INTERACT FORUM
Windows => Television => Topic started by: CountryBumkin on August 18, 2015, 11:33:36 am
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When I record an OTA TV Show using mc2xml data, I am getting the Show's "Year" for the Season "number".
For testing, I have one computer using mc2xml with "Microsoft" as the source, and another using mc2xml with "Schedules Direct" as the source. Both sources have this issue. I'm doing all OTA recordings.
For example, an episode of a TV series should be showing Season "1", Episode "6", but instead I get Season "2015", Episode "6". Then the TV's metadata can't be looked up since the season is incorrect.
So - could JRiver be pulling the "Season" data from the data field for "Year"?
EDITED: both Microsoft and Schedules Direct have same data issue
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Does that mean that you have run your stand alone version of mc2xml (I think you have one of those, the donateware version, correct?) and looked at the XMLTV file?
Or maybe you don't have the donateware, based on your question elsewhere. But could you run the integrated version directly outside MC, so that the XMLTV file created is retained. Just for testing of course.
As I'm sure you are trying to work out, the problem could be in the source data (possible) or in the field mapping from mc2xml to MC (less likely). MC correctly maps the Season numbering for me using the output from EPG Collector and the xmltv_ns numbering system.
<episode-num system="xmltv_ns">39 . 4 . 0/1</episode-num>
Season 40, Episode 5, Part 1 of 1
For that matter, does the integrated version of mc2xml, or previous versions, output Season and Episode data in the xmltv_ns format? There doesn't seem to be a way to tell it to do so on the mc2xml web site, or any mention of Season or Episode numbering.
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I'm only using the MC built-in mc2xml now. But with different data sources (Microsoft and Schedules Direct). I did not have this problem when I ran the "stand-alone" mc2xml and imported that data into MC.
If it was a field mapping problem, everyone should have this issue. So far no one else has reported this as an issue on their systems.
I can't imagine what could be different on both of my systems that could cause this issue.
I can always go back to running the stand-alone version - actually, it would be a good test. I'll reinstall the standalone version and see if that fixes the problem.
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I would like to know how one even gets the Year, Season or Episode data with the integrated mx2xml grabber? I've never seen that data on my system & have been wondering why it is missing in action?
Have used both MS Rovi & SD.
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If you are in Standard View, and go to Video>Files then you can add fields (if not already shown) by right clicking on the column header, and a list will popup where you add a check mark to the fields you want to see (such as Series, Season, and Episode).
For TV Shows you should have a Name, Description, Series Name, Season and Episode. The Season is generally 1, 2, 3... etc.
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If you are in Standard View, and go to Video>Files then you can add fields (if not already shown) by right clicking on the column header, and a list will popup where you add a check mark to the fields you want to see (such as Series, Season, and Episode).
For TV Shows you should have a Name, Description, Series Name, Season and Episode. The Season is generally 1, 2, 3... etc.
That sounds great. however I'm confused (as usual) by "Video>Files". I'm in Standard view but can't locate "Video>Files". Are we talking about Options/Video? I see no "Files" listed.
Or... are we talking about the left menu "Video/File Type/Genre Name"?
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I'm wondering if we are talking about two entirely different things here?
I want things like... Date, Season, Episode etc in the TV Description which would be on the left menu Television window & would be in the Description when I use the "D" key.
It would be MOST helpful if we could modify the Television TV headers as we can with audio simply by right-clicking on the header & modifying/adding.
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You can add those descriptions/fields to the "TV View" by modifying the "Info Panel" at Tools>Options>Theater View>Customize file info panel.
What I'm trying to determine is "are the correct Season numbers being obtained from the epg download?" Because I can't get the correct metadata (carnac) without the correct series, season, and episode number - and currently I'm not getting the correct season number.
It may be that the recordings I made over the last two days just didn't have the Season number in the epg download - or it could be something on my setup (but 'm seeing this problem on two separate computers) - so I'm asking if others are having problems getting the season data (season 1, season 2, etc, Not Season 2011, Season 2015, etc.).
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DocLotus, You are off topic in CountryBumkin's thread, but quickly.
Get out of the Television item in the left menu. It isn't the only place to view TV shows, or the best for some things.
In the left menu, click on Video, then Shows. The display is sorted by Series, so you will see all your recorded and downloaded TV shows. Anything with a "Media Sub Type" of "TV Show" in fact.
Double click on one of the TV Series. The display is now split into two panes, and upper and a lower. The lower pane shows Episodes within the Series you selected.
Each line is an Episode. You can immediately see Series, [episode] Name, Season, Episode, Description. If you can't see any of those, scroll to the right. You will see Year, Genre, etc.
Hover your mouse over one Episode line. A popup windows will give you a readable version of the description, a thumbnail, etc.
If any field you want to see is missing, you can right click on any column header, and tick the fields you want to see. You can also drag and drop column headers to change the sequence.
You can see all data MC has about a program by clicking on it, then opening the Tag Windows using the Action Window menu, or pressing Alt-Enter.
You can change the Tag Window display by clicking on the small menu icon in the top left of the Tag Window. The minimise and close buttons are in the top right of that window, as usual.
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DocLotus, You are off topic in CountryBumkin's thread, but quickly.
Opps... sorry about that. We seem to be talking apples & oranges. I'll start another thread.
One other thing which I'll discuss in the other thread...
Get out of the Television item in the left menu. It isn't the only place to view TV shows, or the best for some things. In the left menu, click on Video, then Shows.
I have no Shows under the Video menu.
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This is my issue:
(http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad54/mshumack/AfterMC21_zpstye0k1jo.jpg)
and prior to MC21 (using same data source):
(http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad54/mshumack/BeforeMC21_zpsur2glokq.jpg)
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Well that certainly looks like a data mapping problem, although your images don't show the data for the same set of programs. That would have been irrefutable evidence, if EPG data from SD used in MC20 showed up differently to EPG data from SD in MC21, for the exact same programs. Or the same for Microsoft EPG data.
I have been tardy in not updating to MC21 yet. Life and other issues and all that.
I guess the question in addition to the one you asked is; Are the any users that are not using mc2xml who are on MC21 and are, or are not seeing the problem. Perhaps Astromo?
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Bump
--- please --- I am still waiting for a response from anyone as to whether this problem is just happening to me - or is everyone using mc2xml in the US recording TV getting the same thing?
If you are in the US and record TV using MC21's built in mc2xml EPG data retrieval source - are you getting a Season Number (like a "1", "2", etc.), or only getting a Year for the Season (like "2007", "2010", etc.) for each recorded TV show?
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The xml file produced by mc2xml contains episode info only in two formats, "ms_progid" which we can not interpret, and "onscreen" which apparently has a human-readable numerical number, such as "23" which we interpret as "episode 23". If there is season info, it would be in the value in "ms_progid" format.
Since we can not get any season info, we fill it with "year", if available.
Are you sure your pre-MC21 data was not obtained using zap2xml data? That was the source from which we would get episode data in "xmltv_ns" format.
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That would be consistent with my post over here then: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99542.msg690017#msg690017
So Yaobing, did you licence mc2xml from John Douglas to include in MC, and if so, did you discuss having the xmltv_ns data added to its output?
If you did licence mc2xml, are there any restrictions on how it can be used? For example, are users allowed to run the included version independently, which would be useful in diagnosing problems with the source data, and maybe even changing collection parameters to a user's preferred settings?
You have said that the xmltv.xml file is not kept after the MC EPG loading process. Could that be changed so that it is kept, for problem solving purposes?
As an example, EPG Collector uses the following process to ensure that a copy of the most recent successful xmltv.xml file is available for all but a very short time.
