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AliensAreFuzzy

macrumors 68000
May 30, 2004
1,561
0
Madison, WI
MetaX

Nothing better than MetaX. And it's free.

I'm going to disagree with you on that. MetaX is amazing for movie tagging. But I find it much too cumbersome for tagging TV shows. I much prefer Lostify to do the data tagging. Unfortunately the current version does not support album art, so I use another program (the name escapes me at the moment) to do a batch artwork tagging.
 

MikieMikie

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2007
705
0
Newton, MA
I'm going to disagree with you on that. MetaX is amazing for movie tagging. But I find it much too cumbersome for tagging TV shows. I much prefer Lostify to do the data tagging. Unfortunately the current version does not support album art, so I use another program (the name escapes me at the moment) to do a batch artwork tagging.

Well, to each his own.

I have been using MetaX and its "presets" for TV shows and it makes it really easy. Just load in the episodes, select them all, hit the right preset, and then tage the episodes.
 

drumlat80

macrumors newbie
Feb 7, 2008
4
0
Nas

I have approx. 2,000. Consumes 2.1 tb of space. I'm moving to a NAS solution soon.

What NAS solution are you thinking?

I have a LaCie 1TB NAS- i find that it is just too slow to stream movies from the NAS over WiFi to the Apple TV.

The set-up is: Itunes Library is on Macbook Pro (connected to router via wifi). Itunes Movies referenced to NAS storage. NAS storage is connected via ethernet cable to wi-fi router. Apple TV is connected to router via WiFi.. Im going to connect the Apple TV via ethernet and see if that makes any difference. Also, the wifi is G speed, not Draft N.

Any suggestions? Am I doing this wrong?
 

williedigital

Cancelled
Oct 4, 2005
499
132
What NAS solution are you thinking?

I have a LaCie 1TB NAS- i find that it is just too slow to stream movies from the NAS over WiFi to the Apple TV.

The set-up is: Itunes Library is on Macbook Pro (connected to router via wifi). Itunes Movies referenced to NAS storage. NAS storage is connected via ethernet cable to wi-fi router. Apple TV is connected to router via WiFi.. Im going to connect the Apple TV via ethernet and see if that makes any difference. Also, the wifi is G speed, not Draft N.

Any suggestions? Am I doing this wrong?

I believe the use of the G network is what is holding you back. I'm building an unraid server, connected via gigabit to an airport extreme. The mac pro running itunes is connected to the extreme via gigabit. Apple tv is wireless through the 802.11n network.
 

williedigital

Cancelled
Oct 4, 2005
499
132
I'm going to disagree with you on that. MetaX is amazing for movie tagging. But I find it much too cumbersome for tagging TV shows. I much prefer Lostify to do the data tagging. Unfortunately the current version does not support album art, so I use another program (the name escapes me at the moment) to do a batch artwork tagging.

I like lostify as well for it's ability to "properly" include cast and director information.
 

drumlat80

macrumors newbie
Feb 7, 2008
4
0
I believe the use of the G network is what is holding you back. I'm building an unraid server, connected via gigabit to an airport extreme. The mac pro running itunes is connected to the extreme via gigabit. Apple tv is wireless through the 802.11n network.

Hmm. That sux :(

Maybe connecting the apple tv with Ethernet will help? Probably not though considering the streaming is happening over G network from the Macbook Pro. (not to mention that it is serving up the media from the NAS drive over G network- that extra step of fetching the content from the NAS server over G must be clogging up the works)
 

annaj

macrumors newbie
Jan 3, 2008
15
0
Anyone know a .Mov metadata tagger.

I'm wondering the same thing.
With the new release of perian 1.1 that supports outputting DTS from quicktime, it seems that this will save me a TON of encoding time,
because the .mkv files that I have with HD video and DTS audio will now play in quicktime & front row (thank goodness!).

the only issue now, is how to get them into itunes with all the meta data.
I can get them into itunes by saving a reference file of the .mkv, the only problem is that you can't save a reference file in .mp4 format, just .mov (that I know of), and I can't edit the metadata of an .mov file using lostify or metaX.

Any ideas?
 

hagar

macrumors 68000
Jan 19, 2008
1,942
4,766
I'm wondering the same thing.
With the new release of perian 1.1 that supports outputting DTS from quicktime, it seems that this will save me a TON of encoding time,
because the .mkv files that I have with HD video and DTS audio will now play in quicktime & front row (thank goodness!).

the only issue now, is how to get them into itunes with all the meta data.
I can get them into itunes by saving a reference file of the .mkv, the only problem is that you can't save a reference file in .mp4 format, just .mov (that I know of), and I can't edit the metadata of an .mov file using lostify or metaX.

Any ideas?

