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Author Topic: How to identify missing episodes?  (Read 2723 times)

MrHaugen

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How to identify missing episodes?
« on: December 03, 2012, 03:41:06 am »

Over the last two weeks, I've found my self skipping episodes 4 times. All of those times there was a episode missing from my shows, and I continued watching past this episode. In some cases I did not notice this before I've watched 10 newer episodes. It seriously messes up history, and adds serious spoilers when you finally watch the old episode again. Adding this to the fact that I most often use views that rule out all episodes that I've watched, this makes it really hard to spot the missing episodes.

Is there any way to add similar functionality as there is for audio tracks? I know I've seen an expression, library filed or similar that returns a Boolean if there is a missing track between the first and last track number. I really want something like this for TV Shows, so I can add a "Season/Series is complete: Yes/No" to the info pane. If there is no way of doing this today, could you please consider adding it?

This is basically the same feature that have been requested for a lot of other similar things. A way to calculate tags from several items, and representing them as a sort of summary info. This would be highly useful the day we can use info panes for more than bottom level views and single items. A more open system that allows doing calculations on a set of media would be really useful.
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Lasse_Lus

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2012, 09:21:16 am »

Quote from: MrHaugen
Is there any way to add similar functionality as there is for audio tracks? I know I've seen an expression,

agree MR H., I have never understood why some media types are cut off from functions, in the end it's all about data anyway..like "complete album" is a Audio only feature when it could be used for all the other mediatypes..
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MT5FR

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2012, 12:07:22 pm »

Not wanting to detract from this feature request, but thinking towards possible available workarounds today - it should be possible to use global variables with the same technique presented in the HowTo regarding calculated rating averages and total track numbers.  This would require having the total number of episodes in some tag.
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MrHaugen

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2012, 01:15:39 pm »

Right. And that is nearly impossible to keep up to date on current progressing seasons :(
I would rather check that all episodes are there from the start, than doing such tasks every time I download an episode.
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darichman

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2012, 03:38:24 pm »

I find myself missing this too... and perhaps on a similar vein: "Fill episode number from list order"
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struct

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2012, 04:48:18 pm »


Could the HOWTO be modified to compute the factorial of largest episode number and then compare it to the multiplication of all episode numbers for a given season and show.  If the two don't match, then a show is missing (perhaps with the exception of episode 1, so maybe use (episode#+1))?

On second thoughts, this may not work well for large episode counts.  But maybe the sum of all episodes compared to the sum of 1 to largest episode number (=n*(n+1)/2) would be better.

Craig
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pcstockton

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2012, 06:22:14 pm »

Not to be an ass but.... dont you simply look at the file list/playlist/hard drive folder or other to see if you have all of the episodes?
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MrHaugen

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2012, 03:19:27 am »

No, I don't do that most of the time. I have a 99% automated system for all my media. So, I rarely look at folders or downloading logs. It's also very hard to use views or playlists for such when you remove episodes you've watched. If you don't look through the whole view and count the episodes, you'll have no idea if you get back to a view and only the episodes passed the missing episode are showing.

There's different scenarios where you might miss episodes. It could be blind people uploading torrents with missing episodes. It could be a error on one episode when you unpack the media. There could be a problem ripping the episode, and you overlook the logs. MC could have problem importing an episode or it could be marked as BAD and put directly in the bad media database. If this is during an automatic import, you'll be non the wiser. I'm sure there's other possibilities to overlook episodes as well.

The point is... This is a common problem for more than one media type, and there's similar problems that are not covered by other tools. Why not develop a tool that makes it easier to compare files with certain tags, and doing some math operations like + - * / on several files or their tags. It would open up a lot of possibilities.
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rick.ca

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2012, 08:19:18 pm »

Global variables could be used to determine if a season is 'complete'. Even more on purpose, it's probably possible to determine for each episode whether it's next in the sequence or not. That would work better for those who watch and delete.

While that may be helpful in preventing one from watching an episode out-of-sequence, it doesn't help solve the problem—which is that an episode is missing. I prefer to use a 98% automated system which has me checking Sick Beard occasionally to ensure all episodes are available (done very quickly by viewing episodes with a Status of 'wanted'). If I weren't using Sick Beard, I would simply scan my Standard View Video view (which is grouped by Series and sorted by Season-Episode) for missing episodes.
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MrHaugen

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #9 on: December 06, 2012, 04:16:22 am »

Global variables could be used to determine if a season is 'complete'. Even more on purpose, it's probably possible to determine for each episode whether it's next in the sequence or not. That would work better for those who watch and delete.

