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How is the full high definition experience like on a Apple tv

M

mrmarts

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 6, 2009
1,051
1
Melbourne Australia
Hey all

I am trying to reduce my physical discs (DVDS and Blu ray) as i am running out of room also i hate getting starches on the media playback. At the moment I have 14 movies on iTunes in standard definition and intend to build on it when i get my Apple TV.

But in the meantime I hear people saying that the iTunes full high definition experience does not live up to the physical media experience (blu ray) is this true and if so is it noticeable.

I also heard rumours in the future of retina Apple TV which will support 4k by retina tv do they mean the tv set or the apple box?
 
mrmarts said:
I also heard rumours in the future of retina Apple TV which will support 4k by retina tv do they mean the tv set or the apple box?
Click to expand...

most 1080 televisions would qualify as retina. a 50" 1080 screen is "retina" at about 6 1/2 feet. If you have a smaller screen, and the viewing distance is also shorter.
4K is useful in movie theaters and very large screens, Most homeowners don't have the room to make a 4K screen justified. (a 30 foot screen at 30 feet is double the density needed for retina)
 
mrmarts said:
Hey all

I am trying to reduce my physical discs (DVDS and Blu ray) as i am running out of room also i hate getting starches on the media playback. At the moment I have 14 movies on iTunes in standard definition and intend to build on it when i get my Apple TV.

But in the meantime I hear people saying that the iTunes full high definition experience does not live up to the physical media experience (blu ray) is this true and if so is it noticeable.

I also heard rumours in the future of retina Apple TV which will support 4k by retina tv do they mean the tv set or the apple box?
Click to expand...


Converting any form of content into Itunes compatible format will cause the picture to degrade from the original specs. The second you start to compress an already compressed DVD, you loose a lot of data. converting and compressing a Blu-ray is kind of stupid if you think about it. Blu-ray is supposed to be the ultimate in high definition video. Why would you compress it so if conforms to Apple TV format. You loose the HD picture quality that Blu-ray is. You might as well by a DVD if you plan to compress and convert Blu-ray disks, besides, you would save money buying just DVD's.

Keep your Blu-ray's and digitize everything else. I have tested some DVD rips using my own DVD's using Handbrake, They came out perfect. Just make sure you change to strict in the picture settings for the aspect ratio. This keeps the original aspect from the disk before Handbrake converts it to MP4.
 
JoeBlow74 said:
Converting any form of content into Itunes compatible format will cause the picture to degrade from the original specs. The second you start to compress an already compressed DVD, you loose a lot of data. converting and compressing a Blu-ray is kind of stupid if you think about it. Blu-ray is supposed to be the ultimate in high definition video. Why would you compress it so if conforms to Apple TV format. You loose the HD picture quality that Blu-ray is. You might as well by a DVD if you plan to compress and convert Blu-ray disks, besides, you would save money buying just DVD's.

Keep your Blu-ray's and digitize everything else. I have tested some DVD rips using my own DVD's using Handbrake, They came out perfect. Just make sure you change to strict in the picture settings for the aspect ratio. This keeps the original aspect from the disk before Handbrake converts it to MP4.
Click to expand...


Uh I have uncompressed Bluray rips that are amazing.
 
If you want the best quality, stay with the originals. I does depend on your TV a lot though....I have a brand new Sony 46" Bravia 3D model...before that, I was happy with the output on my Toshiba 37" The Sony shows up the flaws in converted media though. I just bought a Sony compatible 3D Blu -ray player and now watch like that...It's acceptable with ripped stuff, and I guess it just depends on how fussy you are.
 
JoeBlow74 said:
converting and compressing a Blu-ray is kind of stupid if you think about it. Blu-ray is supposed to be the ultimate in high definition video. Why would you compress it so if conforms to Apple TV format. You loose the HD picture quality that Blu-ray is. You might as well by a DVD if you plan to compress and convert Blu-ray disks, besides, you would save money buying just DVD's.
Click to expand...

Sorry, that doesn't make a lot of sense. While it's true that the conversion is lossy, the result (using the ATV 3 preset, for example) is still 1080p and the quality is *way* better than DVD.

