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ATV interface for watching episodic TV?

C

Chileman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 22, 2013
2
0
Hi,

Am considering swapping over from PC to Mac (after 20+ years of PC!). I have terabytes of my ripped DVDs, blurays, TV shows etc sitting on a Netgear NAS box. Currently I use a Netgear NTV550 for streaming the media to the television, but not sure I'd be able to continue this method if I went the Mac route.

On the Netgear, the interface allows me to browse through the folders on the network, eg:

Video
-->Movies
----> Bluray
----> DVD
-->Television
---->TV Drama
------>CSI
-------->Season 01
---------->CSI SE01E01 The Pilot (avi, mkv, etc)
---------->CSI SE01E02 Episode 2 (avi, mkv, etc)
---------->etc

I guess my question is, if I was to convert my entire collection to iTunes friendly format, how would the user experience be, on the Apple TV interface? Are there any example screenshots anywhere?

Appreciate any help you can give...and please be gentle, long-time PC user tip-toing carefully into Appleworld... :)

Cheers,
Gareth
 
bushido

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
took some pics for u

Menu

o0tflg.jpg


TV-Show Menu_unwatched

in4m0k.jpg


TV-Shows Menu_general

2u583g2.jpg


(u can tell by the blue dot next to the file what u havent seen it yet)

Music Menu

n2cyue.jpg


---

the Movies menu is basically the same as TV Shows, sorted by "genre, name, unwatched
 
B

blevins321

macrumors 68030
Dec 24, 2010
2,768
96
Detroit, MI
Try Plex. It's seriously terrific. Only trick is that you need to have a server feeding the files to a device. Some NAS units support the server. And there's an iOS app that you can use to AirPlay media to the AppleTV.
 
T

thasan

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2007
1,104
1,031
Germany
blevins321 said:
Try Plex. It's seriously terrific. Only trick is that you need to have a server feeding the files to a device. Some NAS units support the server. And there's an iOS app that you can use to AirPlay media to the AppleTV.
Click to expand...

i found videostation in my synology better than plex to be honest. :)
 
K

KevinC867

macrumors 6502a
Jun 8, 2007
620
2
Saratoga, CA
blevins321 said:
Try Plex. It's seriously terrific. Only trick is that you need to have a server feeding the files to a device. Some NAS units support the server. And there's an iOS app that you can use to AirPlay media to the AppleTV.
Click to expand...

The Plex "channel" that was added to the Roku devices made them much more useful boxes. Now my Roku box can stream all my own media as well as Netflix, Amazon, etc.

This way, I don't have to tie up a computer or iOS device to get Plex streaming.
 
C

Chileman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 22, 2013
2
0
Thanks everyone for the advice...and for the screenshots. Much appreciated.

So am I reading correctly that I'm still better off converting my existing movies/TV collection to something more iTunes friendly?

All of my movie and TV files have an associated jpg and .NFO file. Is there a decent app which will convert this information into iTunes? The .NFO file includes fields like genre, director, description etc, would they be converted as well to iTunes friendly information?

I understand Handbrake seems to be the best choice for the actual media conversion...looks like my processor is gonna be busy!

Thanks
 
NMF

NMF

macrumors 6502a
Oct 27, 2011
885
21
Chileman said:
Thanks everyone for the advice...and for the screenshots. Much appreciated.

So am I reading correctly that I'm still better off converting my existing movies/TV collection to something more iTunes friendly?

All of my movie and TV files have an associated jpg and .NFO file. Is there a decent app which will convert this information into iTunes? The .NFO file includes fields like genre, director, description etc, would they be converted as well to iTunes friendly information?

I understand Handbrake seems to be the best choice for the actual media conversion...looks like my processor is gonna be busy!

Thanks
Click to expand...

Once you have the Mac, I highly recommend purchasing iDentify 2 on the Mac App Store. Drag video file on to it, video file is populated with iTunes metadata. Nearly always works on its own, but in the rare case that it gives you some issues, simply manually paste the IMDB code (so it knows what the file is) and then it'll auto-populate correctly.

NFO files... pfft. :cool:
 
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