Anyway to organise movies better in "My Movies" menu?

[MrMister111]

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On an Apple TV, when it is streaming and syncing from an iTunes computer, is there anyway to organise the "My Movies" better? At the moment there is Genre, watched. But this still means just a long list.

What I was hoping was to be able to in sections of alaphabet or own organisation. If for example you have 100 movies it basically just a massive long list, very in-Apple or am I doing something wrong? Same thing for TV episodes.

I know you can hack it to get XBMC etc, which I have done, I'm now converting all my movies to Apple format so it will become a stock Appe TV.

Cheers

 

[tommylotto]

If you give a group of movies the same name in the metadata under the entry for "Show" they will be grouped together as one entry in the main menu.

 

[Omne666]

Organize my movies better!

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On an Apple TV, when it is streaming and syncing from an iTunes computer, is there anyway to organise the "My Movies" better? At the moment there is Genre, watched. But this still means just a long list.

What I was hoping was to be able to in sections of alaphabet or own organisation. If for example you have 100 movies it basically just a massive long list, very in-Apple or am I doing something wrong? Same thing for TV episodes.

I know you can hack it to get XBMC etc, which I have done, I'm now converting all my movies to Apple format so it will become a stock Appe TV.

Cheers

Your best bet is to set up play lists in iTunes...I have grouping of play lists based on era (1950s, 1980s etc), Actor (Cary Grant, Bruce Willis etc), Special groups (Star Trek). Really the list is unlimited in what you can do, once the meta data is added to the video files.
Im looking at adding groupings based on director but as the director field is not an easily selected option, thats taking some work.
Also, my wife likes the fictional genre 'Chick Flick', so in the appropriate movies I've added those words into the comments field in metadata and created a playlist to list those movies. Actually, I add a lot of various stuff to the comments field so I can do just this sort of manipulation.

I jumped on the AppleTV band wagon when the first model came out, have 4 aTVs setup here...and despite its limitations, I havent seen any product come along to tempt me away....because of one thing. The UI! Even the mac mini/front room combo (which I loved until the aTV came out) is barely tolerable in comparison. I've played with ATVFlash, but when it comes right down to it, Apple and Steve Jobs know its all about the experience. I WANT full metadata happening. I want the pretty interface. And I just plain want it to work. Its taken until aTV Take 2 to get it close enough to stop me looking at alternatives. Sorry for diverting from topic!

Playlists and metadata! Thats your answer.
(Ohh, and dont sync....stream. Changes to your iTunes Library are reflected instantly on the aTV.)

 

[MrMister111]

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This is the sort of thing I mean yes, all star wars in one group. How is this done though please? What do I have to do?

I have been using MetaX to tag the movies but just been putting what it finds in the tags, eg year, description, actors, rating etc. I didnt know about the rest. Can you post some screenshots of examples for organising please? I didn't know you could playlist movies either will have to have a look!

Just a long list is no good, also just basing on genre not ideal for the kids. Say the kids want to watch a movie, they don't really understand genre etc they will just go through the list, on amaide note to this can you also restrict movie playing? eg if all movies are shown from iTunes in the "My Movies" menu how can I only allow the kids to watch the ones there age allows?

Cheers

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

the "Show" tag is your friend, which is in the "Video" pane of Meta X (though you can also just set it in the "Video" pane of iTunes, select the movie, then "get info").

I have all 6 "Star Wars" films in a single menu on the TV movie list. The menu is called "Start Wars". In the Show field all you have to do is put that name in for each of the 6 films.

I also put the numbers of the films in "Episode ID" and "Episode" (phantom menace is 1, attack of the clones is 2, etc. This shows them in the proper order when you click the "Star Wars" menu on the TV. I think if you don't do this, they are sorted alphabetically by title.

 

[roidy]

I also put the numbers of the films in "Episode ID" and "Episode" (phantom menace is 1, attack of the clones is 2, etc. This shows them in the proper order when you click the "Star Wars" menu on the TV. I think if you don't do this, they are sorted alphabetically by title.

You can also use the sort name field to do this.

 

[Omne666]

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This is the sort of thing I mean yes, all star wars in one group. How is this done though please? What do I have to do?

I have been using MetaX to tag the movies but just been putting what it finds in the tags, eg year, description, actors, rating etc. I didnt know about the rest. Can you post some screenshots of examples for organising please? I didn't know you could playlist movies either will have to have a look!

