Reading TV Mosaic filenames

Is the conversion log just the file called mcebuddy.log? If so, I have just uploaded it to the same FTP location as the rest of my files and logs.

If it is something else, not sure. Let me know. thanks

And yes, the original file was indeed a .TS file generated by TV Mosaic. Then I have TV Mosaic setup to send the file over to an MCEBuddy folder. In doing so, I choose an option that converts the TS recording to MP4 without transcoding. This process adds the metadata tags that are present, but the only date related tag it sends is a YEAR tag, which is always just the 4 digit year.

If I send the file over to MCEBuddy in original TS format, it has zero metadata, and gives a bunch of errors during the commercial removal and conversion process. I looked at the options you had for metadata extraction, but they related only to DVBLink, and didn’t work for TV Mosaic, The only files that generally have the 2018-05-05 issue tend to be date related shows.

No. Each conversion will have its own log file in the log directory. Make sure it’s set to Debug in the System Settings page of MCEBuddy.

OK, got ya. Those logs were uploaded at the same time I uploaded the video files when I created this topic. They are all on the FTP site under user robtheone. I created a separate folder under my username called “Metadata issue Date Based Shows”.

At the bottom of my original post,

Sorry, my posts are way too long, I know. Will work on trying to be less wordy. Thanks a million for looking!!!

You have a MP4 and not a TS file. MCEBuddy is reading the metadata tags from your MP4 file, where where the original broadcast date is coming from:

INFORMATION> 2018-11-07T12:09:32 MCEBuddy.MetaData.VideoMetaData → Read Tags: MPEG4 file detected using AppleTag

Yes, correct. MCEBuddy starts with an MP4 file, but here is the only metadata that is on the MP4 file before MCEBuddy touches it:

Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from ‘The 11th Hour With Brian Williams -20181105.mp4’:
Metadata:
major_brand : isom
minor_version : 512
compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
title : The 11th Hour With Brian Williams *
date : 2018
encoder : TVMosaic
genre : News
description : Brian Williams delivers an early look at the stories that will drive tomorrow’s conversation.
network : MSNBC HD
hd_video : 1

Can you tell me where this date of 2018-05-05 is coming from? I can’t seem to find that date anywhere in the metadata. TV Mosaic says they are not creating that date, and I can’t seem to override it either.

Thanks

It’s taking this date and then adding the 5-5 to it.

Anyways, we’ve added support for reading metadata from TV Mosaic filenames in today’s build. You can try it out.

Wow. OK! You are wicked fast! Will give it a try this evening! As always, a million thanks for your amazing support.

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On a positive note, MCEBuddy has successfully named and dated all my shows recorded yesterday. It is VERY nice to look at the screen and see a correct date. Thank you!

It seems though that there is still some sort of issue with the metadata, not sure really. Not an expert on reading these log files, but I noticed that the News broadcast took 07:12 for “Getting show information and banner from Internet sources”, while only 4:37 to scan for commercials. Seven minutes seems like something isn’t right. Can you look at my attached log and see if anything sticks out to you as being an issue? I see previous instances of 0:01 seconds and 0:33 seconds. On 2 other date-based shows also recorded last night with the same exact profile and settings, they took 0:12 seconds and 1:14 seconds for downloading internet sources, so not sure what was different about this one that took 7 minutes.

NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt -20181108.mp4-MP4 Conversion-2018-11-08T22-41-25.1097032-05-00.log (809.5 KB)

Thank you!

UPDATE: Over the last few days, I have noticed more shows with the 2018-05-05 problem. These aren’t dated programs, but regular shows with an SxxExx naming convention. I am attaching log files for your review.

“Real Time With Bill Maher -S16E34-20181109” - original file name with date of episode, as well as S16E34 info, but MCEBuddy still dating the episode 2018-05-05. In this case, at least the other metadata (guests on the show) was correct.

“Saturday Night Live -S44E05-20181110-Liev Schreiber; Lil Wayne.mp4” - original file name given to MCEBuddy. In this case, not only did MCEBuddy change the date of the show, but it also completely changed the metadata to match that of the show that occurred on 2018-05-05. So it shows up as date 2018-05-05 with show guests being Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, which I watched back in May. The guests this past Saturday night are in the original filename Liev Schreiber; Lil Wayne.