1. The xmltv.xml file is not deleted at the end of the previous run, and still exists in the output folder.
2. EPG Collector runs and saves the output to a temporary file in the output folder until it completes all collection, including metadata collection from thetvdb and themoviedb.
3. EPG Collector deletes the existing xmltv.xml file and renames the new file to the configured xmltv.xml file name.
That process has helped me solve EPG problems by analysing the most recent xmltv.xml file.
Thanks for your assistance Yaobing. I hope you had a great holiday by the way. Too short I am sure!
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So Yaobing, did you licence mc2xml from John Douglas to include in MC, and if so, did you discuss having the xmltv_ns data added to its output?
I do not know the name of the developer who provided mc2xml. He never wrote his name in our email exchanges.
My hunch is that zap2xml scrapes data from a website and thus knows how to interpret the data. mc2xml on the other hand, may just directly download data from Microsoft without interpretation, thus I am not sure whether it is even possible to add xmltv_ns format.
If you did licence mc2xml, are there any restrictions on how it can be used? For example, are users allowed to run the included version independently, which would be useful in diagnosing problems with the source data, and maybe even changing collection parameters to a user's preferred settings?
I was not involved in licensing negotiations. But I think we are not allowed to let our users run it independently.
You have said that the xmltv.xml file is not kept after the MC EPG loading process. Could that be changed so that it is kept, for problem solving purposes?
Probably not.
Thanks for your assistance Yaobing. I hope you had a great holiday by the way. Too short I am sure!
Thanks. My vacation was fulfilling but also tiring.
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The xml file produced by mc2xml contains episode info only in two formats, "ms_progid" which we can not interpret, and "onscreen" which apparently has a human-readable numerical number, such as "23" which we interpret as "episode 23". If there is season info, it would be in the value in "ms_progid" format.
Since we can not get any season info, we fill it with "year", if available.
Are you sure your pre-MC21 data was not obtained using zap2xml data? That was the source from which we would get episode data in "xmltv_ns" format.
Thanks. Question answered. Yes, my MC20 epg data was being pulled from Zap2it which is where the Season number came from.
Since Season number is no longer available from Microsoft/Rovi, the choice now is to rearrange all my TV show collections to group by Year rather than Season, or find a third-party scraper program that can pull Season data.
I asked on the Schedules Direct forum if "xmltv_ns" could be added to the epg data, but I'm not sure that is even possible or helpful - especially if the Micrososft/Rovi data doesn't contain Season numbers to start with. I'm not sure where the xmltv_ns data comes from.
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Since Season number is no longer available from Microsoft/Rovi,
Don't be too quick to assume that. The xmltv_ns format wasn't available in zap2xml until I asked for it. The data was available, it was just that the format wasn't output in the xmltv file.
I asked on the Schedules Direct forum if "xmltv_ns" could be added to the epg data, but I'm not sure that is even possible or helpful - especially if the Micrososft/Rovi data doesn't contain Season numbers to start with. I'm not sure where the xmltv_ns data comes from.
As per my post over here (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99542.msg690017#msg690017), I think you needed to ask the developer of mc2xml (who is John Douglas I suspect, same developer as zap2xml) to include the xmltv_ns Season and Episode format in his output file, rather than ask Schedules Direct. As long as SD have the Season and Episode data in their dataset for programs, John can format the output.
The xmltv_ns format is just another format for presenting the Season and Episode number data. Not supporting the format, yet, doesn't mean that the data isn't available from Microsoft. In fact, I would be surprised if it wasn't. Perhaps ask WMC users, if you can find any on the new system, if they are getting Season and Episode numbers in their EPG data.
I can chase this stuff up and ask John if you don't wish to. But I can't even use the Microsoft data here in Australia, nor can I really test the implementation in MC without destroying my setup. All I could do was pick a location in the USA and download the data, then check it had the data and format required.
But I'm happy to do it you wish. Just let me know.
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Yes, the information is in the file, but it is just not in the format that we can interpret.
<episode-num system="ms_progid">1.309729053</episode-num>
<episode-num system="onscreen">26</episode-num>
The "ms_progid" system appears to be different for different data sources. The above is from Rovi. When they had data from zap2it, the format is different. I have also seen something different from these two (perhaps for data outside of North America).
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Would it be possible to have JRiver provide a "lookup" database where, when the Series and Year is known the database would return the Season number? Some sort of "User contributed" database (like the MyMovies program does to collect cover art and other metadata from Users).
For example, if the Series is "The Big Bang Theory", Episode 5, and the Year is "2007" the database would return "Season 1".
The reason Season is needed is that Carnac won't look up the series metadata based on the current data (which is "The Big Bang Theory S2007E05". It needs to be in the format "The Big Bang Theory S01E05").
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Would it be possible to have JRiver provide a "lookup" database where, when the Series and Year is known the database would return the Season number? Some sort of "User contributed" database (like the MyMovies program does to collect cover art and other metadata from Users).
That database already exists. The data is in thetvdb. Specifically, all series I have ever looked up on thetvdb have had an "Originally Aired" date, which includes the year.
See example at http://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=season&seriesid=247808&seasonid=463443&lid=7
The trouble is, MC works in this sequence (Yaobing, correct me if I am wrong please);
EPG is imported -> Program is scheduled to be recorded based on rules -> At the beginning of a recording, the program file is named and created, using Season and Episode numbers from EPG if available -> Recording finishes and files are finalised -> Auto Import starts in MC -> CARNAC is run and parses information from the file name (Which is unnecessary if Season & Episode data is already known from the EPG data, but is necessary if a video file is added to a MC monitored folder from an external source) -> Get TV & movie data is run and gets TV data from thetvdb, and updates tags.
So to create the correct file name at recording time, either thetvdb has to be looked up prior to a recording starting, perhaps when a rule is used to select a program for recording, or at the actual time of a recording.
Looking up thetvdb when a rule is used to select a program for recording is bad, because that happens very often in MC. Rules are regularly examined to see if a recording needs to be scheduled.
Looking up thetvdb at the actual time of a recording would be bad, as it could result in problems with recordings waiting for a response. That could be worked around by using a temporary name until a response is received, but then multiple files would need to be renamed at some time, before CARNAC runs. Messy. Especially if there is no internet connection at that time, for whatever reason.
No, Yaobing has now confirmed that the data is in the EPG source. It just isn't in the xmltv_ns format. Zap2xml also used to only provide "dd_progid" and "onscreen" format data, but the developer, John Douglas, was able to either interpret the data, or he had access directly to the Season and Episode data, and was able to quickly produce the xmltv_ns format, and include it in the zap2xml output. So the developer of mc2xml, who is probably also John Douglas, could probably do the same thing.
There is a slight difference, in that it looks like Microsoft have invented their own format in "ms_progid", because naturally they couldn't keep using the "dd_progid" format from zap2it. That could make the issue more diffiuclt.
Bottom line, do I ask the developer if he can add the xmltv_ns Season and Episode format, or do one of you two ask him?
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Bottom line, do I ask the developer if he can add the xmltv_ns Season and Episode format, or do one of you two ask him?
Are you asking me or Yaobing?
I would think that JRiver should ask since they made a donation, they have more goodwill with the developer.
But if you have a connection with him it wouldn't hurt to ask twice (and if you PM me the contact info/name, I can ask as well).
Thanks for following up.
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I will ask.
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The answer came back, and it is not good.
I contacted mc2xml developer, who confirmed that he also wrote zap2xml. He said that ms_progid is just an ID that they use distinguish episodes of programs and it does not really contain season and episode numbers. So there is no way of adding xmltv_ns in the output.
Users wanting season/episode numbers will have to use zap2xml with -D option (one http request per program). This is explained on zap2xml webpage.
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Thank you for doing that Yaobing.
