How do I merge two series library instances into one?

Channels DVR Server Troubleshooting
#1

I'm recording a series that has over 300 episodes recorded so far so I copied the first 100 episodes to a secondary location. When Channels added it to the library, I wasn't able to "Find a Match" or make it so that the duplicates would appear in the same library entry, so there are now two library entries and I'm concerned that when some of the shows air again Channels won't know to not record the show again.

Any advice?

Edit: I actually have to do this a lot to maintain free space on the drive that gets recorded to. I wish there was a way to Export or Move shows to a secondary location with all the metadata (including edits I've made) intact. Not as big a deal with movies.

#2

When you copy files from DVR to imports you might often see duplacate listing. One listing pointing to files that no longer exist. Channels should clear this up on its own, in time. I usually do a manual "purge deleted"

As far as meta data / matching goes. When you manually edit metadata in channels that data is saved in channels not appended to the actual files (i think). There are programs you can use to manually edit metadata on file itself. Note: I rename all my imports with filebot. I have been happy with the results.

When matching shows channels uses Gracenotes. From what I understand Zap2it uses Gracenotes too. So you can search for series id on there. If Gracenotes does not have it in there database, only thing you can dobis manually edit the metadata.

Also what show was it

#3

I stopped copying to the Imports folder because it's on the same physical drive and doesn't save me any space for new recordings. Instead, I had one more bay in the PC and added a 8TB drive and began copying files to that (under a Channels->Movies or Channels->TV structure) and for the most part all I have to do is look at the library and compare the metadata and the location of the files and delete the dupes on the recording drive.

This has also worked surprisingly well for series where I have many episodes that had been recorded by other DVRs and is a great way to find out which episodes have been missed.

The particular show in question is "12 Corazones", a Spanish language dating game show which has 3 seasons of daily episodes that get recycled on Universo. Most of the episodes aren't so entertaining, but a few stand out and so I like to record the ones I haven't seen. If I ignore it too long a pass can quickly accumulate 100's of recordings that have to be dealt with, so I'd rather move them in bunches to further deal with them when I have a better opportunity..

#4

You don't have to re-import it; you can just have a secondary storage path for the DVR and Channels will recognize it. Here's how mine is set up:

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Channels will look for the file at the first location and if it doesn't find it it will look for it at the second location, etc... until it finds it. Everything you do to the original recording (metadata edits, etc...) will remain. You can even have the some episodes in location 1 and some in location 2. You could move the files back and forth a million times and software would not care!

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#5

Okay, I have not tried adding a "Storage Path" in the DVR Database section of Settings, but "Movie Sources" and "TV Sources" in the Local Content section.

Screenshot 2022-09-26 132434_sm

Will I notice a difference between how DVR Storage Paths and Local Content Sources are handled?

#6

If you're moving existing recordings that the DVR made, you need to use additional storage.

If you're importing content from another DVR or DVDs etc, then use the Local Content import option.

#7

Okay, that seems pretty straightforward. How should I handle instances where some episodes were recorded by TiVo, some by WMC, and some by Channels DVR? Can I not put them all in the same location?

FWIW, the first Sources I added were the networked ones. I didn't have the G:\Channels (local) location until a couple months ago.

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#8

When the DVR records something, it makes an entry in its database. With those entries, if the mpg file isn't found in the primary location then it looks in the secondary location for it.

For Local Content, it assumes those are recordings it has never known about and creates new entries in the database.

If you want to move everything to Local Content, you can do that but you will need to prune the old entries from the database. And then you're scanning it in new, so it will not retain any edits and other information from before.

If its important the files live in the same place, then put them all in Imports and prune the database so it deletes the database entries from when it recorded those files itself.

#9

Movies haven't been much of a problem because their metadata stands on its own pretty well, and re-creating it has been relatively trivial.

Not surprisingly, TV Shows have been more of a mixed bag, but I have had the most success copying a season at a time, verifying the metadata for each episode in the new location, then trashing the one in the original location (when recorded). Until the experience that prompted this thread, the copied shows always showed up as duplicates under the title tile for the show series, which made comparing metadata and location quite straightforward with most episodes already matching.

In this case, I found over 300 episodes had accumulated, so I copied the first 100 over to the new location. The problem arose when a second title tile appeared for "12 corazones" for the copied episodes, so they didn't combine under the original tile to display the duplicates I expected for my verify and trash routine.

