...Anyway, the link in Ireland's post--right (secondary, excuse me) click on it and click "save linked file". then it downloads. that's pretty darn cool instead of buying a pro thing just to do that.
Yeah, Ireland was pretty smart to get a good link where we can do this. Normally it is hard to trawl through websites, etc, to find a direct link to the .mov final file.
How do you get two simultaneous quicktime encodes?
It works now, you open whatever files, then encode them... It adds the encode to a queue that runs simultaneously. I got 3 going at the same time now for my Core[1]Duo MacBook. Mmm... full 200% load...
I know DTS has been using CDs and PCM streams to transport its data, but for modern files, it's kind of a hack. It's kind of stupid too, given how DTS is 765 kbps or 1.5Mbps for just audio, it's just not realistic for downloaded files. Apple sells TV shows that are encoded at 1.5Mbps for the combined video and audio streams.
Right now, there is no option in Quicktime to encode PCM or DTS into a H.264 stream, which is why I said that there's little to no infrastructure for it, there's no content that's like that and no apparent way to make that content. As that Roughly Drafted site said, there is AAC 5.1, but I don't remember seeing any receivers that will decode that. AppleTV can't output decoded AAC 5.1 either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stompy
According to the link quoted by Sport73, AppleTV does DTS, but not DD. jeffdm's point is, until you can rip a DVD to some format with 5.1 sound that the AppleTV will play back in 5.1, it's all academic. (If it is possible, without hacks, please correct me.)
I'll give it a shot. I woke up at 5.30am this morning thinking about this stuff, it's 7.30am and my neighbour is frying up what smells like mmm... bacon... Dammit! I need more sleep so I'll try and be brief. \
1. I think a lot of you have made valid points that the highest quality surround we can get at this stage is DTS and AC3.
2. DTS and AC3 bitstreams are unnecessarily big for the modern Intarweb standards, etc.
3. I tend to agree more with RoughlyDrafted link than ThisMuchIKnow.
4. DolbyDigital I and II decoding of the stereo-matrix AppleTV output of AAC 2-channel or 5.1-channel .mp4, .m4v, .mov files is very acceptable for a lot of consumers and the mainstream with these 5.1 or 7.1 amp and speaker setups.
5. I strongly believe AAC 5.1 in a MP4, M4V container is the way to go for the future. Rev B or C of AppleTV, if and when we get iTunes Store 720p HDTV material, I agree, would be good to have AAC 5.1-encoded files, with AppleTV outputting AC3 (not DTS*) to 5.1 and 7.1 amp/speaker setups.
6. DVD and other sources of AC3 and DTS when played back from Macs are not an issue with digital optical out into your digital optical in of your AC3 and DTS capable 5.1/ 7.1 amp/speaker setups. Otherwise the messier sound card - to - speaker (no discrete amp) setup.
7. If you are ripping DVDs, you will want to do a MP4 container with H.264 video and AAC 5.1 audio [Besweet and NeroAudio as main tools]. Doom9.org has all you need to know... It is predominantly PC-based but it is more important since we are talking about iTunes and Quicktime and iPod and AppleTV, which is, predominantly PC-user-base. I feel this enthusiast PC-user-base audience is the most likely users of AppleTV that will want quality DVD-rips with 5.1 surround "maintained" to some level, with the convenience of not having to physically carry around or slot in discs, etc. (That's why they're ripping DVDs, they're encoding geeks, like digital assets on their computers, DVD-enthusiasts that want to preserve their "master prints" of movies in the original pristine quality, plus some want to pirate out their encodes)... As one of the Doom9 forum members have in their signature, "I encode therefore I am". I pulled a nice rip of Matrix-LobbyScene and Matrix-Morpheus.vs.Neo into mp4-h.264-aac(stereo) rips that's playable and streamable off iTunes/Quicktime, there's a real sense of satisfaction...Heh... Did it in Windows via Parallels. Hella complex, I can't repeat it now unless I have like 10 browser tabs open for all the tools and techniques. For Mac, Handbrake or FFMPEGx, should soon, if not already, have AAC 5.1 encoded audio for DVD-rips. If what RoughlyDrafted is saying, this is a good intermediate step for AppleTV surround sound on our current convergence journey.
