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Please help me figure this out (re: HD TV Show duplicate listings)

So I'm guessing that no (efficient) way has been found to do this on a Windows machine? I've managed to botch a number of copies of movie files that I've tried to hex edit (god bless Copy / Paste).

Any more info would be appreciated!
 
I've waisted quite a few hours on this myself. Furthest I got was to compile mp4v2, and succesfully add the hd tag to a file. However this currently appears to corrupt pretty much all of the other meta-data in the file, making it unreadable and untaggable with meta-x. I've also messed around with hex-editors etc., but nothing useful has come out of that on this end.
 
downinitjr said:
I've waisted quite a few hours on this myself. Furthest I got was to compile mp4v2, and succesfully add the hd tag to a file. However this currently appears to corrupt pretty much all of the other meta-data in the file, making it unreadable and untaggable with meta-x. I've also messed around with hex-editors etc., but nothing useful has come out of that on this end.
Click to expand...

This issue has been largely resolved in the newer SVN code from the mp4v2 project; however, the ability to add cnIDs has not been checked in (yet) while more testing is being done.

The current workflow would be mp4tags -> metax -> itunes.
 
Thanks for the heads up there with the svn code, it does seem to be working correctly now for adding the hd tag. I was able to add the Hdvd tag to a file already tagged with meta-x, and it didn't corrupt the other tags, and I was able to go back and still edit the previous tags with meta-x.

After thinking about this whole deal though I'm a little disappointed. It seems under the current scheme you can only combine two files if one is HD or at least tagged as "HD", and whatever else is needed (cnID etc). I do currently however have quite a few movies that are not HD, but I still keep a separate ipod version of them to keep the resolution as high as possible for tv, and file size as small as possible for ipod. It seems even if this is eventually implemented, it still won't really be a solution for these files.

I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed that enough people give feedback, and eventually we are allowed to combine files of are own choosing.
 
I just tag my full dvd res files also as hd, while tht doesn't help with separating sd from hd content at least I can combine the entries for the AppleTV and the iPod version
 
realityking said:
I just tag my full dvd res files also as hd, while tht doesn't help with separating sd from hd content at least I can combine the entries for the AppleTV and the iPod version
Click to expand...

So are you saying that you have successfully combined your own content into a single file listing? If so how did you accomplish this?
 
downinitjr said:
So are you saying that you have successfully combined your own content into a single file listing? If so how did you accomplish this?
Click to expand...

I'm one of the mp4v2 devs and it was me who added the support for the HD Tag and a lot more metadata improvements.
Together with NightStorm and refulgentis I was also able to add the functionality needed to combine HD and SD encodes, however there's currently no stable release of mp4v2 nor binaries that are available to the public (I posted some here after the HD Tag was added, afaik those are the last binaries available).
 
realityking said:
I'm one of the mp4v2 devs and it was me who added the support for the HD Tag and a lot more metadata improvements.
Together with NightStorm and refulgentis I was also able to add the functionality needed to combine HD and SD encodes, however there's currently no stable release of mp4v2 nor binaries that are available to the public (I posted some here after the HD Tag was added, afaik those are the last binaries available).
Click to expand...
Gotcha, keep up the good work! I'll keep watching this and the other various forums around for developments.
 
Been over two months and this thread has been quiet. Any word on a Windows compatible way to do this efficiently? Any news on how to do this efficiently at all?
 
Anyone have a chance to see how the new HD•SD movies from the itunes store are "put together". Seeing as we have to "trick" itunes right now by changing the type temporarily to a tv show before it will combine user encoded movies. From what I've read it seems the HD movie downloads from the itunes store are both a HD and SD version combined, but iTunes won't currently combine user files with their type set to movie. So how is apple doing it for movies?
 
downinitjr said:
Anyone have a chance to see how the new HD•SD movies from the itunes store are "put together". Seeing as we have to "trick" itunes right now by changing the type temporarily to a tv show before it will combine user encoded movies. From what I've read it seems the HD movie downloads from the itunes store are both a HD and SD version combined, but iTunes won't currently combine user files with their type set to movie. So how is apple doing it for movies?
Click to expand...

Set stik == 9 (or movie kind == Short Movie). This is how iTunes is doing it now. If you notice, in 8.1 they have removed the "Short Movie" option from the media type drop down box. As long as you've followed the other steps (identical cnID, HD encode with hdvd atom == 1), it will show combined in Movies without the "trick".

Thanks to refulgentis for purchasing a movie from the iTunes Store tonight and reporting this finding in the mp4v2 IRC channel.
 
NightStorm said:
Set stik == 9 (or movie kind == Short Movie). This is how iTunes is doing it now. If you notice, in 8.1 they have removed the "Short Movie" option from the media type drop down box. As long as you've followed the other steps (identical cnID, HD encode with hdvd atom == 1), it will show combined in Movies without the "trick".

Thanks to refulgentis for purchasing a movie from the iTunes Store tonight and reporting this finding in the mp4v2 IRC channel.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was looking for, Thanks! as well.
 
