3.08.14 - TV Shows and Custom Backdrops

If you are using a custom theme that uses moviesheets, then you need to skip the 3.08.14 FW update or rollback to 3.07.14.

This is because TV Shows will no longer use custom moviesheets in this version.  The xml code is no longer used and instead all of the backdrops are pulled from a single folder for the episodes with in a single folder (I have not tested any other way).  And it also appears that you HAVE to use the internal scrapper to get even those backdrops to display.

EDIT:  Just to be clear.  No matter what has been said in the rest of this post, there is NO fix for this issue.  There is a trick, but that involves renaming your files so that the HUB/SMP no longer recognizes the file as a TV Show.  I do NOT recommend this as this is a BUG and will most likely be corrected in future firmware releases (fingers crossed).

The only true fix for this issue is to rollback the firmware to the prior release (3.07.14) and unless the current release fixes some issue that you had, rolling back should not effect your functionality.

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as said in the other thread

they are working for all generated sheets before the recent thumbgen version.

the advice itself to roll back is good but the statement itself cannot be correct or none of my movie sheets would be working.

It’s only for TV shows.  Movies still work, but that is because the firmware handles TV shows and Movies differently.

And this has been confirmed.  As I stated, this has to do with the fact that is no longer used in the xml.  This has nothing to do with TG as it still generates the xml in the same way, and moviesheets do not display even for shows that I generated with the older versions of TG.

The issue is that now it requires (for TV Shows only) a “.show_name.backdrop” folder and the path is set internally and not from the xml.

Xml file generated by internal scraper:

<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“utf-8”?>
<details>
  <id>82066</id>
  <title>Fringe Season 1 - 1 Pilot</title>
  <series_name>Fringe</series_name>
  <episode_name>Pilot</episode_name>
  <season_number>1</season_number>
  <episode_number>1</episode_number>
  <firstaired>2008-09-09</firstaired>
  <genre>Drama</genre>
  <runtime>60</runtime>
  <director>Alex Graves</director>
  <actor>Anna Torv/Joshua Jackson/John Noble/Jasika Nicole/Blair Brown/Mark Valley/Kirk Acevedo/Seth Gabel/Lance Reddick/Georgina Haig</actor>
  <overview>When all the passengers on a plane die, FBI agent Olivia Dunham investigates the events and her partner almost dies. A desperate Olivia looks for help from Dr. Walter Bishop who has been institutionalized. Olivia, Dr. Bishop and his son Peter begin to discover what really happened on Flight 627 and begin to uncover a larger truth.</overview>
</details>

And uses backdrops from:

.Fringe.backdrop (folder)

    fanart_original00.jpg

    fanart_original01.jpg

But does not point to these files from the xml.

i understood that part before

again i repeat and please try help me understand it.

Every single movie sheet (no excemptions) created with any previous ThumbGen version is working fine.

Could it be the date of the file? ThumbGen suggested it could be a cache problem but i made sure it isn’t.

It shows tv sheets of episodes i have never watched, never even opened their folders, never even powered on that particular hard drive… in fact that hard drive holds my archive for cancelled shows such as Seinfeld. The HDD was never even connected to the hub before and the movie sheets work fine. Having said that… all TV Sheets created later than 9/9/2012 won’t show anymore.

I understand what you say about the scraper code, i have seen it but if it was right what you are saying my previously unconnected hard drive would not display the movie sheets.

I have powered off the device for longer than an hour, i have deleted everything else that wasn’t put on the HDD by myself and the result is the same. Older Sheets = Good — Sheets after 9/9 don’t work.

Interesting enough, i copied a working sheet on my recent HDD with todays date and the same files that work with an older date don’t work with todays date.

With all due respect to your expertise, this is another unwanted bug, reproduced on my neighbors device with the exact same outcome. Something went wrong again.

Most likely it’s due to a cache issue.

If you haven’t cleared the media library or not using the media library then that may be why.

This issue refers to using the media library.  Although I have tested with the library on and off with same results.

By the way, I am PMing you.

Has anyone tired a few test sheets with a older version of thumbgen ?

Its one way to quickly rule that out.

I unfortunaly del my older version when i reinstalled windows.

Yes. As stated:

and moviesheets do not display even for shows that I generated with the older versions of TG.

just for narrowing it down… cannot be a cache thing as i was repeatedly reproducing functional movie sheets with a never before connected hard drive, on my own device and my neighbors device, those sheets can impossibly be in the cache since the hard drive was sitting next to my computer for 3 months. Obviously i cleared my library and all the other system files, all that was left were files created by myself. Doesn’t work without library either.

