iPod HD TV Episodes cannot be found Anywhere!!!

[Aldaris]

Okay, Here's the deal. I bought several episodes of "The Office" in HD on my PowerMac G4 (Fully aware that they can't be played on this system-but be able to stream/sync to AppleTV). When I go select the file I get "The TV Show ---- could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"

When I go looking, and searching with my spotlight I can only find the SD iPod/iPhone Version... So what I'm looking for is any advice on how HD TV files are stored within iTunes, unless any one has any other ideas- Thanks

-Quick system info
PowerMac G4 1.25 Dual
1.75Gb Memory
Mac OS X v.10.4.11

 

[uplusd]

I'm having this exact same problem. Can anyone help?

 

[ATJ]

Maybe, I can help...

I cannot help for the episodes you have already downloaded, this is a problem you have to contact apple support for. But I have found a workaround that prevents it from happening again (for me at least - no guarantee):

It seems that the second file overwrites the first one downloaded, if that file is already complete, when the other download starts. If both files are partly downloaded -> both are kept. I even tried to swap the order of the downloads ( HD version second) and had lost the SD version of the episode in the end. ITunes keeps both versions of the episode, when I pause the first download (after it has transfered at least a few MB) to start the second one. So pause every dowload after it has started, until all downloads are begun and resume them afterwards. At least it works for me, you should try it with some free episodes first before investing more money...

And I hope Apple fixes this bug ASAP

 

[blusteryday]

Same thing for me--

Yep, exact same thing for me--- I've tried to download Heroes twice -- the SD file is downloaded fine, but the HD version is nowhere to be found... I searched the entire drive for files over 1GB and it is not on the drive... thought I was losing my mind till I saw this thread!! I have iTunes 8 and am running on a new iMac 24"... so not sure what the problem is!

 

[Michael CM1]

I had no problems downloading the free HD episode of The Office a few days ago. When I went to the Videos part of iTunes, it was there along with the SD version. The HD one just has a little "HD" logo next to it like the TV ratings. This was on a 15-month-old MBP.

This could be a bug. It would be best to contact Apple's iTunes tech support. I've had a file or two not download before, and they fixed it within a day. Could be a glitch they've noticed and will fix pronto.

 

[alphaod]

I thought you needed a 2.0 GHz Core Duo minimum to play the HD files?

This what my SD/HD looks like:

 

[Aldaris]

alphaod,

You are indeed correct about the 2.0 Intel Core 2 Duo to play them. In my particular case I generally use my PowerMac G4 as an iTunes hub for iPods and two AppleTV's where I would be viewing them on my nice samsung lcd, (PowerMac connected via Ethernet to AirPort Extreme/n).

I'm going to try to get the free HD office episode and try the stop and start method as described by ATJ and let you know.

Edit: ATJ's suggestion seems to be an ideal work around for now. And just a random tidbit, the free Office Episode in HD played on my G4 not exactly as great as it could be (I only have a 20" Apple LCD on the G4 - But it still played.

The HD quality although no Blu-Ray is still rather impressive especially after viewing the SD.

(I have reported a problem with my iTunes purchase, it is currently in processing)

 

[Aldaris]

Update

Final thoughts.

Okay, so after I bought a song off my iPhone I saw I had 7 Video Credits in the iTunes Music Store, and after checking on my PowerMac, again saw I had the credits (Not an already specified download like I assumed to get the HD content again). I did get a pop up warning stating that my credit was insufficient, I'm assuming each credit is worth 1.99 not the 2.99 originally paid for the HD download. So users will probably eat an additional dollar to re-download.

I sincerely hope Apple fixes what ever minor bug that causes this- or iTunes 8 might be an HD "MobileMe"

So again as stated most likely the files are being overwritten (Use the pause play method to help work around this). Use the report a problem in your iTunes account settings to hopefully get the video file again.

 

[Michael CM1]

The quality is definitely a huge step up, but I really don't see this HD TV shows stuff taking off yet.

As you mentioned, it's not Blu-ray. My ongoing position of "I can't take these movies elsewhere" holds true, especially since you need a separate SD file to use the video on an iPod/iPhone.

I wish the movie/TV studios would just learn their lesson and let us rip DVDs to iTunes just like we do music. Last time I checked, the music industry hasn't gone under without DRM on CDs. If you want to pirate DVDs and BDs, you can do it so easily that it's not funny. All the lack of iTunes imports does it make it harder to digitize stuff you own and want to legally use.

It would also be nice whenever the day comes that iPods could play the HD files. I know it might be a few years due to processing requirements, but they're up to 720x480 playback already.

 

[blusteryday]

The official workaround-

Hi all,

Well I reported this incident to the iTunes Music store and received a boilerplate response telling me to turn off the shopping cart and turn on 1-click. This kind of made me angry, since if they had read my problem summary at all, they would know that I wasn't having trouble getting the items in to my download queue, just getting them both to stay on my drive afterwards! (And I already had shopping cart off)

So I replied, and explained again that wasn't my problem, and received a very pleasant response that included the suggestion that resourceful forum posters had already figured out:

1. Choose "Check for Available Downloads" from the Store menu.

2. Navigate to Downloads under STORE in the source list at the left
side of the window.

3. Locate the HD copy of the video that is in the process of
downloading. The HD copy will have an HD symbol located to the right of the
title.

4. Click the pause symbol located in the Status column of the HD copy.
This will cause the SD copy to download first and the HD copy will be
downloaded with a new filename.

This should ensure the HD episode downloads correctly.

(I had already done this, taking the advice of the forum, and it worked great)

The same rep even followed up with me to make sure I was successful, so I was very pleased with the second round of customer support.

Thanks again to the forum readers who quickly figured out a solution!