Guide · Library

How Kinema reads file names

Kinema finds out what a file is from its folder and its file name, looks that up on TMDB (and TVmaze for shows), and only accepts a match it is sure of. Anything it is not sure of waits in Needs attention (Settings → Library), where you can fix it by hand or by renaming the file.

Films

The name that always works is the title, then the year in brackets, in a folder of its own:

Example Film (2019)/Example Film (2019).mkv

Kinema also copes with release-style names, where dots stand in for spaces and tags follow the year. It reads the title and year and ignores the tags. All of these come out as the film Example Film, 2019:

Example.Film.2019.1080p.BluRay.x264-GRP.mkv
Example Film (2019) [1080p].mkv
Example.Film.2019.Directors.Cut.2160p.WEB-DL.mkv

Source and edition tags such as BluRay or Director's Cut are not part of the title search. Kinema reads them separately, for the badges on a film's page.

TV shows

The layout that always works is a folder per show, a folder per season, and the season and episode number in the file name:

Example Show/Season 01/Example Show S01E01.mkv

When the file name and the folder disagree

Kinema reads both the file name and the name of the folder it sits in, and uses whichever gives the better title. A title of three letters or more, and a year, both count in a name's favour; for shows, so do a season and an episode number. On a tie the file name wins. So a file called only 1080p.BluRay.x264-GRP.mkv inside Example Film (2019) is fine: the folder has the title and the year. A title that is only a resolution, a codec or a number is thrown away.

What helps when a match is refused

Add the year. A matching year raises the score; a year that is two or more years off lowers it sharply. Without a year, two films with the same name are hard to tell apart.
Name the folder or the file properly. One of the two should hold the real title. Keep each film in its own folder, so the folder name can be trusted.
Add an NFO file. An NFO sidecar (a small text file beside the video with the title and its ids, written by library managers such as MediaElch or tinyMediaManager) or one from Kodi, next to the video, is treated as the answer. If it holds a TMDB or IMDb number (for shows also a TheTVDB number), Kinema uses that number and does no searching or scoring at all. If it holds only a title and year, those are searched for in place of the file name, and the usual bar still applies.
Fix it in Needs attention. Each entry says why Kinema did not choose. Search for the right title, pick the Movie or TV series button if needed, and press the Link button beside the correct result (it says how many files, for example “Link 3 files”); every file in that group is linked at once. If the title is in no database, keep it under its own name and year, with no picture or description. If it should not be in the library at all, choose Ignore these. Ignored files can be shown again.

Why Kinema refuses instead of guessing

A match is accepted only when its score is at least 0.75 and it beats the runner-up by at least 0.05. If the best result is too weak, or two results are too close to call, the file goes to Needs attention. A wrong poster and description on your film is worse than none, and every refusal can be fixed by hand.

Extras, samples and trailers

Folders named extras, featurettes, behind the scenes, deleted scenes, interviews, scenes, shorts, trailers, other, sample and samples are skipped when scanning, so what is inside does not become a title of its own. Neither does a file whose name ends in -trailer, .trailer or _trailer, or is just trailer. These are found as the film's local trailer instead.