I believe that it is very important that the majority of MC TV functionality users can get Series, Season, and Episode numbers in their EPG data, and that that EPG needs to be obtained, at least for the American market and as many markets as possible outside the America, by functionality seen to be built into MC, such as with the integration of mc2xml. Without this, series recording can not be reliable. Without that, you will not win over the many WMC users that come looking for a new solution, or the many users that are still using independent point solutions, because they are perceived as better.
Converting those people to new MC users will drive sales, which will drive TV development, which is what I want out of all this.
So a solution needs to be found.
For example, EPG Collector can look up Season and Episode numbers from thetvdb based solely on Series and Episode names. It is open source software, so it would be easy to see how it does that. If a post processing step of EPG data could be done, after each collection, and a local cached database of current TV programs was used to minimise lookups to thetvdb, just as EPGC does, then the EPG data could be significantly improved before being imported into MC.
A smart MC user could even use mc2xml to get good quality data from Microsoft, then use EPG Collector to add Season and Episode numbers to that data, and then import it into MC via an XMLTV file. But as we have seen recently in the forum, there are a lot of users that won't even download and install a separate program to get EPG data, let alone set up two applications that work together to improve the quality of the EPG data.
Combine EPG data that includes Season and Episode with improved functionality around TV recording rules, and JRiver MC will be an obvious choice as a replacement for WMC users, and will pull in many of the point solution users as well. Except for all those with encrypted cable channels, of course!
So, what can be done Yaobing?
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All I can say is I will investigate our options. Thanks for the tips.
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There is also another open source java program called XMLTVDB that parses the XML file, looks up the season and episode information from TVDB, and then re-writes the XML file. Someone on this forum mentioned it and I have been using it with a good degree of success. I use the paid version of mc2xml and schedule it to download the guide XML file. XMLTVDB is set up to monitor the folder for new XML files and immediately goes to work to update the XML. The updated file is scheduled to be imported by MC at a later time. Messy but I get it to work most of the time.
The program can be found here -- https://code.google.com/p/xmltvdb/
It doesn't appear to be in active development, but it was originally written to work with TVHeadEnd ForTheRecord. There appears to have been a process by which it would only lookup the series / episode numbers for shows hat were scheduled to be recorded. I assume this was to lessen the load on the TVDB site.
This process got me thinking that if MC scheduled this type of lookup to TVDB ONLY for programs being scheduled to record, the data could then be used to name the file and add the season / episode numbers to the tags. My guess is that this would meet the requirements for a majority of your customers, but maybe I just say that because it meets mine. :)
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All I can say is I will investigate our options. Thanks for the tips.
I understand, and appreciate all the good work you do.
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EPG Collector can look up Season and Episode numbers from thetvdb based solely on Series and Episode names. It is open source software, so it would be easy to see how it does that. If a post processing step of EPG data could be done, after each collection, and a local cached database of current TV programs was used to minimise lookups to thetvdb, just as EPGC does, then the EPG data could be significantly improved before being imported into MC.
I assume it needs to know the "Year" too (which we have). Otherwise how would EPG Collector know what Season something like "The Big Bang Theory" "Episode 2" is? I have an Episode "2" is every Season from Season 1 through 8. I'll look into EPG Collector.
I'm looking into another program I read about on the Green Button (called the "BigScreen EPG" http://bigscreenglobal.com/bgproduct.aspx?PID=BSEV1) that is reported to provide an alternate/better source for WMC epg data. Not sure yet if this is the answer (may only be useful for WMC users), but if I find anything that works I'll post back.
Also according to this document https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd776338.aspx - Season data is in the Rovi data going to WMC users.
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I assume it needs to know the "Year" too (which we have).
Nope just the Series and Episode names.
For example, Series = "The Big Bang Theory", Episode = "The Codpiece Topology" Lookup result, Season 2, Episode 2.
What that means is that the source EPG data must have both the <Title> and <Sub-title> fields filled in correctly. When both are filled MC puts the <Title> value into the [Series] field, and the <Sub-title> value into the [Name] field.
As the [Name] field must be filled in MC, if the <Sub-title> field is not present in the EPG data, the <Title> value is put into the [Name] field. Also, the <Title> field must always have a value in XMLTV data, so the [Name] field is always filled.
As a result of the above, if the source EPG data doesn't have a value in the <Sub-title> field for a series, then the program isn't recognised as a series, and it is just identified as a TV program or movie, and given the series name as the [Name] in MC. That caused some discussion and angst in the thread recently.
I wrote up a quick process flow for Astromo not so long back, but my search skills are failing me. Basically;
Run mc2xml to get the base EPG data.
Run EPG Collector and import the mc2xml output into the processing stream, as additional information. EPGC can import multiple external XMLTV files. (I'm not sure how difficult this would be to set up in EPGC, as it will probably need to know something about the channels, frequencies, etc.)
EPGC looks up Season and Episode numbers for all the EPG it has collected.
EPGC outputs XMLTV file for import into MC.
BigScreen EPG has been around for a very long time. It is an Australian product, developed in my home town of Melbourne. Last time I looked into it there hadn't been much activity for some time, but it was still available. I think it is a one man product. It was supported out of our Australian MCE forum (now defunct) at one stage, but I think that changed. Original just an on screen EPG collator, it was then integrated into WMC. It never had its own EPG data, because that was not possible for copyright reasons back when it was developed. Whenever I've looked at it I couldn't see the value, as it seemed to just be adding another layer of software to the EPG chain. It is supposed to clean up EPG data though, so may be useful.
But by all means check out if it adds value. My information may be out of date.
That Microsoft document is from July 2009. I doubt it is talking about Rovi data. I can't see any reference to the source.
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Nope just the Series and Episode names.
Ahh, "name" yes. Thank you for "bolding".
BigScreen EPG has been around for a very long time. It is an Australian product, developed in my home town of Melbourne. Last time I looked into it there hadn't been much activity for some time, but it was still available. I think it is a one man product. It was supported out of our Australian MCE forum (now defunct) at one stage, but I think that changed. Original just an on screen EPG collator, it was then integrated into WMC. It never had its own EPG data, because that was not possible for copyright reasons back when it was developed. Whenever I've looked at it I couldn't see the value, as it seemed to just be adding another layer of software to the EPG chain. It is supposed to clean up EPG data though, so may be useful.
But by all means check out if it adds value. My information may be out of date.
That Microsoft document is from July 2009. I doubt it is talking about Rovi data. I can't see any reference to the source.
It is from this post that I thought it might have some potential : http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9052
Not sure if it will work/help. Just playing around.
I suppose I could just manually enter the Season number for each group of recordings.
But if EPG Collector gets me the Season number I'm done.
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The two things I got out of a quick scan of the thread were;
WMC users are having trouble with poor quality EPG data, and trying to use alternate sources. (Which means that MC will have trouble with the data as well.)
Schedules Direct are allowing WMC users to use their data, presumably because WMC is now Abandonware.
I think the people using Big Screen EPG were using it to load WMC with data from their new data source. It is tightly integrated with WMC, and probably works better or is easier than using Microsoft's LoadMXF program.
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Has anyone from JRiver talked to Rovi about a license?, or Zap2it? I saw on Rovi's site that they license API's. See: http://developer.rovicorp.com/docs . I don't know what it would cost. It may not be that expensive if they get user data back, or the Rovi logo is used, or who knows what else. Just thought I would ask.
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JRiver has access to Rovi data now in MC21. You just need to use the "mc2xml" program (selecting "Microsoft" as the source) to access the data.
