Add MP4/M4V meta-tags

Firstly, I just want to say how amazing TVRename is. I just found out about it yesterday and I've already used it to tame 600GB+ of shows, saving me an insane amount of time.

One feature that I think would be great (and probably fairly quick to implement) is the ability to add the show information into the meta tags, if a file is MP4 or M4V, etc. I have an Apple TV so organising shows through iTunes is now a must, but I think that could become painless if TVRename could fill in all of the information.

All of the data needed is there; show name, season, episode, episode title, even the air date - it's a data geek's dream. An option to add this to tags would be perfect - maybe a with sub-option to then move the file to the Automatically Add to iTunes folder. This option could either be built-in, or just with a way for us to specify post-rename scripts where we could fire up something like AtomicParsley with the variables listed.

If this is a feature anyone other than me might be interested in, I've created a small Windows program to automate the tagging process based on a file's name and location. It adds all of the fields needed to have it show up properly in iTunes/Apple TV, even using the folder.jpg image as a thumbnail. Would be great to have feedback, or maybe some testers.

I am definitely interested in that functionality and am willing to provide feedback.

Hey Thelev,

Thanks for getting back to me. It's been a while since I have done any work on the software, are you planning to use it with iTunes/Apple TV as well? I have it set to work mostly for that scenario.

Hi guys,

Any update on the itunes funcionallity or solution. And repeattofade, is your little program working ? I would like to use it, if possible, thanks.

Hi all,

I have included the TV Tags software here. But first a little explanation of how it works. TV Tags has two modes, there's the interface you will get when you open the program, and also a command line option to process individual files on a schedule.

Requirements
TV Tags requires that your TV shows be saved in the format: TV Shows\Show Name\Season 3\01 Episode Title.mp4. It uses each part of this to populate the tags in the MP4 file. This is the format that iTunes loads and stores TV episodes in. It also helps to have the Poster setting for Folder Thumbnails turned on (Preferences > Scan Options), as it will add these images as cover art for the files.

TV Tags doesn't need to be installed, you can run it from whatever folder it is in provided the file AtomicParsley.exe is also in that same folder.

Interface Mode
If you already have all of your shows organised by TVRename, then you will need to run the program by opening it. This is a one time thing - it processes every single file and, optionally, adds them to iTunes.

For the first folder selection I would choose "C:\Users\Username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\TV Shows", and because I want to add them to iTunes, I will also set my iTunes folder "C:\Users\Username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes". These will be slightly different depending on your Windows username and your iTunes library location.

When your folder settings are complete, click Begin Tagging. This can take a while! It may seem like the program has crashed, you may receive messages that AtomicParsley has crashed, but don't worry. Just let it run until it finishes going through all of your folders. iTunes needs to be open if you have selected the Add to iTunes option - you should see the TV shows start appearing in there.

Once it has finished, that should be your entire TV shows library added to iTunes with all of the current tagging! You shouldn't need to run TV Tags in interface mode again, but you might benefit from command line below:



Command Line
If you add new TV shows all of the time (which is why we use TVRename afterall!) then I have created a script to automatically look for shows that have been moved into place by TVRename, convert them if needed, tag them, and add to iTunes if desired.

You can find the script included in the zip file below. Basically it looks for any MP4 files, renames them to an .M4V file, processes them, and then adds them to iTunes if you wish. I have also included an example line where it will look for MKV files, convert them with Handbrake, tag them and add to iTunes.

To call TV Tags from the command line you simply set tagOne=true, set tagFile="filename-for-mp4" and set TVShows="folder-path-for-TV-shows". To have it add your tagged show to iTunes automatically set iTunesLib="C:\Users\Username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes" and addiTunes=true

You can either run the command line script manually by double-clicking it (after updating the settings to what you need) or, ideally, set it to run as a Windows Scheduled Task - this means your TV will all be converted and tagged without you having to do anything.

Download TV Tags here - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5104735/Links/TVTags/tvtags.zip.

Let me know what you think of this - I hope it is what you expected. For me, I leave uTorrent open with my RSS feeds, TVRename open and have the command script scheduled to run every half hour. Each morning I wake up all of my new TV shows are downloaded, moved, tagged and in iTunes ready for when I want to watch them!