I have decided that I would like to get rid of cable TV (that I never watch) and go with different solutions for my TVs.
My plan is to store my media on a Mac Mini with 1TB mirrored drives connected.
For the downstairs TV:
- Buy an Apple TV and connect to a receiver and let it do Pro Logic out (we have a 3.1 system downstairs.)
For upstairs TV:
- Use the Mac Mini and connect it to the TV's VGA input. For sound, it is important that I get 5.1 out and I know that there is a solution where I can get a converter to take the AAC signal from the Mini and translate to a 5.1 signal that a receiver can handle. Is this the best solution for upstairs?
The TVs are both 1080i plasmas.
For handbrake, I am using the '6 discreet channel' option and wow is it taking alot of space/time to rip. Not to mention, the files are alot larger than I thought they would be. The 1.5 hour movie I just made a backup of was 2GB in size and took well over an hour on my Macbook! Are there other options out there that would help reduce this time/file size?
My plan is to store my media on a Mac Mini with 1TB mirrored drives connected.
For the downstairs TV:
- Buy an Apple TV and connect to a receiver and let it do Pro Logic out (we have a 3.1 system downstairs.)
For upstairs TV:
- Use the Mac Mini and connect it to the TV's VGA input. For sound, it is important that I get 5.1 out and I know that there is a solution where I can get a converter to take the AAC signal from the Mini and translate to a 5.1 signal that a receiver can handle. Is this the best solution for upstairs?
The TVs are both 1080i plasmas.
For handbrake, I am using the '6 discreet channel' option and wow is it taking alot of space/time to rip. Not to mention, the files are alot larger than I thought they would be. The 1.5 hour movie I just made a backup of was 2GB in size and took well over an hour on my Macbook! Are there other options out there that would help reduce this time/file size?