I just scraped a new TV series into my library, Reacher (TVDB 366924). I see some inconsistencies in the actor scraping. For example, the tvshow.nfo captures the lead actor, Alan Ritchson, and has put a thumb into my Actor folder appropriately and added its path to the nfo. Another series actor, Sonya Cassidy, is also included in the tvshow.nfo, but there is no path created for her picture in this nfo even though her photo exists in my actor folder.
When I highlight the series in the left window, I can see Alan Ritchson's picture (expected) AND Sonya Cassidy's picture (unexpected because her pic path is not listed in the tvshow.nfo).
<actor>
<actorid>65647912</actorid>
<name>Alan Ritchson</name>
<role>Jack Reacher</role>
<thumb>nfs://192.168.50.198/volume3/MyKodiData/Actors/A/Alan_Ritchson.jpg</thumb>
<order>1</order>
</actor>
<actor>
<actorid>69311755</actorid>
<name>Sonya Cassidy</name>
<role> Susan Duffy</role>
<thumb>
</thumb>
<order>3</order>
</actor>
Now, if I select s02e01, and look at the actors on the right side, Alan Ritchson does not have a picture even though the episode nfo has a picture path included. Sonya Cassidy also has no photo nor a path to her existing photo in the episode.nfo
<actor>
<name>Alan Ritchson</name>
<role>Jack Reacher</role>
<thumb>nfs://192.168.50.198/volume3/MyKodiData/Actors/A/Alan_Ritchson.jpg</thumb>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Sonya Cassidy</name>
<role> Susan Duffy</role>
</actor>
Nothing changes when I attempt the rescraper wizard selecting both series and episode "Actor" checkboxes.
So my requests are actually two-fold: 1) to correct this behavior. 2) In the TV show preferences/ General/Scraper settings, we only get 1 choice for an actor source. Can you modify this so there is a fallback option in case there is no picture on the 1st option we select? For example, Mel Harris doesn't have a TVDb pic, but she does on TMDb. Rather than leave the pic empty for the TV show being scraped when another valid option exists, can we have a fallback option please?
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I did some additional troubleshooting. Following these steps gets me the closest to what I want to see in my NFO files; even though they may not display properly in MC.
Starting out fresh, I scrape the TV show using Series actors with TVDb, episode actors with TMDb.
"Don't duplicate series actors in Episodes" is unchecked
Once this is done, the TVshow.NFO exhibits the problem of missing pic links for some actors, but the episode.NFO does a good job of including the links to the episode actor pics.
I then run Rescraper wizard and select "Rewrite All NFO's" and Start Update.
This will then populate the TVshow.NFO with the missing actor pic links and the episode.NFOs' remain pretty much the same - and how I want them.
I tried using TMDb as the series source, but this will list most every actor and not what I want (e.g. I only want the main ones listed here) so that is why I use the TVDb for series. But the TMDb gives more actors for the episode and this is what I want so that works nicely for me.
After Step 5, in MC the Series actor pics now appear as expected in the right-side window, but the episode actors will be listed, but without a picture. But my NFO files now at least seem correct and that is what matters most for importing into Kodi.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
One other thing, when I perform Step 4, run the Rescraper Wizard, this process adds an extra underscore character _ to the end of the pic link like this
<thumb>nfs://192.168.50.198/volume3/MyKodiData/Actors/A/Alan_Ritchson_</thumb>.jpg
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Thanks for the extensive testing, this definitely helps, as well as opens a couple more questions like why does rewriting the nfo correct the actor image path?
Will look into this, but as mentioned, I need to set up a central actor folder over nfs.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I just scraped a new TV series into my library, Reacher (TVDB 366924). I see some inconsistencies in the actor scraping. For example, the tvshow.nfo captures the lead actor, Alan Ritchson, and has put a thumb into my Actor folder appropriately and added its path to the nfo. Another series actor, Sonya Cassidy, is also included in the tvshow.nfo, but there is no path created for her picture in this nfo even though her photo exists in my actor folder.
When I highlight the series in the left window, I can see Alan Ritchson's picture (expected) AND Sonya Cassidy's picture (unexpected because her pic path is not listed in the tvshow.nfo).
<actor>
<actorid>65647912</actorid>
<name>Alan Ritchson</name>
<role>Jack Reacher</role>
<thumb>nfs://192.168.50.198/volume3/MyKodiData/Actors/A/Alan_Ritchson.jpg</thumb>
<order>1</order>
</actor>
<actor>
<actorid>69311755</actorid>
<name>Sonya Cassidy</name>
<role> Susan Duffy</role>
<thumb>
</thumb>
<order>3</order>
</actor>
Now, if I select s02e01, and look at the actors on the right side, Alan Ritchson does not have a picture even though the episode nfo has a picture path included. Sonya Cassidy also has no photo nor a path to her existing photo in the episode.nfo
<actor>
<name>Alan Ritchson</name>
<role>Jack Reacher</role>
<thumb>nfs://192.168.50.198/volume3/MyKodiData/Actors/A/Alan_Ritchson.jpg</thumb>
</actor>
<actor>
<name>Sonya Cassidy</name>
<role> Susan Duffy</role>
</actor>
Nothing changes when I attempt the rescraper wizard selecting both series and episode "Actor" checkboxes.
So my requests are actually two-fold: 1) to correct this behavior. 2) In the TV show preferences/ General/Scraper settings, we only get 1 choice for an actor source. Can you modify this so there is a fallback option in case there is no picture on the 1st option we select? For example, Mel Harris doesn't have a TVDb pic, but she does on TMDb. Rather than leave the pic empty for the TV show being scraped when another valid option exists, can we have a fallback option please?
This will take some time as I don't have a share anymore to test central actor folder.
As for fallback for actor image, not at this time. At present, you have three options, TVDb, TMDB, and IMDb (of which IMDb is broken again)
I did some additional troubleshooting. Following these steps gets me the closest to what I want to see in my NFO files; even though they may not display properly in MC.
I tried using TMDb as the series source, but this will list most every actor and not what I want (e.g. I only want the main ones listed here) so that is why I use the TVDb for series. But the TMDb gives more actors for the episode and this is what I want so that works nicely for me.
After Step 5, in MC the Series actor pics now appear as expected in the right-side window, but the episode actors will be listed, but without a picture. But my NFO files now at least seem correct and that is what matters most for importing into Kodi.
One other thing, when I perform Step 4, run the Rescraper Wizard, this process adds an extra underscore character _ to the end of the pic link like this
<thumb>nfs://192.168.50.198/volume3/MyKodiData/Actors/A/Alan_Ritchson_</thumb>.jpg
Thanks for the extensive testing, this definitely helps, as well as opens a couple more questions like why does rewriting the nfo correct the actor image path?
Will look into this, but as mentioned, I need to set up a central actor folder over nfs.