Overview: Metadata and discovery

Metadata describes media and supplies the identities, artwork and relationships used to organize and discover a collection.

A title, poster and episode number are statements about a media item, not the item's encoded picture or sound. Those statements can come from the file, a nearby sidecar, an online provider or a user's own corrections.

The topics below explain how identifiers connect those sources, how conflicting values are resolved, and how local formats preserve them. Artwork, localization and discovery build on that information. For an Emby library, the important question is often which source supplied a value and why that source was matched to this item.

• Understanding metadata
  Metadata fundamentals distinguish descriptive and technical information, its storage location and the rules for choosing among sources.

• Identification and matching
  Media identification connects a source item to the intended catalogue entry using names, identifiers and other matching evidence.

• Metadata services
  Metadata services supply catalogue information or artwork through provider-specific coverage, identities and interfaces.

• Local metadata formats
  Local metadata formats store descriptive or technical information within media files or nearby companion files.

• Metadata fields and localization
  Metadata fields represent values and relationships whose meaning depends on type, vocabulary and context.

• Artwork and preview images
  Artwork roles identify which image belongs in a particular library or playback presentation.

• Finding related media
  Metadata-driven discovery uses indexed values and relationships to support search, browsing and recommendations.