Freeing up space in iTunes by deleting SD TV shows
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, February 9, 2012
Tip Category: iTunes
Freeing up extra space in your iTunes Library—and thus on your hard drive—has long been a part of dealing with Apple’s media management software, but with the arrival of iTunes in the Cloud, it’s become easier than ever. If you have a few HD TV shows that you’ve downloaded from the iTunes Store, odds are you also have SD versions of those same videos hanging around. Assuming your portable devices support the HD version—and all current models do—you can easily get rid of the SD version, freeing up large amounts of storage space in the meantime.
To do so, simply open up your TV Shows list in iTunes and look for episodes that have the HD/SD icon next to the title. Right-click on these episodes, select Show in Finder from the pop-up menu, and then drag the version of the episode that doesn’t contain an (HD) designation to the trash. Repeat these steps for each episode that has two versions, then empty the trash. Should you ever need the SD version again, a quick visit to the iTunes Store’s Purchased section should allow you to re-download it. Unfortunately, Movies have yet to hit iTunes in the Cloud status, but as soon as they do, feel free to use the same technique to rid your Library of unnecessary SD movies — and free up gigabytes of space at the same time.
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1
The iPod Classic (still hanging in there) does not support any HD videos. Maximum resolution is still 640x480. That’s probably why iTunes still downloads an SD version when you purchase the HD video.
Posted by BillyBobSmith on February 9, 2012 at 1:39 PM (PDT)
2
I have my MAC connected to my TV via my receiver. Nothing downloaded in HD from the iTunes Store will play. Only the SD version will play.
Apparently some copy protection was built into the HD versions and even though my receiver and TV can’t copy these files, they aren’t able to tell the file this, so the file won’t play.
Would love to see an article in iLounge about this issue.
Posted by gear on February 14, 2012 at 3:55 AM (PDT)