Apple TV app - Covert Art (parallax)

[Martinpa]

Hi,

I just got my new iMac and I'm going through my library of movies/tv show to change the artwork to fit the new landscape format. I'm getting most artwork from Ben Dodson's tool, which also provides .lsr files for the parallax cover art. I was wondering how can you add those to files that aren't from the iTunes Store, if it is at all possible.

Thanks

 

[bendodson]

Hey @Martinpa, unfortunately it isn't possible to add the lsr artwork to your own files. I provide them mostly for interest sake and in the hope that at some point a 3rd party system like Plex might support them. It's highly unlikely Apple will ever allow you to add them yourself.

 

[Martinpa]

Hey @Martinpa, unfortunately it isn't possible to add the lsr artwork to your own files. I provide them mostly for interest sake and in the hope that at some point a 3rd party system like Plex might support them. It's highly unlikely Apple will ever allow you to add them yourself.

Thanks for the reply. From going through my stuff on the Apple TV app on my iMac, I assume the .lsr files aren't embedded in the video, but rather pulled form the internet (and therefore they get updated if a new cover art comes around. I wish they would allow to embed the .lsr files, as I'm a stickler for consistency... or that someone would find a workaround... On a side note, I also don't like how all the seasons in the Apple TV app are shown one after the other, rather than as selectable subsections, hopefully, they'll work on the interface on this app, and the music app...

I really love how when you search for something on your website, you also get a few banners and, most importantly, the white logo and coloured logo for the piece of media. Sometimes, the publishers are just very lazy in their 16:9 cover arts, and I'd rather make them myself, and having high quality titles with transparency is a godsend.

 

[bendodson]

I'm really glad you've found the site useful.

With regards to why you can't embed the .lsr within the file, I believe it's due to backwards compatibility. Video files can have images embedded within them but I'm not sure if the spec allows for anything beyond the standard image types; if you were to use an lsr file, then it wouldn't work anywhere other than on an Apple TV.

I agree it's likely for purchased files Apple is doing a lookup and fetching the artwork remotely to get around that issue. This is also true of the new 16:9 artwork that came with iOS 13; in purchased files this isn't embedded in the media file (the iOS 12 and lower style is) but is instead fetched remotely in order to maintain compatibility between your devices (i.e. if you had an iPhone on iOS 13 but an iPad on iOS 12 then your artwork isn't broken). Of course, this doesn't work for people with their own files so they have to choose between the styles and is a whole thing I get a ton of email about as using the new style doesn't work on Apple TV (although it looks like it does in tvOS 14).