Topic: Series Cover Art Display Bug (Read 1500 times)

Ashfall · « **on:** April 10, 2020, 01:16:54 pm »

From version 26.0.35 on, series with the same name but a different year now show the same series cover art. Going back to version 26.0.33 or earlier fixes it, and installing 26.0.35 or later breaks it. (I don't have a copy of 26.0.34 to try).

Screenshots for "Doctor Who" and "Doctor Who (2005)"

26.0.33

26.0.35

RoderickGI · « **Reply #1 on:** April 10, 2020, 04:12:03 pm »

Check the metadata for the two series. Something has been set wrong.

My two Doctor Who series, the old one (1960's) and the new one (2005 on) still have the correct Cover Art. See image.

Oh, I'm running MC26.0.55, so it definitely isn't broken in 35 and later.

Hint: [TheTVDB Series ID] for the 2005 series is 78804, not 76107.

Ashfall · « **Reply #2 on:** April 10, 2020, 10:47:43 pm »

Quote from: RoderickGI on April 10, 2020, 04:12:03 pm

Check the metadata for the two series. Something has been set wrong.

My two Doctor Who series, the old one (1960's) and the new one (2005 on) still have the correct Cover Art. See image.

Oh, I'm running MC26.0.55, so it definitely isn't broken in 35 and later.

Hint: [TheTVDB Series ID] for the 2005 series is 78804, not 76107.

That's not it. All episodes of the classic series are 76107 and all episodes of the new series are 78804.

It reproduces any time I reinstall and change versions of Media Center. Version 26.0.33 or older = no problem. Version 26.0.35 or later, duplicate cover art. This is the case on 3 computers here. I've tried deleting the thumbnails cache and rebuilding thumbnails, and have replaced the series cover art both through Media Center and manually.

The same thing happens for other shows too. It's as if it's ignoring the year in parenthesis and using some other logic to pick one of the similarly named images to use for both series.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #3 on:** April 11, 2020, 02:56:08 am »

Interesting. Maybe update to MC26.0.52 and see what happens, if you haven't already tried that version.

There was some logic added to make lookups aware of file naming with a year in brackets. I didn't think it applied to MC's internal Series and Season Cover Art files look up though. It did apply to the "Get Movie & TV Info" function though, when looking up metadata. I would have to hunt around to find the references in the Release Notes, or you could.

I don't have time to document all my observations just now, but I did observe that when I had two Cover Art files in the Series directory named "Doctor Who.jpg" and "Doctor Who (2005).jpg", where my Series are named "Doctor Who" (renamed from "Doctor Who (2005)") and "Doctor Who (Old series)" (renamed from "Doctor Who"), my "Doctor Who" Series used the first Cover Art file it found in the Series folder that began with "Doctor Who".

Initially, that was the file named "Doctor Who (2005).jpg". When I renamed the image called "Doctor Who.jpg" to "Doctor Who (2000).jpg", so that it would be found first, then that image was used.

So it looks like the Series Cover Art lookup is indeed using some logic around the Year being in the file name, and when there is a partial match the first file found is used.

I have a vague recollection of a change that I thought might impact this area, but I can't remember what it was or when. Perhaps search the Release Notes in the Wiki. https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Release_Notes_MC26

EDIT: There is no obvious change in MC26.0.34 or 35 that would change this behaviour, so maybe some other change broke this function, or had unintended effects. The changes to the "Get Movie & TV Info" function would have been earlier.

My expectation is that the Series Cover Art used would be an exact file name match, plus extension, and not have the year processing applied. i.e. [Series].jpg
The Season Cover Art image naming follows the convention "[Series] - Season [Season].jpg", so that would be less of an issue I suspect. Though I guess it may impact Doctor Who.

Did that all make sense? Perhaps test changing some of your Seris Cover Art file names to see if you observe the same "first file found is used" logic.

Ashfall · « **Reply #4 on:** April 11, 2020, 09:17:50 am »

Quote from: RoderickGI on April 11, 2020, 02:56:08 am

Interesting. Maybe update to MC26.0.52 and see what happens, if you haven't already tried that version.

There was some logic added to make lookups aware of file naming with a year in brackets. I didn't think it applied to MC's internal Series and Season Cover Art files look up though. It did apply to the "Get Movie & TV Info" function though, when looking up metadata. I would have to hunt around to find the references in the Release Notes, or you could.

