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Organizing my iTunes "TV SHOWS" List

I imported some tv shows (video files I recorded of my own), into itunes. Under GET INFO - OPTIONS, I made sure that TV SHOW was selected to stick the video under TV SHOWS in my library list.
That all went ok. But...
I wanted to "group" some of these shows under different icons in the TV SHOWS library, like COMEDY icon and others under BIOGRAPHY icon (and so on).
I want the comedy shows to list under the "COMEDY" icon in my tv shows library, and the biography shows will list under the "BIOGRAPHY" icon.
Thats one problem Im having, to get the shows to fall under their correct icon.

Second listing issue...

On some of the series purchased from itunes, in my TV SHOWS library, some of the icon grouping have a blue circled number of how many shows are inside that icon. On other icons, that blue number of inside show number listing for that series is not there.
No blue number on the icons upper right.
I was wonder what constitutes how that display is handled?
Why is it some series icons have a number circled in blue as to how many shows are inside, while other series icons do not have that blue listings number icon?

Is there any kind of master guide as to how itunes groups or lists-sorts shows, and how to alter or customize this under GET INFO, for each icon grouping and individual items in the list.

I've played around with changing sort options and changing-deleting stuff under INFO as to an item, and the end result seems to be very random and makes no sense.
Duplicating settings of one video file under GET INFO, and another video file, doesn't always give or duplicate the same sorting result.

I don't get this trick as to how itunes groups things together and how to alter or customize the way things in the library are displayed.

There are a lot of settings under the GET INFO.
The INFO section, then the SORT section, OPTIONS section and VIDEO section.
All settings seem to play against each other, somehow, to determine the way items are displayed in the library.
I would think or hope itunes would have a very detailed guide on customizing the way items are grouped and displayed in the library(s).
I guess Im a neat freak and want everything consistent and organized.

Under the MUSIC library the TAG-ID was the trick. That was easy to figure out.
But under MOVIES and TV SHOWS library, something else is going on as to how itunes lists/sorts/groups items together. ???

iMac Intel, Mac OS X (10.6.6), iMac 27" ...and... iMac 21.5"

Posted on Apr 4, 2011 5:37 PM

Reply
10 replies

Apr 5, 2011 5:11 AM in response to randym431

In iTunes a *TV Show* is any group of video files with the media kind set to TV show and the same value in the Show field of the Video tab of Get Info.

TV Shows can be subdivided into seasons by putting 1,2,3 etc. in the Season field of the Video tab of Get Info. Alternatively multiple seasons can be collapsed into one show be clearing such values.

TV Shows within a season/show are ordered alphabetically on the value of *Episode ID*. These are usually given in the form s##e## where ## is two digits with a leading zero if required.

The blue circles with numbers represent the count of unwatched episodes of a particular show/season. Partially watched episodes don't count towards the total, and are displayed with half a blue dot. Unwatched episodes have a full blue dot.

You can enter the Genre for a TV show in the usual way on the Info tab and set the grid view up to organise shows by Genre.

Sort fields should be used to control the order in which values are displayed, but should not be used to try to merge different values together.

For general tips on organising media in iTunes see http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/grouping.asp

tt2

Apr 6, 2011 7:06 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks! Very helpful. Especially the blue circled number thing. Couldnt figure that out.
On images/album cover art on VIDEO (i.e. tv shows), is there someway to assign different cover art to shows inside a grouped icon? As far as I can tell, the cover art of the tv show group is also the same cover art for each item inside. I havent seen a way to assign different art from the grouped icon art vs the list of shows inside. Even pruchased itunes shows are grouped under one icon, all the inside shows for that group share the same cover art.
For example, THE UNIVERSE group has its up front icon cover art, then inside you have THE UNIVERSE - SPACE, or THE UNIVERSE - OCEANS. It would be nice for the SPACE or OCEANS to have cover art for that show to match the theme of the show.
Instead, each item listing inside share the same grouped cover art.

