iOS 17.2 and tvOS 17.2 Kill TV Show and Movie Wishlists With No Warning

[jz0309]

How do I get my rips to show in the AppleTV app?

On AppleTV ( the black box) there is the computer app.
And on iOS, they show up on the TV app, under library

 

[jz0309]

AppleTV (default) app is basically a media rental/sales/sell subscriptions app. It's mostly about helping Apple make more services revenue.

Computers (default) app is THE app for your own rips of music, movies, tv shows and photos, as well as any purchases from Apple that you've downloaded to store in your own storage. It's about letting content owners enjoy their own content (instead of Apples and other subscription sellers).

Yea, I forgot about photos, but of course that only works with the Photos app which in my book is garbage, but that is not topic of this thread…

 

[jz0309]

You can't. I use the Plex Media Server and App on the Apple TV for my ripped media.

Yes you can, see my reply above

 

[Chazz12]

AppleTV (default) app is basically a media rental/sales/sell subscriptions app. It's mostly about helping Apple make more services revenue.

Computers (default) app is THE app for your own rips of music, movies, tv shows and photos, as well as any purchases from Apple that you've downloaded to store in your own storage. It's about letting content owners enjoy their own content (instead of Apple and other subscription sellers content).

Does it sort your movies by genre that way? That's one reason I use Plex is it does that. WAY back when Apple TV was a baby I don't recall the computers app doing that.

 

[Chazz12]

Yes you can, see my reply above

Lol. No, you can't. See the question above. They asked about the Apple TV App, not the computers App...

 

[jz0309]

Does it sort your movies by genre that way? That's one reason I use Plex is it does that. WAY back when Apple TV was a baby I don't recall the computers app doing that.

You can add metadata to your ripped content, but by default my movies are displayed in alphabetical order

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Does it sort your movies by genre that way? That's one reason I use Plex is it does that. WAY back when Apple TV was a baby I don't recall the computers app doing that.

Yes, and see post #21 for a bit more on this topic: you can use genre (tag) to group serialized/sequel movies for quick access. For example, I set all the Star Wars movies to genre Star Wars and all of the James Bond movies to genre James Bond. That's not the proper intent of the genre tag, but it appears to be the best workaround to bring serialized movies all together for quick access.

AppleTV UI used to respect the "Show" tag so that a bunch of related movies could share the same Show tag name: like Star Trek or Harry Potter. The Movies list would then present only the single line for those kinds of movies- yielding a shorter overall movies list- that you could click to then expose the movies in that grouping. For example, scroll down the list to the single line "Star Wars" then click it to show the 1X Star Wars movie choices. Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Potter, Bond, Aliens, Marvel, DC, etc. Use that Show tag could yield a relatively short Movies list but still offer quick access to whatever you seek.

Then, Apple being Apple, decided to improve upon that by stripping that feature away and offering nothing equivalent. Thus, that Genre hack becomes the best workaround.

 

[Chazz12]

You can add metadata to your ripped content, but by default my movies are displayed in alphabetical order

I'll wait for HobeSound to answer. He seems to know a bit more...

 

[Chazz12]

Yes, and see post #21 for a bit more on this topic: you can use genre to group serialized/sequel movies for quick access.

Nice! I'll have to play around with it. Right now I have my media on an external hard drive, and the media server is pointing to it. I'll have to try and see if I can do that with the Computers App too. I'll check the other post, too.

 

[jz0309]

Lol. No, you can't. See the question above. They asked about the Apple TV App, not the computers App...

Well, they said “AppleTV” - is that the app or the device? But I’m still in 17.1 on my Apple TV device so cannot check the new version if the app, but the ripped movies do show in the TV app on my iPhone …

 

[Chazz12]

There are ways to do this, you just have to be creative... and use the Computers app instead of the AppleTV app. The former is the MUCH BETTER app for owned content. The AppleTV app has an extreme focus on extracting more revenue out of its users. IMO: that's what's eroding that app- too much push to further enrich Apple at the expense of user experience.