I don't have time to document all my observations just now, but I did observe that when I had two Cover Art files in the Series directory named "Doctor Who.jpg" and "Doctor Who (2005).jpg", where my Series are named "Doctor Who" (renamed from "Doctor Who (2005)") and "Doctor Who (Old series)" (renamed from "Doctor Who"), my "Doctor Who" Series used the first Cover Art file it found in the Series folder that began with "Doctor Who".

Initially, that was the file named "Doctor Who (2005).jpg". When I renamed the image called "Doctor Who.jpg" to "Doctor Who (2000).jpg", so that it would be found first, then that image was used.

So it looks like the Series Cover Art lookup is indeed using some logic around the Year being in the file name, and when there is a partial match the first file found is used.

I have a vague recollection of a change that I thought might impact this area, but I can't remember what it was or when. Perhaps search the Release Notes in the Wiki. https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Release_Notes_MC26

EDIT: There is no obvious change in MC26.0.34 or 35 that would change this behaviour, so maybe some other change broke this function, or had unintended effects. The changes to the "Get Movie & TV Info" function would have been earlier.

My expectation is that the Series Cover Art used would be an exact file name match, plus extension, and not have the year processing applied. i.e. [Series].jpg
The Season Cover Art image naming follows the convention "[Series] - Season [Season].jpg", so that would be less of an issue I suspect. Though I guess it may impact Doctor Who.

Did that all make sense? Perhaps test changing some of your Seris Cover Art file names to see if you observe the same "first file found is used" logic.

I've found the same thing you did, it seems to use the first file found on a partial match. Maybe it's the newest image file or the last file added/imported? I tried it with The Flash and The Tick also.
I've check this on every version of 26 through 26.0.52 and it only happens with 26.0.35 and up (maybe 26.0.34).
Individual season cover art is not affected. Only the main series cover art.
Will try a few more things today as time permits.

Ashfall · « **Reply #5 on:** April 11, 2020, 09:27:43 am »

This might be where the problem lies.

26.0.34 (3/12/2020)

12. Changed: Made composer lookup able to understand strings with years at the end and strings (composer (years)) and reversed in order (last name, first name).

RoderickGI · « **Reply #6 on:** April 11, 2020, 05:23:01 pm »

I guess that could be it, if the new code was applied universally to string lookups.

JRiver will need to look at that.

Matt · « **Reply #7 on:** April 11, 2020, 05:36:39 pm »

All that change did is cleanup the composer string before looking up at Google. It made the string cleanup function able to remove a year after the name, and flips last, first names.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #8 on:** April 11, 2020, 06:30:41 pm »

I guess we have a bit of a mystery then Matt. I don't think what we are seeing is intended functionality, but it is quite obscure and not obvious for most TV Shows.

I looked through the Release Note back as far as MC21 last night and didn't see anything that addressed this area.

Matt · « **Reply #9 on:** April 11, 2020, 06:35:00 pm »

Is it something where we could just have one or two values and try a lookup or is it more buried? Thanks.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #10 on:** April 11, 2020, 08:42:48 pm »

I had to think about that, but here is a simple test. Unfortunately, it still takes a bit to explain.

On a system with the TV Show "The Flash" in the Library, identified correctly as the 2014 series rather than the 1990 series, you should have a Series Cover Art image called "The Flash (2014).jpg" in the "Cover Art\Series" directory. The series is identified as "The Flash (2014)" on TheTVDB, although I just called it "The Flash" in my test Library, with the correct value of [TheTVDB Series ID] saved, which is 279121.

If you also had the original 1990 series called "The Flash" (TheTVDB ID 78650) either now or at some stage in the past, and still had the image file in the "Cover Art\Series" directory, it would be called "The Flash.jpg".

Regardless of the way the Cover Art Series directory is sorted in Windows, MC looks it up by file name. So "The Flash (2014).jpg" is listed before "The Flash.jpg"

First sign of the issue:
As I have renamed the "The Flash (2014)" series in my test Library to "The Flash", MC should be using the Cover Art image file "The Flash.jpg", if it uses an exact match. It doesn't however. It uses the first listed file, "The Flash (2014).jpg".

