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[Bytecrawler]

Sorry if this is a newbie question but I'm having a lot of challenges getting program info for TV series that are reboots/remakes of earlier series including Doctor Who and the Flash. For example, on TVDB there are several versions of The Flash. The current incarnation is listed as "The Flash (2014)" on TVDB. When I try to get info on episodes, MC21 always uses "The Flash" as the search string and I get info for the series from the early 90's. I can manually force the system to search for the new series by adding "(2014)" to the search string, but can't find a way to do this automatically and the manual method only works for one file at a time. I have this issue with multiple series so manually doing this for every episode would take hours. I've tried all kinds of changes to the file names including following the guidance in the wiki. For example "The Flash (2014).S01E02.Fastest Man Alive.mpg" follows the format recommended in the wiki but that throws an error stating that there must be a series name. Just about anything else I tried returns info for the 1990's series. Is there some file name format that will get me what I need? Or is there some way to force a particular search string for a set of files from the same series?

[RoderickGI]

Basically, it works this way.

If you have several programs that belong to a series, and are grouped under one series name in MC, then you manually look up TheTVDB info for any one of the episodes in that series using the right click "Get Movie & TV Info" function, select the correct info from the possible options returned, then click "Use this data", MC gets the "TheTVDB Series ID" for the program, and saves it to all episodes for that series that you already have, in the "TheTVDB Series ID" tag. Then when you look up a new episode that belongs to that series, MC will look up the "TheTVDB Series ID" from the tag for the series, and use it to look up TheTVDB, instead of using the series name in MC.

You see, there can only be one "TheTVDB Series ID" value for a series in MC. You fill in a value for one episode, and all episodes get updated with the same value, at the same time.

TheTVDB Series ID for The Flash (2014) is 279121. Even though TheTVDB names the series "The Flash (2014)", in my MC library it is just called "The Flash", because that is what I want to call it, and that is what was used in my EPG data. So when I recorded a program called "The Flash" in the EPG Guide from OTA TV, it was correctly matched to the series I have called "The Flash" in the MC database, and MC looked up TheTVDB using the series number 279121 for new episodes after the first was correctly selected manually. Therefore it always got the correct data.

If you use "The Flash S01E02" in the first "Get Movie & TV Info" lookup for an episode, and select the correct program from the list that is returned, then all existing and future episodes will get the correct series ID. So once you have done the one manual lookup successfully, then do all the lookup for all the remaining episode you have in one group. MC will find the correct program information. Note that instead of doing one manual lookup, you could just enter TheTVDB Series ID for "The Flash (2014)" of 279121 into the appropriate tag for one episode, and the tag will be updated for all episodes. Then you can look up all the rest in bulk.

Simple huh?!    Well, maybe I could have written all that more concisely. Take a read of these threads if the above is confusing:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=94870.msg653750#msg653750
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=92703.msg640135#msg640135


PS: If you just can't get the  "Get Movie & TV Info" lookup to show the correct program, and you want to see how it works, first delete any value in the "TheTVDB Series ID" tag for one of the episodes, which will delete it for all episodes in the series, as shown in MC. Then the "Get Movie & TV Info" lookup will use the Series Name instead of trying to use any existing value in the "TheTVDB Series ID" tag.

[Bytecrawler]

Thank you, RoderickGI! That was all I needed to sort this out. I originally looked at MC simply as a Windows Media Center replacement, but the more I use it, the more layers I'm discovering.

[JimH]

Thank you, RoderickGI! That was all I needed to sort this out. I originally looked at MC simply as a Windows Media Center replacement, but the more I use it, the more layers I'm discovering.

Great quote!  Can we use it?

Rod, thanks very much for all of the details.  Very nice. 

[Bytecrawler]

Great quote!  Can we use it?

Rod, thanks very much for all of the details.  Very nice. 

Absolutely, Jim. Anything to help get the word out!

[RoderickGI]

You are welcome Bytecrawler and Jim.

With all the improvements in TV functionality recently, and with these plans for more improvements, and a few others, MC should become a complete replacement for WMC, and more.

[kstuart]

Basically, it works this way.

If you have several programs that belong to a series, and are grouped under one series name in MC, then you manually look up TheTVDB info for any one of the episodes in that series using the right click "Get TV & movie Info" function, select the correct info from the possible options returned, then click "Use this data", MC gets the "TheTVDB Series ID" for the program, and saves it to all episodes for that series that you already have, in the "TheTVDB Series ID" tag. Then when you look up a new episode that belongs to that series, MC will look up the "TheTVDB Series ID" from the tag for the series, and use it to look up TheTVDB, instead of using the series name in MC.

You see, there can only be one "TheTVDB Series ID" value for a series in MC. You fill in a value for one episode, and all episodes get updated with the same value, at the same time.

TheTVDB Series ID for The Flash (2014) is 279121.

On Dish Network DVRs, they then use that ID # as the basis for a "match" between a series you have opted to record and a program that is listed in the Guide listings.  "Search" and "Name" matches only occur in advance, solely for the purpose of seeing if the ID number matches.

They use (or used) Tribune Guide Listings service, which provides an ID # for each program listing.  (I don't think this is the same ID #'s as TVDB, it is just the same concept.)

I think that the advantage of the ID # recording system is that when you have Special episodes, then you can let the ID # determine whether it is part of the series or not.

For example, Doctor Who has a yearly Christmas episode that IS part of the series - things happen that change the characters and the arc.  Doctor Who also has a parallel series that talks about the making of the series, i.e. a non-fiction series.  The latter is not part of the series, YET, if you record on the basis of a search for "Doctor Who", it would be included, and should not be.

[RoderickGI]

That is probably best shared over in the Improved Recording Rules thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=100753.0
Plus maybe in the WMC & JRiver thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=100399.0

The problem with TheTVDB Series ID at the moment is that it is only looked up after a recording is made, which is of no use for recording rule evaluation prior to the recording.

To be really useful, any Series ID either needs to be in the EPG data from the start, or the EPG data needs to be enhanced with it before recording rules are evaluated.