TV Shows Won't Show on iPod

I transferred videos to my iPod but they don't show up in my TV Shows list on my iPod. Where did they go?

The latest version of iTunes offers three options for categorizing your video collection: Movie, Music Video and TV Show. You can choose any of these three video types from the Options tab of Get Info. While these are obviously not the only three categories of video, these are the three options Apple supports at the moment. Unfortunately, there are some small inconsistencies in the way Apple supports the choices on the iPod.

The TV Show option, while sensible if you record your own shows using a Tivo or other PVR, is reserved for shows purchased through iTunes Music Store. If you label a file Tivo Show using the Video Kind selection, it won't show up in the reserved TV Shows playlist when transferred to your iPod. There are currently a few ways to solve the problem.

One somewhat complex solution is to use the open source Atomic Parsley to re-write the Video Kind information in your file so it is recognized properly on your iPod. You need some command line knowledge and a Mac to make Atomic Parsley work properly. Combined with the GUI Lostify, the re-classification process is improved although both seem a little buggy and don't work consistently. For Windows users, iPodTVShow might do the trick, with the catch that it creates a second copy of your video file during the re-write process.

A second option is to change the Video Kind on the Get Info Options tab to Movie or Music Video.

A third option is to leave the Video Kind setting the same and create a custom video playlist containing your TV Show videos. Synchronize the playlist to your iPod. Locate the video playlist under Videos > Video Playlist on your iPod and select your TV Show videos.

While it would make more sense for Apple to solve this problem by making the TV Show option available for all videos, the solutions above will make your missing videos available on your iPod.