Just a long list is no good, also just basing on genre not ideal for the kids. Say the kids want to watch a movie, they don't really understand genre etc they will just go through the list, on amaide note to this can you also restrict movie playing? eg if all movies are shown from iTunes in the "My Movies" menu how can I only allow the kids to watch the ones there age allows?

Cheers

I use iFlicks for metadata...used MetaX for some time but when it gave me grief with preserving chapters I gave it the flick. I find iFlicks much better, and the support from the author is really great.

Ive attached 3 screen shots of my playlists for movies...works fine for me...though I like the tip regarding the 'Show' field for grouping movies. Will begin to incorporate that soon.

I have like 1500 movies on the system now and yes I agree....the movie list is rather long...without the playlists I'd say I wouldn't use the aTV any where near as much as I do.

Im now building my BRay collection up and ripping those....thats the Hi Res playlist....still learning the optimal settings for those.

The key to all this is playlists using metadata you put in (or MetaX/iFlicks). It takes time to get things happening but once your systems are setup, manipulating for optimal groupings on the aTV is great.

 

[MrMister111]

Thanks for that, do you use iFlicks to convert your movies for Apple TV too? or do you use iFlicks just for the tagging? (what do you use to convert?)

If you use iFlicks for converting what preset do you use please? Is iFlicks faster than Handbrake/same speed as Handbrake on your Computer?

I dont mind paying for an app that works well, but I think iFLicks uses QT to encode, so isnt this just the same as doing it in iTunes>create Apple TV version? - this takes a long time to do, and Handbrake is definitely faster.

be interested to hear your opinions
cheers

 

[Omne666]

Thanks for that, do you use iFlicks to convert your movies for Apple TV too? or do you use iFlicks just for the tagging? (what do you use to convert?)

If you use iFlicks for converting what preset do you use please? Is iFlicks faster than Handbrake/same speed as Handbrake on your Computer?

I dont mind paying for an app that works well, but I think iFLicks uses QT to encode, so isnt this just the same as doing it in iTunes>create Apple TV version? - this takes a long time to do, and Handbrake is definitely faster.

be interested to hear your opinions
cheers

Must admit I dont use iFlicks for the conversion. It creates a .mov file under its apple tv setting, and I prefer mp4/m4v. So I just choose the 'Flatten to Quicktime' option. This writes the metadata into the existing standard file (already an mp4/m4v), puts it into a predefined location, and adds it to iTunes. It also dumps to trash the original file. Its conversion is fine, but like I said...I want mp4/m4vs, not mov's.

For conversion I have a number of options, from Redux Encoder, Elgatos Turbo.264 HD, and mkvtool. Depending on the origins of the file depends on which one I choose. DVDs....Turbo, AVIs...Redux, and now Im ripping my BRays....mkvtools (after makeMkv rips the disc of course).

I was a huge fan of Handbrake, and still use it occasionally...actually may be getting back into it for my BRays as I've stumbled onto some great posts with what looks to be good settings.

The Turbo.264HD is the fastest thing I've found for ripping, but its damn picky on what you can feed it, and when it doesn't work, it doesn't work really well. I can't recommend it as its an expensive solution thats poorly supported. My biggest issue with it is voice and image invaribly fall out of sync. iFlicks actually can use the Turbo if you have it, but the iFlicks developer cant recommend it. Turbo's big problem is even when it works, the files are usually quite large in comparison to Handbrake and other solutions. But it is fast!! And as storage these days is rather cheap, I dont mind the large files. I've got 6Tb in a Drobo so space isn't an issue.

ReduxEncoder is an updated version of VisualHub, and is as solid as a rock, and its standard settings are quite good.

When you've got a lot of converting to do, you really don't want to have to experiment to much. Luckily most of the settings provided with HB, Redux, and others are more then adequate for most conversions. It just depends on how picky you wanna be.

BTW....I dont know about anyone else, but I found mixing MP4s with h.264 MP4s in iTunes resulted in non h.264 files not appearing on the aTV. Never chased it down as to why, and perhaps someone here can tell me, but be consistent in the format you chose. Mine all have h.264.

 

[MrMister111]

thanks for the reply, I rather would have MP4's/H264 as well think its better compatibility across devices, so probably wont get iFlicks then.

have you heard of Roadmovie? http://www.bitfield.se/roadmovie/index.html

This is an encoder and meta tagger in one too. It looks nice, but again I'm unsure on the encoding, as it looks like it says QT encoding so not sure if this is fast compared to HB or not. Also the Meta tagging bit looks basic and not extended for all tags in it.

How is HB speed compared to Redux Encoder? same? faster?

I dont have Turbo 264 thing so just basic encoding for me.

