blazo wrote:The fact is this:
By default you see your entire library on appleTV. There is no (visible) distinction between synced and streaming content. You can "disable" streaming content by means of a checkmark in iTunes. That way you only see what is synced to your aTV (same happens when you shutdown iTunes/computer).
Synced content always plays from aTV, even though you see entire library! Of course shared libraries (the ones not synced to aTV from other computers) show under "Shared ..." menu (Movies, TV Shows, Music, etc).
In my opinion take 2's handling of library is better than previous version since I no longer have to care what is synced and what is streaming (I'm running both aTV and PC on 100MBps ethernet, and my streaming macbook on 54Mbps wirelless).
For movies and TV programs, I agree that "show all, play synced if you have it or streamed if not" is better.
But my main use of my desktop Apple TV is Podcasts. And there, I'm only interested in the synced (unplayed) podcasts. If I had an option under Podcasts of "only show unplayed podcasts" I'd be happy with that.
My goal from the beginning with Handbrake has been to get my entire DVD collection into digital format and available on my TV by way of AppleTV. As of now, I have ripped, available, and streaming:
For HD content, I find that wireless streaming is too choppy.
An interesting workaround, is to build my HD collection on my iMac's external drive and then when I want to watch one, I copy it to my 8GByte Flashstick, plug the Flashstick into the ATV's USB port and it appears in the ATVFiles menu and plays consisitently smooth.
Now that VisualHub v1.33 supports AC3 (5.1) + AAC (2.0) in the same file, I am going to be stepping up my attempts to build my HD library.
Now that I have added a switch to that room, and have connected my ATV directly to my LAN, I find that HD streaming is glitch-free, including 720p24.
brianlees wrote:Is anyone using a NAS with iTunes server built-in? I see that LaCie has one. Does that crap actually work?
Blazo - how is the aTV interface with 180 movies? It doesn't seem like it scales well to that number. I don't mean from a technical point of view, I mean from a GUI and human interface point of view. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
I have yet to see a NAS-based iTunes server that allows you to configure the authorization code required for an AppleTV to communicate directly with a library. I store all of my files on my ReadyNAS NV+ (which also has iTunes Server software BTW), but the library is hosted locally on my iMac.
You won't find a NAS that supports the AppleTV, Apple is now encrypting their shares, the only way to play back files from an unencrypted DAAP share is from iTunes itself, (I'm assuming they will always keep backwards compatibility)
AppleTV doesn't scale fantastically well to a library of ~200 Movies, I'd really like to see an update that brings the interface from iTunes Store to my personal library, maybe by categorizing alphabetically, or possibly by genre. Regardless, scrolling through 150 Movies to get to Transformers, for example, is quite annoying.
It absolutely does, I'm referring to the cover view offered in the store though. Since the store categorizes movies by Top Rentals, Top Purchases, etc, a cover view for My Movies would need some type of organization to break up rows. I think scrolling up/down for genre, then left/right for specific movies of that genre would be ideal. Of course, alphabetical would be great too. It's all wishful thinking though, since the new cover view isn't yet available for purchases/dvd rips.
I'm in the process of converting 400+ DVD's to ATV. Storage is provided by a 1TB USB drive attached to my ATV 2.0.2 that's been patchkeyed. I use Sapphire as my media player. I don't synchronize any of my movies through iTunes. I only use iTunes for my music collection. Movies I move after converted via samba to the ATV. Thus far things are going great. Only have 15 movies on it at the moment, but that's because I'm re-encoding all my previous encodes with SVN 1477. Extremely happy with how things are going. I'll probably add a second 1TB drive and get a USB enclosure that does mirroring. I've pondered putting the movies on my file server and just using a samba mount to access the files on the ATV, but I don't want to be dependent on another device for my movie watching...
I really like Sapphire personally...I use nitoTV for .mkv's that cause ATV's quicktime player to freeze.
Im in the process of ripping 700 dvd's to ATV, and using a MS Home Server as my storage device which is also unning a separte install of iTunes for all my ripped DVD's. My main computer in the house has all my music and purchased content and acts as the master library for the ATV.
The MS Home Server is then just streaming the content over my lan, works pretty good at the moment. Just about to add a couple more ATV for the kids. It will be great to keep little fingers of disks.
I am interested to know what everyone is doing for additional metedata tagging. I would really would like to add a full description and age rating if possible.
I'm in the precess of converting 800+ dvds (movies and tv series) so I can play them on my Apple TV. I use metaX to tag the movies and add artwork. All my movies are stored on 2 750GB external hard drives (1 seagate, 1 maxtor), I use my iMac as my main encoder and video server. I use my wife's and I's 2 MacBooks to help with the encoding. I Build from SVN Daily for each of the computers. My encodes average about 15 FPS for the second pass, 45FPS for the first turbo pass. After they are encoded (and tagged) I use Muxo to add subtitles for my anime movies and series. Thus far all work great and I can play full dvd resolution files on my iPod Touch, and play the same file with full 5.1 audio on the Apple TV.
yeah, handbrakes a real hoot thats for sure . At any rate I only point it out as I don't want folks reading this to get the impression that daily builds from our svn are guaranteed to work well ... or sometimes even compile. I know your an old hand around here and am glad its been working ( realizing there are some of my own checkins I wouldnt even use tbh) well for you, but obviously be careful with daily builds as you know ymmv.
Sorry to temporarily hijack this fine thread for that short public service announcement. Now back to your regularly scheduled encoding.
dynaflash wrote:yeah, handbrakes a real hoot thats for sure . At any rate I only point it out as I don't want folks reading this to get the impression that daily builds from our svn are guaranteed to work well ... or sometimes even compile. I know your an old hand around here and am glad its been working ( realizing there are some of my own checkins I wouldnt even use tbh) well for you, but obviously be careful with daily builds as you know ymmv.
Sorry to temporarily hijack this fine thread for that short public service announcement. Now back to your regularly scheduled encoding.
Yeah svn building is for the really brave or the really stupid...... I don't know yet which one i am yet.... i tend to believe it's the latter
. At any rate I only point it out as I don't want folks reading this to get the impression that daily builds from our svn are guaranteed to work well ... or sometimes even compile. I know your an old hand around here and am glad its been working ( realizing there are some of my own checkins I wouldnt even use tbh) well for you, but obviously be careful with daily builds as you know ymmv.