How to stop iTunes 11 from randomly match SD and HD episodes of a TV-series

It's all about the metadata ‚ the track information stored in each media file.

A while back I had this problem with TV Shows ripped from DVD not displaying correctly, or not in the proper sort order, on my iPad. When I compared the metadata for my home-brewed files with those from files of episodes purchased from the the iTunes store, I discovered some differences. The solution that worked for me was to correct the metadata using the info pane for the media files in iTunes.

To get started, open iTunes, select one of the TV episode files that's giving you problems, and press ⌘ + i (or choose Get Info from the file menu).

Start with the Info tab. Ideally your metadata will look something like this, with obvious differences (unless your file happens to be the same episode of The Big Bang Theory):

Note that the track number corresponds to the episode number

Not all devices use the Info metadata for sorting though, your next stop is the Video tab:

Episode ID could also be expressed as S2E8 but I prefer the cleaner, numerical method.

Next, visit the Options tab to confirm that the Media Type is set to TV Show:

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To assure consistency, you can select multiple files and edit common fields, such as Album (in the Info tab) or Show (in the Video tab) all at once.

Finally, it's sometimes useful to make change the criteria that iTunes uses to sort your media. You have guessed by now that the Sorting tab is the key to this operation:

In the example above, alphabetical sorts by episode will place this episode with the L episodes, not in the T's. This is useful for Movies, shows or bands beginning with The.

The laborious process of manually entering metadata for TV Episodes is the main reason for my using iVI to import DVDs.

You say that sometimes you "forget" to sync. Are you utilizing Wi-Fi syncing? The sync activates whenever you're on the same network and your device is plugged in. This might reduce the number of instances that you need to download a copy from your iPhone.

I realize this is a stop gap. I feel your pain. Like you, I've put a lot of effort into understanding why the leading podcast catcher can't seem to make podcasting on the iOS "just work". In the end I needed a bit of self inflicted tough-love and just admitted that this was one are that Apple fell short and that they weren't going to remedy anytime soon. They're putting their resources where the revenue streams are.

My situation forced me to change my workflow. I've been waiting for the promise an untethered world, and jumped into iCloud full steam. I use iTunes Match for my music, iCloud for my backups and no longer sync to iTunes on my computer. Of course, this means that there is no way to subscribe to podcasts on my iPhone without using a third party app.

After trying several podcast apps, I've come to like both Downcaster and Instacast. I've imported my feeds from my mac, I can subscribe to new ones on the iPhone, and I can sync to my other devices through iCloud. What I can't do is sync back to the mac. But I'm ok with that now. By using a full featured app on the iPhone, I've come to really like the experience. Given the choice today, I'd continue my new habit of listening to podcasts on my phone even while I'm working on my mac. I don't ever need iTunes open and the overall listening experience is much better.