Interesting Generic Series feature

Post Reply
Space

Posts: 2838
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:44 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

Interesting Generic Series feature

#1

Post by Space » Fri Oct 27, 2017 6:46 am

I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this, since I don't think I've ever seen it before (probably because I don't record many programs that aren't part of a series)...

I recorded a one-off from channel 583 (FiOS) FS1 (Fox Sports 1), of "Springfield of Dreams: The Legend of Homer Simpson".
When you look at the show in WMC it is listed as ""MLB Special" in the list of recorded shows, even though the true title is as listed above. If you select the show and view the details, it is as normal, with the full title of the show, etc. There is no mention of "MLB Special".

I am not sure why this happened, but I did notice that the recording has this metadata:

WM/WMRVSeriesUID = !GenericSeries!MLB Special

Normally shows in a series have this attribute set like this:

WM/WMRVSeriesUID = !MCSeries!310764784

So it appears that if this attribute starts with "!GenericSeries!" it tells WMC to create a special pseudo-series and put that show in it.

So I have a couple questions about this...

Under what conditions is a special "pseudo-series" created instead of a Series that is named after the show you are recording (note that if I select "record series" for this show, it creates a Series called "MLB Special" instead of the name of the show). I am guessing that this happens when you try to record a show that is not really a series (such as a sports show, which this is), but I am not sure.

Where does the "MLB Special" label come from? I assume it is in the guide data somewhere.

I don't really like that it does this, because if you are just looking at the list of recorded shows, "MLB Special" is not very descriptive of what it actually is. I was able to use the metadata editor to change this attribute to "!GenericSeries!Springfield of Dreams" and it worked to change the name listed.

User avatar
Crash2009

Posts: 4357
Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 12:38 am
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan

HTPC Specs: Show details

#2

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:24 am

I notice something similar everytime they have guide problems. For example I wanted to record some weather specials on the Weather Channel such as "Weather on Jupiter" and "How the Earth was formed" both of them are just the plain old weather show, even though the synopsis describes the 2 above.

A couple years back, I set to record a few movies, none of which were correct, even though the name and synopsis were correct. It appeared to me that the channels were crisscrossed.... example I set channel 31 to record and ended up with channel 45's movies. Eventually the guide straightened itself out, but it was a pain having to review all the recordings and delete their mistakes.

I think we need a properties editor so we can at least match the synopsis to the target mistakenly recorded. Or Re-Scan with the meta grabber. !Idea! Change the name of the WTV will cause the meta grabber to rescan, maybe it will correct the mistakes in the properties.

Space

Posts: 2838
Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:44 pm
Location:

HTPC Specs: Show details

#3

Post by Space » Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:23 am

Just changing the name of the file does not usually work, you also need to change the "WM/WMRVProgramID" in the metadata to a different value, otherwise WMC sees it as the same file even if you change the filename.

What I usually do is change the metadata I want changed, then append an "a" to the end of the existing WM/WMRVProgramID and save the metadata to the file. I then rename the file by adding a "x" to the extension "wtvx" and then renaming the file again back to "wtv".

This results in the new metdata being read by WMC.

There may be a better way to do it, but this is what I came up with through trial and error.

Post Reply