Second sign of the issue:
If I view the series in Standard View with the top pane's List Style set to Thumbnails, the "The Flash (2014).jpg" image is used as the series Cover Art.
If I rename the image file "The Flash.jpg" to "The Flash (1990).jpg", that file is now listed first in the file list.
If I then refresh the View above, the Cover Art image changes to the "The Flash (1990).jpg" file.
If I rename the "The Flash (1990).jpg" file back to "The Flash.jpg" and refresh the View, the Cover Art image changes back to the "The Flash (2014).jpg" file.

Third sign of the issue:
With the two Cover Art images, "The Flash (2014).jpg" and "The Flash (1990).jpg" in place in the Cover Art Series directory, the latter being used at that time as above, I ran the "Get from internet" function.
MC used the [TheTVDB Series ID] field to look up the correct series, The Flash (2014), on TheTVDB. I selected a new Series Cover Art image and saved it.
MC correctly saved the file as "The Flash.jpg", because the Series is called "The Flash" in my Library, However, MC didn't use this new image. It continued to use the first listed file, in this case "The Flash (1990).jpg".

The three tests above show that MC is using the first Cover Art image file listed in the Cover Art Series directory with a partial name match, rather than the file with an exact match. I expected it to use an exact match to the [Series] name before Ashfall raised this issue. It does explain some of the strange results I have seen with my Doctor Who collection though.

It also makes the Wiki wrong as it says the file naming is [Cover Art]\Series\[Series name].jpg, which makes me think this functionality has changed as some stage.

I have attached a copy of the original Series Cover Art files I used in case that makes it easier to test or understand what I wrote.

Matt · « **Reply #11 on:** April 11, 2020, 09:02:02 pm »

Quote from: RoderickGI on April 11, 2020, 08:42:48 pm

First sign of the issue:
As I have renamed the "The Flash (2014)" series in my test Library to "The Flash", MC should be using the Cover Art image file "The Flash.jpg", if it uses an exact match. It doesn't however. It uses the first listed file, "The Flash (2014).jpg".

I would expect MC to use the [Name] field for the cover art which is what mine seems to be doing. The name is "The Flash (2014)" and the cover art is "The Flash (2014).jpg". Series is "The Flash" but I don't think that matters.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #12 on:** April 11, 2020, 09:32:42 pm »

The [Name] field for me is the Episode name, as I would expect. MC does correctly use the [Name] field for the Episode Cover Art, which is saved next to the video file. We are talking bout the Series Cover Art here.

Refer to the Wiki, which says the Series Cover Art file should be named [Cover Art]\Series\[Series name].jpg. That isn't very standardised terminology, but it translates to {Cover Art directory from settings}\Series\[Series].jpg.

Matt · « **Reply #13 on:** April 12, 2020, 11:49:33 am »

Quote from: RoderickGI on April 11, 2020, 09:32:42 pm

The [Name] field for me is the Episode name, as I would expect. MC does correctly use the [Name] field for the Episode Cover Art, which is saved next to the video file. We are talking bout the Series Cover Art here.

Refer to the Wiki, which says the Series Cover Art file should be named [Cover Art]\Series\[Series name].jpg. That isn't very standardised terminology, but it translates to {Cover Art directory from settings}\Series\[Series].jpg.

Still not reproducing anything. Went the my Series view, looked and The Flash had cover art. Looked on the hard drive and it was in [Cover Art Folder]\Series\The Flash.jpg.

So where is it falling down?

Thanks.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #14 on:** April 12, 2020, 05:17:01 pm »

Ah, I see the issue. You have to do something that forces a refresh/rebuild of the thumbnail. If you are using the Shows > Series View in Theatre View, that doesn't refresh the thumbnail immediately. Plus there is no refresh button to force it. I tried closing and restarting MC, and using the "Rebuild Thumbnail" function, and neither showed the problem immediately. It actually looks like the "Rebuild Thumbnail" function doesn't rebuild the Series Cover Art, but perhaps only the Episode Cover Art?

Use the Shows View in Standard View with the List Style of the top pane set to Thumbnails.

Then find a random image, name it "The Flash (1990).jpg", then put it into your Cover Art Series folder. Refresh the View to see the Cover Art change.

