My work has a Citrix desktop meaning I can log in remotely to it using Citrix Receiver for Mac and a web browser. I recently tried to do this from my Mac (having used a Windows laptop previously with no issues) but came up against a curious error message:
"You not chosen to trust Thwaite Authority, the issuer of this servers certificate"
Really? Have I? Didn't remember not trusting anything... So off to Google I went. I found out the answer in a post on the Apple Communities from MacManiac_ which I thought I would outline here for reference.
The basic issue seems to be that Windows can navigate into the Citrix farm and get it's own certificate. The Mac cannot, without being given it explicitly. But the good news is you can copy the certificate from a Windows machine to a Mac and it will work. So you will need a Windows PC and this is how it goes:
Windows Machine Instructions:
1) From a Windows computer, log in to the Citrix Gateway once and launch any application. This will ensure that the certificate gets installed in Windows, if it’s not already present.
2) In Windows, log out of the Citrix gateway.
3) launch Internet Explorer if not already running.
4) in IE, go to the Tools menu –> Internet Options –> Content tab
5) click the Certificates button
6) click the Intermediate Certification Authorities tab
7) find the “xxx Authority” certificate in the list (where "xxx" is the name in the certificate error from Citrix Receiver on your Mac - in my case - Thwaite Authority)
8) click the certificate once to highlight, then click Export
9) click Next
10) choose DER Encoded Binary X.509 (.CER)
11) click Next
12) click Browse, and change to the Desktop if not there already
13) in the file name field, type or paste: Network Solutions Certificate Authority
14) click Save, click Next, click Finish.
15) there should now be a file on the Windows desktop with the name
Network Solutions Certificate Authority.cer
16) copy this file to the Mac in whatever way you normally move files.
Mac Machine Instructions:
17) on the Mac, copy the file to your desktop.
18) in Finder, go to Applications –> Utilities
19) launch Keychain Access
20) open the System keychain and import the certificate
21) restart your Macintosh and then try to access your Citrix Gateway again
This is reproduced from that post from MacManiac_ so a big shout out to him/her. This works like a charm and I was logged in and working in no time!
NOTE - I am using Windows 7 and Mac OSX 10.8.5 but I suspect it's broadly similar across operating system versions
Friday, March 14, 2014
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Subtitles - Convert SUP to SRT
Ah subtitles... When ripping Blu Rays from an MKV to M4V (MP4) they used to be quite a pain in the backside (see this previous post for details!). But if you are happy with 'burning in' subtitles (i.e. having them form part of the picture) then Handbrake v 0.9.9 will happily provide this service for you out of the box.
As you can seem you just simply go to the 'Subtitles' tab and choose the subs you want and lo and behold the Bitmap image of the subtitles will adorn your movie:
It even retains the font and colouring because these are images - not text.
Now this is fine for 'Forced Subtitles' (where the characters speak gibberish - in the case above taken from "Thor - The Dark World" - 'Dark Elven') but when you want to have the ability to turn the subtitles on and off, this won't work. These subs are burnt onto the picture. If you want to have the ability to switch languages, or something like that, the subtitles need to be stored in a file - usually a text file.
A media player like VLC does understand the subtitle files that are images natively and will happily let you turn them on and off through a menu option. iTunes or QuickTime does not support image subtitle files - only text. So how to convert the bitmap image to a text file? Well, as ever, it's a bit complex....
Fear not - I shall attempt to steer you through the pitfalls. You will need the following software:
As you can seem you just simply go to the 'Subtitles' tab and choose the subs you want and lo and behold the Bitmap image of the subtitles will adorn your movie:
It even retains the font and colouring because these are images - not text.
Now this is fine for 'Forced Subtitles' (where the characters speak gibberish - in the case above taken from "Thor - The Dark World" - 'Dark Elven') but when you want to have the ability to turn the subtitles on and off, this won't work. These subs are burnt onto the picture. If you want to have the ability to switch languages, or something like that, the subtitles need to be stored in a file - usually a text file.
A media player like VLC does understand the subtitle files that are images natively and will happily let you turn them on and off through a menu option. iTunes or QuickTime does not support image subtitle files - only text. So how to convert the bitmap image to a text file? Well, as ever, it's a bit complex....
