Ever growing movie collection

[ledzep1]

With my growing movie collection from Apple Store purchases, is it much of an ask for Apple to give us an option to create folders to sort our movies in the library how we want?

Ive seen something on Mac to create smart playlists, but don't think thats quite the same.

I love my Apple TV 4K, but the movie library customisable options suck, it just hasn't improved at all over the years.

How hard can it be for Apple to give as a folder option.

Anyone else with large movie collections wish for the same?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

1. Buy big fat HDD for dirt cheap.
2. Make folders as you desire the organization to be.
3. Download all purchased movies instead of trusting strangers in the cloud.
4. Put downloaded media into folders as you want them.
5. Index them in AppleTV app on your computer.
6. Access and enjoy them in the Computers app on AppleTV or in Library in the AppleTV app on AppleTV.

Besides getting exactly what you (might) want, you will also gain 100% control of your media instead of "trusting the cloud." Should some Studio get in a squabble with Apple and/or just opt to yank the availability of one of "your" movies from the cloud, the copy you possess is not yanked too. Etc.

Or perhaps you mean within the AppleTV interface? If so...

In the past, AppleTV organization allowed the SHOW tag to act as a menu item "grouper." For example, put "JAMES BOND" in the show tag for all 2X James Bond movies and what was 2X items in the menu list became one item in the list... that, if clicked, would then show the 2X movies. Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, etc could all be consolidated down to ONE line each in the list this way.

But Apple being Apple "improved" that great feature by doing away with it several tvOS generations ago.

However tip: a work around is to repurpose the genre tag. Name the genre for all James Bond movies James Bond and then it can be selected to display the 2X movies. Same with Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Etc.

Tip #2: if anyone has a big fat collection of home movies, instead of tagging them as home movies, tag them as TV Shows... which then allows them to be organized by date order within years (seasons tag). I named my "tv show" for this "Home Movies" and it has many seasons, nicely organizing all home video by year. If I want to see the video called Christmas for the year 2014, I go to season 2014 and it's the only Christmas video in that list... as opposed to tagging them all home movies and having 30 home movies called Christmas in one big list and having to try to guess my way into the 2014 one.

And yes, if you created "playlists" in the AppleTV app and drag groups of movies into them, the Computers app on AppleTV will then display a playlist option in the (left side) menu, from which you can choose one of your playlists and then choose a movie within it. This could be an alternative to the above "genres" hack. It just takes 4 clicks to get to the movie instead of 3 clicks: click playlist, click a specific playlist, click movie, click play vs. click genre, click movie, click play.

The AppleTV app mostly exists to sell or rent you something. Use the Computers app to have an experience that harkens back to the original AppleTV UI... when the main thrust was "an iPod for your television" instead of trying to drive rentals/sales/subscriptions.

 

[ledzep1]

1. Buy big fat HDD for dirt cheap.
2. Make folders as you desire the organization to be.
3. Download all purchased movies instead of trusting strangers in the cloud.
4. Put downloaded media into folders as you want them.
5. Index them in AppleTV app on your computer.
6. Access and enjoy them in the Computers app on AppleTV or in Library in the AppleTV app on AppleTV.

Besides getting exactly what you (might) want, you will also gain 100% control of your media instead of "trusting the cloud." Should some Studio get in a squabble with Apple and/or just opt to yank the availability of one of "your" movies from the cloud, the copy you possess is not yanked too. Etc.

Or perhaps you mean within the AppleTV interface? If so...

In the past, AppleTV organization allowed the SHOW tag to act as a menu item "grouper." For example, put "JAMES BOND" in the show tag for all 2X James Bond movies and what was 2X items in the menu list became one item in the list... that, if clicked, would then show the 2X movies. Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, etc could all be consolidated down to ONE line each in the list this way.

But Apple being Apple "improved" that great feature by doing away with it several tvOS generations ago.

However tip: a work around is to repurpose the genre tag. Name the genre for all James Bond movies James Bond and then it can be selected to display the 2X movies. Same with Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Etc.