Both logs attached for your review. Thanks for your time.Saturday Night Live -S44E05-20181110-Liev Schreiber; Lil Wayne.mp4-MP4 Conversion-2018-11-11T01-03-58.5175253-05-00.log (1.0 MB)Real Time With Bill Maher -S16E34-20181109-Bob Woodward; Sarah Silverman; Cornell Belcher; Katty Kay; Bret Stephens.mp4-MP4 Conversion-2018-11-09T23-03-22.7246554-05-00.log (741.6 KB)

Is there a standard for filenames? It looks it’s changing:

Saturday Night Live -S44E05-20181110-Liev Schreiber; Lil Wayne.mp4

I have the ability with TVMosaic to change the name format of the original file based on any of the following 8 available options:

At the bottom, where it says result, are the current options I have selected. Is there a way that would work better with MCEBuddy?

MCEBuddy currently supports the following types of filenames for extracting metadata, I would recommend choosing a filename pattern in TV Mosaic that supports one of these

Looks like the Program Name-Season/Episode-Program subname or Program name_Program date would be your best bet. The original air date should be available for download from the internet once the season/episode details are available.

OK. Made the changes and will see how it goes. Thanks for the advice!

OK, the first show finished recording 25 minutes ago. I checked and the filename created by TVMosaic was:
NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt .mp4

MCEBuddy finished commercial removal and placed the file in the correct folder “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt”, then in the subfolder “season 2018”, with filename of:
S2018E125-May 5 Sat.mp4

Log attached.
NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt .mp4-MP4 Conversion-2018-11-14T19-02-07.1430506-05-00.log (795.6 KB)

Any other suggestions? The file format you suggested may very well work on some shows, not sure. Here is a photo of the directory containing this particular show. It worked fine for the last few days based on the previous file naming format, but that format didn’t work for other shows.

The log shows: 2018-11-14T19:02:09 MCEBuddy.MetaData.VideoMetaData --> Trying to extract generic TV Mosaic filename metadata -> NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt
2018-11-14T19:02:09 MCEBuddy.MetaData.VideoMetaData --> Invalid generic TV Mosaic filename

TV Mosaic named the file

NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt .mp4

Wasn’t TV Mosaic supposed to add the season/episode and subtitle information also as the naming convention you had configured?

If it isn’t providing the season/episode information then you can try this naming format (from the link I had provided above)

Program name_Program date

Note here that you’ll have to change your separator from - to _ in TV Mosaic

That is correct. Here is how it shows now:

Going to guess (their log file doesn’t show this info) that it doesn’t have season/episode or subname info for the nightly news, which is why it put in a space between the file name and mp4:
NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt .mp4

BTW, I also re-ran Saturday Night Live through MCEBuddy with the new naming convention, and it DID add the correct guest names, but still kept the date of 2018-05-05.

So, your suggestion is this format? Leave out season and episode? That won’t impact other shows?

Tough one, that’s because the year is included in the MP4 metadata and MCEBuddy is picking it up from there. If that’s important then I would suggest you use the program date naming convention:

Program name_Program date

and it should download the rest of the stuff from the internet if it can match the original air date (program date). Try it out.

OK. Will give it a shot. TVMosaic sent the files over to MCEBuddy like this:

NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt _20181114.mp4
Saturday Night Live _20181110.mp4

Will see how they end up and let you know. Thanks so much for all the time you have spent!

OK. I ran 3 test files to get an array of programs and be sure Season/Episode type shows weren’t impacted. I can see that TV Mosaic is actually including those details, when available, in the metadata.

NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt _20181114.mp4 - came out correct “S2018E313-Nov 14 Wed.mp4” dated 2018-11-14

Saturday Night Live _20181110.mp4 - also came out correct “S44E05-Liev Schreiber Lil Wayne.mp4”, dated 2018-11-10

The Big Bang Theory _20181108.mp4 - also came out correct “S12E08-The Consummation Deviation.mp4” dated 2018-11-08.

YAY! Thank you! Let’s hope this winning streak holds out! Thanks a million!

As a VERY VERY minor side note, I noticed that the metadata has a slight error in Big Bang Theory. The original metadata description shows line 3972 of the log:
“description”: "Sheldon tries to bond with Amy’s father, but…

then beginning in line 4561, it gets changed to:
description : Sheldon tries to bond with Amy’s father, but…

Oddly enough, Kodi is crashing completely as soon as I open the Big Bang Theory folder. I deleted the file, but it’s still crashing. Probably not related. Odd!

Thank you again! Hopefully we’re all set here! Have a great night.

The Big Bang Theory _20181108.mp4-MP4 Conversion-2018-11-14T20-53-12.8821518-05-00.log (802.1 KB)