NFO files/TV shows

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Introduction

NFO files for TV Shows are a little bit more complex as they require the following NFO files:

  • One nfo file for the TV Show. This file holds the overall TV show information
  • One nfo file for each Episode. This file holds information specific to that episode

For one TV Show with 10 episodes, 11 nfo files are required.


episodeguide URL

The <episodeguide> is the tag that allows the scrapers to find the episodes belonging to the TV Show at the site of the information provider.

Due to an issue where the UniqueID for TV shows and movies across TV Maze, TMDB and TheTVDB are not unique, the episode guide was converted to a JSON format which clearly identified which site the UniqueID belongs to.

These changes have been incorporated into v19 and later releases of Kodi. Read more here


nfo Name and Location

Regardless of what settings you have set for the source and scraper, Kodi will always search for and scan the nfo file first where available.

The tvshow.nfo file is placed inside the TV Show folder. The NFO filename is actually tvshow.nfo. Do not rename it with the title of the tv show. See image for example


nfo Tags

The following table lists available XML tags for TV Shows. [1]

Two XML tags are required and are indicated in the table below. All other tags are optional. Of course the less tags used, the less information scanned into the library.


NFO (xml) Tag Required Multiple Notes
<tvshow></tvshow> Yes No The top level parent tag for the nfo file. All other tags must be contained within these two tags
<title></title> Yes No The title of the TV Show
<originaltitle></originaltitle> No No The original title, usually in the language of the country of origin.
<showtitle></showtitle> No No Not in common use, but some skins may display an alternate title
<sorttitle></sorttitle> No No Allows alternate title sort without modifying the TV Show title. Not displayed in any library listing.
 <ratings>
   <rating name="" max="10" default="">
      <value></value>
      <votes></votes>
   </rating>
 </ratings>
No No default="true" default="false"
Only one rating can be set as default="true", additional ratings must be set as default="false" or ommitted

name="identifier". Do not use "default". Examples of identifier include...

<rating name="imdb" max="10">
<rating name="trakt" max="10">
<rating name="tvmaze" max="10">
<rating name="metacritic" max="10">
<rating name="tomatometerallcritics" max="10">
<rating name="tomatometerallaudience" max="10">

Example of complete entry...

<rating name="themoviedb" max="10" default="true">
<rating name="imdb" max="10" default="false"> or <rating name="themoviedb" max="10">
<userrating></userrating> No No Personal rating set by the user
<top250></top250> No No Ranking in IMDB Top 250
<season></season> No No Number of seasons of this TV Show in the library
<episode></episode> No No Number of episodes of this TV Show in the library
<displayepisode></displayepisode> No No Not used
<displayseason></displayseason> No No Not used
<outline></outline> No No Not Used
<plot></plot> No No Can contain more information on multiple lines, will be wrapped
<tagline></tagline> No No Short TV Show slogan
<runtime></runtime> No No Not used
<thumb aspect="" preview=""></thumb>

<thumb aspect="poster" type="season" season="" preview=""></thumb>

No Yes Path to available TV Show Posters. Not used for locally saved artwork

Example use of aspect=""

<thumb aspect="banner"
<thumb aspect="clearart"
<thumb aspect="clearlogo"
<thumb aspect="landscape"
<thumb aspect="poster"

type="season" used for season specific artwork
season="2" nominates season number eg. season 2

<fanart>
    <thumb preview=""></thumb>
</fanart>
No Yes^ Path to available TV Show fanart.
^ Multiple <thumb> entries allowed between the <fanart></fanart> tags

Not used for locally saved artwork

<mpaa></mpaa> No No Country specific mpaa rating system. Check with skin author which prefix is required to diplay your country local rating system
<playcount></playcount> No No Number of times TV show has been played. Will only ever show 0 or 1. Episodes track playcounts
See... Import-Export
<lastplayed></lastplayed> No No Date TV Show was last played
<episodeguide>
  {"tmdb": "76479", "imdb": "tt1190634", "tvdb": "355567"}
</episodeguide>
Yes/No No Read section 1.1 episodeguide URL above.

For v19 and later, a JSON format is used. Read more here
TVDB scraper uses TheTVDB v4 API
Other providers: "tvmaze": and "tvrage":

<id></id> No No The default ID.

Do not use as this is a Kodi generated tag. See next item.

<uniqueid type="" default=""></uniqueid> Yes Yes The ID from the scraper site.

type="" Identifier of the ID. Do not use "default". Examples of identifier include...

<uniqueid type="imdb"
<uniqueid type="tvdb"
<uniqueid type="tmdb"
For non-scraped items, use simple values like "home", "sport", "doco" etc
The value can be alpha-numeric eg tt3480556 for imdb, 286668 for tmdb, home001 for home movies, etc

default="true" default="false"

Only one uniqueID can be set as default="true", additional uniqueID's must be set as default="false" or ommit the default attribute

Example of complete entry...

<uniqueid type="tmdb" default="true">
<uniqueid type="imdb" default="false"> or <uniqueid type="imdb">
<genre></genre> No Yes Genre
<tag></tag> No Yes Tags. See: Video library tags
<premiered></premiered> No No Release date of TV Show. Comes from Aired Date of the first episode.

Format as yyyy-mm-dd

<year></year> No No Release Year.

Note: Kodi v17: Tag deprecated, use <premiered> tag instead. Note: Kodi v20: Use <premiered> tag only.

<status></status> No No Continuing or Ended show
<code></code> No No Not used
<aired></aired> No No Not used
<studio></studio> No Yes Production studio
<trailer></trailer> No No Local or online path to TV Show trailer
<actor>
  <name></name>
  <role></role>
  <order></order>
  <thumb></thumb>
</actor>
No Yes The <order> tag determines where in the list the actor will appear. 0 = first in the list

Supports "clear" attribute

<namedseason number=""></namedseason> No Yes Allows naming of Seasons. eg:
<namedseason number="1">Season 1: The Maze</namedseason>
<resume>
  <position></position>
  <total></total>
</resume>
No No Not used for TV Show
<dateadded></dateadded> No No mTime of the playable video file. Can be altered in advancedsettings.xml
See... Advancedsettings.xml#videolibrary


References



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