Wow there are a like a billion words in that TMDB thread!
I think I understand what it is you want to do, and how it is that TMDB won’t let you.
I spent about an hour trying to figure out why, but I can’t. I read TMDB’s complete policy on Translated Titles (written in my native language) and I still don’t understand it.
I think what they’re saying is … nah, I don’t have a clue. I tried to write that sentence five different ways and couldn’t make it work. Maybe something about it being up to the film studios and distributors to decide what we can call their films … and if they don’t choose to ever release their film in say, for example, China … with a Mandarin title … than Mandarin speakers from China don’t get to bestow upon the film their own title in their own language?
I looked up the first film you cited in the TMDB post: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
So that’s an American made film acted in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. But it’s registered title is in English. It was apparently released separately in Hong Kong and Taiwan with different Cantonese titles, so TMDB accepts users adding both of those titles to its database. Other countries or regions that apparently got localized titles include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Croatia, Ecuador, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain,Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam, and French speaking Canada — but not French speaking France.
Nor did Denmark, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, or the UAE. The film’s official title in each of those countries is the English one.
What I gather this means is … people who speak Danish, German, Hindi, Italian, Dutch, Filipino, Malay, Swedish, or Arabic don’t get to view the title of this movie on TMDB (and thus is Infuse) displayed in their local language. If your speak European Spanish, your fine. You can see the movie’s title displayed in Spanish. But if you live in Mexico — no Spanish title for you. Only English.
Yeah, that’s kinda weird. But I guess, after all, it is the artist’s prerogative to dictate the name their own baby.
…
I have two suggestions which may or may not be useful to you:
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If scraping is the issue that bothers you most, as long as you name your file with the approved primary language title — or any other foreign language title approved for that movie on TMDB, the search should work. If there isn’t an acceptable localized title allowed for you, you may be able to add an “Alternative Title” for that movie to TMDB’s database in your native language. That should allow both your files to be indexed and you not to run afoul of TMDB’s strict rules.
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If instead it’s your videos displayed titles (inside Infuse) that bother you — and you want your foreign-language titled movies displayed and indexed in your library as if they were released in your native language, than you can use a custom XML or NFO file to override what is displayed in Infuse for each of those movies or series.
