TV Scanner not taking the highest ranked search result?

General Discussions
1

Running 0.9.16.4 on 2012 R2… I have to download the various “Real Housewives of…” shows and normally Plex handles them fine.
Recently they added two new cities to the ever growing roster and these two shows (Dallas, and Potomac) keep tagging incorrectly (as Vancouver.)
I do follow the typical folder structure convention “TV\Real Housewives of ABC\Real Housewives of ABC S01E01”
When I go and Fix Incorrect Match, the search immediately finds the correct show with a 100 score. So what is the scanner doing wrong that the manual match does right?

Log snip here:
2016-04-19 13:27:33,217 (1460) : DEBUG (runtime:717) - Handling request GET /:/plugins/com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb/messaging/function/X0FnZW50S2l0OlNlYXJjaA__/Y2VyZWFsMQoxCmxpc3QKMApyMAo_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 2016-04-19 13:27:33,219 (1460) : DEBUG (runtime:814) - Found route matching /:/plugins/com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb/messaging/function/X0FnZW50S2l0OlNlYXJjaA__/Y2VyZWFsMQoxCmxpc3QKMApyMAo_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 2016-04-19 13:27:33,219 (1460) : INFO (agentkit:946) - Searching for matches for {'openSubtitlesHash': '5f9b44f3a724897e', 'episode': '12', 'episodic': '1', 'show': 'Real Housewives of Potomac', 'season': '1', 'filename': 'D%3A%5CMedia%5CTV%5CReal%20Housewives%20of%20Potomac%5CThe%2EReal%2EHousewives%2Eof%2EPotomac%2ES01E12%2EReunion%2EPart%2E2%2E720p%2EBRAV%2EWEBRip%2EAAC2%2E0%2Ex264-BTW%2Emkv', 'plexHash': '7d544d8efc6d1d890d90f550c400a065f8999604', 'duration': '-1', 'id': '187639'} 2016-04-19 13:27:33,221 (1460) : DEBUG (networking:166) - Requesting 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/metadata/187639/tree' 2016-04-19 13:27:33,236 (1460) : DEBUG (networking:166) - Requesting 'http://meta.plex.tv/tv/guid/fc/fc1a6fd312a2569284a720b5559c6ad1145d4cee.xml' 2016-04-19 13:27:33,400 (1460) : ERROR (networking:217) - Error opening URL 'http://meta.plex.tv/tv/guid/fc/fc1a6fd312a2569284a720b5559c6ad1145d4cee.xml' 2016-04-19 13:27:33,400 (1460) : INFO (logkit:16) - HTTPError() 2016-04-19 13:27:33,411 (1460) : DEBUG (networking:166) - Requesting 'http://meta.plex.tv/tv/names/en/c9/c9c64e071d2853bc7906c017a231ad1cc46ab630.xml' 2016-04-19 13:27:33,507 (1460) : DEBUG (networking:166) - Requesting 'http://meta.plex.tv/tv/names/en/93/93ed39530ae0c6ada9724d6c3c32110543598742.xml' 2016-04-19 13:27:33,588 (1460) : DEBUG (networking:166) - Requesting 'http://meta.plex.tv/tv/names/en/94/943ae37ac789de361b9950fa64b16c0e67ab7602.xml' 2016-04-19 13:27:33,634 (1460) : ERROR (networking:217) - Error opening URL 'http://meta.plex.tv/tv/names/en/94/943ae37ac789de361b9950fa64b16c0e67ab7602.xml' 2016-04-19 13:27:33,635 (1460) : INFO (logkit:16) - Retrieving URL: http://thetvdb.plexapp.com/api/D4DDDAEFAD083E6F/series/256513/en.xml 2016-04-19 13:27:33,655 (1460) : DEBUG (networking:161) - Fetching 'http://thetvdb.plexapp.com/api/D4DDDAEFAD083E6F/series/256513/en.xml' from the HTTP cache 2016-04-19 13:27:33,674 (1460) : INFO (logkit:16) - Adding (based on word matches) id: 256513, name: The Real Housewives of Vancouver, year: 2012, lang: en, score: 83 2016-04-19 13:27:33,677 (1460) : INFO (logkit:16) - Top GUID+name result: MetadataSearchResult(lang='en', thumb=None, score=83, year='2012', id='256513', name='The Real Housewives of Vancouver') 2016-04-19 13:27:33,677 (1460) : INFO (logkit:16) - Searching for exact match with: Real+Housewives+of+Potomac 2016-04-19 13:27:33,678 (1460) : INFO (logkit:16) - Retrieving URL: http://thetvdb.plexapp.com/api/GetSeries.php?seriesname=Real+Housewives+of+Potomac&language=en 2016-04-19 13:27:33,687 (1460) : DEBUG (networking:166) - Requesting 'http://thetvdb.plexapp.com/api/GetSeries.php?seriesname=Real+Housewives+of+Potomac&language=en' 2016-04-19 13:27:33,867 (1460) : INFO (logkit:16) - Final result: MetadataSearchResult(lang='en', thumb=None, score=83, year='2012', id='256513', name='The Real Housewives of Vancouver') 2016-04-19 13:27:33,868 (1460) : DEBUG (runtime:924) - Response: [200] str, 664 bytes

