Someone please help...about to buy ATV3

[modehead]

Hi people, new starter here.
I have an iMac 2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo with 3gb ram
iPod touch
Ipad v1

Looking to buy an ATV to add to the apple collective and stream downloaded movies etc to my big screen in the lounge.

I download AVI, DIVX and MKV mostly. I want the best pic quality, but have no real need for all singing and dancing surround sound.

I hope thats all the info you need.

WHat would be the easiest way to go about this please?
I know the ATV2 is awesome jailbroken, but the wallet doesn't stretch quite that far, unless any of you lot here in the UK wanna sell me one??

Thanks for any and all help!

Dave

 

[aarond12]

You will need to convert ALL your movies manually to add them to iTunes and stream to your ATV3. I like Handbrake to do the job; it's fast, FREE, and has presets for ATV. You can even do batch processing -- set up multiple files to convert, start it, and go to bed.

http://handbrake.fr/

 

[Grey Hound]

This is what I love most about forums. There are experts we dont know of and the tips from actual users are really great.

 

[bohbot16]

Converting all of your files using Handbrake on a Core Duo will take a lot of time.

I personally use iFlicks (http://www.iflicksapp.com/) to re-mux files using the iTunes Compatible preset to get my files Apple TV ready (including tags). It's very fast because you don't have to transcode the video portion of each file like Handbrake does. There's a 15 day free trial then it costs $20. The $20 was worth it for me for the time savings.

If you have a file that can't be re-muxed by iFlicks and needs to be transcoded Handbrake is the way to go.

 

[UKBeast]

with your setup it will take lots of time to convert your avi and other files, here mkv is an exception. And far beyond that, these tasks will reduce your battery life, lifespan and more importantly your hours will be wasted just to watch a 90 minutes movie.

atv without jailbreak is not really pirate friendly, its a tightly closed box and unlikely to be open from apple unless they release sdk to 3rd party developers.

i am sitting on the same sofa with you, i bought atv 3 and already got rid of converting my files, worrying about subtitles, keeping a seperate notebook to run itunes day and night..

ATV is all about streaming, it is not a device for videophilies, archievers, for people who stores movies on external drives. ATV is good for mainstream market not for power users. Without internet atv is nothing.

If i were you, i would buy a boxee or roku, they have usb ports and they play all type of video files.

The only feature that makes it attractive over others is the airplay, and with your system you will not get the full benefit from it, because it needs fastest processors to run smoothly.