Genius Feature for Movies and TV Shows Activated in iTunes 8.1 [Archive]

MacRumors

Mar 24, 2009, 05:01 PM

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/24/genius-feature-for-movies-and-tv-shows-activated-in-itunes-8-1/)

After a brief delay, Apple has activated the "Genius" feature for movies and TV shows in iTunes 8.1. It is not entirely clear when Apple flicked the switch, but it appears that reports of the activation date back to late last week.

Similar to the existing feature for music launched in iTunes 8.0 (http://www.macrumors.com/2008/09/09/itunes-8-hd-tv-shows-grid-view-genius-playlists-nbc/), a user can select a movie or TV episode from their library and activate the Genius feature, which then displays recommendations for iTunes Store purchases based on their selection.

The expansion of the feature to movies and TV shows was revealed on Apple's site (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/11/itunes-8-1-coming-soon-speed-boosts-tv-movie-genius-feature-and-more/) prior to the release of iTunes 8.1 and was also mentioned in the included release notes for the download, but readers quickly noticed that the feature was nowhere to be found (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/12/genius-feature-for-tv-and-movies-pulled-from-itunes-8-1/). Following the release of iTunes 8.1, Apple quickly removed mentions of the feature from its iTunes pages, and they have yet to restore them despite activation of the feature.

Article Link: Genius Feature for Movies and TV Shows Activated in iTunes 8.1 (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/03/24/genius-feature-for-movies-and-tv-shows-activated-in-itunes-8-1/)

Liamf555

Mar 24, 2009, 05:03 PM

Just checked, working for me

niblum10

Mar 24, 2009, 05:03 PM

i'll be interested to see this in action

Patriks7

Mar 24, 2009, 05:04 PM

lostfan916

Mar 24, 2009, 05:06 PM

I figured this out yesterday, searched for a thread and turns out there was one from last week. Wonder why it took so long for everyone to figure it out.

Ah, I forgot, it's Tuesday.:D

winks360

Mar 24, 2009, 05:08 PM

:confused: I don't have any problems with quicktime??
but I have herd that it is getting a upgrade with Snow Leopard :) maybe that will fix your problems...:rolleyes:

lftrghtparadigm

Mar 24, 2009, 05:08 PM

For some weird reason I found iTunes to be a bit choppy on some of my movies. That's when I switched to VLC (Quicktime is just kinda... meh...) and have no problems. So is it just me with the choppy movies or anyone else experienced/experiencing such problems?

With some codecs, yes its terrible. Same with Quicktime vs. VLC.

Embarrassing that free VLC is 10X better than Quicktime.

Yet where are VLC's encoding abilities? Sigh. :cool:

MrCrowbar

Mar 24, 2009, 05:09 PM

For some weird reason I found iTunes to be a bit choppy on some of my movies. That's when I switched to VLC (Quicktime is just kinda... meh...) and have no problems. So is it just me with the choppy movies or anyone else experienced/experiencing such problems?

It got better with the most recent update, but it's still way bad for HD stuff and is very unresponsive in general. I love XBMC for HD playback, no sync issues, no stuttering and it works pretty well with the apple remote, too. Plays pretty much every format, it's like Front Row on steroids. Highly recommended.

MacEdit

Mar 24, 2009, 05:11 PM

Great... Movies...

what about updating the previou gen iPod classics to use genius playlist for music?

I thought they said they would update them? Kind of lame they haven't.

lftrghtparadigm

Mar 24, 2009, 05:14 PM

Great... Movies...

what about updating the previou gen iPod classics to use genius playlist for music?

I thought they said they would update them? Kind of lame they haven't.

They definitely did, and since then, nothing. Really ridiculous.

Instead, lets activate a feature to let Apple know all of tv shows and movies I didn't buy from them.

alchemistmuffin

Mar 24, 2009, 05:26 PM

For me, though, it's not working.

The option is still grayed out even with 8.1 installed, and its under movies, and TV shows.

HOW DO I FIX IT!

Enuratique

Mar 24, 2009, 05:33 PM

Great... Movies...

what about updating the previou gen iPod classics to use genius playlist for music?

I thought they said they would update them? Kind of lame they haven't.

Yeah, I know what you mean. There's no reason it can't be updated via software... My guess is they want you to buy a new iPod for that feature. It's turned out to be a very profitable business policy for Apple so I'd say get used to it.

jwsmiths

Mar 24, 2009, 05:34 PM

For me, though, it's not working.

The option is still grayed out even with 8.1 installed, and its under movies, and TV shows.

HOW DO I FIX IT!

Update Genius.

BoyBach

Mar 24, 2009, 05:43 PM

164046

This is what I get. It's not "working", but it's a start!

skottichan

Mar 24, 2009, 05:46 PM

Works perfectly fine for me. Some of the girlfriend and I's anime are being found, but not really surprised.

Bye Bye Baby

Mar 24, 2009, 05:51 PM

Noticed it was working earlier today.

