Moving all video into iTunes

AppleDApp · Oct 13, 2012

I'm looking for a automator script that I could run to sort through all of my movies and shows.

Essentially I want it to locate the original source of the file.
If it isn't in Mp4, convert to Mp4
delete the old file that wasn't MP4
Find all the appropriate tags
Import it into iTunes

Any ideas as to how to do this automatically?

DagazaGZ · Oct 14, 2012

It's called iFlicks. I have 3.5 TB in my iTunes every things was converted, artwork added, meta tag info automatically. Then deletes original and puts the converted to iTunes. Works great!

Menneisyys2 · Oct 14, 2012

DagazaGZ said:
It's called iFlicks. I have 3.5 TB in my iTunes every things was converted, artwork added, meta tag info automatically. Then deletes original and puts the converted to iTunes. Works great!

Just keep in mind that iFlicks isn't the fastest remuxer / converter around. If you don't absolutely need artwork / chapters, go for the free Subler, it's about five times faster at remuxing in general - or even the latest beta of the $5 MP4Tools, which is about 3 times faster.

AppleDApp · Oct 14, 2012

I'll give it a try.

DagazaGZ · Oct 16, 2012

Menneisyys2 said:
Just keep in mind that iFlicks isn't the fastest remuxer / converter around. If you don't absolutely need artwork / chapters, go for the free Subler, it's about five times faster at remuxing in general - or even the latest beta of the $5 MP4Tools, which is about 3 times faster.

It's actually 5 times faster? I'm going to test this out. Will post results

orestes1984 · Oct 16, 2012

Subler will remux a file in about the same time as it takes to copy and paste. Then I use iDentify for tagging.

DagazaGZ · Oct 16, 2012

Ah see, I don't just want to remux a file I want to do a full convert so I can watch on my Apple TV.

----------

So I just converted a 720, 42 min video within 5 min. with I flicks it would have taken around 30-40 min. So wait now I have some questions to. I just tested out that video I converted with Subler on my Apple TV and it works fine. I thought it had to do a full convert! What's this mean?

orestes1984 · Oct 16, 2012

If you want to do it all in one process then use iFlicks, you can set it and forget it and not care if its slow. If you're looking to quickly convert a few movies from MKV to MP4 then use Subler, then use iDentify to add the metadata.

For DVDs I rip with Mac The Ripper to VOB folders, then send all the vob folders to handbrake then use iDentify to add the metadata.

Jim.R · Oct 16, 2012

It depends on the video codec used by the file.
DVD rips are MPEG2 and will need converting with something like Handbrake to something that iTunes will play (generally H.264).
I'm assuming your 720 file came from a Blu Ray rip, and these are normally H.264 video, so you just need to remux in Subler to change the container to MP4/M4V.

orestes1984 · Oct 16, 2012

DagazaGZ said:
Ah see, I don't just want to remux a file I want to do a full convert so I can watch on my Apple TV.
I thought it had to do a full convert! What's this mean?

If its just an MKV file you don't have to convert anything, you just have to put it in a new container.

Converting is like making your lunchbox as well as putting the lunch in the lunchbox you made, your reinventing the wheel. remuxing is taking the lunch (the actual movie) out of the MKV lunchbox and putting it in a M4V lunchbox. Why create a new sandwich (H.264 file and sound files) and lunchbox when you can just take the lunch out and put it in a new lunchbox (MP4) if it fits perfectly.

I know your confused right? Well its all about multiplexing i.e. stuffing the movie and its subtitles and its audio tracks into one neat package instead of having the older style MP2 containers you see on DVDs where its all strewn across multiple folders for each chapter.

DagazaGZ · Oct 16, 2012

That's interesting, very interesting. So it in no way negatively affects the video quality?

*edited* skip this part, just got your responce ***I'm just curious as to what's happening. With iFlicks I'm currently converting a 1080 40 min video it says it's going to take an hour. It's currently encoding the video. Now what exactly does Subler do? As I noticed that the converted file with subler was the same size as the original mkv. Seems Subler is skipping a step.***

MonkeySee.... · Oct 16, 2012

For some daft reason I just can't get Subler to work.

At the moment I use Converter Pro I think its called and then through iDentify

orestes1984 · Oct 16, 2012

DagazaGZ said:
What exactly does Subler do?

It takes a H.264 movie that fits in a MP4 container out of the MKV container which is useless for iTunes and puts it into an MP4 container that your Apple TV can read.

Menneisyys2 · Oct 16, 2012

MonkeySee.... said:
For some daft reason I just can't get Subler to work.

At the moment I use Converter Pro I think its called and then through iDentify

What's the error message? Lack of DTS / AC-3 support?

orestes1984 · Oct 16, 2012

DagazaGZ said:
That's interesting, very interesting. So it in no way negatively affects the video quality?

