Main poster

Totally agree. It is something that has bugged me for a long time and it is something that has been discussed with the staff.
The rule is "Please upload the highest resolution that's available for a particular image". 
It does not mean that because a particular image with "SUN 10//9c" etc on it must be set as main image just because it is of higher res than a "Clean" image.
Once a series has started, having that info on it as a main poster really isn't needed.

I'm glad blackcat brought the issue.

@blackcat2021 wrote:
Promotional posters are good for using before they start/re-start to air/stream, for quickly get the date they'll be available without opening the actual show page... but using them afterwards... debatable.

@TonyMayhew wrote:
It does not mean that because a particular image with "SUN 10//9c" etc on it must be set as main image just because it is of higher res than a "Clean" image.
Once a series has started, having that info on it as a main poster really isn't needed.

I totally agree with both. I believe posters with dates can be used as season posters as well as a show's main image before the series/season starts. After that, only clean posters or posters with only the network logo should be used as the main image.

@blackcat2021 wrote:
... and uploading crappy tvdb posters should be banned. (low res 680x1000px/ alien aspect ratio / blurry / highly compressed / bad cropped)

I agree that blurry, grainy, stretched, upscaled, highly compressed and badly cropped posters should not be used. However, lower res posters are sometimes the only posters available. Take into account that we accommodate some very old shows as well as non-English language shows, and often the only available posters are lower res. I believe for some of those shows, lower res posters can be acceptable. And they can always be replaced by higher res posters if they ever become available. :)

I am also up for a policy change that we use "clean" posters as soon as the show is running :)

You're assuming a "clean" version of the poster will always be available. That's not always the case. The policy could be tweaked, but I would be against the idea of removing a poster simply because it has date info. If that's all that's available, that's all that's out there. I'd rather have an old date on a poster than no poster at all. 

@LadyShelley wrote:
You're assuming a "clean" version of the poster will always be available. That's not always the case. The policy could be tweaked, but I would be against the idea of removing a poster simply because it has date info. If that's all that's available, that's all that's out there. I'd rather have an old date on a poster than no poster at all. 

of course, only if a clean one is available :)

Another problem with "clean" posters is that more often than not they are fan made.

Maybe what I say will be supported, maybe it won't, but whatever. Here's what I've done:

I've usually stuck to using a 'clean' poster image (without premiere date/airing schedule) for the main series posters. I've then used the posters with the premiere date included for the season-specific poster(s).

For example... Next Level Chef (main series poster ----- season posters) and The Masked Singer (main series poster ----- season posters).

I honestly kinda like using the posters with the premiere date there because then later on down the line, you can kind-of use that to confirm/verify that it is the correct poster for the associated season. For example, looking here, you can see the premiere date in the season 4 poster says 9/23. You can then see/verify it is the correct poster for the season, as the first season 4 episode here is listed for September 23.

Just my two cents...

@Magitroopa wrote:
Maybe what I say will be supported, maybe it won't, but whatever. Here's what I've done:

I've usually stuck to using a 'clean' poster image (without premiere date/airing schedule) for the main series posters. I've then used the posters with the premiere date included for the season-specific poster(s).

For example... Next Level Chef (main series poster ----- season posters) and The Masked Singer (main series poster ----- season posters).

I honestly kinda like using the posters with the premiere date there because then later on down the line, you can kind-of use that to confirm/verify that it is the correct poster for the associated season. For example, looking here, you can see the premiere date in the season 4 poster says 9/23. You can then see/verify it is the correct poster for the season, as the first season 4 episode here is listed for September 23.

Just my two cents...

for seasons I agree, the poster with date is fine :D

Dates on posters doesn't really bother me that much, but i would be fine with a change to policy so that posters with dates should only be used as main poster before the show starts airing, providing a "clean" poster is available. As far as 680x1000 tvdb posters are concerned i am flat out against a ban on those, yes of course we don't want blurry, grainy, stretched, upscaled, highly compressed and badly cropped posters but you can't always find a good high res poster and in those instances i'd rather have a tvdb poster than none at all - untill a better one can be found.

@MTQueenie wrote:
Dates on posters doesn't really bother me that much, but i would be fine with a change to policy so that posters with dates should only be used as main poster before the show starts airing, providing a "clean" poster is available. As far as 680x1000 tvdb posters are concerned i am flat out against a ban on those, yes of course we don't want blurry, grainy, stretched, upscaled, highly compressed and badly cropped posters but you can't always find a good high res poster and in those instances i'd rather have a tvdb poster than none at all - untill a better one can be found.

Yeah, agree with you for the case - a poster is hard to find, or as @CostaDax said, for old shows. I've said that because I've seen a lot of new shows with a tvdb poster and a background without the name of the show by default. :) (I won't point names) when an official poster was available. You can just google "Show name site:network.com" or as alternate posters sources sites - tvguide.com roku.com plex.tv rottentomatoes.com < those provide pretty good posters

I'm not sure I'm a fan of getting posters from Plex. If possible the posters we use should be official and Plex mostly just get their posters from TMDB and fanart.tv.

@Aidan wrote:
I'm not sure I'm a fan of getting posters from Plex. If possible the posters we use should be official and Plex mostly just get their posters from TMDB and fanart.tv.

I don't know their sources, I found once a 2000x3000px poster which were nowhere else to find :)
Agreed, official posters should be the main source. 

So the policy could be amended to add to https://www.tvmaze.com/faq/14/show-extras#poster-main-image:

Once a show has premiered, an official poster without premiere date and/or other scheduling information is preferred over a version that does contain such text.

Upvote this post if you agree, downvote if you disagree.

@david wrote:
So the policy could be amended to add to https://www.tvmaze.com/faq/14/show-extras#poster-main-image:

Upvote this post if you agree, downvote if you disagree.

I like the fact that you use the word "preferred" and you don't make it an absolute ban. Well phrased!

@david wrote:
So the policy could be amended to add to https://www.tvmaze.com/faq/14/show-extras#poster-main-image:

Upvote this post if you agree, downvote if you disagree.

Well that's clear enough :)

Policy updated: https://www.tvmaze.com/faq/14/show-extras#poster-main-image

@david wrote:
Once a show has premiered, an official poster without premiere date and/or other scheduling information is preferred over a version that does contain such text.

But if an official poster with the premiere date has much higher resolution, then it should be more 'preferred'. Like in this case. Just zoom in and see the differences in their qualities.

https://static.tvmaze.com/uploads/images/original_untouched/444/1110831.jpg

https://static.tvmaze.com/uploads/images/original_untouched/440/1100665.jpg

I used the word "preferred" on purpose to leave some room for discretion. For example, a 1080p "unclean" poster probably shouldn't be replaced with a 800x600px "clean" version. But at some point, extra resolution really doesn't add any value anymore, in particular here in the TVmaze layout that crops images to a pretty small size (compare https://static.tvmaze.com/uploads/images/medium_untouched/440/1100665.jpg and https://static.tvmaze.com/uploads/images/medium_untouched/444/1110831.jpg).

In any specific case, the choice is at ultimately the Curating & Head Contributors' discretion.

Note that API users that absolutely want the largest available resolution can simply use the images endpoint and manually choose the image with type = "poster" that has the highest resolution, instead of mirroring our choice of main image.