Consistency of “Plex Movie” MetaData pulling from TMDB?

[Bitrudeuk]

Server Version#:1.40.2.8395
Player Version#:1.91.0.129-1cd63c1d

Hi All,

Does anyone know the rules behind when TMDB data is used and when it isn’t? I have been painstakingly updating the data at TMDB, creating records when they don’t exist at TMDB and/or are incorrect on the “Plex Movie” Agent.

I then wait a day or two for the data to sync. However, when I try to match the movie to the choices given by the “Plex Movie” Agent, some data hasn’t been updated or there isn’t a separate record to select with the new record I created?

For example, I created a record “China Cat” (1978) at TMDB. All of that data is now in the selection offered by the “Plex Movie” Agent, though the year refuses to change and is still showing as “1981”.

Now I could of course manually change this, but when the scanner runs next time, it always blanks the field and gives no year?

Why has a hybrid record been created for this entry, rather than 2 records for the same movie as happens with other cases, one from TMDB and the other from the “Plex Movie” Agent?

Apologies if the terminology is incorrect above, but hopefully it makes sense? I’m just trying to get the library to be nicely synced with the correct data for each record. Surely it shouldn’t be this hard???

I reviewed this issue, which appears to be the same as mine - Movies metadata not updating after editing on The Movie Database

So I have tried this now too, but it doesn’t seem to have worked, as the year is still wrong? https://support.plex.tv/articles/202967376-clearing-plugin-channel-agent-http-caches/

I deleted the TMDB one only, should I delete more???

Cheers

[OttoKerner]

@Bitrudeuk

So I have tried this now too, but it doesn’t seem to have worked, as the year is still wrong? https://support.plex.tv/articles/202967376-clearing-plugin-channel-agent-http-caches/

This is not applicable to the “Plex Movie” agent.

@Bitrudeuk

I then wait a day or two for the data to sync.

Allow 72 hours for changes to appear in Plex.

@Bitrudeuk

For example, I created a record “China Cat” (1978) at TMDB. All of that data is now in the selection offered by the “Plex Movie” Agent, though the year refuses to change and is still showing as “1981”.

Plex uses a combination of several metadata sources. TMDB is only one of them.
Release years are currently preferably used from IMDb. And they only give the first year when a “general availability” release was made. i.e. film festivals and othe rlimited release dates don’t count.

[Bitrudeuk]

Thanks @OttoKerner Good to know on the cache front! I’ll restore the one I deleted from the recycle bin!

Allow 72 hours for changes to appear in Plex.

It’s been over 72 hours and IMDb also has the correct date, so i’m still at a loss as to why it won’t sync correctly?

Plex uses a combination of several metadata sources. TMDB is only one of them.
Release years are currently preferably used from IMDb.

If I force it to use TMDB data only, it constantly wants me to update to “Plex Movie” agent

I can only assume there is a conflict with the “Plex Movie” agent and that something is taking priority, like IMDb as you say and it’s not the one with the correct data!

I’ll leave it over the weekend and try and search again in the hope a new record is showing!

Cheers

[OttoKerner]

@Bitrudeuk

It’s been over 72 hours and IMDb also has the correct date

Could you point me to the record on IMDb please? I am not able to find the right one.

[Bitrudeuk]

Could you point me to the record on IMDb please? I am not able to find the right one.

Of course, here you go China Cat (1978) - IMDb

Cheers

[OttoKerner]

That is

1. X-rated, so it won’t match in Plex at all, unless you activate “inlude adult content” in the properties of the Plex library
2. the 1978 release date is exactly what I meant with “limited availabilty” above. It says (Fargo, North Dakota) which doesn’t count as general availability: China Cat (1978) - Release info - IMDb

[Bitrudeuk]

@OttoKerner

X-rated, so it won’t match in Plex at all, unless you activate “inlude adult content” in the properties of the Plex library

Yep, it’s switched on

@OttoKerner

the 1978 release date is exactly what I meant with “limited availabilty” above. It says (Fargo, North Dakota) which doesn’t count as general availability: China Cat (1978) - Release info - IMDb

So, is it therefore defaulting to the Netherlands one, and why it’s showing as 1981 for me??

Any ideas why there isn’t a second record in the server then, like there is sometimes when I have created TMDB records before? Though I’ll check again for this on Monday so it is well and truly over 72 hours!

