When no one has the right metadata

Homicide Life on the street DVDs are in order of production not when aired. TVDB is the closest but not correct. Many are out of order once metadata is entered. Only using TVDB. To make changes e01 becomes e03 and that changes other episodes, so not just correcting one episode. Suggestions on how to get them all listed in the correct, as aired, order.

Thanks

Following.

Maybe this will be a use for the NFO feature they promised.

Normally, both TVDB and TMDB are by default listing series as they were aired originally. (i.e. in the country and TV station which aired it first).
If the “aired” episode ordering on either website is not reflecting what you want, you could try to convince the community that you are right. Your best way is to provide evidence, like original documentation which shows the episode ordering.

If that is not accepted, you can instead create a custom episode ordering over on TheTVDB.
If they dispute it, provide evidence that what you are proposing is sensible and superior to the “aired” ordering.
Once it has been created over there, you can use this episode ordering in Plex.

On this point. I’m not familiar with the show but if you look at tvdb itself is it the order you want or do you mean its closest when using tvdb ordering within plex ?

Reason I ask is that looking at tmdb I see none of the external ids linking tmdb to tvdb exist. This is one way plex uses to line up episodes when using different types of episode ordering. (tmdb vrs tvdb for example).

So, if tvdb is what you are looking then if someone was to go and add the external ids for each episode on tmdb to tvdb then it would really help align the episodes within plex.

This is kicking my butt. The episode listing states all episodes were in order of production rather than date aired. Great y’know. So is the easy way to label the episode per TVDB info and not the DVD order. But then episode 3 is really something else, and still will not be in order… I really do not want to enter all the metadata myself and then lock it. Dang this is hard to explain.

Are the episodes on your DVDs in the same order as the DVD order at TVDB?

Yes, same order:
Tell Plex to use the TVDB DVD order.
Edit the show (pencil icon) → Advanced → Episode Ordering.

No, different order:
Option 1: Name your files so they match the order on TVDB (Aired or DVD) or TMDB (Aired).
Option 2: Ask TVDB to adjust their DVD order to match yours.
Option 3: Ask TVDB to create a new “Production Order” listing that matches your DVDs.


Example for Option 1: Night of the Living Dead

TVDB Aired order: Season 1, Episode 9.
TVDB DVD order: Season 1, Episode 3.

If you want to use Aired order, name the file Homicide Life on the Street s01e09 Night of the Living Dead.mkv

If you want to use DVD order, name the file Homicide Life on the Street s01e03 Night of the Living Dead.mkv

Name the other files to match the chosen order.

Tell Plex which order to use: Edit the show (pencil icon) → Advanced → Episode Ordering.

Then refresh the show metadata if Plex does not do so automatically.

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I had some time today so I went ahead and added all the external ids for each episode on tmdb linking it to tvdb. The aired order and dvd order are significantly different so this should help align this up.

Give it between 48/72 hours for these changes to make it to the plex metadata back-end and then force refresh the metadata for the show on your server. It should help! If it doesn’t then we need more details of specially what is misaligned.

The DVD order is how the creators of the show - David Simon, Tom Fontana, et al - conceived the show.

The aired order is how the network preferred them at the time. There is a good explanation here

I had the show ordered by aired date but have changed it to DVD order. Had to rename quite a lot of episode numbers but the stories make more sense.

I think there may be two different sets of this show. My set states that the episodes on the DVD are ordered by production date, NOT aired date. Example disc 1 Episode 3 (DVD order) has a 3/31 date but episode 9 has a date of 3/24

@Pensylb

Look at the order of the episodes, not the dates. Plex uses the episode order, not the date.

This is the season 1 DVD order at TVDB: Homicide: Life on the Street - Unknown - Season 1 - TheTVDB.com

Does it match the order of the episodes on your DVDs?

Thanks all. I will look into this in two weeks as I have to travel tomorrow. Will advise how it goes when I return.

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