Fear not - I shall attempt to steer you through the pitfalls. You will need the following software:
- MKVTools (http://www.emmgunn.com/oldsoftware.html) <- The developer is busy updating this toolset, but you can do this with the old version still on the website. Shareware, but you can use it for free with a nag message.
- Subler (https://code.google.com/p/subler/) <- Mac only
- Subtitle Edit (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Subtitle-Edit) <- Windows Only
You will need a nice MKV version of your movie with the subtitle track that you want included (no idea what I mean by that, then please refer to a previous blog post of mine on how to do this).
This walkthrough is for a Mac, with a bit of Windows PC software thrown in. I'm sure equivalent software are available for both platforms. The reason I use Subtitle Edit is a friend recommended it and I haven't found a Mac equivalent.
Let's begin...
MKVTools
(1) Open MKVTools and open your MKV file.
(2) Navigate to the "Edit" Tab and choose the subtitle track you want to export (If you aren't sure, open the MKV is something like VLC Player and fiddle with turning on the different subtitle tracks until you find the one you want, then go back into MKVTools).
(3) Check the "Extract Selected Tracks" box on the right and click "OK". Another window will open and you will see the progress of the file extraction. It will store the subsequent SUP file in the same folder as your MKV file.
UPDATE - 14th December 2014 - An alternative to MKVTools
I haven't been using MKVTools recently. I've found a better way using MKVToolNix. I've detailed how to use this in a seperate blog post (which deals with subtitles from DVDs, but can also be used to get the SUP file from Blu Rays using exactly the same method):
Subtitles - Converting a DVD MKV to IDX SUB files on a Mac
UPDATE - 14th December 2014 - An alternative to MKVTools
I haven't been using MKVTools recently. I've found a better way using MKVToolNix. I've detailed how to use this in a seperate blog post (which deals with subtitles from DVDs, but can also be used to get the SUP file from Blu Rays using exactly the same method):
Subtitles - Converting a DVD MKV to IDX SUB files on a Mac
Subtitle Edit
Switching to my Windows PC now, I take my extracted file and load up Subtitle Edit
(1) Open the software and select the "Open" menu option then choose your SUP file. It will open into the "Import/OCR" screen like the image below:
(2) The software will now attempt to OCR the subtitle images. In plain english, it will scan the subtitle images and translate what it reads into plain text. No OCR is perfect, it will make mistakes (especially in a fantasy tale like Thor! - "Send in the Kursed" sugggested as being changed to "Send in the Nursed"!) but we can correct those as we go along, ignore them or sort them out later...
(3) And so you end up with an editable list where you can go and make corrections where necessary. Click into the Text box and correct away. If you want to compare it to the source images, then open up the SUP file in a tool like BDSup2Sub and browse through the file.
Now I've only scratched the surface with this program. You can look at the Subs over the video, correct timings and do all sorts of funky things. But if you've ripped the subtitles from the same MKV as you ripped the movie, then there's no need. You simple need to focus on getting the spellings and words correct.
Obviously, in my example, there aren't many lines of text. I appreciate in a fully subtitled movie there is a lot of work potentially - but that's just the way it is!
One you have finished your corrections, save your file as a SubRip (.srt) format and back to the Mac you go...
Subler
If you have read some of my other blog posts, you will know I like Subler and it makes this last step super easy.
(1) Open up the movie (the MP4 or M4V you ripped from the MKV) and click on the + button in the top left-hand corner:
(2) Locate the SRT file you saved earlier and click "Open". You will see the screen below which you just click "Add" on:
(3) Save your work. This also assigns the subtitle a Track ID, which you will need
(4) Now click on the Subtitle track and set the following options:
Language: English (or whatever language you are using)
Alternate Group: None
Forced: All Samples Are Forced
Forced Track: Choose your subtitle track
(5) Now Save again - and you are done!
THE FINISHED MOVIE
Here's a screen shot using QuickTime player:
The text subtitles are at the bottom. QuickTime doesn't support the forcing of the subtitles. iTunes does, and so your subs should display automatically - but if they don't just choose them in the menu option manually.
SUMMARY
If it's alien speak you're after, or you will always want the subtitles on (such as in a foreign language film) then just burn them straight onto the image using Handbrake. Easy peasy and it retains the nice fonts and colours.
