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+---- Thread: Multipart Episodes (i.e. S01E01ab) NFO-file? (/showthread.php?tid=355050)
Multipart Episodes (i.e. S01E01ab) NFO-file? - PapaUserDE - 2020-06-08
Hi, me Newbie
I did search but all I find is multi-episodes, not how to manage multi-part episodes. And I learned that TMDB splits multi-part episodes using internally different episode numbers, i.e. on Vampirina Season 2 (or many other Disney series). Asked about it, they referred me to create a NFO-file to merge them on KODI. Without one, the association of episodes fail, even using proper naming. While I have no idea why, sometimes Kodi links to the first sub-episode, i.e. episode 4ab are linked to 04a. In other cases, it is linked to S01E04 is linked to episode 2b (1a, 1b, 2a, 2b), obviously linking to the TMDB episode 4.
According to how I understood the moderator of TMDB, they intend to split all multi-part episodes, like in Vampirina Season 1 to individual sub-episodes, using their own episode numbers.
To visualize:
Disney Vampirina Season 2.
Episode 1a Going Batty (TMDB S02E01)
Episode 1b Scare B&B (TMDB S02E02)
Episode 2a The Woodsie Way (TMDB S02E03)
Episode 2b TNN (TMDB S02E04)
File: Vampirina S01E01 Going Batty+Scare B&B.mp4
Works well, accessing https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/74323-vampirina/season/1/episode/1 named "Going Batty/Scare B&B". Disney calls those episode 1a Going Batty, episode 1b Scare B&B.
File Vampirina S02E01 Ein Vampire for President+Where's Wolfie.mp4
Works well, accessing https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/74323-vampirina/season/2/episode/1?language=en-US but only showing the first part of the episode "Vampire for President", ignoring the second part.
Now we go to Vampirina S02E02 Der Pfadfinder-Campingausflug+Live aus Pennsylvania.mp4
Which came back as "Where's Wolfie", being episode 1b and not the official Disney episode 2a, which would be The Woodsie Way (+TNN).
It might have gotten worse as I use German episode names and try to access the German TMDB info.
So. According to TMDB moderator I must merge the two files into an NFO-file. But I cannot simply link one file only, like https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/74323-vampirina/season/2/episode/3?language=de-DE (the Woodsie Way), but would need to link two files, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/74323-vampirina/season/2/episode/3?language=de-DE (German version of the Woodsie Way as sub-episode a) and https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/74323-vampirina/season/2/episode/4?language=de-DE (German TNN as sub-episode b).
I understand, the image will be one of the two (if both are available). But the plot should merge and display both episode plots together on Kodi.
This is a major problem (for me at least), as this seems to be a structural issue for many such episodes, hundreds for my movie archive alone. Which by the way is made worse by fallback of Kodi/TMDB to English, which my kids simply don't "compute". Now users could create manually the NFO-files, given the "user" has scripting experience. While I'm ready to add German content for their series in TMDB (did for Vampirina S1), to generate hundreds of NFO-files is not really what I look for.
Ideal would be a text-file with two TMDB-links like
Vampirina S02E01 Ein Vampire for President+Where's Wolfie.nfo
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/74323-vampirina/season/2/episode/3?language=de-DE
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/74323-vampirina/season/2/episode/4?language=de-DE
Maybe accompanies by
Vampirina S02E01 Ein Vampire for President+Where's Wolfie.jpg
But I'm also ready to merge both sub-episodes into an nfo-file manually, though then I loose the entire advantage of scraping... I hope I could avoid that...
RE: Multipart Episodes (i.e. S01E01ab) NFO-file? - Karellen - 2020-06-08
Kodi can only scrape the information that is available at the scraper site. If it is presented in a particular order, then that is what Kodi scrapes and adds to your library, and that holds true for any media manager also. Although I can see that S01E01 episode is actually two episodes combined (according to the episode title), TheMovieDB has it listed as one episode. Kodi cannot split that for you and the advice others have offered for NFO files, is correct.
Using S01E04a and S01E04b will not work as Kodi has no idea what the "a" and "b" mean. The episode numbers you use must match the episode numbers on TheMovieDB. Fiddling with episode numbers won't magically give you what you are hoping for.
(2020-06-08, 14:09)PapaUserDE Wrote: File Vampirina S02E01 Ein Vampire for President+Where's Wolfie.mp4There is no second part according to TheMovieDB. It is a second episode.
Works well, accessing https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/74323-vamp...uage=en-US but only showing the first part of the episode "Vampire for President", ignoring the second part.
(2020-06-08, 14:09)PapaUserDE Wrote: Now we go to Vampirina S02E02 Der Pfadfinder-Campingausflug+Live aus Pennsylvania.mp4It scraped this way as that is what TheMovieDB has listed.
Which came back as "Where's Wolfie", being episode 1b and not the official Disney episode 2a, which would be The Woodsie Way (+TNN).
