Apple TV question.....

[Benny Profane]

If I play a DVD on my computer, can I watch it on the TV. Or is it just I Tunes stuff?

[bossass]

Just iTunes junk.

MA759LL/AW8649----oooo----0T4WRX

[bio-smear]

Not sure exactly. It would certainly be cool if you could mount the DVD on your source computer, then access that from the AppleTV. But, I think they are going to lock you down to iTunes in their master plan to distribute movies online.

I almost would rather get a Mac Mini and use it the same way.

[bossass]

Not sure exactly. It would certainly be cool if you could mount the DVD on your source computer, then access that from the AppleTV. But, I think they are going to lock you down to iTunes in their master plan to distribute movies online.

I almost would rather get a Mac Mini and use it the same way.

No real way to do that remotely however--you need cables from computer to TV. The value in the Apple TV is you can convert DVDs to those iTunes movie files (which are way smaller than DVD files) and still play them in hi-def on your fancy TV. It'd be cool if the Apple TV had something more like a 200gb HD though, although I guess streaming the iTunes movies is pretty seemless in early reviews. I'm not sure I have need for one. If all you want to do is play DVDs, just get a DVD player.

[bio-smear]

If all you want to do is play DVDs, just get a DVD player.

Agreed.

I will prob get one, just because my best friend is the engineer at Apple who designed the case for the AppleTV.

With linux you can mount a DVD over the network, however the data rate from a DVD is much more than a wireless LAN can handle, so it's not really worth the hassle.

[connersw]

The value in the Apple TV is you can convert DVDs to those iTunes movie files (which are way smaller than DVD files) and still play them in hi-def on your fancy TV.

Kind of. The signal may be coming across in 1080P; however, the file gets compressed pretty hard going down in size like that. It would be like encoding a song into .mp3 and then upconverting to 24/96 on a high-end DVD-A player. You've already lost a huge amount of the file.

[Benny Profane]

If all you want to do is play DVDs, just get a DVD player.

well, yeah, of course, but I've been having problems with ripped DVD's lately playing on DVD players, and a geeky friend pretty much nailed the problem. A DVD burned on a computer will only reliably play on another computer, or, to take it a step further, the drive it was burned on. I gave him a bunch of ski movies, and he tells me they are unplayable, and I've given a few other people movies, and ditto. Sooooo.....I want to keep it in a "closed" system, and play the movies off the computer. But I also forgot about the remote thing mentioned above, too.

Are I Tunes movies actually as good as the original if I convert? I find that hard to believe, if the files are so much smaller.

[doublediamond223]

Solution to DVD-streaming issue: Get a slingbox.

[bossass]

well, yeah, of course, but I've been having problems with ripped DVD's lately playing on DVD players, and a geeky friend pretty much nailed the problem. A DVD burned on a computer will only reliably play on another computer, or, to take it a step further, the drive it was burned on. I gave him a bunch of ski movies, and he tells me they are unplayable, and I've given a few other people movies, and ditto. Sooooo.....I want to keep it in a "closed" system, and play the movies off the computer. But I also forgot about the remote thing mentioned above, too.

Are I Tunes movies actually as good as the original if I convert? I find that hard to believe, if the files are so much smaller.

I burn so many DVDs it's stupid and I rarely have issues with them not being readable. I give them to people, no issues. Use them with my first gen PS2, no issues.

Have you tried using different burnable DVDs? That's one possible issue.

[connersw]

Solution to DVD-streaming issue: Get a slingbox.

A Slingbox is exactly opposite. It allows you to watch your media (cable box, TV, dish, etc) on your PC. They are coming out with a Slingcatcher that will be a receiving media player similar to Apple TV, but it's not out yet.

Like bossass said, you either have a problem with your DVD-/+R's, your burner, or possibly your PC if your burned DVDs aren't playing on other players. There were problems in the past with discs from certain burners only playing on certain players; however, the technology is pretty robust now and should be universally compatible for the most part. My intitial guess would be that you're using cheap media, and it's giving you bad burns. My next guess is that your PC is either trying to do much in the background or just isn't powerful enough, and that is giving you bad burns. What's your buffer at when you burn?

[Benny Profane]

I have a Mac G4, ripp thru Mac the Ripper, burn discs on a Lacie burner only a year old (external), and I use Memorex Double Layer. Now I know older players don't like double layer discs, but my newer Sony even gets confused every now and then. I will go out and try a new brand of disc to burn on.

