[Fixed in v1.5.2020.0601 & v3.4.2020.0601] CME Not always creating TV Series Parent Files

[ScareDcrow]

Hi

New to this awesome tool, but I have noticed that a number of my TV Series files (approx 1000) show up on the main screen (with no image), and then when I click on the corresponding TV series, it has no episodes associated with it.

I believe this is associated to a CMC synch error "Did not find TV Series Parent for ...". Upon investigation, these shows/series/files are missing a series of files that exist in TV Series that work correctly in CMC.

These 5 files (named after the TV Series, not season or episode) seem to be created by CME (or in this case, not created). However, I don't get any errors in the CME log that relate. and in the same directories, I see the Season and Episode files being created by CME. I attach examples of a directory I think is good and another one that I think is bad

These TV Series have no Disc associated (although others with no disc show correctly and have these files)

Tom

[Pauven]

awesome tool

I have noticed that a number of my TV Series files (approx 1000) show up on the main screen (with no image), and then when I click on the corresponding TV series, it has no episodes associated with it.

Luckily you had already posted CME's full export log in another thread, so I didn't have to ask for that.

Now, apologies in advance. This is going to be a long post, with probably a lot more detail than you need or want. I'm being thorough here for future users that might have a similar issue. Saves me time in the long run...

I believe this is associated to a CMC synch error "Did not find TV Series Parent for ...". Upon investigation, these shows/series/files are missing a series of files that exist in TV Series that work correctly in CMC.

You are correct. The critical file here is named *mmSeries.xml, which is a metadata file that describes the TV Series (the TV show's name, ID, cast, description, etc.). The episode metadata files, *.mmEpisode.xml, only has limited information about the episode, and a link to the TV Series ID, and without the mmSeries.xml data the mmEpisode.xml data is next to worthless.

The reason you are seeing the 1k "?" episodes is something I programmed into CMC by design. During the Sync, CMC finds your playable episode media files, i.e. "Doctor Who 2005 S01E01 Rose.divx". At this point, CMC interprets all playable media as a movie, until proven otherwise. The absence of a mmTitle.xml file (movie metadata) makes this an orphaned movie, so the movie is named for the directory or file, and most of the movie attributes are set to default values that are intended to help you find these orphaned titles in CMC so you know to fix them (i.e. sort by runtime and they all bunch together at one end). CMC still displays them because it figures you might want to play them (I use My Movies folder monitoring for new rips, which stops processing at random times, so this lets me play my new rips even if My Movies is flaking out).

Now, since the mmSeries.xml file was not found, CMC does not reclassify the previous import of the episode video, and keeps treating it as a movie.

So the solution is to get the mmSeries.xml file in the right spot for CMC to process it. It's absence could be caused by one of various factors: You may have your folder structure wrong, you may have CME configured wrong for your folder structure, and you may have used the wrong file paths for CMC syncing. The problem might even be a combo of all three.


TV Series Folder Structures
Binnerup has defined the correct folder structure for TV Series on their website. Here's a high level overview of this structure:

• \\<NAS Server>\TV\<TV Series Name>\<Season>\<Disc>.iso {with episodes inside the ISO container}
• \\<NAS Server>\TV\<TV Series Name>\<Season>\<Disc Folder>\<Episodes>
• \\<NAS Server>\TV\<TV Series Name>\<Season>\<Episodes>

As long as you follow that folder structuring convention, My Movies will correctly import your episode (automatically even, if you follow the file naming conventions). If you've followed that structure 100%, for all titles, TV Series, and every last episode, then in CME you can use the "Structured" option for the "TV Series target output filepaths" setting.

image.png (154.64 KiB) Viewed 13082 times

When the Structured option is set, then mmSeries.xml will be written to:

• \\<NAS Server>\TV\<TV Series Name>\<TV Series Name>.mmSeries.xml

Now, if you haven't followed the folder structure guidelines perfectly, CME won't know that, and will end up writing files in the wrong location. For example, if you used this:

• \\<NAS Server>\TV\<TV Series Name>\<Episodes>

then CME will do this:

• \\<NAS Server>\TV\<TV Series Name>.mmSeries.xml

placing the mmSeries.xml in the root TV folder, which is not what we want. So the first step is to look in your root TV folder for these new mmSeries.xml metadata files (and associated jpg files). If they are being written there, then you have two options. Either correct your folder structure (both in the file system and in My Movies Colleciton Management), which can be a daunting amount of work, or change from "Structured" to "Collapsed" in CME, which will have CME write the mmSeries.xml files in the same folder with the episodes, circumventing this structure problem.

Note that CMC doesn't really care if the mmSeries.xml file is found in the episode folder or the grandparent TV Series folder, it's cool with either. But having it written to the wrong place might mean CMC could miss finding it. Which brings me to the next topic.


Syncing Folders
Syncing folders is really straightforward and easy, and for the most part, there's only one real requirement to get it to work right. The filepaths used in CMC to sync folders MUST be the same as the filepaths used in My Movies Collection Management. Note that CME uses the filepaths from My Movies, so you don't have to worry about CME, just CMC.

Looking at the full export log you provided from CME, I see this for Doctor Who (2005) S1 E1, which is your example problem child:

Code: Select all

       Found Episode:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 01\Doctor Who 2005 S01E01 Rose.divx
           SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 01\Doctor Who 2005 S01E01 Rose.mmEpisode.xml
           SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 01\Doctor Who 2005 S01E01 Rose.jpg

And a little bit further in the log, I see the Series metadata being exported:

Code: Select all

Exporting Series Meta-data for Doctor Who (2005):
       SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 02\Doctor Who (2005).mmSeries.xml
       SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 02\Doctor Who (2005).poster.jpg
       SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 02\Doctor Who (2005).boxset.png
       SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 02\Doctor Who (2005).banner.jpg
       SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 02\Doctor Who (2005).backdrop.jpg

And the Season 1 metadata too:

Code: Select all

  Exporting Season Meta-data for Doctor Who (2005) Season 1:
         SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 01\Doctor Who (2005).Season01.poster.jpg
         SAVING:  \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 01\Doctor Who (2005).Season01.banner.jpg

Based upon what I am seeing, it looks like you are using the "Collapsed" output option in CME, as all the metadata is being written in the same folders with the episodes. That's great, and eliminates any of the concerns I wrote about in the previous section.

Now comes the potential problem. In your DirectoryListing_BAD.txt file that you attached, you show this:

Code: Select all

 Volume in drive Z is SageTV
 Volume Serial Number is 3D4A-160E

 Directory of Z:\

2020-05-28  06:40 PM    <DIR>          .
2020-05-27  11:25 PM    <DIR>          ..
2020-05-28  06:40 PM                89 DirectoryListing_BAD.txt
2020-05-28  02:17 PM            48,105 Doctor Who (2005).Season01.banner.jpg
2020-05-28  02:17 PM            54,645 Doctor Who (2005).Season01.poster.jpg
2011-09-18  03:48 AM       454,907,002 Doctor Who 2005 S01E01 Rose.divx
2020-05-28  02:16 PM            47,583 Doctor Who 2005 S01E01 Rose.jpg
2020-05-28  02:16 PM             3,285 Doctor Who 2005 S01E01 Rose.mmEpisode.xml
2011-09-17  03:15 PM           181,233 Doctor Who 2005 S01E01 Rose.srt

The first thing that catches my eye here is that you are showing drive Z:, not \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 01\. I don't know if this was just for sharing data here, or if you are Syncing drive Z:\ in CMC, but if you are Syncing to Z:\, this is wrong.

