Local metadata (NFO)
NFO files and artwork names PEK TV reads from your own folders.
PEK TV reads the small files that Kodi, Radarr, Sonarr, tinyMediaManager and similar tools put next to your videos. They work on local folders and on network sources (SMB, NFS, FTP, WebDAV, UPnP), need no internet, and win over the file name and over TMDb. TMDb is only asked for what is still missing.
Files are picked up by the normal scan (Rescan after adding or editing them). Nothing is written to your folders.
NFO files (.nfo) #
| Where | What it is |
|---|---|
Movie Name (2001).nfo next to Movie Name (2001).mkv |
movie: <movie> with title, year (or premiered), plot (or outline), plus the search fields below |
movie.nfo in a folder that holds one video |
same, for that video |
Show S01E02.nfo next to the episode |
<episodedetails> with title, showtitle, season, episode, plot |
tvshow.nfo in the show folder (the parent of the Season N folders) |
<tvshow> with title, plot |
- An NFO fixes files that would otherwise be "Unknown" or mis-named: the title, year, show, season and episode come from the file, not from the file name.
- Show name priority: the episode NFO's
showtitle, thentvshow.nfo'stitle, then tags / the file name. - Files holding only a link (for example a themoviedb.org address) are ignored.
- Only the first
<episodedetails>in a file is read.
Searching and browsing by actor, genre, year ... #
After every scan PEK TV also reads these fields from the movie and tvshow.nfo files and keeps them in its library database (library.db): genre, actor (name, role), director, studio, rating (or ratings), runtime, mpaa and set (collection). Only titles that have an NFO have them; the title and year work for every file. The library Search has Genre, Year, Actor and Director buttons next to the box (Year offers decades and, below them, single years; the Actor and Director lists are narrowed by typing part of a name in the box), and typing "tom hanks", "drama 1995" or "nolan" finds titles by cast, genre, year, director, studio or collection (accents and capitals ignored). Details are read once per title and again only when its NFO changes (local folders) or the video changes (network sources), so a rescan stays quick; while the first read is running the Genre / Actor / Director lists say how far it is. API: GET /api/library/search and GET /api/library/facets (see server.cpp).
Artwork (images) #
Image types: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .webp, .tbn. Names are not case sensitive.
| Image | Names looked for |
|---|---|
| Movie poster | <video name>-poster.jpg, <video name>.jpg; and, when the folder holds only that one video: poster.jpg, folder.jpg, cover.jpg, movie.jpg |
| Movie background | <video name>-fanart.jpg, -backdrop, -background; single-video folders also: fanart.jpg, backdrop.jpg, background.jpg |
| Episode picture | <video name>-thumb.jpg, <video name>.jpg |
| Show poster | poster.jpg, folder.jpg, cover.jpg, show.jpg in the show folder |
| Show background | fanart.jpg, backdrop.jpg, background.jpg in the show folder |
Folder-wide names such as poster.jpg are ignored when a folder holds several videos, so a loose collection of movies in one folder never shares one poster. Images over 12 MB are ignored.
Not supported (yet) #
Season posters, actor photos, clear logos, NFOs that only carry IDs or links, and writing NFO files.