Best option for converting Multiple .avi's to AppleTV automatically

[QuinnMal]

Hey,
so I use my AppleTV soooo much, and I want to start converting a lot of videos I have in .avi format to Itunes. .avi's of tv-shows, or whatnot. Now I have maybe like 50-100 of these .avi's that I want to convert to be able to be seen in my itunes and appletv.

but the first question I had is
1: If I convert lets say a tv show avi I have of "Earth 2", if I convert that to an appletv format, and put it into itunes, will it still show up under TV SHOWS on my appletv? or just under movies?

2. What MAC program (its ok if it costs $$) can I use to automatically convert Multiple files from .avi to AppleTV format. Ideally, I want to be able to select like 10 files, and then just leave my computer for a long time and have it do the converstion, without having to be there.

Thank you so much for your help

 

[26139]

yep

VisualHub, available at techspansion.net. Fast, tons of presets and cheap.

Works phenomenally. iSquint is good as well, but it's slower with less options. VisualHub is worth the $22+ many, may times over.

 

[AboveTheChaos]

Hey,
so I use my AppleTV soooo much, and I want to start converting a lot of videos I have in .avi format to Itunes. .avi's of tv-shows, or whatnot. Now I have maybe like 50-100 of these .avi's that I want to convert to be able to be seen in my itunes and appletv.

but the first question I had is
1: If I convert lets say a tv show avi I have of "Earth 2", if I convert that to an appletv format, and put it into itunes, will it still show up under TV SHOWS on my appletv? or just under movies?

2. What MAC program (its ok if it costs $$) can I use to automatically convert Multiple files from .avi to AppleTV format. Ideally, I want to be able to select like 10 files, and then just leave my computer for a long time and have it do the converstion, without having to be there.

Thank you so much for your help

1 -If I'm not mistaken it'll show up under Movies. For my stuff, I use MetaX after I've converted files and have it update the metadata to set the type to a TV show. You can do it manually but MetaX automates it and makes it pretty easy. I'm not at my Mac right now, but to do it manually, you select it from iTunes and then do a Get Info on the file. One of the tabs is for video and you can select the type and change it to TV and enter in the TV Show name, episode information, etc.

2-VisualHub is great and well worth the cheap cost. I'll put a lot of files in the queue and then let it run over nite or while I'm at work.

 

[QuinnMal]

1 -If I'm not mistaken it'll show up under Movies. For my stuff, I use MetaX after I've converted files and have it update the metadata to set the type to a TV show. You can do it manually but MetaX automates it and makes it pretty easy. I'm not at my Mac right now, but to do it manually, you select it from iTunes and then do a Get Info on the file. One of the tabs is for video and you can select the type and change it to TV and enter in the TV Show name, episode information, etc.

2-VisualHub is great and well worth the cheap cost. I'll put a lot of files in the queue and then let it run over nite or while I'm at work.

Thanks!!! I'm going to check out VisualHub. So will it just have like an AppleTV setting that I select and can just load my .avi's into the queue?

also, in terms of the metadata that you are talking about. If I change the metadata to TV show, will it still show under the Movies menu? or will it then be displayed in the TV Shows list?

 

[DarkHeraldMage]

Thanks!!! I'm going to check out VisualHub. So will it just have like an AppleTV setting that I select and can just load my .avi's into the queue?

also, in terms of the metadata that you are talking about. If I change the metadata to TV show, will it still show under the Movies menu? or will it then be displayed in the TV Shows list?

It will show under TV Shows. Trust me - I've done this on a much larger scale than you're talking about. Visual Hub to convert, then MetaX to tag. You'll want to tag it anyways to make it nice and pretty/organized for the Apple TV. The time needed is vast, but the end result is more than worth it.

 

[AboveTheChaos]

It will show under TV Shows. Trust me - I've done this on a much larger scale than you're talking about. Visual Hub to convert, then MetaX to tag. You'll want to tag it anyways to make it nice and pretty/organized for the Apple TV. The time needed is vast, but the end result is more than worth it.

He's right. You'll have to fix the metadata, otherwise it'll make the ATV interface messy. Check out the other threads where people talk about how they organize their stuff to get ideas.

Also to answer your other question, Visual Hub has presets you can pick to convert to AppleTV. They have a standard one and one for doing 5.1 surround sound. It's really easy. It also has a slider that affects the quality from standard to "Go Nuts". The trade off is the higher the quality, the bigger the file size. You can experiment with each to see what is best. I personally leave it on the highest quality (Go Nuts) because the size isn't an issue.