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I thought you wanted season number, vice year. Getting the data directly from the source, Rovi, vice an intermediary like mc2xml, may give the JRiver developers some flexibility and a little more control over the data: and who knows, maybe a little bit more data that may be helpful. Just asking if anyone had explored a direct relationship with Rovi, or if it was even feasible?
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I thought you wanted season number, vice year.
Yes, I would like to get the Season Number from somewhere - but it does not appear that that Season number is in the Rovi data.
I think WMC users are getting the same data as we (MC users) are. Does anyone know if Windows Media Center users are getting Season Numbers? I looked at the Rovi data coming from Microsoft (via the msc2xml program) and there is no Season Number in it - only the Year (and a progID code).
Now I'm trying to use the program XMLTVDB to pull additional data - so far I have not got it working (but I just started working with it). I'm not sure if this program still works, as it is now a couple of years old and development stopped in 2012.
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Now I'm trying to use the program XMLTVDB to pull additional data - so far I have not got it working (but I just started working with it). I'm not sure if this program still works, as it is now a couple of years old and development stopped in 2012.
I got XMLTVDB working and here are a list of things to look out for.
1.) Use Java 7 (6 won't work, didn't try 8 )
2.) Make sure you are using the latest paid version of XMLTVDB. There was a previous release that worked with Rovi, but didn't handle ampersands correctly in the XML.
3.) review the "XMLTVDB.properties" file and change settings correctly. There is documentation in the file
4.) If possible set up EXCLUDED_CATEGORIES as it will reduce the amount of lookups and time to complete.
5.) Consider setting "HTTP_REQUEST_RETRIES=" to a smaller number
6.) If you need to iterate testing, change the timestamp on your XML file by re-saving it. XMLTVDB will pick that up as a new file.
Note that it takes a long time to complete, so be patient once it starts. You'll see lots of errors in the window. As long as it keeps running, everything is working.
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I got XMLTVDB working and here are a list of things to look out for.
1.) Use Java 7 (6 won't work, didn't try 8 )
2.) Make sure you are using the latest paid version of XMLTVDB. There was a previous release that worked with Rovi, but didn't handle ampersands correctly in the XML.
3.) review the "XMLTVDB.properties" file and change settings correctly. There is documentation in the file
4.) If possible set up EXCLUDED_CATEGORIES as it will reduce the amount of lookups and time to complete.
5.) Consider setting "HTTP_REQUEST_RETRIES=" to a smaller number
6.) If you need to iterate testing, change the timestamp on your XML file by re-saving it. XMLTVDB will pick that up as a new file.
Note that it takes a long time to complete, so be patient once it starts. You'll see lots of errors in the window. As long as it keeps running, everything is working.
I'm working on this now - I think this may be the savior - if it works.
Currently I am not getting any data from XMLTVDB (I need to check all of your suggestions) but it does appear to be correctly noticing the (updating) xmltv.xml file. In the Debug log the last lines say something like "LISTENER: Skipping Event ENTRY_MODIFY. File xmltv.xml". (same message file mc2xml.dat).
I suggest you start a new Thread on setting up and using XMLTVDB (because it's buried in this thread and will probably get missed by many.
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2.) Make sure you are using the latest paid version of XMLTVDB. There was a previous release that worked with Rovi, but didn't handle ampersands correctly in the XML.
I wasn't aware there was a paid version for XMLTVDB. I need to go back to that website and look.
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I wasn't aware there was a paid version for XMLTVDB. I need to go back to that website and look.
Sorry head isn't in it today. I meant the paid version of mc2xml.
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Sorry head isn't in it today. I meant the paid version of mc2xml.
I have not been using the "paid" version (ver 1.4) of mc2xml because I have a subscription to Schedules Direct so I am getting good EPG data (just no Season numbers) with mc2xml ver 1.3.
Since mc2xml is creating the XMLTV.xml file and it is updating, and XMLTVDB sees that it is updating/changing, why am I not getting the XMLTVDB file ("xmltv.enhanced.xml") created. It looks like something else is wrong. Perhaps I should post my XMLTVDB Debug Log to see if anyone spots anything wrong in the setup.
The setup in XMLTVDB seems easy enough; set the path to java with arguments provided; set the path to where the xmltv.xml is located (the folder to be monitored); then set the path to the folder where the xmltv.enhanced.xml file is to be outputted.
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Just realized I was missing Season numbers in the guide replaced with the Year in some cases ...Please tell me there is a way around this.
The only ones showing correctly are the ones coming from Sage recordings...
From what I can recall yes zap2xml has season and episode with the -d option but I don't think the description is as complete as Rovi...
It's an old post hopefully there is a Simple workaround
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Just realized I was missing Season numbers in the guide replaced with the Year in some cases ...Please tell me there is a way around this.
The only ones showing correctly are the ones coming from Sage recordings...
From what I can recall yes zap2xml has season and episode with the -d option but I don't think the description is as complete as Rovi...
It's an old post hopefully there is a Simple workaround
Are you in USA? If yes,
The most reliable solution I have found is to run "mc2xml" (version 1.4 or 1.5) as stand-alone (not in MC) then use "XMLTVDB program" to enhance the xmltv.xml data file that mc2xml creates. That creates a new file "xmltv.enhanced.xml" that you import into MC.
OR, what I do now, pay for a subscription to Schedules Direct then run the stand-alone version mc2xml (ver 1.5) and select "Schedules Direct JSON" as you epg data source, then import the xmltv.xml file into MC.
This has been 100% successful in getting me the correct Season and Episode numbers.
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Canada.
Isn't it what Carnac is all about? Couldn't it use what Rovi is providing in mc2xml to figure out Season and Episode number?
Oh man back to playing with zap2xml and mc2xml as a separate entity to try to figure this out and compare it with what Sage is giving me... :(
ANybody esle out there with workarounds?
thx
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Carnac is the step "after" the TV Show is recorded and imported. If there is a Series Name, Season Number and Episode Number Carnac will look up the meta data info for you. If you don't have the Season Number and Episode Number Carnac won't work.
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Also according to this document https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd776338.aspx - Season data is in the Rovi data going to WMC users.
Yaobbing if the info is available from Rovi to WMC any way to get it in MC as well?
thx
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I'll check with WMC see what happens and post back.
thx
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Woo. Slow down. A bit of misinformation here.
First, CARNAC (http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Carnac) does not look up metadata. It happens before metadata is looked up, and uses "filename, length, file type, and other details" to "fill empty database fields". Okay, database fields are metadata, but CARNAC isn't looking them up, just reading them from the file name. It happens when a file is first introduced to MC, during import, and is most useful when importing heavily structured video file names such as; "Marvel's.Agents.Of.S.H.I.E.L.D.3x02.Purpose.In.The.Machine.HDTV.x264-KILLERS.[tvu.org.ru].mp4".
CARNAC is much less useful for recorded TV programs, as the tag information comes from the EPG data, rather than the file name. In fact, MC will use information that it has from the EPG data to decide what to name the file. For example, MC will use the Season and Episode numbers in the file name, if it knows them at the time the file is created.
i.e. "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D - S03E01 - Laws of Nature.jtv"
It is the "Get Movie & TV Info" function that gets additional metadata for the program from TheTVDB, and that happens when the program is imported into MC, even for recorded TV. In fact, I don't know exactly when it happens for recorded TV. It could happen when the file is created, which is when it is "imported" into MC, or it could happen when the recording is finished, but most likely it happen sometime after being imported and before the recording finishes, when MC kicks off the TV maintenance function.
If we use the correct terminology, we might gain a better understanding of what is happening.
Next, since MC21.0.28 MC has been able to look up TheTVDB using just the Series and Episode names, just like EPG Collector has been doing for some time. Try it and see. For a recording that has no TVDB ID or Season or Episode number, but just has Series and Episode Name, run the "Get Movie & TV Info" function, it will return any match it finds (as long as TheTVDB actually knows about the program). It is still a bit crude and can be tricked, but it works. So having Season and Episode numbers in the EPG data is a little less important than it used to be.