X38

Mar 24, 2009, 05:53 PM

All these iTunes movie store upgraded are nice, but when are they finally going to get the Star Wars movies already?!
Can something really be said to be a movie store if it doesn't sell Star Wars?

11800506

Mar 24, 2009, 05:54 PM

It's working for me, but I don't think I'll find much use for it. I only watch 2 tv shows and I'm not really interested in following others. It could be potentially useful for movies but I don't buy many movies from the iTunes store so I won't use it very much.

avionicsman

Mar 24, 2009, 06:02 PM

I noticed it last weekend. interesting feature. i will download suggested movie from superfundo then convert via handbrake for my :apple:TV. Thanks apple!

SFStateStudent

Mar 24, 2009, 06:10 PM

Gawd, did someone hit that big ol' SNOOZE button or what?

bedifferent

Mar 24, 2009, 06:22 PM

For some weird reason I found iTunes to be a bit choppy on some of my movies. That's when I switched to VLC (Quicktime is just kinda... meh...) and have no problems. So is it just me with the choppy movies or anyone else experienced/experiencing such problems?

Sadly I have to admit, Quicktime sucks. Any time I play a non-Apple codec, Quicktime stammers (even on my Octo Mac Pro). I have Flip4Mac installed, yet the only decent player is VLC.

fleshman03

Mar 24, 2009, 06:40 PM

Meh.

It's not finding my personally ripped dvds... things like Borune. Come on now.

rikers_mailbox

Mar 24, 2009, 07:37 PM

Expect Genius for TV and Movies to hit AppleTV soon. (maybe an AppleTV update soon. something bigger than a x.x.1 release)

speaking of... is the Boxee update due today available yet? Do Hulu feeds still work?

Sorry, that was off topic.

NightStorm

Mar 24, 2009, 08:01 PM

It uses the cnID number to identify what a movie is. Since Handbrake encodes do not have a cnID tag, they cannot be used by Genius for recommendations.

Saladinos

Mar 24, 2009, 08:05 PM

It's working, but the recommendations are absolute rubbish. Much worse than genius for music.

Genius for Apps is probably coming next :Groan:

goughbradley

Mar 24, 2009, 08:07 PM

Yet where are VLC's encoding abilities? Sigh. :cool:

Handbrake?

Eric S.

Mar 24, 2009, 08:14 PM

It's working, but the recommendations are absolute rubbish. Much worse than genius for music.

IIRC, Genius for music was pretty poor at first but improved as more people's data was accumulated. Maybe this works the same way?

eddyg

Mar 24, 2009, 08:16 PM

It uses the cnID number to identify what a movie is. Since Handbrake encodes do not have a cnID tag, they cannot be used by Genius for recommendations.

iTunes manages with user added music, but I guess that has more metadata to identify the song with in the first place.

Sounds like it could be handy having a utility that adds the cnID for all movies in iTunes that are also in the iTunes movie store.

Cheers, Ed.

VoR

Mar 24, 2009, 08:58 PM

With some codecs, yes its terrible. Same with Quicktime vs. VLC.

Embarrassing that free VLC is 10X better than Quicktime.

Yet where are VLC's encoding abilities? Sigh. :cool:

Why is it embarrassing that vlc is 'better' than quicktime? Can't think of anyone more knowledgeable about av than people at projects like ffmpeg etc - embarrassing that they bother producing their own software and not embracing oss maybe? Imagine how great and happy and flowery the (IT) world would be if companies like apple always did the right thing, chose the right software and contributed back to the right places.

Sensicle

ps. vlc can encode videos just fine btw. If you want a simple gui (for the same software) you could try handbrake as suggested earlier.

verity

Mar 24, 2009, 09:00 PM

Sadly I have to admit, Quicktime sucks. Any time I play a non-Apple codec, Quicktime stammers (even on my Octo Mac Pro). I have Flip4Mac installed, yet the only decent player is VLC.

Perian not helping? I haven't had any need for VLC for quite a while.

bedifferent

Mar 24, 2009, 09:19 PM

Perian not helping? I haven't had any need for VLC for quite a while.

Ah, never knew of Perian. Thanks :).

NightStorm

Mar 24, 2009, 09:38 PM

iTunes manages with user added music, but I guess that has more metadata to identify the song with in the first place.

Sounds like it could be handy having a utility that adds the cnID for all movies in iTunes that are also in the iTunes movie store.

Cheers, Ed.

Yeah, I was hoping it would use the metadata stored in the mp4 files... it's one of the reasons I've been adding actors/directors and ensuring all of my tags are accurate. Oh well. :(

Kar98

Mar 24, 2009, 09:45 PM

Just checked, working for me

Except the "genius" is recommending utterly random crap based on nothing in particular.

