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JJJ
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 9
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 Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:59 pm Post subject: Apple Movie Rental??? |
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Two or times this week I've read where Apple is about to enter the movie rental business through its ITunes store. The obvious question is: will the rental movies be viewable via Apple TV? Anyone know or care to guess?
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Ben Tex
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Joined: 01 Feb 2007
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Location: Texas
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| Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Only if they want to save the Apple TV. I would say that it's safe to say that rentals are coming. |
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g5g5
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Joined: 25 Jan 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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I just hope they don't leave 1G Apple TV owners behind.
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hackersmovie
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Joined: 07 Nov 2006
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Location: Maryland, U.S.A
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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| g5g5 wrote: | | I just hope they don't leave 1G Apple TV owners behind. |
I don't think you'll have to worry about that. Apple doesn't normally leave you "behind" until their 4th or 5th generation! LOL.
Are you happy with yours? I'm going to buy one, and various other Apple goodies after MacWorld. Just thought I'd get some real world feedback. What kind of TV do you have it hooked to? I'm planning on buying a 26" LCD for my bedroom and putting the ATV in there.
Anything I should be aware of? Does syncing take forever? I have a wireless "g" network.
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g5g5
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Joined: 25 Jan 2005
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Location: Virginia
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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| hackersmovie wrote: | | Are you happy with yours? I'm going to buy one, and various other Apple goodies after MacWorld. Just thought I'd get some real world feedback. What kind of TV do you have it hooked to? I'm planning on buying a 26" LCD for my bedroom and putting the ATV in there. |
I'm kind of happy with it. There are two things that really bother me though.
1. It runs extremely warm. Enough so that I unplug mine when it's not being used. Apple states this is normal, but I've never owned a piece of equipment that runs this warm. It also makes me worry about long-term durability of the internal components.
2. Everything needs to be imported into iTunes. It won't automatically get things out of your Movies folder like Front Row. You can also forget about VIDEO_TS folders.
I have mine connected to a 42" Panasonic 720p plasma with HDMI. The picture quality is decent. Text, menus, cover art and the icons are very clear. Video quality, on the other hand, depends on the quality of your rips. Most of my HandBrake stuff looks a tad on the blurry side. iTMS stuff (like TV shows) look even worse.
To be honest, I would rather have a Mac mini connected to it. I just can't afford a second Intel Mac mini at this time. But if you have the money, get one. You will be happier with the Mac mini and Front Row combo.
| hackersmovie wrote: | | Anything I should be aware of? Does syncing take forever? I have a wireless "g" network. |
1. Not really.
2. I'm going over a Belkin 802.11g network. Your initial sync will take a long time. But after that, it really isn't that bad. I have no trouble with streaming video over to the Apple TV either. It looks just as good as the synced content. That means no jitters.
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1.25GHz Mac Mini / 1.8GHz iMac G5 / 2.0GHz C2D Mac mini (2009)
4GB iPod mini / 2G iPod shuffle / 16GB iPhone 3G
Apple TV 2
iLife's a Bitch! |
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hackersmovie
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Joined: 07 Nov 2006
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Location: Maryland, U.S.A
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| Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:46 pm Post subject: |
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| g5g5 wrote: | | hackersmovie wrote: | | Are you happy with yours? I'm going to buy one, and various other Apple goodies after MacWorld. Just thought I'd get some real world feedback. What kind of TV do you have it hooked to? I'm planning on buying a 26" LCD for my bedroom and putting the ATV in there. |
I'm kind of happy with it. There are two things that really bother me though.
1. It runs extremely warm. Enough so that I unplug mine when it's not being used. Apple states this is normal, but I've never owned a piece of equipment that runs this warm. It also makes me worry about long-term durability of the internal components.
2. Everything needs to be imported into iTunes. It won't automatically get things out of your Movies folder like Front Row. You can also forget about VIDEO_TS folders.
I have mine connected to a 42" Panasonic 720p plasma with HDMI. The picture quality is decent. Text, menus, cover art and the icons are very clear. Video quality, on the other hand, depends on the quality of your rips. Most of my HandBrake stuff looks a tad on the blurry side. iTMS stuff (like TV shows) look even worse.
To be honest, I would rather have a Mac mini connected to it. I just can't afford a second Intel Mac mini at this time. But if you have the money, get one. You will be happier with the Mac mini and Front Row combo.
| hackersmovie wrote: | | Anything I should be aware of? Does syncing take forever? I have a wireless "g" network. |
1. Not really.
2. I'm going over a Belkin 802.11g network. Your initial sync will take a long time. But after that, it really isn't that bad. I have no trouble with streaming video over to the Apple TV either. It looks just as good as the synced content. That means no jitters. |
What presets do you use in Handbrake? I've been playing with the Apple TV ones and the iPod Hi-rez. They both look pretty good on my 42" Plasma playing in iTunes from my iMac.
Most of my ITMS stuff looks pretty good too! I've only purchased a few movies and some Comedy Central stuff but, they look pretty good. Is is safe to say that they will look the same on ATV as they do playing from my iMac on my 42"?
Thanks for the input, I'm getting excited! Come on MacWorld!!!!
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g5g5
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Joined: 25 Jan 2005
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Location: Virginia
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| Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 8:19 am Post subject: |
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| hackersmovie wrote: | | What presets do you use in Handbrake? I've been playing with the Apple TV ones and the iPod Hi-rez. They both look pretty good on my 42" Plasma playing in iTunes from my iMac." |
2-Pass MPEG-4s at 2500kbps
| hackersmovie wrote: | | Is is safe to say that they will look the same on ATV as they do playing from my iMac on my 42"? |
I can't really say for sure. It might depend on your TV and what kind of connection you use. I connected (DVI to HDMI) my Intel Mac mini to the same TV once and the HandBrake rips actually looked better. The iTMS TV shows looked about the same. Movie trailers and my EyeTV recordings also looked slightly better on the Mac mini with Front Row. Don't ask me why, but there is some blurriness with the Apple TV.
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1.25GHz Mac Mini / 1.8GHz iMac G5 / 2.0GHz C2D Mac mini (2009)
4GB iPod mini / 2G iPod shuffle / 16GB iPhone 3G
Apple TV 2
iLife's a Bitch! |
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gibmini
Member
Joined: 11 Aug 2007
Posts: 156
Location: Gibraltar
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:18 am Post subject: |
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I'm using mine with a samsung 42" plasma and it works fine. The main issues appear to be (some mentioned previously):
1. runs really hot.
2. no power button - not really a big deal though.
3. unrelated to the appletv:
i) a significant proportion of my rips from handbreak cannot be added to itunes. So, don't expect your entire dvd collection to go over.
In terms of pic quality I've found using the appletv template works well, but it is certainly much better to check the 2 pass option as the image quality is night and day from the standard 1 pass version.
Looking forwards to movie rentals in non-US itunes.... |
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randyharris
Junior Member
Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 30
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Instead of using 2 Pass with a bitrate setting, try using the Constant Quality with a setting of 66. You'll find that it delivers more consistently high quality files for all scenes and it is actually faster than 2 pass. Often the file size is a little larger, you can play with a setting of 64 or 62 is you're really concerned about size. |
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