For those that use Thumbgen to generate your data, there is a new release that now correctly generates the xml data for TV shows.
www.thumbgen.org
Just go to OPTIONS / Input/Output Naming, then in the dropdown box next to “Movieinfo export” select “Export using WDTV Live HUB format (new fw)”.
Also, for those that need it, you can also generate the Thumbnail as .metathumb. However, I suggest generating everthing as .jpg and not using the .metathumb extension. You should only use the .metathumb extension if you also use the internal scrap to get you content.
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Tinwarble, you have omitted the “g” in thumbgen in your link.
Hi Tinwarble, I just gave the ‘new’ version of Thumbgen a try and I loved the info it found. The info I found for Prime Suspect, S7 Part 2 was excellent in the latest version compared to what I find using 1.2.7
However when I went to generate the new sheets I found there were several omissions on what appeared on my screen.
First Aired is where the date appears on the new xml sheet when it should be in Year.
2006-22-10
when it should be like this: 2006- 22-10
I also found the actors’ names wouldn’t show on the screen and nor would the background sheet generated by 1.2.11. Instead the SMP went online and found a sheet there.
The actors’ names now appear on the 1.2.11 xml sheet as
Helen Mirren/Tom Bell/John Benfield/John Bowe/Zoë Wanamaker/Bryan Pringle/Tom Wilkinson/John Forgeham/Gary Whelan/Jack Ellis/Craig Fairbrass/Ian Fitzgibbon/Mossie Smith/Philip Wright/Andrew Tiernan
However they do show correctly on screen when presented as (1.2.7):
Helen Mirren
Stephen Tompkinson
Laura Greenwood
Eve Best
Gary Lewis
Katy Murphy
Frank Finlay
Tom Bell
Robert Pugh
Brendan Coyle
Robbie Gee
Russell Mabey
Laura Doddington
Heshima Thompson
Carolyn Pickles
I thought I did the settings the same as my 1.2.7 version but maybe I missed some, not sure. It looked the ‘same’ setup on either version.
If you are using the lastest firmware version on the SMP, then the correct xml format for TV shows looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
1: Awakening
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
In the year 1987, NASA launched space probe Ranger III, with astronaut William "Buck" Rogers, on a 5-month trip around the solar system. However, the craft runs into a meteor storm, which disrupts its life support system and sends it into a long elliptical orbit of the Earth. In the year 2491, Ranger III again approaches the Earth, and is intercepted by the alien flagship Draconia, which is on a peace mission to Earth. Aboard the Draconia, Buck is revived by Princess Ardala and her second-in- command, Kane, whose true plan is to attack and conquer Earth. Buck is sent to Earth with a hidden homing device, which is soon discovered by Earth's Defense Directorate. After Buck convinces the humans of his true identity -- a man from the past -- he helps them to repel the Draconians' attack, with the aid of the mechanoids Dr. Theopolis and Twiki
<firstaired>1979-09-20</firstaired>
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Pilot
1
1
60
8.1
tt0078579
TV-14
Sci-Fi
<actor>Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Felix Silla, Mel Blanc, Tim O'Connor, William Conrad, Eric Server</actor>
Daniel Haller
NBC
BUCK ROGERS.S01E01\_sheet.jpg
BUCK ROGERS.S01E01.mkv
N/A
Thumbgen will actually generate it like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
He\*\* On Wheels - Pilot
He\*\* On Wheels
Pilot
1
1
<firstaired>2011-11-06</firstaired>
A former confederate soldier journeys to the transcontinental railroad to seek vengeance.
2011
He\*\* on Wheels tells the epic story of post-Civil War America, focusing on a Confederate soldier (Mount) who sets out to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who have killed his wife. His journey takes him west to \*\*bleep\*\* on Wheels, a dangerous, raucous, lawless melting pot of a town that travels with and services the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, an engineering feat unprecedented for its time.
