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Is AppleTV Worth it for personal content?
- Thread starter frocco
- Start date
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If you want to stream content to the AppleTV,, you will need an external source such as your MBP or iMac or a PC. It's done through iTunes and over your local network. The AppleTV 2 & 3 do not have local internal storage for content.
You could use an external hard drive, create an iTunes library that resides on the external HD, and add your ripped and converted DVD files to it. You would still have to plug the hard drive into your MBP and open iTunes, with Home Sharing on, to stream your videos to the Apple TV.
or attach the HD to the router (instead of the MBP) if that's a possibility. Also, the library can reside on the MBP with the files on the external HD. That is the setup I use and it works perfectly.
That's a good, but expensive, choice if you want to run Plex or XMBC or have a issue with leaving your MBP open and running full time, but sort of overkill for iTunes. And with only 500GB internal storage, you'll still probably end up attaching an external HD eventually. It's personal choice, really.
I have both hooked up to the living room tv. I find I use the atv more, the interface is just better for casual watching.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Be sure you understand this: there must be a computer running itunes somewhere in the house. Hooking a hard drive to the router won't get the job done alone. Yes, you can hook the drive to the router and store all of your movie & TV show media there (so it doesn't eat up space on your laptop). BUT, you'll still need iTunes running on a computer (that laptop or another).
If you only have the 1 computer and don't want to depend on it being the computer for this purpose, consider picking up any old used computer that is capable of running iTunes. It doesn't have to be a powerful, new or recent machine- just good enough to run iTunes.
If you only have the 1 computer and don't want to depend on it being the computer for this purpose, consider picking up any old used computer that is capable of running iTunes. It doesn't have to be a powerful, new or recent machine- just good enough to run iTunes.
If you can host your content on an external drive on an airport extreme or something else, I would jailbreak the ATV and as someone noted, get XBMC. It's cheap and excellent alternative to the mac mini, and you don't have to worry about converting to an iTunes format or running a mac mini all the time with itunes open or anything like that. Not only that, download Buzz player which can connect to your shared drive and watch them all from ipad and iphone.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Of course, jailbreaking commits the OP to version 1 or 2 (both capped at 720p). The 1080p third generation has no jailbreak (yet).
You can use the apple tv 1st gen with the broadcom crystal HD video card and crystalbuntu OS, it can run XBMC and handle any 1080p video you can throw at it.
Lets get it straight, although you may use the MBP for encoding, I don't think you're going to want to use your MBP internal DVD drive to rip all your DVDs.
If you have a large collection, use an older desktop Mac or desktop PC, that comes with a $35 DVD drive, easily replacable if you wear it out.
Same with the disk, why use your MBP internal hard disk, or an external one, when you could drop a top quality 2TB green drive into the desktop for $80 or less. Go larger if you have the cash.
Then after you've used the old desktop for ripping the DVD, used your MBP to encode the rip and stored the M4V on the old desktop, you may as well leave them on there and have it run iTunes and share the content.
Good luck with the ripping, I did my DVD collection years ago, about 700 movies and tv show discs. I just did 2-3 discs per day in each desktop Mac (a Mac Pro, PMG5 and MDD G4), just dropped one in each in the AM, one when home from work, one before bed, maybe more at the weekend if I was walking past. In 3-4 months I had all of them done. All encoding done on the Mac Pro once per day - it raced through them in no time.
New DVDs get done as I buy them.
Do your favourite shows first, then review them on the TV just to get an idea for the quality settings you should use, but that's another (already well asked) topic.
If you have a large collection, use an older desktop Mac or desktop PC, that comes with a $35 DVD drive, easily replacable if you wear it out.
Same with the disk, why use your MBP internal hard disk, or an external one, when you could drop a top quality 2TB green drive into the desktop for $80 or less. Go larger if you have the cash.
Then after you've used the old desktop for ripping the DVD, used your MBP to encode the rip and stored the M4V on the old desktop, you may as well leave them on there and have it run iTunes and share the content.
Good luck with the ripping, I did my DVD collection years ago, about 700 movies and tv show discs. I just did 2-3 discs per day in each desktop Mac (a Mac Pro, PMG5 and MDD G4), just dropped one in each in the AM, one when home from work, one before bed, maybe more at the weekend if I was walking past. In 3-4 months I had all of them done. All encoding done on the Mac Pro once per day - it raced through them in no time.
New DVDs get done as I buy them.
Do your favourite shows first, then review them on the TV just to get an idea for the quality settings you should use, but that's another (already well asked) topic.