Clive At Five

Mar 24, 2009, 10:40 PM

sounds......... irrelevant.

roberry82

Mar 24, 2009, 10:41 PM

It's been updated and works pretty good on my TV Shows, but as far as the movies go, it only recognizes what I've actually purchased or rented in iTunes, not any of the movies that I've legally backed up onto my hard drive for digital viewing. ;) Any one have any suggestions.

gmeddles

Mar 24, 2009, 11:50 PM

There is a large contingent of Season Pass subscribers that would like to be able to download the content that they've already purchased. The 8.1 update broke Season Passes for a lot of users, and here is the response from support:

" Unfortunately, this has been brought to Apple's attention as an iTunes Application problem. It can be fixed by going to an earlier version of iTunes.

Apple is currently working toward a resolution for the issue you have reported. You will receive an email after the matter has been investigated and further information is available."

creon

Mar 25, 2009, 12:34 AM

I really dont have many videos on iTunes. I really can't imagine myself using this at all; but it is another great addition to iTunes!

MikeTheC

Mar 25, 2009, 01:24 AM

I'd be curious to see a poll here on how many people actually use the Genius feature in iTunes. It's been there for a while now, and I've never yet had reason to use it. I try to shut it off as soon as possible as it just takes up space I'd rather use for other things.

Eric S.

Mar 25, 2009, 01:38 AM

I'd be curious to see a poll here on how many people actually use the Genius feature in iTunes.

I use it to create playlists and I think it works well. I don't use it for purchase recommendations.

roberry82

Mar 25, 2009, 03:29 AM

cg0def

Mar 25, 2009, 04:54 AM

so the store works more and more like Amazon ( which is a good thing ). Genius is really useful for music, especially when you have 10,000+ songs but most people don't really need even a search engine for finding a particular video in their library. It'll be interesting if Apple starts offering indie videos or shorts for little or no cost. Then I might actually use genius for videos.

Wicker

Mar 25, 2009, 05:11 AM

I use it to create playlists and I think it works well. I don't use it for purchase recommendations.

Same here...

markfc

Mar 25, 2009, 06:27 AM

All these iTunes movie store upgraded are nice, but when are they finally going to get the Star Wars movies already?!
Can something really be said to be a movie store if it doesn't sell Star Wars?

Can you honestly admit you don't already own StarWars in one form or other?

iOrlando

Mar 25, 2009, 08:54 AM

Prime example of Steve saying....WAIT...this little feature of the genius thing has to be changed. Shut the whole thing down...shut it....

1 week later...ok its fine...turn it on

Dagless

Mar 25, 2009, 08:59 AM

With some codecs, yes its terrible. Same with Quicktime vs. VLC.

Embarrassing that free VLC is 10X better than Quicktime.

Yet where are VLC's encoding abilities? Sigh. :cool:

I like VLC but it still seems very buggy. Sometimes when I skip a video it takes a second or 2 before the image shows up, sometimes happens when I first play a vid too. And sometimes theres some crazy green mesh that shows up (OSX and XP version on all my computers!). I find VLC best for loading a vid and pressing play. But for anything I need precise control with QT is required.

JonHimself

Mar 25, 2009, 09:14 AM

I thought they said they would update them? Kind of lame they haven't.

I don't think they ever said that. I think that was just wishful thinking from all of us 1st gen classic owners.

dernhelm

Mar 25, 2009, 10:01 AM

JonHimself

Mar 25, 2009, 11:08 AM

I love Genius for songs. And I like the Netflix "recommends" feature. Maybe this would be just as nice, I just can't say. But I know I never once felt like I this was something that was really "missing".

I tried out Boxee for a bit (ultimately since I couldn't access Hulu - living in Canada - or stream any of the other video services, I ended up just using my own library and I prefered the Apple TV interface) and loved the social networking aspect of it. Not only the recommendations part, but I really enjoyed being able to add friends and see what they've watched recently (movies and TV shows). I don't know how, but I'd love to see Apple somehow integrate something similar to social networking with Apple TV (or even iTunes) so I could see what my friends are watching and what recommendations they have.
I agree that Genius is great for songs, but I think the video use of Genius is different in that you can go through 10-20 songs in under and hour, whereas with TV shows that would be several hours. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but for the music it's great to put together a playlist on-the-go, I would probably use the Genius feature more to learn about new TV shows that I would be considered in but wouldn't be watching right away.

Stately

Mar 25, 2009, 12:02 PM

:apple:

NightStorm

Mar 25, 2009, 01:38 PM

Is anyone else having trouble updating their apps in i tunes?

What does this have to do with the Genius feature being enabled for movies and TV shows? :confused:

ohertel

Mar 25, 2009, 04:02 PM

...sucks completely. On each sync half of the time is eaten up by collecting and transfering genius data. This is not a feature for me but a bug.

Stately

Mar 25, 2009, 05:21 PM

:apple:

Eric S.

Mar 25, 2009, 05:50 PM

Uhh. . nothing just figured I would ask the question. If you aren't why respond? As I said, maybe someone else is and can help instead of being sarcastic.

Well you might see a better response if you post your question in a more appropriate place. In fact if you MRoogle (http://mroogle.edesignuk.com/) the question you'll probably find several existing threads like this one:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=533425