Use local metadata/artwork when downloading files

Suggestions
1

Just checking if this is a little bug or a feature suggestion, and if it happens to anyone else. I’ve got infuse which I usually use connected to my Plex server. if I select something to download, I feel like it should keep the metadata (series name, picture etc) from the Plex server rather than re-scrape the metadata itself. I normally wouldn’t notice but I have an archive of F1 races on my Plex server. Plex is properly configured to name them as the races they are, but if I download an episode to infuse, it re-scrapes the data, and incorrectly too.

For example, on my Plex server I might have a file:
/Media/Sport/Formula 1/Season 1997/Formula 1 - s1997e14 - Austrian Grand Prix.avi

Which on Plex shows as a formula 1 race in the 1997 season as “Austrian Grand Prix” and sorted in 14th place. that’s exactly what I want.

However when I downloaded this race to infuse on my iPad to watch on the train, it showed it as:
“Formula 1: Drive to Survive - S1997 • E14 - Formula 1: Drive to Survive”

As the great Roy Walker would say, it’s good but it’s not right… I mean, it’s good enough to know what it is, and I still watched it but that feels like a bug.

I assume that having downloaded a bare file, it’s then re-scraped the metadata and got it wrong, but the right metadata has been presented to it on a plate, I would think it would use that… esp as that’s where I’ll edit the metadata to make sure it’s right…

Has this affected anyone else?

PS. I only recently discovered that infuse can download files from Plex, and it works quickly and reliably, thanks very much. I feel like that’s a feature Infuse should advertise, as it’s not mentioned on the features page as far as I can see.

6 Likes
2

Has no-one else seen this?

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what I have found with infuse is it dosn’t display some of the same posters as in plex,
I am trying to use tiny media manager to solve this but not sure if in setting menu should be set to plex or kodi for best results.
That’s an interesting comment about downloading files from plex to infuse can you tell us how to go about that?
Thank’s

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I think it has different posters because it’s doing its own metadata scraping, possibly from somewhere else, and ignoring any poster choice you’ve made in Plex. I feel like it should respect the metadata from Plex as that’s the one you’ve specifically chosen.

in terms of how to download, go into infuse (I’m doing this on my iPad), if it’s a film, go to the page for the film, tap the three dots at the top right and tap download, it will immediately start downloading the film at full quality. If it’s a TV show, go into the show and hold down on either the episode or the season and tap download from the menu there. it works fast and efficiently. Not sure why Plex can’t do the same…

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TMDB does not index Formula 1 races; or any other live sports except for PPV events.

Formula 1 is explicitly mentioned as banned in their contribution bible.

Thus any race you attempt to scrape with Infuse will not return correct metadata.

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I understand that, that’s why it’s getting it wrong. that’s not my point. My point is why infuse doesn’t accept the metadata from the Plex server when downloading the file and keep that? why download it again and have an opportunity to get it wrong, when I’ve gone to the effort of getting it right on the server?

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I don’t use Plex so can only speculate:

When connected to a Plex library, Infuse shows metadata provided by the Plex Server.

When you download a file from your Plex Server to Infuse, what you get is a copy of the file that lives on the server. This copy is not indexed by the Plex Server (because your Plex server isn’t indexing — and possibly can’t index — the location where the file was downloaded to on your Apple Device).

Therefore, Infuse can no longer rely on Plex to provide the Metadata for that downloaded file. Instead, Infuse tries to identify this unidentified downloaded file itself, using TMDB.

That’s my guess, anyway.

…

Does your Plex server create .nfo files for your media? Infuse has limited support of metadata override via .nfo. But in my experience the video to which it belongs must first be identified internally (by Infuse) as something at TMDB for the .nfo to be queried and its contents to begin overriding the metadata that otherwise would be displayed (information that Infuse gathered from TMDB).

Possibly if you copy both the video file and its .nfo (plus its poster and fanart images) Infuse will read and display this metadata. I can’t say for sure, as I’ve never downloaded anything to my Infuse apps that required this.