If you use Quick Time or iTunes, and want to turn the Subs on and off, then it's a bit of a painful process, but it works just fine.
As ever - any feedback - please leave me a comment below...
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Restore iPad Mini from iPad but no apps, movies, music appearing
My wife got a new iPad Mini for Christmas to replace her old iPad 1. I thought the easiest thing to do would be to take a backup of the old iPad and move it to the new iPad Mini.
When doing this, iTunes asked if I wanted to update to iOS 6.02. I said I did. And I think that's where the problem started, because afterwards none of her apps or media appeared on the new iPad.
So I tried the Restore From Backup again. Still no apps.
What was appearing was her wallpaper and her shortcuts, but not the apps themselves.
I reconnected the old iPad and took another backup, then tried to do another Restore. Same result.
Time to hit Google. I found a post which seemed to talk through the issue. Again the user asking the question had also updated their iOS during the install. The guy answering talked though a solution, but as I read the subsequent posts the apps still hadn't restored. Post can be found here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4484316?start=0&tstart=0
I tried it anyway, and guess what, no apps. Not surprised, but I thought it was worth a go.
I remembered experimenting before with a corrupted backup that refused to back up properly and found that encrypting the backup forced it to do a full backup that made it work again. So I re-backed up the iPad 1 with encryption. This has the added benefit of backing up the passwords for the WiFi and email and so on.
I restored that to the iPad Mini. No apps.
I threw in the towel, and said to my wife that we had lost all her apps and their saved state. Perhaps it was an iPad 1 to iPad Mini thing...
Anyway, things weren't as bad as they seemed. When we started to manually load the apps on to the iPad, via iTunes, some of the saved state data came back. Kindle remembered her account details, her travel app remembered her packing lists. Some apps didn't, like the Olympics app didn't know about all the events she had saved, but they were definitely in the minority. Most of her apps remembered her settings and saved data.
So, to conclude, it might be an iPad 1 to iPad Mini issue. It might be that I updated the iOS. I don't know. However, the majority of apps, once restored manually, worked fine.
If you are attempting this migration, I would recommend not updating iOS until after everything has finished syncing. It's worth a try. Let me know if it works for you by posting a comment below, or if you have solved the issue - again - let me know.
When doing this, iTunes asked if I wanted to update to iOS 6.02. I said I did. And I think that's where the problem started, because afterwards none of her apps or media appeared on the new iPad.
So I tried the Restore From Backup again. Still no apps.
What was appearing was her wallpaper and her shortcuts, but not the apps themselves.
I reconnected the old iPad and took another backup, then tried to do another Restore. Same result.
Time to hit Google. I found a post which seemed to talk through the issue. Again the user asking the question had also updated their iOS during the install. The guy answering talked though a solution, but as I read the subsequent posts the apps still hadn't restored. Post can be found here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4484316?start=0&tstart=0
I tried it anyway, and guess what, no apps. Not surprised, but I thought it was worth a go.
I remembered experimenting before with a corrupted backup that refused to back up properly and found that encrypting the backup forced it to do a full backup that made it work again. So I re-backed up the iPad 1 with encryption. This has the added benefit of backing up the passwords for the WiFi and email and so on.
I restored that to the iPad Mini. No apps.
I threw in the towel, and said to my wife that we had lost all her apps and their saved state. Perhaps it was an iPad 1 to iPad Mini thing...
Anyway, things weren't as bad as they seemed. When we started to manually load the apps on to the iPad, via iTunes, some of the saved state data came back. Kindle remembered her account details, her travel app remembered her packing lists. Some apps didn't, like the Olympics app didn't know about all the events she had saved, but they were definitely in the minority. Most of her apps remembered her settings and saved data.
So, to conclude, it might be an iPad 1 to iPad Mini issue. It might be that I updated the iOS. I don't know. However, the majority of apps, once restored manually, worked fine.
If you are attempting this migration, I would recommend not updating iOS until after everything has finished syncing. It's worth a try. Let me know if it works for you by posting a comment below, or if you have solved the issue - again - let me know.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Clean Install of Mountain Lion The Hard Way
It was supposed to be so easy. That's what the guide I used said. I've been having a few problems on my Mac with applications crashing and taking down OS X with it, so I decided to take the opportunity to download Mountain Lion and rebuild my iMac from scratch.
