Noob Questions regarding Apple TV

[XvMMvX]

Hi All,

I am considering Apple TV (was looking at Mac Minis as well) to use as an extender for my DVD collection (only about 10 blu-ray).

1. Where does it pull the data for the movies that I manually ad to itunes for streaming? Is this as big of a PITA as with my music?

2. If I have 1080p content will it be unplayable or will it just downscale to 1080P? The reason I would like to rip a few select blu-rays to 1080P the first time, and not have to re-rip them once we get the ability for 1080p.

3. Anybody have any bad experiences with Apple TV? It seems so straight forward in apple fasion of "it just works". It seems with my media center (WMC) I am constantly tweaking or fixing....why wont this metadata pull....why is it sluggish all of the sudden...etc.

I am a nerd, but have limited time to jack with things. This is why Apple appeals to me.

Thanks for the help.

 

[thetruth1985]

It's not as hard as you might think. Once you convert all of your dvd movies into itunes, you can use a program called MetaX that automatically tags your movies and add them into itunes. Another option is to get a boxee box because it automatically searches your hard drive for movies and tags them with info from imdb. The boxee does have some bugs but it is the only portable media player that I know of that supports full HD audio and 3D capability. With the Apple Tv, the maximum resolution supported is 720p. Depending on the type of tv you have and your viewing distance, you may not be able to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p.

 

[Panch0]

Hi All,

I am considering Apple TV (was looking at Mac Minis as well) to use as an extender for my DVD collection (only about 10 blu-ray).

1. Where does it pull the data for the movies that I manually ad to itunes for streaming? Is this as big of a PITA as with my music?

Not sure what you mean. Could be Where the media files are stored or where MetaData (title, description, etc...). In either case, the answer is the same from the ATV perspective. It gets both from iTunes. iTunes must be open on a PC or Mac, and HomeSharing must be turned on.

2. If I have 1080p content will it be unplayable or will it just downscale to 1080P? The reason I would like to rip a few select blu-rays to 1080P the first time, and not have to re-rip them once we get the ability for 1080p.

Pretty sure the content will be unplayable, but I've never tried it. Check out the sticky threads in the ATV and Home Theater forum. THey talk extensively about the ripping, converting and tagging process.

3. Anybody have any bad experiences with Apple TV? It seems so straight forward in apple fasion of "it just works". It seems with my media center (WMC) I am constantly tweaking or fixing....why wont this metadata pull....why is it sluggish all of the sudden...etc.

If you live within the rules of ATV (such as not trying to play unsupported formats), you won't have any of those problems. The worst thing that happened to me is that sometimes my Mac reboots (like from a power failure) and it forgets that iTunes is supposed to accept incoming connections.

Those sticky threads I mentioned will keep you out of trouble...

Every now and then, Netflix will stop connecting for some reason and rebooting the ATV will usually fix it. Really not much tweaking or fixing required once your media files are right.

 

[slothrob]

Hi All,

I am considering Apple TV (was looking at Mac Minis as well) to use as an extender for my DVD collection (only about 10 blu-ray).

1. Where does it pull the data for the movies that I manually ad to itunes for streaming? Is this as big of a PITA as with my music?

It's incredibly easy. Drop an .m4v into iTunes, on a computer with Home Sharing on, and the aTV just sees it, just like with music.

 

[spacepower7]

It's not as hard as you might think. Once you convert all of your dvd movies into itunes, you can use a program called MetaX that automatically tags your movies and add them into itunes. Another option is to get a boxee box because it automatically searches your hard drive for movies and tags them with info from imdb. The boxee does have some bugs but it is the only portable media player that I know of that supports full HD audio and 3D capability. With the Apple Tv, the maximum resolution supported is 720p. Depending on the type of tv you have and your viewing distance, you may not be able to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p.

Please never mention metaX again. No offense but some people keep recommending it, then I see another 10 threads about how it destroyed their files and they have to rerip everything

Use subler, iFlicks, identify2, or anything else to tag your metadata, please don't recommend metax ever again. It was ok back in the day but now is the greatest source of tagging problems. It is no longer developed on the Mac so stay with apps that are updated frequently or have active developers ie the ones mentioned above plus a few others. Some of the developers even come to this forum to help.

 

[thetruth1985]

Please never mention metaX again. No offense but some people keep recommending it, then I see another 10 threads about how it destroyed their files and they have to rerip everything

Use subler, iFlicks, identify2, or anything else to tag your metadata, please don't recommend metax ever again. It was ok back in the day but now is the greatest source of tagging problems. It is no longer developed on the Mac so stay with apps that are updated frequently or have active developers ie the ones mentioned above plus a few others. Some of the developers even come to this forum to help.

Didn't know that it had problems. For the record, I used MetaX to update all of my movies (200+) and it has never given me a issue before.

 

[btbrossard]

It's incredibly easy. Drop an .m4v into iTunes, on a computer with Home Sharing on, and the aTV just sees it, just like with music.

And if you want your movie files to reside in a location different from your normal iTunes library (like an external drive, while your music is on an internal drive), hold the option key down while dragging the movie into iTunes and it will link to the file instead of copying it.

 

[DustinT]

I am a nerd, but have limited time to jack with things. This is why Apple appeals to me.

Thanks for the help.

I've been a user of a few different HTPC systems over the years and I have found the Apple TV to be the least hassles. Convert the files to the right format the first time and they will play with no problems on the ATV. I use a program called iflicks to pull in the metadata and then add the files to iTunes. Its painless. Handbrake is really well setup too. The ATV 2 preset works well and delivers great quality content in a short time.

All in all, I think you'll be happy.

 

[McFunkerson]

For metadata I made a very good app called Magic Media Marker that is on the Mac App Store. It automates the process so you don't have to deal with every single video file manually.