*AC3 is Dolby Digital which is the more common standard with the very famous "Dolby" name. While I personally *love* DTS on DVDs (and believe it is superior to AC3), globally, AC3 (Dolby Digital) is very much more mainstream and "good enough" for AAC 5.1 - encoded, AC3-output-transcoded - setup for AppleTV rev B or C with 720p HDTV H.264 content.
It's partially the Sony Bravia HDTVs. Even hooked up to a BluRay demo source, or a "HD 1080" handycam, the image on the screen is totally harsh, pixelated, and just overall crap.
So in your lab you have Sony, LG, Panasonic, Sharp, etc, all set up with equal signals, a video spectrometer and a focus groups to unbiasedly evaluate each system?
There is something very..... not good about Apple posting an HD ad that shows School of Rock looking way, way better than it actually looks if you where to download it and watch it on the set-up they show it being shown on.
I mean, when the representation of a movie in an advertisement as it looks being shown on a television in the larger shot looks vastly better than the movie which is actually being sold, all is not well.
Let me rephrase that: I downloaded the 640x496 "medium" res version and played it full screen, School of Rock still looks much, much better than what actually happens on Apple TV.
So in your lab you have Sony, LG, Panasonic, Sharp, etc, all set up with equal signals, a video spectrometer and a focus groups to unbiasedly evaluate each system?
My opinion on the Sony Bravias is just my opinion, and something I strongly recommend people have a look at. People may have different opinions. Such tests as you describe above are for audiophile/videophile magazines to carry out.
I'm don't think your comment was very useful, at least, not in the way you wrote it.
My opinion on the Sony Bravias is just my opinion, and something I strongly recommend people have a look at. People may have different opinions. Such tests as you describe above are for audiophile/videophile magazines to carry out.
Sony does offer a Lupe type tool that is used to magnify the actual pixels which can bring into focus some of the differences between their technology and that of competitors. All HD is a little disappointing if you are expecting absolute realism. What system would you recommend?
Sony does offer a Lupe type tool that is used to magnify the actual pixels which can bring into focus some of the differences between their technology and that of competitors. All HD is a little disappointing if you are expecting absolute realism. What system would you recommend?
I think I am somewhat emotional about this because I do expect a lot from Sony and love a lot of their stuff including SonyEricsson. Didn't mean to come on too strong with this.
Somehow though, the Bravia and latest HD Handycams are like "hyper-realism", I want a pleasant image, pixels are secondary. A pleasant 720p is fine for me. The thing that annoyed me is also that Sony in my region has marked their stuff as "full HD 1080" but they do not put a p or i next to it, they used to put an i next to it, and I suspect the Bravias are 1080 *interlaced* still. I could be wrong.
From my browsing so far, I would say Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic, LG, Phillips do offer some interesting models which display more pleasing yet clearly high definition images. And a quality Pioneer (expensive though) plasma seems to upscale DVD well and handle HDTV alright too.
It's just that Sony came out guns blazing with this new Bravia stuff, and "full 1080" but it's not what I expected, and it is unfortunate that (I suspect) all the Apple stores in the US, iPod Video, iTunes Store, AppleTV, are going to "suffer" from a negative impression. Not that it is all Sony's faults, of course.
Going off the strength of the brand and the convenience of iTunes music, tv, movies, I think AppleTV and iTunes Store will do fine. As will the Bravias in general... for the average consumer.
The thing that annoyed me is also that Sony in my region has marked their stuff as "full HD 1080" but they do not put a p or i next to it, they used to put an i next to it, and I suspect the Bravias are 1080 *interlaced* still. I could be wrong.
