Smart Auto-Merge for VOD and Series Across Providers

[MatYRiCs]

At the moment, it seems that the merging and failover logic only works for channels (VOD or series) that share the same stream_id.

However, my providers use completely different stream_ids rather than standardized ids such as TMDB or TVDB. As a result, VOD and series content cannot be matched automatically, which means I would have to manually review and merge everything. That defeats the purpose of having an automated system like m3u-editor.

Currently, my users and I are using four different providers. All live channels, VOD, and series are imported into one main playlist from my accounts. I have set up Playlist Aliases, which work very well for live channels. Once I manually merge channels from different providers, it is almost a “set and forget” setup.

However, VOD and series are more dynamic, since new content is constantly being added by the providers.

There should be a way to automatically merge VOD and series even when providers do not include full metadata or matching stream_ids, as long as the titles are essentially the same.

Here is an example of the same movie from different providers:

Provider 1: DK | The Last Viking

Provider 2: 4K-SC - The Last Viking (2025)

Provider 2: 4K-SC - Den sidste viking (2025)

Provider 3: SC - The Last Viking (2025)

Provider 4: DK: Den sidste viking - 2025

All of these titles refer to the same movie, just listed in English and Danish (which is the original language of the movie).

It would be great if m3u-editor could automatically merge these entries and allow failover playlist prioritization when creating failover streams.

[Serph91P]

/assign @Serph91P

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[Serph91P]

@sparkison I opened a PR for this only tested by tests since I dont have multiple providers.
#840

@MatYRiCs FYI

[sparkison]

@Serph91P, might have a better idea! Thinking they should have the same TMDB ID, so could we use that instead? I feel like that would be more accurate in the end, and less reliant on title matching, and we've already built that out.

Something like this?

// VOD — replaces the entire TitleNormalizer + mergeVodByTitle()
$groups = Channel::whereIn('playlist_id', $playlistIds)
    ->where('is_vod', true)
    ->whereNotNull('tmdb_id')
    ->get()
    ->groupBy('tmdb_id')
    ->filter(fn($g) => $g->count() > 1);

// Series — replaces groupBySimilarity() in MergeSeries
$groups = Series::whereIn('playlist_id', $playlistIds)
    ->whereNotNull('tmdb_id')
    ->get()
    ->groupBy('tmdb_id')
    ->filter(fn($g) => $g->count() > 1);

This might require running a TMDB ID fetch prior to merging though 🤔 @MatYRiCs, would you be ok with the solution if it required adding a TMDB ID key for fetching TMDB IDs for matching?

I'll leave the PR open for now, but let me know what you think...

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[Serph91P]

@Serph91P, might have a better idea! Thinking they should have the same TMDB ID, so could we use that instead? I feel like that would be more accurate in the end, and less reliant on title matching, and we've already built that out.

Something like this?

// VOD — replaces the entire TitleNormalizer + mergeVodByTitle()
$groups = Channel::whereIn('playlist_id', $playlistIds)
->where('is_vod', true)
->whereNotNull('tmdb_id')
->get()
->groupBy('tmdb_id')
->filter(fn($g) => $g->count() > 1);

// Series — replaces groupBySimilarity() in MergeSeries
$groups = Series::whereIn('playlist_id', $playlistIds)
->whereNotNull('tmdb_id')
->get()
->groupBy('tmdb_id')
->filter(fn($g) => $g->count() > 1);

This might require running a TMDB ID fetch prior to merging though 🤔 @MatYRiCs, would you be ok with the solution if it required adding a TMDB ID key for fetching TMDB IDs for matching?

I'll leave the PR open for now, but let me know what you think...

@MatYRiCs Could you get us an update? Would like to close this 😄

[MatYRiCs]

@Serph91P, might have a better idea! Thinking they should have the same TMDB ID, so could we use that instead? I feel like that would be more accurate in the end, and less reliant on title matching, and we've already built that out.

Something like this?

// VOD — replaces the entire TitleNormalizer + mergeVodByTitle()
$groups = Channel::whereIn('playlist_id', $playlistIds)
    ->where('is_vod', true)
    ->whereNotNull('tmdb_id')
    ->get()
    ->groupBy('tmdb_id')
    ->filter(fn($g) => $g->count() > 1);

// Series — replaces groupBySimilarity() in MergeSeries
$groups = Series::whereIn('playlist_id', $playlistIds)
    ->whereNotNull('tmdb_id')
    ->get()
    ->groupBy('tmdb_id')
    ->filter(fn($g) => $g->count() > 1);

This might require running a TMDB ID fetch prior to merging though 🤔 @MatYRiCs, would you be ok with the solution if it required adding a TMDB ID key for fetching TMDB IDs for matching?

I'll leave the PR open for now, but let me know what you think...

The providers I use seems to include the TMDB IDs in the metadata for each VOD. It also seems that M3U-Editor imports them, but does not actually use them as TMDB IDs. The TMDB ID is only added when I run the TMDB fetch.

I will test the PR later when I'm home.

[Serph91P]

@Serph91P, might have a better idea! Thinking they should have the same TMDB ID, so could we use that instead? I feel like that would be more accurate in the end, and less reliant on title matching, and we've already built that out.
Something like this?
// VOD — replaces the entire TitleNormalizer + mergeVodByTitle()
$groups = Channel::whereIn('playlist_id', $playlistIds)
->where('is_vod', true)
->whereNotNull('tmdb_id')
->get()
->groupBy('tmdb_id')
->filter(fn($g) => $g->count() > 1);

// Series — replaces groupBySimilarity() in MergeSeries
$groups = Series::whereIn('playlist_id', $playlistIds)
->whereNotNull('tmdb_id')
->get()
->groupBy('tmdb_id')
->filter(fn($g) => $g->count() > 1);

This might require running a TMDB ID fetch prior to merging though 🤔 @MatYRiCs, would you be ok with the solution if it required adding a TMDB ID key for fetching TMDB IDs for matching?
I'll leave the PR open for now, but let me know what you think...

The providers I use seems to include the TMDB IDs in the metadata for each VOD. It also seems that M3U-Editor imports them, but does not actually use them as TMDB IDs. The TMDB ID is only added when I run the TMDB fetch.

I will test the PR later when I'm home.

@MatYRiCs I changed it to use the TMDB ID's

@sparkison FYI