kodi 21.0 : dialog info for seasons does not display actors

[lepetrel69]

Describe the bug

in kodi 21.0 dialog info for seasons does not display actors. This works very well in kodi 20.3.

Expected Behavior

The actors must appear

Steps to reproduce the behavior:
start information in seasons

Debuglog

The debuglog can be found here:
https://paste.kodi.tv/ejamicuwej.kodi

Screenshots

Additional context or screenshots (if appropriate)

Here is some additional context or explanation that might help:

Your Environment

Used Operating system:

• Android

• iOS

• tvOS

• Linux

• macOS

• Windows

• Windows UWP

• Operating system version/name: Windows 10

• Kodi version: 21.0

note: Once the issue is made we require you to update it with new information or Kodi versions should that be required.
Team Kodi will consider your problem report however, we will not make any promises the problem will be solved.

[ksooo]

Expected Behavior: The actors must appear

Why? Not sure this is an intended change, but again, why is actors to prefer over season banner? I'm not an expert here, but I think that I know that season banner is (of course) season specific and we did not display it anywhere before. So, displaying it is an improvement. Cast can be viewed in the info dialog for the TV show and the episode, still.

[lepetrel69]

There is a cosmetic change between kodi 20 and kodi 21.
dialoinfo season Kodi 20.3

kodi 20 displays the tvshow information while kodi 21 displays the season information. The banner is a fallback solution if the actors are not found

[Hitcher]

@ksooo the banner is just a fallback in case the cast list is empty, not a choice over displaying it instead of the cast list.

The cast list was previously available at season level so something changed between Nexus and Omega that meant it is now empty.

Nexus:

[ksooo]

The cast list was previously available at season level so something changed between Nexus and Omega

The change is that we now actually display season information at season level, not TV show information.

kodi 20 displays the tvshow information while kodi 21 displays the season information. The banner is a fallback solution if the actors are not found

Then it seems that the season information as we get it from the scraper (?) does not (never?) contain cast information.

[Hitcher]

Then it seems that the season information as we get it from the scraper (?) does not (never?) contain cast information.

It looks like the cast information doesn't exist on tmdb or tvdb:

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/1421-modern-family/seasons
https://www.thetvdb.com/series/modern-family#seasons

We should carry on using the TV show cast information in that case.

NOTE: I see there is a season plot available at tmdb but that's not shown in the video info dialog so either the scraper isn't grabbing it or we don't display it yet.

[ksooo]

We should carry on using the TV show cast information in that case.

If we start doing this, showing information that is not actually provided for the media type to show info for, where will this end? We have no concept for inheritance of media meta data.

I see there is a season plot available at tmdb but that's not shown in the video info dialog so either the scraper isn't grabbing

I think I have once seen that the scraper does not provide it.

[lepetrel69]

I think I have once seen that the scraper does not provide it.

The scraper does not provide it because this will require modification of the Kodi database.
If this is possible it would be wise to also add the plot and the rating so that dialogvideo season is complete for kodi 22.

[Hitcher]

The change is that we now actually display season information at season level, not TV show information.

Should the plot be removed then?

[pkscout]

If I recall correctly, The Movie Database does have cast per season (along with a season plot). In fact, the series cast is just all the season casts deduplicated and merged together. The scraper can also get the season plot, it just doesn't right now because, as noted, there is no place to put it (at least . When there is somewhere to put these things in the database and updates to the Python API so that the scraper can add it, I'll be happy to update the scraper for that. On the Python side it looks like you could update InfoTagVideo.SetSeasons to optionally add a cast and plot (right now it's just a season number and optional season name). That would keep it backward compatible.

If we do add these things I wonder though whether it would be better to fall back to series cast and plot in the case where season cast and plot don't exist so that the display is consistent regardless of scraper, especially if TVDB doesn't provide these things. And by fall back, I mean at the core level. I really don't want every skin to have to figure out whether season level stuff exists and fall back to series level if it doesn't.

[Hitcher]

This isn't a chicken and egg situation is it, where the database updates and Python API changes won't happen until a scraper needs them?

[lepetrel69]

indeed pkscout is right, below the themoviedb links when scrapping the Game of Thrones Tvshow.
tvshow:
https://api.themoviedb.org/3/tv/1399?api_key=af3a53eb387d57fc935e9128468b1899&language=fr-FR&append_to_response=credits%2Ccontent_ratings%2Cexternal_ids%2Cimages%2Cvideos%2Ckeywords&include_image_language=fr%2Cen%2Cnull&include_video_language=fr%2Cen%2Cnull
season 1:
https://api.themoviedb.org/3/tv/1399/season/1?api_key=af3a53eb387d57fc935e9128468b1899&language=fr-FR&append_to_response=credits%2Cimages&include_image_language=fr%2Cen%2Cnull&include_video_language=fr%2Cen%2Cnull