BETA: TMDB metadata for TV episodes

Channels DVR Server
#64

I've been using thetvdb (TVDB) for naming my TV show rips and themoviedb (TMDB) for my movies. Now that channels supports TMDB for shows, I've used it to match several shows that are missing in Gracenote (or don't resolve from basic search) that I previously added manually. I'm finding some shows have different episode numbers in TVDB vs TMDB.

Is there any chance to support TVDB for shows as well? It seems like TMDB isn't as authoritative or complete for shows vs TVDB or at least that's my impression. I originally thought they were both from the same organization based on the naming and frequent linking from TVDB to TMDB for movies, but it appears they are run by different parties.

#65
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#66

Interesting and good to know. I suppose I will switch to using TMDB for TV show episode naming.

#67

I have a TV Movie I can't get to match with TMDB or Gracenote, it is Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998).
It is on TMDB here: Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998) — The Movie Database (TMDB)
But won't match with that name. Are TV Movies being filtered out?

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#69

Are you importing it as a movie?

#70

I see it on both:

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Although Gracenote has a different year:

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#71

I imported it TV, since its a TV Movie? Should TV Movies be imported as Movies instead?

If I try searching on a movie, I see it on both.

It is matching as Alice Through the Looking Glass (2010) from Gracenote:
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Interestingly, this 2010 item shows up in show or movie search via Gracenote but shows up in neither via TMDB.

#72

If it’s a movie, it should be imported as a movie. It doesn’t matter if it originally aired on TV, in a theater, or on streaming.

The TV and Movie indexers expect completely different things and scan them in completely differently.

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#73

There are some exceptions to this, especially with certain Hallmark (mystery) movies, at least as far as Gracenote is concerned. Most of those are categorized as a TV series, with each movie as an "episode".

#74

I previously fixed a match on a TV Show that wasn't in Gracenote using TMDB (I think, maybe I forced it via zap2it number?), this was several months ago. Now I just added more episodes to that show's folder. Channels found the new episodes but matched them as a separate instance of the same show. I have tried re-matching each show, but I cannot get them to merge together. Any ideas?

The show is Bluey.

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Left: Existing show
Right: New show channels created

This is the second time I've tried this, I'm pretty sure it didn't say Bluey: Review the first time and instead said Bluey (2018) for the new show.

Edit: Also, I know I could remove all of the files and then re-add and re-scan, then they should all show up together as the same show. BUT-- I feel like I may have stumbled into a bug.

#75

Is there a way to have all media default to TMDB for matching?

#76

No, but with the work being done here, it won't matter eventually.

#77

Does that apply for both TV Shows and Movies?
I ask because in Plex/Emby/Jellyfin I am able to match Movies/TV Shows a lot more successfully but in Channels I consistently have to go and fix incorrect matches.
I know that naming plays a part but it always seems to be an issue with shows from multiple countries, for example Married at First Sight, Channels always matches to the original swedish ver even though the directory/file names have the country code (US), (UK) applied.

#78

Right now, it does not yet, but this is the goal of the initiative.

Right now we match TV shows against Gracenote, our guide data provider, because we have to. The goal of this initiative is to eventually NOT have to.

#79

I have this same problem - what did you end up doing to fix this? (NEVER MIND - I saw another post on how to fix)

#80

I am having a strange problem with TV show matching with TMDB. I recently reorganized and renamed the folder structure of my TV Show hierarchy. One of the things I did was change the tag in the file name from {tvdb-(showID#)} to {tmdb-(showID#)} to use the TMDB show ID number instead of the TVDB show ID number. I did this because everyone seems to be switching to TMDB. I don't think Channels uses this tag in the file name, but Plex does, which is why I am including this tag in the file name.

Anyways, after importing the shows into Channels with the new file names, most items didn't seem to be automatically recognized. I figured the tag in the name is causing Channels not to automatically find the items. Not a big deal though because I have no problem manually matching the shows.

When manually matching shows, I decided to match against TMDB instead of GraceNotes. I did this because TMDB seems to be a lot better than GraceNotes. GraceNotes information about shows many times is wrong or just outright missing (missing shows is actually what prompted me to do this reorganization). GraceNotes also has no realistic way to edit incorrect information or add missing shows. TMDB does, and because of it, its info is more accurate and complete.

Here is where I am running into a problem - if I try and match a show to TMDB from the start, it matches all the metadata for the episodes, but not for the show title itself. All of the show metadata is missing. The show title shows with the generic title that it gets from the file name, it has no poster art, and no show description. Below is a screenshot of what I am talking about:

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As a workaround, I can go back and select the show from Gracenotes, and then it shows the show info. If I then go and reselect it from TMDB, everything still shows correct, both show info and episode info. However, the problem is with missing shows from Gracenotes that exist in TMDB. Since the show is missing from Gracenotes, then I can't use the workaround (and the missing show from Gracenotes is the whole reason I started this project!). Below is an example of a show that is in TMDB but not Gracenotes:

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(Note that this show was the original Rick Steves Europe series from the 1990s and not the same Rick Steves Europe series that he has produced in the 2000s - they are two different shows with different seasons and episodes. The original 1990 series isn't in Gracenotes but is in TMDB. The newer 2000s series is in both Gracenotes and TMDB.)

I tried updating to the latest pre-release 2024.12.18.0400, but it didn't fix the problem. I am running Channels in a docker running on UnRaid 6.12.14.

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#81

Match it to gracenote first. Then match it to tmdb for episode metadata. Only episode metadata is used from tmdb at the moment.

Struggling to fix TV show match and artwork
#82

@maddox but what do I do for the show that isn't in Gracenote?

#83

A post was split to a new topic: TMDB TV matching

#84