TV Show Episodes Not In Correct Order

WD Legacy Products WD TV Media Player
1

New user hoping someone can help. Just purchased the WDTV and a 2TB Passport to attach to it. Only problem thus far is:

I’ve made Season 1 and Season 2 folders for TV shows - I’ll call them my “top level” folders. Within each TV show season “top level” folder are individual folders - one folder for each episode of that season. Then I do a folder sort alphabetically. There’s no problem sorting the top level folders - they are all in alphabetical order, but the episode folders within the “top level” folders are not in order.

Just as an example, let’s say I have Seasons 1 and 2 of The Andy Griffith Show and The Munsters.

I have “top level” folders:

The Andy Griffith Show Season 1

The Andy Griffith Show Season 2

The Munsters Season 1

The Munsters Season 2

The above are in alphabetical order after the sort.

However, click on The Andy Griffith Show Season 1 folder to see all the episode folders for Season 1. I originally had them named as follows:

S1E1 Barney’s First Day

S2E2 Barney’s Last Day

etc.

Out of order

Modified to:

S01E01 Barney’s First Day

S01E01 Barney’s Last Day

etc.

Still out of order

Modified again to:

01 Barney’s First Day

02 Barney’s Last Day

etc.

Still out of order

OK, so I’m thinking, it says sort ALPHAbetically - maybe it won’t handle numbers. So I modified it to:

A01 Barney’s First Day

B02 Barney’s Last Day

etc., thinking it will “catch” the letter and put the episodes in alphabetical order.

Still out of order.

Seems to be sporadic - I might see Episodes 1,2,3,4 in the correct order, then it will jump to 8, then to 10, etc.

Surely somebody out there has TV show episodes that are displayed in order. I just can’t figure it out.

For what it’s worth, I have no metadata - don’t need it - don’t want it. Deleted all the Services shortcuts - don’t need them either. All I have is the music, photos, and videos shortcuts. I may put some music and photos on it later if I can get this problem solved. I downloaded the latest firmware 1.02.17 I think it was, then disconnected it from the home network - don’t need to be connected to the internet. I’ve also reset the device, rescanned several times - didn’t make a difference. All I want is to see and play the episodes stored on the attached local hard drive in order.

I thought I’d try you guys before boxing it up and returning to the store.

Thanks for any help you can offer this old man.

2

Usually incorrect sorting is caused by a bug in the “Get Content Info” … the generated XML file needs the edited to include a “0”.

But, if you have no metadata ie.  all you have is a media file and a thumbnail then it should sort them fine (see picture below)

The other cause may be … maybe the media have “embedded” metadata ?  if so then changing the filename will do nothing (because the names are displayed from the metadata)

Usually, you find embedded metadata inside *.mp4’s

order.jpg
order.jpg1008×1134 164 KB

3

Thanks Joey for your response.

If it matters, all files are VOBs.

I can recode to something else if this will solve.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks again for your time.

4

Please upload a few screenshots of your file / folder structure on the HDD

Press “Prt Scn” (aka Print Screen) button on your keyboard … open up an image editor

eg. GIMP *Freeware*   http://www.gimp.org/

and select     Edit > Paste As > New Image      save it as a jpg and upload it here on the forum.

5

Hello Joey,

I believe I have solved the problem!

I was looking through the manual, and on page 55, it says:

Media Library Compilation refers to the process of scanning and consolidating the

media contents of the media player, network attached storage, or an attached USB

device into one comprehensive database so that you can easily browse and locate

media files based on certain metadata information (e.g., video files are categorized

based on title or release date).

I don’t know how or why, but I did the following, and now all my files are in proper order:

Turned Media Library off.

Cleared Media Library.

Maybe the player downloaded metadata for some files before I had a chance to stop it, I don’t know.

In any case, it looks like it’s fixed for now. I plan to keep the Media Library turned off.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks again for all your assistance.

1 Like
6

maybe you had ‘get content info’ on automatic ?

but if you did … there should have been auto generated metafiles “somewhere” eg. XML’s or .metathumbs

my screenshot above, i have the media library on (but no metafiles) … but if your problem is solved by turning it off

then that’s ok to do that if you want :smiley:

7

Fix one problem, here comes another…

All files in order perfectly.