For the tags on any program to embed properly do they have to re-write the whole file? this takes a while thats all, is this the only way?

Also another question, I have a lot of movies I'm converting to MP4/H264, is there an easy way to trim the end off, I'm not too bothered on the lengthy credits, and trimming them would be nice to make the file smaller? I have a iMac Snow Leopard and iLife

cheers

 

[Scarpad]

Since TV Shows and Movies are a big part of Itunes now I was hoping for better implementation for tagging in Itunes 10, but no luck, still stuck with very limited TV Show Description tagging and catagorizing.

 

[MrMister111]

Since TV Shows and Movies are a big part of Itunes now I was hoping for better implementation for tagging in Itunes 10, but no luck, still stuck with very limited TV Show Description tagging and catagorizing.

See above discussions for apps that do Meta tagging for you though

 

[MrMister111]

Just an update please from people with aTV2's. What is the organisation like on these? the same as aTV1?

I'm busy tagging all my movies with iDentify2 at the moment, and with the tips on here, trying to organise them better, eg Star Wars movies, all now go into one category under Star Wars, using the Episode and season number.

Any more hints/help gratefully accepted, and any info on aTV2, if its the same for organisation or different? I've heard that movies, TV shows etc are under one heading! makes it even harder to organise?

 

[pedz]

Has anyone successfully grouped movies on atv2? I have the atv2 and set the show to be the same on two movies and it didn't work. I also tried the grouping tag and compilation flag, none worked.

Anyone able to get this working on atv2? Or know something else I should try?

Also, when it works does it group them in iTunes too? Or just the atv?

Thanks,
Peter

 

[ChargerSteve]

I have an ATV1 and ATV2. The grouping by Show feature that works on the ATV1 doesn't appear to work on the ATV2. I hope this and other similar missing functionality (in ATV1, missing in ATV2) is brought back via an update real soon.

And, no I don't think this grouping works in the iTunes interface (at least I have never seen it, but I don't play movies in iTunes much). Also, I never tried it on my iPhone, but wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work there either.

 

[dgalvan123]

glad I found this thread.

I have only the new ATV2, and I can confirm that grouping movies by "show" indeed does not work. Basically the only way to separate your movies so far is to have them in different "genres".

Since I only have home movies in itunes, I guess I'll have a genre for different events, like a genre for "Hawaii 2010", which will then just be movie clips from our trip to Hawaii. I'd love to have a sub-folder option below this. Apparently the "show" trick worked for ATV1, but not for ATV2.

In general I am annoyed at the lack of a simple way to get all your home movies viewable on ATV. Why can't it work the same way as it does with iPhoto? Just check a box in iTunes, and the entire iPhoto library is available on apple tv. Yet for movies you have to actually import your home movies, one-by-one, into iTunes. I've already spent time organizing my movies in iPhoto and iMovie. So why doesn't ATV just recognize that organizational structure? Instead I have to organize them again in iTunes.

 

[pedz]

I also hope the grouping/sorting issues get fixed in the next update. Really want tv shows to group seasons together again, and would like the ability to group movies in the movie view into folders.

For home movies, the way I do it is I created a TV Show called 'Home Movies', and each year is a season (season 2005, 2006, ...) Creates a nice view, select the home movies tv show, it then shows you all home movies sorted/grouped by year. Though currently atv2 show each season as a separate line item, but hoping that will get fixed as the old atv showed it correctly.

Peter

 

[BlackMangoTree]

Just an update please from people with aTV2's. What is the organisation like on these? the same as aTV1?

The new Apples TV organisation is a 10 steps backwards from the original.

Come on Apple hurry up with some updates.

 

[dgalvan123]

. . .
For home movies, the way I do it is I created a TV Show called 'Home Movies', and each year is a season (season 2005, 2006, ...) Creates a nice view, select the home movies tv show, it then shows you all home movies sorted/grouped by year. Though currently atv2 show each season as a separate line item, but hoping that will get fixed as the old atv showed it correctly.
. . .

I thought I tried this (setting several movies to the same TV show called Home Movies, and then just having different movies in different "seasons", grouped by year, but it didn't work. IE: my apple tv (2nd generation) still just displayed all the movies in one big long list, only distinguishing by genres.

.. . are you saying this strategy worked with ATV1 but not yet with ATV2? Because that is what I am observing with ATV2: it doesn't work.

 

[tommylotto]

This is an old thread discussing a solution that only works with the original AppleTV. It does not work with ATV2.... yet.

I assume that Apple will put this feature back in eventually.