Am I An Apple Fanboy?

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by boulder_bum, Aug 20, 2008.

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  1. kjconrad

    kjconrad Junior Member

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    Here's our list:

    Mac Mini
    MacBook
    Airport Express
    Apple TV
    2 iPhones (me and the wife)
    iPod Shuffle.
    Apple Sticker On the Prius.

    I also worked at an Apple Store for almost 2 years and still wear my "Creative" shirt and the "Genius" shirt I traded a spare "Creative" shirt away for.

    I've never attended a Steve Jobs Keynote but I stream live text updates as they happen every time.

    I also run a Apple related website.

    Yes I'm a fanboy... so what!
     
    #41 kjconrad, Aug 28, 2008
  2. V8Cobrakid

    V8Cobrakid Green Handyman

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    so... is the apple tv really that good?

    that setup boulder said above about using a touch or iphone as a remote.... cool :) i hope you don't have too many systems you're wanting to connect... at 100 a pop, it will be a while before i have a setup identical to yours.
     
    #42 V8Cobrakid, Aug 28, 2008
  3. kjconrad

    kjconrad Junior Member

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    I really love mine! I've ripped all my DVDs (over 200 movies) and have them all stored on a hard drive for instant access. No more fumbling with boxes, or discs, or having all the boxes displayed in my living room.

    On top of that I have access to instant purchases or rentals from my couch that can usually be played in less than a minute after I hit the purchase/rent button. I can also access a ton of video pod casts which I've come to like. NASA has 3 or 4 that are in HD and look stunning. Then I can also play my music over my home stereo system, or view my pictures on my TV. Nothing like showing visiting family photos of my daughter on a 47" screen, sure as heck beats the 4x5" prints you get at the store.
     
    #43 kjconrad, Aug 28, 2008
  4. boulder_bum

    boulder_bum Senior Member

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    The Apple TV is my favorite Apple gadget and really my favorite gadget period!

    I like movies, but don't like waiting for them and I'm not the kind of person who makes an appointment out of watching a TV show. I think on-demand and/or downloaded content is the future and Apple TV supports that better than anything out there.

    They have movie rentals/purchases from every major studio that you can buy or rent at the push of a button (for less money and more flexibility than pay-per-view). You have free, on-demand Video Podcasts and YouTube (which I've started to watch more than normal TV), you have slideshows that get pictures from your Flickr, MobileMe or iTunes if you want to do it locally, and it works very well with the rest of the Apple ecosystem.

    For instance, I love Futurama, and downloaded the first season onto my Apple TV. Once downloaded, it syncs with iTunes on my computer and my iPhone, so I can watch episodes while on the train to work!

    Really, though, I think the biggest selling point is the rentals, which represent the future of how things will work. Netflix can take weeks before you get the movie on the top of your queue and making a trip to the video store is inconvenient, but with Apple TV, you browse the movies, click a button and voila! The movie you want to watch starts playing in less than a minute.

    This link gives a pretty good view of the type of experience you get:
    Apple - Apple TV - Features

    [​IMG]


    Oh, and don't worry if you don't have an iPhone/iPod Touch. The remote is handy when typing for searches or pulling up content from across the house, but the Apple TV itself comes with its own simple IR remote.
     
    #44 boulder_bum, Aug 28, 2008
  5. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    So you burned them onto a laptop or desktop, then you stream them from that onto the Apple TV? I don't think the Apple TV hard drive is large enough to hold many DVDs, right?
     
    #45 TimBikes, Aug 29, 2008
  6. boulder_bum

    boulder_bum Senior Member

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    Streaming is pretty seamless, though. Basically you have iTunes open and running on one of your computers, then the movies on the computer that aren't already synched with Apple TV appear just as those that are in one big menu.

    Ripping your collection, encoding it properly with Handbrake and then associating cover art and tags is no small task, however.
     
    #46 boulder_bum, Aug 29, 2008
  7. TimBikes

    TimBikes New Member

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    Yep - I was wondering about that. I don't even have all my CDs ripped yet.
     
