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Has Apple TV 2.0 changed your strategy for ripping DVDs you own?

Kind of...

I'm hanging on to all my video_ts folders for the time being. What few movies I've got ripped will be encoded into mp4 via Handbrake as and when I want to watch them. If/when Handbrake or whoever cracks the 5.1 problem I will be going to town.

The exciting part is that I've ordered a Sata PCI card for my old PC and will be turning it into a raid 5 storage monster. The intial configuration will be just 640gb but once we're really crack-a-lacking I will throw another Seagate Barracuda in there for 960gb total of redundant storage.
 
danny_w said:
I have delayed ripping my DVDs for 2 reasons: 1) 5,1 surround sound is a must and 2) AppleTV does not support 4:3 tv aspect ratio. Now with AppleTV 2.0 reason #1 has been fixed, but they still need to fix reason #2 (I have updated to 2.0 and still no 4:3 support that I can see). I have actually considered getting an Xbox 360 to replace my AppleTV for that very reason, I just haven't actually seen one to see what the i/f is like for media streaming. I know that you can use Connect360 to connect iTunes music and videos, but I don't know how it works.
Click to expand...

The Apple TV supports all of the picture formats I've tried, including 4:3. I have lots of kids TV shows encoded from DVD which are 4:3. It puts black bars on either side (as it should). With Pixar's Cars, which is 'extra wide screen' (can't remember the format) it puts black bars top and bottom on a standard widescreen TV. If you're not getting 4:3 working you must be using the wrong settings. In Handbrake 0.9.1 which I have at the moment encoding The Muppet Show, I have Anamorphic (PAR) on, Keep aspect ratio: Off, Crop Auto, Deinterlace: Fast. Note: since a few versions ago, video doesn't display correctly in iTunes but it DOES display correctly still on the Apple TV - so don't let odd results in iTunes put you off - unless you plan to watch them in iTunes!

(Note: my Apple TV is connected to my Toshiba LCD via an HDMI cable. Perhaps your TV settings or method of connection might influence which picture format the TV displays).
 
Some interesting methods here.

For me, I can't see the logic in converting, then compressing ones entire DVD collection for use with the Apple TV. With the various codecs, their improvements, their drawbacks, firmware updates, etc, it just seems like a waste of time. Seems we don't yet have a standard, such as options that we've all accepted for compressed audio formats.

I prefer grabbing the uncompressed (to a certain degree) DVD from my shelf, popping it in the old DVD player (imagine that? ;)) and watching it in all it's glory; 5.1.. etc. Is this really that much of an inconvenience?

I do see the advantages, in conversion, of those with children or less computer savvy family members. However, I'd be interested in hearing how often some of these users just pop in the DVD to get some real, uncompromised results.

Having said this, I do see many other advantages to owning an AppleTV.
 
severe said:
I prefer grabbing the uncompressed (to a certain degree) DVD from my shelf, popping it in the old DVD player (imagine that? ;)) and watching it in all it's glory; 5.1.. etc. Is this really that much of an inconvenience?
Click to expand...

I use the AppleTV in the bedroom - don't have to drag the discs upstairs.

In my home theater, I pop the disc in - part of the whole "experience"...
 
I'll continue backing up my DVD collection using Mac The Ripper to my 1TB Guardian Maximus (RAID1). Once Handbrake is confirmed to properly encode 5.1 DD in a container that is supported by iTunes/Apple TV 2.0 (and preferably can still be streamed to my Xbox via Connect360) I'll then begin the task of converting.

But I want to wait until I know for sure the containers are properly constructed and support all the tagging, etc. It's probably going to be 2-3 weeks before the dust settles.
 
severe said:
Some interesting methods here.
I prefer grabbing the uncompressed (to a certain degree) DVD from my shelf, popping it in the old DVD player (imagine that? ;)) and watching it in all it's glory; 5.1.. etc. Is this really that much of an inconvenience?

I do see the advantages, in conversion, of those with children or less computer savvy family members. However, I'd be interested in hearing how often some of these users just pop in the DVD to get some real, uncompromised results.

Having said this, I do see many other advantages to owning an AppleTV.
Click to expand...

You have a point. I'm not bothering to encode DVD's that I'll view once - and certainly movie rental will probably mean that I'll buy much fewer DVD's, and probably will put off buying a Blue-ray player for quite some time.

Having said that, there are definitely the advantages of having kids TV shows for repeat watching without the hassle of keeping swapping DVD's or risk them getting ruined.

There is also the advantage of encoding anamorphic DVD's and playing them on the Apple TV in terms of picture quality. An HDMI connection gets a better quality picture from the Apple TV than I get with my (very) old DVD player which is connected via SCART. For people with newer upscaling DVD players with HDMI connections I suspect there isn't much difference.
 
Converting of DVB-S Recordings

Hello Everybody,

i have been reading this thread for quite a while now, because i intent to buy an :apple:TV for my living room.

In my special case i am not so interested in ripping DVDs. It is much more interesting for me to convert the recordings of my Humax PVR 8000.

Therefore i use MPEG Streamclip. At first cutting the ads out and then converting the Tranport Stream to a .mov container with H.264 and AC3 sound.

This works pretty good so far. But as i do not own an :apple:TV up to now, i can't test if it works on it or not.

The next problem is, that QT tells me that the files only have AC3 2.0 Sound, although i configured sound passthrough in MPEG Streamclip and the recordings definitely contain 5.1 sound.

Does anyone have any experience in converting Transport Streams to :apple:TV or can give me some hints?

Many thanks in advance!

Greetings from Bavaria:)
George
 
Nope, I don't have a 5.1 System in my bedroom, so there is no point in ripping with it. There is a 5.1 system downstairs, but I'll use the DVD if I'm watching down there.
 
bavarian-george said:
Does anyone have any experience in converting Transport Streams to :apple:TV or can give me some hints?
Click to expand...
Sure, HandBrake can read alot of Transport Streams and program streams. I use it with my eyetv recordings all of the time. Next version has much better stream support than the current one. But give it a try.
 
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