[canadave]

I'm a longtime Kodi user, so I know a fair bit about how the scraper is supposed to work, but I've got one TV show that is being really stubborn and isn't scraping quite as expected. Hoping maybe someone can give me a hint.

The TV show is called "Pothedz Couch" on TVDB; it's at https://www.thetvdb.com/series/pothedz-couch. The info that's on the TVDB website was all input by me--I may be one of the few people in the world who knows about the show, which had only six episodes that ran on public access TV in New York over a decade ago (I'm fond of the show for sentimental reasons, which is why it's my avatar--but that's a whole other story for another time).

What I'm seeing when I scrape my library is that the scraper creates a "Season 1" and a "Specials" folder. All six main episodes are in the Season 1 folder, and all 33 special short episodes are in the Specials folder, which is all entirely as I expected it to be. However, I also see the same 33 special episodes in the Season 1 folder, which should totally not be the case--they should only be in the Specials folder.

My source files are named as follows:

-- Season 1 folder contains just the six episodes, with "S01E01 - Title of Episode 1.mp4", "S01E02 - title of episode 2.mp4", etc etc., as the naming.
-- Specials folder contains all 33 special short episodes, named "S00E01.avi", "S00E02.avi", etc etc.

As you can see, I'm totally stumped as to why the 33 specials are showing up in Kodi's Specials folder AND the Season 1 folder. Any ideas? Did I add any info incorrectly to TVDB.com?

[Karellen]

Yep, I see the cause. It is expected behavior though. The Specials episodes have been entered with an Airs Before / Airs After entry. In the old TVDB site, it used to look like the image below. Unfortunately, with that terrible site they have now, with so many problems, you can no longer see those entries. Hey, its only been 12 months, I am sure they will get around to fixing it. Anyway I digress...

See here... https://www.thetvdb.com/api/1D62F2F90030...all/en.xml

Now if you search for the same entry in the above link, you will see that episode S00E01 has an entry of <airsafter_season>1</airsafter_season>. So Kodi is placing an entry in the Specials group, as that is where it belongs, but TVDB is also telling Kodi to also place it at the end of Season 1. Normally used to keep correct viewing order of special episodes, but does not apply in this case.

You should also be aware that those episodes don't meet the criteria as Specials, so they will be removed when discovered. (I won't tell )



If you still have access, you should remove those particular Airs After entries, wait 24 hours and rescrape, or export to NFO Files, remove the entries, and rescan from NFO or edit the database.

[Karellen]

The show is unlocked, so I can see the entry in the Edit screen. It is the Special Released field...

[canadave]

Hey, thanks very much for pointing out the problem!!

I do still have access to edit things in TVDB for the show. However, when I go in to edit the episode, I can't clear anything out of that field you highlighted. It's a dropdown selection box (with no option to select "blank"), and the only options are "After Season 1", and then also "Before Episode 1", "Before Episode 2", "Before Episode 3", etc. I can change the Air Date and the Episode Number, but those are the only options I can see that might influence it.

Would changing the special episodes so that they're all set to "Before Season 1" help, do you think?

[Karellen]

Not a surprise, its another problem with their site. Some fields, once saved, cannot be cleared. It is also a problem with the DVD Order fields. You will need to use one of the other two methods I suggested.

The other methods you suggest changing will not work.

[canadave]

You should also be aware that those episodes don't meet the criteria as Specials, so they will be removed when discovered. (I won't tell )

Also, thanks for the tip. I suppose the only way to work around that would be to simply use local .nfo files? They're all just short deleted scenes, so I take it you're saying that's not something TVDB would allow on their site?

[Karellen]

work around that would be to simply use local .nfo files? They're all just short deleted scenes, so I take it you're saying that's not something TVDB would allow on their site?

Correct (but at the rate changes are made there, it will be years before they are discovered).

While you still have the info in Kodi, export to Separate Files to create NFO Files and it will...
1. Save you from having to re-do your work locally, and
2. You can edit them and remove that errant field. The following is what needs to be removed entirely or replaced with the -1 value...

xml:
    <displayseason>-1</displayseason>

    <displayepisode>-1</displayepisode>

[canadave]

Thanks so much for all this. You've basically made my day

Just one last thing to clarify--I have about a zillion TV shows in my library. Is there any way to just export and work with .NFO files for this one show, without creating .NFO files via export for all the different TV shows I have?

[Karellen]

Unfortunately not. It is all or nothing. Not sure what OS you have, but if it is Windows use a Portable Install version and scrape that one show and export it to NFO Files. Or create another Profile and scrape that one show then export.

[canadave]

Roger wilco, understood.

Thanks again for all your help! Cheers.

[Karellen]

You are welcome

Thread marked solved.