Can I create "Folders" somehow in ITunes, that will be show in AppleTV

Question

Can I create "Folders" somehow in ITunes, that will be show in AppleTV

I've ripped several DVD's using Handbrake that contain mutliple episodes of series sitcoms.

Handbrake creates by default a seperate file for each episode on the DVD, so you wind up with something like

Seinfeld Season1_Disc1Episode1.mp4
Seinfeld Season1_Disc1Episode2.mp4
Seinfeld Season1_Disc1Episode3.mp4 etc..

When I import that library into Itunes, each episode shows as a seperate file of course.

When those are synched with Apple TV, they all show up in "Movies" as a long, long list.

What I want to do, as you can do with music, is to create a "folder" under "Movies" in I-Tunes, entitled "Seinfeld" and dump all the episodes in it. Then synch with Apple TV and have under "Movies" a Folder entitled Seinfeld, or Odd Couple, or Star Trek etc...that then when selected shows all the episodes.

I'm just trying to keep things better organized and easier.

When I try in ITunes, I can't seem to manage that.

Even while I'm in the Movies tab, if I click "Create new folder" it shows up only on the very bottom where the music is.

Any thoughts/ideas?

Regards

Steve

pwoerbook G4

Posted on Jul 1, 2007 7:40 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 1, 2007 11:59 PM in response to Steve Levine1

Hi,

This is my first post so please be kind.

I know how you feel I have just completed this task and it took me ages to work it out. I know there are probably a few ways to complete it but this is the way I did.

Using episode 4 of season 4, The Ticket as a guide. Under Info I changed the Name of the file to 04 - The Ticket. Under Video, I changed the Video type to TV show. I configured the Show as Seinfeld Season 4, and configured 4 under Season Number. I configured the Episode ID as 04 - The Ticket, leave episode number blank Under Sorting the name and show should reflect what was configured from before.

Once you configured them all select TV shows in iTunes and you will see episodes listed in order under each season.

I am only new to Apple/MAC world as I have only had my iMac for 4 months so there is probably different ways of doing this.

Hope this helps.

20" iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 2

Jul 2, 2007 12:15 AM in response to bungholio

Great reply for a first post - welcome!

You're spot on - these are TV series and should treated as such.

The process is - import the video, it shows under the "Movies" section, using the "Get Info" option, then "Video" change its video kind from "Movie" to "TV Show". Once this is done, complete the four other fields, Show, Season Number, Episode ID, Episode No., and then your TV shows will no longer be sorted as Movies but as TV shows, and should show up accordingly.

BTW: I only utilise the Season number and and episode number fields and for example:

Season 1 Episode 3

It's also worth mentioning, that in your iTunes preferences, (General) "TV Shows" should be enabled.

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Answer 3

Jul 2, 2007 1:34 AM in response to Steve Levine1

There is a very comfortable app to update the Meta Information inside your .mp4 files and using this you can tag the files as TV show, set season and episode: MetaX

http://www.kerstetter.net/index.html

It also downloads cover posters from amazon. This makes for a really fancy look in appleTV. Just like the stuff bought in iTMS. It also has a stack and you can drag multiple files into it and set the common stuff like Type TV Show, Season: 1 in one session.

I really like it, helps me in digitizing my DVDs for appleTV a lot.

MacBook, 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM, 120GB Mac OS X (10.4.10) apple TV, Handbrake, MetaX

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Answer 4

dvdtown

Level 1

0 points

Jul 2, 2007 4:17 AM in response to bungholio

What if it is not TV Shows?

I want to add trailers in HD to my Apple TV. I want to be able to store them in different "playlists." Possible?

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Answer 5

Jul 2, 2007 12:22 PM in response to dvdtown

Change it from 'Movie' to 'TV Show'
and give it a TV Show name of: Movie Trailers
Then just leave the season / episode information blank it should just list them alphabetically (I did this with my Looney Tunes).

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Answer 6

Jul 2, 2007 12:29 PM in response to Steve Levine1

Hi I'm having the same problem. I can find no way to get the episodes of a TV series to list themselves in a "folder" in Apple TV. Basically, it would be great if Apple TV sorted them like the iPod does. In the iPod under TV Shows it might say "Seinfeld" and in there are all the episodes and it does this without me having to create the folder in iTunes first. It just reads the tags. I simply cannot get that to happen in Apple TV.

I have been manually editing the tags and I have tried that Metax app that has been mentioned which basically just does the same as I had done manually.

Can anybody actually do this or are we waiting for a Software Update?

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Answer 7

Jul 3, 2007 5:17 AM in response to Steve Levine1

Like the other posters mentioned you need to list that movie as a TV show. Select the item in iTunes and get info. They have three choice descriptions for movie files.....movie, TV Show, and music video. This places your movies in different locations. Music Videos are now listed thru your music section. The TV shows are placed in TV shows. You need to input info about the TV show in TV show windo and not in the typical music info window of iTunes. After you put in the season and episode number it will list it correctly.

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Answer 8

Jul 13, 2007 2:29 AM in response to Brett Grossmann

Sorry to be a pain here but maybe I'm just being daft. I have been putting Sopranos Season 2 onto my Apple TV and I have followed the above instructions as to how to get all the episodes into the "folder" Sopranos Season 2 which is in the TV Shows section.

What I actually have is lots of "Sopranos Season 2" listed again and again and again in the TV Shows section. In the little preview and description on the bottom left of the screen it displays the correct name but in the main list it does not, nor does it put them all neatly in a folder. Does this make sense?

What am I doing wrong here? I'm convinced that I've followed the instructions properly. I can do it so that the iPod sorts shows into season folders but not Apple TV.

Any advice will be gratefully accepted!

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