Tv show stays unidentified by boxee

[NewGirl]

Hello,

I have a boxee box since three weeks now, and it works perfect.

It has some problems with regocnizing some movies or tv show episodes, i could manually identify some of the episodes from shows boxee already regocnized, so that has been taken care of.
By reading about .nfo files on this forum i managed to solve the movie problems.
but there is one tv show that stays unidentified.

It is a dutch tv show with 2 seasons, i have found it on IMDB and TVDB
IMDB has the first season complete and the second season only 4 episodes
TVDB has the first season complete and the second season no episode names or airing dates.
I don't know if this has something to do with it?

I have managed to make an nfo file that boxee read, but then it says: there are no details for this show.
Is it right that i need two .nfo files, one of the show and one of the episode?
Where do i have to put the files and how should i call it.

this is what i have:
a folder called: tv shows
it contains a folder called: Julia's Tango (the tv show it's about)

In Julia's Tango are the season folders 1 and 2, a folder.jpg and Julia's Tango.tbn
In the first season folder are the 10 episodes.
First episode is called: Julia's Tango (2007) - S01E01 - Bed and Breakfast.avi
and the nfo file: Julia's Tango (2007) - S01E01 - Bed and Breakfast.nfo
named the same as the first episode because this is the only way boxee seams to regocnize that there is an .nfo file.

I believe this should actually be the tvshow.nfo and i should have an episode.nfo as well?

the .nfo file looks like this:

<tvshow>
<title>Julia's Tango</title>
<rating></rating>
<year>2007</year>
<plot>Vier verschillende, eigenzinnige vrouwen starten het avontuur van hun leven in Buenos Aires. Ze hebben elkaar én de bruisende Argentijnse stad nodig om te ontdekken hoe ze in het leven staan en wie ze werkelijk zijn. Want hoe ver je ook reist, je komt jezelf altijd tegen.</plot>
<runtime>45 min</runtime>
<thumb>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986318/</thumb>
<id></id>
<mpaa></mpaa>
<genre>DRAMA</genre>
<premiered>2007-03-19</premiered>
<actor>
<name>Kim Pieters</name>
<role>Julia Marsman</role>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Peggy Vrijens</name>
<role>Marjolein Kramer</role>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Tina de Bruin</name>
<role>Pia Zonneveld</role>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Miryanna van Reeden</name>
<role>Jacqueline Hoogland</role>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Frederik Brom</name>
<role>Pieter van der Meulen</role>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Liz Snoyink</name>
<role>Maria</role>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Michiel de Jong</name>
<role>Bas</role>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Antonio Birabent</name>
<role>Raúl Alvarez</role>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Chris Tates</name>
<role>Erik Hoogland</role>
</actor>
</tvshow>

Is there anyone who can tell me what i can do about it, so boxee will identify this tv show?

The episode.nfo i have looks like this, but i am not using it, i don't know in what folder it should be and it looks like boxee doesn't use it when i tried.

<episodedetails>
<title>Bed and Breakfast</title>
<season>1</season>
<episode>1</episode>
</episodedetails>


I have three other dutch tv shows that boxee does regocnize, only one of those has a thumbnail, but on imdb i cant find that thumbnail.
it is on tvdb, but the other two tv shows have thumbnails on tvdb as well, that boxee doesn't show.
So i am confused, is there anyway i can boxee tell to show the thumbnail for the other two tv shows.

to clear things up the three other shows are:
De Co-assistent - this one shows the thumbnail on its own.
Gooische Vrouwen
Verborgen Gebreken

pfff it seems like a lot,
Hope it makes any sense and hope that anyone can make things a little clearer for me
Thanks.

[soundoftheground]

boxee probably doesn't have this show in their db, so no matter what you do you won't get any metadata from boxee servers. the only way you can resolve this is to either open a jira ticket and request that boxee update their servers or create your own series and episode .nfo's to override boxee's subpar scraping, which you've done you just need to finish it up and put everything in the correct folders.

it appears you've created and named the tvshow.nfo and episode .nfo's correctly (with one issue - the tvshow.nfo 'thumb' parameter doesn't point to an image file, but you're using a folder.jpg so that should work) but you don't have the full episode info in the episode .nfo.
you'll need to add <plot></plot> at a minimum to get any info. unfortunately if the plot info isn't available anywhere you can't do much about it other than to write something yourself.

below is the episode .nfo boxee uses as their example.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<episodedetails>
<title></title>
<id></id>
<rating></rating>
<season></season>
<episode></episode>
<plot></plot>
<runtime></runtime>
<aired>2012-06-19</aired>
</episodedetails>

once you've updated the episode.nfo you'll need to have it in the same folder as the actual video file. at this point if boxee has already run a scheduled scan it may not pick up the show even after you make the corrections - you may have to do a manual id to get it to show up - just choose nfo when prompted.

so...
folder: tv shows
subfolder: julia's tango which includes the tvshow.nfo with either a corrected thumb parameter or a folder.jpg
subfolder: season 01 and season 02 which include the video and .nfo files named exactly the same.

