Q: Apple TV television shows out of order?

Henkybaby wrote:

 

Still makes absolutely no sense and for the life of me I can't figure out how you miss this in testing....

If I had to guess, they never saw it in testing.  I'm guessing that they were testing updated Apple TV software with iTunes 10.5.3, and not with 10.6.  Or, looking at things like this aren't in their test plans.

Maybe there was something to say for Steve's micro-managing quality obessive hands-on style....

@ Bernie: but if you test the iTunes update with the unupdated AppleTV you also see this problem. My guess is they tested without 'downloaded content', just with Apple Store bought stuff.

Message was edited by: Henkybaby

Bernie Case wrote:

 

If I had to guess, they never saw it in testing.  I'm guessing that they were testing updated Apple TV software with iTunes 10.5.3, and not with 10.6.  Or, looking at things like this aren't in their test plans.

That's probably the case. The two may never have been brought together in testing.

If it had been the ATV2 update that did it then there would have been no excuse, but you can see how this chould have happened.

Having said that, if you are simultaneously releasing updates to software that interacts with each other then you should really test that interaction.

Edit to say: They obviously didn't test the updated iTunes with the Apple TV (running either iOS) very well. The results have shown that this was a major oversight.

I think this had everything to do with iTunes and not the ATV2s. I upgraded the OS on my ATV2s yesterday. My TV shows still sorted fine. Then I upgraded one PC to iTunes 10.6... that's when the TVs sort list went crazy. So on the computer with iTunes 10.5.x, it's still sorting shows normally on the ATV2.

So this looks like an iTunes issue vs an ATV2 issue. So if you have an ATV2, I would AVOID iTunes 10.6 until they fix it.

Gee , I guess the Apple employees can take the day off, Henkybaby and KeithJenner have got this issue well in hand.....

What a weird thing to say, James...

Trying to describe the problem is hardly the same as solving it now, is it?

I just updated the new iOS for Apple TV and iTunes a few days ago, and also experienced the same issues within the TV Shows menu.  In the past, all of my TV episodes and shows were listed in alphabetical order.  With over 600 films and 450 TV episodes, its a pain to find anything anymore.  I spent a great deal of my time with resetting the apple TV back to its factory settings 3 times, with the hope of fixing the issues.  In addition, I've noticed that sometimes while watching my films, the Apple TV will stop down loading a film after 6 minutes after the start. I will be sitting their enjoying my film until 25 minutes or so and then it freezes for over 15 minutes in trying to continue to download the rest of the film.  The only solution that I found was to either shut down both iTunes and the Applet TV, or to try and fast forward the film with the hopes that it will start to download again.  I hope that Apple is aware of this issue, and are working on a solution.

Can anyone else tell me if they also experience the same time-out issue with Apple TV 2 IOS 5.0, while viewing films that they own.

Dear vhanaya,

Save yourself the trouble of playing with the AppleTV (at least as far as the alphabetizing is concerned) since the problem is with iTunes' latest update. I have another computer where I did not update iTunes and those shows are still in alphabetical order.

You can solve the problem by either reverting back to 10.5.x or you can use TV Remote on your iPhone/iPad as a temporary solution until Apple fixes this bug.

Cheers,

Henk

Can you please elaborate about using TV Remote?  What is it and how does it help the problem? 

Thanks!

It is an app on your iPhone or iPad and you can use it as a remote for your AppleTV. It will still show your shows in proper order on the iPhone or iPad. On the Apple TV menu it will still look out of order though.

I'd like to point out that you don't have to export/import your library to get the fix to work involving downgrading to iTunes 10.5.3: iTunes stores backups of your libraries when it upgrades the library file, as noted in this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

Tip: New versions of iTunes sometimes include enhancements to the iTunes library. When you open the new version of iTunes, iTunes upgrades your existing library to the new format and places a copy of the old library in the Previous Libraries folder

Also: if you're using Windows 64-bit (like I am) and panicked a little when you thought there was no 64-bit version of iTunes 10.5.3 for Windows (like me) -- have no fear.  It's located here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1427

Thanks, this would help.

Yikes, there are 71 remotes on the app store.  Do recall a specific name?

It's the remote created by Apple.

In search type Apple Remote and it is the top one. With the Grey, Blue & Black Play button as a logo.

Found it, thanks!  Apple Remote allows me to find a show quickly, without scrolling through the entire list.

I sure wish Apple would order by Show, Season, Episode.

Thanks!