iOS: Downloading SD Video Direct To iPads (When Purchased HD)

This has been frustrating me for a while so I thought I'd write a blog about it. Basically I have access to a couple of 16GB iPads which are ideal for the kids to play with BUT the movies/ TV shows I want them to watch I own in HD and when you look at the size of the HD files - such as Disney's Brave below - 3.42GB in HD vs 1.46GB in SD then the storage on the device is being eaten away pretty quickly;

Disney's Brave; HD vs SD File Sizes

Now back in the days when you used cables to connect iOS to iTunes you could just download the SD version into iTunes and sync it across. Technically you still could with iTunes Wi-Fi Sync but the problem is if you're going to use iCloud (which is just fantastically useful in every other way) to manage your content there doesn't seem to be an obvious or easy way to switch between versions.

As you'll know to download your pre-purchased content you need to go into the iTunes Application your iPad and then touch on the "Purchased" button (bottom right);

iCloud Purchases Tab (iTunes on an iPad)

and then touch the film you're interested in;

Downloading an iCloud Purchase Direct to an iPad

and finally touch the "Cloud" icon to start the download.

Occasionally you'll notice that instead of the "Cloud" icon you'll just get a "Watch" button. I'm not entirely sure what this button is for - it doesn't seem to actually start the movie playing (at least it doesn't on my iPad 2 or my iPhone 5!).

The problem is you can't choose between SD and HD when you trigger the download.

There doesn't seem to be any quick and easy way around this *however* there is a long and complicated way - go back into the iTunes application and search for the video you are interested in and go to the page. Taking "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" (as shown above) when you open the films page in the store you get the same iCloud download icon but this time you get the HD/SD option for your iCloud download;

iTunes Store Movie Details - With HD/SD iCloud Option

Hopefully Apple will do something about this - it's not exactly the best user interface in the world and as films get bigger and bigger it becomes more and more important to shrink the filesize prior to starting the downloads.

iOS: Finding Your UDID, Mobile Data Number, IMEI or ICCID In iTunes 11

Open iTunes 11 and connect your iDevice.

Click on the "Summary" tab at the top, you will see something similar to;

iPad Summary Details (From iTunes 11)

This shows your the capacity, battery state, and serial number of your device.

Click the Serial Number and it will cycle through the fields (if applicable); Identified (UDID), Mobile Data Number, IMEI, and ICCID.

iPad UDID Number

Instead of copying down the field by hand you can right-click it and choose "Copy ..." which will put the selected value on the clipboard.

Using AppleTV (and Airplay) with BT Home Hub 3.0

If you're reading this post then you're probably experiencing one of the following issues;

• Your Apple TV can connect to the internet over Wi-Fi but can't see your iTunes Library (that you're sharing via Home Sharing) on a another machine on your home network
• Airplay Devices you own (such as iPod's, iPhone's, iPad's, etc) cannot see your Apple TV (despite them all being able to access the Internet via the Home Hubs Wi-Fi

You've probably tried;

• Doing a "hard reset" of the Home Hub - always a good place to start when you have an issue!
• Adding in the AppleTV ports to the list of forwarded ports (although this doesn't always work as sometimes you get a conflict)

And still no Airplay on your devices, and no iTunes library on your AppleTV.

Here is the solution (well, what worked for me anyway!);

• Go to Your Home Hub 3.0 login page (see here if you're having problems finding it) and login (if this is the first time you've logged in it will ask you to change the password from the "admin password" on your Hub Settings fob)
• Click "Settings" 
• Click "Wireless" (on the left)
• Change Security from "WPA & WPA2 (Recommended)" to "WPA2 only"
• Re-enter the Wireless Key as specified on your Hub Settings fob (you could pick another, but that just complicates the process and means everything will have to reconnect and login again)
• Scroll to the bottom and click "Apply"

And that's it, assuming everything is connecting properly and this was the only problem (and you've chosen the same Wireless Key so that everything doesn't have to reconnect - always a good idea!) then everything should, as if by magic, start working.

BT Home Hub 3.0 Wireless Security Settings

iTunes: How to Download 1080p Content By Default (If Available)

By default iTunes is set to download HD content (TV Shows and Movies) in 720p and while this is the maximum supported resolution for the AppleTV 2 the new Apple TV supports up to 1080p and, if you've paid for the HD content, you might as well see it full size!*.

Start with opening iTunes and bring up "Preferences" and select the green "Store" icon;

iTunes Store Preferences > Store Tab

In the second section at the bottom there is a drop down, showing "720p" in the image above, you can change this to "1080p" to download the maximum high-definition format (well, until maybe the iPad 4 anyway ...).

If you want to check it's working just go to a HD item in the iTunes store and take a look at the settings on the left;

Alcatraz, Season 1 Showing 1080p HD Download as Default (click to enlarge)

Of course not all HD content is currently 1080p but there are a few titles which offer free previews in 1080 like the BBC's Sherlock.

To go straight to the option screen from the TV/ Movie screen just click on the "(Downloading xxx)" indicator on the left, it's actually a link and will take you straight to the settings page to change your option.

*- Disk space permitting of course! A 22 episode series HD will take you around 3.5GB (SD 600mb, HD 720p 1.4Gb, and HD 1080p 1.6Gb) per episode. That's around 80Gb for the complete series. Looking at West Wing that's over half a terabyte for all seven seasons for 1080p!

Why is "Run as different user" not available for some programs in Windows 7?

This blog post covers one of the reasons why holding down shift and right-clicking a shortcut might not give you the "Run as different user" option - only the "Run as administrator" option.


Duplicating the Problem
This is probably one of the most annoying "features" you'll ever encounter. It's probably also one of the least clear. Luckily there's a practically guaranteed way to duplicate the problem so you can see what I mean: install iTunes.

After you have installed the software if you hold down shift and right-click the installed icon you'll notice that you don't get the "Run as different user" option. Actually if you right click it and select "Pin to taskbar" and then run iTunes you'll also notice that it creates a "new" taskbar icon whereas you'd expect it to re-use the one you'd pinned there:

Duplicate iTunes Icons

If you right-click the icon and select "Properties" you'll also notice that the Shortcut itself seems to be setup in a "strange" way:

The "Target location" and "Start in" items appear to be blank.

Fixing the problem
Find the installation directory for the software you're trying to use. For iTunes this is either "C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes" or "C:\Program Files\iTunes" depending on the OS you are running. If you look in this directory you will see a list of files:

The one we're intersted in I've highlighted - it's the main iTunes application (you can narrow it down for your application by looking for those files with a "Type" of Application and then doing each one in turn). Right-click this file and select "Create shortcut". You will then see the message that "Window's can't create a shortcut here" and "Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop instead?". Click "Yes".

Hold down shift and right-click the new shortcut on your desktop and you'll see the "Run as different user" option is now available.