What is the best way to handle a Mini Series?

[Ronstang 294]

They aren't really TV shows but more of an extended TV movie event so I really don't want them under TV Shows but it also does not make sense to have them as separate movies because they are not.....so is it possible to put them under movies but in the same folder and list them as 1.1, 1.2 or S01E01 etc.?

[Happy2Play 9780]

From a provider standpoint note really as using TMDB as a example they have specific queries for \movies and \tv and ever the same id on both sides being different media.

But your only possible option may be File stacking per the Movie naming KB.  But identifying may be a issue.

 

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

I actually prefer that mini-series, mostly, be treated as TV shows but those that I really want as movies I simply (or not so simply) join all parts together and put them in a movie library and use the IMDB ID to get a match for metadata. It should be noted that those that I want as movies never were broadcast in greater than three parts. For those with four or more parts I always use the TV show format.

[ebr 16184]

A TV show with just a season one.  Sometimes, they end up turning into more than one season... (Haunting of Hill house as an example)

[pwhodges 2012]

The best way is to see what your preferred metadata provider does, and follow that scheme.

Paul

[MagicDoubleM 121]

Technically they're the same as tv shows with one season. If you want them separate from tv shows, then just create an additional library with it's own folder and call it mini-series, while handling them like tv shows. Things will only get a bit more complicated if you have other tools like sonarr involved.

[Ronstang 294]

I almost just made it one long movie but the way the credits were between the episodes I decided to cut it into three......maybe I'll go back and redo it as one movie....it would be much simpler.

[Carlo 4561]

If I'm unsure I'll look it up on a meta-provider and see if it's listed as a movie or show and follow that.

Almost always a show from past experience.

[Ronstang 294]

Yeah, this one shows up as three episodes on IMDB so that is why I split it into it's 3 parts even though it was broadcast on the SONY channel as one long almost 5 hour movie

[EdBarnes 3]

The best way I found was to put them all under

"TV Shows/The Haunting of Hill House/The Haunting of Hill House/The Haunting of Hill House_S01E01_Steven Sees a Ghost "

Hope this helps!

[KellyEmby 13]

On 4/20/2022 at 10:12 AM, EdBarnes said:

The best way I found was to put them all under

"TV Shows/The Haunting of Hill House/The Haunting of Hill House/The Haunting of Hill House_S01E01_Steven Sees a Ghost "

Hope this helps!

EdBarnes, why was it you repeated "The Haunting of Hill House" folder under the "The Haunting of Hell House" folder?  Does this give better control of the movie?

I have several made for tv movies that are like a series (hallmark mysteries does this a lot) and several other TV Mini Series each show is a stand alone movie but there is a common thread such as the main actors, etc..  I would prefer to put the mini series with movies because because we know that tv series are usually around 1hr of watching time and movies will be longer watching time.

Anyone's thoughts is appreciated. @Happy2Play

[Happy2Play 9780]

On 7/4/2022 at 10:37 AM, KellyEmby said:

EdBarnes, why was it you repeated "The Haunting of Hill House" folder under the "The Haunting of Hell House" folder?  Does this give better control of the movie?

I have several made for tv movies that are like a series (hallmark mysteries does this a lot) and several other TV Mini Series each show is a stand alone movie but there is a common thread such as the main actors, etc..  I would prefer to put the mini series with movies because because we know that tv series are usually around 1hr of watching time and movies will be longer watching time.

Anyone's thoughts is appreciated. @Happy2Play

Ideally as mentioned above, from a metadata standpoint they would be TV.  Since this is a 10 episode mini series I would not have it in Movies, if 2 or 3 parts then maybe.

The Haunting of Hill House: Season 1 (2018) — The Movie Database (TMDB) (themoviedb.org)

While TVDB has it as

The Haunting - Aired Order - Season 1 - TheTVDB.com

[sidewinder_ 1]

The issue is when a movie has initially been aired as two or more parts but later or in other countries only as one movie.

In this case the entries on TMDB or IMDB only show the option as mini series and emby will not even recognize the movie, because it is ignored when it is in the wrong category (movies instead of series).
How can we get emby to identify it as a movie?

I tried to use the "identify" option in emby and type in the TMDB or IMDB ID, but it won't even show the mini series.

One of many examples: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/40360-ben-hur

A movie produced together by CBC, Antenna 3, ProSieben but has been cut into two parts by CBC for the US market to fit into their broadcast schedule.

We need an option to force the database entries from the mini series into the movie fields.
Right now it is a pain to copy paste all information from the internet and manually add the poster and background pictures.

[Happy2Play 9780]

1 hour ago, sidewinder_ said:

How can we get emby to identify it as a movie?

I tried to use the "identify" option in emby and type in the TMDB or IMDB ID, but it won't even show the mini series.

One of many examples: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/40360-ben-hur

First what is the library content type?

Second how is the media named and organized?

As the URL you provided it has to be identified as TV as that is how both TMDB and TVDB work as they can technically have the exact same ID on the Movie and TV side.

Using your example 40360 is A Kind of America (2002) on the movie side.A Kind of America (2002)

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/40360 

So Emby has to know what type is is before it can properly query provider sites.

Only alibi would be OMDB as it does not have two types.  But in general there are ways to make it work the way you want but need to know the requested info.

[sidewinder_ 1]

On 12/12/2024 at 5:06 PM, Happy2Play said:

First what is the library content type?

Second how is the media named and organized?

The library content type I want to add is "movies", as this would be technically correct for the version I have.
All movie files for that catergory are in one folder and named correctly, the scraper does a got job and recognizes all of them, just not the ones that are falsely categorized as TV shows in TMDB.

I am aware that the issue is mostly on TMDB side, because they are not taking different versions into account - but I know the discussion there and it does seem that we have to deal with these issues on mediacenter/scraper side, since they do not plan to improve their database anytime soon.

What is your suggestion?

[Happy2Play 9780]

2 hours ago, sidewinder_ said:

The library content type I want to add is "movies", as this would be technically correct for the version I have.
All movie files for that catergory are in one folder and named correctly, the scraper does a got job and recognizes all of them, just not the ones that are falsely categorized as TV shows in TMDB.

I am aware that the issue is mostly on TMDB side, because they are not taking different versions into account - but I know the discussion there and it does seem that we have to deal with these issues on mediacenter/scraper side, since they do not plan to improve their database anytime soon.

What is your suggestion?

Really your only option is manually creating metadata and image as Emby can not get metadata from the opposite content type.

All items that are considered mini-series will have to be TV no matter the format you have if you want automated provider metadata.

So the best you will get automated is have OMDB enabled also and ensure naming scheme includes imdbid "Ben Hur (2010) {imdbid=tt2009776}" but you will have to manually apply images.

 

[sidewinder_ 1]

I followed your instructions and it works as described.

Thank you!

Uploading the pictures manually seems doable for a few dozen movies, but may take some time.

I am coming from Kodi with a centralized database in form of MariaDB running on NAS, where I could change the database entries directly or with the help of some Kodi specific MySQL Tools.
But have no clue how emby handles the database.

Do you think it is an option to scrape the videos as miniseries and then manipulate the database tables, so the entries are changed to movies?

[Happy2Play 9780]

50 minutes ago, sidewinder_ said:

Do you think it is an option to scrape the videos as miniseries and then manipulate the database tables, so the entries are changed to movies?

From a Mixed content type library maybe but from a specific content type library no.  

But have never experimented changing content type manually in the db.  But you can make a copy of your library.db and use any db view and poke around. 

Then you have the api also.

REST API Documentation