sulimo Posted March 23, 2007 Posted March 23, 2007 So the AppleTV is out and criminally it doesn't support surround sound (at least of the Dolby/DTS variety). Anyway I'm wondering why that is, and whether its permanent. Is it some hardware issue that could never be fixed by a firmware upgrade? Or is it some limitation of the file formats that it supports? Can you include DD/DTS in a mov or mv4 container? Anyone know?
Ata Posted March 23, 2007 Posted March 23, 2007 AppleTV appears to be a fairly limited device which is extremely Apple-centric. MP4 containers do allow for multichannel audio, don't think that includes DD/DTS though.
fRuItCaKe. Posted March 23, 2007 Posted March 23, 2007 No divx or xvid etc. This kills it for me. Mediagate or something else isfar more useable
bayvista1503560960 Posted March 26, 2007 Posted March 26, 2007 Hi, I was interested in your suggestion re a Mac mini. I am not familiar with Macs, but have reached my frustration limit with Windows and Linux. What I want to do is: Edit and author my own digital videos Create DVDs - I still can't do that with Windows or Linux. Record TV to HD Copy TV from HD to DVD Communicate with my Windows/Linux PCs using Ethernet, not USB2 Can u suggest a suitable Mac config? Regards David
evil_josh Posted March 27, 2007 Posted March 27, 2007 Hi,I was interested in your suggestion re a Mac mini. I am not familiar with Macs, but have reached my frustration limit with Windows and Linux. What I want to do is: Edit and author my own digital videos Create DVDs - I still can't do that with Windows or Linux. Record TV to HD Copy TV from HD to DVD Communicate with my Windows/Linux PCs using Ethernet, not USB2 Can u suggest a suitable Mac config? Regards David 1. Buy a Mac Mini 1.8GHz with superdrive and 1gb RAM (or a macbook 2.0 GHz like I have) 2. Buy a USB keyboard & mouse (if you don't buy the macbook) 3. Buy a Twinhan Alpha Mac edition from digitalnow, or an eyetv twin tuner device from apple. Both come with eyetv 2.x software but the twinhan is cheaper but single tuner 4. Buy Toast 8.0 5. Download Handbrake 6. Download a divx codec for quicktime 7. Connect to your tv/hi-fi For a mac mini this will probably cost around $1600-ish. This is what I use at home except with a Macbook but the HW specs are the same. This is what I can do reliably on a day-to-day basis: 1. Watch live tv 2. pause / timeslip / rewind live tv (I use this all the time - it is so easy and you get to skip ads whilst you catchup) 3. Record Live tv to HDD with daily / weekly/ weekday scheduling if needed 4. Record two channels simultaneously 5. Record two channels and watch a recording 6. Timeslip a show while it is recording 8. Record live tv (one or two channels) whilst listening to music or otherwise using frontrow 9. Export movies to a variety of formats including ipod, mp4, mp2 10. Burn tv shows to DVD using toast (this can be a two-click function and toast will automatically resize the recording o fit on the DVD or you can have full control as you please) 11. Edit and author your own DVDs 12. Rip DVDs using handbrake and convert to DIVx of H.264 for playback via frontrow / quicktime 13. Wake-up your mini from power-off to make a recording 14. Commuicate with your PC via ethernet or wireless 15. Control everything via the frontrow remote including adding scheduled recordings of you have icetv support 16. Perform any computer related function that you want (email, web, openoffice, games, etc) Also for perspective here are my gripes : 1. eyeTV is pretty darned good, but it does crash from time-to-time. For me it would need to be restarted about once a fortnight 2. eyetv does not support some of the cooler epg based functions thet webscheduler handles eg searching the epg for shows by name etc 3. eyeTV does not support free xmltv based epg's but it does support icetv 4. whilst everything can be controlled by the eyetv remote there are lots of button-presses involved. However this is how I use it and it is not too bad 5. the eyetv volume control sucks as it is separate from the system volume. Thus if you turn the volume down when using itunes then return to eyetv the sound will be super-quiet because the system volume and eyetv volume work in tandem. It's also linear not logarithmic which is just plain dumb IMHO. I don't know why they don't just use the system volume and leave it at that! So in my opinion the cons are pretty tame and overall I am exceedingly happy with my eyetv setup. I have been using it for almost a year now and for me it is a true media centre. I no longer have any other components as part of my system; I have the TV, mac, amp, speakers and that's it. Josh.
mattrixx Posted April 19, 2007 Posted April 19, 2007 5. the eyetv volume control sucks as it is separate from the system volume. Thus if you turn the volume down when using itunes then return to eyetv the sound will be super-quiet because the system volume and eyetv volume work in tandem. It's also linear not logarithmic which is just plain dumb IMHO. I don't know why they don't just use the system volume and leave it at that!Josh. Apparently this has been addressed... well at least the two volume controls working together bit! it's in the read me. just checked it out.. great!
Neon Kitten Posted April 19, 2007 Posted April 19, 2007 I was interested in your suggestion re a Mac mini. I am not familiar with Macs, but have reached my frustration limit with Windows and Linux. What I want to do is:Edit and author my own digital videos Easily possible with many, many programs under Windows, from beginner to pro level. Create DVDs - I still can't do that with Windows or Linux. You have GOT to be kidding! Record TV to HDCopy TV from HD to DVD Communicate with my Windows/Linux PCs using Ethernet, not USB2 If the above are your reasons for moving to a Mac, you're in for a whole new world of hurt and a vastly reduced bank balance. Every single thing you've mentioned is easily done on a Windows OS.
mattrixx Posted April 19, 2007 Posted April 19, 2007 Easily possible with many, many programs under Windows, from beginner to pro level.You have GOT to be kidding! If the above are your reasons for moving to a Mac, you're in for a whole new world of hurt and a vastly reduced bank balance. Every single thing you've mentioned is easily done on a Windows OS. Without starting some kind of platform war, as I have both. The Mac is definitely easier in regard to the posters requests. It just is... Even my wife can do it.... with the software that is in it... when you first turn on the machine. Yes, no installation required.
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