Your advice is comparable to: don't convert audio CDs to MP3s, buy cassettes and rip those instead.
 
JoeBlow74 said:
Converting any form of content into Itunes compatible format will cause the picture to degrade from the original specs. The second you start to compress an already compressed DVD, you loose a lot of data. converting and compressing a Blu-ray is kind of stupid if you think about it. Blu-ray is supposed to be the ultimate in high definition video. Why would you compress it so if conforms to Apple TV format. You loose the HD picture quality that Blu-ray is. You might as well by a DVD if you plan to compress and convert Blu-ray disks, besides, you would save money buying just DVD's.
Click to expand...

With that logic, you should only view 4k. Anything after that is a loss of quality and not worth viewing.

The real question is, do you see compression artifacts that bother you while viewing the movie. That depends on the individual and the viewing situation (tv size/resolution, viewing distance, room conditions...). We live in a world of variously compressed media. JPEG photos are compressed from raw, few noticed the degradation. Cable/satellite tv providers, heavily compress their feed, most find it acceptable, and of course, there is music. The only way to hear it uncompressed is to be there live, vinyl compresses, cd's compress further and of course now most of us listen to digital on a regular basis which is even more compressed.

Bottom line, is if you have a satisfying experience viewing material, regardless of compression level, then compression doesn't matter. JMHO
 
Dobbs2 said:
Uh I have uncompressed Bluray rips that are amazing.
Click to expand...

All my movies on the Apple:apple: are uncompressed. It might take a minute or two to load, but once the movie starts I rarely get any hiccups. And if there are hiccups, they're usually the result of my network being bogged down. Not the Apple:apple: itself. I'm running full uncompressed 4.1 profile bluray movies on my Apple:apple: all the time. Doesn't get any better. Plus, drive space is cheap now.
 
Looks great from where I am sitting, also DVD rips look great too. I think they may be upscaled to an extent.
 
In other news, your Blu-ray movies are already compressed, just with a much higher bitrate.
 
Let me give some real-world examples: I own a 55" Sony XBR local dimming set. It's two years old and the best that could be bought. I also have a nice Definitive Tech 5.1 speaker setup, and an HK amp.

We watch a lot of Netflix. I have three ways of watching Netflix: Using the TV's built-in player, using a PS/3, and using a 720p AppleTV. The PS/3 and AppleTV produce fantastic results, while the TV's built-in Netflix player is utterly horrible. Because my job involves electronics, I had this verified in a lab at my office: Same content, same wired network connection, and vastly different results, depending on the playback hardware. The differences were dramatic; anyone would notice them. But AppleTV was great, even at 720p. We conclude that the motion compensation in the Sony TV's decoder is just really bad. So the decoder itself visibly matters.

The next question, then, is how does AppleTV iTunes content compare to Blu-ray? The most obvious difference, for me, is audio. A Blu-ray disc often has a higher audio bitrate than the entire bitrate of an iTunes high-def movie. You can definitely hear this if you have the equipment; maybe Apple banks on the fact that most people don't. So if you want movie theater sound, Apple won't deliver. In picture quality, I find it more difficult to find a difference. No doubt it's there, but my family members never complain about picture quality on Netflix or iTunes. I never tried a back-to-back. I have a few Blu-rays with iTunes content, so I might be able to compare.

In lieu of any direct comparison, for now, I still prefer Blu-ray because the sound is so much better, and I believe it will provide the best picture quality, even though iTunes HD provides a very satisfying image.
 
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Apple TV experience

I have an AppleTV 3 hooked to a 40" LED by Samsung (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NB4TTA/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00).

I...acquire various shows and movies from sources, with varying quality.

From 768kbps to 3520kbps at 640 and 1280 resolutions, the quality is noticeably different on the screen.

And the highest end ones look FANTASTIC.
 