Tip #2: if anyone has a big fat collection of home movies, instead of tagging them as home movies, tag them as TV Shows... which then allows them to be organized by date order within years (seasons tag). I named my "tv show" for this "Home Movies" and it has many seasons, nicely organizing all home video by year. If I want to see the video called Christmas for the year 2014, I go to season 2014 and it's the only Christmas video in that list... as opposed to tagging them all home movies and having 30 home movies called Christmas in one big list and having to try to guess my way into the 2014 one.

And yes, if you created "playlists" in the AppleTV app and drag groups of movies into them, the Computers app on AppleTV will then display a playlist option in the (left side) menu, from which you can choose one of your playlists and then choose a movie within it. This could be an alternative to the above "genres" hack. It just takes 4 clicks to get to the movie instead of 3 clicks: click playlist, click a specific playlist, click movie, click play vs. click genre, click movie, click play.

The AppleTV app mostly exists to sell or rent you something. Use the Computers app to have an experience that harkens back to the original AppleTV UI... when the main thrust was "an iPod for your television" instead of trying to drive rentals/sales/subscriptions.

Thanks for the detailed post, the hard drive route is good thought, but Im not sure I can be bothered doing that. On the subject of them removing titles, hopefully it doesn't happen, I remember we had the number of titles we own when we had the iTunes movie app, but them getting rid of that we no longer can see how many movies we have.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

That's a big reason to "bother." If you possess your stuff, you 100% control your stuff. Otherwise you are trusting complete strangers "in the cloud" with for-profit motivations to be caretakers of your stuff. If that doesn't give you some pause, feel free to send your valuables to me- a stranger in the Appleverse cloud to be caretaker of your valuables. What could go wrong?

Since you already know purchased content can be lost in this way, I'll offer up the example of Epic and Fortnite. Prior to the Apple-Epic relationship meltdown, Apple people interested in playing that very popular game could download and play it on iDevices as readily as any app now. Then, 2 Corps got into a corporate squabble and Apple kicked them out of the store. Could this happen to media? There have been instances in the past in which renewal deals between Apple and a Studio were not looking favorable and lots of content was about to be pulled (I can top-of-mind recall a very close call with the gigantic Universal music catalog in the 2000s). It could vanish just as fast as Epic game offerings vanished.

So anyone reading this thread and playing the "trust the cloud/Apple" game needs to carefully think about what could happen. Apple doesn't own ANY of this media content. The parties that do could change/yank something at any time. However, if you possess a copy on your own drive, they can't also yank/change the copy you possess... just as iDevice owners who had already installed anything from Epic still had/have whatever they installed after Epic was evicted from the store. It's akin to possessing a Blu Ray/DVD: you possess it... you completely control it.

And if you still want to trust for-profit strangers in the cloud, feel free to also send your valuables to me too- a stranger in an Appleverse cloud- to be the caretaker of them. What could go wrong?

 

[JeffPerrin]

[*]Download all purchased movies instead of trusting strangers in the cloud.

One caveat to this plan is that you cannot download 4K 😕

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

But you can download the 1080p version for "archival" (and thus 100%) possession and then continue "business as usual" streaming 4K. Then, should anything happen to strip away the movie, you've still got a version in your possession. Something is better than nothing.

My own solution would be that anything I want in 4K, I buy- often at lower cost- as a Blu Ray and then convert it to a digital file if it doesn't offer one already to use for now and- if the digital 4K stream is stripped away- do my conversion then. Then I physically possess at least one 4K version of the movie- the disc- and possibly two 4K versions if I just go ahead and create a digital copy from the disc immediately vs. waiting until I might have to create one (because the streaming one was pulled/dropped/whatever).

 

[phrehdd]

But you can download the 1080p version for "archival" (and thus 100%) possession and then continue "business as usual" streaming 4K. Then, should anything happen to strip away the movie, you've still got a version in your possession. Something is better than nothing.

