I know that when I record over-the-air programs, there is no Season or Episode numbers captured because the OTA stations don't include that info in their broadcast. I only get the series name and the episode title. I go into Standard View and add the Season and Episode numbers, then MC will download the episode description.
I posted about this a long time ago, and there is still no way (as far as I know) for MC to go to "a database" and match the Series and Episode name to download/figure-out the Season and Episode numbers.
Give the Polar Bear a baby seal. Spot on.
crawfofd, your xml file (detail here):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<MPL Version="2.0" Title="JRSidecar">
<Item>
<Field Name="Filename">D:\JriverMedia\Recordings\Modern Family 2014-08-07 (1).ts</Field>
<Field Name="Compression">ts video (video: MPEG-2 Video, audio: AC3)</Field>
<Field Name="Bitrate">12157</Field>
<Field Name="Bit Depth">32</Field>
<Field Name="Season">SE</Field>
<Field Name="Aspect Ratio">16:9</Field>
<Field Name="FPS">59.9405389853265546</Field>
<Field Name="Stack Top">-1</Field>
<Field Name="Channels">6</Field>
<Field Name="Stack View">0</Field>
<Field Name="Media Sub Type">TV Show</Field>
<Field Name="Date">41858</Field>
<Field Name="Name">Modern Family (1)</Field>
<Field Name="Sample Rate">48000</Field>
<Field Name="Get Cover Art Info"><XMLPH version="1.0"><Item Name="LastFailedDate">41858.98619</Item></XMLPH></Field>
<Field Name="Duration">73</Field>
</Item>
</MPL>
shows me that MC has a workable entry for [Media Sub Type].
[Name] = "Modern Family (1)" - so while OK the info is of little value unless you run a process to copy [Name] to [Series] and drop off the (1).
[Series] is empty
[Season] is empty
[Episode] is empty
It's no surprise that you're getting a dud response from MC for a meta data scrape command.
With deals like this where I've subscribed to a show you can pre-populate some of the tagged fields when you set up a record job (last dialogue - Recording Options > Apply these tags (optional)), e.g. [Series] and [Season]. I'm then left with consulting (manually) sources such as thetvdb.com for the show's info and doing a match, then manually updating the tag data.
If there's an easier way I'd love to know. The problem is that broadcasters don't have to work to a standard with their transmission of EPG data. If you get it in some standard and usable format, then you're way ahead of the pack.
As my original post indicated, all you need are [Series], [Season] and [Episode]. MC will do the rest of the work. I'm convinced that .ts is not the problem. That's how I roll and I have to intervene manually to get meta data, as explained.
Hopefully now you can stop banging your head against a wall. Less messy when you stop..