A quick surf around the web at lunchtime produced a great tutorial called How To Create A Bootable OS X Mountain Lion USB The Easy Way. Having read this it seemed pretty straight forward, so after getting home from work I set about following the instructions.
All went well until I had wiped my Mac internal hard drive and was beginning the install of Mountain Lion. It estimates 6 minutes until is needs a reboot, counts down to 0 minutes then sits there for about 5 further minutes. Then I hit an error message:
"Can't download additional components needed to install OS X"
Oh dear. Never mind, looks like my wireless network wasn't connected. Should fix it. So I re-run the "Reinstall OS X" menu option.
Same message.
I try this several times with the same, frustrating result. At this point I can hear my mates with PCs laughing at me, because Macs are meant to be easy. Right?
So I hit Google again and come across a forum post on MacRumours. Basically, this guy is having the same problem as me and there are a few answers but nothing really helpful to me.
There is a link to a guide on creating a bootable USB that doesn't need the download elements, but I have no OS X in which to do this. Those of you with a 2nd Mac should try this.
A bit more searching reveals a helpful MacWorld article on "Recovery Mode". If you have Lion, or Mountain Lion, installed before attempting a clean build a partition will be created to allow you to access components to rebuild the machine.
Using the cmd+R keys on startup I manage to enter this mode. I am authenticated using my Apple ID and I can begin recovery of Lion. But I want Mountain Lion. So I decide to try the USB one last time.
Still that same message.
So I reboot and hold down cmd+R. This time, I am taken to the Internet Recovery Mode. This I am supposed to get to using alt+cmd+R. Maybe I hit this by accident, but I decide I am taking no more chances. I am offered the chance to recover Lion and I take it. By the way, Internet Recovery Mode takes ages to enter - about 7 minutes on my Mac. So make a nice cup of tea. You will probably need it!
.JPG)
So I have gone with "Reinstall OS X" and I am now downloading Lion. This takes approximately 45 minutes on my Internet connection, but may be faster or slower on yours if you are at this point too...
The screen says "About 0 seconds remaining" for about 10 seconds then reboots. I am now greeted with a nice "Install Mac OS X" screen and an estimation of 23 minute until completion.
.JPG)
I am then greeted with a cheery reboot button. This doesn't reboot, however, but throws me back to the Mac OS X Utilities screen. So I reboot from there. Macs are intuitive, apparently :-).
Hurrah! A clean install of Lion!
.JPG)
So what now... Well, I still want Mountain Lion, so I go to the App Store and start the 4.37GB download AGAIN!!!
Meanwhile, I run Software Update to make sure I'm on the latest version of Lion. I read somewhere you need to be on a pretty high version to run the Mountain Lion upgrade, so best to check I am on the latest build. It turns out that the recovered Lion is the latest version, so I decide to download a few bits and pieces like a new Safari update and a malware removal tool.
Luckily I have a fast Internet connection, and also need another cup to tea....
40 minutes later and I have it downloaded. Not quite. 30 minutes in I have had the "restart computer" death message which I have been hoping to avoid that totally crashes my machine... I suspect my memory is bust, but that's another story...
Then I remember the Mountain Lion install program in on my memory stick. The one I tried to boot from. Doh! I can use that...
I decide to just upgrade Mountain Lion over Lion (after I have rebooted) and call it quits... I could try and do a really clean install of Mountain Lion by recovering it after I have upgraded the Lion, or creating another bootable USB, but I can't be bothered. Especially as my "restart computer of death" message seems to have nothing to do with the OS.
So off we go with the upgrade. I'm nervous as the screen looks the same as it did before. The preparing to install and 6 minutes remaining message appears, as before. This time, I am hoping it actually works... It still decides that there are random minutes remaining, flicking between 6 and 3 erratically, whilst the blue bar inches across the screen.
After 15 minutes of this - the old classic message appears about not being able to download components. Right - re-download from App Store then...
Another 40 minutes, and another cup of tea, move on by. I hope my Internet broadband provider aren't monitoring my connection too much tonight as I am getting through a lot of downloaded data!