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mrmarts said:
i forgot to mention in my post can i stream my movies from my 2010 imac to the apple tv? i heard that 2010 imac does not support airplay.
Click to expand...


airplay in iTunes works. You can select and play media in iTunes, and pick a remote playback location. not so convenient for video, but with audio, you can stream to multiple locations at once, all in sync with each other.

or you can use home sharing, and browse your library on the aTV. (your computer must be on and iTunes running for this to work)

airplay of the entire desktop does not work, unless you have one of the newer supported macs. (this is due to the newer macs having hardware that does the required video encoding, as opposed to the processor having to do it)
 
AirPlay/AppleTV

waw74 said:
airplay in iTunes works. You can select and play media in iTunes, and pick a remote playback location. not so convenient for video, but with audio, you can stream to multiple locations at once, all in sync with each other.

or you can use home sharing, and browse your library on the aTV. (your computer must be on and iTunes running for this to work)

airplay of the entire desktop does not work, unless you have one of the newer supported macs. (this is due to the newer macs having hardware that does the required video encoding, as opposed to the processor having to do it)
Click to expand...

AirPlay is the ability to mirror your entire screen, via your Apple TV, to your TV.

Home Sharing lets you play whatever is in your iTunes library on your TV via AppleTV.

I've been using a 2009 Mac Mini (2.26 c2d, 4gigs ram) to play videos, shows, podcasts and music through my AppleTV for years. As far as I know, there aren't any hardware restrictions for doing this, but I'm sure it requires a certain version of OS X for Home Sharing to work.

(I've owned the two most recent AppleTVs; the black, small ones, not the big, white ones.)
 
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26139 said:
AirPlay is the ability to mirror your entire screen, via your Apple TV, to your TV.
Click to expand...

AirPlay Mirroring is the ability to mirror your entire screen, via your Apple TV, to your TV.

iTunes has airplay, and has been doing it long before mountain lion came out. If you have an airplay device on your network, look at the bottom of the itunes window, the airplay icon is there (rectangle with a triangle in it).
You can select and play a video in iTunes, and hit that button and send it to your aTV

Airplay is also available from iOS. You can send just audio or full screen video or if your device supports it you can also mirror the screen.

Home sharing lets you access your iTunes library from the aTV, so you can browse, select, and play the media directly on the aTV.

The end result of both is pretty much the same, except that airplay doesn't have to be logged into the same iTunes account.
If you go to a friends house, and you have something in iTunes on your laptop that you want to watch on their aTV. You can airplay it directly from iTunes on your laptop, or if you want to use home sharing, you would have to sign their aTV onto your iTunes account.

airplay from iTunes and home sharing don't require a lot of processing power, as they only send the raw file to the aTV to be played there. While airplay mirroring has to take the screen image and convert it to a video stream.
 
Yep

waw74 said:
AirPlay Mirroring is the ability to mirror your entire screen, via your Apple TV, to your TV.

iTunes has airplay, and has been doing it long before mountain lion came out. If you have an airplay device on your network, look at the bottom of the itunes window, the airplay icon is there (rectangle with a triangle in it).
You can select and play a video in iTunes, and hit that button and send it to your aTV

Airplay is also available from iOS. You can send just audio or full screen video or if your device supports it you can also mirror the screen.

Home sharing lets you access your iTunes library from the aTV, so you can browse, select, and play the media directly on the aTV.

The end result of both is pretty much the same, except that airplay doesn't have to be logged into the same iTunes account.
If you go to a friends house, and you have something in iTunes on your laptop that you want to watch on their aTV. You can airplay it directly from iTunes on your laptop, or if you want to use home sharing, you would have to sign their aTV onto your iTunes account.

airplay from iTunes and home sharing don't require a lot of processing power, as they only send the raw file to the aTV to be played there. While airplay mirroring has to take the screen image and convert it to a video stream.
Click to expand...

Yes, my bad.

Either way, playing videos and shows, via iTunes, from my 2009 Mac Mini through Apple TV is easy and they look great.
 
Unless you have a really nice tv, you won't notice much difference if any.

Even on my calibrated 50" Pioneer plasma (which is a reference panel by videophiles) the iTunes hd rips look pretty great. My physical blu ray discs still look better, like 25% improvement if I had to put a number on it. One can still detect encoding artifacts on the rips. The originals have better black levels and depth to my eyes. BD players also handle 24p correctly.

But Netflix, Hulu, iTunes.... All have better pq than broadcast hd cable. No complaints here ;)
 
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