David Bisi

Q: Movie descriptions on 4th gen Apple TV

I can't figure out how to display movie descriptions for m4v files in my iTunes library on my 4th gen Apple TV.  Descriptions are there using Get Info in iTunes, and the artwork and genre display properly.  Movies purchased or rented from iTunes show the descriptions on the Apple TV, just not those local files in my iTunes library.  Is this just a bug that Apple needs to address?

Posted on Nov 22, 2015 3:27 PM

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Q: Movie descriptions on 4th gen Apple TV

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  • by Winston Churchill,Solvedanswer

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Nov 23, 2015 3:23 AM in response to David Bisi
    Level 10 (103,346 points)
    Apple TV
    Nov 23, 2015 3:23 AM in response to David Bisi

    The description field you see in iTunes Get info isn't the description field the Apple TV uses, you can see the field it uses by choosing show description from the contextual menu that appears when you ctrl-click on the movie in iTunes. If you want to edit this field, you can use something like iFlicks.

  • by David Bisi,

    David Bisi David Bisi Nov 25, 2015 12:57 PM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (110 points)
    Nov 25, 2015 12:57 PM in response to Winston Churchill

    Thanks! The "short" description available in iTunes Get Info showed up with my 3rd gen Apple TV, but I guess Apple changed it. Subler and iFlicks both added long descriptions, but since it looks like iFlicks can do batch processing, I'll try that on my iTunes library.

  • by zenjim,

    zenjim zenjim Dec 9, 2015 4:03 AM in response to David Bisi
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 9, 2015 4:03 AM in response to David Bisi

    when I look at Show Description it shows the same information as the Description tab in the Get Info window, yet my Apple TV 4 doesn't show the information. I Tried iflicks 1.x and it doesn't have a long description field. Any other suggestions?

  • by zenjim,

    zenjim zenjim Dec 9, 2015 4:31 AM in response to zenjim
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 9, 2015 4:31 AM in response to zenjim

    Never mind.  I downloaded the "Long Description to Description" script from Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes, edited to do the reverse, and was able to get all the descriptions copied to the long descriptions for my entire movies library and its showing on my AppleTV now.

  • by DarkJamie,

    DarkJamie DarkJamie Apr 27, 2016 1:14 AM in response to zenjim
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 27, 2016 1:14 AM in response to zenjim

    Can you provide your edited script? I have tried to edit "Long Description to Description", but apparently, I missed something, so it doesn't work for me.

  • by zenjim,

    zenjim zenjim Apr 27, 2016 1:23 AM in response to DarkJamie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 27, 2016 1:23 AM in response to DarkJamie

    Sure, no problem.  Here's the edited script:

     

     

     

    (*

    You can rename this script to whatever you want

    but please keep this information intact. Thanks.

     

    "Long Description to Description" for iTunes

    written by Doug Adams

    dougscripts@mac.com

     

    v1.0 oct 10, 2010

    -- initial release

     

    Get more free AppleScripts and info on writing your own

    at Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes

    dougscripts.com

     

    This program is free software released "as-is"; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

     

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

     

    Get a copy of the GNU General Public License by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.

     

    or visit http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

     

    *)

     

     

    property my_title : "Long Description to Description"

     

    tell application "iTunes"

      set sel to selection

      if sel is not {} then

      set opt to (display dialog "This script will copy the contents of each selected track's \"Description\" tag to its \"Long Description\" tag." & return & return & "(The \"Description\" tag can only be 255 characters. Purchased/protected media cannot be modified.)" buttons {"Cancel", "Proceed"} default button 2 with title my_title with icon 1 giving up after 30)

      if gave up of opt is true then return

      repeat with thisTrack in sel

      tell thisTrack to copy_description(it) of me

      end repeat

      else

      display dialog return & "Select some tracks first..." buttons {"Cancel"} default button 1 with icon 0 giving up after 15 with title my_title

      return

      end if

    end tell

     

    to copy_description(t)

      tell application "iTunes"

      if my is_purchased(get t's location) then return

      set ld to (t's description) as text

      if ld is "" then return

      if (length of ld) ≥ 253 then

      set ld to (my list_to_text((items 1 thru -2 of (my text_to_list((text 1 thru 253 of ld), " "))), " ") & "...") as text

      end if

      try

      tell t to set its long description to ld

      end try

      end tell

    end copy_description

     

    to is_purchased(loc)

      set n to ""

      try

      set n to (do shell script "head " & quoted form of POSIX path of loc & "|strings -n 5 |grep name.|sed -e 's/name//'")

      end try

      return (n is not "")

    end is_purchased

     

    on text_to_list(txt, delim)

      set saveD to text item delimiters

      try

      set text item delimiters to {delim}

      set theList to every text item of txt

      on error errStr number errNum

      set text item delimiters to saveD

      error errStr number errNum

      end try

      set text item delimiters to saveD

      return (theList)

    end text_to_list

     

    on list_to_text(theList, delim)

      set saveD to text item delimiters

      try

      set text item delimiters to {delim}

      set txt to theList as text

      on error errStr number errNum

      set text item delimiters to saveD

      error errStr number errNum

      end try

      set text item delimiters to saveD

      return (txt)

    end list_to_text

  • by DarkJamie,

    DarkJamie DarkJamie Apr 27, 2016 1:25 AM in response to zenjim
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 27, 2016 1:25 AM in response to zenjim

    Goodness, thank you. That was a fast reply.

  • by zenjim,

    zenjim zenjim Apr 27, 2016 1:47 AM in response to DarkJamie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 27, 2016 1:47 AM in response to DarkJamie

    You're welcome, I hope it helps out

  • by DarkJamie,

    DarkJamie DarkJamie Apr 27, 2016 2:00 AM in response to zenjim
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 27, 2016 2:00 AM in response to zenjim

    It totally did. I checked my edit, and it looked like I did the same thing you did, but yours worked great, so thanks again.

  • by Soniq2,

    Soniq2 Soniq2 May 1, 2016 3:08 PM in response to zenjim
    Level 1 (43 points)
    Apple TV
    May 1, 2016 3:08 PM in response to zenjim

    Jenjim

     

    Sorry, newby here to iFlicks. 

     

    How do we go about adding this script to iFlicks?

     

    Thanks

     

    -Mike

  • by zenjim,

    zenjim zenjim May 1, 2016 3:22 PM in response to Soniq2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 1, 2016 3:22 PM in response to Soniq2

    IIt's not an iFlix script. Save the script to ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts and it will show in iTunes

  • by Soniq2,

    Soniq2 Soniq2 May 1, 2016 3:25 PM in response to zenjim
    Level 1 (43 points)
    Apple TV
    May 1, 2016 3:25 PM in response to zenjim

    Got it. 

     

    Thanks

  • by Werty5323,

    Werty5323 Werty5323 Jun 13, 2016 1:20 PM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 13, 2016 1:20 PM in response to Winston Churchill

    That doesn't work correctly.  It truncates the text.

  • by zenjim,

    zenjim zenjim Jun 13, 2016 1:57 PM in response to Werty5323
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2016 1:57 PM in response to Werty5323

    try pasting it first as plain text into TextEdit, then copy it there and paste it into script edit

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