(Don't want to be) Merging two different "TV Shows"

iMac 27-inch, Mid 2011
OS X 10.8.4
iTunes 11.0.5
iPad (New/3) iOS 6.1.3
Videos (the included app)

Et Al:
Previously I had posted that I was obtaining some old film serials from archive.org (all legal) and that iTunes was treating each chapter as a separate movie. It was suggested that I set the serials from Movie to TV Show, and that solved the problem.

Now however I came across a one time deal so far.

Two different serials.
The details on each are different, other than the "Album Artist" (the leading actor in this case) is the same.
When I sync either one with iTunes to my iPad, it comes out fine. But, when I sync both serials, they both combine the chapters and show the art from only one film for both films. (Confusing?)

The other serial is set up in the same way. You can see how it shows up on the iPad's Video app. Alternating chapters are from one serial film, the rest are from the other one.

Any Thoughts, ideas, etc.?

When you are viewing the details for multiple "episodes", the "Name" under Info should be blank (or say "multiple"... my iTunes Library is offline pending an HDD replacement and I can't double check). I don't know why you seeing the Artist name copied to that field. (EDIT: you really need to post a screen cap of the fields for one of the 1931 serials for comparison)

There are some errors in how you have your tags created. Firstly, I recommend setting a "season" tag. You can just use "1" (without quotes) or "1943" for the year of the serial.

Next, the "Name" field should obviously be the name of the episode. You could dispense with having "01-" in front of the name, but that's up to you. For the "Episode ID", that shouldn't be a repeat of the name. Typically, it would read "S01E01" (for Season 1, Episode 1), "S01E02" (for Season 1, Episode 2), and so on.

With regard to The Phantom, and possibly some other serials of yours, you can easily fix these tags and other metadata by using iDentify. If you name the downloaded videos right, iDentify will pull the metadata off thetvdb.com and plug in all the correct details. It's a GREAT tool! You will need to make sure your files are named according to how they are labeled on thetvdb's site. With regard to The Phantom, they have the serial listed with the title "The Phantom (1943)", just like you have already. And there is only one "season"... season 1. So... rename your downloaded videos like this:

The Phantom (1943).S01E01.m4v
The Phantom (1943).S01E02.m4v
The Phantom (1943).S01E03.m4v

... and so on. Then drop your files in iDentify, make sure it is allowed to overwrite existing tags, and let it do its magic. You can custom edit anything before hitting Go. Follow this same procedure for your other downloaded serials (check theTVDB for a listing first) and you should get straightened out.

Lifeisabeach:

(EDIT: you really need to post a screen cap of the fields for one of the 1931 serials for comparison)

Click to expand...

I have the fields showing in the above images for one of the two serials.

All my serials are set up in the manner, but Battling with Buffalo Bill (1931) and The Phantom (1943) are the only two that merge like this.

There are some errors in how you have your tags created. Firstly, I recommend setting a "season" tag. You can just use "1" (without quotes) or "1943" for the year of the serial.

Click to expand...

I set the Season as the serial number for the studio that produced it. (This is also in Grouping.)

I have ways and means to change tags, that is not a problem.

But what I really want to find out is why this is happening, and only for these two films serials.

Anyway, thanks for the info you did give me. I appreciate it.

BG

These are screenshots of the Info and Video tabs for the first episode of each movie.

Pretty sure the title you have in the "Show" field needs to also be in the "Name" field - not the title of the Episode.

The 'Name' field should be the one that is used for naming a series.
Episode titles only go in the Episode field.

You can do away with the 01, 02, etc in that title field if you want - as long as you put the number in the 'Episode Number' field, that'll keep them sorted in the proper order. I use to do what you're doing there with my audio books.

Brooklynguy said:

Lifeisabeach:


I have the fields showing in the above images for one of the two serials.

All my serials are set up in the manner, but Battling with Buffalo Bill (1931) and The Phantom (1943) are the only two that merge like this.

Click to expand...

Well that makes things somewhat clearer. I was under the impression there was a 1931 serial of The Phantom as well as the 1943 serial (in 1931, there was a single Phantom movie, as it turns out). Regardless, I need representative samples of BOTH serials to see why they are mixing together. Which I see you provided in a followup here.

There's nothing in those screen caps that suggests to me why they are mixing together. My best guess is that there's something in the "Sorting" section for those videos that is the culprit. Regardless of what's in the Info/Video fields, entries in "Sorting" take precedence. Will need screen caps of the "Sorting" section for those videos please.

lifeisabeach said:

There's nothing in those screen caps that suggests to me why they are mixing together. My best guess is that there's something in the "Sorting" section for those videos that is the culprit. Regardless of what's in the Info/Video fields, entries in "Sorting" take precedence. Will need screen caps of the "Sorting" section for those videos please.

Click to expand...

The only common sort field is the leading actor's name (field: Sort Album Artist); Tom Tyler sorted as Tyler, Tom.

I have other films sharing the same leading actor and that is sorted LastName, FirstName
and have no probs.

Here are the Sorting screen caps from each movie as they are now. I will take out one of the "Tyler, Tom" entries and see what happens.

You are showing "multiple items" again for each serial. If only some of them have flawed details, I can't determine that from here. Can you show screen caps of the sorting details for a single episode for each serial? The first of each would be fine since we know those are mixed in from your iPad screen cap.

The other thing you can try is to fill in the "Sort Show" field for "Battling with Buffalo Bill".

lifeisabeach said:

Can you show screen caps of the sorting details for a single episode for each serial? The first of each would be fine since we know those are mixed in from your iPad screen cap.

The other thing you can try is to fill in the "Sort Show" field for "Battling with Buffalo Bill".

Click to expand...

In the immortal words of Jerome 'Curly' Howard, "Soitenly!"

The only thing I can think to do is remove the videos for both series from iTunes; sync your iPad to get them off there; then re-add them. Something is amiss, unless you are accidentally sorting on the iPad by Artist. Perhaps the database has some bug in it. Removing and re-adding these hopefully will clear it up.

lifeisabeach:

Without going into this in detail and having a huge post, I'll just say this:

Conclusion- I have to remove the leading man (Album Artist), and its sorted field, if any two serials share the same details. This goes for the additional cast (Artist) and its sorted field as well.

I am attempting merging all episodes into one "movie" file with chapter markers via iMovie and see if that comes out ok.