Some TV shows not showing in Sharing on iPad

Question

Some TV shows not showing in Sharing on iPad

Some TV Shows in iTunes are not displaying in Videos/Sharing/TV Shows on my iPad 1 running iOS 5. Most do, but four or five don't. I've found next to nothing on this in the Apple Forums (in Home Sharing or others), nor in outside forums. One forum a respondent had a similar issue, and stated a bug he saw on other forums may be the culprut were video information will load in Sharing, but not be visible and refreshing Sharing in iPad Videos resolved for him.

Not for me. I went so far as to restore iOS 5 hoping that would resolve. Someone in an outside forum suggested since these are my own TV shows, not DRM purchased content from iTunes, the culprit may be a different frame rate. This could be true. I dont' know how to necessarily identify the frame rate. All I know is that in converting these programs to .m4v format, the frame rate setting I always use is that of the source by default. Most of my other shows play fine in Sharing.

I don't think frame rate (fps) may be the issue. Sampling the files that aren't showing in sharing, they're all 29.97 fps. I have one series though with several episodes with the same fps that plays fine. Most other series that show in Sharing on my iPad are different fps though, so I could be wrong.

Any thoughts? I'd like to try and resolve this before I go abroad to Asia for most of 2012, and will be using a personal private portable device to device wi-fi media server (Seagate Satellite), and would like to see if I could get his ironed out.

So I'm not quite sure what the culprit could be. All my ports are fine and tested, and Sharing and Home Sharing works fine. I'm running the following:

Mac OS 10.7.2

iTunes 10.5 (build 141)

iOS 5

Thanks for any ideas.

Maybe ultimately, I'll just have to push the videos to my iPad via traditional wired syncing. Ugh. That's so last week.

iPad, iOS 5, Home Sharing with Mac OS 10.7.2

Posted on Nov 3, 2011 11:11 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 3, 2011 11:13 AM in response to a-monk-at-large

The other forum I referenced above was this:

Non-iTunes Store TV shows transfer to iPad, but don't show up there

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Answer 2

Nov 3, 2011 1:02 PM in response to a-monk-at-large

Looks like framerate per second of particular videos may in fact be an issue. I just deleted my iTunes preferences lists (.plist) (exporting my library first) and rebuilt.

I added only one of the series that didn't show in iPad/Videos/Sharing. It popped up immediately there. However, when I added other videos, I watched it disappear right out of the sharing list.

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Answer 3

Nov 14, 2011 1:58 AM in response to a-monk-at-large

I'm having the same issue as you!

Good to know I'm not alone in the world!

what software do you use to convert your videos?

I have been working with iflicks.

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Answer 4

Nov 14, 2011 11:09 PM in response to a-monk-at-large

It's really interesting how little information I can find about this problem. My issue is also with purchased iTunes TV shows. I am using a first generation iPad on a pretty fast network. I was first having a problem with just the order.

Just last night, I disconnected from Home Share and reconnected. All the movies that were once out of order were back in order from A-Z. TV Shows, however, are still not behaving well. Not only are they out of order, (for example Ghost in the Shell shows up before American Dad), some of TV shows just will not show up at all. Seasons 1 and 2 of The Venture Bros. shows and plays just fine. Seasons 3 and 4 are nowhere on Home Share on my iPad; all of which I purchased from iTunes.

Another issue is having to go back through the whole list of TV shows and meticulously change or edit the original information and metadata just so the shows will show in the correct consecutive order. This is an issue not only on the iPad, but I experienced it on both of my Apple TV 2's as well.

Just to note, all TV shows show up on the Apple TV 2's just fine. Only my iPad has issues not showing some.

Hope this thread leads to a solution.

-F.

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Answer 5

Nov 14, 2011 11:40 PM in response to Nathan Guinle

Nathan - I use Handbrake. I haven't spent too much time further on this issue, as I've been trying to get through a season of a show that's been a culprit, one that I literally saw disappear as in my Homesharing/TV Shows on my iPad 1. I haven't tried adding anything else again to my iTunes TV Shows library directory after deleting everything (the links, not the source files) since upgrading to iOS 5 on the device.

Like I said, I suspected and took a look at framerate (fps) as was suggested in some of the forum reading I did (both Apple and non-Apple forums), but this didn't seem to be it as some TV Shows with the same fps did show up correctly.

I'm going to be traveling in Asia soon for several months into next year, and since have purchased a Seagate Satellite personal wi-fi drive to use as a media drive for my iPad, so I won't even need to or be able to use Home Sharing very often logistically during this time.

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Answer 6

Nov 14, 2011 11:41 PM in response to Frank Mccright

Thanks Frank. I did the same, numerizing episodes in order etc. and found this helpful, but the same culprit shows again didn't show in iPad, though they do by themselves. I have yet to isolate what's unique to these three or four series that differs from the others.

I've read that others such as yourself have had little problem with Home Sharing on the AppleTV 2 who also use the iPad. I think this is unique to iPad for some reason.

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Answer 7

Nov 15, 2011 1:42 AM in response to Frank Mccright

I like yourself have no issues on the Apple TV 2. It is just my ipad.

As can be seen in the photos below not only do MANY shows not appear but

I have MANY repeats of the same show?!?

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Answer 8

Nov 15, 2011 7:13 AM in response to Nathan Guinle

Nathan:

This happened to me once. You have to make sure all the metadata for each episode that should be the same is the same. I.E. Sorting/Sort By Show.

