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cwazytech

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 7, 2009
383
87
Colorado
Do you....

A. Have only one copy of a movie that you watch on both your iPod and Apple TV.

B. Have two copies of each movie. One that plays in really good quality for the Apple TV, and a smaller version for the iPod.
 
2 formats, with cnID tagging so they appear as one file in iTunes.
This is especially useful because many of my movies are from Blu-Rays so I can keep an HD format and have a small sized file for my iPod.
 
And what software do you use to control cnID tagging?

I use Subler (free download). Add the cnID, or any unique number on the big file, and make sure to see the media type (movie etc.) and check the HD toggle under Other Settings, then add the same cnID to the small file, set the media type the same but leave HD unchecked, then drag both movies to iTunes at the same time. You should end up with one entry marked "HD-SD", which confirms both versions are in place.

FTR, the big file doesn't have to be HD, it can be a higher resolution version of an SD video file, but check HD anyway so that iTunes can separate the two. It has no effect on playback.
 
I use Subler (free download). Add the cnID, or any unique number on the big file, and make sure to see the media type (movie etc.) and check the HD toggle under Other Settings, then add the same cnID to the small file, set the media type the same but leave HD unchecked, then drag both movies to iTunes at the same time. You should end up with one entry marked "HD-SD", which confirms both versions are in place.

FTR, the big file doesn't have to be HD, it can be a higher resolution version of an SD video file, but check HD anyway so that iTunes can separate the two. It has no effect on playback.

AWESOME! Thanks.
 
And what software do you use to control cnID tagging?

Yeah, use subler like rayward
For the cnID number I use the same as number iTunes uses so that
1 - I dont use the same number twice
2 - The genius results work

I could really care less about number 2 though

To get the cnID number from apple, copy the link of the movie off the iTunes store. The link will say id=xxxxxxx.
For example, the Hangover link is
....://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=323818693&s=143441
So cnID is 323818693

Of course you can always make up whatever number you want
 
Yeah, use subler like rayward
For the cnID number I use the same as number iTunes uses so that
1 - I dont use the same number twice
2 - The genius results work

I could really care less about number 2 though

To get the cnID number from apple, copy the link of the movie off the iTunes store. The link will say id=xxxxxxx.
For example, the Hangover link is
....://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=323818693&s=143441
So cnID is 323818693

Of course you can always make up whatever number you want

Once again, thanks for the info. All great and helpful info I'm sure to utilize.
 
FTR, the big file doesn't have to be HD, it can be a higher resolution version of an SD video file, but check HD anyway so that iTunes can separate the two. It has no effect on playback.

Very true, and to add the two files into iTunes and have them be recognized as a single file, one version must be marked HD and the other not.

Im picky but it bothers me seeing SD tagged as HD, so once they are in iTunes I open the larger file back up in subler and remove that HD tag.
This will cause iTunes to drop the HD-SD tag and it will look like one regular SD file.

The small file for my iPod does still copy over to the ipod.
I can tell it is the small file being copied because of the space it takes up on the iPod, and the fact that the larger file is incompatible and unable to sync anyways (hence the two files to begin with).
 
Atv format for the atv and for my iPhone I use airvideo.

I would go this route as well (Air Video works great on iPad as well, BTW) except that I need easily accessible versions for my kids iPod Touches so I generally encode one copy 720p (to be viewed on PLEX, :apple:TV, and iPad) and a copy using Apple Universal setting (rather than iPhone setting as I anticipate better resolution iPhones/iPod Touch soon and would rather have better resolution than current iPhone for future use). This specifically is for my Blu-rays---my old DVD library was all done on Universal so I only have one copy to use on all devices.

As other's have mentioned, I too use Subler for HD and cnID tagging so that both copies appear under one listing.
 
Yeah, use subler like rayward
For the cnID number I use the same as number iTunes uses so that
1 - I dont use the same number twice
2 - The genius results work

I could really care less about number 2 though

To get the cnID number from apple, copy the link of the movie off the iTunes store. The link will say id=xxxxxxx.
For example, the Hangover link is
....://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=323818693&s=143441
So cnID is 323818693

Of course you can always make up whatever number you want

So a very strange thing happened while using Subler. I followed all of your instructions. However, the Apple TV version of the movie played nothing afterwards. It played fine before Subler, and then after Subler it played black. I think I may know what I did wrong but if you've encountered this and information would be great.
 