21.0.28 (12/14/2015)
5. Changed: TheTVDB lookup can look up tracks that don't have a season or episode number and will now look up just by the episode name.
See the bolded blue paragraph in this post (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=101939.msg707326#msg707326), and read the following posts.
Now I can only do limited testing of this new functionality, because most of my EPG data now includes Season and Episode numbers supplied by EPG Collector. So testing it would be great, and if it isn't working properly, let JRiver know.
Also according to this document https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd776338.aspx - Season data is in the Rovi data going to WMC users.
That Microsoft document is from July 2009. I doubt it is talking about Rovi data. I can't see any reference to the source.
That document refers to when Microsoft used Gracenote data, not Rovi data. Microsoft changed from using Gracenote to Rovi data in June/July 2015. The only test as to whether WMC users get Season and Episode numbers in Rovi data now is to run WMC and see, which you are doing. From what I have read, lots of WMC users aren't happy with Rovi data. Please let us know what you find.
Note that the additional Season and Episode number data is available from PerData, but as far as I know it requires additional functionality in MC to get it, which hasn't been implemented yet.
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It may be true that Rovi provides season and episode numbers, but mc2xml does not get them for North America users. So we are currently stuck with this limitation. CountryBumkin provided a pretty good workaround, but it will only work if you use XMLTV option in MC, instead of the integrated mc2xml option (i.e. running mc2xml or any other tools, then use "XMLTVDB program" to enhance the xmltv.xml data file before importing the xml file into MC).
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I pretty much spent the whole evening trying to set this up with no success as per this post: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99845.msg712194#msg712194 (https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99845.msg712194#msg712194)
I get this error and no enhanced files get created...
01/17/2016 10:44:37 PM ERROR Error processing xml file: org.jdom.input.JDOMParseException: Error on line 304 of document file:/M:/XMLTVDB%20v1.0.1/xmltvs/xmltv.xml: The reference to entity "w" must end with the ';' delimiter.
org.jdom.input.JDOMParseException: Error on line 304 of document file:/M:/XMLTVDB%20v1.0.1/xmltvs/xmltv.xml: The reference to entity "w" must end with the ';' delimiter.
org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder.build(SAXBuilder.java:530)
org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder.build(SAXBuilder.java:905)
org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder.build(SAXBuilder.java:884)
xmltvdb.xmltvdb.processXMLTVFile(xmltvdb.java:301)
xmltvdb.xmltvdb.access$100(xmltvdb.java:67)
xmltvdb.xmltvdb$1.onEvent(xmltvdb.java:178)
btv.folderwatcher.FolderWatcher.run(FolderWatchers.java:79)
java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Unknown Source)
java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source)
java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Any help from anyone on this would be greatly appreciated!
Thx for your answer Yaobbing.
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I know that TheTVDB was down for some of today. Perhaps your testing coincided to when the site was down?
Anyway, test the site is up before running XMLTVDB. That will at least eliminate that as a cause.
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Folks I've done a very quick test on one of my last night's recording and hopefully this could be a quick fix...
I recorded The good Wife last night and JRiver will populate the Season number as 2016 as we all know based on Rovi's EPG info (I also confirm this is what I saw in WMC last night).
The file is called The Good Wife - S2016E12 - Tracks.ts.
Trying to do a TVDB look up on the file I get nothing (as per snapshot 1). If I just delete the S2016E12 out or Just the S2016 in the searchbox the Get Movie and TV info will work just fine!! (as per snapshot 2 attached)
I also tried it with a few old Seinfeld Episodes I recorded with MC21 recently and it works just fine as well.
IMHO TVDB seems to use the Name and/or date for the lookup (Not sure about the episode number but maybe this also helps as I've done limited testing)...It definitely doesn't like the Year as a season number and will output nothing...
If it was successful in grabbing the right season and episode for The Good Wife I assume it had to use the date in the tag?
SO..This seems to me like a very easy Fix and everything would be "inside the box" vs having to fiddle with an external mc2xml + TVDB jar that you have to run in the Scheduler....
The whole idea here would be to automate the Get Movie & TV info (which I think it is already?) and get rid of the Year as season number in the tag.
(Or have it as an option to populate it as per Rovi or leave it blank to help with the lookup...
I might be missing something important here please chime in!! (Yaobbing?, CountryBumkin, RoderickGi or others :))!!
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Searching by series name and episode name is actually a very recent addition to MC. Previously we required season number and episode number.
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All right. Then just get rid of the Year in the Season tag and we have a fix :)!!
Maybe it would also help to put the Year in the search addition? (or maybe not...I'll let others commnent. Hopefully someone else tested this.)
Thx Yaobbing
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I got rid of the Year in Season tags of about 10 shows, re-ran the Import but nothing got populated even though I have the option "Get Movie & TV Info" checked.
Can it run (in the background) automatically?
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Folks I've done a very quick test on one of my last night's recording and hopefully this could be a quick fix...
I recommend you read this whole thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=100757.0
Specifically;
I made some change today that will leave xmltv file from mc2xml undeleted until MC restarts. As for PercData, the format is not the same. There is an xml file that you can examine, it is just not in the xmltv format. The file is cached in MC's Settings folder (if you can find the Temp folder, you can find Settings folder :)
Sorry about that. The Settings folder I was referring to is parallel with Temp folder, not as a sub-folder. "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\J River\media center 21\Settings\PercData\"
The PercData cache is not in Temp file, but the mc2xml data file is. The former will be cleaned out automatically. The latter is cleaned out upon restart of MC. We previously delete the file immediately. Now we leave it in the Temp folder. The files do not override each other because their names are different. So, yeah it is a problem in your case.
So I think the mc2xml XMLTV file is under the "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 21\" directory, in the Settings or Temp sub-folder. Search and you shall find.
Now that you know where the XMLTV file created by mc2xml is left after the EPG run, you can find it and check if the year is being placed in the Season field in the EPG data for the program you are looking at, and if it is, then it is a problem with the EPG data and not MC. Maybe Yaobing could test to see if the Season field contains a year value instead of a Season number and drop the year value, but TheTVDB sometimes uses the year as the Season number, so that would break the lookup for those programs.
Now, despite what Hendrik said here;
Note that it will only do its job if no season/episode info is set
If there is a value in the Season field, but no value in the Episode field, then MC's "Get Movie & TV Info" will look up TheTVDB based on just the Series Name and Episode Name.
Overall, here is how it works.
- If there is a value in the Title and Subtitle fields in the EPG data, MC will put the Title into the MC [Series] tag. (If there is an EPG Title, but no Subtitle, MC will put the EPG Title into the MC [Name] tag.)
- If the [Series] tag is given a value, and that Series already exists in MC, then the new record will be grouped with the other records for that Series.
- If the Series in MC has already got a value in the [TheTVDB Series ID] tag, then the new record is given the same value for the [TheTVDB Series ID] tag. There can be only one value of the [TheTVDB Series ID] tag for each Series in MC, as it is a relational field.
- If the [TheTVDB Series ID] tag has a value in it when the "Get Movie & TV Info" is run, either during Auto-Import or manually later, then that "TheTVDB Series ID" takes precedence over the Series name in the [Series] tag. This allows you to change the Series Name in MC to something you like better, while still maintaining a link to the correct series on TheTVDB. Once you know "TheTVDB Series ID", you can add it to the tagging in the Recording Options of the Recording Rules (last page). Then when a new episode of that series is recorded, Auto-Import will already have "TheTVDB Series ID", and can look up the correct series on TheTVDB directly.
