TV Shows / Artwork

I have a bunch of cartoons stored on my server. Each of these cartoons as the title captured and stored as artwork for the file. I keep these as 'TV Shows' as they really don't fall into 'Movies' and I can keep them organized by the series of the cartoons.
Up until about 2 months ago I could scan through one of my cartoon TV shows and as I highlighted each title the correct artwork for the cartoon would show so you'd see the title card for the cartoon which helped identify it.
As of the update in February (may have been March) this hasn't been working. Now it just seems to pick a random bit of artwork from the batch.
I'm hoping someone on the Apple TV team reads this and thinks, "Oh, we should fix that."
I really don't know if it's iTunes or Apple TV that's the problem I just know it's annoying and it used to work.
I do notice that on Remote Play for my iPhone and iPad that it'll load the wrong artwork while playing music. Perhaps this is related.

I've been able to solve a similar problem. My solution may help you and others.
I have collected a number of TV series. I have named the episodes in iTunes as follows (CAPS denote iTunes field names):
NAME: Series Name - Running Episode# - Show Name
SHOW: Show Name
SEASON NUMBER: Season#
EPISODE NUMBER: Episode# Within Season
ARTWORK: Same image for every show in a TV series
I started to notice that AppleTV would occasionally display artwork from the wrong TV series. When I investigated, I noticed that within iTunes, the file structure for TV shows is:
TVSHOWS -> SHOW -> SEASON -> NAME.
I further noticed that when the wrong artwork was being displayed, I had multiple TV shows from different TV series that had the same show name in the same season. For example:
SHOW: Pilot
SEASON NUMBER: 1
NAME: two or more different files with NAMEs from different TV series
Lastly, I noticed that the artwork displayed for all such shows was the image that was created first.
So my conclusion was that AppleTV is finding the artwork based on the SHOW, and SEASON NUMBER only. Perhaps that's how the artwork is stored? That I couldn't figure out! In any event, if the SHOW and SEASON number are same for multiple TV shows, then the artwork will be wrong for all but one of those shows.
Anyway, the solution that worked for me was to ensure that the information in the SHOW field is always unique, at least when the SEASON NUMBER is the same for different TV series. As a practical matter, it seemed easier to just make sure that the SHOW field is always unique. To do that I changed the SHOW field to be: Series Name - Show Name (instead of just Show Name).
I could find all the duplicates by clicking the TV Show list in iTunes, making sure that the View Options included the SHOW and SEASON fields, and then clicking on the SHOW heading to sort by that item. Scrolling down the list let me find which show names are duplicated. If the SEASON number is the same, then I had invalid artwork displayed for all instances that have the same show and season data except one (the show where the artwork file was created first).
Obviously AppleTV should be finding the artwork based on enough data to ensure uniqueness. Ideally, iTunes should be organized with a unique key for each record rather then relying on the contents of fields in a record to define the record. But that's a major rewrite! In the meantime, attention to ensuring unique names for data in the key fields in an iTunes record will prevent this problem (and maybe other problems as well?).
I'll bet that something similar is happening for music files but since I've not experienced that problem I've not bothered to investigate the details.
Hope this helps!
By the way, I noticed that after doing this for a large number of shows, Time Machine ran for a long time and the total space used by Time Machine went up significantly. So I'm guessing that Time Machine keys on the file structure in iTunes to determine which data to back up and so backed up all the video files for shows that changed location within the iTunes data structure even though the video files hadn't changed. Not too good a design there either.
I think Apple needs some better programmers and system analysts. (In case it isn't obvious by now, before I "retired in Sarasota" I started my 30+ year career in Information Technology as a programmer - many years ago and NOT for Apple!)