That seems a bit longwinded and perhaps a corner case, but it is just refreshing the Series Cover Art as obviously as possible. Eventually, MC would make the change anyway, or MC would select the incorrect image on first importation of a new Series. The point is, MC is selecting the first partial match, rather than an exact match. It would make more sense for it to only select an exact match, or to select if available, and a partial match if no exact match is found.

Matt · « **Reply #15 on:** April 12, 2020, 06:01:02 pm »

Due to our recent change we will pick the image "The Flash" instead of "The Flash (1990)" because a year after a string gets cropped now. Seems like a non-issue to me though?

RoderickGI · « **Reply #16 on:** April 12, 2020, 08:12:42 pm »

I couldn't find a change that would specifically cause this issue, although I guess this one could if it applied to TV Shows as well as Movies, and if it applied to the Series Cover Art file naming after lookup as well.

25.0.74 (7/8/2019)
1. Changed: When doing a movie lookup, the year will be stripped from the name if the movie is named like [Name] ([Year]).

I knew about that change, and suspected it may have had a hand in this issue. Is this the change you are thinking of?

I'm running MC26.0.56 and it selects the image file named "The Flash (1990).jpg" rather than "The Flash.jpg", if the former exists.

This is an issue for TV Shows whenever TheTVDB uses its standard practice of adding the year to the end of a Series name with brackets around it, when a second Series is created with the same name. So any reboot Series, for example, would be affected.

Doctor Who vs Doctor Who (2005)
The Flash vs The Flash (2014)
The Tick vs The Tick (2001) vs The Tick (2016)
MacGyver vs MacGyver (2016)
V vs V (2009)
Dynasty (1981) vs Dynasty (2017) {Okay, who really cares!}
Lost in Space vs Lost in Space (2018)
Charmed vs Charmed (2018)
The Twilight Zone vs The Twilight Zone (1985) vs The Twilight Zone (2002) vs The Twilight Zone (2019)
Dallas vs Dallas (2012) {Don't really care about this one either!}
Battlestar Galactica vs Battlestar Galactica (2003)

Those are just the programs I could find quickly. It seems to be an issue. I have part or all of the bolded programs in MC, and I have battled with Cover Art images a few times, but not realised what was going on. This could have been the issue.

In fact I just checked my "Battlestar Galactica (2003)" series and found it was using the "Battlestar Galactica" 1978 series Cover Art. I can fix it easily, but then my original "Battlestar Galactica" 1978 series Cover Art changes as well, because they both use the Cover Art image file named "Battlestar Galactica.jpg". Fixing either just toggles the image back and forth. I also tried renaming the "Battlestar Galactica" Series to "Battlestar Galactica (1978)", but could still not resolve the issue. I even tried creating two separate correct files named "Battlestar Galactica (2003).jpg" and "Battlestar Galactica (1978).jpg", but Series Cover Art cannot be assigned from a file, and having these two files in the \Series\ directory now resulted in the second file, "Battlestar Galactica (2003).jpg", being selected by MC.

So there is no manual fix to this incorrect Series Cover Art, if the only difference between Series names is a year suffix.

For movies, the year needs to be stripped. For TV Shows, I don't think it does need to be stripped, because of the Series and Season Cover Art functionality used for TV Shows, which isn't an issue for Movies because the Cover Art lives next to the video file. Regardless, the Cover Art image files selected for TV Shows need to match the [Series] name field, I think, without the year being stripped off.

Thanks for considering Matt.

Matt · « **Reply #17 on:** April 12, 2020, 08:37:18 pm »

Next build we'll try this:
Changed: Made only composer images trim the year from the name of the cover art.

Thanks for all the help.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #18 on:** April 12, 2020, 09:11:27 pm »

Ah, that was the change. I shall test it when available.

RoderickGI · « **Reply #19 on:** April 15, 2020, 03:14:11 am »

Ashfall, this issue was caused by a change implemented in MC26.0.34 I believe and has been fixed in MC26.0.57. Wait for that or a later version becomes public and all should be good.

26.0.34 (3/12/2020)
12. Changed: Made composer lookup able to understand strings with years at the end and strings (composer (years)) and reversed in order (last name, first name).

26.0.57 (4/14/2020)
5. Changed: Made only composer images trim the year from the name of the cover art.

Ashfall · « **Reply #20 on:** April 23, 2020, 04:32:06 pm »

Thanks, that fixed it!

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Author Topic: Series Cover Art Display Bug (Read 1500 times)