How would you go about doing that? I don't see how that's possible today. I must have missed a few of it's possible uses?

The bottom problem is Sickbeard, yes. Or rather the copy right owners demanding their data deleted from the servers. I watch those lists. But if there's been many downloads or I've been gone from my house for a few day, it tends to be so much in the logs that I happen to miss a error or two. But that is besides the point of this thread.
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rick.ca

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #10 on: December 06, 2012, 09:24:03 pm »

Quote
How would you go about doing that?

I imagine a solution using global variables would simply save n = [Episode], then, for the next file, compare [Episode] to n + 1. But it occurred to me there may be an easier solution—using IsMissing() to determine if the previous episode file exists. This, of course, relies on consistent filenames so the [Filename] of the expected previous (or next) episode can be determined from the current episode. This expression...

Code: [Select]
If(IsEqual([File Type], log), ,
If(IsEqual(Right(RemoveRight([Filename], 6), 1), -), double,
If(IsMissing(RemoveRight([Filename], 6)PadNumber(Math([Episode] - 1), 2).avi),
If(IsMissing(RemoveRight([Filename], 6)PadNumber(Math([Episode] - 1), 2).mkv),
If(IsMissing(RemoveRight([Filename], 6)PadNumber(Math([Episode] - 1), 2).mp4),
next, ), ), )))

...works in my circumstances, but could be adapted for others. First, I test for and exclude my 'log' files (used to display series info). Others who don't 'watch and delete' as I do might do the same with episodes #1—so they are not flagged. The expression then checks for the existence of a previous episode—for each [File Type] that might exist. If there isn't one, then it's either the next available episode, or the previous episode is missing. I decided that in an episode list, it would be fine to flag the first available episode as the next up, and any subsequent episode would indicate a missing episode (obviously, there can't be two 'next' episodes). The only other exception that occurs in my circumstance is the double episode. If that's detected (based on the filename including a pattern like 'S02E09-10'), then that episode is flagged as a double.

The screenshot illustrates how this might be used. I use a single red dot to indicate the next episode (which, since I watch and delete, is always the first). Episode 5 is missing, so Episode 6 is also flagged. In this case, it's evident the flag means "Stop. An episode is missing." (The solution is not perfect. If I do nothing about this, the flag will disappear after I've watched and deleted episodes 1 through 4.) Episode 9 is a double (Episodes 9 & 10), as indicated with two red dots.

Quote
The bottom problem is Sickbeard, yes.

I don't want to belabour the point, but I was trying to point out using Sick Beard's Episode Status Management feature makes it impossible not to notice 'wanted' episodes. That list includes only episodes just released and not yet acquired, or older ones 'missing' for some other reason.
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MrHaugen

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Re: How to identify missing episodes?
« Reply #11 on: December 07, 2012, 02:26:48 am »

I don't want to belabour the point, but I was trying to point out using Sick Beard's Episode Status Management feature makes it impossible not to notice 'wanted' episodes. That list includes only episodes just released and not yet acquired, or older ones 'missing' for some other reason.
You're right. But it can still be a problem if you're not that keen on browsing those pages often. I normally check the SABnzbd download log once a week or twice, and go throuch sickbeard and couchpotato views to fix some errors a few times a month. By that time there can be several errors, and I can watch several episodes past a missing episode. It's my fault, sure! I should look at those logs more often. But I don't want to if I don't have to. So it's still a concern. That's all I'm saying.

I think the solution you're describing might work in my case as well. We have a very similar setup. So, I'll check out this solution and see if it works in my case. Thanks a lot for the description and help!

Still wish there was a more elegant system to address such issues though. It's fairly complicated. It's not something that ordinary users would throw them self at. And, as you say, it's still not perfect. It might make my Not Watched views a lot less useful. I think they would be a source of forgetting about the previous warnings of missing episodes, as the previously watched episodes are gone, and there's always a red dot on the first episode. Perhaps I could remove the use for Not watched series view by only showing complete seasons if not all episodes for that seasons have been watched? I'm not sure if such a thing is possible.
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