Tips and Tricks

Best Practices

Directory Organization

Organize your files consistently:

TV Shows/
├── Show Name/
│   ├── Season 1/
│   │   ├── episode1.mkv
│   │   └── episode2.mkv
│   └── Season 2/
│       ├── episode1.mkv
│       └── episode2.mkv

Performance Optimization

1. Thread Configuration

   [Config]
   max_threads = 4  # Adjust based on CPU cores
   

2. Batch Processing

   # Process multiple seasons
   for i in {1..5}; do
     mkv-match --show-dir "/path/to/show" --season $i
   done
   

Error Handling

1. Always use dry-run first:

   mkv-match --show-dir "/path/to/show" --dry-run true
   

2. Check logs regularly:

   tail -f ~/.mkv-episode-matcher/logs/stderr.log
   

Advanced Usage

Custom Matching

from mkv_episode_matcher import process_show

# Custom matching with specific settings
process_show(
    season=1,
    dry_run=True,
    get_subs=True
)

Subtitle Processing

1. Extract subtitles only:

   from mkv_episode_matcher.mkv_to_srt import convert_mkv_to_srt
   convert_mkv_to_srt(season_path, mkv_files)
   

2. Download specific subtitles:

   from mkv_episode_matcher.utils import get_subtitles
   get_subtitles(show_id, {1, 2, 3})  # Seasons 1, 2, 3
   

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. File Permission Errors

   # Check file permissions
   chmod -R 644 "/path/to/show"
   

2. API Rate Limits

3. Use rate limiting in configuration

4. Implement exponential backoff

5. Memory Usage

6. Reduce max_threads
7. Process seasons separately

Maintenance

Clean Up

1. Remove temporary files:

   from mkv_episode_matcher.utils import cleanup_ocr_files
   cleanup_ocr_files(show_dir)
   

2. Clear cache:

   rm -rf ~/.mkv-episode-matcher/cache/*
   

Backup Strategy

1. Create backups before processing:

   cp -r "/path/to/show" "/path/to/backup"
   

2. Use dry-run to verify changes:

   mkv-match --show-dir "/path/to/show" --dry-run true
   

Integration Tips

Automation

1. Cron Jobs

   # Check for new episodes daily
   0 0 * * * mkv-match --show-dir "/path/to/show" --get-subs true
   

2. Watch Folders

   # Monitor for new files
   from watchdog.observers import Observer
   from watchdog.events import FileSystemEventHandler
   

API Usage

1. Rate limiting:

   from mkv_episode_matcher.tmdb_client import RateLimitedRequest
   request = RateLimitedRequest(rate_limit=30, period=1)
   

2. Cache management:

   # Cache API responses
   import shelve
   with shelve.open('cache') as db:
       # Cache operations