Age ratings¶

Kodi's scrapers usually store the American rating ("Rated PG-13"), or whatever the site they used had. That says little to a parent in Amsterdam or Berlin. MetaMender writes every movie's and TV show's age rating in the rating system of your country, so you can rely on it when deciding what the kids may watch.

Age ratings are on when Age certifications is ticked in setup. Episodes have no age rating of their own in Kodi; the show's rating covers them.

Which countries¶

Automatic (the default) uses the country of Kodi's interface language. Some skins expect a different prefix; Override certification prefix in the settings lets you choose your own, or none.

Australian ratings are written with their official spelling (MA 15+, R 18+); a value already in Kodi as AU:MA15+ counts as the same rating and is written back as AU:MA 15+. Australia's children's TV ratings P and C, the adults-only X 18+, and RC (refused classification) are only used when TMDB has them as the title's Australian rating; MetaMender never converts another country's rating into one of them.

Your country missing? It cannot be chosen yet. Requests are welcome on GitHub.

Where a rating comes from¶

For each movie and show, MetaMender asks in this order and stops at the first answer:

1. TMDB's rating for your country.
2. Your country's own rating site, for Germany (FSK), the United Kingdom (BBFC) and Denmark (Medieraadet). Each can be switched off in the settings.
3. TMDB's ratings for neighbouring countries, converted to your system. For example a Dutch library looks at Belgium, then Germany, Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and finally the United States. An Australian library looks at the United Kingdom first, then the United States, then the European countries.
4. The other countries' rating sites, converted the same way.

A rating from steps 1 and 2 is your country's real rating; it never changes, so MetaMender does not check it again. A converted rating from steps 3 and 4 is MetaMender's best estimate: it is checked again every month for about a year, and replaced as soon as your country's real rating appears.

The Details window shows where an item's rating came from; a converted one says so, for example "TMDB (GB), converted".

What MetaMender changes, and what it keeps¶

• An empty rating is filled.
• A rating already in your country's system is kept. If its prefix differs from the one MetaMender writes (for example 12 without NL:), only the prefix is changed.
• A rating from another country's system, such as "Rated PG-13" in a Dutch library, is replaced, once MetaMender finds a rating for your country. Switch off Replace incorrect certifications to have MetaMender only fill empty ratings.
• A rating from an NFO file is never replaced.
• When no source has a rating, the field stays empty. If you would rather see that an item was checked, switch on Apply certification when not found: after a year of monthly checks MetaMender writes the value you choose (for example NR) into ratings that are still empty.

You can undo a rating MetaMender wrote with Restore original in the Details window; that also locks the field so MetaMender leaves it alone.