Video Description Length

[Darran]

Why on earth is silly things like the following still not fixed by Apple?

Within iTunes you can enter a description for your own videos but iOS devices only display a few lines and cut the rest off. What's stupid is I even copied the description for the video from apples own iTunes version and pasted it into my personal copy of that movie.

Such a silly bug but an annoying own that should have been fixed by now. I really don't know how the products are tested and pass! It would be different if the description field within iTunes only allowed a certain number of characters but it doesn't it's the iOS device that then only displays a few lines when selecting the video in the videos iOS app.

 

[iEd]

Do you mean how the video title is truncated In the iOS video app?


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[Darran]

Yes but not the title the description. For instance within iTunes if you get info on a video you have and then enter text in the description field when it's displayed on the iOS device via the videos app it truncates the description to just a couple of lines. Completely pointless!

 

[iEd]

If I enter text in the description field for a video in iTunes for a video whose video kind is set as Movie I get a full description in iOS.


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[Darran]

If I enter text in the description field for a video in iTunes for a video whose video kind is set as Movie I get a full description in iOS.


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I don't.

When you say you get the full description how many lines of text are you using?

Mine is truncated after about 5 lines of text. Both my iphone 6 and my iPad mini are cut off at exactly the same point when viewing the film in the video iOS app just before tapping the play button. What's odd is the description I'm using is the description used within iTunes for apples version of the same movie. I'm just copying the movie description from iTunes into my own film file within iTunes. There's a big enough description box and it allows you to enter it and even displays it correctly within iTunes but once it's on any of my iOS devices it gets truncated after 5 lines....

 

[Darran]

Sorry to clarify within the videos iOS app the field is displayed as plot summary as it is within iTunes also.

 

[Darran]

iEd - I've just found this article online and although a little old I doubt the principle here has changed and mine is being truncated at 255 chars which all adds up. I'm not sure how yours didn't do this though unless your description was less than 255 chars or you were looking at the wrong field?

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/apple-tv-not-showing-descriptions

 

[Darran]

To summarise it seems there's two description fields within iTunes. A short description which is limited to 255 characters and is editable by users within iTunes and a long description which is unlimited and isn't editable by users within iTunes. Content purchased directly from iTunes uses the long description and will display all the text, the other limited description is just used for a two line summary etc however when adding your own movie file to iTunes you are only able to use the short description field and although iTunes lets you enter more than 255 chars of text when you view the file within your iTunes library or on your iOS device it truncates it to 255 chars.

All in all it's pretty annoying that you can only use a proper description of you but the content directly from iTunes and apple don't seem willing to inform you that only 255 chars of your entered description will display!

 

[iEd]

This is what I get in the iOS vid app for the plot summary for a iTunes purchased movie.

This is what I get on iTunes on my Mac for the same movie if I select get info and select the description tab. Here it is cut off.

This is what I get if I control click on the same Mac iTunes movie and select Show description.

Any of my ripped movies that I have in iTunes I don't use a description or never put one in.


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[Darran]

Yes so you are actually experiencing the same as me. I just don't understand why the apple devs don't allow us to use the full description field!

 

[iEd]

I'm not getting it in iOS. I see it in the description tab of iTunes OS X
Note my last post and description above each photo.

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[Darran]

That's strange because according to a developer at Apple that I have since been in contact with end users only have access to the short description field within iTunes and only files purchased from iTunes have the long description field completed.

 

[Darran]

Here's a thread over at Apples Discussion Forums.....

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5728985?start=0&tstart=0

I'd love to know how you managed to beat iTunes and modify the long description field?

 

[iEd]

Here's a thread over at Apples Discussion Forums.....

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5728985?start=0&tstart=0

I'd love to know how you managed to beat iTunes and modify the long description field?

For example I posted I didn't modify anything.


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[Darran]

For example I posted I didn't modify anything.


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No I believe you I just wondered how you managed to get around it as there is no way of being able to enter a long description within iTunes for one of your own videos. Unless without realising you are using match and it's using the iTunes version on your iOS devices or something similar.

 

[iEd]

I'm not using match. All of my ripped movies I keep the kind as" Home Movies". I just like them separate from my purchased iTunes movies. I'll have to see if I'm able to add a full description to my ripped movies. I've never tried it.


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[Darran]

I'm not using match. All of my ripped movies I keep the kind as" Home Movies". I just like them separate from my purchased iTunes movies. I'll have to see if I'm able to add a full description to my ripped movies. I've never tried it.


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Oh wow I wonder if the home movies type allows a full description and that's why. All mine are my own ripped movies and using the film type.

 

[iEd]

I may have found a solution.

You'll have to input the meta data for movie description in your files.
I found a free Mac app called Subler.
In this app you select you movie file and you can automatically chose to pull plot summary from iTunes once it does it pulls cast and crew info also.
It also will change the "kind" to movie you can then send a copy to iTunes and it will appear in the My Movies Section of iTunes.
Here's is my ripped version of Zero Dark Thirty. In iOS with the full iTunes plot summary.

Here it is in iTunes for Mac.

Now still when doing a option click on a movie in Mac iTunes and choosing get info and then description still yields a cut off description but this is true for iTunes purchased movies.

So I believe any issue is with get info description tab on iTunes Mac OSX
But to get full plot summary use Subler to pull the info from iTunes and add the meta data. It's a free app I found from a Google search not from the Mac App Store. I don't know if there Windows version.

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[Darran]

Good stuff thanks. I was actually looking at a meta data editor but one that pulls the data direct from iTunes is perfect as it saves me doing it manually! Haha. I love having everything filled out and named correctly, my OCD won't allow otherwise.

I still think it's crazy that after all the enhancements and features apple have worked on over the years they still haven't allowed the full description field to be displayed within iTunes and iOS for user added videos.

Here's a tip for you...

You seem to also like filling out all the correct data etc. I love having proper album art and movie covers as most of my media is self created or ripped. If you want to use the same cover as iTunes uses then do the following: search using google for "iTunes El dorado" or whatever your movie or album is called. Click on the corresponding link in the search results to open the iTunes page in your web browser. Here you will see the same stuff you'd see if you searched within iTunes itself and you will see the description and actors or track names. With the album cover or movie cover which will just be a thumbnail and too small for you to use in that form. Right click the image and choose properties, then select the file url which will end .jpg cop this then in a fresh browser window paste the copied text into the address bar and at the end before the file extension you will see the file size which is normally something small like 240x240.jpg change the sizes to be 600x600 then hit enter and a full size perfect cover will then display for you to save locally and then use as your artwork within iTunes. The benefit of doing this is the consistency of all your art displaying the same dimensions and as if you'd purchased it direct from iTunes if you now use your new meta data app for the rest of the info. The 600x600 size works for music, films and TV programme artwork and although you've entered 600x600 the film and TV artwork does display in a different aspect ratio which is good because square art looks weird for videos.

Not sure if you already did this but if not it might be of use! I used to either make my own or search google or Amazon and then crop it all out. Now I just get all my art from iTunes and luckily they even have entries for movies and albums that haven't been released yet but are available for preorder which is often handy.

 

[iEd]

The Subler app will pull in the artwork from iTunes also. I usually do use artwork on my ripped movies but hadn't had a chance to do it after having a massive hard drive failure a year and a half ago and re-ripping my DVDs.




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