Difference between revisions of "Metadata Lookup Changes March 2021"

Revision as of 20:23, 22 February 2021

MythTV metadata lookup uses thetvdb.com as source for TV show information and artwork. TheTVDB is changing their business model to require a subscription payment to use the API. The existing API will be shut down around March 2021.

MythTV fixes/31 and master (v32-Pre) have been updated to support two new sources. For metadata lookups on TV shows to continue working, you need to upgrade your system. To be able to make the new selection, both backend and frontend must be upgraded (if you use separate machines for backend and frontend).

You can select one of these options in mythfrontend -> setup -> Artwork and Data Sources -> Television Metadata Source. You need to change this for metadata lookup to continue working. Select one of the following two options.

• TheMovieDB.org V3 television. TheMovieDB is used for Movie lookups. It can now be used for TV series lookups as well.
• TVmaze.com.

If you have recording rules that have inetref specified as ttvdb.py_nnnnn these must be changed or metadata lookups for future recordings will fail. Appropriate values are as follows:

• tmdb3tv.py_nnnnn for lookup of TV series using themoviedb.org.
• tvmaze.py_nnnnn for lookup of TV series using tvmaze.com.
• tmdb3.py_nnnnn for lookup of movies using themoviedb.org.

In each case, nnnnn is the inetref for the series or movie at the appropriate site. These numbers are different for each site, so you cannot just change the prefix.

You can update recording rules from mythfrontend by clearing out the inetref field and clicking the search button to search using the source that you selected in frontend setup. This does not work with mythfrontend on Android.

Note that it is perfectly acceptable to have some rules using tmdb3tv.py_nnnnn and some using tvmaze.py_nnnnn at the same time. They will be looked up using the appropriate service. If you have some that are still using ttvdb, they will continue to work until the old ttvdb service is shut down.

If you have Leanfront on Android or on an emulator on a PC, you can search both tvmaze and themoviedb without changing the frontend setup. That way you can check for each show which service will support it and set up accoringly.

Ubuntu and Xubuntu Focal (20.04)

If you installed using Ubuntu packages, you can add the ppa and perform an upgrade to get the latest version.

Other distributions

Build from git branch fixes/31 or master, depending on your version.