Episode metadata ignored on import?

[nmkaufman 50]

I recently moved my TV library to a new hard drive. When I re-added the library to Emby, it respected the existing series metadata but refreshed the episode metadata.

 

This is no good, as most of my media is months or years divorced from TVDB and no longer lines up.

 

There appears to be some sort of civil war happening over there, and several shows are being rearranged or deleted/re-added every few days. Let alone months/years.

 

I have a backup of my previous metadata. Is there a way to import  without refreshing the episode metadata? Or am I hosed?

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by nmkaufman

[Happy2Play 9781]

Can you go over a specific example.

May have to disable library providers, import into Emby then Lock the metadata then re-enable providers.

[nmkaufman 50]

I noticed it because a bunch of my Pixar shorts are missing, because my episode/seasons no longer align with an episode on TVDB.

Then I realized that some of the episodes that still happen to fall on an existing episode were imported incorrectly, and I realized what happened.

I've attached the new metadata, where  Dug's special mission was imported as "George and AJ"

I know this is just the tip of the iceberg, though.

I made a post a few months ago about how Angry Video Game Nerd season 14 became season 13, so now that there's really a season 14 Emby is marking the episodes as watched before I even get to see them. This is a huge huge huge problem with relying on TMDB for metadata. A lot of studios/networks don''t officially publish season/episode guides, and there's some very strong opinions floating around about how shows should be organized. With very little moderation.

Pixar Short Films - S2009E03 - Dug's Special Mission.nfo

Edited October 22, 2020 by nmkaufman

[nmkaufman 50]

I've attached an even better example.

 

My file,  Hey Arnold! - "S02E36-37 - Runaway Float + Partners" was imported as "S02E36-37 - Partners + Halloween"

 

But if you go look at TVDB right now, episode 37 no longer exists at all. Which means its changed again since I re-imported my TV library on Sunday.

 

I definitely don't think episodes should be refreshed on import until TVDB gets their situation handled.

Hey Arnold! - S02E36-37 - Runaway Float + Partners.nfo

Edited October 22, 2020 by nmkaufman

[Carlo 4561]

Hi, You have control over the meta-data providers used so you have the option of removing it.

[Luke 42080]

What metadata providers have you enabled on your TV library and in what order?

[nmkaufman 50]

I blew my library up again, so it would be done by this morning to start trying to rebuild.

I definitely had TVDB enabled, because that's what I use to organize my episodes.

I just don't keep up with their changes and thought that Emby would use the existing metadata.

Not sure why I'm saving all the metadata inside the folders if it's ignored the next time.

Maybe 'existing metadata' should be one of the selectable providers, so I could rank it higher than TVDB.

Edited October 22, 2020 by nmkaufman

[Luke 42080]

Hi, what existing metadata?

[nmkaufman 50]

The .nfo files Emby saves in my media folders.

 

One for every episode.

[Luke 42080]

What information exactly do you feel is not being used?

[Happy2Play 9781]

14 minutes ago, Luke said:

What information exactly do you feel is not being used?

In the end customized/existing metadata no longer matched provider metadata as episode number no longer exist or are aligned differently.

Pixar Short Films - S2009E03 - Dug's Special Mission is now Pixar Short Films - S2009E02 - Dug's Special Mission on provider.

It looks like Emby will overwrite "Title" in nfo instead of using existing metadata in nfo as there is a mismatch from existing metadata and new cached provider metadata.

Still testing this but can only assume this would have to be a locked metadata import, but currently can not get locked episode metadata to import at all.  (looks like it was just taking forever)

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Happy2Play

[Carlo 4561]

It overwrites quite a bit of data in the NFO instead of using the info from it.

[Happy2Play 9781]

Just now, cayars said:

It overwrites quite a bit of data in the NFO instead of using the info from it.

Made edit above but I looks like this will only work from a LOCK metadata standpoint.

[Happy2Play 9781]

3 minutes ago, cayars said:

It overwrites quite a bit of data in the NFO instead of using the info from it.

Yes as cast and crew are affected do to the mismatch on season/episode.  So existing metadata gets updated and can not preserved unless locked.  @Luke

 

[Luke 42080]

Emby will save over the nfo if you've enabled nfo metadata saving, but it will still utilize the information within the file.

[Happy2Play 9781]

2 minutes ago, Luke said:

Emby will save over the nfo if you've enabled nfo metadata saving, but it will still utilize the information within the file.

That is what is happening here.  Existing Title, Overview, and people (possibly more) are overwritten do to changes on provider data for matched season/episode number.

[nmkaufman 50]

I appreciate you taking a look at this.

I'll play around with locking the metadata, or making the .nfo's read-only on a second machine once I'm back up and running.

The more I dig into this, though, the more I realize I'm going to have to manually go through every show. It's too far gone.

I've attached a few more screen grabs. Total carnage, probably 1 in 5 shows are completely rearranged for god knows what reason.

Not sure what good could ever come of refreshing episodes, but there's some serious downsides.

 

[Luke 42080]

I just did a quick test and it worked just fine. I renamed an episode and it's nfo file, then edited the title inside the info, and then ran a regular library scan. And voila:

What i did to rename it essentially makes it a new item getting imported into the database.

[nmkaufman 50]

Beautiful, thank you.

I went ahead and re-organized my media this time, but I plan to put a test server on my laptop to figure out how to do this more painlessly next time.

 

A quick side note. I don't care enough to create a 2nd thread, but the episode image provider ranking doesn't seem to work.

I ranked TMDB at the top, followed by TVDB and screen grabber last. It's still pulling all images from TVDB.

I thought maybe votes/ratings had something to do with, but I checked that even when none of the art has ratings Emby still grabs from TVDB.

 

TMDB uses movie posters as episode thumbs (the Pixar movies, for example,) is why I'd like to get those whenever possible.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by nmkaufman

[Luke 42080]

2 hours ago, nmkaufman said:

Beautiful, thank you.

I went ahead and re-organized my media this time, but I plan to put a test server on my laptop to figure out how to do this more painlessly next time.

 

A quick side note. I don't care enough to create a 2nd thread, but the episode image provider ranking doesn't seem to work.

I ranked TMDB at the top, followed by TVDB and screen grabber last. It's still pulling all images from TVDB.

I thought maybe votes/ratings had something to do with, but I checked that even when none of the art has ratings Emby still grabs from TVDB.

 

TMDB uses movie posters as episode thumbs (the Pixar movies, for example,) is why I'd like to get those whenever possible.

 

Works just fine for me as well. I put movie db images at the top for episodes because they have them in higher resolution.

[nmkaufman 50]

I'll try again. Maybe they have a daily quota I exceeded?

Crap, I just realized those movie posters are on the Open Movie Database, not TMDb. Problem solved, at least.

Edited October 23, 2020 by nmkaufman

[Luke 42080]

Thanks for the feedback.