Is anyone aware of how to perform this in Windows? Or better yet, has a Windows GUI been created? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Turns out this CAN be done in windows using the version of MetaX by Dan Hinsley. You have to assign your own Catalog ID, and tag the files as a "Short Film." One copy has to be marked as "HD" (also performed in MetaX) and the other just a regular version. From there, just drag / drop into iTunes and it works! :-D Reply back if you have problems and I'll try to help.
 
I finally achieved consistent results using Subler. The only thing that bothered me was having to come up with my own cnIDs. So I'm just using the cnID iTunes uses for the episode (assuming it exists) by pulling the info from the iTunes store using the API.

Details for that can be found here http://www.apple.com/itunesaffiliates/API/AffiliatesSearch2.1.pdf

An example search for LOST season 4 episodes would be http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuit...a/wa/wsSearch?term=lost+season+4&media=tvShow

This returns all episodes in JSON format and the trackId value is the cnID iTunes uses. This could probably be automated somehow, but it works well enough for me at this point.
 
Worked like a charm!

Just wanted to say thanks to NightStorm for your recommendation of Subler, which perfectly created metadata so that files, when imported into iTunes, were automatically tagged as a combo HD/SD version.

Also big thanks to cowm007 for the iTunes API for pulling out the proper info. Being OCD about even my album and movie artwork being the official versions submitted to iTunes, getting the proper ID numbers is going to make my iTunes library cleaner and more official than ever before. Any chance you know how to access the iTunes movie cover art too?
 
Adding cnIDs, MP4v2 for Windows, Removing SD-HD dual file entries & More

I know this post is old, but since I spent a lot of time looking for this information, I'll put it here for anyone searching for it in the future.
  • To build MP4v2 on a Mac, follow this tutorial Cheap Geek creating SD-HD files
  • On Windows it's a bit more complicated, but here's the basics:
    1. Decompress the archive (I use 7-Zip which is free) you may need to do it twice, once for the .bz2 & once for the .tar.
    2. In the folder will be a folder labeled 'vstudio9.0', goto that folder.
    3. Open the 'MP4v2.sln' solution file in Visual C++ 2008 or 2010 (The free "Express" edition is available @ MS Visual Studio Express.) 2010 will require a conversion wizard but it doesn't require you to do anything except click [Finish].
      • Either program will give you an error about not being able to read some of the properties of the solution & 2008 will give you an error about not supporting solutions folders & 'util' being unavailable, I don't know why, but if you ignore those warnings it should work fine, I haven't run into any problems yet.
    4. Goto [Build Solution] in either the [Debug] Menu or the [Build] menu depending on the version you're using.
    5. In the 'vstudio9.0' folder will be a folder labeled 'Debug' or 'Debug Static' which will contain your command line executables, along with some object files, debug files, & a DLL.
    6. Either run the command line from that folder or rename & move it to system folder so you can run it from any directory.
    [*]It's not the cleanest way, but it works. (If you need to see the details goto MS MSDN Forums)​
  • MetaX now has the ability to write both the 'HD' tag & the 'cnID' atom. The later I only found out after writing it successfully with MP4v2 & going to check to make sure the rest of the metadata was still there. It's on the [Advanced] tab under [Catalog ID]. I also haven't had any trouble with loosing metadata after writing it in MP4v2 even though some have ridiculously long; lyrics, long description & cast info.
  • To import a SD-HD, single entry, item, you need to drag both files to iTunes together, one must have the HD tag, the other not, & they must have identical cnID #s. I haven't tried Movies but it works for both TV Shows & Music Videos.
  • As for just making up a cnID, if it's something avaliable on iTunes it's simple to find: find it in the store, Right-click or apple-click on the icon & select 'Copy Link' then paste it anywhere, & the 9 digit number after "id" at the end of the URL is the cnID {e.g. http://itunes.apple.com/us/video/do-you-wanna-date-my-avatar/id326378551}.
  • If you are making you're own, to prevent it from conflicting with a future iTunes purchase, make it less than 7 characters (you can use single digits like "2") OR, to prevent yourself from repeating & prevent conflicts with iTunes purchases, use the Date/time {e.g. right now it's 8/27/2010 @ 11:12pm so I'd use 201008272312 (Year2010-Month08-Day27-Hour(out of 24)23-minute12) which can also help you keep track if you for some reason need to know when you added a file or what order you added them or whatnot.
  • If you have a show with an 'SD-HD' icon & you want to delete one, but not both of them, for now the best I've got for you is to:
    1. Delete the file of the one you don't want {e.g (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar [feat. (HD).m4v}
    2. Set the 'version' to the one you deleted (HD in the exampe) & itunes shows an ! next to it.
    3. Delete the entry, it shouldn't try to delete the file, but if it does choose 'Keep File'.
    4. Now drag the file back in.
  • You may want to note your rating first as Rating, Play Count & Watched/Unwatched info will be reset.
  • I would suggest Removing from iTunes, Editing in MetaX, & re-adding, in that order but I don't have a problem when I edit while it's still in the iTunes library, then delete & re-add. (For adding a single SD-HD entry to 2 files)
As a side note, the 'HD' file doesn't have to be High-Definition you could have a 120x90 file tagged as 'HD' & a 1280x720 file tagged as 'SD' but if your default is to play HD then, for that file, you'll see the tiny one. & if the timing is more than a second difference iTunes may add it as one, or may not, I'm not sure as to the whys just yet.
.
So, I jut realized I missed one question. Album Artwork