But now, when I click on an episode, it takes me to the Video_TS folder, then I have to select VTS_01_1.VOB to get it to play. Wasn’t previously doing that. Previously all I had to do was click on the episode and it would play.

Deleted the WD TV folder on the passport.

Turned media library back on and let it compile. Episodes out of order again and same video_ts stuff as above. Turned media library off and cleared it. Episodes in order.

I’ve looked and don’t see any xml files anywhere.

Maybe it’s what you said previously - maybe the files have embedded info or something.

Geez, I don’t understand this thing.

Oh, and content info was set to manual. Even if it was automatic, I don’t think it could get any info because I deleted my network info from the player.

The WD TV folder was full of THUMB files, but nothing with the extension of .metathumbs. I think they are the images I loaded for the series/episode thumbnails.

8

Pappaw wrote:

But now, when I click on an episode, it takes me to the Video_TS folder, then I have to select VTS_01_1.VOB to get it to play. Wasn’t previously doing that. Previously all I had to do was click on the episode and it would play.

Try pressing the “PLAY” button on the Remote Control instead of  “Ok”

1 Like
9

That took care of that!! Thanks.

:smileyvery-happy:

Now, just two more “simple” questions, and I’m gonna go watch some WDTV and quit bugging you folks.

1st, when I turn the WDTV on, the WD splash screen is displayed on the TV for a few seconds. Then the screen blanks. A few seconds later, splash screen appears again and it proceeds to do its normal thing. Does yours do the same?

2nd, is it possible for it to go back to the gallery menu once an episode is watched, instead of re-playing the one I just finished watching? I’ve got Play Mode set to normal.

Thanks again!

10

Pappaw wrote:

1st, when I turn the WDTV on, the WD splash screen is displayed on the TV for a few seconds. Then the screen blanks. A few seconds later, splash screen appears again and it proceeds to do its normal thing. Does yours do the same?

 

2nd, is it possible for it to go back to the gallery menu once an episode is watched, instead of re-playing the one I just finished watching? I’ve got Play Mode set to normal.

 

Thanks again!

1-- only if it’s powered down cold.  If it’s in standby, it doesn’t.

2-- Are you sure Play Mode is set to normal?   If you press PLAY on the file, it should play the selected file and everything following until it stops.   If you press OK on the file, it’ll play only that file.

11

Hey Tony, thanks.

I do power it all the way down, so that’s good to know.

I checked that Play Mode last night, and am 99.9% sure it was set to normal. I will re-check tonight.

So you are saying if I press Play, it will play the file and everything after that? Do you mean all remaining episodes?

I guess what I’m looking for is like DVD operation - for example, I’ll select Episode 3. Once it plays, the player returns to the “menu” and then I’ll select Episode 4, or whatever episode I want to watch next, or even quit watching altogether.

12

Pappaw wrote:

So you are saying if I press Play, it will play the file and everything after that? Do you mean all remaining episodes?

…depends on how your View / Filter / Sort is set up.   It’ll play to the end of the “list,” however many that might be.

So for example, for me, I set it to FOLDER view (and every season is in its own folder) so it’d play through to the end of the season.

13

Pappaw wrote:

I guess what I’m looking for is like DVD operation - for example, I’ll select Episode 3. Once it plays, the player returns to the “menu” and then I’ll select Episode 4, or whatever episode I want to watch next, or even quit watching altogether.

If you’re talking about the actual “DVD Menu” like on the Disc … then i know for sure it will work fine of DVD *.ISO (ripped of own last night … full disc image … DVD Menu’s work exactly like the Disc)

Can’t sure for sure about “VOB” files though … if you ripped the whole disc with all files intact eg. VIDEO_TS , ifo, bup, vts, vob … then i geuss it should work.

Can’t say 100% sure though, as i only rip to *.iso  (and converted all my VIDEO_TS to *,iso years ago)

14

Just wanted to say thanks to the both of you for your responses, especially you Joey.

I anticipated somewhat of a learning curve with this thing, but not this much!

Regardless, without your assistance, it would have been back at the store by now.

Thanks again! I’ll keep checking the board - might learn something else!

15

Thank you, this has been driving me crazy for a long time, that it would not display ALL my videos alphabetically, just some of them, by turning off the Media Library and clearing the media library, my videos are now all displayed alphabetically by file name, THANK YOU!