I decide to copy the file over to a USB stick. That way, if it goes pear-shaped, I don't have to download it again. It's more delay, but I'm getting used to waiting...
That done I start the installer. I am met with the screen above. Uh-oh. But the good news is it only lasts for a few seconds before we are restarting the Mac and off to the Mountain Lion installer. Hurrah! Getting somewhere! It guesstimates 34 minutes to install....
After watching some tele, I'm back in front of the screen and we are done. It has taken about 30 minutes.
I don't know if this rant is helpful to anyone, but it felt good to document my trials anyway :-)
If I did this again, I would go into the Recovery partition and install Mountain Lion from there. If I were to give you advice on upgrading from Lion, I would probably install Mountain Lion through OS X, then head to the Recovery partition and clean install it from there. After you install Mountain Lion, the Recovery partition will allow a clean install of it, overwriting the previous Lion Recovery.
A quick surf around the web at lunchtime produced a great tutorial called How To Create A Bootable OS X Mountain Lion USB The Easy Way. Having read this it seemed pretty straight forward, so after getting home from work I set about following the instructions.
All went well until I had wiped my Mac internal hard drive and was beginning the install of Mountain Lion. It estimates 6 minutes until is needs a reboot, counts down to 0 minutes then sits there for about 5 further minutes. Then I hit an error message:
"Can't download additional components needed to install OS X"
Oh dear. Never mind, looks like my wireless network wasn't connected. Should fix it. So I re-run the "Reinstall OS X" menu option.
Same message.
I try this several times with the same, frustrating result. At this point I can hear my mates with PCs laughing at me, because Macs are meant to be easy. Right?
So I hit Google again and come across a forum post on MacRumours. Basically, this guy is having the same problem as me and there are a few answers but nothing really helpful to me.
There is a link to a guide on creating a bootable USB that doesn't need the download elements, but I have no OS X in which to do this. Those of you with a 2nd Mac should try this.
A bit more searching reveals a helpful MacWorld article on "Recovery Mode". If you have Lion, or Mountain Lion, installed before attempting a clean build a partition will be created to allow you to access components to rebuild the machine.
Using the cmd+R keys on startup I manage to enter this mode. I am authenticated using my Apple ID and I can begin recovery of Lion. But I want Mountain Lion. So I decide to try the USB one last time.
Still that same message.
So I reboot and hold down cmd+R. This time, I am taken to the Internet Recovery Mode. This I am supposed to get to using alt+cmd+R. Maybe I hit this by accident, but I decide I am taking no more chances. I am offered the chance to recover Lion and I take it. By the way, Internet Recovery Mode takes ages to enter - about 7 minutes on my Mac. So make a nice cup of tea. You will probably need it!
.JPG)
So I have gone with "Reinstall OS X" and I am now downloading Lion. This takes approximately 45 minutes on my Internet connection, but may be faster or slower on yours if you are at this point too...
The screen says "About 0 seconds remaining" for about 10 seconds then reboots. I am now greeted with a nice "Install Mac OS X" screen and an estimation of 23 minute until completion.
.JPG)
I am then greeted with a cheery reboot button. This doesn't reboot, however, but throws me back to the Mac OS X Utilities screen. So I reboot from there. Macs are intuitive, apparently :-).
Hurrah! A clean install of Lion!
.JPG)
So what now... Well, I still want Mountain Lion, so I go to the App Store and start the 4.37GB download AGAIN!!!
Meanwhile, I run Software Update to make sure I'm on the latest version of Lion. I read somewhere you need to be on a pretty high version to run the Mountain Lion upgrade, so best to check I am on the latest build. It turns out that the recovered Lion is the latest version, so I decide to download a few bits and pieces like a new Safari update and a malware removal tool.
Luckily I have a fast Internet connection, and also need another cup to tea....
40 minutes later and I have it downloaded. Not quite. 30 minutes in I have had the "restart computer" death message which I have been hoping to avoid that totally crashes my machine... I suspect my memory is bust, but that's another story...
Then I remember the Mountain Lion install program in on my memory stick. The one I tried to boot from. Doh! I can use that...
I decide to just upgrade Mountain Lion over Lion (after I have rebooted) and call it quits... I could try and do a really clean install of Mountain Lion by recovering it after I have upgraded the Lion, or creating another bootable USB, but I can't be bothered. Especially as my "restart computer of death" message seems to have nothing to do with the OS.
