Considering AppleTV, have questions

[mrhat]

Hi everyone,

I'm considering getting an tv and setting up a home media server with all my DVDs on it, including tons of tv shows.

My question is, is there anyway to set up "channels" with my media? For example, lets say i want to create an "comedy" channel, with TV shows and movies in the comedy genre, and whenever I click to it, a random episode comes on, and then after that continues to play random episodes in that genre. And if tv cant do that on its own, can boxee or another one of the hacks do that? I haven't used an tv yet, so I'm not sure what all the capabilities of it are.

 

[ntrigue]

I believe you can shuffle by Genre. I'll have to get home and check for you.

 

[iParis]

Hi everyone,

I'm considering getting an tv and setting up a home media server with all my DVDs on it, including tons of tv shows.

My question is, is there anyway to set up "channels" with my media? For example, lets say i want to create an "comedy" channel, with TV shows and movies in the comedy genre, and whenever I click to it, a random episode comes on, and then after that continues to play random episodes in that genre. And if tv cant do that on its own, can boxee or another one of the hacks do that? I haven't used an tv yet, so I'm not sure what all the capabilities of it are.

I believe you can just make a play list of TV shows and have that playlist shuffle.
Or what the other poster said.

 

[mrhat]

Randomizing a playlist or by genre seems reasonable. Now beyond that, and I doubt tv does this, but maybe boxee or another hack can, is there any way to make it do this: lets say i have episodes of The Office, Seinfeld, the Simpsons, Arrested Development, etc. is there anyway i can set up a playlist with or something that will play a random episode of The Office first, then a random episode of Seinfeld second, etc., basically making sure that two episodes of the same series arent play back to back.

 

[techfreak85]

Smart playlists

 

[mrhat]

One more question. I have alot of AVI files that I don't really want to covert to itunes format because I don't want them to be compressed even more. Is there a hack for the tv that would allow me to play those and still be able to play my music and shows purchased from the itunes store without having to switch between one interface back to the original tv interface?