Metadata is stored multiple times

[sscheib 11]

Hello everybody,

 

as I've recently been rebuilding my Emby and its library I noticed, that Emby downloads (and saves) metadata multiple times if you have the same series multiple times in your library.

To explain why I have multiple series multiple times see the following structure:

 

series -

           | 2.Broke.Girls

series-en -

                | 2.Broke.Girls

series-hd - 

                | 2.Broke.Girls

series-hd-en -

                     | 2.Broke.Girls

 

 

As you can see I have two versions of each series in every language (english and german). Both have their own metadata language (german for the german series and english for the english series). So Emby needs to save the metadata at least two times. I could simply keep an HD version and change the resolution/quality, when I watch over a metered connection or bad wifi (in hotels for example), but this has three major disadvantages:

- The initial download, when you start watching the series happens in HD - which is very costy, when it comes to metered connections

- You have to change the quality every time when a new episode/series starts. This is not only very uncomfortable, but also impossible to do when you fall as sleep while watching.

- With the seperate versions of the series you take the load of the server because you can directly stream without encoding the file beforehand

 

 

To come back to the unnecessary multiple metadata:

Emby downloads the metadata for each series/episode without checking if it already has the metadata in the required language. Emby could check that first and symlink the required metadata from the already downloaded one - if the metadata already exists on the filesystem. This would save some space and would be - in my opinion - cleaner way to have the metadata stored.

I know that with this symlink there will be some problems, that need to be taken care of; for example if one series containing the metadata for multiple versions of the series gets deleted or the metadata language for a series gets changed, etc.

 

 

I thought I throw this in here to think about if it is necessary to have multiple metadata stored or not.

From some bigger software (RedHat Satellite) I know a similar behaviour: It stores every .rpm only once and symlinks it to everywhere it is needed.

 

 

I honestly don't know whether it's possible or even logical for Emby to implement this as I am not developing it myself.

As said, I just throw it in as an idea.

 

Thanks for the great work on Emby guys!

[Luke 42080]

This is expected behavior, but just FYI, if the two folders are imported at the same time then metadata is only downloaded once. But it will be saved into each folder.

 

The recommended approach would be to merge the series folders.