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MetaTana

For Emby

Emby NFO and artwork beside every file.

MetaTana writes Emby-format NFO and artwork, names movie versions so Emby groups them, and can lock the data so Emby's next refresh keeps your values.

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MetaTana Activity for today: a scan that filed 23 files, watched updates sent to a media server, and a subtitle fetch to retry

What Emby finds on disk.

The Emby preset writes Emby's NFO format with its extended tags, and artwork under the names Emby and Kodi share.

  • Turn on Lock data and Emby keeps the NFO values on its next refresh instead of replacing them.
  • Versions as Title (Year) - Extended.mkv in the movie's folder, so Emby shows one movie with two versions.
  • Season art in the show folder as season01-poster.jpg and season01-fanart.jpg, with season-specials-poster.jpg for specials.
  • Episode images as -thumb.jpg beside each episode.
Emby preset · what MetaTana writes
Movies/
└── Low Orbit (2024)/
    ├── Low Orbit (2024).mkv
    ├── Low Orbit (2024) - Extended.mkv
    ├── Low Orbit (2024).nfo
    ├── poster.jpg
    ├── fanart.jpg
    └── landscape.jpg
Shows/
└── Kestrel Bay (2019)/
    ├── tvshow.nfo
    ├── poster.jpg
    ├── season01-poster.jpg
    ├── season01-fanart.jpg
    └── Season 01/
        ├── S01E04 - Slack Water.mkv
        ├── S01E04 - Slack Water.nfo
        └── S01E04 - Slack Water-thumb.jpg

What it fixes for Emby.

  • Emby replacing your fixes

    Lock data in the NFO stops Emby from overwriting the values on its next refresh.

  • Versions shown as separate movies

    Versions share the movie folder and start with its name, which is how Emby groups them.

  • Wrong matches

    Every file gets a confidence word: Good, Fair or Weak. Good matches file themselves. The rest wait in the Inbox with the reason.

  • Missing season art

    Season posters, banners and backdrops for every season on disk, specials included.

  • Watched state for the right user

    When the server has more than one user, pick whose watched status and resume points sync.

  • A bad rename pass

    Renames, moves, approvals, duplicate cleanup, artwork and edits can be undone in Activity.

One library for Emby and Kodi.

Emby and Kodi read the same artwork names, so a shared library needs one set of files.

  • NFO and artwork are written once and read by both.
  • Watched state syncs with Emby, on demand or on a schedule.
  • Kodi gets the changed folders refreshed and cleaned, not the whole library.

FAQ

Does Emby read MetaTana's NFO files?

Yes. Emby reads local NFO files. Choose the Emby NFO format and MetaTana writes Emby's extended tags, with Lock data when you want Emby to keep your values.

Does MetaTana replace Emby?

No. Emby stays your server and player, and MetaTana is not affiliated with Emby. MetaTana prepares the files on disk and asks Emby to refresh.

Can Emby and Kodi share one library?

Yes. They read the same artwork names and both read NFO files, so MetaTana writes one set of files for both and refreshes each server.

Do I need Pro for Emby?

No. Matching, naming, NFO and artwork, Emby refresh and watched sync are Free. Free scans first and you add a free TMDb key later. Pro adds hosted metadata with no key, AI Vision for hard files, subtitle search and Trakt.

Give Emby clean files to read.

Start with one folder. Good matches file themselves and the rest wait in your Inbox.

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