So off we go with the upgrade. I'm nervous as the screen looks the same as it did before. The preparing to install and 6 minutes remaining message appears, as before. This time, I am hoping it actually works... It still decides that there are random minutes remaining, flicking between 6 and 3 erratically, whilst the blue bar inches across the screen.
After 15 minutes of this - the old classic message appears about not being able to download components. Right - re-download from App Store then...
Another 40 minutes, and another cup of tea, move on by. I hope my Internet broadband provider aren't monitoring my connection too much tonight as I am getting through a lot of downloaded data!
I decide to copy the file over to a USB stick. That way, if it goes pear-shaped, I don't have to download it again. It's more delay, but I'm getting used to waiting...
That done I start the installer. I am met with the screen above. Uh-oh. But the good news is it only lasts for a few seconds before we are restarting the Mac and off to the Mountain Lion installer. Hurrah! Getting somewhere! It guesstimates 34 minutes to install....
After watching some tele, I'm back in front of the screen and we are done. It has taken about 30 minutes.
I don't know if this rant is helpful to anyone, but it felt good to document my trials anyway :-)
If I did this again, I would go into the Recovery partition and install Mountain Lion from there. If I were to give you advice on upgrading from Lion, I would probably install Mountain Lion through OS X, then head to the Recovery partition and clean install it from there. After you install Mountain Lion, the Recovery partition will allow a clean install of it, overwriting the previous Lion Recovery.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Record iPad / iPhone Screen Without Jailbreak using Reflection
There is no native way of recording your iPad or iPhone screen. I can understand why Apple haven't put this feature onto their devices, as it opens up all sorts of opportunities for copyright abuse, but nevertheless, it can be useful to do.
I've been looking around for a while trying to figure out how I might do this and I came across an OSX application called Reflection.
Go to the Reflection website (http://reflectionapp.com) and download the DMG file to your Mac.
Once installed, you can then use the Airplay function on your iPad or iPod and you can now view your screen and the audio on your Mac.
Pretty cool.
You can try it for free for 10 minutes of Airplay time, and once you are happy it does what it says on the tin, you can pay a very reasonable $14.99 for a single license or $49.99 for 5 licenses.
A word of warning is that you will need a fast internal network. My 2.4GHz wireless produced less than impressive results. Once I switched to my 5GHz network, everything was fine.
I've made a video tutorial which you can get to via my YouTube channel or by clicking below:
Any questions, please fee free to leave a comment and I'll try and come back to you.
I've been looking around for a while trying to figure out how I might do this and I came across an OSX application called Reflection.
Go to the Reflection website (http://reflectionapp.com) and download the DMG file to your Mac.
Once installed, you can then use the Airplay function on your iPad or iPod and you can now view your screen and the audio on your Mac.
Pretty cool.
You can try it for free for 10 minutes of Airplay time, and once you are happy it does what it says on the tin, you can pay a very reasonable $14.99 for a single license or $49.99 for 5 licenses.
A word of warning is that you will need a fast internal network. My 2.4GHz wireless produced less than impressive results. Once I switched to my 5GHz network, everything was fine.
I've made a video tutorial which you can get to via my YouTube channel or by clicking below:
Any questions, please fee free to leave a comment and I'll try and come back to you.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
How to Download iTunes Movie and TV Show Artwork Free
Want an easy way to get those high quality iTunes art for Movies and TV Shows? Its free, easy, and doesn't require downloading software or going to any websites except iTunes itself.
And the artwork will be displayed on your iPhone, iPad, iPod etc just like any other.
I blogged before on how to rip your DVD and Blu Rays to iTunes in previous posts:
Ripping your DVDs and Blu Rays for your Apple Mac / iPod / iPhone / iPad etc
Ripping your DVDs and Blu Rays pt.2: Extract Subtitles for M4V / MP4 / iTunes
HD-SD Tag: Having HD and SD movies in iTunes
But say you've got that far, and now want the iTunes artwork. Follow this simple guide:
And the artwork will be displayed on your iPhone, iPad, iPod etc just like any other.
