Genius Recommendations for Movies and TV Shows Appearing on Apple TV

Several Apple TV users have reported a new addition to the menus of their devices, with the new option bringing Genius recommendations for movies and TV shows in their libraries. Curiously, early reports noted that rather than carrying a correct menu title, the movie option carried the name "ATV.Menu.MOVIE.GeniusItem", suggesting that the new feature may have appeared prematurely. Apple seems to have fixed the issue, however, with the menu option now showing properly as "Genius".

apple tv genius option combined
Improperly-displayed (left, via @cthielen) and properly-displayed Genius option for Movies on Apple TV

Despite the strange display of the menu option, the feature does appear to have been functional since its initial appearance yesterday, with users being able to access Genius recommendations for their content.

apple tv genius page
Genius movie recommendations on Apple TV (via @benfurneaux)

Genius recommendations for movies and TV shows have been offered for some time in iTunes itself through the iTunes Sidebar, but those recommendations have not been available on the second-generation Apple TV. Genius recommendations are also available through the iTunes app on iOS devices.

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Top Rated Comments

benspratling Avatar
174 months ago
"ATV.Menu.MOVIE.GeniusItem"
is a "key" used by developers to specify a text resource. The system would look up this unique "key" and find the correct text for the user's locale (language and location) preferences. By default, if the system can't find the text resource, it simply hands back the key that was passed in. If developers used readable text as their keys, that works fine, but since Apple's obviously using developer-centric keys, to more easily identify the exact resource, it displayed something not quite legible.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ipedro Avatar
174 months ago
In the meantime, Apple got rid of Genius where it's most important: music. If you have iTunes Match, you lose this feature (https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1280505). I hope they fix that, it's become one of my favourite things about the iTunes ecosystem.
Score: 0 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WestonHarvey1 Avatar
174 months ago
"ATV.Menu.MOVIE.GeniusItem"
is a "key" used by developers to specify a text resource. The system would look up this unique "key" and find the correct text for the user's locale (language and location) preferences. By default, if the system can't find the text resource, it simply hands back the key that was passed in. If developers used readable text as their keys, that works fine, but since Apple's obviously using developer-centric keys, to more easily identify the exact resource, it displayed something not quite legible.

The "strange appearance" of the key provides a namespace to differentiate similar keys used elsewhere. Had they used "Genius Item" as a key, they would run into collisions with other keys that would also be named "Genius Item", say for a Song Genius Item.
Score: 0 Votes (Like | Disagree)
VanMac Avatar
174 months ago
Interesting feature. Looking forward to them delivering the whole TV.
Score: 0 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dckcentaur Avatar
174 months ago
I noticed this last night and thought it was very bizarre. I thought my apple Tv had a glitch in it. HA HA:D
Score: 0 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe-Diver Avatar
174 months ago
I look forward to checking this out!
Score: 0 Votes (Like | Disagree)