My own solution would be that anything I want in 4K, I buy- often at lower cost- as a Blu Ray and then convert it to a digital file if it doesn't offer one already to use for now and- if the digital 4K stream is stripped away- do my conversion then. Then I physically possess at least one 4K version of the movie- the disc- and possibly two 4K versions if I just go ahead and create a digital copy from the disc immediately vs. waiting until I might have to create one (because the streaming one was pulled/dropped/whatever).

I find your approach akin to my own. When possible, I get the UHD Disc. I make an archival copy with the video and best audio stream. At the same time, I put my codes in for the digital version. This has turned out to work very well for me. I find if one wants to download from Apple, best to not do UHD (4k) but 1080 or less (blue ray) for a reasonable download as far as audio and resolution go.

 

[MBAir2010]

That's a big reason to "bother." If you possess your stuff, you 100% control your stuff. O

YES

i'm spending most of day moving 3TB of files to so i can un-AFSP to mac journaled on 2 drives.
most of the GBs are movies and TV shows and now i'm moving 103GB of music i own.

seems to me  is making this task uneasy and arduous by not
providing new window options or tabs viewing in their latest 2 OS.
i guess Karl Marx was in charge of this option then, or now?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I find your approach akin to my own. When possible, I get the UHD Disc. I make an archival copy with the video and best audio stream. At the same time, I put my codes in for the digital version. This has turned out to work very well for me.

For anyone else reading this thread, a BIG benefit to "rolling your own" is that YOU then get to decide the video & audio quality instead of leaving it to strangers. In general, the streams are targeted at relatively low-bandwidth scenarios to try to please lots of people with slower connections (minimize stuttering video as it streams from servers to homes over slower connections)... which means they put the pinch on video & audio (with more compression). If you make your own, you can significantly upgrade either or both for sharper picture and/or better sound. That translates into choosing to make bigger files (if you want) but what's in that "bigger" is more picture and/or sound detail.

If, for some reason you wanted to go the other way, you can also compress MORE than the iTunes version to end up with a smaller file... which throws out more detail to squeeze it into a smaller file size.

 

[phrehdd]

For anyone else reading this thread, a BIG benefit to "rolling your own" is that YOU then get to decide the video & audio quality instead of leaving it to strangers. In general, the streams are targeted at relatively low-bandwidth scenarios to try to please lots of people with slower connections (minimize stuttering video as it streams from servers to homes over slower connections)... which means they put the pinch on video & audio (with more compression). If you make your own, you can significantly upgrade either or both for sharper picture and/or better sound. That translates into choosing to make bigger files (if you want) but what's in that "bigger" is more picture and/or sound detail.

If, for some reason you wanted to go the other way, you can also compress MORE than the iTunes version to end up with a smaller file... which throws out more detail to squeeze it into a smaller file size.

Well said. For some of us, we don't consider storage to be an issue. The cost these days is amazing per a gig on a decent hard drive or SSD. I watch movies and such via TV screen and also a 32" 4k monitor. Both are capable of a bit more than a compressed 1080p file downloaded. On a side note - I do have a fair amount of 1080p files that are 1:1 with video from discs. I used a streamer that does amazing upscaling to 4k (better than the TV and computer to monitor). I mention this as the downloaded 1080p from Apple is a far second to the latter as far as presentation. Again, having your own quality files nearly always yields the best result or are capable of the best results.

 

[Boyd01]

Living for many years in a rural location with no cable TV, I built a large DVD collection. Over a period of a couple years, I ripped about 1200 movies and TV shows from DVD along with around 200 additional titles purchased/downloaded from Apple. It's a bit over 2tb on a 4tb USB SSD connected to a lowly base 2014 Mini that I use as a media server for my Apple TV's, Mac, iPad and iPhone. Still running iTunes under Mojave on that Mini.

I've got a lot of video playlists that are sorted however I choose. For example, I have separate playlists for 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, etc. Science Fiction films sorted by release date. Then I have some other playlists that are just my favorites movies, sorted by preference. The other advantage to playlists is that they play continously instead of stopping after each video, which is especially nice for TV series.

