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Streaming - not a problem

This isn't a question nor a problem.

I just wanted to encourage those who have not yet tried "streaming" from their iTunes Library to do so. In my case (with the tv close to a "g" router so it gets a great signal), even movies play perfectly.

Frankly, I'm ready to turn off virtually all syncing as it seems to be a waste of bandwidth to bother with it. Obviously, you must have your Mac on with iTunes running for streaming to work but, for me, that's a normal occurrence.

The more I use the tv, the more I am impressed with it. I dropped my cableTV service, went back to an antenna on my roof, and use podcasts to keep up with things on CNN, MacBreak, etc. I'm saving over $600/year by eliminating cableTV; that will pay for a big-screen LCD (if I even need one) or (part of) the next big thing from .

😀

Intel iMac 24" / MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.9), Where the h*** did all these external drives come from?

Posted on Jul 29, 2007 2:28 PM

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20 replies

Aug 2, 2007 3:59 AM in response to The Absolute Value

I am currently trying to resolve problems with streaming videos I've encoded using Videora. Anything 3Kbps and over seems to pause/stutter.

However, having said that, I have converted a QT movie file using iTunes to convert it for use with the Apple TV and it generated a new file at nearly 4Kbps and this streams perfectly.

So in conclusion, check out streaming and if necessary you may have to re-encode some of your videos if they are problematic. But it will depend on the source of your videos and how they were encoded.

I bought the 160GB Apple TV but with over 1TB of movies, tv shows and music, there is no way I can sync everything.

Aug 2, 2007 9:08 AM in response to Barry Levine

I second your comments. I love my ?TV. Streaming works great from my N-dedicated Airport Extreme. Like you I dropped cable. Most important of all, this thing is spouse friendly!

My recommendation is to sign up with a good usenet service like Astraweb or Giganews, get VisualHub to convert downloaded .avis to .mp4, Handbrake to convert your DVDs, then enjoy.

Aug 2, 2007 2:05 PM in response to donreith

If it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't and there are also 'somewhere in the middle' cases where movies stutter if bitrates are too high.

For me streaming works perfectly unless the microwave is on.

I can see a market for a streaming only AppleTV personally with maybe an OS in flash memory, but each location/environment is unique and you may only find out if it works for you when you try it out.

AC

Aug 2, 2007 3:28 PM in response to Barry Levine

This may be covered somewhere in the documentation.

I have a PAL .avi file that I converted over to H264 but left it at the PAL standard of 25fps. I then dropped it into iTunes (no syncing), went over to the tv and played the start of the file. It seemed to take a few moments longer to get past the initial point where it's reading stuff into the buffer but it did play just fine.

So it's not only my iPod that can do this trick. Nice; very nice.

Aug 9, 2007 2:18 PM in response to Barry Levine

Hi thanks for posting this thread. I was considering purchasing an TV for the house but since my iTunes library is far larger than any TV offering I wanted to just get the least expensive one and just stream content instead of downloading it all the time. I have a wireless g router at the moment with all my video content iTunes encoded for TV and if it works as good as you say then I'll be getting one shortly.

Thanks again.
~rr

Aug 14, 2007 2:27 PM in response to James Harries

I'm streaming from my iMac. I've subscribed to a number of podcasts and, weekly (if not more often), I go through iTunes to clean out what I've watched. As for movies and TV shows (that aren't from iTunes), I copy into iTunes what I've planned to watch over the next few weeks and leave the rest of my "library" on an external drive that is the repository of of my files.

Podcasts that might prove to be interesting re-views, so to speak, are copied over to a folder on that external drive (and deleted from iTunes) so I can always retrieve them when/if I need them.

As for TV shows, they eventually get tossed as I watch them and have no need for a repeat viewing.

Are you looking to put all of your ripped/converted DVDs in an +instantly accessible+ library that's always on-line? Given enough hard drive space, I suppose you could do that.

Aug 15, 2007 2:06 PM in response to Barry Levine

I have 300 DVD's and would like to get rid of them in the loft (with all the vinyl), we also have little children who destroy them.

I just discovered in another thread it can take up to 6 hours to convert to TV and that the internal drive needs the originals present on the computer, so I'm struggling to find any advantage over sticking a DVD in a player now to be honest.

Can you sell it to me ? I love gadgets, but I want them to make my life easier, not harder !

Aug 15, 2007 2:55 PM in response to James Harries

There are a number of methods for ripping your DVDs to your hard drive and converting them to H264 files of decent-enough quality where they can be viewed on your TV and not take up more than about 350MB/hour. (640 x whatever at no more than 160kb audio).

If we use 2 hours per DVD and 350MB/hour, that works out to a little over 200GB (if my math is correct).

I would not bother converting to "tv-spec" video as the original DVD was meant for SD, not HD, so why upscale and pump up the file size when you get nothing from it? Besides, the smaller frame size will also work in a 5G iPod connected to your SD-TV; dual-purpose, so to speak.

As for the time to convert, I see you are using a MacBook Pro so your CPU speed is fine for this. You can find a number of software choices (and arguments for and against each one) at videohelp.com.

I use MacTheRipper to bring the entire main feature over to my HD (usually an external) and then follow-up with either MPEG Streamclip or ffmpegX. Apple MPEG2 component is necessary for MPEG Streamclip; I'm not positive whether it's needed for ffmpegX.

Once you have things converted, set your iTunes Library to the external drive and just drop in your files; they'll show up in the tv once you've set the source to your Mac's library instead of the internal tv HD.

Let me know if this helps.

Streaming - not a problem

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