Perhaps management or someone with more expertise in this area can chime in and tell us if I’m on the right path, or just theorizing completely nutters. :man_shrugging:t2:

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My Plex server doesn’t create .NFO files, I don’t even know if that’s an option for it tbh. I just figured that infuse shouldn’t need to pull metadata as it’s been given it…

Anyway, I’ve raised a support ticket for it, so I’m waiting to see what comes back.

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I wanted to give an update on this problem, which is that no-one is looking at my support request at all. I’ll stay on it…

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I mean, I don’t work for Firecore, but I did respond to you in detail about what’s happening, and why it probably isn’t a bug.

Did you try anything I suggested?

(.nfo files can also be created by Kodi and TinyMediaManager, or by hand in any text editor. A sample is provided on the support website, here.)

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I understood exactly what you said about why it’s happening, so I understand why it’s mis-naming the show. My argument is that it shouldn’t re-scrape metadata when it has already been given correct metadata. Infuse here is directly accessing my Plex server which has been configured correctly for these episodes.

In terms of your solution, as far as I know, Plex doesn’t support NFO files, either reading or generating them. When you say “copy both the video file and its .nfo (plus its poster and fanart images)”, copy them where? I’m not copying files, I am using infuse to access my Plex server, going to the desired episode and hitting download in the infuse UI. I’m not copying the file from my nas onto the iPad and then playing it there. When I view the show in infuse on my Plex server, the metadata is correct, it’s only when it downloads the episode that it rescrapes the metadata and gets it wrong.

I see that as a bug. not a major bug perhaps but a bug nevertheless. right now, fire core has not yet picked up my support call so I don’t know if they consider it as bug yet :slight_smile:

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I get you.

My guess is they’ll view it as a suggestion for a new feature.

Lots of us have been asking for ages for Infuse to fully support custom metadata — this would probably require them to add that support first; because without the file being located on and tied to the Plex server, they probably have nowhere (internally) to move the Plex metadata to — Infuse’s internal database doesn’t appear to support anything but what is indexed at TMDB.

:crossed_fingers:t3:

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Interesting… I kinda assumed they had a local db for metadata which they filled from tvdb, and hence could fill from Plex… I guess we’ll see :slight_smile:

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It would seem they could do that … yet they clearly don’t for .nfo derived metadata (instead creating a second database just for .nfo-sourced metadata that doesn’t play well with the TMDB-derived one, nor get the same level of background import support) and I don’t know if that is for reasons or just sloppiness.

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When downloading files from Plex, Infuse does not currently download the metadata and will fetch its own.

Unfortunately, this means you may not see metadata for things like Formula 1 races, since these are not allowed on TMDB. I suppose this particular case is sort of rare since TMDB has most titles these days.

I’ve adjusted the title of this thread and moved it to suggestions for now.

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16

Called it. :wink::grimacing:

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James,
Thanks for responding to me. While this case involves a mis-match of data and is rare, I would suggest that by redownloading metadata you’re also ignoring custom metadata, posters etc that the user might have put into their Plex server so while my case is more severe, it’s still an issue wider than just me.
Thanks for moving it to suggestions and I hope it gets some attention at some point soon.
David

PS. @FLskydiver you da man! (or woman!)

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For a second I was confused by your thoughtful non-assumption because I read your post as addressing me by name. From one David to another, cheers! :beers:

Punched in this suggestion’s first like.
Will keep my fingers crossed for you.

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19

Just adding another data point to this. I also have the same issue.

TVDB is pretty good for a lot of Western media, but since lockdown I’ve been watching a lot of foreign TV, and I’ve had to manually type in a lot of the metadata into Jellyfin because it’s not available in TVDB.

Unfortunately, because Infuse does its own lookup, the same show can look like a completely different show on Infuse once it’s downloaded.

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Right now, Infuse grabs the video and subtitle file. But it would be nice to grab an NFO / XML file as well.

Especially since Plex has server generated metadata that can’t be found elsewhere (like Intro and Credit timestamps).

In fact, if this gets implemented, I’ll switch fully over to Infuse and only use Plex to generate intro and credit metadata. As soon as that’s generated and Infuse saves it locally, I’ll remove it from Plex and that could be my workflow to have full Plex functionality but completely within Infuse.

1 Like