Posters and details
Matinee looks up posters, backdrops, descriptions, genres, cast and crew, age ratings and trailers for movies and TV on TMDB, a community-built film and TV database. Each server uses its own free TMDB key. Getting one takes about two minutes.
Get a key
Section titled “Get a key”- Sign up at themoviedb.org and confirm your email.
- Open Settings → API, click Create, and answer Yes to “personal use”. Your own server is personal use.
- Fill in the short form. For example, use “Matinee” as the name and “Self-hosted media server for my household” as the summary.
- Copy the API Key. The longer API Read Access Token works too.
Give it to Matinee
Section titled “Give it to Matinee”| How you installed | Where the key goes |
|---|---|
| Docker | add -e MATINEE_TMDB_KEY=your-key to docker run (or environment: in Compose) |
| apt or dnf | add MATINEE_TMDB_KEY=your-key to /etc/matinee/matinee.env |
| Homebrew | add MATINEE_TMDB_KEY=your-key to $(brew --prefix)/etc/matinee/matinee.env |
| Kubernetes | kubectl create secret generic matinee-tmdb --from-literal=tmdb-api-key=your-key, then tmdb.existingSecret: matinee-tmdb in your values |
Restart Matinee. The next scan fills in what’s missing; you can start one from Settings → Libraries → Scan.
Why isn’t a key built in?
Section titled “Why isn’t a key built in?”TMDB’s free keys are for personal use, and a key shipped inside Matinee would be shared by every server in the world. Once donations and app sales bring in enough, the project will license a key and build it into the official images so new servers get artwork with no setup. Until then, each server brings its own.
Without a key
Section titled “Without a key”Everything else works without one. Titles are named from your files, and any artwork files next to your media are used.
Music and awards
Section titled “Music and awards”Two more sources need no key and are on by default:
- MusicBrainz fills in artists and albums, with covers from the Cover Art Archive and artist photos from Wikidata. Set
MATINEE_MUSICBRAINZ=falseto use only your own files. - Wikidata adds the awards a movie or show won or was nominated for. Set
MATINEE_WIKIDATA=falseto skip them.
Age ratings in your country
Section titled “Age ratings in your country”Kids profiles go by age ratings, which differ by country. Set MATINEE_RATING_COUNTRY to yours (GB, CA, AU, DE…; the default is US). Titles pick up the new country’s ratings the next time their details are refreshed.