Overridding TheTVDB

Metadata & Artwork
#1

There was a series called Firefly (you might have heard of it) that Fox aired out of order. I would like to display the metadata, however, TheTVDB is listing the episodes in air date rather than in story order. For many older series this doesn’t matter, but Firefly has a narrative arc and the order of the episodes matters.

If I understand correctly, my only options is as follows:

  1. Set the folder containing Firefly to use local metadata
  2. Create a local metadata file for each episode replicating the information from TheTVDB
  3. Name the episodes in story order rather than in air date order

Is that correct? If so, can someone please provide a metadata template for this use case? The sample movie template provided in metadata 101 doesn’t seem like it would apply here.

Also, if there’s an easier way to do this, I’m all ears. :slight_smile:

#2

This series is indeed a problem. It is interesting that TVDB also has a listing of the DVD order – which is the correct order. Maybe Infuse could give us an option to choose that instead of the default TVDB air date order.

#3

Firefly isn’t even the only series for which that’s an issue, either. I’ve had to do this with Invader Zim, the Muppets, and Sam & Max Freelance Police as well - and that one was even worse, because not only did the air dates not match the DVD dates, the DVD joined pairs of episodes that were completely different, so they had to first be split in half, THEN painstakingly reordered.

#4

Why not raise this issue with TheTVDB instead? Surely it must be best to fix it at the source rather than trying to patch it in Infuse?

#5

The TVDB are very strict about listing in air date. This specific show has been discussed many times in TVDB and will not change which is why I imagine the poster has asked here.

#6

Exactly so. Also, as noted, TheTVDB is currently recognizing that a difference between air date order and DVD order exists - there’s just no way to tell Infuse which to use.

#7

In the meantime - can anyone help with the metadata? It’s not at all clear to me how to specify the episode number in the XML itself.

#8

The way I do it is using the Movie XML but replace the first line from media type=“Movie” to media type=“TV Show” then in order to create the episode numbers, I use the naming of the file ie Mytvshow.s01e01 rather than in the XML and I have found they appear in order in my library. Is this what you mean or am I not following correctly?

#9

It’s just because they are stubborn, then. If there is a DVD release with a different sorting they could just add that release, and then the users could manually match that one instead. I have got a similar issue with the Blade Runner movies. There are at least 3 or 4 different versions and TVDB only matches the 1982 original movie.

#10

Ok, now you have my curiosity peaked, I can’t find any other versions of the Blade Runner movie that are named Blade Runner other than the 1982 version. What are they?