# Missing metadata in VideoObject

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914>\
**Category:** Dev/API Corner\
**Tags:** plugin-dev\
**Created:** [February 19, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914 "2014-02-19T19:53:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![realriot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@realriot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/realriot)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/1 "2014-02-19T19:53:35Z")

</div>

Hi,

&nbsp;

I've created a VideoObject and added it to an ObjectContainer...

Adding informations like:

- tagline
- genres
- original\_title
- originally\_available\_at
- ...

ended in the result that only a few informations are available within the webinterface. I can see only some of them but the rest is missing. Only the important ones are visible. Is there something to remember to add and display this metadata?

Greets

Sascha

&nbsp;

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**Author:** ![realriot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@realriot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/realriot)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/2 "2014-02-19T20:06:55Z")

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For example: the "genres" metadata is just a list of genres...

Or is a special format required for this metadata?

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**Author:** ![Gerk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/gerk/32/81980_2.png) [@Gerk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Gerk)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/3 "2014-02-21T15:39:52Z")

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I'm not sure that many of those make sense if you're just using a generic video object, those probably make more sense when using a MovieObject, EpisodeObject, AlbumObject, etc.

The docs seem \_horribly\_ out of date on this area, but from what I can glean from them in a few places it says a "list", so guessing genres would be a python list if anything.

Lastly not all Plex apps show all metadata, it's a bit all over the place. &nbsp;Plex/Web is not my first choice when it comes to testing channel content, that's for sure.

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**Author:** ![Gerk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/gerk/32/81980_2.png) [@Gerk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Gerk)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/4 "2014-02-21T18:48:30Z")

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I take that back ... they are not so out of date:

[http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/api/objectkit.html](http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/api/objectkit.html)

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**Author:** ![mikedm139](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mikedm139/32/96909_2.png) [@mikedm139](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mikedm139)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/5 "2014-03-08T19:11:10Z")

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The client apps (and their developers) have the final say on what metadata is displayed. As channel developers we can ask that they make use of all the available metadata. If you can confirm that the metadata is included in the XML generated by the channel and not displayed, rather than it being a case of the metadata not being properly passed by the channel framework, then we can notify the Plex/Web developers and hopefully it will be rectified.

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**Author:** ![realriot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@realriot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/realriot)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/6 "2014-03-13T10:12:02Z")

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Hm, the developer docu says that there are fields for "countries, genres, writers, ..." for MovieObjects.

So I cannot understand why these fields shoudn't be displayed? Perhaps this is a bug?

Example XML data for MovieObject:

> \<MediaContainer&nbsp;[...]&nbsp;type="movie"&nbsp;rating="6.2"&nbsp;year="2013"&nbsp;duration="7140000"&nbsp;title="The Internship"&nbsp;tagline="Hiring them was a brilliant mistake."&nbsp;originallyAvailableAt="2013-06-07"originalTitle="The Internship"&nbsp;summary="Two recently laid-off men in their 40s try to make it as interns at a successful Internet company where their managers are in their 20s."&nbsp;art="[http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/a2zcTbgltNDBm8tkXAYmGv0uplR.jpg](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/a2zcTbgltNDBm8tkXAYmGv0uplR.jpg)"&nbsp;ratingKey="[...]&nbsp;"thumb="[http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/njTsMdL5ZXzgYGUFf8oODjKkDKI.jpg](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/njTsMdL5ZXzgYGUFf8oODjKkDKI.jpg)"\>
> 
> \<Media&nbsp;videoCodec="h264"&nbsp;container="mp4"&nbsp;audioCodec="aac"\>
> 
> \<Part&nbsp;container="mp4"&nbsp;key="[...]""file=""\>
> 
> \<Stream&nbsp;index="0"&nbsp;selected="1"&nbsp;streamType="1"&nbsp;codec="h264"&nbsp;id="1"/\>
> 
> \<Stream&nbsp;index="1"&nbsp;selected="1"&nbsp;streamType="2"&nbsp;codec="aac"&nbsp;id="2"/\>
> 
> \<Genre&nbsp;tag="Comedy"/\>
> 
> \<Country&nbsp;tag="United States of America"/\>

Wether "Comedy" or the "Country" appears while displaying the movie information...

