Same TheTVDB scaper settings for both Plex and Xbmc?

Dev Community Dev/API Corner
1

First of all. I F*cking love plex! Its truly the best media service out there today! :)

 

Now... I just bought a Raspberry Pi and started experimenting with different OS's. I tried RasPlex first and I liked it. The only problem atm is that the skin is really laggy and the youtube addon isn't working atm.

So, then I tried Raspbmc instead where the youtube addon works (i kinda have to be able to use youtube). I also started experimenting with different skins, scrapers etc. and found that TheTVDB scraper works better with plex (for windows) then with xbmc (for windows/pi). Since my whole NAS is using plex as default, my folder names and structures are edited to fit that.

 

Here's some folder name and structure examples:

Family.Guy.S12.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.H.264-CtrlHD

South.Park.S03.720p.WEBRip.AAC2.0.H.264-GC

The.Sopranos.COMPLETE.1080p.WEB-DL.h.264.DD5.1-NTb

   - The.Sopranos.S05.1080p.WEB-DL.h.264.DD5.1-NTb

        - The.Sopranos.S05E08.Marco.Polo.1080p.WEB-DL.h.264.DD5.1-NTb.mkv

Dads.2013.S01.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION

 

Some file name examples:

Family.Guy.S12E08.Christmas.Guy.1080p.WEB-DL.DD5.1.AAC2.0.H.264-YFN.mkv

South.Park.S04E17.A.Very.Crappy.Christmas.720p.WEBRip.AAC2.0.H.264-GC.mkv

The.Sopranos.S05E08.Marco.Polo.1080p.WEB-DL.h.264.DD5.1-NTb.mkv

Dads.2013.S01E01.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.mkv

 

Plex has no problem using thetvdb scraper to get the information from those folders and files, independent on the folder structure.

Xbmc seems to not being able to get the information from either folders or files. The only folder that xbmc does add using the scraper is Dads. I spent some hours searching and getting involved in how the scraper actually works with reading folders/files. It seems that the scaper for xbmc only get Dads because it has the year posted in the folder name and thetvdb gets that information. So, out of my 51 series on the NAS, xbmc can only grab information on one series; Dads. Im guessing that xbmc's scraper hiccups on my folder naming like S01 or something?

 

I understand that the scaper must be different in handling the folder/filename, structure/naming in plex and xbmc. So my question is if its possible to export thetvdb scraper settings from plex as .xml (or whatever) and then import them on xbmc. This will make xbmc get all the 51 shows like plex does. It will also make the shows show up in xbmc menu like the movies does, instead of using the unofficial xbmc plex addon; Plexbmc that doesn't work like I want it to do :P

 

I'd like to take this time to also thank the plex team for this awesome media solution! When the Plex Home Theater was released it was like Christmas for me. I finally got the web interface into the client! :D truly f*cking love it! I'm looking forward to see what changes will take place in the future.

A lot of rambling perhaps, but let me ask the question again :)

 

My question is if its possible to export thetvdb scraper settings from plex as .xml (or whatever) and then import them on xbmc?

 

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Unfortunately the XBMC agents work very differently than Plex ones, so there is not a straightforward way to do this.  I'm a little surprised XMBC would have trouble with that structure, however, since it's sort of the de facto standard.  Might there be something else going on?  Maybe some local embedded or external metadata that XBMC is picking up that cause it to get confused?

Thanks for the kind words, glad you're f'ing loving Plex!   :D

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@mmccurdy: Wow, thanks for the fast reply! :) Unfortunately my technical knowledge about how the scrapers actually work in either plex or xbmc isn't that great :p Would it be possible to copy the whole scraper from plex linux to the raspberry pi? Or is the scraper hard-coded into plex? The scraper is truly better in plex than with xbmc. Any possibility for a collaboration between the plex- and xbmc teams, regarding thetvdb? ;)

On a side note: When i first tried plex it was truly mind blowing! I hadn't tried xbmc before either, so it was a whole new world that opened up, haha. I used to watch my stuff with potplayer, browsing explorer trees. Boooooring! Plex is absolutely the best way for collecting movies and series, displaying them and sharing them with friends via internet :) I even forced friends to try Plex when it was new and they are also hocked like druggies. Sharing library is awesome if you got a good internet connection. We got 100/100mbit as standard in Sweden, so we are streaming 1080p from eachother. F*cking amazing! :D

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The specific behavior of a given agent is not hard coded, exactly, but the way the Plex ones are written they rely on a fairly extensive plug-in framework that doesn't exist at all in XBMC.  I'm a little less familiar with the way things work on the XBMC side, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a similar deal.  Basically the only thing they have in common is that they rely on the same underlying provider for the metadata itself.  Sorry, I know that's probably not the answer you wanted to hear....

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@mmccurdy: Thanks for the answer! :) It's okay, i'll wait for the update on RasPlex instead and going for the unofficial xbmc addon meanwhile :) cheers!

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I've noticed that the TVDB works much better for Plex than XBMC, as well as the IMDB.

In XBMC, anything other than the show/movie title seem to give it fits.

You have a lot of extra info in you folder/file names (I'm not judging, but you probably don't want to "announce" to public forums the way you are getting your content, especially when its the way you are obviously getting your content).

That said, if you clean up your folder/file names, you'll have an easier time with the scrapers. I use parenthesis to separate additional info. For example, when I rip one of my bluray discs to make it available thru Plex, I make two versions. One full resolution, for watching over wired ethernet in the house, and a second version that has been encoded for easier streaming. So I'd have Rocky(1080DTS) and Rocky(720RF22stereo) for the two different versions. When scraping those titles, XBMC always got hung up on the parenthesis.

You should simplify, using something like Bulk Renamer or Media Companion that will automatically rename folders and filenames, so you end up with something like:

Family Guy

- Season 2

- Season 3

- - /Family Guy - S03E02 - Episode Name

- - /Family Guy - S03E03 - Epsidoe Name

I guess my point is that your issue is more with your naming than with the scraper.

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In XBMC scrapper you need to tell it how you structured.

Like in Movies, you need to tell if the movies are all in the same folders or different folders with the movie title.

In shows you need to let it know if the each shows in a seperate and independent folders vs all on of them being in just one folder.

I have my folder structures the following in both Plex and XMBC. They work just fine without any issues.

\TV Shows

\Show Name

\Season

- episode name (eg. show name - season number episode number - show title. ext)

\Movies

\Movie Name (Year)

 - movie title.ext  

There are some apps that would do that for you automatically

http://www.filebot.net/

http://www.therenamer.com/screenshots.html

http://code.google.com/p/movie-renamer/downloads/list

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