apple tv 2 as hd media server?

[troy]

greetings,

i am preparing to move into a small environment where i will not be able to keep a lot of my blue ray disks not to mentions sd video and sound. a friend of mine figured out how to use an apple tv, a g5 tower and an additional hard drive to store all of his media and stream it to his tv. however, this setup does not allow for an hd image. this brings me to, is it possible to use the new apple tv model with the same setup with hd results? (at least 720p) any information would be greatly appreciated.

cheers,
troy

[troy]

after much research, this seems to be the solution:

http://w2.eff.org/IP/broadcastflag/eyetv500.php

can anyone out there let me know if they have any first hand experience with this unit?

cheers,


troy

[troy]

well, the eyetv unit is not what i thought it was although i could make it work in some sense. i am looking for an outboard blue ray unit to rip purchased disks using mac the ripper and handbrake. after ripping i can encode to h.264 and run through the apple tv as 1080p material. in addition, what makes the apple tv such an asset is the cataloging capabilities. i moved into a new house recently so i am using this opportunity to construct the hd media server. since my last post (a long time ago) i have purchased the apple tv and used it as an sd media server output.

if anyone has configured a setup like this i would love some feedback...although no one replied last year after over 1900 views.

cheers,
troy

[eliwhitney]

hello troy -

This sounded very familiar - but - I couldn't locate my older one ?? ... So, at the risk of a "repeat" ...

The should be embedded software 'bits / bytes' within each of the purchased Blu Ray DVDs to prevent any copying at all.

Part of the Copyright, 'Do Not Copy', Digital Rights Management scene - but - even more so with those purchased 1080p source discs.

eli

[Richard]

although no one replied last year after over 1900 views.

While our membership is wide and varied the majority represents common everyday people and how they use products. The Media server concept remains a niche market typically purchased and setup by an owner who is a typical techno geek or those who have money hire somebody else to make it all happen.

I know Shane is into this stuff and will send him an email about this thread for comment.

[Shane]

Hi Troy,

Here's a good start:
http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/articles/20 ... -style.php

It's a couple years old, but the principles still apply.

One thing you will not find here though is instructions for how to circumvent Blu-ray copy protection. Not only is it against the law to break copy protection, but thanks to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), it's also against the law for us to provide instructions, or even link to sites providing instructions. So Google at your own risk there.

Let me know if you have more specific questions ... I've dabbled in just about everything (servers, codecs, display devices, etc).

Thanks,

- Shane

[troy]

well, i never really considered myself a techno geek but i guess i could be called worse things.

Shane, thank you for pointing me towards the "mac mini" article. although, as you stated it is a bit dated, it did provide some different directions for me to take i my thought process. i will be using a panel tv as opposed to a projector so i am wondering if the hdmi input is the best input or should i bypass the apple tv and go directly with the 15 pin d-sub input and use a third party cataloging system as proposed by the 2007 article...among many other questions. i will certainly take you up on the offer of question and answers in the near future. i will begin configuring the system in the next couple of weeks.

in regards to the blu-ray issue, i will go back to the phreaking days and figure it out with a little experimentation.

thank you Shane, Richard and Eli for your replies.

cheers,
troy

[eliwhitney]

Morning troy ...

"Another" potential headache w/ 'HD' handling or recording ...

That requires a tremendous amount of electronic storage space per hour of programing ....

SO, almost immediately, most internal hard drives - - desktop, mini MAC or whatever - - will overwhelmed !

eli

[cotton]

GOOD. this brings me to, is it possible to use the new apple tv model with the same setup with hd results? (at least 720p) any information would be greatly appreciated.