IMDBx

IMDBx - Titles, ratings, air dates, descriptions and cover art across every episode of any IMDb TV series.

Install

pip install IMDBx

Chromium is downloaded automatically the first time you run a scrape — no extra setup needed.

For development (includes pytest, ruff, coverage):

pip install "IMDBx[dev]"

Quick start

from imdbx import title

t = title("tt7441658")          # Black Clover, all seasons
print(t)                         # Black Clover [tt7441658] — 4 seasons, 170 episodes

for season_num, episodes in t:
    for ep in episodes:
        print(ep)                # S1.E1 · Asta and Yuno  [7.6/10 (1.6K)]

Python API

from imdbx import title, season, episode, metadata, load

title() — full series

t = title("tt7441658")
t = title("tt7441658", seasons=[1, 2])          # specific seasons only
t = title("tt7441658", download_images=True)    # also save cover art
t = title("tt7441658", pool_size=8)             # more concurrency

print(t.meta.series_name)        # "Black Clover"
print(t.meta.imdb_rating)        # "8.2/10"
print(t.meta.tags)               # ["Anime", "Action", "Adventure", …]
print(t.meta.years)              # "2017–2021"
print(t.meta.content_rating)     # "TV-PG"

all_eps = t.all_episodes()       # flat list of every Episode
ep      = t.get_episode(1, 1)    # Episode S1E1
t.save("black_clover.json")      # dump to JSON

season() — single season

eps = season("tt7441658", 1)     # list[Episode] for season 1

for ep in eps:
    print(ep.title, ep.rating)

episode() — single episode

ep = episode("tt7441658", 1, 1)  # Season 1, Episode 1

print(ep.episode_code)           # "S1.E1"
print(ep.title)                  # "Asta and Yuno"
print(ep.rating)                 # "7.6/10 (1.6K)"
print(ep.air_date)               # "Tue, Oct 3, 2017"
print(ep.description)            # plot summary
print(ep.cover_image)            # CDN URL
print(ep.imdb_url)               # full IMDBx page URL

metadata() — series info only (fast, no browser)

m = metadata("tt7441658")

print(m.series_name)             # "Black Clover"
print(m.type)                    # "TV Series"
print(m.years)                   # "2017–2021"
print(m.content_rating)          # "TV-PG"
print(m.episode_duration)        # "24m"
print(m.imdb_rating)             # "8.2/10"
print(m.rating_count)            # "47K"
print(m.popularity)              # "529"
print(m.tags)                    # ["Japanese", "Anime", "Action", …]

load() — reload a saved JSON file

t = load("black_clover.json")
print(t.meta.series_name)

Data classes

Episode

SeriesMetadata

CLI

After installing, the imdbx command is available system-wide:

imdbx tt7441658                     # Black Clover, all seasons
imdbx tt0903747                     # Breaking Bad
imdbx tt7441658 --seasons 1 2       # specific seasons only
imdbx tt7441658 --output out.json   # save results to a JSON file
imdbx tt7441658 --download-images   # also download cover art to ./images/
imdbx tt7441658 --images-dir ~/pics # download cover art to a custom directory
imdbx tt7441658 --meta-only         # series metadata only — no browser needed
imdbx --load out.json               # display a previously saved JSON file
imdbx tt7441658 --pool-size 8       # increase concurrency for faster scraping
imdbx tt7441658 --debug             # verbose output: HTTP, browser events, timing

--test — testing mode

# Run the full offline unit-test suite (no network required)
imdbx --test

# Live end-to-end smoke test — fetches real data and checks key fields
imdbx --test tt7441658
imdbx --test tt0903747

--test alone runs pytest on the bundled test suite and exits with pytest's return code (0 = all passed). Requires pip install "IMDBx[dev]".

--test <TITLE_ID> hits the real IMDBx API, verifies that metadata and episode data are populated correctly, and prints a coloured ✓/✗ summary. Requires a network connection and Playwright/Chromium.

Architecture

imdbx/
├── __init__.py     ← public API  (title, season, episode, metadata, load)
├── models.py       ← dataclasses (TitleInfo, SeriesMetadata, Episode)
├── cli.py          ← imdbx command — all flags with full help text
├── _scraper.py     ← orchestration: coordinates HTTP + browser + images
├── _http.py        ← niquests connection pool + async image downloader
├── _browser.py     ← Playwright pool + "Show more" expansion detection
├── _parse.py       ← BeautifulSoup parsers (zero hardcoded class names)
├── _display.py     ← terminal colour output
└── _log.py         ← shared ANSI colour helpers + debug flag
tests/
├── test_models_episode_dataclass.py   ← Episode field and repr tests
├── test_models_series_title_info.py   ← TitleInfo + save/load round-trip
├── test_parse_episode_cards.py        ← HTML → Episode parsing
├── test_parse_series_metadata.py      ← HTML → SeriesMetadata parsing
└── test_http_session_and_load.py      ← HTTP session and JSON load tests

Three-layer hybrid approach:

• Layer 1 (niquests): lightweight HTTP for metadata, season counts, and image downloads
• Layer 2 (Playwright): headless Chromium for JS-rendered episode pages with "Show more" expansion
• Layer 3 (async): concurrent cover-image fetching via niquests.AsyncSession

Running tests

Tests require a source checkout:

git clone https://github.com/ENC4YP7ED/IMDBx
cd IMDBx
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Via pytest directly
pytest

# Via the CLI — same result
imdbx --test

# Live smoke test against a real title (network + Chromium required)
imdbx --test tt7441658

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/my-change
3. Install dev dependencies: pip install -e ".[dev]"
4. Make your changes and add tests
5. Verify everything passes: imdbx --test
6. Open a pull request

Changelog

1.1.5

• Added changelog to README

1.1.4

• imdbx.__version__ now reflects the installed package version via importlib.metadata

1.1.3

• Fixed AttributeError: type object 'C' has no attribute 'BRED' that crashed imdbx --test and smoke-test error output

1.1.2

• Fixed air_date parsing returning episode title prefix alongside the date (e.g. S1.E1 ∙ PilotSun, Jan 20, 2008); inline span/time elements are now searched before div containers

1.1.1

• Fixed imdbx --test from a PyPI install incorrectly resolving to another package's tests/ directory
• Fixed SyntaxError on Python 3.10/3.11 caused by backslash inside f-string expressions

1.1.0

• Switched scraping target from imdbx.com to imdb.com
• Fixed genre tag deduplication and filtering of IMDb navigation links
• Initial public release

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.