Server Version#: Always the latest
Using XMLTV?: Yes
Channel number/Name: Sports games
Plex is not displaying XMLTV guide correctly for all programs that have the same title eg: “NHL Hockey” or “NBA Basketball” or “ANYTHING”. It will show the same sub-title and desc for every entry of that specific title. The XMLTV file is correct. If you want the XMLTV file I will send it to you privately.
I think I understand what you’re describing, but I’m not seeing the same behavior. Here are a few airings of “NFL Football” from this coming weekend which show different subtitles and descriptions:
Here are the relevant entries from my XML file:
<programme start="20220115163000 -0500" stop="20220115200000 -0500" channel="4.1.plex.tv">
<title>NFL Football</title>
<sub-title>Las Vegas Raiders at Cincinnati Bengals</sub-title>
<desc>The NFL postseason kicks off with Joe Burrow and the No. 4 Bengals hosting the No. 5 Raiders in this AFC wild-card tilt. Las Vegas survived the Los Angeles Chargers in overtime in a thrilling Week 18 finale to earn its first playoff berth since 2016.</desc>
<icon src="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/6/gracenote/6f644a91922b6950691689e37651a062.jpg" />
<episode-num system="original-air-date">2022-01-15 07:00:00</episode-num>
<previously-shown start="2022-01-15 07:00:00" />
<category>Sports</category>
</programme>
<programme start="20220116201500 -0500" stop="20220116233000 -0500" channel="4.1.plex.tv">
<title>NFL Football</title>
<sub-title>Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs</sub-title>
<desc>No. 2 Kansas City takes on No. 7 Pittsburgh in this wild-card showdown. The Chiefs make a seventh straight postseason appearance. The Steelers dispatched the Chiefs from the postseason in 2017. Kansas City blasted Pittsburgh 36-10 in Week 16.</desc>
<icon src="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/6/gracenote/6f644a91922b6950691689e37651a062.jpg" />
<episode-num system="original-air-date">2022-01-16 07:00:00</episode-num>
<previously-shown start="2022-01-16 07:00:00" />
<category>Sports</category>
</programme>
<programme start="20220117201500 -0500" stop="20220117231500 -0500" channel="13.1.plex.tv">
<title>NFL Football</title>
<sub-title>Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams</sub-title>
<desc>West rivals in the No. 4 seed Rams and No. 5 Cardinals limp into their NFC wild-card engagement. Los Angeles, the division champion, and Arizona lost at home in Week 18. The clubs split during the regular season with each winning on the road.</desc>
<icon src="https://metadata-static.plex.tv/6/gracenote/6f644a91922b6950691689e37651a062.jpg" />
<episode-num system="original-air-date">2022-01-17 07:00:00</episode-num>
<previously-shown start="2022-01-17 07:00:00" />
<category>Sports</category>
</programme>
If I’ve misunderstood, can you point out how, or provide screenshots of what you’re seeing?
<programme channel="623" start="20220112060000 -0500" stop="20220112080000 -0500">
<title lang="">NHL Hockey</title>
<sub-title lang="">Tampa Bay Lightning at Buffalo Sabres</sub-title>
<desc lang="">The Sabres look to rattle the Lightning for the second time this season when the clubs clash. Buffalo stunned Tampa Bay with a 5-1 victory on Oct. 25, 2021. Veteran goalie Craig Anderson made 35 saves for Buffalo, while Victor Olofsson scored twice.</desc>
<category lang="en">Sports</category>
<icon height="" src="" width=""></icon>
<credits></credits>
<video></video>
<date></date>
</programme>
I’m using plain old OTA, so I don’t have any hockey in my guide (sadly). Do you see the same issue with the football airings I used for my example above? Based on your original description, it seems like you would.
Also, which client are you using? Do you see the same issue with the web client?
Yes, football too. I’m on Roku and Android. It’s the same across the board. Web client too.
Assuming by “latest” you mean 1.25.3.5385, that’s what I’m running also; Docker on Linux. Given that we’re seeing differing behavior with the same client (web), it would seem to imply that the XMLTV file might be causing the issue.
The only things which jump out immediately are that yours has no “episode-num” or “previously-show” elements. It’s possible that Plex’s parser may be using either one or both of those to distinguish between unique airings.
I noticed other programming works fine such as:
<programme channel="213" start="20220112090000 -0500" stop="20220112100000 -0500">
<title lang="">How the States Got Their Shapes</title>
<sub-title lang="">Living on the Edge</sub-title>
<desc lang="">Behind blank spots like Area 51; what possessed the citizens of Key West to secede from Florida; old missile bunkers turned into dream homes; a county that was left off Georgia's quarter.</desc>
<episode-num system="xmltv_ns">0 . 4 . </episode-num>
<icon height="" src="" width=""></icon>
<credits></credits>
<video></video>
<date></date>
</programme>
So it is probably the episode-num. In theory it shoudn’t matter because it’s all sorted by channel number.
Right now it’s using some other entry assigned to another channel.
I agree, it’s likely the absence of episode-num. I suspect that their parser uses it to disambiguate what it would otherwise consider to be the same “episode,” just a different airing. I don’t think the channel number would be sufficient, as the same episode of a show can air on multiple channels in the same guide period (it frequently happens with Star Trek in my area, for example).
It could be argued that it should use the sub-title element to disambiguate as well (or desc). But perhaps episode-num is more of a “sure bet” (usually?).
I don’t see why not. All the info is there in the block. Channel number, date, time, end, description and if anything else is missing it doesn’t get displayed. The XMLTV file isn’t sharing entries between channels.
TVheadend is doing something funny with the sports as this is where it’s pulled from.
I’m pretty certain that Plex treats these (sporting events like NFL Football, for example) as episodic content. Hence my example of Star Trek above, another show which airs on multiple channels and has the same title. It could be argued that the sub-title should always be consistently different between episodes and could be used to disambiguate. However, the description could vary (and often does between different metadata sources) and so could not be. It could also be argued that the most consistent way to differentiate between different “episodes” would be the the episode-num information, which is why I think they probably use that.
This is all supposition, obviously. I don’t see the issue, you do. Comparing our source data, the two elements I mentioned (episode-num and previously-shown) are the only differences which stand out.
If you can coax TVHeadend to provide the episode-num element, it would be a good test.
Yea, other shows with that specific block are displaying fine so I wonder why TVheadend is not including the information for sports. It certainly is included in the raw data from schedules direct that I pulled separate.
If there is no <episode-num…> tag in the XML entry, then it uses the <OriginalAirDate…> tag. If both of those dont exist, then plex treats it as the exact same show/episode.
This might be of value to your issue as it is not exactly the same as you are describing, but I suspect it is quite similar.
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