I’m trying to record the newest Nova episode on PBS and it doesn’t show up in the “Recording Schedule”. This led me down a path of research that I think is interesting.
According to the Program guide the new episode “Eclipse Over America” is S44 E11. According to the TVDB - it’s S44 E18. I already have S44E11 - “Ultimate Cruise Ship” in my library so Plex naturally isn’t going to record this episode. The problem is that the number provided in the program guide is wrong.
From the Nova Wikipedia article I found that Nova has a tv ‘code’ for each of their episodes and that they don’t line up with the episode and season number. S44E01 has the code 4316. The episode I want to record, S44E18, has the code 4411. I can only assume that this code is what Plex is using to determine the program guide episode number, but since it scrapes TV info from TVDB these numbers will be out of sync.
Any thoughts on solutions? For tonight’s episode I’m going to have to do a work around of renaming episode 11, but that won’t work long term because almost every episode will have this problem.
You can try to contribute to the tvdb and update their episode info I have done that to make things line up but some folks on TVDB might have that locked.
As far as I can tell the TVDB is correct though. It appears that in the case of Nova, and perhaps other PBS shows, that the tv code doesn’t equal the actual season number so Plex can’t parse it properly. The program guide is what’s wrong not the scrapped info.
Edit: I looked again at the TVDB page and there is a spot for “Production Code”. If I had to guess, Plex is parsing this code in the program guide and then using the number to find season and episode on TVDB. Perhaps the fix is to use that code if it exists on TVDB, otherwise, parse the season and episode number.
So based on that wiki link the “code” is just season and episode which is what it looks like the guide is picking up also which is the most accurate, thetvdb on the other hand shows Secrets of the Sky Tombs as S44E08 where it should really be S44E01 according to the wiki which again is what the guide is displaying.
If you update TVDB to reflect the “code” it will look right…
Except that Wikipedia groups the episodes into the same seasons that TVDB does and lists “Eclipse Over America” as the 18th episode of season 44.
It appears that the seasons are based off of the school year or tv year which stretches from fall through spring but the codes are based off of the calendar year with codes starting with 44 beginning in January of 2017.
To add more confusion, I just looked up Nova on wxxi and the episode is listed as S44 Ep11. Perhaps the codes are correct and both Wikipedia and the TVDB need updating.
I believe you can also modify your DVR recording and set it to “New and Repeat Airings” and it will record everything and save them based on what the guide data shows which is accurate even if you have a previous recording.
I believe it will save both and let you select which version to play if I am not mistaken but you might want to test that.
That way you will still record until they fix-up TVDB.
I have it set to new and repeat airings. It didn’t show up in the recording list and Monday’s initial broadcast of this episode didn’t record. As far as I can tell it won’t re-record episodes you already have.
@Plex654 said: @lotrfanatic Reading that it doesn’t seem they have any interest in fixing it even though PBS themselves have confirmed it’s named wrong.
It’s super easy to sign up and make changes on thetvdb, and the moderators on the site haven’t locked this show, so anyone can sign up and make the necessary edits.
@deepseth. It would require deleting which we can’t do. I know we can go through a fix the numbers but considering that they claim it is fixed in their forum thread I could see a ban coming down.
@Plex654 said: @deepseth. It would require deleting which we can’t do. I know we can go through a fix the numbers but considering that they claim it is fixed in their forum thread I could see a ban coming down.
It’s definitely not marked as resolved in the thread linked before (https://forums.thetvdb.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=34543), but the other approach is to post what you think the episode renumbering should be (episode id, current season, current episode, new season, new episode), and hope to get a mod’s attention to have them then do the bulk edit. Having it in that format makes it relatively easy to batch update programatically too, increasing the odds of resolution.
Alternatively, that thread also suggests that IMDB has it fixed, so if you’re able to use IMDB as a scraper source for this show somehow, that might also solve your immediate problem.
DarklightIndigo said:
I know there’s a DVD Order Agent for Plex that might help, but beyond that, I’m not sure what else could be done that doesn’t both contravene site policy and obfuscate the whole point of Aired Order.
They don’t seem to get that the order is correct and it’s the numbering that’s the problem.
the other approach is to post what you think the episode renumbering should be (episode id, current season, current episode, new season, new episode), and hope to get a mod’s attention to have them then do the bulk edit. Having it in that format makes it relatively easy to batch update programatically too, increasing the odds of resolution.
It seems like this is probably the best option, although it seems like it’s a lot of work if they’re ignoring that it’s a problem at all.
