I LOVE THIS DAMN THING!!! (Apple TV) (UPDATED with pic comparisons)

[killmoms]

In case you haven't seen it yet: XVID Working on Apple TV!!!

 

[MovieCutter]

that's when anything looks pretty good

True, but I'm sober now (temporarily) and it still looks pretty damn good.

Fair enough. The music part alone is pretty nice for a lot of people, including me. But for me it'll come down to three things:

- HD content availability
- 5.1 multi channel audio
- output switchable (right now the HDMI overrides the component)

If those three are there, I am all over it. At least they are pretty much all software, so I might as well pick one up for the music and hope that Apple takes care of the rest soon.

True, but I packed up my 5.1 system in preparation for a move months ago, and haven't missed it too much and HD content availability is understandable, but doesn't help me when I'm ripping existing DVDs at full res.

 

[mkrishnan]

Seriously, somewhere down the line it will be possible. It's just a matter of a software/firmware update. The intel chipset being used is capable of it. So if you throw 5.1 at it, it'll just playback stereo for now, from what I've gathered on the forums.

Correct me if I'm wrong... but all those H.264 or MPEG-4 rips that people are making in Handbrake, however, are not getting 5.1 channel audio ripped into them, are they? Meaning that they will need to rip all of those all over again to get 5.1 even if it is enabled? Or are you using AC-3 Passthrough? Does tv support that?

Don't get me wrong...I'm super geeked that you love it. I was just curious because I don't understand all the subtleties of going to movie files for video.

 

[BurtonCCC]

The convenience factor for me is priceless. This thing streamlines my workflow SO nicely. It's just much cooler than I expected it to be.

I think that's EXACTLY what Apple is going for. For this specific consumer, Apple has delivered. I myself won't have a widescreen TV for a bit, but my media collection is very similar to yours (just a bit less vast ), so as soon as I've got one, I think the Apple TV will be wonderful for me as well.

Daniel.

 

[dmw007]

Update coming soon...took a day off of work to keep drinking, chill out, and assemble/organize my media library (it's gonna probably take the whole weekend)

I hope that you have plenty of wine if it is going to take all weekend.

 

[MovieCutter]

I hope that you have plenty of wine if it is going to take all weekend.

Trader Joe's down the street

 

[Multimedia]

Link To AppleTV Compatible Maximum Quality MPEG4 Encode Of HC7 Footage

Over at the MacRumors Sony HDR-HC7 Camcorder thread's Post#268 I've put a link to a short 23 second 13MB AppleTV Compatible MPEG4 video I created yesterday with my new HC7, iMovie and QT Pro just for ya'll early adopters to see how well the HC7 can deliver content to your HDTVs via internet delivered Sony HC7 HDV footage. This was dropped down from the native HDV 1440 (retangular) x 1080i footage to the maximum quality limitations of the AppleTV spec: 1280 x 720P 4595kbps (5Mbps is max) H.264

Hope some of you come over and post your impressions of how well it plays over there. Thanks.

NOTE: You have to "Select a format" from the popup menu to "Source — MPEG4 Video (.mp4)" to be able to then get the QuickTime MP4 file to download to your HD and then save as QuickTime Movie with your QuickTime Pro. This post doesn't appear to let you download it without QT Pro. Sorry. Default is apparently a rendered-upon-receipt flash movie.

 

[jsw]

Hope some of you come over and post your impressions of how well it plays over there. Thanks.

If I get around to joining, here's the comment I'd make:

I've downloaded it, put it into iTunes, and then watched it via the AppleTV (set to 720p resolution). The playback was identical to that on my admittedly not state-of-the-art 17" iMac and 1st gen 15" MBP. It's not incredibly smooth at times, but I don't know if that's due to the actual movie or its playback, although the CPUs aren't pegged on the Macs, so I think it's likely in the original movie. Still, I think it's remarkably good footage for a camcorder, and it plays well on the Apple TV.​

 

[skinnylegs]

ook a day off of work to keep drinking, chill out, and assemble/organize my media library

Outstanding. I think I'll follow suit! BTW.....have you tried Drive-in vs. Handbrake?

 

[michaelsaxon]

Shiny!

 

[clevin]

In case you haven't seen it yet: XVID Working on Apple TV!!!

any mention about void of warranty or not?

and those discussion of bash, ssh, codes, compile??, little scary, wonder how many ppl can follow that.

 

[pilotError]

any mention about void of warranty or not?

and those discussion of bash, ssh, codes, compile??, little scary, wonder how many ppl can follow that.

I'm pretty sure your warranty is hosed when you get in there. The torn away glue is usually a telltale sign someones been in there.

The tech stuff isn't really all that hard, if they get it working correctly, it will be a download and a double click away.

Essentially they are getting the box to communicate to the outside world so they can get stuff on to the disk without having to open the box up. The rest of the stuff is just automating the tasks to do it all.