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Will iTunes purchases ever be searchable?

A

ajiuo

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 9, 2011
1,129
641
I wish Apple would fix Siri so that she could search my iTunes purchase and not what is currently available on iTunes. For example you can't search for (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp) because they are no longer for sale... So I have to brows through my purchase. I also have a lot of movies like (Poltergeist, and Mary Poppins) where there is now a new version for sale... So Siri will find the new version and not the version I own. I also have problems with movies that have both a theatrical and extended version. I really hope Apple fixes this... Because I search for a movie and I'm constantly second-guessing if I already own it or not... So I have to go through my purchases manually, which kind of defeats the purpose of Siri.

They also need to completely redesigned the computer app. That user interface is even worse with the new remote than it was with the old one. You can't hold the down button to scan quickly. And it's way too easy to sideswipe between the three categories of the top... And every time you accidentally swipe over you have to start over scrolling again... It's really annoying when you have a lot of movies.
 
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Reactions: Rigby
Agree that this is a major missing feature. I'm sure most ATV4 owners have movie/music/tv purchases that would be more easily accessed if Siri could search them. The addition of Bluetooth keyboard functionality will help, but I consider purchase search a must-have feature and can't imagine why it wasn't an original consideration when updating the ATV and its os.
 
Totally agree with this miss. Should have been there ages ago. Can't imagine how they could have left it out for so long.
 
bruceh2 said:
Agree that this is a major missing feature. I'm sure most ATV4 owners have movie/music/tv purchases that would be more easily accessed if Siri could search them. The addition of Bluetooth keyboard functionality will help
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, there is no way to search for purchased movies even with text input, so I don't think keyboard support will help with this particular issue as it is now. The same goes for content from local Home Sharing libraries.
but I consider purchase search a must-have feature and can't imagine why it wasn't an original consideration when updating the ATV and its os.
Click to expand...
Yep. I wish they'd at least add search fields at the top of the lists in Movies/Purchased and Computers/Movies/TV Shows. That way, we could at least search using the newly announced dictation feature in tvOS 9.2 instead of scrolling through long lists with the touchpad.
 
well from the looks of things we are getting a lot of features we have been asking for in the next tvOS update. No reason not to think this is also in the works.
 
Chill2 said:
No reason to believe it is either - Apple, for some reason, have ignored the needs of those who store iTunes content local for years
Click to expand...

Oh you meant search homeSharing? With so many users who rip/tag movies, I doubt Apple will support Siri HomeSharing.

I thought you meant searching iTunes content in the cloud
 
2010mini said:
Oh you meant search homeSharing? With so many users who rip/tag movies, I doubt Apple will support Siri HomeSharing.

I thought you meant searching iTunes content in the cloud
Click to expand...

If that's the reason, and it may well be, then it is poor form from Apple, they should support the millions of honest loyal iTunes customers that have bought movies from them. Not every one can rely on movies in the cloud. Apple slow us to download them to local storage they should provide a usable interface
 
Chill2 said:
If that's the reason, and it may well be, then it is poor form from Apple, they should support the millions of honest loyal iTunes customers that have bought movies from them. Not every one can rely on movies in the cloud. Apple slow us to download them to local storage they should provide a usable interface
Click to expand...

The future is the cloud. Remember when Steve Jobs famously mused that using local storage for Apple TV as 'such a chore'?? That was back during the ATV 2 days. Apple, and all video content owners for that matter want you to stream from their cloud
 
Rigby said:
As far as I can tell, there is no way to search for purchased movies even with text input, so I don't think keyboard support will help with this particular issue as it is now. The same goes for content from local Home Sharing libraries.
Click to expand...
You can, in Remote app at least.
I was about yo say, that since aTV4 version no longer allows you to browse your Home Shares, Remote app has become less useful.
BUT, the good news is, that the AirPlay seems to have changed!
Now, you can kick off a playback from your HomeShared library (use the iTunes icon in Remote app, not the aTV icon!), then klick the AirPlay icon, set it to play on your aTV and off you go!
Now you can even switch your iPhone off, the movie continues to play directly from your serving iTunes to aTV.
I would call it AirPlay handoff :D
 
They did add the ability to use Siri with search boxes... At least they have been addressing some of the issues. I'm kind of expecting the new Apple TV remote app after the March event
 
priitv8 said:
BUT, the good news is, that the AirPlay seems to have changed!
Now, you can kick off a playback from your HomeShared library (use the iTunes icon in Remote app, not the aTV icon!), then klick the AirPlay icon, set it to play on your aTV and off you go!
Now you can even switch your iPhone off, the movie continues to play directly from your serving iTunes to aTV.
I would call it AirPlay handoff :D
Click to expand...
That's actually not new. ;) Airplay has had this capability for several years. Works with streaming iTunes videos from the cloud too, as well as various 3rd party apps and websites.
 
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