Why wouldn't you just use the files app on your device to connect to an SMB share and copy files onto the device that way?
Unless I missed something, the files app won’t put videos into the TV app.
If you intend to stick with the first party software, then you seem to have gotten some bad information on what synch settings can be controlled from the Finder.
You wouldn't need to open the TV app to control or trigger synch for video content.
Catalina handles both from the sidebar of the Finder.
The sync is controlled from the finder, but the available content is controlled from the TV app.
I'm not certain where you got this impression, but it is incorrect.
Here is a link to the correct information on how synch works in the Finder of Mac OS Catalina.
https://www.imore.com/how-sync-your-iphone-and-ipad-your-mac...
Did you read the link you posted? It says exactly what I said. That you can’t choose new content to sync without importing it first.
Ahhh… You are talking about adding new content to your library and not about synching content between your library and a device.
However, the requirement that you add content to your library before you can synch it to your devices is not a change from the way things worked in iTunes at all.
I know it’s not a change. That’s my complaint. I would expect to be able to drag files from my hard drive to the device. The fact that I can’t makes the experience worse than iTunes.
Who still uses the stock iOS app to watch videos? There are a thousand other ways to put video files on your iPhone or iPad and tons of great apps like VLC for iOS, Infuse, etc. that offer many ways of adding video files. I don't fault Apple for not adding new features to the legacy iTunes-iOS media sync system.
Who still uses the stock iOS app to watch videos?
Literally everybody I know, including myself.
VLC has really offered outstanding support for transferring content onto the device.
SMB, FTP, Plex servers, all the well known cloud services, even a built in web server so you can connect any web browser to your device's IP address and drag and drop files onto the device.
VLC is great and I use it personally. But it's too complicated for my kids and doesn't integrate with the parental control system. And also, millions of people use Apple's apps to consume content and my objection was that they made that process worse.
I do. It’s the best way to let my kids watch videos on planes and car trips while honoring parental controls and guided access.
Pretty much all of my non-technical family members, who are (rightfully) scared to download shady apps that promise free services with no downside.
I think a better question would have been "who uses a computer to sync iTunes videos to an iOS device?", but even that falls down when you start factoring in Internet caps and suchlike.
I’m not talking about iTunes videos. I’m talking about my other videos, like all the ripped kids DVDs that I use to entertain them.
I'm not talking about iTunes videos either. An app like VLC for iOS will be able to play anything you throw at it.
An app like VLC for iOs isn't appropriate for my two year old because it's too complicated and doesn't follow all the parental controls, but that's really not the point anyway. The point is that millions of people still use Apple's apps to watch video, and they made that process worse.
For those of you excited by this, don’t be. All they did was split one app into four. It still works the same way.
Yes you can see your device in the finder. But you can’t do anything with it other than upgrade the OS and back it up.
Want to put a movie on your iPhone? You’d think you could just drag it from finder. But no, you have to load the AppleTV app, which is just the movies and tv part of iTunes, import it, and then go back to finder to hit sync.
Honestly, the experience was better with iTunes, which was awful.