Have been very happy with this setup, but it did involve some work to set it up. You can get used 2014 Mini's for well under $100, even with a limited warranty from places such as MacSales/OWC. I used hard drives for media in the past, but after two failures over a period of years, I put it all on a USB SSD. No problems with that for a number of years and movies start faster. Big SSD's were expensive when I got this one but have gotten much cheaper today.

Now there's only one problem with this approach, as far as I can tell, shared video playlists have been broken on MacOS ever since Apple got rid of iTunes. A shared playlist works fine on the computer that hosts it, and they work fine on my two Apple TV's. But if I try to access them on another Mac, the playlist is empty. And iOS/iPadOS have never supported shared video playlists. That's annoying, but at least it works properly on the Apple TV.

 

[Queen6]

That's a big reason to "bother." If you possess your stuff, you 100% control your stuff. Otherwise you are trusting complete strangers "in the cloud" with for-profit motivations to be caretakers of your stuff. If that doesn't give you some pause, feel free to send your valuables to me- a stranger in the Appleverse cloud to be caretaker of your valuables. What could go wrong?

Since you already know purchased content can be lost in this way, I'll offer up the example of Epic and Fortnite. Prior to the Apple-Epic relationship meltdown, Apple people interested in playing that very popular game could download and play it on iDevices as readily as any app now. Then, 2 Corps got into a corporate squabble and Apple kicked them out of the store. Could this happen to media? There have been instances in the past in which renewal deals between Apple and a Studio were not looking favorable and lots of content was about to be pulled (I can top-of-mind recall a very close call with the gigantic Universal music catalog in the 2000s). It could vanish just as fast as Epic game offerings vanished.

So anyone reading this thread and playing the "trust the cloud/Apple" game needs to carefully think about what could happen. Apple doesn't own ANY of this media content. The parties that do could change/yank something at any time. However, if you possess a copy on your own drive, they can't also yank/change the copy you possess... just as iDevice owners who had already installed anything from Epic still had/have whatever they installed after Epic was evicted from the store. It's akin to possessing a Blu Ray/DVD: you possess it... you completely control it.

And if you still want to trust for-profit strangers in the cloud, feel free to also send your valuables to me too- a stranger in an Appleverse cloud- to be the caretaker of them. What could go wrong?

Absolutely correct 👍While you have always only ever paid for a license to watch or play it's now far easier for companies to remove content. I rip all my films to HDD as it's simply more convenient to play & store. Also as you state later I have a far greater level of control so I can rip titles in a smaller format for portable devices.

If I like a film or game I'll buy it and I either rip or download to HDD. That way I have them indefinitely and I have full control of the said media. People loosing access to content they have paid for has happened and will continue to happen...

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

Living for many years in a rural location with no cable TV, I built a large DVD collection. Over a period of a couple years, I ripped about 1200 movies and TV shows from DVD along with around 200 additional titles purchased/downloaded from Apple. It's a bit over 2tb on a 4tb USB SSD connected to a lowly base 2014 Mini that I use as a media server for my Apple TV's, Mac, iPad and iPhone. Still running iTunes under Mojave on that Mini.

I've got a lot of video playlists that are sorted however I choose. For example, I have separate playlists for 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, etc. Science Fiction films sorted by release date. Then I have some other playlists that are just my favorites movies, sorted by preference. The other advantage to playlists is that they play continously instead of stopping after each video, which is especially nice for TV series.

Have been very happy with this setup, but it did involve some work to set it up. You can get used 2014 Mini's for well under $100, even with a limited warranty from places such as MacSales/OWC. I used hard drives for media in the past, but after two failures over a period of years, I put it all on a USB SSD. No problems with that for a number of years and movies start faster. Big SSD's were expensive when I got this one but have gotten much cheaper today.

Now there's only one problem with this approach, as far as I can tell, shared video playlists have been broken on MacOS ever since Apple got rid of iTunes. A shared playlist works fine on the computer that hosts it, and they work fine on my two Apple TV's. But if I try to access them on another Mac, the playlist is empty. And iOS/iPadOS have never supported shared video playlists. That's annoying, but at least it works properly on the Apple TV.

