Posters and descriptions

Finch can fetch posters, backdrops, descriptions and episode names from The Movie Database (TMDB). It is off until you say yes, and it only ever sends the title and year of a show or movie (or an id written in its name), TMDB’s own ids for what it found, and your language (for example de-DE).

Turning it on or off

The first launch asks once. Change your mind any time in Settings, then Metadata. Turned off, Finch works fully offline with generated placeholder art.

What is sent

Only the title and its year, TMDB’s own numbers for the things it found, an IMDb or TVDB number written in a folder or file name (such as {imdb-tt0303461}), and your language (for example de-DE). Never anything else about you, your device, or what you watched. The last two hundred requests are listed in Settings, then Advanced, then Request log, and every request ever made is in the file requests.log in Finch’s data folder.

Language

Titles and descriptions come in your system’s language. To pick another, go to Settings, then Metadata, then TMDB language. The list has regional varieties too, such as English (UK) or Español (México); the country also picks which age ratings are shown. English, in any variety (US, UK, Australian and so on), sends no language at all, since TMDB’s English is its default. When TMDB has no description of a show or movie in your language, Finch shows its English one, or the one in the title’s own language; an episode with none in your language shows none. After a change, titles and descriptions update over the next few minutes. Details shows a title’s original name when it differs. A folder named with a film’s or show’s title in your language, such as “Der Herr der Ringe - Die Gefährten (2001)”, is matched too: when a search finds nothing that fits, Finch asks TMDB for the first three results in your language (sending their ids and your language, as for any title) and compares their titles.

If TMDB stops answering

If TMDB rejects Finch’s key, metadata stops for the rest of that session. Settings, then Metadata shows “TMDB stopped answering” with a “Try again” row; picking it resumes fetching without needing to relaunch.

Your own TMDB key

Finch ships with a TMDB key, which is shared by every copy. To use your own (free from themoviedb.org), go to Settings, then Advanced, then Your own TMDB key and type it. Finch asks TMDB whether it works before keeping it; if TMDB says no, or can’t be reached, Finch keeps the built-in key and tells you. The key stays on this device and is never sent to your other devices or written to the log. Leave it empty and press Done to go back to the built-in key.

Fixing a wrong poster or title

When a poster, title or episode list belongs to the wrong show or movie, press Y on it, open “More…” and choose “Fix series matching” (or “Fix movie matching”). It is only there while posters and descriptions are on. B on its list goes back to the menu, and B on its keyboard goes back to the list. When Finch isn’t sure of a match, or found none, the title’s page says so in a line under the description (“Doubtful match: … Fix it in Y › More…”).

Pick the right title from the list; the poster, title and episode names follow.
“None of these” keeps placeholder art instead.
Finch searches the title and its year; if the year in the folder name is wrong, it also searches without it.
A folder or file name with an id in it, such as {tmdb-27205} or [imdbid-tt1375666], is looked up by that id before any search. A choice made with Fix matching still wins.
Your choice is saved in the sync folder and follows you to other devices.

Genres, rating and age rating

With posters and descriptions on, Finch also keeps each title’s genres, TMDB’s rating, its age rating for your region (from your TMDB language’s country, else your system’s, else the US), its tagline and its length. The hero shows the year, two genres, the rating and the age rating; Details shows all of them (its TMDB score is labelled Stars); a show’s or movie’s page shows its tagline; and the Show page shows the focused episode’s description, hidden for unwatched episodes while Hide spoilers is on. Shows, Movies and Search can be filtered by Genre, by Stars (TMDB’s score, from 5+ stars to 9+ stars in half steps) and by Age rating (each one the tab’s titles have), and Shows, Movies and Search sorted by Stars, remembered for each profile and tab. They are hidden while posters and descriptions are off. This asks TMDB for the same title it already asked for, so nothing new is sent.

It also keeps who made each title: up to fifteen cast members with their characters, the director or creators, writers and composer, the studios or networks, the original language, the release or first air date and the status. They come in the same request, are cleared with the rest of the TMDB text when metadata stays off, and no pictures of people are fetched. A show’s or movie’s page names the first three of the cast under its description, and its Details tab lists the first four of the cast with their characters (press A on “Show full cast” to see the rest in two columns, and A or B to fold it again), who directed or created it, wrote it and wrote its music, its studio or network, when it came out, a show’s status, its original title and language when they aren’t yours, and its length. With posters and descriptions off, the Details tab says to turn them on instead. Titles matched before this was added get them on the next refresh, which Finch brings forward once.

