Are you trying to use Kodi to look up a TV show but are seeing links load with a message about [CDATA[SHOW NAME]]? Come read about this error, what is means, and what you can do to fix it!
November 16th Update:
The TVDb mods have issued a statement on the issues that most Kodi users are having with TV shows.
Underneath that, check out the CDATA error workaround we have!
Thank you for your continued patience with us and your feedback. We hear you and our devs are working on solutions to some of your biggest issues.
We know the site is struggling with slow load times at the moment. We are looking into some latency issues and hope to have a fix soon.
Top of our list for the API, is why metadata isn’t pulling into many media centers. We believe we have isolated the problem and it stems from older client libraries using SSL 3.0. We’ve made contact with many add-on developers, including PLEX with hopes to upgrade to TLS. Clearing your DNS caches would also help.
Other issues we are working on:
- Wrong artwork format returned
- Wrong artwork language returned
- API delivering zip file discrepancies
- Clients aren’t handling 301s
- Default language handling
Solutions that have been deployed already:
- The CDATA problem should have resolved this morning, but let us know if you are continuing to see this issue. Pagination, for many of you downloading metadata from large tv show libraries, the pagination issue should be solved.
We will continue working on fixes and giving you regular updates.
CDATA Error Workaround
Thanks to a user on the reddit for this workaround for watching TV shows while TVDb is having issues.
First, launch an Exodus-style Kodi addon. This is confirmed working on Exodus Redux and Genesis Reborn but should work on Venom, Fen, etc.
Go into the TV calendar it will bring up episodes by day. You can access episodes directly without going through the TV Show folder.
Give it a try and let us know if it works by commenting below!
Original Post:
Since the night of November 14th, 2019, Kodi users have been surprised to see TV show names replaced by a [CDATA[SHOW NAME]] message instead.
This issue is caused by TVDb returning errors when a Kodi addon tries to access its API. This issue is happening on all Kodi addons because they all connect to TVDb.
On the TVDb forums, the developers have this explanation:
Hello everyone,
As you may have noticed we have cutover to our new site, so welcome, welcome, we are glad you are here! API traffic for both v1 and v2 has also migrated over to our new infrastructure. At the moment the dev team is working through some issues that have come to our attention, so please be patient with us.
We are aware that some Kodi users are having a hard time scraping shows with long episode orders. We are on the case and hope to have a fix soon.
We are looking into the Genre null field as well.
If you entered any show info into the old site in the last 24 hours, it is possible you will need to enter it in again.
If you are having any API issues, please look to the Dev forums for some common threads. And for bug reports related to the new site, please post them in the November v3 Update section and we will try to get to them as soon as possible.
–TheTVDB Team “
So, there is nothing that Kodi users can do to fix the issue at this time. Once TVDb is completed maintenance, the [CDATA[SHOW NAME]] error should fix itself automatically.
If you are seeing this issue fixed, comment below and let other Kodi users know!
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