There have been a few ways in the past to get the actual, official, artwork directly from apple's server, but, the problem is, as soon as apple finds out about one of these, they quickly shut it down. Which is fine with me because I decided a while ago that I don't particularly like the square movie artwork anyways. BUT, if you do, there's always tagChimp with MetaX.
  1. Signup for a tagChimp account @ www.tagchimp.com.
  2. Goto your preferences.
  3. One of the first sections is Cover Art.
  4. Select 'iTunes Square Art' from the drop list.
  5. Now, in MetaX, click on the Green notepad with a white & Yellow Cupcake(?) icon in the upper right corner (Preferences).
  6. On the 'Data' tab you're gonna hafta select 'Share data with tagChimp' & put in your tagChimp ID.
  7. Now the search results will have the stupid square art, many actually from iTunes.
  8. If you still aren't finding what you want, there's a MacRumors forum for Unofficial Artwork, as well as GetVideoArtwork.com (There's already a link to it on the forums so I think apple either knows & can't do anything about it, or doesn't care since it's not coming from their servers.) Sometimes the art varies slightly, but that could be from the Store page having a different version than the actual file, or an updated version on the Store & the older one on the site.
If you don't want the Square Art, that's the most time consuming part of tagging, especially if you're, like me, picky. Try Amazon, IMDB, DVD Cover Art, TV.com, The TV Database, The show's official & unofficial Pages, and, this one works much better the more recent & more popular a title is: Google & Yahoo search. I use both because sometimes what I can't find on one I''ll find on the other. You can also, as a last resort, look for a torrent, many of them have the artwork, & you can choose to download just that, but if the FCC comes a knocking it's not my fault, show them your physical copy & live without your computer for a few months while they search it for anything that they could spin as illegal. Also, don't even search for a torrent without up-to-date Virus software. If you do, try ThePirateBay as they're supposed to be one of the safer ones.
​
 
Sorry for reviving this old thread but I really do need help figuring something out, too as it is driving me crazy.

I have two versions of the same video (made with Handbrake), one HD, one SD (well, a little lower than that - 480x272).

Using Subler, I've then assigned them the same contentID and marked the HD video as such. When I import the files into iTunes, they do show up as just one title with the nice "HD·SD" tag. However, and this is a big HOWEVER, when I play the file, it will play the SD version only. :(

I've tried it on my 1st gen :apple:TV and it's the same there. I really can't figure this out - the files will play just fine if I import them individually, both on my computer and on the :apple:TV.

Any thoughts would be great! Thanks!
 
iTunes Preferences -> Playback Tab -> Play videos using standard definition version.
This checked at all? If so, uncheck
 
Yes, thanks, it is unchecked, sorry, should have mentioned that!

I just noticed that I didn't check "Use iPod/iTunes friendly (.m4v) file extension for MP4" in the Handbrake preferences. My HD videos were .m4v, my SD videos .mp4. Still doesn't explain why my iTunes would prefer MP4 over m4v but I'm at the end of my rope here so I'll just re-convert the SD files and see what happens then.
 
mp4 and m4v are exactly the same things, you can just rename the mp4 one.

Apple uses m4v to enable a few extra things like chapter markers, etc
 
Try this:
  1. Goto your Video, let's call it Bob, and right-click (ctrl-click) on Bob in iTunes.
  2. In Bob's Drop Menu goto 'Version' and select the version you want to play whenever you click on Bob.
  3. If you select 'HD' but still see the SD version, try setting Bob to 'SD' & see if Bob becomes a real boy.
    • What probably happened was that you set the HD tag on the wrong file. Easy enough to fix:
    • MetaX it & if you don't have the 'auto-submit to library' option on (I leave it off to preserve my play count), after you fix it, goto Get Info, switch to the other version, and Get Info again, this will update the files' tags in the iTunes Database.

M4V used to be the extension used for the lower resolution (iPod) version. There are no extra things in the M4V that aren't in the MP4. They both use the same tag system & I believe they always have.
I have a number of Dual-Resolution files (MP4=Hi, M4V=Low) and they both have chapter marks.
It used to be used for sorting purposes but now you just set Media Type, 'Movie' or 'TV Show', in the Tag settings.
 
Make my iPod sync the SD tagged file when it can play the HD one

@darpar: Did you get your problem sorted?

I have an issue that some of the commentators on this thread might be able to help with:
I have a TV series that I've encoded with Handbrake & Tagged with MetaX. It has the cnIDs & HD Tags set properly.
In iTunes, when I choose the 'SD' version it plays the smaller one (480x272) & when I choose 'Default' or 'HD' it plays the larger one (576x320). So I know the HD tags are on the right files.
The problem is that when it syncs to my iPod it syncs the one set to play by default (HD) in iTunes.
Is there a way to make my iPod sync the SD tagged file even if it can play the HD one?
 
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