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mikedm139](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mikedm139/32/96909_2.png) [@mikedm139](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mikedm139)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 1:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/7 "2014-03-13T13:20:08Z")

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Looks like those metadata fields aren’t included in the client layout (either by oversight or choice). With which apps have noticed this behaviour? I’ll bring it to the attention of the appropriate developers.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gerk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/gerk/32/81980_2.png) [@Gerk](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Gerk)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/8 "2014-03-13T14:23:50Z")

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I think for movies Genre and Country are used as filters in Plex/Web:

![filters.png](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2452264/forumPics/filters.png)

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**Author:** ![realriot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@realriot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/realriot)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/9 "2014-03-13T15:54:57Z")

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Hm, perhaps the genres are used for this, too.

But, the informations shown in the screenshot are used if the media resides local. And with the object informations documented at&nbsp;[http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/api/objectkit.html#MovieObject](http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/api/objectkit.html#MovieObject)&nbsp;it is possible to show these informations for media located somewhere else (where the channels looks for the media).

The problem which exists is that it seems that there's a bug now using/showing all given informations.

- genres

- countries

...

_The screenshot shows the local media_

![post-185122-0-10666500-1394725850.jpg|690x368](upload://ibc9300imwt1g8UJcEsiXu5roPc.jpg)

PS: Currently noticed that " **directors**" is one of the working fields.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![realriot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@realriot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/realriot)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/10 "2014-03-13T16:03:21Z")

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I've checked what plex.tv/web shows: It's less than the local webinterface shows. For example the initial release date is missing, the year and so one...

For me it sees that both interfaces have issues interpreting the information provided by a channel. The XML data shows these informations but they aren't used to display them to the user. I think we should open a bug report at this point.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mikedm139](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mikedm139/32/96909_2.png) [@mikedm139](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mikedm139)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/11 "2014-03-13T22:38:30Z")

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Well, you're half right :)

There was apparently a bug which was preventing the "genres" from being listed. The "countries" are excluded by design since that metadata is not displayed for any media in any part of the Plex ecosystem.

I can't comment on other metadata fields without specific examples. In some cases it may be that the metadata is "missing" due to an oversight but, I suspect that in most cases it a design choice. I'm sure there are arguments to be made for adding as much metadata as possible to the available views but those arguments are somewhat blunted by the lack of "official" channels which are able to provide that metadata.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![realriot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@realriot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/realriot)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 10:11am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/12 "2014-03-14T10:11:44Z")

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I've created a working-Matrix for MovieObject metadata fields based on [http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/api/objectkit.html#MovieObject](http://dev.plexapp.com/docs/api/objectkit.html#MovieObject) and

**Plex Media Server 0.9.9.6** :

&nbsp;

**genres**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**tags**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**duration**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**rating**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: OK

&nbsp;

**original\_title**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**source\_title**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**title**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: OK

&nbsp;

**year**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**originally\_available\_at**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**studio**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**tagline**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: OK

&nbsp;

**summary**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: OK

&nbsp;

**trivia**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**quotes**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**content\_rating**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**content\_rating\_age**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**writers**

Plex/Web: OK&nbsp;

plex.tv/web: OK

&nbsp;

**directors**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: OK

&nbsp;

**producers**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**countries**

Plex/Web: missing

plex.tv/web: missing

&nbsp;

**thumb**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: OK

&nbsp;

**art**

Plex/Web: OK

plex.tv/web: OK

&nbsp;

Hope this helps and gives an overview what works and what not... Writing a movie channel makes it nearly impossible to provide important and user friendly informations about a movieclip.

&nbsp;

Greets

Sascha

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![realriot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@realriot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/realriot)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/13 "2014-04-06T17:46:07Z")

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Any news on that? Did my working matrix help to identify the missing stuff?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ericmatthys](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ericmatthys/32/82085_2.png) [@ericmatthys](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ericmatthys)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/14 "2014-04-06T20:20:03Z")

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The year, content rating image, and media tag images (video resolution, audio codec, audio channels) will be added in the next update to better match the preplays for library content.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 1:21am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/missing-metadata-in-videoobject/57914/15 "2019-12-21T01:21:15Z")

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