iTunes TV Show/Movie Location

[simontarr]

I'm currently in the process of converting all my AVIs into MP4s so that I can import them into iTunes for the Apple TV.

I have just one slight problem, though. And that is any movies that you add into your iTunes library are copied into your music library locally on the Macintosh HD. All my movies are stored on a few external HDs (and that's where I want them to stay) and my music collection is stored locally.

Is there anything to be done to tell iTunes to find my music locally as normal, but then find any movies added in their original locations (in this case, one of my external HDs)? I don't really want gigs and gigs worth of movies to be stored on my internal disk.

Is there something that I'm missing, or is it a 'flaw' in iTunes. I hope they upgrade iTunes to allow you to specify a seperate mini-library just for movies/TV shows.

Hope this makes sense

Simon

 

[Krevnik]

Is there something that I'm missing, or is it a 'flaw' in iTunes. I hope they upgrade iTunes to allow you to specify a seperate mini-library just for movies/TV shows.

Hope this makes sense

Simon

It makes sense... but you are right that it is a flaw in iTunes.

The catch is that you /can/ use multiple iTunes libraries, but you have to hold down option when launching iTunes to switch between them. Each library can be where you want it, so you can have a Music library and a Movie library for example. But once again is the flaw that you can't view multiple libraries at once, and you have to relaunch iTunes with a key combo just to switch to a different one.

 

[simontarr]

Thanks for that- I didn't know you could switch between libraries.
The only thing is, I can't really see it helping me because I shouldn't think Apple TV will be able to dynamically switch between the two.

I think Apple will realise this in the next few updates- they are pushing you to download loads of music/videos and not everyone has huge internal hard disks.

Si

 

[Krevnik]

Well, you can also setup iTunes to not copy files when you add it to the library. The catch is that downloaded movies/music will still go to your internal HD at first, and you then become responsible for the filesystem layout of your library.

It is a bummer, I know. I am having similar issues when it comes to me ripping my DVD collection into iTunes... especially now that I have figured out how to rip HD content I have purchased.

 

[Apple Genius]

I got the same issue with duplicating huge movies.
I want it to do that with songs... But not movies.