I'm not familiar with Kodi (I'm Plex user) but I would expect it should be enough to use the exact show/movie name as shown on TMDB website (in your language). You can also experiment with TMDB website search to see if you get desired match as the website search should use the same API query as the Kodi.

You would think... but I get a surprising number of mis -matches. Pretty good success matching movies (but still have misses), but TV shows seem to be more problematic. Being able to look up what the scrapper values from the API are for shows from the web-site wold cure things for me - I can find the shows and movies on the website, and am not opposed to renaming my files :). I don't think its an issue with Kodi specifically as much as the API being called returning false positives based on the file name I have... and Kodi happily mis-labeling my file in its display.

I did improve my hit percentage by including the year of certain shows and movies, but still have frustrating misses.

Can you give me some examples of TV shows with wrong matches? Also, you can experiment with API search method on this page if you have TMDB API key. Each method has nice "Try it out" tab where you can inspect returned json data and debug your query.

An example would be "the Marvelous Mrs Maisel" it identifies as something completely different... Its lieklly6 becasue I have the files named incorrectly somehow that is not obvious to me... that if I could see the appropriate tags I could fix :).

TMDB API search query:

https://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/tv?api_key=###e&language=en-US&query=the%20Marvelous%20Mrs%20Maisel&page=1

returns correctly the only match (regardless the query language):

{
  "page": 1,
  "total_results": 1,
  "total_pages": 1,
  "results": [
    {
      "original_name": "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel",
      "id": 70796,
      "name": "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel",
      "vote_count": 76,
      "vote_average": 8.4,
      "poster_path": "/cHh97iZj8EH0zpgSu8Nt7iZWagL.jpg",
      "first_air_date": "2017-03-16",
      "popularity": 13.176,
      "genre_ids": [
        35,
        18
      ],
      "original_language": "en",
      "backdrop_path": "/yc8m6lwceO21MzXYOFX2P7L1qNN.jpg",
      "overview": "It’s 1958 Manhattan and Miriam “Midge” Maisel has everything she’s ever wanted - the perfect husband, kids, and Upper West Side apartment. But when her life suddenly takes a turn and Midge must start over, she discovers a previously unknown talent - one that will take her all the way from the comedy clubs of Greenwich Village to a spot on Johnny Carson’s couch.",
      "origin_country": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

so it really seems to me like an issue with Kodi.

I don't think you're understanding what I'm trying to say.

"I" have an issue with how my files are named... They don't match the database. So when the API is used it returns the wrong thing. Not that the API is wrong or Kodi is messed up - but my naming of the data source is wrong.

What I suggested is that with the listings of the various TV shows and movies (the web pages for them) include the names being used in the database on the display so that I can know what the database has for the name and rename my data sources to match so the API will return what I'm looking for.

I also have an issue with Star Trek Deep Space Nine season 4. It appears to be missing the episode "For the Cause" episode 22... not sure if that is my fault or a database issue.

As I suspected - my Deep Space Nine Issue was Also a problem with my file naming. When I renamed all the episodes for deep space nine I messed one of the up...

I'm 100% positive the issue is in my file names of the data sources... I just need to figure out what the database name for the movies and shows really is to get the correct match.

Is there an easy way to get that data? I was unable to use the API the way you seemed to - to grab the marvelous Mrs. Maisel data... I'm missing something basic I'm sure.

When I tried I get the following: {"status_code":7,"status_message":"Invalid API key: You must be granted a valid key.","success":false}

A/ TMDB doesn't specify any naming convention for 3rd party applications. For both movies and TV Shows TMDB always uses original title of the first release of the movie/show and that's all. The original titles for English release of the shows you have mentioned are:

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel  
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine  

These are the titles returned by API to Kodi (when making query in English).

You can see these titles on every movie/show page, and more detailed info can be found when you go to the "edit" page for the movie/show (e.g. https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/580-star-trek-deep-space-nine/edit?active_nav_item=primary_facts ). You don't need to use API to see them and there are no other hidden names on TMDB.

B/ TMDB API url I have posted earlier requires you to use your own TMDB API key instead of ###:

https://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/tv?api_key=###&language=en-US&query=the%20Marvelous%20Mrs%20Maisel&page=1

You can request the key in your TMDB profile settings:

1. Go to your account options: https://www.themoviedb.org/settings/api
   
2. Click on "Create" tab: https://imgur.com/k5R8vRu
   
3. Click on "Developer API key" (supposing you are asking for this type of key): https://imgur.com/Ln9hQSo
   
4. Read and accept Terms of Use
   
5. Fill the form and submit it
   

It can take a few days to accept your request as every request is manually approved by site admin.

C/ Kodi has quite good guide to the file naming convention here https://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/TV_shows . Perhaps you have already seen it, but just to be sure...

Thank you for your assistance. I have applied for a key and will try that route.

I tried the naming convention that you specified and it works most of the time for me... almost all movies. with the API return data I should be able to clean up the rest.

Thanks Again!