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Apple Tv not displaying description for shows

D

dalcorn1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 10, 2008
171
23
I've recently updated the Apple TV software as well as going from 2.4 to 2.4.4 on MKV tools and since one of these upgrades iTunes won't send the description of the show to Apple Tv.

The shows been meta tagged by the newest identify, and the description shows in iTunes and as far as I can tell the tagging data is not different to any of the previous episodes in the season. Apple TV still picks up rating, HD, artwork and episode ID tags but not the show description.

The description still appears for shows tagged previous to the updates.

Anyone else having this issue?
 
Last edited:
Think it's the latest software update as I've lost all show descriptions on the ATV2 but nothing has changed except updating it. Now to work out how to get them back!
 
It would be nice to know if this is intentional. If it isn't then I don't mind holding out for an update, if it is then I can run the applescript on the link above and Identify can release an update to fix where the video files are tagged.

Either way, statement from Apple would be nice. The fact that iTunes bought videos are still working suggests this was an intentional change.
 
4.2 only showing long description

seems previously it would do a 'fall back' to other types of descriptions and even the comment if there was nothing in the long description but now that's all it shows.
 
From A Buick 8 said:
I have both short descriptions and long descriptios in all of my metadata and now the long descriptions show up.
Click to expand...

In my experience, iTunes displays the short description and ATV displays the long description. That's annoying because you can't edit the long description in iTunes, meaning that to do so you have to remove your file from iTunes, edit the metadata and recopy it into your library to get changes to the long description to show up on the ATV.

Unless anyone has a better idea...
 
After spending alot of time researching this myself, here are the tools I now use to get the descriptions to again show on my ATV2's.

I have a USB attached 3TB harddrive to a 1TB Time Capsule. All of my iTunes media files are on the 3TB harddrive.

I have two computers that access the media files, 1 a MacBookPro, and the other a Windows XP computer.

With the ATV2 (and iOS) update, the description field displayed on the devices is now part of the iTunes Library file rather than the individual media files metadata. There are 2 simple scripts that will copy the metadata "description" to the library "long description". Note that you will have to do this separately for each computer that has its own library based on the media files (i.e., not just using home sharing from a single library).

Create one of the scripts below depending on whether Mac or Windows. Put the script(s) in the iTunes Media/scripts folder. Select the media that you want updated in itunes. Run the script. The script takes about 20 seconds to run on my 500 movie library.

Mac Script:
tell application "iTunes"
repeat with eachitem in selection
set long description of eachitem to description of eachitem
end repeat
end tell

Windows Script:
var iTunesApp = WScript.CreateObject("iTunes.Application");
var i = 1;
for (i = 1; i <= iTunesApp.SelectedTracks.Count; i++)
{
var track = iTunesApp.SelectedTracks.Item(i);
track.LongDescription = track.description;
}

-Dax
 
Sounds good - could you please clarify?

volzalum said:
After spending alot of time researching this myself, here are the tools I now use to get the descriptions to again show on my ATV2's.
-Dax
Click to expand...

That looks good, but my script kept returning the following error when running on a Mac:
"iTunes got an error: Can’t set long description of item 1 of selection to description of item 1 of selection."

I guess I may not have picked up from your description exactly what you did.
Could you please clarify the following?:

Put the script(s) in the iTunes Media/scripts folder.
- do you mean the folder where iTunes stores the media you are wanting to change? (eg the folder you that opens when you select "reveal in Finder" option from iTunes)

Select the media that you want updated in itunes.
- Do you mean select in iTunes, or select in Finder?

Run the script.
 - What method are you using to run the script?

Thanks :)
 
Some people were getting errors on the Mac Script, so I added a line of code.

Mac Script (using AppleScript Editor) saved as MacUpdateDesc:
tell application "iTunes"
repeat with eachitem in selection
set dsc to description of eachitem
set long description of eachitem to dsc
end repeat
end tell

Windows Script (using Notepad) saved as WinUpdateDesc.js:
var iTunesApp = WScript.CreateObject("iTunes.Application");
var i = 1;
for (i = 1; i <= iTunesApp.SelectedTracks.Count; i++)
{
var track = iTunesApp.SelectedTracks.Item(i);
track.LongDescription = track.description;
}

Save the script(s) into your iTunes Media/Scripts directory. You can locate this directory by the following:
Mac select iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced and see where it locates the iTunes Media folder; Windows select Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced.

Now use a file browser to open the location. If the Scripts directory (folder) does not exist then create it. Copy the script(s) into the directory. I copied both the Windows and Mac ones since I use both systems.

Open iTunes and select all of the files that you want to update in iTunes. Note that you need to have the "description" field populated for these scripts to work.

With the files selected, run the script as follows:
Mac: double click MacUpdateDesc in the Scripts folder. This will open AppleScript Editor. Click "Run".
Windows: right click WinUpdateDesc.js in the Scripts folder. Select "Open with Command Prompt".

You can verify that the long description is populated by switching the iTunes view to "song list" rather than grid or album view. select a single movie and scroll to the right and click the exclamation point. If the description shows there then there is now "long description" info in the library.

You will have to run the appropriate script for every computer that has a library based on the media files since this fix updates the iTunes Library info, not the individual media files.

Works for me on my Mac and windows XP libraries.

-Dax
 
Your script worked Perfectly! I took the time to sign up JUST so say you're Awesome! I purchased the apple TV and it was working fine, then I updated, and it vanished! I took like 2 weeks to updated all of those descriptions just to disappear. :mad:


But your script did the trick!

:)
 
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