So, I’m trying to fix my anime collection. For some reason, TVDB changed their database to no longer include the original 1992 OAV episodes in the 1998 version of the series. Ok, fine. I’ll split it out into two different shows. Plex sees the 1992 OAV series, found here on tvdb, tmdb, watch.plex.tv.
Despite the names on all 3 databases NOT including the text (OAV) at the end, when matching, Plex lists it with that text on it. I am scratching my head trying to find out why even Plex’s own entry doesn’t include the text, yet it still shows up when matching.
TVDB DOES have metadata for season 1 episodes 1 through 6, labeled Phase-01 through Phase-06, but Plex refuses to pick it up. The only way I know of to get this to work, is to use TMDB ordering, and Plex will pick up the episode titles and thumbnails. What’s up with that? Even Watch.Plex.tv has the episodes too, yet they won’t work with TVDB (aired) order.
As I’m sure you know plex uses tmdb as its starting point. Episode re-ordering for tvdb aired/dvd is somewhat (but not always) depend on the episodes on tmdb having an external id linking to the episodes on tvdb. This is one of the ways plex identifies how episodes match between the two online sources and how they reorder the episodes metadata when a user switches the episode ordering.
Your best approach and what I would do if it was me is: 1) add/update existing metadata on tmdb including the external ids these for each episode on tmdb, 2) wait 48-72 hours for the plex backend metadata cache to pickup the change and then 3) try again.
Interesting info. No, I did not know that Plex starts out using TMDB and relied on them to reference the TVDB entry for comparison. I kind of assumed they searched both databases for the name/year pairing, and if they matched then associated them with eachother. Since this link is missing, are you saying that Plex will never be able to pull up episode information for this show for TVDB (aired) order?
Hmm, I see I linked to the TVDB entry for the 1998 entry, not the 1992. The 1992 entry does indeed have (OAV) in the title. I will fix that shortly, but I am curious now how Plex picks which show title is the one picked for a particular series when something like this conflicts.
Another thing to bring up here, is the two site conflict when it comes to episodes. TVDB still thinks the original 1992 series includes the 6 OAVs in season 1, but also includes the 1998 series as season 2, and the “Dash!” series as season 3. I’d really love to use this version and reduce my collection back to one entry, but when I use TVDB (aired) season 1 is unmatched while season 2 is matched (season 3 is unknown, I haven’t tried that yet).
I do not have accounts on either TVDB/TMDB, so am unable to see the lack of this pairing. I also do not have the ability to submit such changes. I may be willing to do so if this isn’t a Plex issue. Knowing now that Plex cannot match an episode if someone doesn’t pair it to the TMDB entry is very interesting.
Here is how I think about metadata and plex. As a general rule, as I believe there are a few exceptions to this, Plex uses a consolidated metadata approach. This metadata is gathered from multiple sources including tmdb, tvdb and imdb. They have some logic in their code which decides what is the best but its one single set of metadata. All you do when changing the episode ordering is adjust the order of the episodes. The metadata itself does not change. This is why the linkage between tmdb and tvdb is important as a first step. Other things like date aired start to come into play after that but I’ll not go down that rabbit hole
Anyhow, you cannot tell plex anymore to get all info from tmdb or tvdb which does confuse folks when they use this episode ordering. Plex also uses tmdb as a starting point which is why I typically start there when fixing stuff up.