[hemas]

I have a Mac G4, ripp thru Mac the Ripper, burn discs on a Lacie burner only a year old (external), and I use Memorex Double Layer. Now I know older players don't like double layer discs, but my newer Sony even gets confused every now and then. I will go out and try a new brand of disc to burn on.

At what speed you're burning the DVD's?

I remember having some trouble, if I burned the DVD faster than 8x playing on "real" DVD-players...

The other problem is you're Sony (and other "high end") player, get a cheapo 30 bucks one and you'll have no trouble (plus you can change the area-code and so on)..

[bossass]

I have a Mac G4, ripp thru Mac the Ripper, burn discs on a Lacie burner only a year old (external), and I use Memorex Double Layer. Now I know older players don't like double layer discs, but my newer Sony even gets confused every now and then. I will go out and try a new brand of disc to burn on.

What program do you burn with. I do the same you do (MTR), but I use Toast 7 (or you could use Roxio Popcorn or Toast 8) to compress stuff to fit on a 4.7gb disc and burn it. Aside: In toast, you can choose to extract the feature only, which will give you better quality/less compression.

I've had good luck with Memorex discs and they are usually cheap. I only do dual layer discs if there's a movie I really like that loses a bunch of quality through compression.

[Benny Profane]

What program do you burn with. I do the same you do (MTR), but I use Toast 7 (or you could use Roxio Popcorn or Toast 8) to compress stuff to fit on a 4.7gb disc and burn it. Aside: In toast, you can choose to extract the feature only, which will give you better quality/less compression.

I've had good luck with Memorex discs and they are usually cheap. I only do dual layer discs if there's a movie I really like that loses a bunch of quality through compression.

Toast 7. I think I may be learning here that a major part of my problem is the dual layer discs. From what you tell me, I should compress and get rid of some of the other stuff, although I like the commentary tracks.

[bossass]

Toast 7. I think I may be learning here that a major part of my problem is the dual layer discs. From what you tell me, I should compress and get rid of some of the other stuff, although I like the commentary tracks.

Single layer discs are so cheap that you could burn one with the full DVD compressed and burn one "movie only" for better quality.

[Arty50]

Kind of. The signal may be coming across in 1080P; however, the file gets compressed pretty hard going down in size like that. It would be like encoding a song into .mp3 and then upconverting to 24/96 on a high-end DVD-A player. You've already lost a huge amount of the file.

Not really. DVDs are encoded in MPEG 2. As far as I know, Apple is using a version of the MPEG 4 spec which is vastly superior. Your analogy assumes that you start with a source that is better than the end recording. That's not the case here. All you're doing when you convert a DVD is upgrading to a better compression format. There shouldn't really be any data loss from the original DVD. You're just moving the source material to a much better codec.

[connersw]

We could debate which codecs are better for years--that's why there are so many available. As an interesting side note, mpeg2 vs mpeg4 is also at the heart of the BluRay vs HD-DVD battle. I don't think anyone can agree on a clear winner there. Many people think, depending on the bit rate, that the older mpeg2 is better (I'm just talking about what it looks like in playback here; there are a lot of other factors included in what makes a "good" codec like encoding speed, ease in editing, streaming capability, playback device, etc).

Regardless, when you're going from a large file size to a smaller one, there is no way to do that without loosing data. Whether that's repeated frame deletion, decreasing pixels, reducing the bit rate, whatever--part of the file is left out. Even if the video compression algorithms for mpeg2 are better than mpeg4, it's still compression. There is no way to take data from the source and have it come out "better" in the end.

[schuss]

do you have a mac? If not, look into an xbox 360. Plays DVD's, plus you can stream pretty much anything from your computer to the 360 using either media player (easier) or tversity. Also has option for add-on HD-DVD player, upconverts if you have the VGA cable and an HDTV that takes it, and plays some sweet games.

[skinnyskier]

I went by the Apple store yesterday and they said: you need a TV with component video input, pref. 720p. AppleTV doesn't actually stream video-it transfers a file to its internal harddrive and plays from the disk. And, the only way to use it for HD content is to rip a DVD with handbrake or something and play it through iTunes. All the current iTunes video is iPod-quality, and won't look so good on your HD TV. BTW, the harddrive is supposed to be easy to upgrade to whatever size you want.