File name conventions

File names

Series episodes are best named in the following formats, if you don't use series folder to separate episodes belonging to different series.

Series name - SssEee - Episode name
Series name - ssxee - Episode name

Where Series name is the respective series name used by TheTvDb.com , ss is the season and ee the respective episode number. Episode name is optional, it is not used to identify the individual episode but can help a user to recognize the file among others in a folder view.

The importer is using Regular Expressions to parse the file name, therefore different ways of naming may also work. Notwithstanding, the above naming convention has been demonstrated to work in all cases.

If you separate series in different folders then you don't need to add the series name to every episodes file name. The series name only is parsed from the series folder name, if there is one. But for sure you can add series name for better recognition in folder view, Explorer and such. If you use Series folders only the season and episodes numbers are important for identifying the episodes properly. Common schemes like SssEee or sxee will work as well.

You also can add Season folders, if you like. Those are not used while parsing the media, but they are nice to get a better overview. Aside this you can add a poster.jpg and/or banner.jpg into those season folders to use as season poster/banner in the GUI. 

You can name the season folders in your local language too. E.g. for German language they can be named "Staffel xx". Specials must be named as Season 00 to be parsed properly.

Multi-episode file names

Sometimes series are broadcasted as double or even multiple episodes, e.g. two or more individual episodes are joined and broadcasted with one opening and closing credit. Another common case is the use of series DVD/BD images. There can be many episodes on one Optical disk. The importer can manage such cases if the file is named in one of the formats explained above with additional episodes numbers added. You can use - to separate the episodes numbers, but you must not.  Both

Series name - SssEee1-Eee2-Eee3-... - Episode name

and

Series name - SssEee1Eee2Eee3-... - Episode name

is working properly.

The importer will associate the various episode information with this file and display them accordingly.

Folder Structure

Individual series episode files of the same series should be stored in the same series folder. It is necessary to name the folder by the respective series name used by TheTvDb.com as the folder name is preferred over the series name part of the file name (if exists).

Series recordings are best organized in one of those ways:

\\Series share
           ¦—— Series name 1
                         ¦—— Series episode 1.xxx
                         ¦—— Series episode 2.xxx
                         ¦—— ...
           ¦—— Series name 2
                         ¦—— ...

Or

\\Series share
           ¦—— Series name 1

                         ¦—— Season 01
                                       ¦—— Series episode 1.xxx
                                       ¦—— Series episode 2.xxx
                                       ¦—— ...

                         ¦—— Season 02

                                       ¦—— ...

           ¦—— Series name 2
                         ¦—— ...

External Preparation Tools

Following tools are recommended to prepare your media items in advance and ensure 100% recognition and full FanArt experience.

• TinyMediaManager
• Media-Buddy

FanArt Images

FanArtMediaTypes

• Undefined
• Episode
• Series
• Season
• Actor
• Character
• Director
• Writer
• Company
• TVNetwork

FanArtTypes

• Banner              
• ClearArt
• DiscArt
• FanArt
• Logo
• Poster
• Cover
• Thumbnail

File name convention

There are different possibilities to name your images, so the MP2 imported will recognize them.

• {Name}-{FanArtType}.jpg/png
• {FanArtType}.jpg/png