Their LCD sets are progressive, like pretty much all LCDs. There may be issues with how it converts interlaced to progressive, but LCD is pretty much a progressive-only technology.
Wow, I must say for 1-pass encoding to 640x360pixels or so (iPod video), http://handbrake.m0k.org/ (Mediafork/Handbrake) is fast and good. I haven't tried out the latest Handbrake/Mediafork until now. Exceptional handling of shadow areas which I complained about earlier w.r.t. h.264...
They mention the next official beta will do downmix of AC3 5.1 into DolbyProLogic 1 ---matrixed into stereo--- AAC
if and when we get iTunes Store 720p HDTV material, I agree, would be good to have AAC 5.1-encoded files, with AppleTV outputting AC3 (not DTS*) to 5.1 and 7.1 amp/speaker setups.
So you want Apple TV to transcode from AAC to AC3, i.e. from one lossy codec to another, thus automatically deteriorating quality whenever the video is played back? At the very least, that should be a setting; i.e., users should be able to assert that their HiFi can indeed handle AAC, so they can turn this conversion off.
Ahhh, I guess it's all subjective. Well anyways, HDTVs aside, the iTunes Store movies are going to be limited as long as they allow for playback on iPod. That is, there's a lot more sexier stuff and higher bitrates that can do 640x360, say, at 2500 kbit/sec, with great quality. But that is beyond the AFAIK "baseline" profile and max bitrate that iPod Video can playback.
You do not need a HDTV, you just need one that can support wide screen.
I bought this Apple tv and i must say, on My Plasma, the videos look like you would watch them on a standard tv.
I don't remember anywhere that apple said it would be in HD, or DVD....Hell it looks the same as if i play them back on my iMac in iTunes.
1) Welcome to the AI forums.
2) You don't need widescreen either. AppleTV supports SD sets (480p), but Apple only supports HD sets because the lowest video output on the AppleTV is component.
3) He already purchased a DVI to HDMI adapter to resolve the issue.
Comments
...Anyway, the link in Ireland's post--right (secondary, excuse me
Yeah, Ireland was pretty smart to get a good link where we can do this. Normally it is hard to trawl through websites, etc, to find a direct link to the .mov final file.
How do you get two simultaneous quicktime encodes?
It works now, you open whatever files, then encode them... It adds the encode to a queue that runs simultaneously. I got 3 going at the same time now for my Core[1]Duo MacBook. Mmm... full 200% load...
Thanks Jeff, makes perfect sense.
I know DTS has been using CDs and PCM streams to transport its data, but for modern files, it's kind of a hack. It's kind of stupid too, given how DTS is 765 kbps or 1.5Mbps for just audio, it's just not realistic for downloaded files. Apple sells TV shows that are encoded at 1.5Mbps for the combined video and audio streams.
Right now, there is no option in Quicktime to encode PCM or DTS into a H.264 stream, which is why I said that there's little to no infrastructure for it, there's no content that's like that and no apparent way to make that content. As that Roughly Drafted site said, there is AAC 5.1, but I don't remember seeing any receivers that will decode that. AppleTV can't output decoded AAC 5.1 either.
According to the link quoted by Sport73, AppleTV does DTS, but not DD. jeffdm's point is, until you can rip a DVD to some format with 5.1 sound that the AppleTV will play back in 5.1, it's all academic. (If it is possible, without hacks, please correct me.)
http://www.thismuchiknow.co.uk/?p=34
This is a bit of a quagmire, intellectually.
I'll give it a shot. I woke up at 5.30am this morning thinking about this stuff, it's 7.30am and my neighbour is frying up what smells like mmm... bacon... Dammit! I need more sleep so I'll try and be brief.
1. I think a lot of you have made valid points that the highest quality surround we can get at this stage is DTS and AC3.