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ITunes 11.0.3 Songs view, show artwork + sort by that column = a bit of chaos

I have in recent months recreated my iTunes library, in iTunes 11, partly from backups from older libraries and partly with higher quality rips from CD. In the various views, everything looked great and organized. All songs neatly grouped in their Album with cover art applied. Took a little time and tweaking here and there as the CDDB sometimes has bad info, or lacks it. Anyhow. Even in Songs view, nothing was amiss.
Just updated to 11.0.3
Trying out the new Songs view with Album art (show artwork, always show).
When I now use that left column to sort albums by title; or other selection; several albums are split up into individual songs? Some albums get split into two. Another view two albums with the same name, the view will show one song for each album from each artist as an album, going up one number at a time. Another album, the last n songs get split off?
Manually created albums from stuff that predated iTunes suddenly get split up into little bundles of 1 or 3? Tried correcting by setting track # and disc #. Converting ID tag. Changing album name. Artist name. Finally setting Artist Album kicked that bunch together. But, that is something I have never had to set?
Most of these were carefully ripped in iTunes and then Get Info verified ensuring they all had the same artist, etc. and I overwrote stuff with disc 1 disc 2 as Album 2CD.
I just don't understand why it suddenly seeds the need to split it up, when in the regular album view or artist view everything is A OK.
Unless, of course this new view is buggy.

I'm not sure why it just showed for me either.
I litterally have been rebuilding my library fresh on a new system in iTunes 11 from hard drive backups, optical discs and from fresh rips of our favorite music at higher bit rates. Been adding art work from the web or self scanned. Making sure all tags are correct and to my liking. Correcting some things from CDDB or typing it all out if it couldn't find it.
So in 11.0.2 everything looked 100% per album and per artist, both locally on the system and via iOS remote.
Out comes 11.0.3 with its new song view with art work ... and dozens of albums went haywire.
I understand this may have come about way back, but I'm hardly a music library novice and I go back from before we had iTunes So, it had me scratching my head, why stuff that was fine yesterday, and actually still today in the artist view or album view (via the chicklets) would turn on its head all of a sudden in song view, which has always been my default view! Sorted by album title (column 4 or 5) I can only conclude something is different with this new artwork + sorting column.

Not showing artwork

Hi since updating to a more recent version of i-tunes my ipod no longer shows album artwork, it will show artwork in thunmbnails but when i select full screen it's just an outine of a box where the artwork should be. Any one any ideas on how to fix it?

It's likely that the artwork cache is corrupted.
It's a simple fix by unchecking "display album artwork" in the music preferences section when your iPod is connected and click "apply". Then sync your iPod.
Then check "display album artwork" in the music preferences section when your iPod is connected and click "apply". Then sync your iPod again.
This should resync the album artwork to the iPod.
If this does not work, you might need to restore the iPod and reload the songs in order to correct this error.
See: How to restore the iPod to factory settings.

Show artwork option gone?

I was holding off on the new update for a long time now and i just got it (6.0.1) and the show artwork option is missing the little box that was in the bottom left hand corner is there any way to have this option again

I just noticed today, that the wonderful powers that be at Apple took that feature away from the iPod - or at least on my ipod they did. I used to be able to click a button and have this drop down list giving me the ability to select an artist, or genre or album from my iPod. Not any more.
With this latest change, I regret updating my iTunes.

TV Show Artwork Weirdness

Hey everyone -
For some reason the artwork for my season of Scrubs was replaced in the browser pane of iTunes 8 by a freeze frame from the show. Any idea how to get the original artwork back?
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Travis Wester1

I did some testing and found that TV show artwork now has to be square to be shown on an iOS device. Similarly, movie artwork has to have the correct "movie poster" proportions. Not sure if this was iOS 8 or the latest version of iTunes that changed this. I noticed my artwork is cut off with the latest Apple TV update, too.

Apple TV2 4.4.3 bug with TV Show Artwork

After the latest updat to 4.4.3 my Apple TV2 no longer show episode artwork for shows. I have a large collection of TV Shows I converted from my DVDs and have individual screen shots for each episode. In the main list it chooses one episode and the artwork from it repsresents the show for that season. However up to this latest version, when you went into the season and scrolled Episode by Episode the artwork would change with the description. Now that no longer works. Is anyone else seeing this issue?
Thanks.