The way I see it, iTunes Drive-In will be able to help you there: first use lostify or metax, and afterwards, use Drive-In to import the video in iTunes. Just make sure to disable the metadata feature of Drive-In or it will overwrite your metadata...
 

williedigital

Cancelled
Oct 4, 2005
499
132
Hmm. That sux :(

Maybe connecting the apple tv with Ethernet will help? Probably not though considering the streaming is happening over G network from the Macbook Pro. (not to mention that it is serving up the media from the NAS drive over G network- that extra step of fetching the content from the NAS server over G must be clogging up the works)

I'm not a network expert, but hooking either the Nas or the Apple TV up via Ethernet should help somewhat, as otherwise you are really streaming "twice" using the G network, halving its "natural" bandwidth.
 

williedigital

Cancelled
Oct 4, 2005
499
132
These are .MP4 Only not .Mov or .MKV

Northy124

Yes, .MKV is a non-standard format, so itunes will never use metadata correctly from it. I would suggest moving away from .mvk if you are looking at long-term compatibility. .MP4 in theory can replicate most of the cool features of .mkv (embedded artwork, descriptions, multiple audio, selectable subtitles), but as of now, how apple is going to choose to implement these features seems very much up in the air (can someone explain how subtitles are currently handled in quicktime?) and they have a history of using non-compliant implementations.

.MOV is apparently 90% the same as .MP4 standards-wise, as .mp4 is based on .mov, but again, it's not an ISO standard and I would stay away from anything non-standard if you want to be able to watch movies in the future.
 

northy124

macrumors 68020
Nov 18, 2007
2,293
8
Well i have the basics of Metadata done as artwork and title name and produce i just want to do more with it. This was all with .Mov so i think you don't know what your on about .Mov not being best i like it alot.

Northy124
 

annaj

macrumors newbie
Jan 3, 2008
15
0
Yes, .MKV is a non-standard format, so itunes will never use metadata correctly from it. I would suggest moving away from .mvk if you are looking at long-term compatibility. .MP4 in theory can replicate most of the cool features of .mkv (embedded artwork, descriptions, multiple audio, selectable subtitles), but as of now, how apple is going to choose to implement these features seems very much up in the air (can someone explain how subtitles are currently handled in quicktime?) and they have a history of using non-compliant implementations.

.MOV is apparently 90% the same as .MP4 standards-wise, as .mp4 is based on .mov, but again, it's not an ISO standard and I would stay away from anything non-standard if you want to be able to watch movies in the future.

I totally agree that when it comes to organizing my files, having mp4s is much better. It can handle all the meta data, and I don't need to have extra reference files cluttering up my disk. However, it is just not worth it for the hours upon hours of time that I need to spend converting the mkvs to mp4s, as I am not the one creating the mkvs, that is how I'm getting them.
 

annaj

macrumors newbie
Jan 3, 2008
15
0
well. I actually found a way to add descriptions to the .mov reference files.
There's a script that can do it right in iTunes.
Here's the link in case anyone wants:
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=showdescription
Works great.

The only thing that I need now, is to be able to change the 'release date' on movies, which for my TV shows would be the 'air date' as shown in Front Row.
If anyone has any suggestions, that'd be great.
 

northy124

macrumors 68020
Nov 18, 2007
2,293
8
Thanks.

You put release date in the Year box of Music/TV/Movie Info section.

Northy124
 

annaj

macrumors newbie
Jan 3, 2008
15
0
Thanks.

You put release date in the Year box of Music/TV/Movie Info section.

Northy124

do you mean in itunes?
because in the year box you can only put the year, not the date (2008/01/01) Even if I put the year in, it actually doesn't show up in the release date field for tv shows in itunes.
 

bond007hmss

macrumors newbie
Jan 29, 2008
14
1
I have opposite Won't let me take PIC out LoL just give up it won't let you

I actually had the same problem with the artwork on Captain EO. iTunes downloaded some generic Michael Jackson photo & I couldn't get rid of it for the longest time. I then created an automator action to pull copies of all the iTunes artwork out of the artwork folders (since they're nested) and put in a folder on the desktop. They are all named with funky number strings. I then opened the copies 'til i found the offending picture. Did a spotlight search for the file and deleted the copy on the desktop and in the artwork photo. Emptied the trash. Problem solved.
 

Olu

macrumors newbie
Feb 17, 2008
1
0
Boston, MA
GREAT thread! I joined these forums because the amount of Apple TV information FAR surpasses my usual haunts (MacNN, Appleinsider).

You've got me hooked on organization. I'm on my 10th movie since starting 2 days ago. I've been using my MacMini an an attached 300gb drive as the repository and recruited my MBP this AM to hasten the efforts. I'm using Handbrake and the quality with ATV and my 50" Panasonic Plasma is outstanding.

MetaX has been AWESOME. Enters the description, Movie rating (g, pg, pg-13..etc), Actors, Artwork automagically, then imports it into iTunes.

Thanks for all the information.
 
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