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iPod tagging video as a tv show?

ignus graius said:
Glad to see this working for people!

Did you put the "Episode Order" tag ("tves" atom) in your episodes? I think that has something to do with how the episodes are sorted.

Another thing...the episode numbers ("tven" atoms) are tagged as the official production numbers (at least the iTMS does it that way). E.g., the first pilot for Lost has an episode number of 100A, not just simply "1".

The TV Shows I've done all have official websites with episode guides to help you tag episode numbers and descriptions. The Simpsons' guide, for example, can be found here:
http://www.thesimpsons.com/episode_guide
Click to expand...

I tried putting the Episode Order tags in, but nothing happened. I would go back and put in the production numbers instead, but I'd have to get new copies of the movie files as I don't believe it's possible to edit the current custom tags ("tven") to be longer than it was, unless you know something I don't.

Thanks for your help. :)
 
astrobot10:

that is correct, using this method, you cannot make the file size bigger or smaller - you are limited to modifying existing atoms. If you alter the size of any atom, the lengths of all the parent atoms need to be readjusted. Looking at file in a hex editor, the hierarchy is difficult to discern (well, it you already know the hierarchy, then it's not).

And if you alter the lengths of the atoms AND the actual raw video/audio data moves (which also assumes that your encoding program played like a good citizen and put the mdat atom last), you have to readjust the offsets of where chunks of data can be found in the file. In a 2hr long video file - that about 24,000 entries.

If you don't change the filesize, then this method works. You just can't create something out of nothing - you need to create first (in whatever tagging program), and then modify (in the hex editor).
 
darwen said:
This is not all that difficult to do. I can make the changes to the tag in about 30 seconds. That is well worth the problems it solves.
Click to expand...

Hey, I tried the HEX editing with an episode of weeds which I converted to mp4 using Videora iPod converter. I downloaded Hackman but when I search for the "©cmt" string it finds nothing. I tried some other ones and they didnt show up either. How exactly do I change the tag info on the video file? Am I doing something wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I want my new iPod to be perfectly organized.
 
hans.werner said:
Hey, I tried the HEX editing with an episode of weeds which I converted to mp4 using Videora iPod converter. I downloaded Hackman but when I search for the "©cmt" string it finds nothing. I tried some other ones and they didnt show up either. How exactly do I change the tag info on the video file? Am I doing something wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I want my new iPod to be perfectly organized.
Click to expand...
hans, are you on a Mac? Because if you are you should definitely go with anaxamander's program. I only use this method because I'm using Windows and don't have any programming experience. If you are on Windows, I can show you what I've discovered.

What episode of weeds did you convert? I can create a 1-second video with the TV tag info in it for you to examine.
 
Well I wish I were on a Mac, but sadly Im on Windows XP. I converted Weeds 101 the first episode. When I look at the HEX code all I see that makes any sence is "VIDEOLAN" and its own website address which I used to play the file before converting. If you could show me a short example that be great. I just for some reason can not find any of the strings that are contained in the tags.
 
hans.werner said:
Well I wish I were on a Mac, but sadly Im on Windows XP. I converted Weeds 101 the first episode. When I look at the HEX code all I see that makes any sence is "VIDEOLAN" and its own website address which I used to play the file before converting. If you could show me a short example that be great. I just for some reason can not find any of the strings that are contained in the tags.
Click to expand...
It sounds like iTunes may not even be tagging your file. Try removing it from your iTunes library and re-adding it. Does it retain its tag information? iTunes stores artist and album information in its database. It either gets this information from the file's tag or from the information you put in (that's why you can add artist information to WAVE files).

Here's a one-second video with tag information of your Weeds episode:
http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1Q1L8J9PYJZMW38ZG8Z54LSDNB

Now if you add this file to your iPod, it will show up under the "TV Shows" section. To link this tag information to the file you created, delete my file so that a "!" appears next to the entry in iTunes. Right-click on it and choose "Get Info". When iTunes asks if you would like to locate the file, browse to the video file you encoded with Videora, and iTunes should retain the TV Show information from my file.
 
ignus graius said:
It sounds like iTunes may not even be tagging your file. Try removing it from your iTunes library and re-adding it. Does it retain its tag information? iTunes stores artist and album information in its database. It either gets this information from the file's tag or from the information you put in (that's why you can add artist information to WAVE files).

Here's a one-second video with tag information of your Weeds episode:
http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1Q1L8J9PYJZMW38ZG8Z54LSDNB

Now if you add this file to your iPod, it will show up under the "TV Shows" section. To link this tag information to the file you created, delete my file so that a "!" appears next to the entry in iTunes. Right-click on it and choose "Get Info". When iTunes asks if you would like to locate the file, browse to the video file you encoded with Videora, and iTunes should retain the TV Show information from my file.
Click to expand...

That worked great thanks. But how do I get iTunes to actually tag the file? I need to be able to edit the rest of my shows as well. And it would be great if I could do it myself from scratch. I had a thought... Could it be that the files have to be named ".m4v"? I have then as ".mp4"

Well I tired editing the one-second video but everytime i try to add it to itunes in crashes itunes. I also tried the .mv4 thing but that didnt help either.
 
hans.werner said:
That worked great thanks. But how do I get iTunes to actually tag the file? I need to be able to edit the rest of my shows as well. And it would be great if I could do it myself from scratch. I had a thought... Could it be that the files have to be named ".m4v"? I have then as ".mp4"

Well I tired editing the one-second video but everytime i try to add it to itunes in crashes itunes. I also tried the .mv4 thing but that didnt help either.
Click to expand...
Right now, I suggest what we just did: tag a dummy file and just trick the iTunes database into applying the tag to your Videora-encoded file.

Here's the one-second video without any tag info:
http://s45.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2ZXM4HOHRX1E7332JGCU6OZQTS

Save that on your desktop, and then put a bunch of copies into a separate folder. Tag those as your episodes, and then do the same thing with deleting the file and replacing it with your own.

Private message me if you want to discuss it further.
 
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