Apple TV as Media Extender

[Comitizer]

I'm going to give it a try this weekend. Sounds pretty great.


How do you control the quality of the transcode?

[Carlton Bale]

Originally Posted by trk2

Do the latest Apple TV revisions support HD Audio yet (TrueHD, DTS-MA)? My sage library has transitioned to be more bluray movies then dvr recordings.

Apple TVs do not support HD audio and likely never will. Everything has to be transcoded.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Carlton Bale

Apple TVs do not support HD audio and likely never will. Everything has to be transcoded.

what about AC3 - 5.1?

[SageWizdom]

Originally Posted by Comitizer

How do you control the quality of the transcode?

Currently, it does whatever the the Mobile Web Interface does. I haven't verified the files, but I believe it provides multiple options to the player and then the player selects streams based on the bandwidth available. I have not quite figured out (but appreciate the help I've gotten) trying to select the transcode quality directly from the Sagex Api.

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

what about AC3 - 5.1?

I have been wondering about this myself. Apple's specs say (http://support.apple.com/kb/sp648)

HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store),
MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), 
Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; 
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through

But I have no idea if Sage supports or will transcode into Dolby Digitial 5.1 in those formats (any experts out there?). I would think an existing MP4 (non transcoded) with DD5.1 would work though. I havn't done the direct streaming yet (busy week) but that would be a first step.

[tvmaster2]

Handbrake lets you transcode and select which audio format to include: AAC Pro logic, or AC3 5.1, so it would be easy to make a test file to find out

[tvmaster2]

what's the latest with this? lots of good, Black Friday sales coming up, and was looking at Apple TV discounts...has testing finished? all good? Can ATV's be used as Sage Extenders, reliably?
For that matter, how is Apple TV own its own....any reason to have one?
thanks

[tchapin]

I have an AppleTV and a Roku LT in addition to my Sage extender. I wanted to play with one of each to see which I liked better. The AppleTV is much more polished and faster. I haven't tried the Roku 2 or 3.

It's Netflix app is better than Roku's. Roku has a wide selection of channels, most of which are crap. We use it mostly for Amazon.

Airplay is also great on the AppleTV and we use it mostly for that and watching movies off my server. I gave up on imported media in Sage due to some weird issues that I never bothered to troubleshoot since I have the Roku and AppleTV.

Apple has added a lot more content lately, most of which I ignore. The iTunes Festival stuff is great. The new Yahoo channel is cool; I can finally watch Zero Punctuation on my TV!

I'm going to try this project out though; it looks pretty exciting.

I do have Plex installed on my server as well, but I don't love the Roku app.

[PiX64]

Roku 3 all the way.

If u haven't seen the new Netflix interface you should check it out. 1 interface across all devices. I got the update on my roku 3s last week. Not sure when it'll rollout for other rokus though.

And for airplay like functionality but better try out plex with plex channel on roku. U can fling video from your device but not tie up device resources. Much like chromecast. I have a video I made of t somewhere I can dig up for ya.

[tvmaster2]

is Youtube on Roku yet? Until it is, I can't have one. Does Apple TV have Youtube ability? oh, and TWIT would be good as well...

[tchapin]

YouTube on Roku = no
On AppleTV = yes

I think there are a few different apps to get TWIT on Roku.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by tchapin

YouTube on Roku = no
On AppleTV = yes

I think there are a few different apps to get TWIT on Roku.

ok, thanks

[PiX64]

Wrong

YouTube on roku = yes. It's called twonky beam and it's pretty sweet.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Wrong

YouTube on roku = yes. It's called twonky beam and it's pretty sweet.

that is cool thx Pix

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

that is cool thx Pix

you bet!

[Naylia]

Just stumbled on this. I have a couple ATV2s in the house so I'm just flagging the thread so I can come back sometime this week and give it a shot. I'll report back how it goes.

[SageWizdom]

Quick Update: Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been shoveling snow and playing with kids.

While I'm still playing with code, I'm hoping the rumors of an AppleTV upgrade to allow 3rd party apps is imminent. If that is the case, it would resolve many of the hoops (I hope) that I have been jumping through to make things work. Actual code, vs creative scripting hacks.

That said, I've gotten some feedback, that my documentation is terrible and I should really clean up some of the code. Thats what good friends are for, honest feedback.

The next couple of weeks are a bit ugly, but I'll try to do some cleanup (bypass transcode for streams that are already MP4, close captioning).

Cheers,