iTunes TV Show Labeling

[eshroom]

So, I have backed up most of my TV shows and organised them into iTunes. Since the backing up process is slow anyway, it's not too taxing to change each individual episode from "Movie" to "TV Show". However, I did a little experiment to see if the information is remembered. Season numbers, TV show names and album art are all remembered, however, when imported for the second time (after having been deleted) all the TV shows appear as movies.

In the eventuality that say my hard drive fails. I have data like this backed up, but there is no way I would have the patience to go through over 800 shows changing each one from "Movie" to "TV Show". So my question is (and I have searched extensively for an answer), is there a way to do this en mass? And if no, do you think they will ever implement this feature into iTunes, it is oh so annoying having to do each episode one by one.

Many thanks.

 

[kfordham281]

Can applescript do it?

 

[eshroom]

If it can, I'd love to know how. I am capable of following instructions, and have been getting familiar with terminal and linux recently, so if someone could post some basic instructions, I should be able to work it out....

 

[eshroom]

If no one can tell me how, can someone tell me if it can be done. If it can, I will do the research and find out how, but I don't want to spend hours learning about something I may never use if it can't do what I want it to do. Thanks.

 

[RumMunkey]

Do it in MetaX instead. I'm 99.99% sure this will write the "TV Show" flag to the file, and not the XML file (like iTunes is doing).

Report back and confirm if you try it.

If it doesn't work and you HAVE to do it in iTunes, run this script to batch change a bunch of shows (but again, this is only in the XML file... if MetaX works the way I think it does, you don't ever have to change it again).

 

[DarkHeraldMage]

Do it in MetaX instead. I'm 99.99% sure this will write the "TV Show" flag to the file, and not the XML file (like iTunes is doing).

Report back and confirm if you try it.

If it doesn't work and you HAVE to do it in iTunes, run this script to batch change a bunch of shows (but again, this is only in the XML file... if MetaX works the way I think it does, you don't ever have to change it again).

MetaX writes to the file. I've been encoding files with it on my MBP and then moving over to my PC for storage and they still read the same. I highly suggest MetaX. Especially since all you're needing is to switch that one field. Just add all your videos into the MetaX queue, then ONLY change the field on the second tab from Movie to TV show and then run it. It'll take a while to change that many video files, but it will be permanent.

 

[Blubbert]

I remember trying to just what you described, that is to have all my tv shows in iTunes, labeled correctly as tv shows. i found an apple script called Set Video Kind of Selected. It allowed me to set the video kind, enter the show name, the season, all that. Even with all that, i went back to my old set up of using aliases in the movies folder because i did not like the organization of the shows that Frontrow did. I wanted them to be show>season>episode, but instead i got show>episode>season...

 

[RumMunkey]

I remember trying to just what you described, that is to have all my tv shows in iTunes, labeled correctly as tv shows. i found an apple script called Set Video Kind of Selected. It allowed me to set the video kind, enter the show name, the season, all that. Even with all that, i went back to my old set up of using aliases in the movies folder because i did not like the organization of the shows that Frontrow did. I wanted them to be show>season>episode, but instead i got show>episode>season...

um...post #5?

 

[eshroom]

Thank you so much guys. Sorry for the bumping. I don't make a habit of it, but this time it found me the perfect solution. MetaX is amazing, and so much better than some of the applications which charge! Definitely one program that deserves a donation!!!

Just in case anyone here know this one too. Any idea how to batch make Quicktime reference movies?