Thanks for all your help and improving my understanding on this @OttoKerner

[OttoKerner]

@Bitrudeuk

So, is it therefore defaulting to the Netherlands one,

Yes, as that is the earliest with general availabilty.

@Bitrudeuk

Any ideas why there isn’t a second record in the server then,

I’m not sure what you mean by this. What second record? A movie is either matched or not. If matched, it can either be matched correctly or incorrectly.
In no case is there a second item created in Plex.

[Bitrudeuk]

@OttoKerner

Yes, as that is the earliest with general availabilty.

Ok, thanks. So I’ll have to manually change it I guess???

@OttoKerner

I’m not sure what you mean by this. What second record? A movie is either matched or not. If matched, it can either be matched correctly or incorrectly.
In no case is there a second item created in Plex.

There have been movies that have matched via the “Plex Movie” search and they have incorrect information. I have then checked to see if a TMDB record exists, If it doesn’t, I create one and on occasions, a second record then shows in the search, which is the new one I have created with the correct information.

I have had to do this, as there have been a few occasions when there are 2 records for the same actor or the dates are incorrect. Creating and selecting the new record in TMDB usually rectifies this, when I can select it in the search that is… Which I can’t in the example we are discussing now.

I can only assume that the records are not syncing correctly and therefore these anomalies are being created? This is probably because the data in the “Plex Movie” database is coming from multiple sources as you explained earlier?

[OttoKerner]

@Bitrudeuk

So I’ll have to manually change it I guess???

Yes.

@Bitrudeuk

I have had to do this, as there have been a few occasions when there are 2 records for the same actor or the dates are incorrect. Creating and selecting the new record in TMDB usually rectifies this, when I can select it in the search that is… Which I can’t in the example we are discussing now.

You cannot rely on that being the case for all movies.
If the records on both databases are indeed for the same movie, they’ll get merged eventually and you can only select the merged record in Plex.
If they don’t get merged, you may sometimes be able to match against the TMDB ID number. See the tips at the bottom of https://support.plex.tv/articles/201018497-fix-match-match/

[Bitrudeuk]

Hopefully whatever amended my manual changes before, won’t do so again!! Fingers crossed…

@OttoKerner

You cannot rely on that being the case for all movies.
If the records on both databases are indeed for the same movie, they’ll get merged eventually and you can only select the merged record in Plex.
If they don’t get merged, you may sometimes be able to match against the TMDB ID number. See the tips at the bottom of https://support.plex.tv/articles/201018497-fix-match-match/

I have tried using the ID number before, it doesn’t seem to find any other record?? I’ll keep updating TMDB and hopefully eventually the merged records will be correct! I guess all the time we are relying on the “public” to enter the data, there will always be errors and omissions…

I’ll then just amend anything that won’t force through on the “Plex Movie” agent

Thanks again for your help, at least I now understand why I can’t always select the record I have created and why the date is not always carrying over from TMDB!

Have a great weekend

Cheers

[BanzaiInstitute]

I would hope the trick to force a tmdb match would make Plex use all the available tmdb info instead of still trying to get some metadata from other sources if tmdb has it too. Because this seems to be the best way to solve OP’s problem, in a way that is durable and not dependent on hand-editing metadata in PMS.

If that’s not the case it would be nice to get an official explanation of what a forced match doesn’t actually force.

[anon5074910]

I’m sure this has been covered already but just incase …

The new modern plex agents uses a consolidated metadata approach. There is (currently) no way to configure the modern agent/scanner to pull metadata from a single source. All the matching does is match against this consolidated metadata in the plex backend. This metadata can come from the imdb, tmdb and/or tvdb including combinations from all three.

Take the Harry Potter movies as an example. For UK, the titles/summaries come from imdb, cast credits comes tmdb and genre comes from all three

Feel free to vote [Feature Request] Ability to specify Metadata from a single source (IMDB, TMDB or TVDB) if it’s of interest but I’m not hopefully this will ever be implemented.

[BanzaiInstitute]

I am suggesting more of a tweak where if a source is specified, like with a filename tag, if that source has data for a slot like Date, then that data is treated preferentially.

If a user wants to say they only want the date from TMDB and the description from IMDB and the genre from something else, that I think is going too far.