Note that when MC (or any software) queries TheTVDB for information on a Series, it receives back a zip file that contains all information about the Series, and the Episodes it contains. You can see those zip files and their contents cached here: "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 21\Cache\TheTVDB\Series" - If MC has both a Season and Episode number, collected from the EPG data, then it will use those numbers to find the data for the correct episode, and save the data to the appropriate MC tags. Season and Episode numbers take precedence.
- If MC doesn't have the Episode number, it will look up the episode using the Episode name, within the cached Series information from TheTVDB, if there is any. Otherwise it will look up the web site to get the Series data. When looking up the episode using the Series and Episode names, using the "Get Movie & TV Info" function manually, the [Series] tag value will be shown in the search field, along with S0E0 if the Season is not know, or SxxE0 if the [Season] number is known. So if the [Season] number is set to a year value, such as 2016, for the Series "Blacklist", [Episode] number blank, then the search field would contain "Blacklist S2106E0" and MC will search by Series and Episode name.
Note that the [Episode] name is not shown in the search field. The value in the tag for the program is used though. (Hopefully some time in the future we will be able to edit the Episode name in the search field in the same way that we can edit the Series name and Season and Episode numbers.)
Does that help?
Also read this: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Auto-Import
BTW, TheTVDB still seems to be having trouble. I don't always get a quick response from it at the moment, and I am getting Ajax errors using it manually. . . and it is currently off-line. ?
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Thanks for taking the time to provide this level of details and explaining the logic this helps a lot RoderickGI.
However I think you missed my point, or maybe I wasn't clear. Let me try again:
If I get rid of the Season value the manual Get Movie & TV info look up works just fine with the EPG data coming from the Native MC2XML & Rovi within MC. What I also tried since my earlier post was to delete the year in the SEASON tag BUT it populates it with a 0, ie: The lookup will use: The Good Wife S0E12. THEN the manual lookup will not work either unless I delete the S0 from the search.
I also read through the other posts and I'm still trying to get XMLTVDB working in parallel without much success...It ran all day and then I got an error that it wasn't able to output the enhanced file...I'll keep playing with this..
I also already have scheduled tasks for MC2XML that I re-enabled to test this out.
My whole point here is this and I really think it could be a viable and most importantly a simple solution:
If the season field is left empty (or simply ignored in the search...) Wouldn't the "Get Movie & TV Info" grab the season data from the TVDB automatically with the auto-import? Isn't this a simple thing to implement?
Yaobbing would this be feasible?
I spent an incredible amount of hours trying to get this to work because I love MC so much but at the end of the day I'M not willing to pay for Schedule Direct (or others) as I have SageTV working like a charm for recordings and getting detailed info from it. ANd ROvi is very good also in MC but getting Season and Episode # is very important and I'm not willing to give it up. I'm not even sure if SD gives Season numbers from what I read..Does it?
Here's how I feel:
Mostly Season/Episode numbers. I really want to switch to MC for my DVR needs. The setup finally works pretty reliably for me, but I really don't want to give up automatic metadata inside MC from TVDB.
This works quite well now with my setup with SageTV, though. I don't actually use Sage for anything but running in the background recording shows, and it is annoying every time I have to touch it, but my shows come into MC fully tagged without intervention.
That's my standard. I think, frankly, that's most people's standard.
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However I think you missed my point, or maybe I wasn't clear. Let me try again:
Actually, I think you missed this point:
BTW, TheTVDB still seems to be having trouble. I don't always get a quick response from it at the moment, and I am getting Ajax errors using it manually. . . and it is currently off-line. ?
It really isn't a good time for you to be doing this testing, as TheTVDB seems to be up and down constantly. It just allowed me to look up a Series, and then went off-line when I tried to select that series. It may be best to postpone your testing until TheTVDB is back and reliable. The lookup from within MC using the "Get Movie & TV Info" function does seem to be working, but it is a bit flaky. I'm sure it will be fixed soon though. Just test an Episode lookup on the web site manually before starting any new tests.
The Good Wife may actually use years as Season numbers on TheTVDB, as some programs do. But I can't check as the site isn't working.
But to answer some of your comments;
If the EPG data has a value in the Season field, it should be retained and used by MC. No question. In fact, if the EPG data has a Season number, it will usually also have an Episode number, and so the lookup should work. To delete or ignore the Season number in the EPG data would break a whole lot of the lookup functionality, and people's systems. Not good.
Basically, if the data from the EPG source is wrong, get it fixed at the source, or do some manipulation to it prior to loading into MC.
However, there used to be some sort of default in MC that would put a year value in the Season tag under certain circumstances, I believe, Yaobing said something along those lines once, from memory, but didn't confirm it when I asked. If that functionality still exists, it should be removed now, given other MC improvements.
I just tested deleting the Season number for a program, and doing a manual "Get Movie & TV Info" lookup. This is what I found (when TheTVDB was working);
If you delete the Season number in MC, then the lookup will fail, as MC will search for "The Good Wife S0E12". Basically any search of Season "0" for a program, such as a search for "The Good Wife S0E12" will return a result that is for a Special from that series, not the correct data. Season 0 on TheTVDB is where Specials are stored.
If you delete the "S0" (or get rid of it or ignore it in the search) and just search for "The Good Wife E12", which I think is what you are asking for, MC will look up TheTVDB based on the Series and Episode names. i.e. It doesn't get a match on the Season and Episode number combination, so it uses the new functionality. I hadn't tested this before, but this is what it is doing.
If you get rid of or ignore the Episode number, then MC will look up TheTVDB using the Series and Episode names. Again, MC doesn't get a match on the Season and Episode number combination, so it uses the new functionality.
So basically;
If the season field is left empty (or simply ignored in the search...) Wouldn't the "Get Movie & TV Info" grab the season data from the TVDB automatically with the auto-import?
Probably. If the search dropped the Season number, so it searched for "The Good Wife E12", MC would use the Series and Episode names to find the correct result, depending on whether "E12" has some meaning for the series. But how would MC decide when to drop the EPG Season number and when to keep it, given that TheTVDB sometimes uses the year as the Season number?
Also BTW; I forced MC to look up "The Good Wife" with an episode name of "Tracks", which is S07E12 according to Wikipedia. MC couldn't find a result, so on that basis, there might well be something strange about the records for "The Good Wife" on TheTVDB. Perhaps it uses the year as the Season number, as I suggested above, or something else is broken. So "The Good Wife" probably isn't a good series to test against.
Finally, Glynor's post was from November 16th, and a lot has changed since then. He doesn't even need Season and Episode numbers in the EPG data any more, as MC will look up TheTVDB by Series and Episode names. I don't know whether he has turned off Sage yet, but the issue he raised is no longer valid. Oh and note that Glynor does do some tagging on Auto-Import to add some information.
Finally plus 1: tagging set up in Recording Rules could be used to convert a Season number or 2016 to Season 07, if none of the above works at all. An expression would do it.
Finally plus 2: I haven't tested using EPG data that has no Season and Episode numbers, as my EPG data now has all Season and Episode numbers that TheTVDB knows about. So it is good that you are testing this functionality. It is just bad timing with TheTVDB, and maybe you picked a bad example in "The Good Wife". 8)
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1. If the EPG data has a value in the Season field, it should be retained and used by MC. No question. In fact, if the EPG data has a Season number, it will usually also have an Episode number, and so the lookup should work. To delete or ignore the Season number in the EPG data would break a whole lot of the lookup functionality, and people's systems. Not good.
Basically, if the data from the EPG source is wrong, get it fixed at the source, or do some manipulation to it prior to loading into MC.