8.1
TV-14
tt1699748
TV-14
Drama
Western
<actor>Anson Mount/Colm Meaney/Common/Dominique McElligott/Tom Noonan/Eddie Spears/Ben Esler/Phil Burke/Jeff Hänni/Christopher Heyerdahl/Robin McLeavy/Duncan Ollerenshaw/Diego Diablo Del Mar/Dohn Norwood/Gerald Auger/Barb Mitchell/Ian Tracey/Kasha Kropinski/James D. Hopkin/April Telek</actor>
<director>David Von Ancken</director>
AMC
HE\*\* ON WHEELS.S01E01\_sheet.jpg
HE\*\* ON WHEELS - S01E01.mkv
N/A
That’s how it has to appear for TV shows to display the correct metadata. If your metadata isn’t displaying correctly, then it is most likely because it is not tagging it as a TV Show and is seeing it as a Movie, which uses a different format. The most likely reason for this is because your shows xml doesn’t contain the correct MPAA, which I believe is how the SMP knows which is a TV show.
So, TG is generating the info correctly. Tested and works.
Can i just install it over the old version? or do i need to install the templates, profiles, common folder again also?
Hi again mate, Sorry to be a nuisance about this.
I have just attempted to create movie sheets for the latest episode of The Newsroom using the latest version of ThumbGen. I got out your Tutorial pdf and set up the latest version as per your instructions. I even found a couple of spots where I hadn’t properly setup as per your instructions. I named the file as The Newsroom.s1E3.mp4
It found the episode perfectly and created the sheets. However when I looked at the mpaa it was like this:
Is there a setting I am missing?
I even tried adding TV-14 as per your example but with no luck.
Did you click the green check mark after adding it in TG?
If you meant you manually added, then did clear the media library afterwards. I’ve had no issues and it should display the metadata like this:
Also, and I’m not sure about this, but if you live in a differnent country, you may need to use your countries rating system.
If you are still having issues, you can try creating a dummy folder, with a dummy file in it, then use the “Get Content Info” function to get the metadata. Then look at the xml file that was created and make sure that the ones you created with TG match the one created with the SMP. The order doesn’t matter as long as the TG file and the internal scrapper file contain the same info (don’t worry about any extra info in the TG created xml).
Hi Again,
By manual I meant that I manually added the information to the xml sheet.
I am in Australia.
I added TV-14 to the ThumbGen info and saved it (green tick). No good.
I changed the Classification Country to Australia, and still no good. Here in Australia the mpaa is M for Mature.
As I can see from your pic in the post above I don’t get anything like that, the program is (as you say) seeing it as a movie rather than a TV show. I would have thought the ‘preview’ of the movie sheet in the lower right hand corner of ThumbGen would show as a TV show but it doesn’t, it comes up as the standard Mojo_Glass_sheet2 The preview doesn’t look at all like your pic above.
Can I send you/upload my TV Shows.tpg file? Would that help?
Thanks for persevering with me.
Below is the xml information from a TV show I was trying today. I set the mpaa to TV-14 as you can see below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
Wire In The Blood S6E2 Falls The Shadow
Wire in the Blood
Wire In The Blood S6E2 Falls The Shadow
6
2
2008-26-09
In Falls the Shadow, the second episode in series six of this compelling drama series, forensic clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill (Robson Green) is brought in by Inspector Alex Fielding (Simone Lahbib) to uncover the identity of a serial murderer who is killing prostitutes and experimental psychologists in a very specific sequence.
2002
Based on the Val McDermid novels, the show follows the Major Incident Team of Bradfield Metropolitan Police's CID, focusing on the assistance provided to the detectives by clinical psychologist and serial offender profiler Dr Tony Hill.
Made by Coastal Productions for Tyne Tees Television for the ITV Network.
