FAQ TV Info sources

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TheTVDb information source

NEWS:
2022 Feb 01, TVDb were helpful in 2021, and SG is now prepared for their v4 API rollout in 2022.
2021 Oct 01, TVDb postpone the existing v3 APIs shutdown to 1st half 2022. 2021 Mar 17, TVDb postpone the existing v3 APIs shutdown to 1st Oct 2021.
2021 Mar 16, this feature is in testing and will be coming soon, docs are added now.

Background: TVDb is a crowdsourced TV information database and is used by SickGear in core functions, including show and episode display. TVDb announced all users must pay for API access. However, Kodi switched out TVDb as primary source after their APIv3 debacle a couple years ago, and Trakt switched soon after this announcement. TVDb were approached Dec 2020 but it became clear that a different option was needed.

Coincidentally, a year before in 2019, phase one development completed that removed the reliance on a single TV information source. Phase two development involved a lot of effort to provide a capability to switch the TV information source, initially, to TVmaze. While TVmaze also has a paid premium offer for additional features, it does maintain a free community API. The culture and community at TVmaze is also welcoming and helpful, great! And in late 2021, TMDB was added to the switchable TV information sources (Feb 2022: available on the develop branch).

How to switch the TV information source for shows

Whenever SickGear changes the database structure like in this case, a version backup is created (file locations on About page), so you can use either method below to switch a provider without concern...

Single show switch (Method 1 of 2)...

1. View and then edit a show, select the tab "Other", then click the checkbox "Related show IDs"
2. Next to desired source e.g. TVmaze, click "set main"
3. Click button [Save Changes] (do not confuse with button "Update Show")

Bulk show switch (Method 2 of 2)...

1. Go to Manage/Bulk Change, select a couple of shows (to test the process)
2. Scroll to the bottom then click button [Edit Selected]
3. For "TV info source", select desired source, e.g. "TVmaze", then click button [Submit]

The cast of a show is now available at view show with this development.
Metadata tvshow.nfo files used by Kodi (and perhaps Plex) are updated during a switch.

When a switch is performed;

• only SickGear season/episode listing are changed, media files are not deleted
• season/episode differences across sources can be so great that there can be no one to one mapping
• logs exist for renamed, or removed listed episodes because non-existent on switched source

Side note: there is a Plex agent for TVmaze, make sure to apply the pull request that fixes images.

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