2. However, there used to be some sort of default in MC that would put a year value in the Season tag under certain circumstances, I believe, Yaobing said something along those lines once, from memory, but didn't confirm it when I asked. If that functionality still exists, it should be removed now, given other MC improvements.
3. I just tested deleting the Season number for a program, and doing a manual "Get Movie & TV Info" lookup. This is what I found (when TheTVDB was working);
If you delete the Season number in MC, then the lookup will fail, as MC will search for "The Good Wife S0E12". Basically any search of Season "0" for a program, such as a search for "The Good Wife S0E12" will return a result that is for a Special from that series, not the correct data. Season 0 on TheTVDB is where Specials are stored.
4. If you delete the "S0" (or get rid of it or ignore it in the search) and just search for "The Good Wife E12", which I think is what you are asking for, MC will look up TheTVDB based on the Series and Episode names. i.e. It doesn't get a match on the Season and Episode number combination, so it uses the new functionality. I hadn't tested this before, but this is what it is doing.
5. If you get rid of or ignore the Episode number, then MC will look up TheTVDB using the Series and Episode names. Again, MC doesn't get a match on the Season and Episode number combination, so it uses the new functionality.
6. So basically;Probably. If the search dropped the Season number, so it searched for "The Good Wife E12", MC would use the Series and Episode names to find the correct result, depending on whether "E12" has some meaning for the series. But how would MC decide when to drop the EPG Season number and when to keep it, given that TheTVDB sometimes uses the year as the Season number?
7. Also BTW; I forced MC to look up "The Good Wife" with an episode name of "Tracks", which is S07E12 according to Wikipedia. MC couldn't find a result, so on that basis, there might well be something strange about the records for "The Good Wife" on TheTVDB. Perhaps it uses the year as the Season number, as I suggested above, or something else is broken. So "The Good Wife" probably isn't a good series to test against.
8. Finally, Glynor's post was from November 16th, and a lot has changed since then. He doesn't even need Season and Episode numbers in the EPG data any more, as MC will look up TheTVDB by Series and Episode names. I don't know whether he has turned off Sage yet, but the issue he raised is no longer valid. Oh and note that Glynor does do some tagging on Auto-Import to add some information.
9. Finally plus 1: tagging set up in Recording Rules could be used to convert a Season number or 2016 to Season 07, if none of the above works at all. An expression would do it.
10. Finally plus 2: I haven't tested using EPG data that has no Season and Episode numbers, as my EPG data now has all Season and Episode numbers that TheTVDB knows about. So it is good that you are testing this functionality. It is just bad timing with TheTVDB, and maybe you picked a bad example in "The Good Wife". 8)
On your 1. If the season # is truly the year then TVDB will return the info. If it isn't, nothing gets returned therefore nothing is tampered with right?. In my case I don't get Season info with the Native MC2XML + Rovi in MC21. (see 2. below)
On your 2. The year is definitely still there and it should be removed as it is not in the xmltv.xml file coming from Rovi. IMHO Just getting rid of this functionality alone might solve the issue
On your 3. I agree, S0 DOES NOT WORK, Yaobbing needs to get rid of it for the auto-import lookup to TVDB (or the manual one).
On your 4. THIS IS EXACTLY MY POINT. The new functionality seems to work like a charm let's leverage it by not putting in an invalid Season # whether it be 0 or 2016!!
On your 5. The episode number is provided by Rovi (It's in my XMLTV for the Good wife and others) so IT SHOULD BE USED. But even without it as per my snapshots in the other post the TVDB search still worked!!! So another proof that the new functionality works!!
On your 6. Just don't put any Season # when it's not provided by the EPG provider and leave it untouched! My xmltv coming from Rovi doesn't have anything specified for Season in the whole file.
On your 7. I also had Tracks for the episode Name and it still didn't stop the Movie & TV Info look up to find it just fine. Again as per my snapshots above. So It worked perfectly not sure why you couldn't reproduce...
On your 8. You're sure about this? If it was the case I wouldn't be here DESPERATELY asking for this!!! Maybe he has a script or something to get rid of the Season field for it to work???
On your 9. I don't see the need for this, the lookup seems to be working fine. Let's keep it simple.
On your 10. That's what I've been doing so I know what I'm talking about. Hopefully others will chime in...
So to recap my whole point once more: If the season is not present and left blank the search for auto-import with the new functionality will work out of the box and I assume it should also work automatically when auto-import is on. That's it! Nothing more. Just get rid of the year or the 0 for the TVDB lookup to work that is it!!! Besides, there is a way to enable or disable the Movie & TV Info lookup in the Import config. If people don't want it, they can always turn it off if it's screwing things up for them.
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On your 4. THIS IS EXACTLY MY POINT. The new functionality seems to work like a charm let's leverage it by not putting in an invalid Season # whether it be 0 or 2016!!
This is the main problem I was trying to fix when MC switched to Rovi data (I was getting a "Year instead of a Number for some Seasons) - so if the EPG data provides Season "Year" instead of Season "Number", the Get Movie & TV Info" will not work. The tool tries to look up "SeriesName S"Year"E"Number"" (such as S2015E01") which doesn't work. So you can delete the "2015" in Standard View>Files and now the tool tries to lookup "S0E01" which also fails.
I suggested before that it would be better to (the choice to) have the "Get Movie & TV Info tool ignore any value in Season field if it is more than two digits - EDITED for correctness but Hendrick felt this would break other things. At least have MC not insert a "0" if the Season field is blank.
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Yes yes yes...Exactly. That's what I did too. Deleted the Season tag value in Standard view and "S0" remained.
Thx CountryBumkin for confirming the issue!!
I recall having read Hendrick's posts but could you refresh my memory as to what his concerns were?
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It was in this thread http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=102045.0
I suggested to have any four digit entry in the Season field ignored, but Hendrick said that sometimes this is valid data - and he was going to look into some other fix (which was the lookup without needed Season data). So now we just need to have MC not add a "0" to the empty field.
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OK I posted there too Countrybumkin please have a look thx!
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Okay, I'm just sharing how it all works here, so that you, and all other readers, know some more about it and can see what is happening.
I only have two "positions" on the subject really:
A) If MC is placing a year value in the Season tag, for any reason at any time, that functionality should be removed.
B) If the year value is being supplied in the EPG data, and it is incorrect according to TheTVDB, then either the EPG data source, or TheTVDB should be corrected. Adding workarounds into MC for perceived shortcomings in the source data or TheTVDB is just going to make trouble for someone else, sometime, as there will always be exceptions to the observed conditions, that haven't been thought about. This is why I oppose MC "ignoring, getting rid of, or deleting" any data in the Season field for lookups, where that data comes from the EPG.
Ah, here is the offending information that I wanted to find yesterday, from page one of this very thread;
The xml file produced by mc2xml contains episode info only in two formats, "ms_progid" which we can not interpret, and "onscreen" which apparently has a human-readable numerical number, such as "23" which we interpret as "episode 23". If there is season info, it would be in the value in "ms_progid" format.
Since we can not get any season info, we fill it with "year", if available.
Are you sure your pre-MC21 data was not obtained using zap2xml data? That was the source from which we would get episode data in "xmltv_ns" format.
Yaobing, the process in the highlighted text should no be longer done. It breaks the new "Get Movie & TV Info" lookup functionality.
With that functionality in place, if Rovi provides an Onscreen Episode number but no Season number, and MC puts the Year value into the Season tag, that would explain what Imeric and CountryBumkin are seeing, such as this:
(http://i921.photobucket.com/albums/ad54/mshumack/AfterMC21_zpstye0k1jo.jpg)
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Bang on.
Maybe just one thing. Deleting the Year in the tag didn't resolve the issue as I ended up with S0E12 instead of S2016E12. Something will have to be done about this as well for the lookup to work.