50
8.3
TV-14
<imdb_id>tt0337792</imdb_id>
TV-14
Crime
Drama
Mystery
Thriller
Robson Green/Mark Letheren/Emma Handy/Mark Penfold/Simone Lahbib/Hermione Norris
Richard Curson Smith
Coastal Productions
Circle Multimedia
Independent Television (ITV)
Wire In The Blood - S6E3_sheet.jpg
Wire In The Blood - S6E3.jpg
Wire In The Blood - S6E3.mp4
N/A
After you manually changed the xml, did you make sure to clear the media library? With the latest firmware it can be really difficult to get the new info to take.
If clearing the media library doesn’t seem to work, try changing the folder name, then clearing the media library.
Gendji wrote:
Can i just install it over the old version? or do i need to install the templates, profiles, common folder again also?
Just unzip the .exe file and copy and replace the old. You don’t have to change anything else.
Tinwarble wrote:
After you manually changed the xml, did you make sure to clear the media library? With the latest firmware it can be really difficult to get the new info to take.
If clearing the media library doesn’t seem to work, try changing the folder name, then clearing the media library.
Hi yet again! It works!
I had to create a completely new folder and copy the movie files across and then run ThumbGen. I also cleared the info data as well. This time the WDTV Live SMP ‘recognized’ the xml as a TV show. I also named the files Wire In The Blood.6x1.mp4 It worked fine.
I replaced the Australian “M” with TV-14 as well and saved the changes.
Your comment above “With the latest firmware it can be really difficult to get the new info to take.” is spot on.
Thanks mate.
Hi,
i cleared the media library, then i delete the wd_tv folder, generate the infos with this new Thumbgen version. And my SMP shows the TV-Show like this:
Sort is alphabetic and the cast is not showing! The media library is rearly a peace of sh…!
lg
bit2bit
(sorry for my english, i’m german :wink:)
@Tinwarble:
You wrote:
The most likely reason for this is because your shows xml doesn’t contain the correct MPAA, which I believe is how the SMP knows which is a TV show.
I live in Germany, the MPAA is like ‘FSK 12’ or ‘12’ ! You mean with MPAA like ‘TV-14’ the sort is correct and the cast is showing? This means that the SMP is designed for USA and not for Europe! Shame on you, WD!!
Sorry for my english :wink:
As I’m in the US, I can’t tell you if it will filter by TV shows correctly using the MPAA for other countries.
But if you change the SMP to filter only by “TV Shows” and you are using your MPAA and only TV Shows display, then you are good to go. When I said MPAA, is what I meant is that this is how it knows whether it’s a TV show or a movie. Which MPAA’s, other than the US ratings, work I can’t say though.
As for your pic. Yes, the sort order is broken now. For TV shows it is supposed to use the <episode_number> to sort when you have it set to sort alphbetically. But the actors should show up without issue, as I can’t really tell (since I know little to no German), but it looks as though your meta xml is missing the actors info. You need to check xmls to make sure they contain something like this:
<actor>Gil Gerard, Erin Gray, Felix Silla, Mel Blanc, Tim O’Connor, William Conrad, Eric Server</actor>
If they don’t the the issue is with how you are generating the xml.
Changing the actors is not something that you have to clear the media library for. When you change the Overview, Actors or Genre it should display the new info pretty much instantly. The only xml data that you have to clear the media library for is if you change the Title and Episode Number.
Thanks for your answer :smiley:
Where can i set the filter for TV-Show? Use the sort order the filename or the in xml?
The actors in the xml looks like this:
Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman/Una Stubbs/Rupert Graves/Loo Brealey/Mark Gatiss/Andrew Scott/Vinette Robinson/Tanya Moodie/Jonathan Aris
So the SMP didn’t knows that this is a TV-Show :confounded:
I will do some tests this weekend and reply my results…
To filter by TV shows, press the green button on the remote, Filter / TV Shows.
If your actors look like that in the xml, then they should show up and there is a problem somewhere else (you don’t have to filter by TV shows for them to show up).
What firmware version are you running?
I try the filter option.
The actor problem should gone when i change the filter, i hope so.
Firmware 1.09.10
No, the actors SHOULD show up even without using the filter.
It sounds like you have an issue somewhere else.