It might have gotten worse as I use German episode names and try to access the German TMDB info.
One thing I don't understand yet is how you have your episodes.
1. Do you have two episodes files - one file for Vampire for President and another file for Where's Wolfie? or do you have one file that contains both episodes?
2. Do you want the display in your library to be as two separate entries or do you want them to be combined as one episode?
3. Are you hoping to display them as S02E01a and S02E01b? If this is the case, it is not possible. There is no provision for sub-episodes in Kodi, or any media manager that I know of.
RE: Multipart Episodes (i.e. S01E01ab) NFO-file? - PapaUserDE - 2020-06-09
According to Disney, Episode S02E01 consists of (a) and (b).
To visualize:
Disney Vampirina Season 2.
Episode 1a Going Batty (TMDB S02E01)
Episode 1b Scare B&B (TMDB S02E02)
Episode 2a The Woodsie Way (TMDB S02E03)
Episode 2b TNN (TMDB S02E04)
As TMDB splits up the episode into two, they make the two Disney episodes into four TMDB episodes. 0 does not equal 1 (0!=1), causing havoc with automatic scraping if you go by the Disney episodes. Which is not uncommon. After the initial airing, Disney usually airs the episodes complete as double episode with only one intro. This is also on the episodes I bought for the kids on DVD. It is clearly being each episode consisting of two sub-episodes with some specials being 1:1.
Again, Disney themselves calls Episode 1 "Going Batte/Scare B&B. Such, episode 2 is The Woodsie Way/TNN, not Scare B&B.
And this is only an example. There are other children shows aplenty on German TV and other channels which can be downloaded legally (i.e. using Mediathekview), having the same problem.
Now. I can develop and write the episodes nfo-files by hand, but even scripting, that takes quite some work. So referred to Kodi by TMDB moderator (in direct message), I was hoping there would be a way to merge the information from TMDB for sub-episodes into the single episodes (a+b) on file.
From The Bible - Episodes on TMDB:
For kids cartoon with two or three distinct stories (segments) per half-hour, each episode should be split so that each segment is an episode. For example, "Going the Extra Milo / Sunny Side Up" should be two episodes. The main reason for splitting the segments is that segments are often released individually and/or paired with a different segment in subsequent releases.
Sorry, this is bonkers and totally impractical for any users of the official series DVDs or Blu-Rays or legal downloads if we cannot "automatically" merge them back into properly displayed episodes on Kodi.
RE: Multipart Episodes (i.e. S01E01ab) NFO-file? - PapaUserDE - 2020-06-09
The problem gets worse especially if TMDB does not have the title in the language of choice. If you use German, a lot of series are not yet translated, those being then totally messed in Kodi, rendering Kodi unusable. Even with the title, it seems to be more a matter of luck, which episode TMDB delivers to Kodi.
As mentioned, the best would be, if an info-file could be understood by Kodi with two or more TMDB links to the sub-episodes, merging the multiple plots into a single episode plot in Kodi and merging the titles TMDB-subtitle1/TMDB-subtitle2[/etc] (separated by "/").
As is, using Kodi makes me more work than it does help. Though I assume that would be a request for development. I'm not a programmer, so I can't contribute that myself.
RE: Multipart Episodes (i.e. S01E01ab) NFO-file? - Ferkner - 2020-11-20
(2020-06-09, 15:20)PapaUserDE Wrote: The problem gets worse especially if TMDB does not have the title in the language of choice. If you use German, a lot of series are not yet translated, those being then totally messed in Kodi, rendering Kodi unusable. Even with the title, it seems to be more a matter of luck, which episode TMDB delivers to Kodi.
As mentioned, the best would be, if an info-file could be understood by Kodi with two or more TMDB links to the sub-episodes, merging the multiple plots into a single episode plot in Kodi and merging the titles TMDB-subtitle1/TMDB-subtitle2[/etc] (separated by "/").
As is, using Kodi makes me more work than it does help. Though I assume that would be a request for development. I'm not a programmer, so I can't contribute that myself.
I'm looking for the same sort of solution. The new season of Animaniacs released, and while Hulu and Teletoon are airing proper episodes with an intro, segments, and credits, in TMDB and the TVDB, each segment is split up. I don't care how things are repackaged after the original airing. The episodes should be listed in these database based on how they originally aired.
there are 13 new episodes of Animaniacs. This is what Hulu says, and they are airing the show and paying Warner Bros for it. Both database sites list 42 episodes. Do I really want a 2-minute segment to be an individual file? NO. I want to watch them in Kodi - and have Kodi recognize them - as proper episodes with all the segments together that make up a proper episode.
Since these database sites refuse to use common sense and logic, it's going to require using NFO files. I've only used them in the past to group the Star Wars movies together and to have them display in chronological order. I have never used them to take a proper episode and have Kodi display the information for it from the various segments the database sites broke it up into.