Like/Dislike about AppleTV (had 3 weeks now)

[mtbdudex]

My friend, a fellow Mac person, is on the fencepost buying AppleTV.
I've had mine 3 weeks now and wrote the below, anything else I should add before sending him email?

What I like about the AppleTV:

• Able to get rid of my 400 disc Sony Mega changer
• Slick HMI, easy to use
• Ability to get most of my digital content
  • All Pictures
  • All Music
  • All TV shows
• Internet radio is neat
• Listening to music and having your personal photos onscreen is neat
• Slideshows of photo events is neat/easy way to share when people come over

Negative of AppleTV

• When I’ve spent time in iMovie and then iDVD making a DVD, no way to get that into AppleTV (that I’m aware of). I can export the iMovie under quicktime export setting to AppleTVformat, but lose the chapter markers and all the DVD formatting/extras like pict slideshows.

For $220 it’s worth what it delivers, I realize not a full blown computer, but can’t grasp why it can’t “do” iMovies chapters at least. 720p limit not an issue for me, since my family room HDTV is “just” 720p, being a 5 year old 42” set.

Guess my biggest gripe is all the iMovies/iDVD's I've made over the past 4+ years, and what a pain it is to move those to AppleTV. Since I have the iDVD source file what am I missing moving that to AppleTV as is??

 

[Chris Rogers]

Stupid question, what if you rip your iDVD's?

 

[mstrze]

You can 'share' your iMovie projects with AppleTV, if you still have them.

 

[mtbdudex]

You can 'share' your iMovie projects with AppleTV, if you still have them.

I made my iMovie projects in iMovie HD, it has these menu selections under share:

Then under expert settings this is only way I know of to get into AppleTV:

So, it re-encodes the file to smaller size (11GB to about 1.6GB), but takes long time (90+ minutes for 60 minute iMovie project). The iDVD project file is about 4.2GB file size with 4-5 slide shows also.

It's just a PIA to do, and chapters are lost.
I can't believe Apple does not have easy way to go from iDVD project with everything intact to AppleTV, they missed the boat on that one.

 

[mstrze]

The latest version of iMovie I got in iLife09 (or 08 maybe?) has an option to share with iTunes. Makes multiple movie files that are compatible with whichever devices your sync with iTunes. It's really slick. After I 'share' this and it encode the file it's right there in iTunes and right there on my AppleTV.

Edited a little bit of Christmas lights synced to music that my son loves last night and from import from our FlipHD to viewing it on AppleTV with a bit of editing was maybe 15 minutes.


You might want to think about upgrading from HD...that version of the program is getting quite long in the tooth. If only to get this sharing functionality.

 

[reebzor]

See I already knew what I could and couldn't do with the AppleTV before I bought one. That's why I didn't buy one. I couldnt settle for not being able to play 1080p and all they other lack of functionality. I chose to go the Mac Mini route, which gives me a full computer to use as a server and then a full blown media center. For really only like double the price of the TV, it's totally worth it.

 

[mstrze]

But reebzor...there is nothing on his list that his Mac/AppleTV combo can't do. He's just using an older version of iMovie. The current version of iMovie solves his only problem.

 

[mtbdudex]

But reebzor...there is nothing on his list that his Mac/AppleTV combo can't do. He's just using an older version of iMovie. The current version of iMovie solves his only problem.

Thx for tip, I've recently used the newest iMovie (via iLife 09) but these were done a few years back under the iLife 06 package stuff.
I'll try opening them up in the newer iMovie version and see if the chapter marks come across when I share them.

 

[NEBaghead]

Thx for tip, I've recently used the newest iMovie (via iLife 09) but these were done a few years back under the iLife 06 package stuff.
I'll try opening them up in the newer iMovie version and see if the chapter marks come across when I share them.

If you have them burned to DVD, you can just use Handbrake and encode them for Apple TV. HB will include your chapters, just moving forward, you can use iLife'09 for sharing home movies with the Apple TV.

 

[mstrze]

If you have them burned to DVD, you can just use Handbrake and encode them for Apple TV. HB will include your chapters, just moving forward, you can use iLife'09 for sharing home movies with the Apple TV.

+1 for HB option for already burned DVDs. Works like a charm...see the stickied post at the very top of this AppleTV forum for a foolproof method of importing.