TheTVDB
TheTVDB supplies television and movie records whose series, season-type and episode relationships preserve the ordering context used for matching.
TheTVDB supplies television and movie catalogue information. For episodic media, series identity and episode ordering belong together.
A local “episode 3” needs its series and ordering context before it becomes a useful catalogue reference.
Series and episodes have distinct identities
| Relationship | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Series record | Which programme? |
| Season type/order | Which arrangement of episodes? |
| Season and episode position | Where in that arrangement? |
| Episode record | Which described episode entity? |
| Local media file | Which encoded presentation is being played? |
A series identifier cannot replace an episode's own identity. The numbering is a relationship, not a globally unique title key.
Alternate ordering can describe different cuts
The official v4 documentation supports multiple season types. It explains that alternate arrangements can include recut episodes rather than merely rearranging an unchanged set.
Consider an invented programme whose original release has three long episodes. Another release edits the same story into six shorter parts. Part 3 of the shorter release need not contain the same scenes as original episode 3.
| Local evidence | Identification implication |
|---|---|
| Same series title | Shared programme context |
| Different ordering type | Another episode arrangement |
| Different count/duration | Possible split or recut presentation |
| Known scene boundaries | Evidence for the actual local episode |
This matters for summaries, episode images and subtitles. Correctly identifying the series alone cannot establish the local file's episode timeline.
Images belong to their described entity
Series artwork and an episode still serve different roles. An episode image is not necessarily a frame extracted from the local encode; it can be a catalogue asset attached to the episode record.
Emby's TV naming guidance supplies the product's identification context. The provider's order and the actual library/integration settings determine which relationship is used.