#10

You won't have much luck matching episodes on that one.
Channels DVR Series ID is 198595
Gracenote/zap2it/tms ID is SH008641910000
You can do a fix match on the show and put just the tms ID in the search box to match the show and artwork

But before you waste your time trying to fix match the episodes, you might want to see how Gracenote/zap2it lists them. It's a mess there 12 Corazoes at zap2it.com

#11

I get it. It appears that that particular show has been syndicated to numerous networks and the metadata for it has been muddied. I've found several instances where the same show was been identified under multiple SeasonEpisode IDs.

I did a "Fix Incorrect Match" on it using the tms ID and it did find the right match, but the two title tiles were not combined in the Library. I guess that could've only happened if "G:\Channels" had been added to the DVR Database Storage Paths and I moved the files from under H:\Channels to under G:\Channels?

Looking at the Local Content mapping I shared in Post 5 above, would it cause problems (I assume YES) if I were to remove "G:\Channels\Movies" and "G:\Channels\TV" from the Local Content Sources and added "G:\Channels" as a DVR Database Storage Path?. Probably half of the files in there were recorded with a different DVR but have been renamed to follow the Channels DVR convention.

#12

I've had mixed results trying to identify a Series ID. Can you explain how to find out what a show's tms ID is? I have a number of episodes of a Spanish series named Triunfo del amor (Triumph of Love) from 2010 that I can't find a match for but it is properly identified in my native recordings library. When I look at the Series Pass that is working, it shows a Series ID of 8364401-es, but entering that into the show match search criteria doesn't find it.

#13

  1. Go to zap2it.com

  2. In the search field, type in the name of the program you want.

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  1. Select the version of the program you want. This is usually the one with the latest year, but not necessarily (YMMV). Pay particular attention to the episodes as whatever is in Zap2It is what is in Gracenote, which is what Channels will expect. You must match to the seasons/episode numbers as it is here unless you want to manual edit everything to match your files.

  2. Look at the address bar. The TMS ID is in the path:

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  1. Copy the TMS ID and use it for matching in Channels

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Anime and custom metadata sources
Identifying Imported Shows
#14

That's exactly what I was look for. Thanks!

#15

Okay, it works every time for shows that are currently airing, but I have a show from 2014 that re-aired about 30 episodes up until about a month ago and it no longer shows up in the zap2it guide. Is there another method for parsing out the TMS ID (It's in my library of recorded shows, but I can't get it to link up to local content of the same series).

#16

I'm not sure what you are saying. Zap2It/Gracenote does not care when the last episode aired; it is either in the database or it is not. They don't prune the database based on whether a show is airing or not. Here's a show that I don't believe got an airing later than the 1980s:

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That said, there are plenty of programs that do not show up in Zap2It that are in the Gracenote database for whatever reason, and Channels uses the same access algorithm so it ends up with the same issues.

This is going to be convoluted, so stick with me.

  1. In your browser, go to https://[YOUR_SERVER_HERE]:8089/dvr/files

  2. This will be a beautiful view of every single thing that has been added to your DVR that has not been deleted. The lowest number on top is the most recent addition.

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  1. In the block where is says "Filter JSON", type in the name of your program that has been recorded. This will filter the list down to records that contain that name.

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  1. Note these numbers and take special care to make sure it is one of the episodes that was recorded, not one that you imported. Now, clear out your filter, navigate to that number, and expand it with the arrow on the left side.

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  1. Expand Airing, then expand Raw, then finally program. Under program, you will find a record called tmsID. Note that this is the tmsID of the episode, not the series.

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  1. Copy that and then go to your imported version of the show. Click on More Options > Fix Incorrect Match and paste that in the search box. In this order, change all of the last four digits to a zero if they are not one already. Then, change the "EP" at the beginning to "SH". If you do not do it in that order, the search window may close.

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  1. Now you should be able to match and merge!
#17

Note that you can also click View Details on the web UI and then click the number under File ID to see details

#18

Dang, @tmm1, that is certainly an easier path!

Okay, I'm going to capture this for posterity's sake.

  1. Go to an episode of the program that has been recorded and click Options > View Details

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  1. In the popup, navigate to the File ID number and click it.

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  1. Navigate down and find ProgramID. Hover near it an option will pop up to Copy to clipboard. Click on that.

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  1. Follow steps 6 and 7 from above, being sure to remove the quotation marks, as well.
#19

Thanks - the first method worked!

I tried the https://[YOUR_SERVER_HERE]:8089/dvr/files method first and you're right - it was convoluted. In fact, I didn't get to the information I was looking for until I went to the Raw Data tab and did a Ctrl+F "Find in This Page" and pasted the show name in the search box.

The View Details -> File ID didn't work for me as none of my "File IDs" have links or open up to anything leading to a ProgramID. Maybe it works on an OS other than Windows10 or on a browser other than Chrome or Firefox.

#20

You need to update to prerelease for the second method