Video Station not able to pull data from IMDb

[pjad_uk]

QNAP Model: TS-251+
Firmware: 4.5.4.1787
Video Station: 5.5.6

For a few weeks now I have been having real problems with Video Station retrieving data for TV Shows when using IMDb as a data source. This seems to create a total blockage, with the CPU usage running at 30-50% for ages with nothing updating, thumbnails and other metadata failing to generate, some shows/episodes missing from Video Station altogether (despite the file and folder naming being unchanged from before).

I have tried a full re-indexing of all multimedia files. This didn't fix the issue.

I have tried resetting the multimedia database:
https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/knowledg ... -to-fix-it

But this doesn't seem to have worked. If anything it's now worse than before.

I know that Video Station has now removed support for the TVDB data source but I am using (and always have been using) the IMDb data source specifically. I even tried uninstalling the TVDB extensions which I don't use. But no luck.

I am on the brink of resetting my entire NAS to factory settings and starting from scratch but if the issue isn't with my NAS then that would be a lot of extra work for nothing. What started as a simple attempt to regenerate thumbnails in Multimedia Console has led to a whole world of pain.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue? 

Thanks.

[dolbyman]

Doubt many people here use video station...maybe switch to plex if you want something more smooth (and professional looking)

[Theliel]

Have you tried using TMDB?

I have never had a problem with it. Tomorrow I can try IMdb if you want to see if there are any errors

[pjad_uk]

Doubt many people here use video station...maybe switch to plex if you want something more smooth (and professional looking)

I'm open to that suggestion to be honest, if it will give me what I had with Video Station at no additional cost. I had a little look at it when I first got my NAS but was put off by the distinction between free and paid for services. I didn't want to get into that at the time.

Does Plex include things like custom tags, colour labeling and smart collections as standard like Video Station?

Have you tried using TMDB?

I've just done a test of this and the result seems to be the same as with IMDb. It seems the common factor is just the use of a Category of the type TV Shows which by default has a selected data source in Video Station. This no longer works for me at all. Movies (as a Category) seems OK, which makes it all the more weird - just TV Shows causing the issue.

[Poppy]

For multiple QNAP, using either IMDB or TMDB, the generation of thumbnails for anything in the TV Shows category just hangs.

Perhaps rather stupidly one box was told to "re-index" and have therefore all edits across the whole of the multimedia (music, movies, tv shows etc) including things such as user ratings have been wiped. The re-indexing box appears to have successfully and with no issues re-indexed all music and movies and re-generated all movie thumbnails (I think) from TMDB but had stalled at the first of the TV Shows.
Installing TVDB extension and rebooting resulted in the number of thumbnails to be generated no longer being stalled - the large number that were listed in the background task is slowly decreasing... but no idea what it is actually doing because a brief look shows no thumbnails and actually half a season of a TV Show seems to be completely missing so investigation was halted until whatever process is running actually stops
Not sure when this issue started - the re-indexing box has had the firmware updated twice this month.

I would therefore concur that Movies is OK but TV Shows is broken.

[Poppy]

Multimedia Console is responsible for generating thumbnails.
Seem to have resolved the issue for a couple of boxes.. the re-indexed one is definitely now generating thumbnails for TV Shows from both TMDB and TheTVDB sources although some of those thumbnails seem to be missing information (trying to investigate to see if this is an error or because the source is missing the details - should probably wait for the 2000+ outstanding thumbnails to complete before looking too hard though)

[Poppy]

Summary of Issues
QNAP1 : Had stopped generated thumbnails : TheTVDB app had been installed as new data source but does not appear to have been used.
Problematic TV episodes had been deleted and re-copied repeatedly while attempting to get the import to proceed as expected.

QNAP2 : Had stopped generating thumbnails : Multimedia Console Re-Indexing had been selected - regenerated thumbnails for movies but not TV Shows
Thumbnail generation stalled but new TVDB data source had been added; shows have been swapped between IMDB, TMDb and TheTVDB
Box had been rebooted at least twice during these changes and whilst thumbnail generation was ongoing

Both boxes running Firmware 4.5.4.1800; Videostation 5.5.6; Multimedia Console 1.4.2

Resolution?
Manually installed Multimedia Console 1.5.1

Outcome
QNAP1 : Files re-copied to device - thumbnails were generated as expected with details correctly imported from TMDB - all issues seem to be fixed

QNAP2 : Thumbnails being generated but details are incorrect. Some file images are from a different TV Show, some episode details are incorrect whilst most are just blank.
For multiple shows, the show details have been imported from TheTVDB but details from the individual episodes are from TMDB (shouldn't ever happen?)
First TV Show has 20 episodes for Season 1 if viewed by folder but Video Station is missing the first 11 episodes.
Waiting for background thumbnail generation to complete before attempting to resolve

[pjad_uk]

Thank you so much, Poppy, for all this fantastic information.

Based on what you're saying, I now feel pretty confident that this isn't an issue with my own QNAP or media but a current bug with one of the apps being used. Most likely Multimedia Console 1.4.2, which is the version I am also currently using.

I'm not going to bother resetting my NAS back to factory settings - mainly because it doesn't seem to me like all the messing around I've done in recent weeks (or the resetting of the multimedia database) has compromised anything that a reset would fix. I'm going to avoid using the Category Type 'TV Shows' in Video Station until there is news that this bug has been fixed in a future release of Multimedia Console. I'll continue looking into Plex as an alternative way of accessing my Movies and TV Shows in future.

[Poppy]

If you didn't start poking about and trying lots of things haphazardly then you should be able to simply install Multimedia Console 1.5.1 and have it all work again.
Still several hundred thumbnails in the queue on the box that was re-indexed so not sure about how to fix the more manipulated issues.

The newer version of the Multimedia Console can be found under the QNAP 5.0 Apps: https://www.qnap.com/en-uk/app_center/? ... 0.0&II=222

[pjad_uk]

If you didn't start poking about and trying lots of things haphazardly then you should be able to simply install Multimedia Console 1.5.1 and have it all work again.

I gave that a try and it does work a little better - no hanging now and all the episodes display under the correct category. But it still doesn't seem to be pulling down the IMDb data properly. Even if I search for and select the show manually, the correct artwork and show information do not display for any of the shows. It's like it's almost there... but not quite.

[Poppy]

IMDB lookups do not seem to work properly - it seems to have coincided with the IMDB redesign of their site. It seems that some data is imported but usually not much.
TMDb and TheTVDB however both seem to import perfectly (although the first TV show that was checked had almost no data on TheTVDB and included two episodes called "DELETE ME" which was unhelpful )

The rebuild has completed and, because of all the tampering whilst it was in progress, the data is now rather scrambled in lots of places.
Selected an individual show, going to Information and searching the data source for the correct show works as expected and populates the show details from either TMDb or The TVDB but not IMDB.
Using either of the working sources, having selected the correct show, the system rechecks and imports all the details for all seasons and episodes correctly from the chosen data source.

The re-indexed system seems to be working properly with Multimedia Console 1.5.1 and the number of different TV Shows is not huge so they are being updated and checked individually but no further issues have been found as yet.

[Poppy]

The missing episodes from the first TV Show refused to show up in Video Station and every attempt to "rebuild thumbnail" resulted in "waiting" message followed by "failed" message.
Renaming the files for the missing episodes and then renaming them back to their original names resulting in the box picking them up as new entries which were indexed, added to video station and had thumbnail generation proceed as expected.