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vanfanel1

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 23, 2009
64
0
I am considering cutting the cord (dish network in this case) I've considered the roku and the appletv. I like the extra content of roku but I'm leaning more towards the appleTV mostly for the airplay option. I plan on using a combination of

-Hulu plus
-perhaps Netflix
-iTunes
-airplay for content not in the above sources like some HGTV programming which plays fine on my ipad/iphone via website/app.
-sports is another issue which I may have put away for now. I'd consider something like the MLB plan but their blackout restrictions prevent me from watching my local team which is the point in getting it (another day for this rant)

I just have a few questions:

1. I currently have a PS3 and have been using this to stream my current collection of HD movies. I had a few mkv files which were also remuxed to mpg using mkvtovob. How would I make those playable for appletv? I don't want to have to go through lengthy conversions if possible. They are h.264 encoded already so I think it's just a matter of changing containers...right? Is there some program I need to use (windows) or will these files play as is?

2. If I use an app like airvideo or plex what is the quality of 720p and 1080p videos when using airplay (live conversion)? What about audio quality?

3. Any sort of viable option for getting news via appletv? I have playon service with some news plugins and plan on using airplay for that as well since there doesn't seem to be an option for this.

thanks.
 

Panch0

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2010
684
9
Virginia
in most areas, you can get good reception of OTA channels if you get the right antenna. Check out antennaweb.org to see what antenna is recommended for your location and what channels you will get. This should cover you for local news and sports to some extent.

ATV has Wall Street Journal Live, which is a news channel, and some of the 'news shows' do podcasts of their content.

making H.264 content available on ATV/iTunes is often discussed on this forum - there may even be a sticky thread that discusses it. I did all of my encoding direct to m4v, so I don't know what you need to do to change containers..
 
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