Programme metadata is the descriptive information attached to a guide entry: its title, summary, category, language, episode details and sometimes an image or classification. It helps people understand and find programmes before opening a stream. These fields come from the guide source and are then interpreted by the player. Not every source supplies every field, and not every player displays every field it receives. A missing synopsis can therefore exist alongside normal playback. Programme metadata describes the editorial item; it differs from technical information such as codec, resolution and frame rate.
Programme metadata and Video metadata
Programme descriptions differ from technical media metadata such as codec and frame rate.
From guide source to screen
A guide entry connects a programme to a channel and scheduled interval. Optional fields add information beyond that relationship. If the source provides only a short title and two timestamps, the application cannot reliably invent a synopsis or episode number. Different interfaces may shorten or hide fields even when the underlying data contains them.
Why descriptions look inconsistent
A daily news bulletin may have the same summary every day, while a drama has a separate synopsis for each episode. Translated titles, regional edits and incomplete upstream data can also make entries look different. These variations do not establish that the channel delivers a different picture quality or that a subscription has changed.
Correct the field that is wrong
A useful correction identifies the channel, programme, date and incorrect field. If the title is right but the episode number is wrong, say so explicitly. One normal refresh may retrieve newer information. Repeatedly clearing application storage can lose settings without changing anything supplied by the guide provider.
An illustrative example
Two entries both show a film title. One includes a synopsis and release year, while the other contains only its scheduled time. Both can be valid entries. The missing description needs a guide-data correction rather than a different video decoder.
Practical actions
- Identify the particular missing or incorrect field.
- Compare the same item after one normal guide refresh.
- Report a field-level correction without including credentials.