Serviio

HI,

I have a large movie collection on Windows 7. Serviio, picks up the description from TheMovieDB.org and this mostly works fine. I noticed a TV series with descriptions obviously written by a non-English speaker so I changed them appropriately on theMovieDB.org. It has been 4 days since I made those changes on TheMovieDB.org and I expected the episodes descriptions would have updated by now. I have tried both "refresh the shares" and "force metadata update" umteen zillion times EVERY DAY and neither brings in the new descriptions. I have rebooted Windows 7 at least 2 times each day and that doesn't change anything either.

In KODI 17 RC (Android 5), I have the "library" setup with UPNP shares on the Windows 7 box (not SMB shares). In KODI, I have an add-on that refreshes/cleans the library every 1 hour. That has no effect on the errant descriptions. New content/additions to the Windows directories are showing up as expected and when I correct improper metadata in the filenames, missing descriptions are updated and added.

I rebooted the KODI box and cleared all the caches (KODI and Android) - the old no longer extant descriptions are still there!

I uninstalled KODI on my Android TV Box, cleared the Android TV cache, redownloaded most current version of KODI, installed it and the no longer existing descriptions continue to show up in KODI, not the updated ones!

I renamed all the episodes and that didn't change anything. I converted them from MPEG to MKV and that didn't do anything.


On TheMovieDB.org, I used a browser that I rarely use on a machine that has never browsed to theMovieDB.org and browsed to the updated entries (without logging in) and the changes are present in TheMovieDB.org so this is verification that theMovieDB.org is acting, as expected.

Is there a way to manually view the metadata that Serviio has collected for a Movie or TV episode from Windows so that I can determine if this is some kind of KODI error or if Serviio is just messing up!

The only thing that I can think might be happening is that either Serviio is caching descriptions and doesn't actually update the Metadata as long as the Name, Series/Episode Year don't change or theMovieDB.org caches all descriptions in a separate read-only db for programs like Serviio and that has lagged behind the main/updateable database on theMovieDB.org and eventually that will get updated but that is just a my SWAG on what might be happening.


I have about 5,000 Movies or TV Episodes in my Windows Shares. The particular TV series is Æon Flux (1991) -- https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/406-aeon-flux

Alternatively is the Special Character Æ causing difficulties of some sort for Serviio?
Thanks for any help you can provide or any light that you can shed on the situation.

I think I have found an answer of sorts. For TV series, evidently Serviio searches TVDB.com FIRST rather than TheMovieDB.org which has the bad episode content. Is there a way to force Serviio to search TheMovieDB FIRST - perhaps something in the Metadata in the video file title? I have posted a request to have the absolutely ghastly content (spelling, missing connectives, tons of superfluous commas, run on sentences, inappropriate homonyms) which is largely incoherent and highly misleading to be fixed. How they could lock such an abomination is beyond me but I guess the powers that be DO NOT READ.

Again, is there a way to FORCE TheMovieDB to be searched FIRST and then only use TVDB if not found - generally (for all videos) or is there a way to force the election through coding in the file name?

You found the answer - it's because Serviio uses themoviedb for movies and uses thetvdb.com for TV series. You will need to make the changes in thetvdb.com.

On second thought there may be a way. From version 1.6.1 Serviio will fall back to themoviedb.org for series search if thetvdb.com is not available. This was because of a lot of connectivity issues with thetvdb.com at the time. So you may be able to make use of this by barring thetvdb.com from being reached from your network, either by:

• Most routers will have a black list allowing you to ban certain sites. If you add thetvdb.com to your blacklist you should then force Serviio to use themoviedb.com.
• Redirecting thetvdb.com to a dummy IP address using your local hosts file - see http://www.wikihow.com/Block-a-Website- ... b-Browsers

Problem I see here is that this process will take time - Serviio will try thetvdb.com first (maybe more than once, I cant recall) before falling back. I have not tested either of the above so would be interested to see if it works (you will need to Rescan Metadata and Force Refresh I believe to trigger a new "grab" of metadata).

I tend to agree with your request though. I would probably just prefer one online source (and given thetvdb has proven flakey in the past, themoviedb may be the better one to go to - or to IMDb. I suspect the case was when Serviio was first developed neither of those databases dealt with TV series well). It would be nice to be able to select it - if not, just have the one (it would probably make coding easier as well). Perhaps raise a bitbucket, however there may be very valid reasons why both have been retained.

NOT SO GOOD NEWS, Read Followup post



The DNS Hack (HOSTS) works perfectly! THANK YOU I do have the option of banning TheTVDB.com at the network level (Firewall or my Domain DNS server) but I would like to access the site on my other computers other than the DLNA server so the HOSTS file pointing TheTVDB.com to 127.0.0.1 localizes it to that particular computer.

Now all of my TV series overview descriptions are flowing from TheMovieDB.org. BLISS! TheTVDB.com has been banned from my DLNA server!!!!! (Cheers, Whistles, Fireworks)

From a purely pragmatic viewpoint, it would be really nice if I could code something into the video file name that Serviio can use to either (Like "NoTVDBCOM" or "ForceTheMovieDBORG")

Exclude a particular provider
Force a particular provider

At a higher level, it would be great if the user could customize the search order for online sources for Movies (TheMovieDB.org, IMDB, etc.) and TV Series (TheMovieDB.org, TheTVDB.com, IMDB, etc).

Beyond simple search priority, it would be fantastic to be able to exclude a particular source globally too (no need for the DNS hack) but obviously, not ALL sources can be permitted to be excluded -- rather than brute forcing it with a DNS hack.

Now all those options are something that would severely entice me to $$$PAY$$$ for Serviio Pro! Think about it!

Thoughts?

PS ... for those that want a good guffaw or belly laugh compare the episode overviews on
http://www.thetvdb.com/index.php?tab=se ... 8660&lid=7 - Not only is the content wrong and confusing but I have not seen such an abomination of the English language before.
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/406-aeon-flux - Pretty decent ones

Well, TVDB updated the overviews with relevant content so not so much to laugh or guffaw at or just be terribly sick as to how the English language can be utterly butchered ... but good news for those that wish to view them! The original abominations still exist on Couch Potato -- and I am perfectly happy that couch potato is not a source of Metadata for Serviio!

Well, I misspoke.

Aeon Flux, alphabetically, is the first TV series encountered and the descriptions for the episodes came from TheMovieDB.org but the DNS hack fails.

Here is how. I moved a bunch of MOVIES into a subfolder and told Serviio to rescan the folders.

The movies did not disappear from where they came and did not reappear (with or without metadata) in the new folder after 3 requests to RESCAN the shares and 2 reboots. TV series later in the collating sequence are missing descriptions altogether - and so are Movies that had good descriptions. The log shows Serviio starting the REFRESH and then immediately terminating.

The corroborating clue came when I added several movies and the video count on the console did not change!

Apparently, as Serviio tries to access TheTVDB.com and cannot it waits some long period of time (45 seconds?) before it times out and as more episodes queue up to have the metadata updated/created, the timeouts prevent any and all access for ANY video file, Movie or TV irrespective of Metadata. Eventually, the number of connections being attempted exceeds the limit in my Sonicwall Firewall (10K)

After removing the DNS hack, Serviio is again updating the library with new/renamed movies and TV episodes and removing old deleted/renamed entries.

So no, the DNS hack is a dismal failure. Need another option!