I think the switch would be great, but if possible leave a setting in case anyone wants to stick with previous provider.
Thanks for the info.
We’re still weighing a few options, so nothing has been decided just yet.
Seems a much better way for anime. For example Dragon Ball Super: Season 1 (2015) — The Movie Database (TMDb) or Cowboy Bebop: Season 1 (1998) — The Movie Database (TMDb) - most animes don’t come in seasons, so cramping everything into season 1 is much easier (if only Infuse would default to season 1 that is)
Thanks for all the feedback! 
The original post has been updated with details about our current plan.
Like Trakt I think TMDB is the best source for TV shows and movies 
We’re switching to TMDB as the primary data source for TV shows
2 Likes
I second this motion. I looked at both sites and the artwork on TMDB seems much better.
1 Like
Hello all -
We originally brought this up back in 2017, but are considering making the switch again.
We’d love to hear your thoughts as we weigh all the various options moving forward.
Thanks!
1 Like
In your first post it sounds like you would still use TVDB for TV data with better artwork from TMDB. Would that still be the case?
One of my concerns is with your plans to include higher resolution artwork in the iCloud sync how would that impact the storage requirements for iCloud?
How do their servers compare speed wise since some users rely more on TV data than movie data?
Would it be more likely to lead to us being able to choose artwork if we switch to TMDB?
Is the data comparability still close?
This is an approach we considered, but never got around to implementing.
Infuse currently uses TMDb 100% for movies, and TheTVDB 100% for TV shows. If we made the switch, it would be mean Infuse uses TMDb 100% for both movies and TV shows.
Storage and speed requirements wouldn’t be that different, and iCloud sync of artwork will be optional…once it’s implemented in Infuse.
Really, the main question is: Is TV show data in TMDb complete enough to replace TheTVDB?
I know this was older, but did it mean it was faster and better than TMDb or from its previous v1 API? What about download quotas, etc with TMDb. Would this be an issue (slow downloading all of the metadata)? I’m thinking more of the people with 10k+ episodes.
Based on what I read with Trakt, who is also switching solely to TMDb, they are very close are actively working on getting matching data. I would say that it is probably a good idea. TMDb has a better web interface, for sure, if you need to look something up or edit things.
Currently in TheTVDB to match certain shows you have to add the date because it is part of the title of the show. In the case of TMDb would it just work, or would it require a lot of retuning of filenames (lots of files for each tv show)?
Maybe you could enable TMDb for tv shows in the beta and have an option to switch between the two providers for us to test out first. Also, still bugs me, the automatic updates of artwork. I would like to see that disabled, then if we do switch, a prompt asking if you want to update artwork to (more than likely) better quality using TMDb. Once you open to public this will most likely incur some disagreement if everything just starts changing.
Personally I don’t care too much about the metadata for tv shows as long as the episodes are in the correct order and have artwork. I hide spoilers so really descriptions don’t matter too much.
We’re currently using TheTVDB’s v3 API. They are rolling out v4, and we’ll have to migrate eventually if we want to continue using their data.
I strongly believe TMDb will continue to improve over time and will eventually equal/surpass TheTVDB for community sourced data. It’s just hard to say if it’s good enough to switch to right now.
1 Like
Could we do a poll post?
A TMDb
B TheTVDB
C Don’t care
I’m not sure a poll would answer any real question. Since the data provided is fetched via an API it’d be difficult to know how it would be different when presented in Infuse. We’d almost need to be able to see the two side by side to really make a decision like some smart user has already suggested. 
If we did present a poll I’d say add one more choice, “D. Which ever provides the best and most accurate content” since some users like myself use Infuse more for TV show viewing over movies.
Probably the biggest factor is going to be how stable the source is with it’s API so Firecore isn’t battling another developers errors and changes all the time.
The real issue is that old API access is expected to be turned off in a couple of months as TheTVDB will remove free API access. I imagine Firecore are already paying for a commercial licence, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the cost of this is increasing.
Currently, TheTVDB is still more comprehensive than TMDb for TV shows. However, I know some other apps are being forced to make the switch because of these licensing changes. So the expectation is that TMDb will get better for TV as the wider community makes the transition.
So if the licensing cost is a concern, or would lead to a price increase for Infuse, I would say shift to TMDb now. If this is not an issue, then stick with TheTVDB for a little longer to see how things play out with TMDb.
1 Like
Yes, we have had a commercial agreement in place with TheTVDB for the past year or so.
TheTVDB will soon be shutting off the v3 API Infuse currently uses, so in order to continue with TheTVDB we’ll need to devote a fair amount of effort to transition to the v4 API (which has quite a few differences).
With that said, many other projects are migrating away from TheTVDB (Kodi has been using TMDb as default since 2019). I personally believe much of the community effort that has helped build TheTVDB is going to shift to TMDb and over time the data at TMDb will eventually surpass TheTVDB.
We’ve been weighing the options for the past few weeks, and as of right now it looks like we are planning to move to TMDb within the next few months.
2 Likes
One other thought/concern, will this impact the memory used on the different devices like the stock ATV and iPhones at 32GB of memory that it would cause more frequent loss of metadata due to other apps needing that space on occasion?
With the recent changes at TVDB they have really closed off what was easily accessible info in the forum so TMDB is looking better all the time.
I don’t foresee there being any meaningful differences in storage requirements.
1 Like
If that’s the way you’re going, then fine, no doubt there will be teething issues in data matching so can I ask for some kind of “Don’t update” selection. ATM movie posters using TMDB change all the time in infuse, so adding the same to TV shows would be a nightmare, also will there be a way of selecting broadcast date or disc episodes?
Keep up the good work
1 Like
This is something we hope to add in the future, but it will likely be a separate addition.
I would be down to switching to tmdb for tv shows especially if we can choose the episode order shown under Overview > Episode Groups. It’s such a crucial feature that IMO is sorely missing.