Rip, convert, tag, stream, sync (ad nauseum)

[wmealer]

I QUIT!... Good riddance! Anyone want an original 40GB tv (restore-able to 1.0), and a MyBook Pro II 2TB drive?

Anyone else in this forum feel like a slave to your digital media? Remember the simpler life? I sure do. Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now...

• not needing those multiple terabytes of HDD space
  
• not needing that wireless router (if you have only a single desktop Mac, of course)
  
• not caring whether 3,000 kbps HandBrake encodes were a waste of HDD space, as opposed to the standard 2,500 kbps in the AppleTV preset
  
• not spending a half-hour looking for the pen-ultimate movie poster artwork to represent your carefully-converted film in coverflow
  
• not spending even more time tagging in MetaX, making your movie or TV episode appear in front row just as purchased/rented media would from the iTunes store
  
• not feeling compelled to keep every bleeding file you've ever imported into iTunes, even though you know you won't watch most of them ever again
  
• not spending more time obsessing over your collection of media than you spend relaxing and actually watching it on your beautiful HDTV.
  
• not looking at this forum multiple times a day, just for the latest on how I might improve my collection of ones and zeroes

I'm finished. Seriously. It took me over a year to realize how big of a trap obsessing over this stuff really is. Let me keep my PS3, an occasional DVD or BD rental, and I'll be fine. It's been real, guys. Maybe one day we'll cross paths in a more worthwhile effort.

Wade

 

[Shoesy]

ooooh-oh-oh - Somebody's tired!

However I know dearly what you mean, but may I make a suggestion? Try using your tv purely for downloaded from itunes content- no added effort required.

Just a thaught.

 

[roland.g]

ex
asp
era
tion

I have done what you said with 170 of my DVDs. But I use MTR to rip them and only come back to the computer for thirty seconds to switch out the disc. Then at night I set 6 or so movies to HB. Then the next day I use Meta X to tag them in less than 2 minutes and get my HQ art from getvideoartwork.com so I keep my effort minimal and my ability to watch at a max.

 

[MikieMikie]

I feel your pain, brother.

Wade, I'll be sorry to lose you from the cult... er... clan... er... maniacal hobbyist group.... Well, let's leave it at "I'll be sorry to lose you."

And you're right: when it stops being a pleasure, it's time to find something else to do with your time.

I had to ramp back my laser-focus on my library and just start enjoying it more.

 

[pprior]

I bought an apple TV because it was easier to do this stuff than my HTPC system. At least with ATV you don't have to constantly futz with the interface just to keep it working. the picture quality it not as good, but it's a lot easier to use.

The ripping, converting, and tagging is a pain. I agree with you there. Man o' man though I hate sitting through FBI warnings and obnoxious menus on DVDs, so I'm still trying.

A single app that would do all this for us would seem to be a good development choice for someone with the knowledge to make it happen. I know I'd pay at least $100 for something like that.

 

[bericd]

I bought an apple TV because it was easier to do this stuff than my HTPC system. At least with ATV you don't have to constantly futz with the interface just to keep it working. the picture quality it not as good, but it's a lot easier to use.

The ripping, converting, and tagging is a pain. I agree with you there. Man o' man though I hate sitting through FBI warnings and obnoxious menus on DVDs, so I'm still trying.

A single app that would do all this for us would seem to be a good development choice for someone with the knowledge to make it happen. I know I'd pay at least $100 for something like that.

FairMount plus VisualHub come pretty close. Fairmount is transparent, and visual hub is incredibly easy.

My reason for doing it is that I have kids in my house who will convert DVDs to coasters (or plain lose them) at the drop of a hat. My media sits on a fileserver and anyone in the house can see it, although the kids computer can only see the kids folder etc..

 

[spamdumpster]

I QUIT!... Good riddance! Anyone want an original 40GB tv (restore-able to 1.0), and a MyBook Pro II 2TB drive?

Are you serious about selling the ATV and 2TB drive? If you are, PM me a list of the content on the 2TB drive, and I'll make an offer.

 

[gwsat]

I sympathize with those who are made tired by the time and effort required to rip DVD files and convert them to MP4 format for their Apple TVs. It is, indeed a slow and messy process, which requires gargantuan amounts of disk storage. Still, I haven’t minded much. For one thing I have a 160 gig Apple TV and have, so far loaded about 35 movies on it and still filled up only about half of the drive.

The upside of all that effort is that it gives me a lot more flexibility and a much better user interface than were available when I still watched all my DVDs on my DVD player. Besides, I remember the bad Ancient Times, say 4 or 5 years ago, when you had to use two or three different kinds of software to rip, compress, and convert DVD files, and even then couldn’t be sure that what you were trying to do would work. The process is still a little clumsy but it’s way better now than it was in the days of yore.

 

[dynaflash]

Might help some, but in latest svn of handbrake the "Send To MetaX" feature is improved to send them to metaX as they complete in the queue (used to just be for single encodes) and since metax can send automagically to iTunes this should really help streamline the workflow for you volume encoders.