Problem with metadata

I just started setting up metadata for all my movie files in Serviio and since I have about 2000 I wanted this to be as automatic as possible. I set it for online metadata sources most of the files loaded correct metadata. A very significant number did not . As I understand the way Serviio works, even if you have online metadata sources set, If the file itself has embedded metadata Serviio will find that first. I found a program, Professional Tag Editor which also uses TMDB. It looks for all the entries in TMDB that match your filename and then lets you select the correct one and then adds the metadata for that film to your file. The problem is that although this works for many files; Serviio shows the correct data after it has re-scanned; for many files it still fails. Can anyone explain this? If I use the IMDB id number in the file name method the correct metadata is found after a while, but that metadata should be exactly the same as that which is already embedded in the file since both methods extract the data from TMDB. Does anyone know of a similar program which would take your filename, look up the potential matches in IMDB and let you select the correct movie and then write the IMDB id number to your filename? That would be the ideal solution.

[atc98092]

I use Filebot to name files, but it's not capable of including the IMDB number to my knowledge. I take that back. I just made a quick review of the documentation and the IMDB ID is an available field that can be added to a file. It's not a free program, but if you're using it on a regular basis the cost is worth it. If you use Windows, it's slightly less expensive to buy a license from their web site rather than through the Microsoft Store. ($48 compared to $52.99)

https://www.filebot.net/

I just finished adding/repairing the metadata for my 2000+ videos. The failure rate of the algorithm that Serviio uses was about 15-20 %. A few of those were fixed by implanting metadata in the files but most had to have the IMDB ID# appended to the file name. In my experience the algorithm failed most often with misspelled file names (expected), films with identical names: the Serviio almost always seems to pick the most recent film even if it is junk and the earlier film is a classic. It also doesn't handle long complex file names with punctuation in the middle. It found only 4 of the 8 Harry Potter films correctly for example. I have only found one film that cannot be found at all. The Movie titled "5-25-77". It is in the IMDB and the TMDB but even with the IMDB ID # in the title Serviio can't find it.

[atc98092]

I have all eight Harry Potter movies, and Serviio identified them all without an issue. I follow the standard file naming convention of title (release year). So for example Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001).m2ts. It's extremely rare for Serviio to mis-identify a movie using this naming convention. I've had a bit more trouble with TV series, but it's rare I need to use the IMDB number.

I have learned a lot from other members about what I was doing wrong with metadata and I now have thousands indexed correctly using just the Title or the Title name (release year), or the Title name and IMDB number. In all those files I can only not get 2 not to work. The last one is "The Long, Long Trailer (1954)" tt0047191. In addition to searching with this info I have all the metadata embedded in the file. The interesting thing is that part of the metadata is displayed, the producer, director, tag line and date but the full summary, the actors and the cover image do not display and the information that doesn't display cannot be searched for; if I search directors for Vincent Minnelli, the movie shows up, but if I search for Lucile Ball in actors it does not. Can anyone explain this peculiar behavior? The other movie is "5-25-77 (2008)" tt0326716. For that film the only thing that displays is the Tag Line "The True story of a boy...a girl...and the movie that changed everything."

[atc98092]

For The Long, Long Trailer, the issue is likely a problem with themoviedb information. However, when I reviewed the info it all seems to be present. I have no idea why it's not populating the Serviio database correctly.

Your issue with 5-25-77 is a difference of opinion of the release date. IMDB says 2008, but themoviedb says it's 2022. And Serviio (while it can use the IMDB ID number for identification) is using the data from themoviedb.org, so your year needs to agree with their data to get it right. The two sites really differ on the release date, but it's the same movie.

For me anyway changing the release date for "5-25-77" to 2022 didn't help. Still only displays the tag line. I tried removing the 2 films from the scanned folders, updating the database and then returning then to the scanned folders. The only difference is that now "The Long,Long Trailer" doesn't display the director anymore. Interesting.
Sorry to obsess over this small problem. I tried removing the embedded metadata from these 2 films which didn't help and replaced it, no help. Serviio documentation says it looks for embedded metadata first but to me that doesn't seem to be true. I don't know anything about how metadata is embedded in a MP4 file. Could errors in the way it is embedded cause Serviio not to be able to read it? When I embed the data I am using a program named Professional Tag Editor which pulls it's data from the movie database just like Serviio.