Apple USED to let the SHOW tag group serialized movies. For example, insert "James Bond" for all 2X Bond movies in the SHOW tag and you would have 1 line item called James Bond in the main list of movies. Click that to then see all of them (like menu and submenu functionality). Workaround: use GENRE for this. Create a Genre called James Bond (and Star Trek and Star Wars and Harry Potter) and then choose that genre when you want to quickly get to one of those movies. Tag the individual movie files GENRE with a single name that will group all of the sequels together. For example, Genre James Bond will present all of the James Bond movies when selected.

Download all iTunes Store purchased content to a local drive to sever the streaming dependency. Then you can use the Computers app for your own owned content instead of having to lean on the AppleTV app.

Take advantage of the TV Show sorting & organizing features to get your sitcoms organized under the TV Show tab in the Computers app. TV Show tags will get things in Show and then Season order.

Good tip: instead of using the Home Movies tag, make your Home Movies into a TV Show (tag) too, so you can get them into Year (Season) order, to make it easy to find the 201X video you call Christmas without having to hunt through several home movies you've also named Christmas. All of my very large collection of home movies are tagged as a "TV show" called Home Movies. Within that click one can find a few decades worth of TV Show seasons (which is basically grouping them by year, even in date order (episode tags) within those years). Within those seasons, it's easy to find the "episode" I want to watch.

Computers app lacks the promotional focus, so no pushes for rentals or purchases, subscriptions, sports content, etc. As some boys on a famous Life cereal commercial once pitched: try it, you'll like it (Hey Mikey).

If anyone sees HobeSound's response to me and wants to go back to post #21, here it is!

 

[t0rqx]

Let me guess. Generating wishlist with AI needs the A18 Pro.

 

[ray73864]

This comment right here. Wishlists didn't go anywhere, I checked. Can we all do some research before writing articles and angry comments? lol

Yes they did, they vanished.

The wishlist from the 'Movies' app, and the favourites from the 'TV Series' app has never synced with anything outside of the Apple TV ecosystem.

For years and years I have been amassing a collection on the wishlist from the Movies app, and for years across various other Apple devices (Except an iPhone as I don't own one) I have never been able to view the wishlist/favourites on iTunes.

When I go to iTunes on a macbook or iPad (The PC version of iTunes is for podcasts only now), the wishlist it shows only has the couple of things I added a long time ago on the iPad just to test to see what would happen between iTunes on the iPad and Movies/TV Series on the ATV.

My 200 strong wishlist on the Apple TV is just, gone...

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Nice! I'll have to play around with it. Right now I have my media on an external hard drive, and the media server is pointing to it. I'll have to try and see if I can do that with the Computers App too. I'll check the other post, too.

If your media is in Apple native formats, you can easily do what I've described.

Tip: uncheck ONE box in the TV app settings to leave the movies on the external drive but organize them in the TV app (this keeps them from importing to your internal drive). This is key to Home Sharing being able to "see" them and thus show them in Movies tab in the Computers app on AppleTV.

If that's checked, it wants to import the movies from the external drive to the internal drive (and you'll probably run out of space or eat up a lot of space). If unchecked, it leaves them where they already are BUT organizes them in the TV app so they can show on AppleTV, Computers app, Movies tab (with home sharing set up).

If you are using iTunes on an older Mac or PC, the same option can be found in Settings too and works the same way.

Other than photos and music, I store all of my (movie, TV shows, home movies) media on big external storage and use this tip to make it all available in the Computers app.

To share Photos to the Computers app on AppleTV, you "approve" that in a different place when you turn Home Sharing on...

With that you can opt to share all photos or only select albums. If the latter, click "Choose..." button and select the photo albums you want to be available on AppleTV.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Really a lazy move Apple.

 

[Realityck]

Why is Apple throwing everything into the AppleTV app? They are making it into the new old version of iTunes?

Because they want to centralize using one app rather then the older iTunes Movies, and iTunes TV. Aside from the wish list that can be substituted using other services, apps looking for specific price drops with your wished content.

Now they really need to work on Apple TV app navigation and search in later tvOS updates as well as add further refinements to how content is displayed then using large images.

