theTVDB

[Tom Snyder]

We, and a lot of others, have or will have a problem.  It appears that no one is running TVDB at this moment.  Shows are starting to go missing with 404 errors.  Some are reporting that new shows can't be added to the database. Nobody is answering support tickets.  Nobody is answering the posted issues on the TVDB GitHub site.  TVDB may be on its way out, which could be a huge problem since a lot of TV/movie media programs, including TV Rename, rely on it for part or all of their information.

For now, it appears that Reddit is the best source of information about this problem.  You can follow the latest news at https://www.reddit.com/r/TheTVDB/

[Steven K]

The former developer’s comment at least confirms that the backlog and lack of responses aren’t being ignored, and that internal changes are underway even if details can’t be shared yet. It doesn’t resolve the current issues, but it does indicate that the situation isn’t simply abandonment. At this point the most useful thing may be to wait for the update they expect by the end of February and reassess once there’s official communication.

[Tom Snyder]

I personally had two shows that were giving me 404 errors with TV Rename.  I filed tickets with TVDB more than a week ago and haven't gotten a reply.  I then tried writing to the TVDB API 4 GitHub issues forum and haven't gotten a reply there, either.  That's when I turned to Reddit and found out I wasn't the only one being ignored.  I guess waiting is the only answer at this point.

[Mike Hishorse]

Hello,

I also reported the series “Raising Dion” as a 404. Today I received a reply saying that the page has been re-added. It seems that everything is back to normal at thetvdb at the moment...

[Tom Snyder]

Yes, it seems that they made the corrections. I wound up with 3 of the 404s before I started work on it. And it was work. They changed the ID #s and didn't get rid of the old numbers. This confused TV Rename. I had to delete the old entries from TV Rename and move the libraries of those 3 shows to a safe place. Then, I had to add in the shows again. This time using the new ID #s. Finally, I moved the episodes back into the library. They really didn't need to change the ID #s. It would have been a lot easier if they hadn't.

I don't think we are done with this TVDB mess if you read Reddit. It looks like more changes are coming.

[Paul Sorauer]

It doesn't keep an internal database so it doesn't track your libraries and can't tell you what is missing, but an excellent alternative is FileBot. It's super powerful, super fast and for power users can tweaked to do almost anything - it can even run full custom made programmed functions (in Groovy script).

TVRename isn't super great at recognizing obtuse filenames and FileBot seems to be much more adaptive and will recognize really strange names.

Personally, I'm still attached to TVRename and I like the functionality of finding missing library items, so I use FileBot a first to rename all my imports, and then use TVRename to scan them. It's an additional step yes, but it's much quicker where you have a whole season of files with weird names.

But it would also serve quite well as a complete replacement of TVRename should you be happy to forgo the missing items feature. You really just need to separate your workflow to import shows and movies individually as it won't deal with 1 import that is mixed.

Maybe it could help someone.

[Tom Snyder]

You are certainly welcome to your opinion, but I disagree about FileBot. I think I signed up for a year's membership. After about 3 months I gave up on it and went looking again for a replacement. That's when I found TVRename and haven't looked back. FileBot made me feel like I needed to get an advanced mathematics or computer science degree before I could use it. It is far too complicated to use for just renaming files. I don't understand your reasoning for renaming a file with FileBot first. Simply go to either the Movie or TV section and enter the title. For example, I'm about to do... A documentary movie on Paul McCartney that will appear on Amazon next week. It is named "Man on the Run." So, I go to Movies and click Add and add "Man on the Run" (no quotes) and then click Search. It displays several file names, of which "1260643 Paul McCartney: Man on the Run 2026" is the correct one. I've preset TVRename to use TVDB for TV shows and TMDB for movies. Then I go to the Folders tab and tell it that movies should be put in my movie library folder. Simple! When the file finally gets put in the monitoring folder (either by using a script to get the file by downloading from Amazon or via torrent), it gets renamed to my setting in Options>Preferences>Library Folder and then moved to my movie library folder. The movie that lands in my movie library will be called "Paul McCartney: Man on the Run (2026).mkv" (or possibly .mp4, depending on how I download the file).