Sadly I just discovered this same issue with individual tv show artwork no longer displaying on my Apple TV2 after updating to 4.4.3 just a day and a half ago. I was so happy when (around 4.x) they finally had gotten Apple TV2 to display individual artwork for each of the tv shows I had applied it to... now its no longer working again. Sigh. And optical audio still keeps cutting out / dropping completely with both version 4.4.2 and 4.4.3. Hopefully BOTH of these issues can be fixed quickly with a new software update release.

Show Artwork Column? Changing view?

The "Show Artwork Column" under the view pull down is grayed out. Does anyone know why? How can I get it click-able? Also, for some reason I cant seem to change my view from List to anything else (grid or cover flow). Any help with either issue would be great.

I just noticed today, that the wonderful powers that be at Apple took that feature away from the iPod - or at least on my ipod they did. I used to be able to click a button and have this drop down list giving me the ability to select an artist, or genre or album from my iPod. Not any more.
With this latest change, I regret updating my iTunes.

Why Do I Need a Credit Card to Show Artwork from CD's That I Own Legally?

In Windows Media Player the album artwork shows up right away, but with itunes they tell me I need and account, and that account needs a credit card, why? I do not plan to buy anything from apple as I merely want to use what I own legally, I want the artwork from my CD'S to show up on itunes and on my ipod and do not think that my credit card needs to be part of that simple request. Please advise?

Artwork is only available for albums that are for sale in the iTunes Store. If Exile on Main Street is not something that iTunes sell, you'll have to find your artwork elsewhere. As Roger said, Amazon is usually a good place to start looking. Also, a Google Image search may find what you're looking for.
I believe that the Command - I equivalent on a Windows machine is Control-I. However, if you right click on the song, Get Info should also be one of the options. It's also an option from the File Menu, I believe. Poke around, use the Help function (which has a list of keyboard shortcuts, by the way), you'll find it.
Only Apple would know why they need or what certain information. Generally, it's pretty easy to dummy a phone number if the field is required and you don't wish to give out that information. I find all 7s works fairly well.

ITunes match wont show artwork, without downloading a song?

I did upload/match my music collection to itunes match on one PC and all worked fine and it shows the embedded artworks of the local files. The problem is that if i turn on itunes match on a remote machine, the songs play fine from the cloud, BUT all of the artwork/covers are missing? I tried the "automatically download artwork option" but nothing changes. I also tried "updating itunes match" and again no artwork.
The only way i cold fix this is to manually download a single track of a each album? Is this the expected behaviour?
Does this mean apply's iCloud/match service is not able to automatically pull the embedded album artwork from icloud files, without having a local physical copy once? I used googles music service before and there cloud player never had this problem at all.
So whats going on, why is artwork handling in itunes match so finicky and broken?
thx
Andy

It gets even more stupid.
After downloading the first track of each album, the album artwork in iTunes shows up, but only for files that where originally "uploaded" and not "matched". The matched files do not have any artwork, since itunes recognizes them not by album. if i now try to "download artwork" it uses the album to whatever it was matched. So if the same song is only matched to s single in the iTunes store it will use this artwork, regardless of the org. files having correct embedded artwork for the album.
So what you have to-do is to either micro manage your missing artworks on a device basis or have a single track not "matched" to itunes than can be used as cover resource on all devices.
This system is so buggy and flawed that its beyond believe. All iTunes would have to actually do is to get the embedded "correct" artwork of a album from a track, than upload and store this information in iClound and sync this artwork database across all devices.
What a waste of time so far using iCloud and simply trying to get working artworks for perfectly tagged mp3 files.

IPod plays music, shows artwork, doesn't display artist or song details

My iPod plays music, shows the artwork but doesn't display the artist or song details. I think someone has been messing with it, but i can't find any settings that let me switch the song details back on.
Can anyone help?
Thank you

Puch the center button to switch between volume -> scrubber -> rating -> artwork -> lyrics.

Video Art Sync Problems: TV Shows Artwork No, Movies Artwork Yes

Strange occurrences since upgrade to IOS 8 on the iPhone 6: I have video cover art embedded in 100% or my movies and TV shows. Before the IOS 8 upgrade no problems with the cover art appearing on either TV Shows or Movies. Now after the update, video cover artwork does not transfer to the iPhone for TV Shows alone. If the type selection is changed to Movie, then the show appears in the Movies tab and the art appears! Change the type back to TV Show and it disappears again. Anyone else have an experience with this one? Seems like a bug to me....

