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Movie2iTunes

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Movie2iTunes 1.4

This droplet allows you to add other than plain QuickTime movies to iTunes without altering the original files in any way.
ars technica has an article on Movie2iTunes
m2i-startup

Download: Movie2iTunes 1.4 (about 240 KB)

Fix for the iTunes 10.4 and above compatibility issue (files won't be added to iTunes)

Apple is aware of this problem and has published a knowledge base "How To Fix"-article:
iTunes 10.4 for Mac: Older media files may require iTunes to reopen in 32-bit mode
 

iTunes TV Show Tagging

Movie2iTunes analyzes the file name of the video files and if it detects a TV show sets the right video kind, season and episode accordingly.
 
Assumptions on the file name format:
  • Title Season Episode
  • season starts with "s" or "S"
  • episode starts with "e" or "E"
  • season and episode numbers have at least one digit
OR
  • Title SeasonXEpisode
  • Title SeasonxEpisode
  • season and episode numbers have at least one digit

e.g. "My.favorite.Show.S10E09.PROPER.DSR.XviD-KYR.avi"
or   "My.favorite.Show.10x09.PROPER.DSR.XviD-KYR.avi":

m2i-tv

How to use Movie2iTunes?

Just drag'n'drop one or more movie files -or folders containing movie files- on the droplet icon.

A file reference in the QuickTime media link format is created (a few KB per movie) and the reference file is then added to the iTunes library. The original movie files will not be moved or altered in any way.

On the first launch of the droplet you have to select a folder for the "QuickTime media links" - this folder is for internal use only and can be anywhere on your hard disk.

If you want to set a new location for your "QuickTime media links" folder, double click on the droplet in the Finder to open the options dialog.
m2i-options
You can keep the original video files in a Dropbox folder to share them on different Macs.
You can get a free 2 GB Dropbox Basic account using my affiliate link - this will give you and me an additional 250 MB bonus storage for our accounts - or use this link for just 2 GB free storage without the 250 MB bonus.

Please note:

Some of the file formats listed above require special QuickTime plugins for playback. If a file won't play in iTunes, check if it plays in the QuickTime Player. If the QuickTime Player cannot playback the file, iTunes won't neither.

Recommended PlugIns

Download Perian
a free plugin that enables QuickTime to play almost every popular video format
  • AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats
  • MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio
  • AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3

Download Flip4Mac
plays Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime Player

Similar software

If you prefer to convert your movie files to an iTunes and iPod/iPhone compatible format I recommend these FFmpeg based free programs:
  • FLV2iTunes by Andrew Kurniadi
    FLV2iTunes is a simple docklet application for converting movies to iTunes,iPod, and iPhone supported format
  • iSquint by Techspansion
    Works with almost all popular video formats, and it is faster than QuickTime Pro
But as these programs do a real file conversion they are much slower than Movie2iTunes.

Movie2iTunes Version History

1.0.1 Fixed a 'variable not defined' bug
1.0.2 Added m2v extension
1.1 Added recursive movie processing (folders in folders in folders ...)
      Added a faster movie link generation routine (thanks to adamATpeterbull)
1.1.1 Added an option to choose a new 'QuickTime media links' folder
1.1.2 saved as an Application Bundle to reduce launch time on Intel Macs
1.1.3 added more file formats (Perian 1.0)
1.2 season/episode detection and tagging
1.3 added some advanced options
1.4 added seasonXepisode detection and tagging

Reference

For more information read this hint on Mac OS X Hints by elmimmo.

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