TV show out of order; Aired, DVD, Absolute all are wrong.

[ZiggyDubz 7]

Hi there, I'm trying to order my episodes of Undeclared (2001) correctly, but Fox aired them out of order. Then when they first print the DVD they were in a completely different order. They then eventually reprinted with the correct chronological order except Emby doesn't recognize it and I can't get these episodes to show up the way they should no matter what. I've tried Aired, and DVD which don't do it correctly, and if I choose Absolute (not even sure what this is) only some episodes show up way out of order AND the titles don't even match my file names.

This is the only show I have this issue with. Is there any shot for a None option in the sort order so it can just read the files I have and match the order I've ordered while still catching the file names and getting the appropriate metadata? I've even tried JUST entering TVDB ID TVDB shows air order, NEW DVD order (which is chronological) and Chronological. The meta data all over the internet seems to be an absolute mess here, lol (as well as me trying to explain it, I'm sure.

IMDB order shows how FOX aired the show:  Undeclared - Season 1 - IMDb

Chronological Order is what I want, here:  Undeclared - Chronological Order - Season 1 - TheTVDB.com

Thank yoU!

[Carlo 4561]

To the best of my knowledge there is no way to do chronological order of series in Emby.  I hope someone corrects me if I'm wrong!

To be honest I've only seen this a couple of times at TVDB and luckily don't have those series.

Unless you're dead set against it I would pick aired or DVD order and then rename your local episodes if needed to match what you see on TVDB.
That way they will scan in properly and be functional.

[Happy2Play 9782]

I can assume this new order is only available via their user subscription based v4 api.  Emby currently uses the free v3 or lower api methods.

Should be the same as the new Netflix order some series have.

I will test in a bit.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Happy2Play

[Happy2Play 9782]

Our current method does not return these new orders.

Example 1x03 Addicts (aired), 1x08 Addicts (DVD), no info for chronological (1x07 Addicts).

	<Episode>
		<id>118011</id>
		<Combined_episodenumber>3</Combined_episodenumber>
		<Combined_season>1</Combined_season>
		<DVD_chapter>0</DVD_chapter>
		<DVD_discid/>
		<DVD_episodenumber>8</DVD_episodenumber>
		<DVD_season>1</DVD_season>
		<Director>|Jay Chandrasekhar|</Director>
		<EpImgFlag/>
		<EpisodeName>Addicts</EpisodeName>
		<EpisodeNumber>3</EpisodeNumber>
		<FirstAired>2001-10-09</FirstAired>
		<GuestStars>|Jake Hoffman|Jeremy Howard|Lacey Beeman|Matthew Ruttenberg|Natasha Melnick|Samm Levine|Sarah Morris|Seth St. Laurent|Steve Bannos|</GuestStars>
		<IMDB_ID>tt0736600</IMDB_ID>
		<Language>en</Language>
		<Overview>Ron and Lloyd invest in a stock that rises then quickly drops. Steven, Lizzie and Rachel pay a druggie to do their papers, but he fails to deliver.</Overview>
		<ProductionCode>108</ProductionCode>
		<Rating>8</Rating>
		<RatingCount>84</RatingCount>
		<SeasonNumber>1</SeasonNumber>
		<Writer>|Kristofor Brown|</Writer>
		<absolute_number>0</absolute_number>
		<airsafter_season>0</airsafter_season>
		<airsbefore_episode>0</airsbefore_episode>
		<airsbefore_season>0</airsbefore_season>
		<filename/>
		<lastupdated>1607872988</lastupdated>
		<seasonid>5966</seasonid>
		<seriesid>73557</seriesid>
		<thumb_added>2019-11-13 10:21:21</thumb_added>
		<thumb_height>480</thumb_height>
		<thumb_width>640</thumb_width>
	</Episode>

You can look in Emby cache folder by providerid to see the information Emby get.

[Carlo 4561]

Thanks for checking H2P.

[GrimReaper 4742]

He could scrape all episodes in Aired order, Lock all of them and then just manually change episode numbers.

[Happy2Play 9782]

6 minutes ago, GrimReaper76 said:

He could scrape all episodes in Aired order, Lock all of them and then just manually change episode numbers.

Yes I was going to comment on that as one could manually edit what you get and lock them to your needs.

[ZiggyDubz 7]

6 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Yes I was going to comment on that as one could manually edit what you get and lock them to your needs.

Hmm ok I'll look into doing that. Where do I find the lock option when I'm done? 

[Happy2Play 9782]

1 minute ago, Skvli said:

Hmm ok I'll look into doing that. Where do I find the lock option when I'm done? 

You can lock at Series level or per episode on Edit Metadata near the bottom.

[ZiggyDubz 7]

Just now, Happy2Play said:

You can lock at Series level or per episode on Edit Metadata near the bottom.

Ok thanks for the tips! At least I'm not going crazy anymore haha. 

[Carlo 4561]

Let us know how you make out with this.

[ZiggyDubz 7]

Just now, cayars said:

Let us know how you make out with this.

Will do when I get around to it! 

[ZiggyDubz 7]

Yeah that worked. Just manually updated it all. The thumbs don't pull correctly, but that's very minor. It's all in order and titled right and I locked it in place. Thanks everyone!

[Carlo 4561]

Glad you got it worked out.  This was one of those "special situations" that don't come up very often.

Thanks for the status update!

[Hawkwinter 11]

On 4/16/2021 at 8:28 PM, GrimReaper said:

He could scrape all episodes in Aired order, Lock all of them and then just manually change episode numbers.

This is how I've been doing it.

• Scrape it all in a library that's unlocked in Aired Order.
• Set all the images how I want them while theyre in Aired Order.
• Move the series folder to different folder on the drive that's not in emby
• Use ant renamer to batch rename files.
• Change the episode numbers in the nfo files to match my new filenames (and possibly folders).
• Move the files to another folder on the same drive that's marked as a locked Library.

It takes some time, but it does get you the results.

You can also do the same thing with movies that go in a series if you want to (for example) make a "Harry Potter" "TV Series" or make a giant "Star Wars" TV series that includes the various film trilogies as 'Seasons' as well as seasons of the TV Shows, in whatever watch order you prefer (like Chronological).

Movies-Series work best with a trick of making the imdb IDs and whatnot be filled in with series / season specific garbage data, IMO.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Hawkwinter