It would seem this issue has been seen by a lot of people looking at my post.
For anyone who converts files so their apple devices can use them, Smart Convertor Pro 2 has just sent out an update which has the option for square artwork for TV Shows. So when you convert your file it adds the metadata to the file and includes the artwork in a square format, when you load this onto your device it works and you can see the artwork!
Well done guys, at least you looked at your customers issue and done something about it! Lets hope Apple sorts themselves out too!

Favorite Podcasts not showing artwork

In the My Favorite Podcast, the Artwork is not showing, just the generic image. How can I get them back without have remove them all from my favorite list and re-adding them.

Same issue here. It happened a couple of weeks ago and I removed them and then had to go find them all again. I also have one that when clicked on says "The item you have requested is not available". So I am unable to remove this blank image from my Favorites. I think this is a serious bug. I hope Apple will bring a fix. I sure do not want to do a factory reset and sync all my stuff again just to remove this blank icon that leads no where. If anyone finds a fix other than starting over please let me know.
Ben

Movie and TV Show Artwork with .mov as opposed to h.264 files

I am in the process of transfering my DVD collection to digital media, and I've been using handbrake to make h.264 files. This is all fine and dandy, and iTunes 7 indexes them perfectly and lets me assign artwork to the shows and movies I add to the libary. The only problem is when a movie is split between two discs, say like the Lord of the Rings movies, I have to stitch the two h.264 files together using quicktime and save as a .mov file, or re-encode the full file into h.264 which is a waste of time and degrades the quality. The reason I HAVE to have it in h.264 is because for some reason itunes does not let you assign artwork to a .mov file. It defaults to the first frame of the movie and doesn't let you change it. Is there a way around this, or are these .mov files doomed to exist in coverflow without artwork.
Any advice would be handy. Thanks.
20" iMac Core Duo

I have a similar dilemma, where iTunes (or any other tool) will not allow me to add artwork to a MOV file. This is understandable (kind of), as the "poster frame" is not a discrete piece of artwork. But boy is it frustrating.
The reason I'd love to know how to add artwork is this: I can use ChapterTool to add chapters to the audio track of a movie, then paste in the video track and save it as a QuickTime Movie. Time intensive, but it's actually pretty cool to have the DVD chapters with the movie.
I had considered adding the artwork as a disabled layer and setting that as the poster frame, but iTunes feels compelled to disobey transparency and format it to the proportions of the movie. I'll keep at it, but if anyone has any tips, pass them along. (For me, an alternative would be a way to chapter an MP4 video vs. a QuickTime Movie.)

Favourite podcasts not showing artwork

i rebooted my atv (v2).... now my favourite podcasts won't show the "artwork".. just the default generic icon.
the were showing fine before i rebooted.. any ideas how to get the back ?

I'm having this problem too. Sure, you can re-add each Favourite Podcast, but what's to say the Apple TV won't forget the Favourite Podcast artwork again? Why did it forget it the first time?
Perhaps it forgets the Favourite Podcast artwork if you turn the Apple TV off at the wall? Some would say don't turn it off at the wall, but it's the only way to make it usable again, whenever the Apple TV freezes up.

7.1 does not fix TV Show Artwork bug

I was happy to see the new sorting features in iTunes 7.1 but I was quickly bummed out to see that the bug pertaining to TV Show Art work still remains.
The bug I am referring to is when you have TV Show Episodes from multiple seasons of the same show the artwork that shows for that show in Cover Flow is whatever artwork there is for the first instance of that show:
Example:
Single Episode
Invader Zim Vol 1 Episode 1 = Volume 1 artwork
or
Invader Zim Vol 3 Episode 1 = Volume 3 Artwork
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Have you reported this to iTunes developers by going to Mac OS X tab above and then Feedback and then leave the feedback about iTunes? They almost certainly won't see your post here in the user-to-user technical help discussions.

TV Shows / Artwork

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