Think have more, but they are spanned across over 16TB as the size of the rips can be pretty hefty these days. I dont use iTunes as a player, I'll either opt for IINA or Movist. The media is on HDD's, same have had a couple of failures over the years, however was able to recover. SSD isn't practical as I'd need 20TB...

Q-6

 

[priitv8]

Ive seen something on Mac to create smart playlists, but don't think thats quite the same.

Thanks for the detailed post, the hard drive route is good thought, but Im not sure I can be bothered doing that. On the subject of them removing titles, hopefully it doesn't happen, I remember we had the number of titles we own when we had the iTunes movie app, but them getting rid of that we no longer can see how many movies we have.

Smart playlists work very well and can do exactly what you are contemplating.
What I've always liked in Apple's approach is that the presentation and actual organisation of media somewhere inside a computer must not match at all. Actually, with apps like Aperture, iMovie or iTunes, I even do not need to know how/where the files are stored and organised. I only look at the presentation of my Library structure, as I have defined them.
So this is all good, but as I understand, your library consists of iTunes/aTV+ purchases only?
Inside the TV+ app I really see no way to organise my library in any way.
The locally stored library can be automatically sorted into whatever structure using playlists. Smart and dumb (fully manual) playlists.
And they are nicely visible in the Computers app on appleTV under Movies, TV Shows and Music tabs.

 

[Queen6]

Not super detailed but tells enough why & where...

Q-6

 

[phrehdd]

Not super detailed but tells enough why & where...

Q-6

Nicely done by Linus.

 

[Grun]

I put movies on hard drive in alphabetical order and add them to a spreadsheet. I use the spreadsheet to filter anything (80’s movies, action movies, Tom Cruise, etc.) and use the spreadsheet to see what to watch. Less hassle to change a spreadsheet than to move files around on a drive to different folders. Also, more flexible to customize.

 

[ledzep1]

With regards to creating playlists, I get 3 options new playlist, new smart playlist and new playlist folder.

Say for example I would like to create a playlist of my all time favourite action movies, which option would I be best selecting?

Thanks

 

[Boyd01]

Are you using the TV app on your Mac? I still use iTunes as a server, but I think it's the same. I don't use either of those options, I use File > New > Playlist. So, for example, I would name the playlist Action Movies (or whatever). Then I would right-click the movies I wanted and choose Add to Playlist, then select Action Movies. After you add the first movie, it's a little simpler - there should now be an option to add a movie to the most recent playlist (Action Movies) when you right-click it.

Just continue until you have all the movies you want in the list. Add them in the order you want them to play, or rearrange them after adding. The way your sort them in the TV app will also affect how they are shown on the Apple TV - either the original order that you created or sorted by name, director, etc.

Note that you must download all the movies to want to add to this kind of playlist. If the movies isn't already on your computer, it will be downloaded (after asking you).

 

[ledzep1]

Are you using the TV app on your Mac? I still use iTunes as a server, but I think it's the same. I don't use either of those options, I use File > New > Playlist. So, for example, I would name the playlist Action Movies (or whatever). Then I would right-click the movies I wanted and choose Add to Playlist, then select Action Movies. After you add the first movie, it's a little simpler - there should now be an option to add a movie to the most recent playlist (Action Movies) when you right-click it.

Just continue until you have all the movies you want in the list. Add them in the order you want them to play, or rearrange them after adding. The way your sort them in the TV app will also affect how they are shown on the Apple TV - either the original order that you created or sorted by name, director, etc.

Note that you must download all the movies to want to add to this kind of playlist. If the movies isn't already on your computer, it will be downloaded (after asking you).

Yeah I was using the Apple TV app on my Mac, I didn't want to download them, so Ive gone with the smart playlist as that doesn't require downloading to Mac, though I have no idea if these playlists have synced to my Apple TV 4K, not checked yet.
Shame the smart playlist doesn't have an actor filter, can only see an option for director, though the "description" filter works to some degree I think.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

With regards to creating playlists, I get 3 options new playlist, new smart playlist and new playlist folder.