[Paul Sorauer]

Hey Tom

For me, just a lot of the stuff I download has weird names with the title embedded with a heap of garbage. FileBot seems to better cope with the ambiguity than does TVRename. Don't get me wrong, I love TVRename and wouldn't be without it, so I just use FileBot as a first pass to remove the junk in the names and speed up the TVRename import process.

But then I'm a programmer so that means:

1. I hate doing repetitive tasks
2. I was good at advanced math and effectively have comp sci! 🤣

[Paul Sorauer]

Hey Tom

Further to my last, I find that TVRename can also incorrectly misidentify a new incoming item with something that's already in my library. More than once I've inadvertently overwritten media because I wasn't careful enough in checking when TVRename is going to change something that's already in the library (when it shows the green ticks).

I found that using FileBot to get a properly named file before it's fed into TVRename can assist with these types of mishaps as well as just saving time in the TVRename import process.

If you're interested, I'm happy to share with you my 2 configurations in FileBot for renaming stuff ready for TVRename - it is indeed a bit involved but I've been testing it for a few weeks now and it seems to be working well.

If you want the FileBot config just let me know and I'll post it here. 😍

Cheers.

[Tom Snyder]

Thank you, but no thank you to the config files. This forum is devoted to TVRename, not any other renamer. If someone here wants to obtain them, they can send you a private message.

Personally I don't do "Bulk Adds" or add shows or movies that already exist in my library. I manually add a show or movie using Movies>Add or TV Shows>Add. Maybe it is because I've been using TVRename for so long and "Bulk Adds" were added in later that I stick with the original approach to adding movies or TV shows. TVRename can't misidentify a movie or TV show title if I'm the one entering it in and I've researched the correct name. Occasionally you'll run into a movie or show where the commonly used title is different than the official title. That's where aliasing comes in. A recent example would be a new TV show officially named "R.J. Decker" but on the Internet it is listed as "RJ Decker". A one-time addition to the Aliases tab fixes the problem for good.

One thing I encourage is to go back and (re)read the manual. You can learn a lot by seeing how the author intended the program to work. The Manual can be found here.

[Steven K]

I use the same process as well. I haven't had the need to use "Bulk Adds" and prefer a little more hands on. I remember when TheTVDB used to be fully free to edit. TheTVDB had wide‑open editing, lots of volunteers, and fast corrections. If TVRename wasn't pulling in a series correctly, you could go fix it quick on the website. Then they introduced a paid subscription model which I think may still be in effect to some degree today. I remember there being a huge backlash from the volunteers who contributed thousands of edits. That being said, I rarely add a series to TVRename that I can't tailor in someway to get what I want through its settings.

[Tom Snyder]

I have subscribed to TVDB since they made the change. Sometimes I can do an edit there, but far too often the moderators have locked a show and prevent subscribers from doing what needs to be done. They seem to think that they know better than the subscribers. A worst-case example would be the BBC show The Repair Shop. The mod wrote, "Episodes in the Aired Order must be ordered chronologically based on their original air date. Therefore, if the 1st episode listed in a series is March 22, 2023, — which it is according to the BBC and is a series 12 episode — any episode that was broadcast for the first time *after* that date will be listed under Series 12, regardless of the denotation on the BBC website. We cannot have an October 2023 episode in Season 11 followed by a March 2023 episode in Season 12." What they fail to realize, and we've explained it many times to them, is that The Repair Shop is actually two shows... a half-hour daytime show and an hour-long primetime show. According to the BBC, the seasons will alternate, with one season being the daytime show and the next season being primetime. It doesn't matter when they actually aired because the BBC made the rules for their own shows. Who knows better what to name and number their shows than the ones that produced them? Well, the mod thinks he knows better. The only way to get TVRename to work correctly with that show is to use the Alternative Order, rather than the more normal Aired Order. So stupid!