iTunes TV shows description field

There are actually 2 description fields in an iTunes m4v file, a short description and a long description. The short description is limited to 255 characters in length and is the one that is accessed by the getinfo option in iTunes. The long description has (i think) an unlimited length but is only editable by programs like MetaX.

The long description is the one displayed when you press the little (i) button in the iTunes listview at the end of the description text.

Not sure if this is related (but it is related to TV show tags). I've had a number of TV episodes in itunes for a long time. Recently upgraded to 2.4 on TV. Then, i went in and added some descriptions to the shows in iTunes. The descriptions are obviously there, but the TV sync won't pick them up (on TV).

In other words, I have a list of TV shows in itunes with newly added descriptions. I sync TV. Whether I check them by clicking the tv shows under TV entry in iTunes or go check them on the TV screen via TV itself, these newly added descriptions do not get picked up.

Interestingly, when I change the names of the TV shows and sync, the name changes are picked up by TV. So this problem seems to be related to new description text only.

The only thing I've found that works so far is to delete the TV show out of iTunes, then re-add it back in. When I do this, the (new) description is preserved on the import, and it will show up on TV after I sync.

TV Bug?

I had the same sort of problem with artwork, I changed a lot of my TV Show artwork and the changes would only show up on my AppleTV after a removed the episodes from the iTunes library and then readded them again. Just another strange little iTunes/AppleTV bug

Mattww said:

Thanks! It is odd that iTunes lets you keep typing when reaching the limit.

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Yep you would think they would stop you entering text at 255 characters. Apple just like to see the look on peoples faces after they`ve typed a 600 character description in only to then find half of it missing.

roidy said:

Yep you would think they would stop you entering text at 255 characters. Apple just like to see the look on peoples faces after they`ve typed a 600 character description in only to then find half of it missing.

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Or apple missed it, I've not looked for a while but in previous versions of ATV the trailers would have half the text missing as if somebody at apple had just copy/pasted the blurb from the film company without realising that it would be cut at 255 characters