PEARL found the fix…

the hub requires bad naming for the episodes

official scene release is “series.name.s01e01.mkv”

 the hub needs a period between the season and the episode WHICH IS WRONG

it works with “series.name.s01.e01.mkv”

 

this also explains why they stoped working after a september 9th because my neighbor gave me a 20 minutes speech that my file names are incorrect for scene releases so i removed that period that is now required :slight_smile:

Yeah something was clearly up since i redid everything last night and some shows where showing fine and others not which should have been impossiable.

Least fixing that fairly easy to do.

Glad I could be of some help in the themer world. I am not a coder at all, more on the network side of things, but the fact that some TV shows worked and others would not meant there had to be an easy answer.

After all the work you folks put into the themes, and all the time I put into making new movie sheets for 2TB of TV shows for BM 1.9, there was no way I was not going to find a solve for this one, or die trying.

The change came in the Beta 4.08.13 on 10/23 so I have had a week or so to stare at your XML sheets til it finaly dawned on me last weekend. Solve was easy but i had to learn how to use the bulk renamer to make this go faster. I highly suggest anyone who has to go through this process

I waxed poetic as always so thank yuou for suming it up perfectly in an easy to understand way.

  • - it works with “series.name.s01.e01.mkv” - DeVicous

I am happy as could be having been through the uprade and not having to lose your theme! 1.9 absolutely rocks

Good Luck to all in your upgades

-P

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That doesn’t actually appear to be a fix as it seems to be tricking the HUB/SMP to think that it is just a regular movie file and not a TV show.

If you add the extra dot between Sxx & Exx, then the “First Aired Date” and the “Actors” are no longer pulled from the XML.  This is because the xml for TV shows and movies are different in those regards.  So if they are not displaying it is because the HUB/SMP think that the Episode you are on is just a movie.

Nice try, but that is not a real solution.:cry:

Thankfully tv rename and mediacentermaster  make renaming and cleaning folders easy.

Fix maybe not but regardless of whether its a fix or merely tricking it into giving us what we want that’s what important.

For me I see things exactly as before and iam happy

Magnus33 wrote:

Fix maybe not but regardless of whether its a fix or merely tricking it into giving us what we want that’s what important.

 

For me I see things exactly as before and iam happy

Well, it does matter if you are using the xml data to display your metadata.  For those not, then it doesn’t matter, but for those that do it will.

And you can get the exact same outcome just by renaming your files to:

showname.E01.mkv

showname.Episode01.mkv

or pretty much anything that isn’t exaclty “showname.S01E01.mkv”.

It matters because it is still a bug in the firmware and using a work-around doesn’t resolve the bug.  If that were the case then everyone could just rename all their files, then use the old copy of TG to generate a movie style xml and it wouldn’t matter.

Strange i do just that and its still working fine and all the info there.

Whoops  forgot for a sec i was using the smp this evening…lol.

Same bugs in the SMP FW.:dizzy_face:

hmmm… i dont have my TV Shows in that format i find it very ugly and always rename them to

showname - [03x17] - Title.mp4

what we all REALLY need is for WD to give us a setting page that will let us choose how we name the files.

They could put in the standand scene (ugly) filenames and a couple of others but let us choose.

%SN = showname

%S = season number

%E = episode number

%T = Title

so mine nice format would be   %SN - [%Sx%E] - %T

and so on… ok… i can dream… maybe a nice xmas present from WD?

I am wondering if they really test those firmwares or they just publish some nightly builds? :slight_smile:

i can confirm everything that Tinwarble said, it is not a fix it is a work around / loop hole and I am scared they gonna close that too. I was warned to explain myself in a more civil manner or i get banned so I cannot really tell you what I really think they are doing, all I can say is that those who have hardcoded movie sheets for TV Shows are fortunate that WD didn’t catch this naming format. Those who let the hub fill in the blanks of the metadata are still screwed and have no other option but to roll back or to use the build in scraper and receive 40 files with 200kb file size in average.

It is another decision made on their part that I cannot support, it is possibly done on purpose to get rid off those who have demands and talk back at them or it might be because they don’t know how this part of the forum is using the device and they are not willing to learn about it either. Fact is that another basic feature was taken away from us. I can not for the life of me understand these politics, why would a company go against a very active part of this community on purpose and take away literally everything they like? This is way way way beyond my imagination and i am still wondering if it is based on lack of skills or if it is done on purpose, either way it is sad to watch and to be a part of.