    #47 TimBikes, Aug 29, 2008
  8. kjconrad

    kjconrad Junior Member

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    It's not a small task... but it's not a hard task either. It's more starting the process, which only takes a minute at most, and then waiting several hours for the DVD to rip. Depending on the size of your movie collection, and how attentive you are to the ripping process it can take several months to get everything ripped. I started with the children's movies and our favorites first and worked my way toward the more obscure stuff.

    It was worth it though (for me).
     
    #48 kjconrad, Sep 2, 2008
  9. boulder_bum

    boulder_bum Senior Member

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    Well, if you figure an hour or two for each DVD rip/encoding/meta data adding, times however many DVD's you own, well. If you have 100 (which I do) you're talking 100-200 hours, or roughly two to five full workweeks worth of effort to rip your DVD collection.

    I love the Apple TV, but I personally feel like DVD rips are better left to be handled by programs like "My Movies" and a streamer like the ZvBox just because it eliminates some of the effort (encoding, adding metadata manually).

    That said, we have a baby sign language video I may rip into iPod format to make it easier to play it and carry it around for our baby girls who watch it a lot.
     
    #49 boulder_bum, Sep 2, 2008
  10. Luis138

    Luis138 Angel Rat

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    What program do you use? I use Handbrake, and although it is a very nice program, it works perfectly; I sometimes have a hard time finding the right file to encode. For example, I tried encoding Finding Nemo and I ended up with a video with the audio out of sync. Perhaps Disney's copy protection?

    Luis
     
    #50 Luis138, Sep 2, 2008
  11. KandyRedCoi

    KandyRedCoi S is for Super!

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    #51 KandyRedCoi, Sep 2, 2008
  12. kjconrad

    kjconrad Junior Member

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    I use Handbrake for encoding and MetaX for the movie tags. Several versions ago I'd have some trouble now and then with Handbrake, but I haven't for some time. Make sure you have downloaded the latest version Handbrake and try again.

    If you're having trouble getting the main feature on a disc try hitting the "Picture settings" button. You should get a pop up window that shows you a freeze frame from the movie. You can view a freeze frame from evey 1/10th increment of the film with the "Next" button in this window.
     
    #52 kjconrad, Sep 3, 2008
  13. Luis138

    Luis138 Angel Rat

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    Thank you, that picture settings helps a lot. Now, if a movie has two versions on the same disc? Any tips?

    Luis
     
    #53 Luis138, Sep 3, 2008
  14. kjconrad

    kjconrad Junior Member

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    Yeah I ran into this with my Terminator 2 DVD. It had the theatrical version, an extended cut, and an easter egg to play the extended cut with an alternate extended ending (that didn't keep continuity with t3 or the terminator television series). When I ripped the movie I had to look at the title run times. I wanted the extended cut, but with the original ending. To get the extended version I had to chose the title with the second longest play time. If I had wanted the theatrical cut I would have chosen the title with the 3rd longest play time.

    If you're having problems making the correct educated guess as to which title to rip you could also load the DVD up in a DVD player (or Apple's DVD Player Software) and start playing the version of the movie you want. Most DVD players have and option to display the current title/chapter/time by hitting an "info" button (or something similar) on the remote.
     
    #54 kjconrad, Sep 4, 2008
  15. Luis138

    Luis138 Angel Rat

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    Thank you again. Now one last question. what if it is an episode DVD? Lets say a TV show but I only want a particular episode, not the whole DVD.

    Luis
     
    #55 Luis138, Sep 5, 2008
  16. boulder_bum

    boulder_bum Senior Member

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    Usually the episode files are stored as seperate .vob's, so you just have to choose the one you want to rip.
     
    #56 boulder_bum, Sep 5, 2008
  17. Luis138

    Luis138 Angel Rat

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    Doh!! And then use image settings to make sure I have the right one, right?

    Thanks again,

    Luis
     
    #57 Luis138, Sep 5, 2008
  18. KandyRedCoi

    KandyRedCoi S is for Super!

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    got my stuff from rad-tech, furthering my fanboyism for apple LOL
     
    #58 KandyRedCoi, Sep 9, 2008
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