metadata guessing has worsened

[kbrannen]

When I started using Jellyfin, I had a docker image I ran on my Synology and it worked pretty well. Occasionally it would guess badly and I could add the IMDBID to the movie file name and it would correct the metadata. However, I found I was having buffering issues when I watched from my Roku Jellyfin when watching Blurays. Trying to fix that, I created a Jellyfin server on my main computer to have "more power!" and that solved the issue. So go me for figuring out it was a compute issue!

However, it also seems the metadata guessing algorithm has gotten a lot worse in the newer version in that I'm having to add a lot more IMDBID to the movie filenames, and in TV shows (generally downloaded from my Tivo) if it's anything other than something well known (and some of these fail too), it will guess the wrong thing. 

NAS server: docker image, v6.0.24 (best as I can tell), on Synology
New server: package, v10.10.6, on Kbuntu 22.4.5

So something has changed and I'd like to know if there is anything I can do to help it be more like the older version, other than having to enter a lot of IMDBID values. Even editing the metadata and giving it the IMDBID only fixes some of the problem, like I'll get the proper name under the pic (e.g. MASH), but it still wants to show a pic from something else (e.g. Mashle). When it errors, it tends to pick some Japanese Anime for some reason (not always though, as my "John_Wayne" folder with his movies is thought to be "Conversations with a killer: the John Wayne Gacy tapes").

Also, between the 2 versions, the pic have changed in many instances (movies and TV) to some alternate. Maybe it's getting them from somewhere else than it used to? Or that source has changed their pics?


In a few cases, the server will decide it can't figure out what to do and just gives me a blank blue pic with the folder name under it. Honestly, this would be the preferable thing to do in all cases where the name doesn't have an exact match. Is there a way to force this? I didn't see a setting for it. For example, I've got a missing TV folder for an exercise video which doesn't show up at all even after a rescan. In some ways I'm not overly surprised as it's not even in IMDB, but again the blue rectangle with the folder name would be a welcome outcome.

Any suggestions on how to make any of this better?

[TheDreadPirate]

How are you folders named and organized? We have examples in our documentation.

https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/movies/
https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/server/media/shows/

A couple of common things I see that lead to misidentification are nesting of folders (like organizing media by genre) or not cleaning up resolutions, codecs, etc., in the folder/file name.

FWIW, IMDB IDs should be avoided as Jellyfin relies on TMDB/OMDB having a IMDB to TMDB/IMDB mapping (Jellyfin does not use IMDB for actual metadata). Stick with TMDB IDs.

I had to bite the bullet a while ago to retroactively add TMDB IDs to all my media and then kept doing that going forward. It has resulted in a MUCH better experience. Zero misidentified shows/movies since I started doing that. I highly recommend it.

There are apps that can automate this re-naming process. One we frequently recommend is Tiny Media Manager, but there are other apps that can do the same.

[kbrannen]

I found the docs you listed about after about 2 days of usage long ago, and they did improve things dramatically. But that still doesn't explain why the software has gotten worse at matching over time. Here's a sample of my dir for the "TV" library:

Almost_Human -> good
'Avatar_The_Last_Airbender [imdbid-tt0417299]' --> wrong, it shows the 2024 version not the 2005 version
Babylon_5 -> good
Bones -> good
'John_Wayne [imdbid-nm0000078]' -> wrong, but this isn't surprising as it's a person not a "show"
'MASH [imdbid-tt0068098]' -> wrong, it shows "Mashle", not the 1972 TV series
Scorpion -> good
Scorpion-Tivo -> acceptable, gives the blue box and folder name
Victory_at_Sea -> good, but if put in the Movies library it thinks it's a bunch of Romanian (or was it Spanish?) stuff

I used IMDB because the docs say it's supported and I'd never heard of TMDB. So I'd suggest the docs need to be changed to indicate this. A link to TMDB wouldn't hurt either.

Hey, there's a TIP on the "Shows" page that says IMDB isn't supported for shows, which I don't remember reading in the past. Hmm, can we give that the BLINK tag? It seems a bit weird to support IMDB for movies but not shows, but OK, I'll change.

Let me try changing Avatar and MASH...
mv 'Avatar_The_Last_Airbender [imdbid-tt0417299]' 'Avatar_The_Last_Airbender [tmdbid-246]'
mv 'MASH [imdbid-tt0068098]' 'MASH [tmdbid-918]'
Do a rescan for new & updated, wait 10min... Sorry, no change. Did I do something wrong?

BTW, when switching back to the old v6 server, it shows Avatar and MASH correctly, and the exercise video is now available (it's got the blue box and title only, but that's OK for me for something like that). FWIW, it won't play but I think that's because the newly updated client doesn't like a server that old, but I'm about to turn that server off, still the test is informative because it shows the v10 server is having problems.

Now trying:
mv 'Avatar_The_Last_Airbender [tmdbid-246]' 'Avatar_The_Last_Airbender (2005) [tmdbid-246]'
mv 'MASH [tmdbid-918]' 'MASH (1972) [tmdbid-918]'
Do a rescan for new & updated, wait 10min... Sorry, no change. I really can't tell if the problem is me or the software.

Just as a note, the testing is done with the Linux client on the same box my server is on, but the same results show on the Roku client on my TV.

I shouldn't need to restart my server, should I? [Signed out, restarted server, restarted client and logged in, and...] Nope, that didn't help as I still see the wrong images for Avatar and MASH, and the other mis-guesses problems are still there.

Any other suggestions?

[kbrannen]

Further observation... I moved the Avatar folder out of the Shows library by moving it up 1 dir and did a rescan. After that and waiting for a bit I note that Avatar still shows on the Shows list. In the past, at least on the v6 server, shows would come and go as the folder came and went, but v10 of the server seems to not do that.

If I do a "rescan->replace all metadata" is that just for the show I clicked on the menu or all shows? Don't think I want to disturb things that are there and working, so it'd be really nice if that rescan only worked on the show I clicked on "..." to get it.

Or is there another way to poke the server to get it to update the metadata (including images)? I really don't think I should be "hacking on" the sqlite DB that Jellyfin uses, even if I am capable.