Best way to label "special" episodes for scrapping?

[hikaricore]

I've been trying to figure out a simple way of doing this for awhile now and am having little luck.
Specials... the dreaded items in our media libraries that aren't part of the normal seasons and often remain hidden without some proper labeling, nfo setting, and scrapping/rescrapping...

For this example I'll use Doctor Who (2005) which has atleast 1 special a year and often times more.
Each year there is a christmas special before the actual season starts airing.
These episodes are given production codes of 2.x, 3.x, 4.x, ect and are often considered to be for example s02e00.
Using thetvdb for info material when scrapping with with xbmc or mip these episodes seem to be hit or miss.
When my library was a mess and next to nothing was showing most of the specials showed up fine, after some cleaning and sorting they're mostly not.

I've tried several variations of production codes as well as naming them "special 01" "special1 "special 1" ect with no result.
To make matters worse even when I do get them all set an sorted, even in flat mode I suspect things will be terribly out of viewing order.

Anyone got any tips here? :)

**I realize that this isn't really Aeon specific but I consider it relevant and really couldn't find a better place to post it.**

[spiff]

all in the wiki.

go to the tvdb. figure out which numbering they use and stick the episodes in season 0.

[hikaricore]

I poked through thetvdb wiki and didn't really find anything useful. (this wiki isn't what it used to be and is missing a lot of info)
If you're referring to the xbmc wiki I looked around it for quite awhile as well.

I'll try labeling them as season 0 and see how it goes. :p

[Reginald]

I was looking for this about a week or so ago, I found a post at Billy's (of Media Companion fame) site.

http://billyad2000.darkbb.com/xbmc-media-companion-help-and-useage-f5/naming-convention-for-specials-of-tv-shows-as-opposed-to-regular-episodes-t145.htm

[hikaricore]

Exactly the info I was looking for. Thanks. ^_^

And in the forethought of someone finding this post in the future: http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=TV_Shows_(Video_Library)#TV_show_filenaming _conventions

[hikaricore]

Well it works, but they still show out of viewing order even in flat mode.
Atleast half the battle is won. ^_^

[Reginald]

Yeah, I was feeling the same way, I was just glad that they were in there and had correct data. Haha

[hikaricore]

There's an xbmc option to sort by production code.
It might be worth my while to go through the tvdb and set the proper production codes for every single episode.

[spiff]

if they do not show in the correct order fix it at thetvdb. however i see it is locked by coco and that means you are probably wrong and they are correct :P

[hikaricore]

I'm rarely wrong. Even if I am wrong about some things the first christmas special did not air before the first episode of the show. :)

The case seems to be that there are no production codes set for some of the episodes.
There are also specific tags that show that certain specials air before certain episodes.
Which leaves me scratching my head as this should in most cases be working.
I'll have to check my nfos when I get home from work and see if this data carries over.

Perhaps xbmc is at fault here and I'll need to put in a feature request to honor air dates when displaying episodes? ;p

[spiff]

hehe, the being wrong thing was mostly ironic. the locked seasons on tvdb tend to be controversial. we honor all the sort orders you can set on tvdb, but do not use airdates.

[hikaricore]

No worries I was just being a pain. :)
I'll harass them about either checking the production codes or letting me set them. ;p