2. DTS and AC3 bitstreams are unnecessarily big for the modern Intarweb standards, etc.
3. I tend to agree more with RoughlyDrafted link than ThisMuchIKnow.
4. DolbyDigital I and II decoding of the stereo-matrix AppleTV output of AAC 2-channel or 5.1-channel .mp4, .m4v, .mov files is very acceptable for a lot of consumers and the mainstream with these 5.1 or 7.1 amp and speaker setups.
5. I strongly believe AAC 5.1 in a MP4, M4V container is the way to go for the future. Rev B or C of AppleTV, if and when we get iTunes Store 720p HDTV material, I agree, would be good to have AAC 5.1-encoded files, with AppleTV outputting AC3 (not DTS*) to 5.1 and 7.1 amp/speaker setups.
6. DVD and other sources of AC3 and DTS when played back from Macs are not an issue with digital optical out into your digital optical in of your AC3 and DTS capable 5.1/ 7.1 amp/speaker setups. Otherwise the messier sound card - to - speaker (no discrete amp) setup.
7. If you are ripping DVDs, you will want to do a MP4 container with H.264 video and AAC 5.1 audio [Besweet and NeroAudio as main tools]. Doom9.org has all you need to know... It is predominantly PC-based but it is more important since we are talking about iTunes and Quicktime and iPod and AppleTV, which is, predominantly PC-user-base. I feel this enthusiast PC-user-base audience is the most likely users of AppleTV that will want quality DVD-rips with 5.1 surround "maintained" to some level, with the convenience of not having to physically carry around or slot in discs, etc. (That's why they're ripping DVDs, they're encoding geeks, like digital assets on their computers, DVD-enthusiasts that want to preserve their "master prints" of movies in the original pristine quality, plus some want to pirate out their encodes)... As one of the Doom9 forum members have in their signature, "I encode therefore I am". I pulled a nice rip of Matrix-LobbyScene and Matrix-Morpheus.vs.Neo into mp4-h.264-aac(stereo) rips that's playable and streamable off iTunes/Quicktime, there's a real sense of satisfaction...Heh... Did it in Windows via Parallels. Hella complex, I can't repeat it now unless I have like 10 browser tabs open for all the tools and techniques. For Mac, Handbrake or FFMPEGx, should soon, if not already, have AAC 5.1 encoded audio for DVD-rips. If what RoughlyDrafted is saying, this is a good intermediate step for AppleTV surround sound on our current convergence journey.
*AC3 is Dolby Digital which is the more common standard with the very famous "Dolby" name. While I personally *love* DTS on DVDs (and believe it is superior to AC3), globally, AC3 (Dolby Digital) is very much more mainstream and "good enough" for AAC 5.1 - encoded, AC3-output-transcoded - setup for AppleTV rev B or C with 720p HDTV H.264 content.
It's partially the Sony Bravia HDTVs. Even hooked up to a BluRay demo source, or a "HD 1080" handycam, the image on the screen is totally harsh, pixelated, and just overall crap.
So in your lab you have Sony, LG, Panasonic, Sharp, etc, all set up with equal signals, a video spectrometer and a focus groups to unbiasedly evaluate each system?
I mean, when the representation of a movie in an advertisement as it looks being shown on a television in the larger shot looks vastly better than the movie which is actually being sold, all is not well.
So in your lab you have Sony, LG, Panasonic, Sharp, etc, all set up with equal signals, a video spectrometer and a focus groups to unbiasedly evaluate each system?
My opinion on the Sony Bravias is just my opinion, and something I strongly recommend people have a look at. People may have different opinions. Such tests as you describe above are for audiophile/videophile magazines to carry out.
I'm don't think your comment was very useful, at least, not in the way you wrote it.
Apple posted the ad on its website. Here is the link: http://www.apple.com/appletv/ads/
Great, thanks.
My opinion on the Sony Bravias is just my opinion, and something I strongly recommend people have a look at. People may have different opinions. Such tests as you describe above are for audiophile/videophile magazines to carry out.
