Q: Apple TV television shows out of order?

I received a response to my bug report today. It's a known issue. Looks like its already been reported to Apple as bug number 11005924.  So, that's the bug number to use in any feedback to them.

Thank God it is not a feature.

Hopefully we'll get a fix soon.

Last night I tried the solution that some people have had success with. Remove all tv shows and add them back in.

While some went into a slighly better order as in there were a few seasons that actually went 1,2,3.But there is no alphabetical order at all.

But no amount of metadata or re-addning looks like it will fix this. iTunes update can't come soon enough.

uni,

Removing the shows and re-adding them may give you some relief -- that is, until you want to add a new show and it goes to the bottom of the list. I've had better luck with the smart playlist that someone suggested.

Marc

I take that back. The smart playlist doesn't alphabetically properly.

Unfortunately Apple does not seem to be inclined to do minor upgrades for bugfixes quickly. They seem to be hesitant to release an update soon after a (major) release. Probably because marketing has told them this looks weak.

My advice: use your iPhone/iPad for now and wait a couple of weeks. It won't be sooner.

The listing BUG definitely lies with iTunes 10.6, re-install 10.5.3 and you'll get your list back in order again, even if your Apple TV2 has been updated to 5.0 - Don't spend hours re-importing your Media, it won't help...

From both a cosmetic and ease of use view (ATV5 is horrible) if you can, stay at 4.4.4 as long as you can.

If your one of those many people that are experiencing constant drop outs now while playing from your own Library, just quitting iTunes and restarting it seems to clear the problem for a while at least.

(I use Remote HD (great software) to view the comp screen from my chair to do this as comp is upstairs))

I have also tried the 'set AppleTV2 clock to manual' idea and that has also helped reduce the number of iTunes Library disconnections.

NB: If you have two Libraries available in the 'Computer' listing if you lose one the other will stay, so that points to a Bonjour error between iTunes and AppleTV2, I've tried setting IP to manual as well and that doesn't seem to solve the problem and downgrading the firmware of Time Capsule/Airport Utility form 7.6.1 back to 7.5.2 loses some functionality.

I don't recall a single problem using the iTunes 10.5.3, AppleTV2 4.4.4 and Airport Utility 7.5.2 Combination on OS 10.6.8.

...Will teach me to upgrade within 6 months of a release!

Sorry, but contrary to what some will tell you, there is NO workaround if you have more than just a few tv shows.  As to when apple will fix this; those are just GUESSES.  No one really knows.  If you go by history, it will be next year before this is fixed.  And since apple screwed with the apple tv2 interface.,.. I am going to have to look at other products.

marc_l wrote:

 

I take that back. The smart playlist doesn't alphabetically properly.

What are you seeing? Start a new thread and I'll try to help you. The Playlist method is working well for me.

Can I ask a stupid question? I assume the response to be yes.

Where you you veiw the palylist on ATV2, as I can only see music playlists. Are the TV playlists only displayed in the 'remote' app?

Cheers

They should be at the top of the TV Shows or Movies lists. But you may need to enable it. Go to Settings > Audio & Video and set Show Playlists to ALL.

To Michael Allbritton:

I just created a Smart Playlist of type TV Show. It would be too much trouble to try to explain what the result was, but it was alphabetized in sections. Is there an additional parameter I needed to set up?

Thanks.

Marc

Marc, that's not the way I did it, so I don't know what you're seeing. What I did was create s series of Playlist Folders with the names of the Shows, then a series of Smart Playlists (Static playlists will work as well).  for each season in the series. LIke this:

Babylon 5

     Babylon 5, Season 1

     Babylon 5, Season 2

     Babylon 5, Season 3

     Babylon 5, Season 4

     Babylon 5, Season 5

This method will list the TV Shows in alphabetical order, by season. The thing to then remember is the Apple TV will sort the episodes in the playlist by Episode ID, so some episodes may still be out of order.

I don't want to get this thread too far off topic, so I still suggest you start a new thread for this and we can continue the conversation there. My method is not the only way to do this either, it is just the way I have chosen that works best for m.

Michael:

If I'm understanding you correctly, that won't work for me. My shows are dynamic, meaning that I'm watching content and usually deleting them afterward, and adding new shows every day. I'll have to use the Remote app.

Marc