Music Videos on Apple TV

[OilKiller]

So I've downloaded some music videos and want to sync them with my Apple TV. Can anyone give some pointers on the best way to do this and is it possible to get it to play them in some sort of random order like music can be so they can be played back in shuffle fashion?

Thanks for any help guys.

[HeartsOfFire]

Short answer: Yes you can.

Long answer:

AppleTV treats music videos as both music and music videos.

Syncing them is just as easy as syncing your music to your ATV, if you want to go that route. You can also stream them from your PC to your ATV and over your home theater. I don't know if you can select a Music Video from your PC and have it play over AirTunes though... let me check...

Nope, only plays the song not the vid.

As for shuffling them, yeah it's actually pretty idiot-proof.

Select Music or Music Videos, then in the next menu, select 'Shuffle Songs'

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by HeartsOfFire

Select Music or Music Videos, then in the next menu, select 'Shuffle Songs'

Not quite sure how to sync them as 'music videos' though. I can sync them in iTunes under movies, but they don't show up in music videos. What am I doing wrong?

[HeartsOfFire]

Oh, so these are music videos you got from somewhere OTHER than the iTunes store?

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by HeartsOfFire

Oh, so these are music videos you got from somewhere OTHER than the iTunes store?

Yup.

I've done some more research and it seems I'm not the only one wanting to do this, but it looks like Apple TV cannot. Really, really unfortunate. Making this thing a video jukebox would have been a cool feature.

My WDTV media player apparently doesn't do it either.

[HeartsOfFire]

Highlight all Music Videos that iTunes has confused as a 'Movie.' Right click.

-> Get info
-> 'Options' tab
-> 'Media kind' pull-down scroll.
-> Change from Movie to Music Video.
-> OK

iTunes will do the rest.

And from that point on, like I said before, it's pretty idiot-proof.

Works the other way too. I briefly convinced my iTunes that the Iron Man movie (purchased from the iTunes store) was a music video.

[OilKiller]

This forum rocks. Post a question and you have an answer. Thanks so much for your help HeartsOfFire! Worked perfectly when I could not find an answer anywhere else on the Internet.

[HeartsOfFire]

Yeah, I'm kind of an AppleTV guru.

[OilKiller]

So another question...

Kind of a few hoops to make this whole video thing work, but it does work. It seems to be able to delete any of these videos from iTunes you kind of have to reverse the whole procedure as there is no part of My Library that is listed as Music Videos, so I have to go to Playlists - Music Videos, right click a video, choose Get Info, options and then set it back to being a movie. It will then show up in the Movies section of my Library, then I can delete the file. Why I can't simply click the listed video under Devices - Apple TV - Music Videos and delete it from there is beyond me. When I go to that list, the files are all listed, but they are grayed out (have a deactivated look). I can actually right click on a file there and choose Get Info but the pop up options dialog is also all grayed out and I can't change anything.

There is no Delete option from any right click menu either until the file is back under Movies in My Library. God help you if you manually delete a file from the folder you were storing it in, because then there seems to be no way to get that file back to the Movies section without it existing, so how would you then ever delete it from your list?

Who wrote this software? Gypsies?

Am I making this harder than I have to or am I missing something?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Why I can't simply click the listed video under Devices - Apple TV - Music Videos and delete it from there is beyond me. When I go to that list, the files are all listed, but they are grayed out (have a deactivated look). I can actually right click on a file there and choose Get Info but the pop up options dialog is also all grayed out and I can't change anything.

You probably have automatic sync turned on for the AppleTV, so the management of individual files is not directly under your control.

[sclitheroe]

You should also investigate managing your synchronization via playlists. If you created a playlist that contained the music and music vids you wanted to have on the AppleTV, you could move stuff in and out of that playlist any time, and the next time you sync, the ATV will pick up the changes.

Playlists for music can be explicitly set to sync vids as well as music, so I think this is exactly what you are after.

The key though is to set the AppleTV to manual sync so you can pick and choose which music playlists are getting synced.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

You probably have automatic sync turned on for the AppleTV, so the management of individual files is not directly under your control.

Nope. It's on.

But the person after you states:

The key though is to set the AppleTV to manual sync so you can pick and choose which music playlists are getting synced.

Does software really need to be this difficult to use?

All I want is to be able to have a list of music videos that I sync with Apple TV. I want to be able to delete those from that list at any time. Even if the file doesn't exist anymore.

Now I see in the "Music" portion of My Library, the videos are added to the actual list of music I had in there. They were added on the bottom of a huge list so I didn't see that. They have a video icon next to them in the list. That at least makes it more manageable.

I do find iTunes very strange to use. Unlike most software I've ever worked with and I'm not sure why some basic functionality seems to escape me in this thing.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

All I want is to be able to have a list of music videos that I sync with Apple TV. I want to be able to delete those from that list at any time. Even if the file doesn't exist anymore.

Yeah, so you need to create a playlist of music vids you want synced, turn automatic sync off, then specify that playlist in the list of music that does get synced. Adding or removing any vids from the playlist will cause the AppleTV to pick up the changes on the next sync.

Thinking in terms of playlists, rather than trying to use iTunes as a file manager, is the key idea to get your head wrapped around. iTunes is a list manager, not really a file manager.