Say for example I would like to create a playlist of my all time favourite action movies, which option would I be best selecting?

Thanks

If you want to fully control what is in a playlist, you use a NORMAL playlist... in which your own brain is doing the filtering for what goes in it.

If you want to algorithmically sort by available options to building a smart playlist- which is not really that many tags- you use a smart playlist and set your sort/screens and it will make a list for you.

Playlist Folders is just a way to put a bunch of playlists and/or smart playlists you might create in Music/TV apps or iTunes into a logical grouping (folder) so you don't have one big long list of playlists. For example, I have a playlist folder in Music called Decades, in which I have multiple smart playlists with names like [the] 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and so on. Instead of allocating 7-8 rows of them in the left bar of Music, the playlist folder uses ONE row- "Decades"- and I then click into that to get to the individual smart playlists.

For your "Say for example...", that absolutely screams regular playlist because what makes a "favorite" for you is probably not going to be in (m)any tags that can be used for smart playlist filtering. Forcing use of a smart playlist might only get you an approximation of your actual favorites... particularly if sortable variables are available that would do a pretty good job of defining "favorites" as you define it yourself.

In a regular playlist, YOU are the sort filterer... and thus are hand-picking a list of movies you consider your own favorites. Someone else in your household could do the exact same with their own playlist and put their (different) list of movies in their favorites folder. Or you could have several favorite playlists based on other factors like maybe [my] favorite action, favorite drama, favorite sci-fi, etc. Then you would have several favorites playlists to keep the lists from getting too long in one all-encompassing "favorites." If you had many of these genre favorites, you might make a playlist folder called LedZep1s Favorites and put all of them into that folder... to occupy only 1 line in the TV app.

And if you DID do that and ALSO wanted a single playlist that included ALL of your favorites in one big list, add an "All Favorites" playlists to that group and then grab the full lists in each genre folder to drag and drop into "All Favorites." Then you would have a very long list in All Favorites along with the individual genre favorites (shorter) lists too.

Lastly, you are fighting against yourself:

• you want a lot more control of your own media with these kinds of thoughts... BUT
• you want it to work within the TV app, which is very much about Apple controlling everything.

If you want richer control of your media, you DO need to download it to a big fat drive, DUMP using the AppleTV app (except perhaps if you want to watch something you rent or in 4K when available) and embrace the COMPUTERS app instead. It supports much more control as shared in prior posts. Computers (app) readily supports playlists and the "genre" hack too. TV app revolves around getting you to buy/rent/subscribe. It almost doesn't care about media you've already purchased. The goal is more money.

I don't think you can get all you want working with the TV app and Apple storing/possessing your media. Instead, you have to do it THEIR way... and their motivations are very different than yours. Computers (app) will shift much control of all of this to YOU... but to make that work does mean possessing your media instead of leaving it with strangers in the cloud.

 

[ledzep1]

If you want to fully control what is in a playlist, you use a NORMAL playlist... in which your own brain is doing the filtering for what goes in it.

If you want to algorithmically sort by available options to building a smart playlist- which is not really that many tags- you use a smart playlist and set your sort/screens and it will make a list for you.

Playlist Folders is just a way to put a bunch of playlists and/or smart playlists you might create in Music/TV apps or iTunes into a logical grouping (folder) so you don't have one big long list of playlists. For example, I have a playlist folder in Music called Decades, in which I have multiple smart playlists with names like [the] 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and so on. Instead of allocating 7-8 rows of them in the left bar of Music, the playlist folder uses ONE row- "Decades"- and I then click into that to get to the individual smart playlists.

For your "Say for example...", that absolutely screams regular playlist because what makes a "favorite" for you is probably not going to be in (m)any tags that can be used for smart playlist filtering. Forcing use of a smart playlist might only get you an approximation of your actual favorites... particularly if sortable variables are available that would do a pretty good job of defining "favorites" as you define it yourself.

