml option became legacy a long time ago. Nfo has been our default for quite some time. Probably three years now.

[feerlessleadr 173]

yikes! I guess you can see how long it's been since I've touched that option.

 

I'm assuming, I should go ahead and re-enable nfo? 

[Luke 42078]

Yes but it shouldn't have any impact on this particular topic.

[feerlessleadr 173]

Got it - thanks. I'll re-enable, but still try to see this live later tonight.

[Crestj 68]

I'm also seeing this issue and also noticed that my nfo option was disabled! Another case of "if it's not broken don't try and fix it!"

 

I've enabled it now for each media type and saved.

 

Ran a library scan and refreshed all metadata for the libraries but I'm not seeing any nfo files or missing primary episode images.

 

By default, are the nfo files kept in a central Emby location on disk (if I don't select to keep metadata in the media folders)?

[Happy2Play 9780]

If you don't have nfo files enabled, all the metadata is written directly to the database.  So all changes only happen with future media. 

[Crestj 68]

If you don't have nfo files enabled, all the metadata is written directly to the database.  So all changes only happen with future media. 

 

So which is the preferred method? Save as NFO (as Luke mentioned is now default) or let Emby write to it's database?

 

Considering I have no 3rd party players requiring access to Emby's metadata.

[Happy2Play 9780]

So which is the preferred method? Save as NFO (as Luke mentioned is now default) or let Emby write to it's database?

 

Considering I have no 3rd party players requiring access to Emby's metadata.

 

Well it depends on if you ever have to rebuild your server.  If everything reside in the database you have to re-download everything.  As if you have metadata with media Emby can just read already downloaded metadata.

 

So it is really just a personal preference.

[Crestj 68]

Well I have "Save artwork and metadata into media folder" ticked on all my libraries and can see a metadata folder under the Seasons folders for my TV Shows but nothing under any movie folders.

 

EDIT: Now I'm completely confused, I have xml files in some folders, metadata folders in some folders and no NFO's anywhere?!?!?

I'll create a new thread to see if there's a way to safely remove this old stuff!

Edited February 7, 2018 by Crestj

[Crestj 68]

@feerlessleadr did you ever get your primary images to download first time?

 

I'm still seeing episodes from a couple of days ago with no images. Emby waits a minimum of 30 days before trying again automatically so I end up with lots of missing images for recent TV episodes.

 

Are these images only available after a few days on TheTVDB, fanart, etc?

 

EDIT: I've just checked and my TV SHows library is set to use TheTVDB first for episode metadata. If I search for a Primary image in Emby for an episode it shows nothing yet on TheTVDB I can see the image?!?!

Edited May 18, 2018 by Crestj

[Luke 42078]

Try refreshing those titles manually.

[feerlessleadr 173]

I never got a resolution for this unfortunately, outside of manually refreshing. The automated update also doesn't seem to work on my end either (I created a different thread for that), but since I don't know when the automated jobs run, I can't reliably pull a server log to get that sorted out either.

 

I've just fallen back to having the screen grabber be the top priority, since that usually doesn't fail grabbing an episode thumb.