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[Tim3399]

I use an HDHomeRun tuner card to record over the air. I set MC to write a .ts file from the tuner output.
The resulting recorded file names look like this:

    Grey's Anatomy - S2015E08 - Things We Lost in the Fire.ts

But I want the files to look like this (using season number, not year number):

    Grey's Anatomy - S07E08 - Things We Lost in the Fire.ts

Is JRiver causing the use of year number, and if so how do I get it to use season number.

** Recording with Windows Media Center used to use the season number in the file name.

Thank you

[RoderickGI]

That would be because your EPG data includes 2015 as the Season number, or it has no Season number in it, so MC puts the year into the Season field. (Some of us don't like that, and asked for it to be changed, but I don't think it has been changed yet.)

Anyway, the file name is created at the time the recording is made, and before any TVDB lookup is done to correct the Season tag. As you are using the TS format, I think you can use the "Get Movie & TV Info..." function to correct the Season number after the recording is complete, and then use the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files" function to rename the file.

But perhaps if you searched the forum about your EPG source you might find a better solution, such as a source of EPG data that includes the correct Season field. Or let us know where you are located (so we know what EPG options are available to you) and which EPG source you have selected in MC, and someone may help you sort it out.

BTW it is actually S12E08. See http://thetvdb.com/?tab=seasonall&id=73762&lid=7   But I'm sure you knew that. 

[astromo]

I suspect not (and assuming Tim3399 gets his EPG via XMLTV format) but would an EPG enhancer help with this?

One thing I do with a show that I subscribe to and am keen to retain and get mostly right up front, is to use the tagging function when setting up the record job to force MC at least partly down the right track. It's pretty easy to spec [Series] and [Season]. [Episode] is a case by case affair. Not perfect but it's a start.

[RoderickGI]

I suspect not (and assuming Tim3399 gets his EPG via XMLTV format) but would an EPG enhancer help with this?

Any program that takes an XMLTV file and enhances it before it is loaded into MC would help, if it corrected the Season number. If the EPG data is correct, the file name will be correct. MC uses the data to structure the file name if the data is available, and it will produce the format "Grey's Anatomy - S12E08 - Things We Lost in the Fire.ts".

"EPG Collector" can import an XMLTV file, enhance it using metadata lookup, and save the enhanced file for import into MC.
"XMLTVDB" can also do the same, and is built specifically for it. See this thread; https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99845.0 and CountryBumkin's USA TV Setup thread.
There is an application called "EPG Enhancer", but I thought the was just used with NextPVR or something. Anyway there are a few such tools but most are old, unsupported, and out of date.

I have avoided tagging on Recording Rules where they require regular updates. For Season number, out broadcasters mix up season so much that a simple rule wouldn't work well, so a complex rule would be needed to be sure the Season number was set correctly. Something that perhaps converted year to Season number, and had a few If-Else conditions to pick the correct one. Unless of course the broadcaster broadcast new shows in one time slot consistently, and repeats in a different time slot consistently. But tagging in Recording Rules is handy, and one way to tackle the problem.

But all of the above would depend on Tim3399 using XMLTV format files imported into MC, rather than one of the built in EPG sources.

Oh, there is also a net trick now that you can do "Get Movie & TV Info..." lookups against EPG data within MC manually. So if the EPG data for the series "Grey's Anatomy" doesn't include the correct Season numbers, with a custom view to look at the EPG data, it is possible to enhance the EPG data within MC, before a recording is started. Hence the file would be named correctly when the recording starts. The only thing I haven't thoroughly tested is whether the enhanced EPG data survives the next Guide Load process, or is overwritten. If it is overwritten then enhancing the EPG data internally wouldn't be very productive. i.e. The changes/enhancement would be lost except for those programs that are recorded before the next Guide Load process.

I haven't had much chance to test this new neat trick because EPG Collector already enhances my data, and there have been other problems and improvements with the XMLTV load process that I have been testing. If someone has a poor data source, they should test this neat trick and see if the enhancements persist through future Guide Load processes. 

[CountryBumkin]

Oh, there is also a net trick now that you can do "Get Movie & TV Info..." lookups against EPG data within MC manually. So if the EPG data for the series "Grey's Anatomy" doesn't include the correct Season numbers, with a custom view to look at the EPG data, it is possible to enhance the EPG data within MC, before a recording is started.

How is this done?
For example, in my Television>To Be Recorded" view, the next recording scheduled is for "NOVA - Rise of the Robots S42E08", however I know the actual episode number (per the TVDb.com) should be 17. The EPG episode number data is always wrong for the series NOVA. 

Is there a way to correct this now before the recording occurs?  I don't see a way to start/access the "Get Movie & TV Info" tool from the To be Recorded view.

[Yaobing]

How is this done?

It is probably a good idea for me to make this command available in Standard TV views.

For now, you need to create a customer Guide view, or just a Guide smartlist.  The attached image is an example.

[CountryBumkin]

Nice!.

I just used it to "fix" the next two recordings of NOVA.

_______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________

BTW - if your in the programming/code can you make a small change to the "To Be Recorded" view?

I would like to have the Program, Season, Episode next to each other in the view. So it would be like this: Date, Time, Channel, Program, Season, Episode, Description, ...

I know I can drag the Season and Episode columns to show to the right of Program column, but when I leave the "To be Recorded" view and return to it, the Season and Episode columns have defaulted back to their original positions, which are to the right of Description column (which is off the screen for me).

It would be nice if the columns would remember their positions, but if that is hard to do, then just moving S and E to the left one column would help my view.

[Yaobing]

Just a note: the changes you make with "Movie & TV Info" will be erased the next time MC runs EPG update.  So make sure you only make this manual "fix" for shows that are to be recorded before the next EPG update.

[CountryBumkin]

Good to know. Thanks.

It's not a problem for me to "fix" a  recording the night before it's scheduled since I'm in/checking MC everyday.

But for others, would it be possible to allow one to set MC to update EPG data once every 2 or 3 days, rather than every 24 hours, to have a little more time. Currently the max hours between data updates is 24 hours. Can you add 48 hours and 96 hours? Since the guide data is good for 2 weeks (or more) I don't think it is necessary to update the data every day.

[Yaobing]

Yes, good idea.

[RoderickGI]

Just a note: the changes you make with "Movie & TV Info" will be erased the next time MC runs EPG update.  So make sure you only make this manual "fix" for shows that are to be recorded before the next EPG update.

Thanks for confirming that Yaobing. As above, I hadn't had a chance to check it out.

Maybe a future enhancement could be that if the user changed EPG data within a certain timeframe, say three days out from Now (or the last Guide Load), then the EPG record for the program is flagged to be preserved through a Guide Load process, and won't be overwritten. Obviously EPG data changes all the time, so "locking in" an EPG record could be problematic. So maybe the Date, Time, and Channel of a program may be changed, but other attributes such as Series, Name, Season and Episode are preserved.

That may be a bit hard though, since it requires matching "preserved" EPG records with new incoming EPG records, which would be particularly difficult if the program Name changed. That could then result in multiple programs scheduled at the same time, or appearing to; the preserved program, and the updated program. Something to think about though. 

The ability to extend the Guide Load process frequency beyond 24 hours would be a good idea, and I guess when it is 24 hours or greater that it should be a multiple of 24 hours so that it runs at the same time each day. Alternately it could just be a number of hours, with a maximum value for a sanity check. I do know of people who only update their EPG once a week though, so perhaps the maximum time between loads should be 7 days. It gives people a lot more flexibility.