get the file into mp4 format, either by selecting this on the camera or converting using a program such as Adobe Media Encoder
see how many vertical pixels your input file has, and use the corresponding Apple preset at 29.97fps:
if input file is 480 high, use “Apple TV, iPad, iPhone 4 and newer - 480p Widescreen 29.97, H.264”
if input file is 720 high, use “Apple TV, iPad, iPhone 4 and newer - 720p Widescreen 29.97, H.264”
if input file is 1080 high, use “Apple iPad 2, iPhone 4S - 1080p 29.97, H.264”
use exiftool to read date information from your files so you can set tags correctly
here is an example reading existing mp4 files that came from a camera directly. The last sed conversion is to make the date show with dashes so you can easily copy and paste into MetaX because the colons : it originally shows with will not work; time of day is also removed
see archiving avchd for another example usage; some files may use different tags for the correct creation date
use MetaX to set the following tags in your files:
when first asked what type of videos are these files, answer “TV Shows”
with all files selected, go to Advanced, enter “Home Movies” as the Show
with all corresponding files selected (same year), go to Advanced, enter only the 4 digit year as the Season
select each file one by one…
go to Info, copy and paste the year yyyy-mm-dd from the exiftool output
(optional) enter a description of the video in the “Short Description” box
when all finished, click the “Write” button
import the file into iTunes, and it will show a TV Show “Home Movies” on your Apple TV, with seasons, dates, and descriptions available in your living room
be sure to clean up the cache files after using because they take up a lot of space and it seems that Adobe doesn't do a good job at this (adjust location if not using the default)