Yes that's correct, there should be no noticeable difference in image quality because you're not recreating the movie you're just putting it in a container the Apple TV can read. Subler is doing whats called a passthrough, it's passing the H.264 and AC3 files into an MP4 container, it's not converting anything, just putting it all in a container that your Apple TV can read. It's essentially a copy and paste job of the contents from a folder named MKV into a folder named MP4. Before you ask no you can't just rename MKVs to MP4s, there's more to it than that, they're highly specialised containers with specialised headers.

DagazaGZ · Oct 16, 2012

Wow, I wish I had known that earlier, I'm trying to think of a downside to simply remuxing. Does iFlicks support doing this as well?

orestes1984 · Oct 16, 2012

I don't use iFlicks so I don't know, but someone should come along soon with an answer.

MonkeySee.... · Oct 16, 2012

Menneisyys2 said:
What's the error message? Lack of DTS / AC-3 support?

I'm not getting an error message at all. I seem to have about 5 queued up to be done. Nothing seems to be converting. They are 100% H.246 files.

I'll give it another go tonight to see where i'm going wrong.

DagazaGZ · Oct 16, 2012

orestes1984 said:
I don't use iFlicks so I don't know, but someone should come along soon with an answer.

K, so I took that same video and I clicked to option to make it itunes comparable (http://support.iflicksapp.com/entries/20242648-the-itunes-compatible-preset). And I think that just did the same thing as subler. iFlicks is done now took about 1 and a half minutes, it's added all meta data and already deleted the original mkv and added it to iTunes for me automatically. I'm going to load it up on my Apple TV and see if it works...

And it works!

Wow so why have I been doing it the other way before?

**
I'm going to delete the file and try again and time it this time.

And here are the results:

iFlicks got all meta data and artwork, converted, deleted original, and then added the video to iTunes (located on a different hard drive so it had to actually copy the movie over) in exactly 1 min 57 seconds.

MadTester · Oct 16, 2012

that sounds really interesting... i've been using a mix of Wondershare and Handbrake for a long time......

I think I'll have a good look at iFlicks... don't have AppleTV but I'm using my old 17" MBP pro (circa 2007) as a media server HDMI'd up to the TV at the moment.. son't see the point in spending £100 on a box when I have something just as good and stable not doing much

DagazaGZ · Oct 16, 2012

MadTester said:
that sounds really interesting... i've been using a mix of Wondershare and Handbrake for a long time......

I think I'll have a good look at iFlicks... don't have AppleTV but I'm using my old 17" MBP pro (circa 2007) as a media server HDMI'd up to the TV at the moment.. son't see the point in spending £100 on a box when I have something just as good and stable not doing much

Yes, defiantly try out iFlicks.

orestes1984 · Oct 16, 2012

DagazaGZ said:
K, so I took that same video and I clicked to option to make it itunes comparable (http://support.iflicksapp.com/entries/20242648-the-itunes-compatible-preset). And I think that just did the same thing as subler. iFlicks is done now took about 1 and a half minutes, it's added all meta data and already deleted the original mkv and added it to iTunes for me automatically. I'm going to load it up on my Apple TV and see if it works...

And it works!

Wow so why have I been doing it the other way before?

**
I'm going to delete the file and try again and time it this time.

And here are the results:

iFlicks got all meta data and artwork, converted, deleted original, and then added the video to iTunes (located on a different hard drive so it had to actually copy the movie over) in exactly 1 min 57 seconds.

It sounds like its doing the same thing... This is what you get when you Read The Friendly Manual, instead of poking around in the dark

DagazaGZ · Oct 16, 2012

orestes1984 said:
It sounds like its doing the same thing... This is what you get when you Read The Friendly Manual, instead of poking around in the dark

I might start pulling out my hair, I've converted 3.5 TB this way... Well now I know. I'm going to read up on it more.

orestes1984 · Oct 16, 2012

DagazaGZ said:
I might start pulling out my hair, I've converted 3.5 TB this way... Well now I know. I'm going to read up on it more.

I converted 40 or so DVDs with Handbrake 6 hours each or so at Apple TV3 settings. There is no passthrough option for DVDs

it's converting MP2 to MP4. I know what it's like

I almost sold my Apple TV to buy a WD TV Live.

DagazaGZ · Oct 16, 2012

orestes1984 said:
I converted 40 or so DVDs with Handbrake 6 hours each or so at Apple TV3 settings. There is no passthrough option for DVDs it's converting MP2 to MP4. I know what it's like I almost sold my Apple TV to buy a WD TV Live.

Ouch, worst ones for me were the extended Lord of the Rings, each 1080 video was around 20 GB, those took a long time each.

Moving all video into iTunes

macrumors 68020

macrumors regular

macrumors 603

macrumors 68020

macrumors regular

macrumors 65816

macrumors regular

macrumors 65816

macrumors member

macrumors 65816

macrumors regular

macrumors 68040

macrumors 65816

macrumors 603

macrumors 65816

macrumors regular

macrumors 65816

macrumors 68040

macrumors regular

Attachments

macrumors regular

macrumors regular

macrumors 65816

macrumors regular

macrumors 65816

macrumors regular

Our Staff