Not sure what you mean by "ratings encoded" but as far as I know there is no way to embed a content rating directly into a video stream, and there are no open-standard container formats that include content rating as part of their metadata.
I'll try to be as polite as I can seeing all the insults you flung my way yet again. Yes, it is meta data. If you had ever encoded a movie with Handbrake and then used Meta-X to add the movie information/pictures/ratings, etc. you'd know this. It's no different for movies I encode than ones they encode.
tells iTunes/AppleTV about the content). Apple not supporting blocking playback of content by rating probably has something to do with there being no industry standard way of marking content and consumers being able to add their own content as well witch would be missing these ratings anyway.
Apple assumes all rating content is in the form of meta-data whether it's "explicit" markers on songs or movie ratings. They assume you get their content from them and so they would assume iTunes settings would apply to their own data. Supposedly, iTunes "parental controls" would apply this to movie ratings (seeing as it has this option in the panel) on a "shared" iTunes library, but why in the world they would not have an option to apply this to Apple TV or even the iTunes that is running is beyond me. And that's the whole point. There is no system that works for my setup (which is using their gear).
Speaking of bother, have you sent Apple an email about this, rather than rant on a message board about it?
It seems to me you are the one that is "ranting" since I only made a comment about a non-functional aspect of iTunes and you jumped all over me and are still doing so with comments like "I"m not stupid enough..." below.
As for e-mailing Apple with suggestions, I've done so numerous times in regards to Apple TV and iTunes, but they not only don't reply (they pretty much tell you this from the start that they won't), but not one thing I've ever asked for in regards to that setup has been added in the past 3 years so I guess one might be able to see why I would WANT to "rant" instead of e-mailing since the latter obviously does no good with Apple. Rather I was simply countering your comments about how great parental controls are from Apple when in fact they have some rather large gaping holes in them.
Wow. You have a real hard time recognizing software don't you? First you confuse AppleTV's software with iTunes, now you're trying to show me screens from Windows Media Center when I was talking about Windows Media Player. In both these examples. the latter is a free media player for desktop computers, the former is a complete operating system meant for use in HTPC's and costing hundreds of dollars.
Windows Media Center is the correct comparison for my setup given I've said I'm using a whole house audio/video system run through AppleTV powered off iTunes. I'm sorry I didn't notice you were talking about a piece of software that I do not use and therefore has no real bearing on my original comments, which were about iTunes + Apple TV not WinAmp (WTF!?) or Windows Media Player. Besides, you said you searched all over the place for parental controls and then announced Apple was ahead of the curve. Clearly, they are not if there is zero functionality to their setup. Your entire post seems to want to jump on semantics (getting all excited about one product that has no bearing with another product that has no bearing and that you brought up; I was never talking about Microsoft or WinAmp to begin with. You brought them into the thread) and iTunes by itself versus using it to control a home theater setup in another room or a whole house audio/video system (how I use it). Fine. I didn't make my message clear enough for you. I'm sorry. I should have checked my every word and then ran a professional grammar checker on it just to be sure.
Compared to other applications of the same type, yes.
What would you call Windows Media Center or the Playstation 3 if not of the same type when that's what they're designed to do, power a media center? In my case, Apple TV fed from the iTunes server on my PowerMac runs my $5000+ home theater room with a 93" projector and 6.1 sound. What use or function would WinAmp or Windows Media Player POSSIBLY have in my system??? None.
No, I'm not stupid enough to lock myself into a single provider for ownable content on such an expensive piece of hardware.
Not only does your comment imply insult (as in I must be stupid enough to do so), but it has zero bearing given I'm not "locked" into anything. 97% of my movies and 100% of my music is DRM free. How am I locked into anything? Apple TV plays back DRM-Free formats. I even run XBMC on it. Sorry if I offended you by purchasing a couple of HD movies from Apple that do have DRM instead of pirating them off the Internet like everyone else.
It should work the same way iTunes sharing does: where you actually control what content is available to others. What if you made a sex video and added it to your video collection in one room. Are you saying there is no way to prevent the other devices in the house from having access to the content short of taking your entire collection offline? Why would someone buy a device with such a horrible control system?
LOL. *THAT* is precisely my original point in regards to Apple hardware/software in regards to a total lack of "parental controls" in regards to their product AppleTV being fed from iTunes (or even in iTunes itself when not fed to a "shared" computer). It doesn't exist/work/whatever you want to call it.
As for "why" I would use such a "horrible" system I would say at the time (3+ years ago) there wasn't really any other choices out there for a whole house audio AND video system. Even "Remote" for the iPhone/iPod Touch didn't exist when I first got the system. I used "Remote Buddy" and "Signal" to control the music from the iPod Touch at the time and AppleTV's own remote for movies/music in that room. My ONLY other real (within a sane price range at least) choices for a whole house anything was either "Sonus" (music only and at nearly 1.5x the price for the same room setup overall) and the Logitech Squeezebox, which again was MUSIC ONLY. I don't think the Playstation 3 had a very good setup at the time and it certainly can't power a whole house system on its own. It would need a unit in every room and there is no way to synchronize them. I can in fact run a whole house 'party mode' from iTunes/Remote and have synchronized music across the entire house.
And to be honest, parental controls weren't at the top of my list considering I have no kids. I'm purely interested in blocking adult material for when relatives with kids come to visit. I'd rather power the whole system down than do without. But like I said, I found a solution in using XBMC for any adult material (whether it be photos or videos) as it can be locked out (either in part or whole) by password. It involved hacking Apple TV to add it, but that's not a big deal. My original point was simply the lack of such (working) controls in iTunes/Apple TV. But apparently I cannot make such a point without someone jumping down my throat on semantics instead of actual content. In other words, nothing you've pointed out (semantically correct or not) changes ANYTHING in my setup/system or how it functions. Pointing out the preference pane does not make it work in my home theater room or even my server room since it effectively does nothing.
