How To Get New TV Shows On Your iPad, Automatically [How-To] | Cult of Mac

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How To Get New TV Shows On Your iPad, Automatically [How-To] | Cult of Mac

This is an article about using BitTorrent with other OS X apps to automate the downloading and converting of TV shows, adding metadata and then transferring them to your iPad to be watched. Some of you will rage that this is immoral, illegal (in your country) or both. Others will say that BitTorrent is, like, totally legit and is used every day for, like, downloading Linux builds, man.

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Solowalker

+1 for iFlicks. I found it recently as a replacement for MetaX. Not only does it do MetaX's job better and easier, it also replaced Playback's re-muxing functionality (and then some; Playback only re-muxes mkv). Now I can use iTunes and my AppleTV for everything. Freaking awesome. Though I have run into some very very annoying bugs with iFlicks that I hope they fix soon. And it relies on the soon-to-be-dead Perian. :(

Curious about using TVShows for automating. Though I prefer to use Automator's services and folder actions instead of Hazel.

Blake Beavers

This is awesome but... torrenting is "illegal" here (US)

Andrew John

Transmission is ok, but it's encryption method isn't that good and can be detected by your IP. uTorrent does a much better job, a little more technical, but I've never had an IP issue using it. With Transmission I always had to reboot my modem as my IP would freeze my service.

al friede

charlie, thanks for the app info! i've been using ted for the past 2+ yrs, and lately it's just become too flakey and unreliable, so i've been looking for an alternative. tvshows will definitely get installed and tested tonight!

buzzub

Nice guide. Personally I moved away from TVShows as it seemed flakey and now use Automatic instead. Never had a problem

With Transmission there's an option to keep part downloaded files in a separate folder until complete. This is especially useful when using Folder Actions to look for completed downloads (my script moves files to the appropriate TV Shows/Show/Season directory).

If you're not bothered about having the shows available when out of wifi range, I'd recommend setting up Plex and streaming straight to the iPad using Plex Media Server and avoid iTunes altogether. Works a treat.

karljohann

@buzzub "(my script moves files to the appropriate TV Shows/Show/Season directory)" Now that's an idea! Care to share? :)

buzzub

@karljohann I experimented with complicated scripts that identify filenames etc, but in the end I kept it simple and it works. All I need to do is manually add each new show to the shell script when I subscribe in Automatic.

This is the folder action applescript (stored in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts) that is attached to the torrent download folder:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    try
        do shell script "/Users/username/Scripts/move_files.sh"
    end try
end adding folder items to

and then this is the move_files.sh script:

mv /Volumes/Disk/Downloads/Name.of.show.1.S07* /Volumes/Disk/"TV Shows"/"Show 1"/"Season 7"
mv /Volumes/Disk/Downloads/Name.of.show.2.S01* /Volumes/Disk/"TV Shows"/"Show 2"/"Season 1"
mv /Volumes/Disk/Downloads/Name.of.show.3.S05* /Volumes/Disk/"TV Shows"/"Show 3"/"Season 5"
mv /Volumes/Disk/Downloads/Name.of.show.4.S04* /Volumes/Disk/"TV Shows"/"Show 4"/"Season 4"

etc....

Quick and dirty it might be, but it works a treat. One snagoo is that you need the right permissions on the shell script for it to be executed, so don't forget to use chmod to change them.

One day I'll have a spare afternoon and I'll write a "proper" script that identifies the show name & season and automagically move it in a more elaborate manner... but that could be a while!

Chris Khouri

One can also use vuze to download torrents and use the automated conversion function of vuze that places the avi's

zahadum

demuxing / stripping legacy wrappers!
huh?
iFlics presents no such command :(
WTF are you talking about (grrrr)
pls use screenshot to clarify your point! (grrrr)