How to use scrapers of themoviedb.org and thetvdb.com after the enforced library »upgrade«

[RJ45]

Server Version#:1.40.5.8854
Player Version#:all of them

Just upgraded PMS from 1.40.4.8679 to 1.40.5.8854 on my DS918+ and when opening Plex’ Web GUI I was greeted with a message that offered to switch to Plex’ new media agents. It turns out the »upgrade« doesn’t do anything to Plex’ internal database or files at all as you would suppose, since that’s what upgrades do. It’s a mere selector of Plex Movie / Plex Movie Scanner as scanner/agent that also could have been chosen before.

Is there a way to scrape movies and shows from themoviedb.org and thetvdb.com like with their respective scrapers before and not use Plex’ own scrapers?

[CWallace]

You might want to learn to use the new ones. They’ve been saying that they are going to remove the old agents/plug-ins/Python for awhile. Now they are starting. The new Plex agents will be the norm.

Important information for users running Plex Media Server on Nvidia Shield devices

Way back in 2018 we announced the retirement of some features which included support for plug-ins for integrating third-party audio/video channels. We also noted that this wouldn’t affect scanners and agents which rely on some of the same plug-ins infrastructure, but as this framework is built on-top of a now unsupported version of Python, we are announcing today that we’ll be removing support for plug-ins entirely going forward. This process will begin with only Android-based Plex Media Server…

I actually like the new ones quite a bit. With the addition of Source ID’s and Editions (Movies only right now) in the new scanners I’ve not had to Fix Match or Split Apart since.

Good Luck,

Chris

[anon5074910]

To add - the new modern agent/scanner are a massive improvement in performance and has lots of features the old ones do not, like being able to specific episode ordering between tmdb and tvdb at the show level etc…

However, it does have one downside, its a consolidated metadata. All you can control is the episode ordering, the metadata itself cannot be scrapped from tmdb or tvdb. If your interested feel free to vote on this feature request [Feature Request] Ability to specify Metadata from a single source (IMDB, TMDB or TVDB).

In saying that, don’t let that put you off upgrading. It’s way better than the legacy agents and they will go away sooner rather than later …

[RJ45]

I don’t really like Plex creating kind of a walled garden here. Bei it Emby, Kodi, Jellyfin or Plex, there was always the freedom to choose between different metadata providers? Don’t agree with one database’s naming or episode numbering – just choose a different one or correct the data on the site itself (I contributed a thing or two to TheTVDb). Fan of anime or some obscure genre – just find a fitting database. Now we’re forced to use just one.

If I understood the changes right, Plex’ own database is just a collection of data from themoviedb.org and thetvdb.com anyway, so if I want to know which release year and which spelling to put in a movie’s folder name, I can still look it up on themoviedb.org, right?

[RJ45]

@anon5074910

If your interested feel free to vote on this feature request [Feature Request] Ability to specify Metadata from a single source (IMDB, TMDB or TVDB).

Done!

[CWallace]

@RJ45

so if I want to know which release year and which spelling to put in a movie’s folder name, I can still look it up on themoviedb.org, right?

You can also look it up on Plex’s own page:

https://www.plex.tv/

Just search for the show you’re looking for in the upper left Search bar.

Good luck,

Chris

[anon5074910]

@RJ45

Plex’ own database is just a collection of data from themoviedb.org and thetvdb.com anyway

And a number of other sources but I’ve never seen a full list of all the places they scrape data from. TMDB is certainly their starting point for TV and IMDB for movies but they rate/grade metadata depending on its type. I’d just love to be able to get everything from one place but I sense I’m in the minority