2

@ninja6o4 said:
I do follow the typical folder structure convention “TV\Real Housewives of ABC\Real Housewives of ABC S01E01”

This is not going to work.
TheTVDB has all these different cities as completely separate shows.

Therefore you must name and structure your files accordingly.

TV Shows /
   The Real Housewives of Cheshire / 
      Season 01 /
         The Real Housewives of Cheshire - s01e03 - The Girl Who Got It All.ext
         ...
   The Real Housewives of Potomac / 
      Season 01 /
         The Real Housewives of Potomac - s01e09 - Fifty Sense.ext
         ...
3

@OttoKerner - sorry, you misunderstand. I do have each city in its own subfolder under TV as you show in your example.
It’s been working fine until these two recent shows came up. Not sure what has changed…

4

May I see an overview of how these folders are named and how they are nested in each other?
Also some examples on how you actually named your files would be appreciated.

If your server has debug loggin already enabled, I’d also like to take a look at your Scanner logs.

5

Feel free.
My folder structure is:
D:\Media\TV\Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
D:\Media\TV\Real Housewives of Dallas
D:\Media\TV\Real Housewives of New Jersey
D:\Media\TV\Real Housewives of New York City
D:\Media\TV\Real Housewives of Orange County
D:\Media\TV\Real Housewives of Potomac\

The filenames I’ve left as they were downloaded, which has never been a problem in the past:
The.Real.Housewives.of.Dallas.S01E01.Everythings.Bigger.in.Dallas.720p.BRAV.WEBRip.AAC2.0.x264-BTW.mkv
The.Real.Housewives.of.Dallas.S01E02.Mad.as.a.Hatter.720p.BRAV.WEBRip.AAC2.0.x264-BTW.mkv

I just tested right now renaming adding the “The” prefix in front (e.g. D:\Media\TV\The Real Housewives of Dallas) and it tagged correctly right off the bat.

So, I think there is a problem with the scanner in that its logic it putting too much emphasis on non-descriptive keywords (like “The”). That being said, I still don’t understand why it would choose Vancouver over Dallas in this particular case, as a manual match correction pops up the correct city with a score of 100.

6

The name of the top folder for the show is of very high importance.
It must be named exactly like the show’s title appears on TheTVDB.
Every deviation raises the chance of a mismatch, especially when there a similarly named folders and files beside it.
Keep in mind that it is a computer we are talking about. Computers are stupid. They don’t know about “non-descriptive keywords”.

7

Well I will just live with it for now, since half the TV shows out there start with “The”, and none of them exhibit this behaviour except for these two new shows. It’s not as annoying to me as sorting my folders alphabetically and then having to remember to go down to The for that alphabetical order.

And I disagree with the blanket statement that computers are stupid. Computers will output whatever it is programmed to; nothing more, nothing less. If it appears nonsensical, it’s how it was designed by a human programmer.

Regardless, I would still like to point this out to a developer as a small bug for the simple fact that the Plex Scanner does not produce the same result as Fix Incorrect Match, which both go through TheTVDB agent:

  1. Plex Scanner is determining that Vancouver (score: 83) is the best choice, indicating there was nothing scoring higher.
  2. Fix Incorrect Match determines that Dallas (score: 100) is the first and only choice, but just requires me to accept it. Vancouver doesn’t even get listed as an option.

I also should mention that even two word shows I have such as The Affair or The Bachelor, both tag normally and without intervention when I have their folders named without “The”. This further adds evidence that something is kooky with the Scanner search/selection criteria.