kevinbal
macrumors regular
1) It takes forever.
2) Quality is degraded.
Just get one of these wdtv units.
Sure it has no ethernet port.
But It is easily hackable to use a USB ethernet.
And it plays all these ripped formats mkv, m2ts, etc. at 1080p. No loss in video quality.
1) Takes only a bit longer than a standard DVD encode for me on my 3.06 Ghz iMac. Maybe if you are using a G4 processor, or an older CoreDuo, sure. With a newer machine, its not a time issue at all.
2) Quality is fantastic over DVD-encode at an increase of only a gig or so per movie. Sound quality is superb with AC3 pass-thru. On my 1080i/720p plasma the difference is night and day.
Why would anyone encode blu to appletv? For starters, I really don't feel like rebuying new physical media for all the movies I already have. I know legally it has no grounding, but I've paid for all this once, why do I need to keep paying for it every time a new media format is released? F-that.
I'm also past keeping physical media around and having to swap out discs, etc. It is much easier to just scroll through the list of movies and click on whatever one I want to start. Will I keep media around for some movies? Sure, most likely when I have the money to be able pick up a full, 120hz 1080p set. Not happening any time soon, I also don't want to buy a $200+ player just to view them.
Just because -you- don't see the value in converting blu-rays for use on the AppleTV doesn't mean there isn't any value for others.