Thoughts? 4 is troubling.
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I wouldn’t put much stock in a direct competitor having inside info about what TMDB will or won’t do.
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That’s true. How about everything else? They’re really making it seem like it’ll be no big deal, even though it most likely will be.
Maybe give them a call?
I’d rather not dive too deep into it, it’s pretty similar to the multiple reddit posts TVDB made when their licensing changes were first made public.
If what they’re saying about users being able to get free subscriptions is true, would you be open to have some entries in trakt stick with TVDB, like the ones not allowed on TMDB? Could you restrict some shows and make it so they can be updated by only a specific user?
If a user contributes data to TVDB, they can get free access to TVDB metadata according to their subscription page. That wouldn’t extend to a company to use that data though, it would be for the individual contributor.
@justin May I recommend adding a link to TMDB’s Contribution bible in the blog post about this transition, reminding people to make sure to follow those rules when updating/adding to TMDB? Perhaps also on the transition page?
There are concerns on the TMDB forums that people will be more inclined to just change TMDB to match TVDB even if it is incorrect or against TMDB rules.
Some have already done so or tried to do such as well. 
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@arcreactor great idea. The blog post is updated now and I’ll have the TMDB transition page updated with similar text soon too.
Please read the TMDB Contribution Bible which has all the rules for contributing data. Our goal isn’t to simply replicate TVDB data over, but rather update TMDB using their rules and standards. Some Trakt TV shows will need to be manually adjusted to match TMDB, we can handle that in Trakt support.
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Nice! That should help. The updates work great as well! 
I really think you should give TVDB a call @justin. If only to get a more complete picture of the cost to use it and a stronger reasoning behind the switch to TMDB. I don’t think you should rely on Reddit posts and instead should hear from them directly.
And who knows, maybe you could reach a deal with them. You never know until you actually try right?
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As we Dutch like to say: de beste stuurlui staan aan wal| (“The best helmsmen stand on the shore.”)
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I’m not happy either, but I can’t pretend that TVDB isn’t shady in how they do things. Ultimately I think it’s best to cut ties with them. The dream for me is just have Trakt be it’s own database.
While I avidly dislike the concept of a company relying on individual contributions until they get large enough then taking their ball and going home to a paid model, on the flip side, I can also understand if they aren’t able to cover their costs without a business model, and I do wonder how flexible they are or are not with other vendors?
trakt.tv isn’t a free service either, there are both ads and paid offerings, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable that trakt.tv should be paying something for the source of their data that makes trakt.tv exist.
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I’m not opposed to either making money. For me that’s a non-issue. But the decisions they make when you contact them for help doesn’t make sense. And sometimes you’re lucky to even get a reply. When they went through transition v2 to v3 they frequently said one thing and did another. I was pleased with the latest transition. And I couldn’t wait for runtime to be added to the API. I wish we could still use it because I hate having to do YEARS worth of free work all over again. Truth be told I’m trying out TV Time because I’m still not particularly pleased with this situation. But I can totally understand why Trakt is cutting ties. I haven’t given up on Trakt by any means. But I can’t lie and say I’m not looking for alternatives just in case.
This is disappointing all around
Looked at the comparisons on tvdb vs tmdb in trakt and all i know is my plex library is going to be a hot mess in scrobbling to trakt
Already wasting too much time with all this and its just going to get worse
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The comparison page has been updated with a a lot more TV shows and comparison data. I also added links for currently airing and shows missing on TMDB. I also encourage you to use the advanced filtering which helps find things. Let me know if any other built in sections make sense.
I’ll have an update in a few days with more detailed logic on how we will handle moving things over. I’m specifically talking about shows that are currently airing versus those that already ended.
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Hrms. I’m the maintainer of a few shows on TVDB, mostly YouTube oddities, and started moving one of them over to TMDB today. I added the TVDB ID to the TMDB entry, then went back to Trakt.tv and “Import TV show”, then added the TMDB ID. Instead of associating with the existing trakt.tv show, it created a duplicate, it seems:
The original: https://trakt.tv/shows/this-week-in-star-wars
The duplicate: https://trakt.tv/shows/this-week-in-star-wars-2020
If the show already exists you only need to add the ID on TMDB and refresh the data of the show on trakt. You can do that here:
if it doesn’t work immediately, refresh again in a few hours, it should pick up the TMDB ID and you will be able to see the TMDB comparison page. In this case, there are 2 shows with the same IDs so I suggest you send a support ticket asking them to remove the duplicate (so one page doesn’t bug the other).
@morbus sounds like you found a bug. I’ll try and get that fixed. For now, you can just refresh the entry directly as @Sonply mentioned.
Might I suggest a filter for shows that are 100% match so we can push them though faster or just have them auto push through?
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