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[Magic_Randy]

In addition to image backups, I also started doing file backups.  It took a long time, so I investigated it and found once again the problem was with iTunes. 

The cover art handling in iTunes is terrible.  There were 22,516 files and 19,006 folders to store the cover art.  How inefficient could you possibly be?  Even deleting this mess takes forever.

 

[benn600]

MC doesn't mess up your music folder structure.  iTunes always created random folders around the directory.

[Magic_Randy]

But I think 19,006 folders is too much.

[rjm]

There are only 2 reasons to use iTunes:

1) It is the only method of updating your iPod firmware.

2) It has a beautiful browser for selecting Podcasts to add to MC.

[AustinBike]

3.) Because it does a much better job of handling video.

I use MC for music and itunes for video.  I wish MC could do video as well.

[JimH]

3.) Because it does a much better job of handling video.

I use MC for music and itunes for video.  I wish MC could do video as well.

?

[AustinBike]

MC only puts all the video into movies.

Here is the menu:

Video
     Movies
          South park episode 7 blah blah blah
          south park episode 9 cartman finds his ass
          scrubs
          glengarry glenross
          amelie


But with itunes you get:

Video
     TV shows
          South park
               Season 3
                     Cartman finds his ass
               Season 7
                      Blah blah blah
          Scrubs
      Movies
             Glengarry glenross
             Amelie

As you can see, itunes has a much better management.  If you go into MC and set the media sub type it all still falls into movies.

Either it's broken or someone doesn't care.  That is why I use MC for music and itunes for video.

[benn600]

Are you crazy?  MC can do anything you want but you have to set it up!  You can easily change the genre of certain media files and then the panes at the top will show TV Shows, Movies, etc just as you like.  Using genre for this works great and it's quite easy to setup, too.

I still like iTunes to browse for music and listen to previews.  It's nice to read reviews, see top downloads, and instantly play any song I want (preview).

[AustinBike]

Are you crazy?  MC can do anything you want but you have to set it up!  You can easily change the genre of certain media files and then the panes at the top will show TV Shows, Movies, etc just as you like.  Using genre for this works great and it's quite easy to setup, too.

Um, not on my system.  I tried it several times with several different versions and it never worked.  Ever.

[benn600]

You have to know how to tell the computer what to do.

[prod]

Um, not on my system.  I tried it several times with several different versions and it never worked.  Ever.

Hi

You should be able to add a view scheme for what you're asking, try the following scheme;

Media Sub Type (e.g. Movie, TV Show)
Album (e.g. South Park, Amelie)
Season (e.g. 3, 7)
Name (e.g. Cartman Finds His Ass)

So then you would then have what you're after;

Video
     TV shows
          South park
               Season 3
                     Cartman finds his ass
               Season 7
                      Blah blah blah
          Scrubs
      Movies
             Glengarry glenross
             Amelie

(or something very similar - try playing around with it)

[AustinBike]

No, it is not the view scheme, it is on the ipod itself.

itunes actually uses the genre, show and season info, jriver, regardless of how you tag the videos, drops everything in one big bucket under "movies". If I remember correctly the naming through itunes is also better than the naming through jriver. I believe jriver uses the cryptic file name and itunes uses the "name" tag.

[prod]

Gotcha. I don't do that, but agree with you, MC should sync stuff across in a similar or same way to iTunes.

[AustinBike]

*theoretically* the info is in the file tags somewhere.  I didnt' do anything fancy.  I used tivo desktop plus to turn the show from tivo to ipod format (H.264).  I was amazed that apple could make it so easy and MC wasn't able too.  Their product is so much better, but it really fell down here.

[prod]

I was amazed that apple could make it so easy and MC wasn't able too. 

I shouldn't be so amazed. My guess is that Apple license parts (or maybe wholes) of the technology for whatever they like to whoever they like. Because Tivo isn't an iTunes replacement they figure it's a good thing to license the tech to them. They prob wouldn't license the tech (or the price might be very high) to JR because by doing that they would be undermining their own product, iTunes. So I imagine JR generally work in the dark to a certain extent.

Caveat; I may be wrong of course. Or completely missed the point.

[AustinBike]

It has nothing to to with Tivo or licensing anything.  The content tags should be in the file, it's a matter of reading and categorizing, as I see it.  I could be completely off base here, but it appears that the gap is at the transfer point between JR and the ipod. 

[prod]

I'm certain that the iPod reads information about files from its database entries, not from file tags. So you need to know the minutiae of Apple's proprietary database format to properly transfer files to iPod (so the files show up in the menus in the proper manner, etc). I'm sure Apple will most likely license the details of this database format to certain people/companies and ask them very nicely to sign non-disclosure agreements. Other companies like JR will be forced take a more hit-and-miss approach to working out the format and this can cause discrepancies such as the one you are seeing in the two products.