I'm not sure if I'm putting this thread in the right place but I'm looking for advice from anyone who sorts two versions of their movie library in iTunes. So I have a lot of movies. For every Apple TV version I also have a more compressed iPhone version. The problem is I'm tired of having two separate iTunes libraries(one that syncs with my iPhone and the other with my ATV. Logging in and out isn't fun either). It confuses my girlfriend and I can't keep my playlists up-to-date. I'd like to sort all of these in one single itunes library without both versions of the movies showing up in my movie section or showing up twice on my Apple TV. I hope I'm explaining this right and I hope someone who gets it can help. Thanks(sorry if I'm repeating previous threads).
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What to do with ATV movies and iPod movies?
- Thread starter cwazytech
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I use the "universal" preset in HandBreak. I take it that those are much bigger than your iPod friendly versions?
Not sure I follow. I don't see a "universal" preset. What does it do? I do use the "Apple TV" and "iPhone" preset. I like to have good quality versions for my ATV and the iPhone versions so I can fit more movies on my 16gig iPhone. I just wish there was a more efficient way to sort them under one library.
I am using 0.9.3 but I don't have that preset. What's the bitrate on Universal?
2500 is a bit high. Good for ATV but I like to have smaller versions so I can fit more movies on my iPhone. I'm picky like that.
I changed the "quality" setting in the Universal preset from Constant Quality of 59% to Average Bit Rate of 1800 Kbps and turned on 2-pass encoding and turbo first pass. On my 32" TV I can barely tell the difference between a DVD and a digital video file. If your TV is, say, 40" or larger I'd suggest using about 2000 Kbps. But you should experiment a little to see what looks good to you.
Regards,
Michael
Regards,
Michael
Welcome to my conundrum. My holy grail was to be able to combine to different versions of a file into one single listing in itunes, the way the itunes store handles HD/SD purchases. Well this is now possible using mp4v2, but is not the solution I was hoping it to be. In order to combine two versions into one listing in itunes, one of the files has to be marked as an HD file, and they both have to have the same cnid tag written to them. This would be a great solution if every movie I have is an hd movie, but they're not. So in order to implement this I would have to label even my standard definition TV rips as HD in order to get itunes to combine the listing with my ipod version. Until apple gives us a more robust way of sorting, or combining listings, I've stuck to the following. I rip and tag a TV version like normal. I then rip a version specifically for the ipod, and tag that one the same as the first but add a " " to the front of the name. I then uncheck any of the ipod versions in the itunes list, and set the TV to not show unchecked items. This way the ipod versions at least don't "pollute" the listings on the TV. Then of course I know any file starting with a in itunes is specifically for the ipod, and the added " " doesn't look terrible on the ipod itself. Still not a solution I'm happy with, but the best I could come up with working within itunes.
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Not a bad idea. When I have a lot of time on my hands maybe I'll do that. Thanks.
Nope, the Apple -> Universal preset uses a constant quality rate control.
Each source will have a different bitrate but will be the same quality.
It was set up to do just what you are looking to do. Atv and iPhone/Touch etc.
Similar Issue, Simple Solution
I import movies from a flip mino hd. These require converting to apple tv versions and iphone versions. I do this through itunes, not HB, but the solution applies to both.
Select the files you are syncing to apple tv, get info, and go to the options pane. Change the media type to TV show. Ipod or iphone versions should be kept as media type: movie. Done. They are now separated into the two sections, tv shows and movies, and are no longer listed twice in the same playlist.
I import movies from a flip mino hd. These require converting to apple tv versions and iphone versions. I do this through itunes, not HB, but the solution applies to both.
Select the files you are syncing to apple tv, get info, and go to the options pane. Change the media type to TV show. Ipod or iphone versions should be kept as media type: movie. Done. They are now separated into the two sections, tv shows and movies, and are no longer listed twice in the same playlist.
I just tag each show/movie with a "[iPhone]" at the end of the title. I then can create smart lists of anything containing that tag so that I can view all my iPhone versions in one folder. HDTV recordings (via Tivo or EyeTV) are tagged with [HDTV].
Not a perfect solution but it works.
Not a perfect solution but it works.
FWIW, I use the iPhone preset (and now the iPhone Legacy preset), set for 2-pass encoding, and then rip just one version. A 2-hour movie is about a 1GB file, and that works for both my iPhone and my ATV. Obviously I'm losing some picture quality on the ATV, but as the original is DVD quality only, it's not really noticeable.
This will change as and when I get around to ripping Blu-Ray discs, as it will be worth preserving the HD quality for the ATV. I believe you can stream movies on your ATV from anywhere on your your HDD, not just via iTunes, so what I think I'll do is rip an iPhone version to iTunes and an HD version to be stored in an "HD Movies" folder.
This will change as and when I get around to ripping Blu-Ray discs, as it will be worth preserving the HD quality for the ATV. I believe you can stream movies on your ATV from anywhere on your your HDD, not just via iTunes, so what I think I'll do is rip an iPhone version to iTunes and an HD version to be stored in an "HD Movies" folder.
I may be misunderstanding your above statement, but you will still need to have the movie in the iTunes library to stream it to the
TV. You can, however, have the video file anywhere on your HDD, or an external HDD as long as it is in the iTunes library. Regards,
Michael
I may be misunderstanding your above statement, but you will still need to have the movie in the iTunes library to stream it to the
Regards,
Michael
Ah. Bugger.
I may be misunderstanding your above statement, but you will still need to have the movie in the iTunes library to stream it to the
Regards,
Michael
i believe you can stream from any network device with boxee or xbmc.
Just upgraded my presets. What's the difference between the new presets and the legacy presets?