Could apple do this?

[fortygreen]

Just come across this http://www.flip4mac.com/drivein.htm
it copies any copy protected dvd to your harddrive and allows them to be played without removing any copy protection. Could Apple do this and allow it to sync to the Apple tv? Would save a lot of encoding plus you get all the extras.

[macaco74]

I doubt this would ever be made available officially by apple.

[BaldiMac]

They probably could do it. The two big issues would be hard drive space and streaming bandwidth. An uncompressed DVD would be around 7 GB (I think). I seem to remember something about a 4 GB limit with the current AppleTV, but I'm not sure if that was a hardware or software limitation.

The bigger concern would be streaming. These files are bigger than the compressed HD files that the AppleTV currently supports.

[FF_productions]

They probably could do it. The two big issues would be hard drive space and streaming bandwidth. An uncompressed DVD would be around 7 GB (I think). I seem to remember something about a 4 GB limit with the current AppleTV, but I'm not sure if that was a hardware or software limitation.

The bigger concern would be streaming. These files are bigger than the compressed HD files that the AppleTV currently supports.

Well, most people do not rip uncompressed audio from cd's, it's usually in AAC.

I see the same thing with DVD's in iTunes, you set it for H.264, something that is friendly with iPhone/iPod/Apple TV and that's it.

Obviously it contradicts with the iTunes Store, but still, why not?

You buy a DVD from a store, you convert it all in iTunes, and you put it on Apple's own products, such as iPhone/iPod/Apple TV and of course Mac.

[mrgreen4242]

Well, most people do not rip uncompressed audio from cd's, it's usually in AAC.

I see the same thing with DVD's in iTunes, you set it for H.264, something that is friendly with iPhone/iPod/Apple TV and that's it.

Obviously it contradicts with the iTunes Store, but still, why not?

You buy a DVD from a store, you convert it all in iTunes, and you put it on Apple's own products, such as iPhone/iPod/Apple TV and of course Mac.
In order to retain the copy protection it would have to stay as an MPEG2 file, so it would be the same size as the original.

Apple could do this, technically. The ATV would need to get updated to handle MPEG2 files (it's got the power to do some very easily, of course) and need the DVD frameworks, decrypters, etc. The 4gb file limit isn't an issue - no file on a DVD is larger than 1gb. It's sort of a playlist of 1gb files.

But, it's not incredibly useful, to be honest. A good, near DVD quality h264 rip is less than 20% of the size of the DVD (of course you lose the "bonus" content in that, along with extra languages, but you keep the 5.1 audio and the regular stereo soundtrack) and is much more convenient to store.

Handbrake will do this for you, and while it's a little more of a PITA that importing a DVD into iTunes, it's not all that difficult either.