Two well known examples

‎CheapCharts - Digital Deals

‎Are you an avid iTunes Store or Apple TV shopper? Welcome to CheapCharts, your ultimate savings ally! With CheapCharts, the best deals on all Apple digital media are at your fingertips. From Movies, TV Series, Books, and Music to Apps and MacApps, we've got deals for everything you love...

apps.apple.com

All iTunes Movie Deals - Your price tracker for iTunes and Vudu | CheapCharts

Save up to 80% on iTunes movie deals and other offers for all digital products like movies, music, TV shows, books, audiobooks and apps. CheapCharts is the ultimate deal platform and price tracker for iTunes and Vudu Stores.

www.cheapcharts.info

https://www.blu-ray.com/deals/?category=ituneshd
This TV/Movies site offers easy to select countries and multiple formats/stores and digital stores such as Apple's using safari for all your media (physical/streaming) needs.

Note: Apple finally fixed that library bug in tvOS 17..1 that prevented very large collections from displaying. That was the #1 reason they left iTunes apps there until 17.2 came out.

 

[MacGod]

Absolutely hate 17.2 and the removal of TV and Movies from the ITUNES app. It makes it so much harder to view content in The Apple TV application. Bad move. I was content with shopping in one app, and seeing my content in another app.

 

[PKIDelirium]

Am I the only one that switched from the iTunes movie and TV storefronts to the Apple TV app one as soon as it became available? If I'm looking for a specific movie, sure it's disappointing if it isn't available to buy or rent via Apple, but the results will tell me where it IS available if I want to use one of the listed sources.

I'm not sure if the tvOS app has is but I often browse the sale sections from the TV app on my phone, where special seasonal/anniversary pricing is shown on the home page and also specific sections to browse by $4.99 and whatnot.

 

[dampfnudel]

5-6 years ago, they did the App Store Wishlist dirty too. Never came back…

I guess Apple wants their customers to use a third-party wishlist app or maybe a piece of paper so they can clear up space on their servers for something else.

 

[dampfnudel]

Absolutely hate 17.2 and the removal of TV and Movies from the ITUNES app. It makes it so much harder to view content in The Apple TV application. Bad move. I was content with shopping in one app, and seeing my content in another app.

Well, under some circumstances, consolidation makes sense and maybe in the long run, this will make sense too. Apple just needs to improve it.

 

[windywalks]

The Apple TV app is really bad at helping you organize anything.
Let us make lists why don't ya?
Simplicity through stupidity should be Apple's new motto.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

I’ve been using CheepCharts for a while now
For my wish list.

 

[jayryco]

5-6 years ago, they did the App Store Wishlist dirty too. Never came back…

I was so disappointed and confused when they removed it from the App Store, like why remove actual useful features?! And still gone to this day.

I miss iTunes, it really was the greatest. It only needed some modern tweaks, instead now were left with like 5 lesser versions.

 

[MikeyMike01]

Time for a shake up at Apple. Tim needs to go. A clear lack of innovation and poor design choices of late.

Take the Car Play share implementation. Everytime the family want to use it they have to re-join. Why does t it remember them for every journey?

And FaceTime continuity camera for AppleTV is absolutely buggy garbage. I’d rather spend £99 on a dedicated camera that works 100%.

Also no way of clearing the viewing history of just one show? I’m trying to rewatch something and it’s really annoying as you have to rewind to the start of each episode and then they don’t automatically start the next one.

The magic is completely gone

 

[Realityck]

The Apple TV app is really bad at helping you organize anything.
Let us make lists why don't ya?
Simplicity through stupidity should be Apple's new motto.

Organization, navigation, selling content, browse whats new, find related content or suggest content. The Apple App needs a lot of work, instead of the simplified methods currently in place. Apple used this Apple TV app too much to point people to the Apple TV + service, and anything else is secondary.

Generally I have to leave tvOS and use apps on a IPad or logging into streaming services on a web browser with a laptop or desktop for find what new, or to get suggestions for what to watch.