I have well over 100 music videos in my iTunes library now. Many are Handbrake rips from DVD collections I own. iTunes defaults to showing artwork from a frame from the actual video. But in things like Cover Flow, it shows only ONE artwork image for an entire "album" of videos. Which song it chooses to represent them all isn't terribly clear to me, but regardless, this sort of thing would seem to indicate it'd be better to have an album cover there. Fine, I can give something like Tori Amos' Fade To Red an album cover from the case (either scan it or get it off Google Images). Now Cover Flow and Artwork in iTunes shows a nice "album" style artwork image representing the entire DVD of videos.
The problem is that when I transmit the videos downstairs to my home theater room's AppleTV unit, it shows individual song images for videos, not just a single album artwork. I know this because in a mixed bunch of videos, I'll see TONS of the same artwork cover going round and round and then see one different one for other songs, but if I don't add album artwork, I'll see each song artwork going round and round.
Obviously, for AppleTV and even for "Get Info" operations where it will show individual artwork in iTunes, having a little snip from each video is preferable, but for things like the album selection list on AppleTV or coverflow or regular artwork lists in iTunes, a single album artwork representation is preferable. Given how iTunes and AppleTV treat them, I would have thought there'd be an option to add individual artwork AND an overall album artwork, but I don't see any obvious way to do this offhand. Given iTunes is primarily for music and movies and the like, I guess I shouldn't expect Apple to have addressed things like collections of music videos very well, but it does stand out regardless of which artwork choice I make.
If anyone knows a way to get BOTH (individual pictures for songs an a single album representation for cover flow and album listings), let me know. It just looks weird to see a snap from a single video appear in the new Grid view to represent the entire album, but it looks even weirder to have a dozen of the same artwork floating around on AppleTV's carousel view thing or see the same artwork for each song when selecting one while store bought videos show individual artwork (but aren't associated with any album in their tag data, even though they obviously are for real).
Edit:
Upon closer inspection, it appears iTunes chooses the first video sorted by the left list numbering column (whatever you would call that) for a given album collection to represent that album in iTunes (this falls apart if you just add a single artwork to the first track of an album and then put a single different track on your iPod; it will show a "?" for that song. But in iTunes it uses the album artwork). So the best I can come up with so far is to give that first track the album artwork and leave the rest alone. I lose one individual artwork, but gain proper album representation in both iTunes and the AppleTV album lists without losing the individual artwork for the rest of the tracks.
The problem is that when I transmit the videos downstairs to my home theater room's AppleTV unit, it shows individual song images for videos, not just a single album artwork. I know this because in a mixed bunch of videos, I'll see TONS of the same artwork cover going round and round and then see one different one for other songs, but if I don't add album artwork, I'll see each song artwork going round and round.
Obviously, for AppleTV and even for "Get Info" operations where it will show individual artwork in iTunes, having a little snip from each video is preferable, but for things like the album selection list on AppleTV or coverflow or regular artwork lists in iTunes, a single album artwork representation is preferable. Given how iTunes and AppleTV treat them, I would have thought there'd be an option to add individual artwork AND an overall album artwork, but I don't see any obvious way to do this offhand. Given iTunes is primarily for music and movies and the like, I guess I shouldn't expect Apple to have addressed things like collections of music videos very well, but it does stand out regardless of which artwork choice I make.
If anyone knows a way to get BOTH (individual pictures for songs an a single album representation for cover flow and album listings), let me know. It just looks weird to see a snap from a single video appear in the new Grid view to represent the entire album, but it looks even weirder to have a dozen of the same artwork floating around on AppleTV's carousel view thing or see the same artwork for each song when selecting one while store bought videos show individual artwork (but aren't associated with any album in their tag data, even though they obviously are for real).
Edit:
Upon closer inspection, it appears iTunes chooses the first video sorted by the left list numbering column (whatever you would call that) for a given album collection to represent that album in iTunes (this falls apart if you just add a single artwork to the first track of an album and then put a single different track on your iPod; it will show a "?" for that song. But in iTunes it uses the album artwork). So the best I can come up with so far is to give that first track the album artwork and leave the rest alone. I lose one individual artwork, but gain proper album representation in both iTunes and the AppleTV album lists without losing the individual artwork for the rest of the tracks.