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Question before buying my Apple tv.

I

iWinnipegger

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2006
142
0
I'm thinking of buying an Apple TV to use with my new 50" LCD. I have tons of ripped dvds in .avi format. They're all about 700MB each. My questions is, can i somehow stream these videos on my apple tv? I'm assuming you can't. So my second question is what would be the best way to convert them to mpeg4? i assume and how do i do this without losing any quality.

Thanks!
 
You can buy a program called Virtual Hub that will convert almost anything to anything. I think it's like 20 bucks.

Or, you can hack your appletv with free hacks out there so that it plays avis.
 
VisualHub is definitely worth it for converting files, worth the money too. I use it all the time for converting TV Shows I've had to download because I missed them on TV or an archive of .avi movies.

Check out HandBrake for ripping DVD's too.

One thing I've never actually asked or found out is if you hack your Apple TV to play .avi files etc, are you able to tag them? Or is tagging only for MPEG4 files?
 
Will any of my .avi's lose any quality by doing this? Any tips on keeping the quality? Cause i'll be viewing em on a 50" Plasma tv so it needs to look great. Thanks!
 
You can buy quicktime pro and make a reference movie. This is like an alias to your AVI, and allows you to watch it in iTunes, ATV.
 
Open file in Quicktime 7 Pro

"File" -> "Save" -> "Save as a reference movie"

Then add the reference movie to itunes.
 
iWinnipegger said:
Great. Thanks!
One question, is there any loss in quality?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Not that I can tell. There shouldn't be, Quicktime is not re-encoding anything. It is just making a compatible reference to the original movie.

EDIT: I'm mistaken, this method works for Front Row, but not the AppleTV. Sorry :(
 
dibble9012 said:
Not that I can tell. There shouldn't be, Quicktime is not re-encoding anything. It is just making a compatible reference to the original movie.

EDIT: I'm mistaken, this method works for Front Row, but not the AppleTV. Sorry :(
Click to expand...

aha okay. wow. so back to the original question, is there away to convert them i guess without losing ANY quality!
thanks
 
iWinnipegger said:
aha okay. wow. so back to the original question, is there away to convert them i guess without losing ANY quality!
thanks
Click to expand...

The process of converting to one codec to another will inherently introduce a loss of quality. The real question is will it be enough loss to really be noticeable. My assumption would be that it would be watchable but you'll probably be able to tell a difference.

Try out iSquint (free) to see if you can notice a difference in your re-encoded movies just on your computer. You can also try out VisualHub but it's limited to 2 minute clips in the demo mode.

If you aren't happy with the quality of the converted video you have 2 options AFAIK:
1) Rip the original source directly to a format the ATV knows (.mp4)
2) Hack the ATV to play your files as they are (Patchstick, NitoTV, ATVFiles, etc).

Just a word for the wise: Keeping a ATV patched and healthy will demand a little more time that keeping it "stock" but the functionality is certainly wider.
 
Lets just say this.....

Visual Hub is a wonderful swiss army knife for converting any video file to literally whatever you need. Hands down the best app out here. That said, your starting source file is only 700MB. This will look OK on a small computer screen but not on a 50" LCD. No way no how. Not enough bits for that size screen.
 
ibglowin said:
Visual Hub is a wonderful swiss army knife for converting any video file to literally whatever you need. Hands down the best app out here. That said, your starting source file is only 700MB. This will look OK on a small computer screen but not on a 50" LCD. No way no how. Not enough bits for that size screen.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Depends how close you are to the screen. I have a 37" TV and from a viewing distance of 8 feet, 700MB files look great.
 
Well I have a 40" Sony XBR4 LCD and from 8 feet they look like *****. Every one of them....

I guess YMMV as they say.
 
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