Here's something weird. I choose to point iTunes to where the videos are filed as they exist on a separate drive vs. copying them to the iTunes Folder. The one show I'm watching now isn't showing up entirely in iTunes, thought it does in iPad.

I also just noticed that while my show I am watching in Home Sharing in the iPad is showing (one that disappears when others show, none of my others in iTunes is.)

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Answer 9

Nov 16, 2011 1:08 PM in response to a-monk-at-large

As I've mentioned before, I've gone through and meticulously changed the information and metadata of my TV shows just so they would show up correctly. This actually started with my first generaton Apple TVs before the Video app was even available. Now I have two second generation Apple TVs and they work fine with no errors.

Once the new Video app became available, I realized- I had to make even more edits to the metadata of TV Shows.

Another issue I have noticed is that in the Movies section, sometimes it will show the movies out of order, but when you select them, they are actually in order but displaying the incorrect artwork, giving the appearance of unorder.

Disconnecting from Home Share and reconnecting fixed that issue. However, the TV Shows problem still remains with them being out of order or some complete seasons not even showing on the iPad while others of the same show do.

-F.

Message was edited by: Frank Mccright - Corrected spelling as not to cause any confusion.

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Answer 10

Nov 16, 2011 1:32 PM in response to Frank Mccright

Frank:

I've seen what you mentioned here about incorrect artwork and order displacement in Movies section of Home Sharing in iPad mentioned in other forums as an issue. Though I'm sorry I don't recall a fix mentioned, just that it seems to be a problem others are experiencing to I thought I'd mention.

Another thing I found useful while exploring other forums is to stop the Movies app in iPad. To do this, or for any application, hold down the Home button on the iPad until you're at your home screen. Then double click. This brings up a list of open running applications and processes on the iPad on the bottom. Simply hold down on any of these application icons until they start jiggling about. You will also see a red "-" minus symbol for each one. Choose Movies to stop it. It then disappears. Hit the Home button once more to go back to your home screen and re-launch Movies and then Home Sharing.

I haven't edited any of the Movie metadata yet since I had to rebuild my entire library lately after rebuilding a drive the videos were stored on after a failure, so I haven't yet experienced what you have, but would be suprised if I didn't. TV shows seem fine now, I'm delighted they all finally show up. TV Shows seem to sort differently and is more sensitive to the metadata than movies from my experience and observation. The whole thing seems finicky. But as I continue to use and work with it, my iPad seems somehow to be "learning" my usage behaviour and is gradually sorting itself out.

Just stay with it.

You've also sold me on the notion of getting an Apple TV2. I've been interested in buying one since Apple redesigned it. I've heard good things about it's usage with Home Sharing. I think I'll get one when I get back from Asia next summer.

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Answer 11

Nov 16, 2011 10:49 PM in response to a-monk-at-large

a-monk...:

I have actually done the "stop" method with other apps before, but hadn't tried it with the Video app. I gave it a try with the same results: movies are fine, TV shows are still out of order or some seasons not showing.

As far as moving to an Apple TV 2, with the addtions of Netflix, MLBTV, and other streaming services and features, it's a pretty good upgrade from the original. I have zero regrets. A few glitches like sporadic restarts, but other than that, I love it. Plus, the small footprint is amazing. I say this especially considering that I never synced movies to my first generation Apple TVs. I always just streamed them over my network either to the living room device or the bedroom device. Worked just fine once I got a good network. So not having a harddrive on the new version was a non-issue. The only thing missing (not saying I miss it) is the RCA outs for audio in cause you want to run it to a stereo receiver or audio device with the inputs. Both of mine are connected via HDMI.

I sold one original Apple TV to a friend and kept the other. You never know. Could find some use for it later.

I do remember having to change some metadata, however, for TV shows that would display episodes out of order within the seasons on the Apple TV 2.

-F.

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Answer 12

Nov 26, 2011 4:10 PM in response to a-monk-at-large

This worked for me. I had several shows not appearing on my ipad. I edited the metadata on all of them to ensure they were the same and it instantly appeared on my ipad. Honestly was like magic. Thanks : )

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Answer 13

Nov 26, 2011 6:27 PM in response to notalawyer

Notalawyer:

Changing the metatdata is one of the solutions we've been discussing. I've gone through and meticulously (ridiculously) edited the metatdata. From changing the original (official) episide IDs to changing the show names and titiles. It still doesn't work correctly.

One problem I have is, they did all show up correctly at one time. Then, just recently, I'd say in the past month or two, not only have the TV shows started appearing out of order, (as I mentioned before, "Ghost in the Shell" comes before "American Dad"), but some seasons of iTunes purchased TV shows are not showing up at all. In my case The Venture Bros seasons 3 and 4 do not appear on the iPad even though the metadata is manually set up exactly like seasons 1 and 2

Editing metadata seems to be a fix for a few things, but not definitely for all.

-F.

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Answer 14

Nov 27, 2011 9:07 PM in response to Frank Mccright

Paying it forward; thanks for all of the breadcrumbs in these forums.

After much experimentation, here's how I got it to work for me:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3510339?answerId=16858079022#16858079022

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Answer 15

Nov 27, 2011 11:03 PM in response to StoneSoup

Thanks so much for the tip, StonesSoup.

After going back through all my shows, it appeared it was the "Album" and "Sort Album" sections that were causing the problems. Using a comma in place of a dash makes a difference after all.

I managed to get all shows to show up in my Video app on my iPad and in the correct order.

Thank you again!

-Frank

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