I blogged before on how to rip your DVD and Blu Rays to iTunes in previous posts:
Ripping your DVDs and Blu Rays for your Apple Mac / iPod / iPhone / iPad etc
Ripping your DVDs and Blu Rays pt.2: Extract Subtitles for M4V / MP4 / iTunes
HD-SD Tag: Having HD and SD movies in iTunes
But say you've got that far, and now want the iTunes artwork. Follow this simple guide:
(1) Find the movie in iTunes
I've used the marvellous Liam Neeson movie "Taken" as my example here:
(2) Right click on the artwork and click "Copy Link"
(3) Open up your browser of choice and paste the link and go to the web address
(4) Now find the link to the picture and navigate to it
In Google Chrome: Right click the picture and select "Open Image in New Tab"
In Safari: Right click the picture and select "Open Image in New Tab
In Firefox: Right click the picture and select "View Image"
(5) Edit the hyperlink address
In the address box of your web browser, you will see the image URL - looking something like this:
Now select everything in the address that is numeric before the .jpg extension:
Delete it, and delete any superfluous dots left behind - so in my example above I would have ended up with two dots because I didn't get my selection and delete quite right. I just want "dj.tciejzpb.jpg" as the filename.
Go to the URL (usually this can be done by hitting <Enter> on your keyboard)
(6) Copy and paste the picture into iTunes
You will now see the large iTunes artwork displayed on the web page. Simply copy and paste it into the iTunes entry for your movie:
You can do this by saving the image somewhere, then going into iTunes, right clicking the movie and selecting "Get Info" then the menu item "Artwork" and clicking on "Add..." and selecting the image you just saved.
That's it! Really simple.
I have on the odd occasion had some movies that don't work. It is usually during the Step 5, where I have the correct URL for the large picture but it just doesn't display anything or gives an error. It's happened once or twice. I usually go away for a bit and try again, and it works. It could be my browser, or some other reason, but it does work eventually...
So no need for extra software, or going to a database website - just go straight to the source!
Music - a word of caution
For some strange reason, this method doesn't work for Music. It does work for Movies and TV Shows. It's odd why it doesn't work, it just gives an error. It must be iTunes codes that artwork in some different way.
And finally...
It won't work if the movie isn't in iTunes (obviously). If that is the case, then Google images are your friend, or if you use Subler, that has a good array of artwork (Go to File / Import... / Search metadata online... then sort out the meta data and the next screen gives you a choice of artwork).
Please let me know if this is helpful by leaving a comment, or post a question and I'll try and answer it.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Google Chrome on iOS
What a great day today is. A momentous day. One I shall long remember... OK, perhaps that is a bit over the top, but I am very excited that whilst surfing the iTunes Store for the Blogger app (being used right now to type this on!) I came across Chrome that became available a few days ago.
So what's it like? Magic.
If you like Chrome on your desktop you will never go back to rotten old Safari again.
You get a similar look and feel to the desktop version. There's the tabs, the type in address box to search and the ability to sync your bookmarks and open tabs between your different Chrome sessions on different devices.
In addition there are some cool bits. First is the ability to swipe between tabs. When you do it, you wonder why nobody has thought of this before in the Safari team. Then there is the speak to search. Siri eat your heart put, understood me every time so far. Then there is the menu on the side that gives you the option to go Incognito ( like on the desktop where cookies aren't tracked) and the option to force the site to load the desktop version if the mobile one is too restrictive.
Both iPad and iPhone versions work well.
Sure, it's just a web browser. But for me it is the benchmark browser and thankfully it is now on iOS
So what's it like? Magic.
If you like Chrome on your desktop you will never go back to rotten old Safari again.
You get a similar look and feel to the desktop version. There's the tabs, the type in address box to search and the ability to sync your bookmarks and open tabs between your different Chrome sessions on different devices.
In addition there are some cool bits. First is the ability to swipe between tabs. When you do it, you wonder why nobody has thought of this before in the Safari team. Then there is the speak to search. Siri eat your heart put, understood me every time so far. Then there is the menu on the side that gives you the option to go Incognito ( like on the desktop where cookies aren't tracked) and the option to force the site to load the desktop version if the mobile one is too restrictive.
Both iPad and iPhone versions work well.
Sure, it's just a web browser. But for me it is the benchmark browser and thankfully it is now on iOS
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