Thx RoderickGi!
Let's now hope Yaobbing can squeeze it in the next version ;)
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Maybe just one thing. Deleting the Year in the tag didn't resolve the issue as I ended up with S0E12 instead of S2016E12. Something will have to be done about this as well for the lookup to work.
Possibly, but I thought there was a reason that "0" was placed in there. Also, if you are deleting the Season value, then you are probably doing a manual lookup, so it isn't hard to change the search criteria.
Of course, you could be doing a mass Season tag delete, and then a bulk manual lookup using "Get Movie & TV Info". But if that is the case the workaround is just to delete the Episode tags instead, or both the Season and Episode tags, and then do a manual lookup using "Get Movie & TV Info", which will then search by Series name and Episode name.
So if there is an easy workaround, a fix might not be a priority, especially if it means that some other dependent code needs to be changed as well. Matt did say that the new search by Series name and Episode name was a bear to implement.
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OK thx but the reason I bring this up is for the developers to pay attention to this detail as well and have this fully automated.
The end goal is to avoid having to do it manually or use external third party solutions like XMLTVDB.
I want this to be fully automatic no matter how it's being implemented. Hopefully it doesn't involve a ton of codes...It would be nice to hear from Yaobbing on this.
My assumption is if the Season is not present in the automatic lookup (or left blank if nothing from the EPG) this should work with what's in there already.
thx
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OK thx but the reason I bring this up is for the developers to pay attention to this detail as well and have this fully automated.
The end goal is to avoid having to do it manually or use external third party solutions like XMLTVDB.
I want this to be fully automatic no matter how it's being implemented. Hopefully it doesn't involve a ton of codes...It would be nice to hear from Yaobbing on this.
My assumption is if the Season is not present in the automatic lookup (or left blank if nothing from the EPG) this should work with what's in there already.
thx
To summarize the issue (at least my issue) it all started because the (new Rovi) EPG data was providing "Season Year" in some cases for some TV Shows. Then when the show is imported the "Get Movie & TV Info" tool doesn't work. The "Get Movie & TV Info" tool must have a Season Number or be blank. If you manually delete the Season Year and rerun the "Get Movie & TV Info" tool, MC adds a "0" where you just deleted the Year so the tool fails.
Now we know that if you delete the Episode Number (thanks Roderick) instead of Season Year and run the "Get Movie & TV Info" tool, the tool will find the correct metadata and it will then replace the Season Year with Season Number and put back the correct Episode Number.
So this is an acceptable solution. :)
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So this is an acceptable solution. :)
Excellent!
To summarize the issue (at least my issue) it all started because the (new Rovi) EPG data was providing "Season Year" in some cases for some TV Shows.
Did you actually confirm that Rovi was providing the year in the Season field? Reading back over your posts yesterday, I didn't think that was the case. Yaobing seemed to confirm this with example data here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99519.msg690274#msg690274
What I think was happening was that Rovi was providing the Episode number in the "onscreen" format, which MC could use, but it wasn't providing a Season number. So Yaobing had MC put the Year into the Season tag, if the program year was available in the EPG data.
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I don't know where the Season "Year" was coming from - just that it was appearing and messing up the Get Movie & TV info.
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Doing a search on Season Numbers in two XMLTV files from Rovi (one for OTA and the other for Satellite with lots of channels)., it didn't return anything for Season Info...
As a comparison I also looked at one from Zap2it...
Here is what I get with zap2xml with the -D option (again with my lovely Good WIfe show...):
<programme start="20160117220000 -0500" stop="20160117230000 -0500" channel="I44991.labs.zap2it.com">
<title lang="en">The Good Wife</title>
<sub-title lang="en">Tracks</sub-title>
<desc lang="en">Cary and Alicia defend a former client.</desc>
<date>20160117</date>
<category lang="en">Drama</category>
<episode-num system="common">S07E12</episode-num>
<episode-num system="dd_progid">EP01158384.0149</episode-num>
<episode-num system="xmltv_ns">6.11.</episode-num>
<video>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
<quality>HDTV</quality>
</video>
<new />
<subtitles type="teletext" />
</programme>
Here is what I get with MC2XML Rovi (without actors and credits):
<programme start="20160117210000 -0500" stop="20160117220000 -0500" channel="I15.1.309251224.microsoft.com">
<title lang="en">The Good Wife</title>
<sub-title lang="en">Tracks</sub-title>
<desc lang="en">Alicia and Cary join forces to defend a former client who is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit over ownership rights to his new music. Meanwhile, Alica's neighbors threaten her with eviction for operating her firm out of her apartment.</desc>
<date>20160117</date>
<category lang="en">Other</category>
<category lang="en">courtroom</category>
<icon src="http://images-eds.xboxlive.com/image?url=cOC861nTwwD6fdaNNqSphYhIoPdt3SpAXZveWYNx1oxNQfsr_nafQv_tlJ.tcHAodEf0sLIVA_3nBsdt1tBaPpr2v_ZuOjE4vQFqhiDPyYQ2RlV3Y49FsWT9B2cs8LQg&w=267&h=150" />
<episode-num system="ms_progid">1.310242986</episode-num>
<episode-num system="onscreen">12</episode-num>
<video>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
<quality>HDTV</quality>
</video>
<new />
</programme>
And it seems to be always the same pattern where:
<episode-num system="ms_progid">1.309583982</episode-num>
<episode-num system="onscreen">14</episode-num>
The one with the "onscreen" is the Epsiode #
Rovi is a lot more complete but no Season # like zap2xml. Can others please confirm this?
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And there is the onscreen value with no Season number, which is consistent with what I said above. MC is supplying the Year in the Season tag.
That <new /> field is interesting. As that is a very recent episode, first aired 2016-01-17, that would seem to indicate it is a new show. i.e. Not a repeat, and recent. MC doesn't use the field now, but if it was reliable, possibly it could. At least it would confirm the assumption that if there is no "Previous shown" date in the EPG data, it is not a repeat, rather than just that data is missing.
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I've been wondering about this...I don't know what it currently uses for the "Do not record reruns' but it seems to work fine with Rovi..
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If the EPG data shows that the program has a previously shown date before the scheduled date, or it has a repeat flag, or it is being shown in the current period before the scheduled date of the program you are looking at, then the "rerun" tag is set to "1", which means it is a repeat.
I think that covers it. Yaobing has explained it a few times on the forum. Some recently.
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Nice logic..Definitely works for me so far!!
I imagine it was posted somewhere or on the Wiki but I can't read them all (still trying to figure out my XMLTVDB Issue..)!!
Besides..I kinda knew you would give me an answer RoderickGi thank you ;) ;)
BTW I've been using MC for TV for a little more than a week now and I'm quite happy with it. It's also been quite stable (if I leave the settigns alone :)). My computer goes to sleep after a few hours and when it "gets up" and I'd left MC21 opened in standard or theater view it works well and resumes where it left off. Couldn't do this with Sage....
It also wakes up just fine for recordings. Haven't missed one thus far...
So far so good...
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Besides..I kinda knew you would give me an answer RoderickGi thank you ;) ;)
There is a price though...
So far so good...
... now you have to help convince future Sage users who visit the forum to convert to MC TV!
Disclaimer: Just to confirm, after that statement above, I don't work for JRiver, and I receive no payment for posting in the forums.
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Oohh I have an open door now!...
I definitely will talk about it for TV when: (I already have kind words for everything else ;D...)
TVDB lookup works for TV shows w/o Accurate season info (should be an easy fix and should match the detailed info I get with Sage)
I get my multiple folders for recordings that Yaobbing promised me with MC21 ;)
Comskip timelines in the progress bar
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