Infuse (6.5.3) doesn't fetch poster image for a show (and some related, weird behavior)

Hi everyone,

I have a problem with a show not displaying the poster in the library. I know there are some other thread here about this, but some are rather old or too long and this is my take at the problem, providing as much helpful information as I can to nail the problem down.


So first the obligatory infos:

  • Device 1: Apple TV 4k (latest tvOS), Infuse Version 6.5.3 (3328)
  • Device 2: iPhone 12 (latest iOS), Infuse Version 6.5.3 (3328)
  • File-Protocol: SMB (video files comding
  • Where: Show poster image missing in Infuse library view
  • Show name: “Alle gegen Einen”
  • Show link: Alle gegen Einen - TheTVDB.com
  • Show poster present on TheTVDB: yes
  • Show poster present in my selected language (German) on TheTVDB: yes

Directory structure:

./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x01.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x02.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x03.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x04.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x01.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x02.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x03.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x04.mkv

image

image

image


What works:

  • Infuse recognizes the seasons
  • Infuse fetches the metadata (description, genre, crew etc.)

What does not work:

  • Infuse does not fetch/display the show poster in the library, neither for the show nor for the two seasons of the show

(Everytime I tried someting, I restarted Infuse on both devices and refreshed the library.)


What I tried:

  • Organize files into subfolders “Season 1”, “Season 2”
  • Organize files into subfolders “Staffel 1”, “Staffel 2”
  • Manually selected the metadata for each season in Infuse
  • Used poster.jpg and also poster.png in the shows directory
  • Plus the “What worked partly” and “What worked” below

What worked partly (1):

  • Added season-1-poster.jpg and season-2-poster.jpg (without having season subfolders) → Poster visible in library, but NOT as seasons posters (really weird I think!)
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x01.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x02.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x03.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x04.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x01.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x02.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x03.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x04.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/season-1-poster.jpg
./Alle gegen Einen/season-2-poster.jpg
./Alle gegen Einen/poster.jpg

What worked (2):

  • Added season-1-poster.jpg and season-1-poster.jpg (WITH having season subfolders) → Show poster visible in library and for seasons posters
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 1/Alle gegen Einen - 1x01.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 1/Alle gegen Einen - 1x02.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 1/Alle gegen Einen - 1x03.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 1/Alle gegen Einen - 1x04.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 1/season-1-poster.jpg
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 2/Alle gegen Einen - 2x01.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 2/Alle gegen Einen - 2x02.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 2/Alle gegen Einen - 2x03.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 2/Alle gegen Einen - 2x04.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Season 2/season-2-poster.jpg
./Alle gegen Einen/poster.jpg

(By the way, my poster images are 680x1000 px. I know that “Metadata 101” recommended 1000x1500 px for folder art, I hope this is not the problem here.)

Now there seems to be a combination which works (2), but I really don’t want to organize only 8 files in subfolders. I want that 8 video files in one directory.


So these question remain:

  1. Why does Infuse not fetch the poster image from TheTVDB.org?
  2. Why is this show to problematic where about 20 other shows, which follow the exact naming and directory structure, do not have any problems fetching/displaying the shows poster?
  3. Why is (1) working partly and (2) working fully?

I’m not the one who screams “bug!” early, but the whole behavior is really weird, and least intransparent.


The first question above is the most important for me, any thoughts? :slight_smile:


Thanks a lot!

I just did a test with the following file names and structure. It pulled the poster for the series and displayed it correctly.

Series Screen

Season Screen

Note my screens won’t have any descriptions since I’m set to English and there’s no English translations for this show yet.

Note that TheTVDB.org seems to redirect to TheMovieDB.org and that may be why you see different posters. If you go to TheTVDB.com I think you’ll see that your show does have a series poster but no season posters. This should result in you seeing the series poster for the seasons also. It did for me.

Infuse uses the “.com” for TV shows not the “.ORG” you are looking at.

Here is the file structure that worked for me and also has given the best results for all TV shows getting the correct metadata for me. I know others are listed as acceptable but this form works better than the others for me.

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Hey @NC_Bullseye, first a big thank you for taking the time and do some tests!

And second I have to apologize, because I didn’t meant to write TheTVDB.org, I always meant TheTVDB.com :woozy_face:

If you go to TheTVDB.com I think you’ll see that your show does have a series poster but no season posters. This should result in you seeing the series poster for the seasons also. It did for me.

Well, not for me with the directory and file layout of:

./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x01.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x02.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x03.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 1x04.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x01.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x02.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x03.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/Alle gegen Einen - 2x04.mkv
./Alle gegen Einen/season-1-poster.jpg
./Alle gegen Einen/season-2-poster.jpg
./Alle gegen Einen/poster.jpg

Furthermore, with the above structure I currently see the following:

image


So Infuse on the Apple TV has still no show poster, but Infuse on my iPhone displays it (everything refreshed, synced, restartet…) :slightly_frowning_face:

I currently have not much time but I will test your directory and naming pattern maybe tomorrow and see if that works. But most certainly this is not a solution for me, because ALL other shows habe the naming pattern like the show “Alle gegen Einen” and it works for every single one of them.

(And why is the image missing on the Apple TV even if I have the .jpg files in the shows directory? I just don’t get it…)

Hi @NC_Bullseye, I wanted to do some more testing and give some feedback…

So now I changed my directory and file structure exactly to your variant, which looks like this:

Alle gegen Einen
    Season 01
        Alle gegen Einen S01E01.mkv
        Alle gegen Einen S01E02.mkv
        Alle gegen Einen S01E03.mkv
        Alle gegen Einen S01E04.mkv
    Season 02
        Alle gegen Einen S02E01.mkv
        Alle gegen Einen S02E02.mkv
        Alle gegen Einen S02E03.mkv
        Alle gegen Einen S02E04.mkv

This is your folder and file structure (except I do not have a third season). I even removed all poster image files.

Then I refreshed my library on the iPhone. The show poster is displayed. The season images not:

I also refreshed and resynced the library on my Apple TV, and there is no poster image at all - not for the show and also not for the seasons.


I just don’t understand whats going on :slightly_frowning_face:

Can you try adjusting the season poster image name?

season 1-poster.jpg

(no hyphen after season)

Once that is done, use the Edit option on one of the episodes and reselect the correct series name to refresh metadata/artwork.

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Hello @james, thanks a lot for chiming in - I will try your suggestion this weekend and will give feedback.

1 Like