[NewGirl]

Thank you,

I changed the episode.nfo and put them in the right folders, that was the trick and it has a picture, so i am happy.

I have still one question:
the thumbnail of the episodes are the same as the picture in the overview.

at other shows the thumbnail is a frame of the beginning of the episode itself, i like it this way, so they are all different.
Is there a way i can make that happen, or am i stuck with the overview picture at each episode?
wich is fine, but i like the other one better.

and i believe that for the other 2 shows that don't have an overview picture i also have to make an tvshow.nfo an add one?

thanks again.

[kaymc]

boxee probably doesn't have this show in their db, so no matter what you do you won't get any metadata from boxee servers. the only way you can resolve this is to either open a jira ticket and request that boxee update their servers or create your own series and episode .nfo's to override boxee's subpar scraping, which you've done you just need to finish it up and put everything in the correct folders.

Now that's news to me.

I'd always thought my boxee box pulled metadata from the IMDb and theTVDB. You're saying it actually comes via an intermediary source, namely Boxee's own servers?

Wow. That explains so much! Why so many movies and TV shows I can see perfectly well at theTVDB and IMDb are never returned via searches when trying to manually identify and why I have to spend so much time creating NFO files.

Does anyone know if there is any documentation anywhere explaining the vagaries of this process? What Boxee's database scrapes, what it doesn't, etc?

[darcilicious]

Yes, Boxee has its own servers/databases for identifying content via the Boxee Box -- and yes they use a licensed copy of the IMDB and data from thetvdb.com sites/database to populate their own database.

Does anyone know if there is any documentation anywhere explaining the vagaries of this process? What Boxee's database scrapes, what it doesn't, etc?

I don't believe they have ever made this documentation public. However, if you look at the NFO support page, you can probably get a pretty good idea.

[martindk]

Any idea how often Boxee updates their DB from thetvdb?

If its a new tv-show recorded from tv you always have to wait quite a bit longer (weeks/months) on boxee before you're able to identify the tvshow. Xbmc seams to get the data fine right away.

Any thoughts?

[soundoftheground]

Any idea how often Boxee updates their DB from thetvdb?

If its a new tv-show recorded from tv you always have to wait quite a bit longer (weeks/months) on boxee before you're able to identify the tvshow. Xbmc seams to get the data fine right away.

Any thoughts?

pretty sure they've said every 24 - 48 hours - search jira as i believe this was explained in a ticket i had opened asking about this stuff. what criteria they use for incremental updating i have no idea since they still miss a ton of stuff it seems.

one thing i'm not sure if most know is that thetvdb.com metadata is not unique as for as boxee's servers polling goes. thetvdb.com uses the imdb.com 'tt' id to match back to imdb, and boxee does some kind of match with both sources to populate its Db. this was also explained on jira and has an effect on what boxee's own servers contain relative to thetvdb.com.

[kaymc]

what criteria they use for incremental updating i have no idea since they still miss a ton of stuff it seems.

You're not kidding. New-ish mainstream shows like The Newsroom and Bunheads, weeks in and still no hint of Boxee's database picking them up. I mean you can kind of understand with something like The Newsroom, with a previously existing Canadian show of the same name, why they might miss it. But with a completely unique title like Bunheads, there's just no explaining it.

It definitely seems to be getting worse, I think. In the past shows would appear eventually, but that no longer seems to be the case. Take 2011's UK TV show SPY for example. Well over a year since the series aired and I think it's safe to say Boxee's database will never include it.

[martindk]

Dont know if Boxee listens here, but these tvshows show up un-indentified.

I do have a nfo file with tvshow number and name, but nothing.

http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=260409&lid=7
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=253097&lid=7
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=260206&lid=7

Lastly, "Top Gear" the "Specials" show up wrong on the Boxee.

http://thetvdb.com/?tab=season&serie...id=22070&lid=7

All above works flawlessly on xbmc - even "Top Gear specials" with the exact same file naming.

[soundoftheground]

Dont know if Boxee listens here, but these tvshows show up un-indentified.

I do have a nfo file with tvshow number and name, but nothing.

http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=260409&lid=7
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=253097&lid=7
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=260206&lid=7

Lastly, "Top Gear" the "Specials" show up wrong on the Boxee.

http://thetvdb.com/?tab=season&serie...id=22070&lid=7

All above works flawlessly on xbmc - even "Top Gear specials" with the exact same file naming.

if you're using the id parameter with shows that are not in the boxee Db you won't get any info. either remove the id and make sure the .nfo has all the info you want or open a ticket to have the show(s) added to the Db.