New Plex Media Server TV show/series scanner and agent preview

chrisallen
Tue, 15 Dec 2020 20:39:36 +0000
Metadata & Adding Files

What is it and what’s new?

A few months ago we upgraded our movie scanning and matching inside PMS leveraging our own cloud metadata provider. Since then we’ve been working on giving TV shows/series the same treatment, and while there are still a few important things we still need to address, the core functionality is there and we would like to get it into more hands so we have the opportunity to test things out a wider variety of setups.

WARNING: Ensure you have a database backup before proceeding. While we have taken care to ensure no major issues, it is a good precaution to ensure you backup your database before you install this build.

For information on how to backup your database please refer to the following support articles:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201539237-backing-up-plex-media-server-data/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/202485658-restore-a-database-backed-up-via-scheduled-tasks/

What to Test?

1. Download the preview PMS version 1.22.0 (links below)

2. Use the custom bundled web app at http://localhost:32400/web (This now shows a preview of TV shows in fix match)

3. Create a new test TV library using the “Plex TV Series (BETA)” Agent.

Note: While you can currently upgrade an existing library using one of the legacy agents to use the new agent it is recommended that during the preview that you create a completely separate library for testing.

Tip: You can create a new TV library that points to the same folders as your existing library. Which may make it easier to compare.

You may also want to disable visibility on Home screen and search so your home screen Recently Added does not get populated with content from the test library

4. Once TV have scanned into the library please check the following;

Does the new TV scanner pick up all your files?

Are your shows and their episodes getting matched correctly?

Is metadata like posters, summaries, release dates, etc. all loading as expected?

If you can compare the library with an existing one, do the show counts match between them?

Any observations on the speed of the process; are you experiencing any major slowdowns at any point?

Does Fix Match work as expected?

Please report any crashes or anything out of the ordinary.

Note: These libraries should be used for testing purposes only. As we will be improving this feature along the way, there is no guarantee of future/backward compatibility etc.

What are some of the things still being worked on and/or known issues?

IMDB ratings are currently only supported at the show level.

Localization is limited to shows and episodes (season titles and summaries are only available in English currently). Improvements to this is ongoing.

What if my TV show/series matched incorrectly?

If you come across something that we matched incorrectly, please use the “Fix Match” option in the dropdown which will help improve future matching al let us know what the correct match for that item is.

What if my TV show/series matched but has bad metadata?

This should be rare but if it happens please reply to this thread and let us know in detail what is wrong with the metadata eg; the poster is in the wrong language, the synopsis is missing etc.

What if my TV show/series didn’t match at all?

This should also be rare if your filenames follow our naming guide, but if it does happen please reply to this thread with what the tv show/series should have matched to and the full filename.

Download Links

These links are no longer available as preview testing has concluded. Please use the public release channels.

467 posts - 84 participants