The Movie Database Support

Hello there, I'm using a Synolgy NAS and Video Station to organize movie and TV shows - then using the API key to fetch data and images etc from TMDB. The API is basically working well, but frustratingly doesn't 'find' certain TV shows that I can see published on the TMDB site. I don't understand why these few shows can't be found by the API. is it an issue with how the TMDB show page has been set up, or is it more likely a problem with the way Video Station returns search results?

Here is a show that Video Station just cannot find: https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/72220-hospital

If I try and use the 'custom search' (search from video info plugin), searching for the series title 'Hospital' returns many other TV shows that have 'hospital' in the title ('City Hospital', 'Hospital Central', 'Hilltop Hospital' etc.), but not simply 'Hospital'.

I'm at a loss as to why the series cannot be found... it's there!

Any help, advice, pointers etc. would be greatly received.

7 replies (on page 1 of 1)

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@ecldmu said:
Some TV Shows not being found via API key on Video Station (Synology NAS)
Hello there,
I'm using a Synolgy NAS and Video Station to organize movie and TV shows - then using the API key to fetch data and images etc from TMDB.
The API is basically working well, but frustratingly doesn't 'find' certain TV shows that I can see published on the TMDB site.
I don't understand why these few shows can't be found by the API. is it an issue with how the TMDB show page has been set up, or is it more likely a problem with the way Video Station returns search results?
Here is a show that Video Station just cannot find:
https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/72220-hospital
If I try and use the 'custom search' (search from video info plugin), searching for the series title 'Hospital' returns many other TV shows that have 'hospital' in the title ('City Hospital', 'Hospital Central', 'Hilltop Hospital' etc.), but not simply 'Hospital'.
I'm at a loss as to why the series cannot be found... it's there!
Any help, advice, pointers etc. would be greatly received.

I think it's best to ask Synology for help.
I don't know if there are other search possibilities.
Perhaps, in addition to the Title, using IMDB ID (tt6400730) or TVDB ID (322511) or TMDb ID (72220).
Or even adding the year, 2017.

@ticao2 said: I think it's best to ask Synology for help.
I don't know if there are other search possibilities.
Perhaps, in addition to the Title, using IMDB ID (tt6400730) or TVDB ID (322511) or TMDb ID (72220).
Or even adding the year, 2017.

Thank you for your reply and suggestions. Unfortunately I'd already exhausted those options!! I will contact Synology and see if they can suggest anything.

@ticao2 said: I think it's best to ask Synology for help.
I don't know if there are other search possibilities.
Perhaps, in addition to the Title, using IMDB ID (tt6400730) or TVDB ID (322511) or TMDb ID (72220).
Or even adding the year, 2017.

It appears the problem is that the custom search in Video Station (using the TMDb API) only returns 10 results. If I search for the show I want directly on the TMDb site, it comes back as the 13th result.

A quick test searching for other words that should return many results shows only a maximum of 10 returned results - in the order they appear in a search directly on the TMDb site. Is this cap built in to the API, or is it a limitation of the Video Station search function?

I'm asking this question on a Video Station forum too, but would appreciate a response from API support if the answer is known.

Thanks for any insight anyone can offer. (Is there a realistic way to boost the TV Show from 13th returned result, into the top 10?)

@ecldmu said:
It appears the problem is that the custom search in Video Station (using the TMDb API) only returns 10 results.
If I search for the show I want directly on the TMDb site, it comes back as the 13th result.
A quick test searching for other words that should return many results shows only a maximum of 10 returned results - in the order they appear in a search directly on the TMDb site.
Is this cap built in to the API, or is it a limitation of the Video Station search function?

Only 10 items is not a TMDb API limitation.
As you have an API Key, you can test it yourself by making an API Request.

https://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/tv?api_key=THE_KEY&language=en-US&page=1&query=Hospital  

total_pages 4
total_results 80

Always 20 items per page. And a maximum of 500 pages.

I'm asking this question on a Video Station forum too, but would appreciate a response from API support if the answer is known.
Thanks for any insight anyone can offer.
(Is there a realistic way to boost the TV Show from 13th returned result, into the top 10?)

I do not think so. I do not know.
What I can suggest is the following.
Request Synology to add the ability to add the year the movie or TV Show premiered,
In the case of TV Show the parameter &first_air_date_year=

https://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/tv?api_key=THE_KEY&language=en-US&page=1&query=Hospital&first_air_date_year=2017  

total_pages 1
total_results 7

Thank you very much for your reply and suggestion. I have made the request to Synology. I will update here if I get a positive outcome.

I'm having some 'data mismatch' issues for TV series on my Synology NAS (DS1621+) currently. Looks like a while since this issue was raised. Just wondering if there's any update on/from above request to Synology ?

2022.08.07 : My issue is now resolved with Synology support.

Required resolution present in Video Station functionality, using Administrator login, to edit metadata matching in combination with search function.

  1. Login as administrator
  2. Launch Video Station.
  3. Chose content (e.g. a movie or tv show/series) with the issue.
  4. Over on the far right-hand side of the screen, choose 'Edit video info' option.
  5. A 'Edit video info' screen will be shown.
  6. Select the 'Search from Video Info Plugin' option.
  7. Ensure the required title, and language, to be matched are both present then chose 'Search' option.
  8. From the search results shown, select the appropriate entry as a required match.
  9. Choose the 'OK' option.
    10.Check the outcome is as required.

FYI. Upon return to the 'Edit video info' screen, you will probably need to change the 'Lock status' to 'Unlock'. The blue information symbol provides the reason why.

@jfpw_tmdb_70
Thank you very, very, very, very, very much.
This problem has plagued the life of Synology NAS users for a long time.
We finally have a solution.
Thank you so much for finding the solution and sharing it with us.

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