Sony does offer a Lupe type tool that is used to magnify the actual pixels which can bring into focus some of the differences between their technology and that of competitors. All HD is a little disappointing if you are expecting absolute realism. What system would you recommend?
Sony does offer a Lupe type tool that is used to magnify the actual pixels which can bring into focus some of the differences between their technology and that of competitors. All HD is a little disappointing if you are expecting absolute realism. What system would you recommend?
I think I am somewhat emotional about this because I do expect a lot from Sony and love a lot of their stuff including SonyEricsson. Didn't mean to come on too strong with this.
Somehow though, the Bravia and latest HD Handycams are like "hyper-realism", I want a pleasant image, pixels are secondary. A pleasant 720p is fine for me. The thing that annoyed me is also that Sony in my region has marked their stuff as "full HD 1080" but they do not put a p or i next to it, they used to put an i next to it, and I suspect the Bravias are 1080 *interlaced* still. I could be wrong.
From my browsing so far, I would say Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic, LG, Phillips do offer some interesting models which display more pleasing yet clearly high definition images. And a quality Pioneer (expensive though) plasma seems to upscale DVD well and handle HDTV alright too.
It's just that Sony came out guns blazing with this new Bravia stuff, and "full 1080" but it's not what I expected, and it is unfortunate that (I suspect) all the Apple stores in the US, iPod Video, iTunes Store, AppleTV, are going to "suffer" from a negative impression. Not that it is all Sony's faults, of course.
Going off the strength of the brand and the convenience of iTunes music, tv, movies, I think AppleTV and iTunes Store will do fine. As will the Bravias in general... for the average consumer.
The thing that annoyed me is also that Sony in my region has marked their stuff as "full HD 1080" but they do not put a p or i next to it, they used to put an i next to it, and I suspect the Bravias are 1080 *interlaced* still. I could be wrong.
Their LCD sets are progressive, like pretty much all LCDs. There may be issues with how it converts interlaced to progressive, but LCD is pretty much a progressive-only technology.
They mention the next official beta will do downmix of AC3 5.1 into DolbyProLogic 1 ---matrixed into stereo--- AAC
if and when we get iTunes Store 720p HDTV material, I agree, would be good to have AAC 5.1-encoded files, with AppleTV outputting AC3 (not DTS*) to 5.1 and 7.1 amp/speaker setups.
So you want Apple TV to transcode from AAC to AC3, i.e. from one lossy codec to another, thus automatically deteriorating quality whenever the video is played back? At the very least, that should be a setting; i.e., users should be able to assert that their HiFi can indeed handle AAC, so they can turn this conversion off.
I've got an Apple TV, It's sitting in my bed room waiting around for me to buy an HDTV.
You do not need a HDTV, you just need one that can support wide screen.
I bought this Apple tv and i must say, on My Plasma, the videos look like you would watch them on a standard tv.
I don't remember anywhere that apple said it would be in HD, or DVD....Hell it looks the same as if i play them back on my iMac in iTunes.
You do not need a HDTV, you just need one that can support wide screen.
I bought this Apple tv and i must say, on My Plasma, the videos look like you would watch them on a standard tv.
I don't remember anywhere that apple said it would be in HD, or DVD....Hell it looks the same as if i play them back on my iMac in iTunes.
1) Welcome to the AI forums.
2) You don't need widescreen either. AppleTV supports SD sets (480p), but Apple only supports HD sets because the lowest video output on the AppleTV is component.
3) He already purchased a DVI to HDMI adapter to resolve the issue.
6ft HDMI cable for $3.00 (96% off)
How do you get two simultaneous quicktime encodes?
I just opened up two quicktime windows with each file and then chose file...export on each one. Seems to work fine.
I just opened up two quicktime windows with each file and then chose file...export on each one. Seems to work fine.
OK. That ability is not offered on iTunes or EyeTV.