A movie that belongs to a TMDB collection (a series of films) also keeps the collection’s name, poster and backdrop. The collection comes in the same request as the movie, so the only thing new is two more pictures from TMDB’s image server per collection. The name is cleared with the rest of the TMDB text when metadata stays off, and movies matched before this was added get their collection on the next refresh, which Finch brings forward once.

Finch also keeps the numbers of the titles TMDB recommends for each show and movie (up to twenty, as ids only: no names, pictures or text). They come in the same request as the details, so nothing new is sent, and the “More like this” tab (below) ranks your own titles by likeness, TMDB’s suggestions first. The list is cleared with the rest of the TMDB text when metadata stays off, and titles matched before this was added get it on the next refresh, which Finch brings forward once.

More like this

A show’s or movie’s page gets a last tab, More like this, when something on your drives is alike. It is a row of posters from your drives, the likeliest first: shows for a show, films for a film, at most twenty, never the title itself. Finch ranks your own titles by what it already stored (genres, language, studios, creators and directors, cast, year and rating), and what TMDB recommends counts most; two Japanese animated shows pair up even when TMDB lists neither. A opens a title, Y opens its menu and B goes back to the tabs; X does nothing there. A film’s own collection is left out, and a collection of which you own two or more films is one card (as in the Movies grid, and as Group movie collections says). A profile with an age limit is shown only the titles it may open. Without posters and descriptions turned on, or when nothing on your drives is alike enough, there is no tab. Nothing is fetched for it: it uses the facts and recommendations already stored.

Movie collections

When TMDB says a film belongs to a collection (a series of films) and you have two or more of its films, the Movies grid shows one card for the collection instead of one per film. The card says how many films there are; A opens its page, which has a Play tab and a Films tab. Play starts the next film: the one you are partway through, else the first one you haven’t watched (one on a drive that is plugged in comes first), else the first of all. The Films tab lists the films in release order; A opens a film’s page, X marks it watched and Y opens its menu. X and Y do nothing on the card itself. Search finds a collection by its name, and the films themselves stay findable.

Go to Settings, then Appearance, then Group movie collections to list the films one by one instead (it is kept on this device). Home’s rows always list films one by one. Finch gets the collection’s name and its two pictures in the same request that fetches the film’s details, so the only thing new that it downloads is those two pictures. Titles matched before this was added are filled in once, the next time they refresh with posters and descriptions on. The name is TMDB’s text, so it is cleared with the rest when it expires, and then the films show one by one again.

Choosing your own picture

Press Y on a show or a movie, open “More…” and choose “Choose a custom cover…” (on an Unsorted file it is in the menu itself), then pick an image on a drive. Finch keeps a copy in its own data folder (at most 2000 pixels on a side), so it still shows when the drive is unplugged and TMDB never replaces it. “Remove my cover”, next to it, brings the usual one back. With portable mode on, the pictures travel with the library on the portable drive.

Files without a picture

A movie or Unsorted file with no picture of its own and no TMDB poster shows a text card. To show a frame from the video instead, go to Settings, then Appearance, then Pictures for files without one, and pick “A frame from the video”. Finch takes the frame a fifth of the way into the file (two fifths for a file under three minutes, such as an opening or an ending), one file at a time and never while a video is playing, and keeps it in the image cache. A picture you chose, then TMDB’s poster, always come first.

The same goes for a show’s or movie’s extras: an opening, an ending, a bonus video or a film kept with a show that has no TMDB picture shows a frame too, grabbed after the movies, Unsorted files, shows and episodes. With Hide spoilers on for a show, its Endings and Films keep the text card until you have watched them; its openings and other extras show their frames.

Images on disk

Posters are kept in the image cache. Settings, then Advanced shows how much space it takes and can clear it; Finch downloads again what it needs. Docked to a big screen? Clear the image cache in Settings, then Advanced, and Finch fetches sharper backdrops for it.

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.