In a regular playlist, YOU are the sort filterer... and thus are hand-picking a list of movies you consider your own favorites. Someone else in your household could do the exact same with their own playlist and put their (different) list of movies in their favorites folder. Or you could have several favorite playlists based on other factors like maybe [my] favorite action, favorite drama, favorite sci-fi, etc. Then you would have several favorites playlists to keep the lists from getting too long in one all-encompassing "favorites." If you had many of these genre favorites, you might make a playlist folder called LedZep1s Favorites and put all of them into that folder... to occupy only 1 line in the TV app.

And if you DID do that and ALSO wanted a single playlist that included ALL of your favorites in one big list, add an "All Favorites" playlists to that group and then grab the full lists in each genre folder to drag and drop into "All Favorites." Then you would have a very long list in All Favorites along with the individual genre favorites (shorter) lists too.

Lastly, you are fighting against yourself:

• you want a lot more control of your own media with these kinds of thoughts... BUT
• you want it to work within the TV app, which is very much about Apple controlling everything.

If you want richer control of your media, you DO need to download it to a big fat drive, DUMP using the AppleTV app (except perhaps if you want to watch something you rent or in 4K when available) and embrace the COMPUTERS app instead. It supports much more control as shared in prior posts. Computers (app) readily supports playlists and the "genre" hack too. TV app revolves around getting you to buy/rent/subscribe. It almost doesn't care about media you've already purchased. The goal is more money.

I don't think you can get all you want working with the TV app and Apple storing/possessing your media. Instead, you have to do it THEIR way... and their motivations are very different than yours. Computers (app) will shift much control of all of this to YOU... but to make that work does mean possessing your media instead of leaving it with strangers in the cloud.

Yeah thanks for that, I just realised the playlists don't sync across to my Apple TV/Ipad, so like you say downloading is the best option if I want better control.

 

[Boyd01]

I agree that downloading is the only way to do this and also suggest dowloading because you never know when Apple might pull them from the store. It's really easy to arrange playlists any way you like this way, just drag them to the order you want in the list. And it's easy to change in the future by just dragging them into a different order.

You will still have the option to sort by name, director... whatever by just clicking on the appropriate column heading in the TV app on your Mac. This same order will be used on the Apple TV. You can revert to your custom order by clicking the first (number) column heading.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

That's right. There's no way to let other people control your stuff but then you have your stuff your way. One or the other has to give. Here's the steps...

1. Buy a big HDD (with capacity for future additions). They are dirt cheap.
2. Download your entire collection. Bonus: by 100% possessing your collection, you 100% control them forever after.
3. Turn off one feature in the TV/iTunes app so that it leaves the files where they are (on that big HDD) instead of trying to import them to the internal drive*.
4. If you want your Photos app photos & photos albums to ALSO be available in the one app, check another box**
5. Make video playlists as you desire them in the TV/iTunes app. And/or use the genre hack described earlier as another way to get a similar result. In Music/iTunes app, make music playlists as you desire them too. In the Photos app, make photo albums as you want them too.
6. Turn on Home Sharing so that AppleTV "Computers" app can access everything as set up in the Music/iTunes, TV/iTunes and.or Photos apps.
7. Use Computers app on AppleTV to have it all your way. Bonus: you'll no longer be subjected to the barrage of attempts to get you to buy/rent/subscribe to other media. Computers app is "iPod for your TV." TV app is "Blockbuster video/media 'store' for your TV."

*the feature to uncheck to make #3 work is illustrated below. Uncheck that box to leave big video media on the #1 big HDD vs. importing to the limited-capacity, internal drive...

**the feature to check to make your Photos (app) photos and photo albums (photos equivalent to playlists) readily available within the Computers app too...

If you only want SOME photos available on AppleTV, click that "Choose..." button and then you can select only some albums to share with AppleTV. This same capability exists for movies and music too: you can opt to share only some movies & music playlists vs. all movies & music in your entire libraries.

 

[Plutonius]

On the subject of them removing titles, hopefully it doesn't happen,

Unfortunately, look at Redbox recently. All the people who had paid to have access and stream a movie title, just lost their movies without getting any type of refund.

Apple is a large corporation but there is no guarantee that people will not lose access to some or all of their video / music purchases.