Apr 7, 2011 12:46 AM in response to randym431

Each .m4v video file can have it's own artwork, either a poster frame picked from somewhere in the video or an image attached in the usual way. Tagging options are limited for .mpg/.mpeg files. Each Season will be represented by the artwork from the first episode of the season. Note it seems that very occasionally modifying artwork in video files may cause corruption so back up the files first before attempting to change images.

tt2

Apr 8, 2011 4:55 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks again!
Can you tell me why all TV SHOWS, even a single item, falls under a group icon (or inside a container-folder icon), while MOVIES do not. Example.. If you have an item as a MOVIE under MOVIES, you can click on that item to play it up front. But, if you change the option to TV SHOW for that movie, it removes that item from MOVIES and places it into TV SHOWS "AND" inside a folder. You have to enter the icon folder THEN click to play the item. What Im getting at is, can a single TV SHOW act like a movie, where it is not placed inside a cover folder? I guess I don't get why setting a video item as TV SHOW always places, even one item, inside a cover folder. And that doesn't happen with setting it back to a MOVIE. its like itunes figures you will always have more than one single tv show in a group. So its places inside a folder regardless.

Apr 8, 2011 5:11 AM in response to randym431

Ignoring the obvious fact that sometimes movies come in a series, Star Wars, Aliens, Harry Potter etc., movies are supposed to be one-off items, so each gets a single flat entry in the grid view. TV Shows on the other hand are supposed to be collections of episodes and so behave as a collection even if that collection only has one member.

If you hover over any item in the grid you get a play button, so you don't have to open the collection to get to the single episode you want to play.

tt2

Feb 7, 2012 10:57 AM in response to turingtest2

I am having a little difficulty with TV shows as well. I have pulled 6 individual episodes of a TV series into i-Tunes as separate m4v files and they have positioned themselves into the movies section as individual files or "movies". I have done "Get Info" and classed them as TV Shows and in Video classed them as being part of a Series and noting the episode. I still can't get them into a single folder to represent the Series and then into the TV Shows section of I-Tunes. I assume it is possible but - all and any assistance greatly appreciated


mcleodsd

Feb 7, 2012 11:55 AM in response to mcleodsd

Set the Media Kind to TV Show, give them a consistent Show name and also use this value in the Album field.


TV Shows can be subdivided into seasons by putting 1,2,3 etc. in the Season field of the Video tab of Get Info. Alternatively multiple seasons can be collapsed into one show by clearing such values.

TV Shows within a season/show are ordered alphabetically on the value of Episode ID. These are usually given in the form s##e## where ## is two digits with a leading zero if required.


I recommend using global episode numbers, so the first show of the second series of a show with 6 episodes in season one is episode 7. This makes is easy to set or clear the season numbers without affecting the order. I also recommend setting Disc No. to Season No. and Track No. to Episode No. as various builds of iOS have, at times, sorted on these other fields instead of Episode ID.


tt2

Nov 20, 2012 12:47 PM in response to turingtest2

What I can't seem to figure out is a way to have seasons work like nested folders. Example; I have 4 seasons of a TV Show purchased from iTunes. When I go to TV Shows from an Apple TV or an iPad I see the shows listed this way:


How I Met Your Mother

Season 1


How I Met Your Mother

Season 2


Sons of Anarchy

Season 1


Sons of Anarchy

Season 2


Sons of Anarchy

Season 3


Sons of Anarchy

Season 4




What I want to see is this:


How I Met Your Mother

2 Seasons


Sons of Anarchy

4 Seasons



Then when I click into How I Met Your Mother or Sons of Anarchy it could then list them separate. Is this not possible in iTunes? I just don't see why I need to scroll through 6 separate line items when it is only 2 different shows. Any ideas? I messed with the Show Name, Season Number, Episode Number, Sort Show, edia Kind, and Part of a Compilation. Nothing seems to make it do what I want it to do, I am starting to think that it isn't possible.

Nov 20, 2012 2:50 PM in response to turingtest2

That is too bad, I can live with it, just wished I could have cleaned it up even more. When you start getting 5+ seasons of 5+ TV shows you can see where the list becomes extremely long when it doesn't need to be. Oh well, maybe in the future they will support nested seasons. Thanks for the response, surprised I don't see more people asking this question. I did find a good article on file naming for iTunes, it is helping me clean things up I was just hoping to solve this TV Show issue I have.

Organizing my iTunes "TV SHOWS" List

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