Clear rules for using local metadata files for TV Shows ? I am lost

Metadata & Artwork
1

Hi all

Been playing around with metadata for Movies and Tv Shows. I have issues with TV Shows I can’t seem to understand how it is supposed to work,

I had a huge collection of already downloaded posters, fanart and xml files for movies, so I decided to switch off Metadata fetching in the settings and also off Embedded Metadata.
This worked like a charm, no issue with movies, looks great with my good old posters (well, except for the transparency issue I posted about earlier).

Now, I decided to do the same for TVShows, i.e preparing all files local (series postes, season posters, episodes thumbnails, xml files etc). Unfortunately, I cannot get this to work.

I fully respected the naming and structure guidelines, but no way. If I switch off “fetch metadata”, all my TV Shows end up in “Other” in Library instead of “TV Shows”.
As soon as I enable Fetch Metadata, all TVshows appear correctly in the library.

Even weirder : when TV Shows are in the “Other” category, page template is different and posters are sized like for Movies, instead of the nice horizontal thumbnail template available in the TV SHows section of the Library.

Sorry for a long introduction, my question is :

How should local information for a TV Show be organized so that metadata fetching can be switched off and TV Shows appear correctly in library/TV Shows ?

AS an example, here is my current structure for a given show. If anybody here can help me understand this a bit better, thank you !

Main folder : TV Shows
→ subfolder : Alias
folder.jpg (the poster for the Alias show)
→ Subfolder : Season 01
→ folder.jpg (the poster for season 1)
→ Alias -.S01E01.mkv
→ Alias -.S01E01.xml
→ Alias -.S01E01.jpg (poster for the episode)
→ Alias -.S01E01-fanart.jpg (fanart for the episode)
→ Alias -.S01E02.mkv
→ Alias -.S01E02.xml
→ Alias -.S01E02.jpg
→ Alias -.S01E02-fanart.jpg (fanart for the episode)
etc…,.
→ Subfolder : Season 02
etc…

I also tried to put files in the “Alias” root directory named “Season 01-poster.jpg”, “Season 02-poster.jpg” etc, but no difference.

Thanks for your advices !

2

Update : just thought of something. Could this be linked to a “wrong” xml file ?
Cannot check here at work, but maybe the xml files are missing the correct header ?
Documentation recommends first tag to be : media type=“TV Show”

I must say I completely forgot to check this.
Maybe that’s why TV SHows go to the “other” category…
Can’t wait to go back home to check !

3

Metadata Fetching needs to be enabled for TV Shows to appear in the Library. We recommend keeping it on anyways as trakt sync related features will not work without it.

With Metadata Fetching on, you can still override any info you wish by using your own XML and image files.

1 Like
4

Perfect. Thanks

5

So my question is very related to this, if either one of you can help me…

What is the xml format for tv shows? I know mediatype will be set to TV, but what else…? Can anyone hook me up with a blank xml template similar to the Movie template, but with all the TV tags Infuse will be able to read?

I know I need an xml file for every episode, but what about one for the series?

6

Hi ?

You can use this Example XML-File for your TV-Series:

Just name the XML the same like your videofile-name and it should working :slight_smile:

You can customize all Informations like Actor, Writer, Description, Star-Rating etc

You don’t need a special XML for the series…
But you should make a subfolder, if you like to use custom fanart and Season-Posters etc ??

7

Thanks this is super helpful! So is there no need for an XML for the series that includes a description (etc.) for the series? I realize Infuse’s grid view does not display any description for series, but list view does.

8

You can use a custom description for each Episode :slight_smile:

A series Description is not necessary ?

9

? Thanks!

10

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