So a very strange thing happened while using Subler. I followed all of your instructions. However, the Apple TV version of the movie played nothing afterwards. It played fine before Subler, and then after Subler it played black. I think I may know what I did wrong but if you've encountered this and information would be great.

Im not sure, the only time I have had an issue with videos playing blank was after a second pass though metax, which is a somewhat common issue.

Sorry I cant help more
 
Well it happened to me a second time using Subler. I add the cnID & save, and after that the movie plays nothing but a black/blank screen.
 
I have ripped/encoded around 30-40 of my DVDs into iTunes and I view them on both ATV and my iPhone. I don't think I have more than one copy of those movies and they look great on my HDTV and iPhone.

Maybe I am not picky about quality? But honestly, I noticed that "Bee Movie" looks even better on ATV than it does on my DVD player (possibily because DVD is componant and ATV is HDMI?) I mean, it was to the point that I would almost have considered it HD...even though I know it's not. My encodes look that good. I suppose I could have smaller version for the iPhone, but it doesn't seem worth it to me.

So, I vote for one copy. :eek:
 
I have ripped/encoded around 30-40 of my DVDs into iTunes and I view them on both ATV and my iPhone.
So, I vote for one copy. :eek:

So what preset do you use? When I encode my movies with the Apple TV preset, it won't go onto my iPhone(for obvious reasons). But recently I got some keen insight on encoding movies to look great for my Apple TV, and in smaller file sizes which I wouldn't mind using for my iPhone. I'd love to have just one copy of each.
 
So what preset do you use? When I encode my movies with the Apple TV preset, it won't go onto my iPhone(for obvious reasons). But recently I got some keen insight on encoding movies to look great for my Apple TV, and in smaller file sizes which I wouldn't mind using for my iPhone. I'd love to have just one copy of each.

For DVD-resolution encodes, the AppleTV preset will load onto an iPhone 3GS. The files will be smaller than if you used the Universal preset as well.
 
For DVD-resolution encodes, the AppleTV preset will load onto an iPhone 3GS. The files will be smaller than if you used the Universal preset as well.

Cool. I'm really tired of having two copies of each movie. When the 1st Gen iPhone came out at 8gig max, I decided I needed a smaller copy of each movie. Thanks to the advances in HB and the bigger iPhone storage sizes I think I just might revert back to one copy.
 
I personally have ripped and encoded all 500+ of my DVD titles with the "Universal" preset (2500Kbps, 2-passes, etc) and for the rare time I would need to put one of them on an iPhone or iPad etc I will either transcode to a lower quality as needed OR copy and use them as is -- after all, while the file is overkill for a smaller device, it WILL play. That's the benefit of the "Universal" preset.

I can't imagine having and storing a 2nd copy of each title. I rarely put movies or TV episodes on my portable devices and would much prefer to deal with them as-needed rather than having terabytes of space being consumed on the off-chance I might need to dump them on a portable device...to each their own I suppose. :)
 
I use Subler (free download). Add the cnID, or any unique number on the big file, and make sure to see the media type (movie etc.) and check the HD toggle under Other Settings, then add the same cnID to the small file, set the media type the same but leave HD unchecked, then drag both movies to iTunes at the same time. You should end up with one entry marked "HD-SD", which confirms both versions are in place.
Sorry for digging up an old thread, but does anyone have a tutorial or instructions on how to use Subler? I just want to add the cnID numbers, but cannot find out where you do it... Under Metadata there is "contentID" - is that it?

Thanks!

:-Joe
 
Last edited:
Sorry for digging up an old thread, but does anyone have a tutorial or instructions on how to use Subler? I just want to add the cnID numbers, but cannot find out where you do it... Under Metadata there is "contentID" - is that it?

Thanks!

:-Joe
Yes, subler changed it to be more descriptive awhile ago now.

cnID == contentID
 
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