My iTunes version 11.2.2.3 only gives me options for music or books - no movies or tv.
I want to copy videos (mpg's) from my PC (Win 8.1) to itunes. How would I do that?
Windows 8
I want to copy videos (mpg's) from my PC (Win 8.1) to itunes. How would I do that?
Windows 8
Use Alt or Ctrl+B to enable the menu bar.
Use Edit > Preferences > General to enable sections of the library.
You should be able to drag & drop content into the library or use the File > Add... menus.
Video files imported to the library are likely to show under Movies > Home Videos to start with,
tt2
Thanks. This helped. i now have a Movies section.
However, something is still missing. I go to Movies>Home Videos, then to File>Add file, select a clip and click on open. And nothing happens! No entry appears in the library.
I tried this with a .mpg and a .avi with the same result. What am I missing?
Thanks
ITunes cannot open .avi files.
Place a copy of one of the .mpg files inside <Media Folder>\Automatically Add to iTunes. It will either be added to the library or moved to a folder called Not Added. If it goes into Not Added then iTunes doesn't like the format, it is corrupt or iTunes has a particular problem with it even if it works elsewhere.
Last thought, have you installed QuickTime? It isn't generally needed but there are some older formats that iTunes doesn't support directly, but can via QuickTime.
tt2
I'm sorry to be dense about this, but is <Media Folder> simply the name of any folder under which I create a folder called "Automatically Add to Itunes"? And where would the "Not Added" folder be?
Sorry, an oblique reference to your media folder as defined in iTunes under Edit > Preferences > Advanced. It is normally <User's Music>\iTunes\iTunes Media where the exact path to <User's Music> is dependent upon your user account name and which version of Windows you are running. E.g. C:\Users\John\Music. Not Added is created inside Automatically Add to iTunes for anything that is, um, not added.
tt2
The bad news is that I have now attempted to add about 20 assorted .mpg, .wmv, and.m2ts files from various sources and they all, depressingly, end up in the Not Added folder.
If I were to install Quick Time would that affect iTunes' willingness to add a file to the library, or only its ability to play it?
I don't know. Try it and see.
See also:
HT2729: iTunes: Frequently asked questions about viewing and syncing videos
HT3775: Media formats supported by QuickTime Player
for details of what is supposed to be supported. Sadly I can't find one for iTunes as detailed as the QuickTime one.
tt2
Thanks for all your interest. I will be away for about a week after which I will try Quick Time and the links you sent and other things and I promise to let you know what happens,
Thanks again
You're welcome. 🙂
tt2
Hello: Well, I'm back and here is where I am. I downloaded and installed the latest iTunes on a different PC. Clean start. Went to the Movies tab\Home Videos and tried to add a small .mpg clip. Nothing!
So I went into Windows and to the media folder\Automatically Add... Pasted the clip into the folder. Looked like it had succeeded, but then got the Not Added folder. Opened the folder and found a sub folder named with the date. Opened that and found my clip, which played with Windows Media Center.
Still no sign of it in the library.
I downloaded and installed Quicktime. Made no difference.
It strikes me to mention that my ultimate goal is to get home videos onto my iPad and I thought the way to do it would be through iTunes. Do you know of another and more direct way?
Thanks
As a matter of interest will the files play in QuickTime directly?
Either way you may have to either transcode them into something that iTunes and the iPad will play, or install an alternate player app like VLC and use the app file sharing mechanism to load them onto the device.
tt2
Well, this has opened up a whole new vista.
Despite the fact that the Quicktime download screen lists an impressive array of supported file types, including .mpg and .ts, Qujicktime doesn't acknowledge any of my .mpg or .ts files. By this I mean that the Quicktime Open File screen doesn't list any of them. If I force the issue by selecting the All Files *.* option and then select one of them I get a message that "it is not a file that Quicktime understands."
However, what it does recognize is .mp4 files. Using "Automatically Add..." puts .mp4 files into my library under Home Videos. And Quicktime will play them from there.
However, if I try to play them directly in iTunes the program crashes immediately.
It seems unlikely to me that you will be able to move me forward from here, but you never know. Anyway, I appreciate your efforts
It may be that you need to install some additional codecs to your computer. Offhand I wouldn't know which. And while that might sort out playback in iTunes/Wuick time it won't address playback on the iPad.
Take a look at VLC and VLC for iOS.
tt2
I have been remiss in not contacting you for this length of time and I apologize.
I thought you might be interested in my final solution to the problem: This might not be the purists way, but after thrashing around trying everything I could think of to do things strictly within the bounds of Apple, I finally gave up and found a third party product that does the job perfectly.
This is a program called iPad Transfer, by a company called Transphone. The user interface is a little rough, but it is very easy to use. I suspect that one might be restricted to using.MP4 or .MOV clips. Maybe others, but once I found that those two work I didn't bother to try any others. The program delivers the files straight into the Videos folder.
Thanks again for your advice along the way.
Regards.
Glad to hear you've found a workable solution. 🙂
tt2
My iTunes version 11.2.2.3 only gives me options for music or books - no movies or tv.