Part of the reason this is wrong is that the filepaths traversed by CMC no longer match the filepaths that are embedded inside the xml metadata files. When that actual filepath doesn't match the stored filepath in the xml file, CMC get's confused and doesn't link everything together as you would want. The other reason this is bad is that CMC has internal logic to keep certain groups of directories together for processing, and you have essentially broken this capability if you map Z: to \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\Doctor Who 2005 Season 01\.

These two issues, together, could be why these Doctor Who (2005) episodes are being orphaned.

The probable solution is that in CMC, you should be Syncing folder \\tigger\SageTV\.

Now, I will go ahead and state that there is a possible bug here. I don't personally store my TV episodes as converted media files, 100% of everything I have is in original ISO or DVD Folder format. That means that your standalone TV Series with converted media episodes (discless and titleless) have not had as much testing to ensure they work correctly, and I see one thing that concerns me. In your "Borgias" example that is working well, the mmSeries.xml file is in the first Season 1 folder. But in your Doctor Who (2005) example that is broken, the mmSeries.xml file is in the second Season 2 folder. CMC is supposed to auto-adapt and use the mmSeries.xml file no matter which season it is located, but there's a possibility this might not be working correctly for standalone TV Series that don't have the mmTitle.xml file present. I'm realizing at this very moment that this is a scenario I have not tested.

While I'm hoping the issue is simply that you are Syncing Z:\, I can't yet rule out a bug as the issue. So ultimately, I need feedback from you on how you are using CMC, are you Syncing to Z:\, or Syncing to \\tigger\SageTV\?

If Z:\, then the next step is for you to change that to Sync to \\tigger\SageTV\, but if you are already Syncing to \\tigger\SageTV\, then I need to replicate the issue and resolve on my end.

[ScareDcrow]

Yeah sorry, the Z: was purely so I could use my ripping PC (Command Prompt) to provide the directory for you. In normal use, I unilaterally use UNC paths.

[ScareDcrow]

In case that wasn't clear, yes I am synching "\\tigger\SageTV\"

[ScareDcrow]

I think I see a possible issue (bug?). In the Doctor Who (2005) Season 02 folder, I have a special labelled "S00E02" - I think that is inline with the naming/directory recommendations but totally open to being corrected. Perhaps I should make a directory for "season 00" but I already hate putting specials as S00

[Pauven]

I think I see a possible issue (bug?). In the Doctor Who (2005) Season 02 folder, I have a special labelled "S00E02" - I think that is inline with the naming/directory recommendations but totally open to being corrected. Perhaps I should make a directory for "season 00" but I already hate putting specials as S00

I think that is technically okay. In fact, I think it would even be okay to put all seasons together in the same folder, like this:

• \\tigger\SageTV\Doctor Who 2005\All Seasons\<episodes>

Ironically, that would probably work around the CMC Sync bug that's affecting you.

Next, I need 2 things from you:

For Borgias, or any other TV series for which Season 1 is good, do all subsequent seasons also show correctly as episodes, or do the subsequent seasons wrongly show as movies in the main cover rows?

I need you to enable Debug Logging then run a CMC "Full Sync", and post or email me the Debug log files that are generated. Warning, a Debug Full Sync will be extremely slow, and will take many hours and often look hung.

[ScareDcrow]

As far as I can tell, episodes either show as ? in the main list or work correctly as an episode under the TV Series.
I think we have multiple issues. Most of the "broken" series seem to have the Parent mmSeries not in the Season 01 directory - although I have found one "broken" series that does have it in the 01 directory (Juliet Bravo)

Here are the debug files from CMC

[ScareDcrow]

Again to Clarify, The Borgias looks good - all seasons and episodes appear under the Series and play.
I meant to convey that I checked quite a few

[Pauven]

Wow, that was quicker than expected. Thanks for the clarification. I'll work on this on my end and report back. Thanks.

[Pauven]

For Doctor Who 2005, did Season 2 and later import okay and show as episodes? Basically, only Season 1 failed to show correctly?