Eric.C Posted November 18, 2007 Share Posted November 18, 2007 I managed to rip my HD DVDs, is there a way to get them into my Apple TV? When I use VisualHub and choose the iTunes option, the quality is pretty bad, I've tried forcing VisualHub at 1920*1080 and 1280*720, but they just give the same effect as stretching the image. Any ideas on How to get my movies into iTunes wihout degrading the quality? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special-K Posted November 19, 2007 Share Posted November 19, 2007 Rip the DVDs using Cucusoft iPod converter (that's what I suggest cause it works perfect for me), it rips them straight into .mp4. Then just hit add files to library in iTunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric.C Posted November 20, 2007 Author Share Posted November 20, 2007 well, I halready have all the movies ripped, and its kiond of a pain to re rip them, so is there a way to convert the files into AppleTV format without re-ripping Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special-K Posted November 20, 2007 Share Posted November 20, 2007 I don't know what the AppleTV format is, but I'm gonna safely assume it's the same as the iPod movie format. I would say convert them using a converter, but that might get them out of sync, happened to me plenty of times so I wouldn't suggest it. I mean who am I to stop you from trying, but I still say re-rip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric.C Posted November 20, 2007 Author Share Posted November 20, 2007 but will the ripper work with AACS (the DRM used in HDDVDs and BluRays?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killroy Posted November 21, 2007 Share Posted November 21, 2007 Does Cucusoft even support HDDVD? You should not need to re-rip the HDDVD in order to re-encode it. Most applications will let you select the source as something other than your optical drive. If the ripped movie is still on your hard drive you can use it. Also, the ripper should have already removed the copy-protection. What application did you use to rip the movie? Compressing HD video to an iPod is basically pointless in my opinion. Unless that is your only option. AppleTV only supports High-Def video up to 720p (H.264 up to 5Mbps at 24 fps). Check the Video Formats on the technical specifications page. For VisualHub, did you select "Optimize for AppleTV" and "H.264 Encoding"? H.264 should give you decent quality. You can drag the little "Quality" handle all the way to "Go Nuts" too. Of course H.264 encoding is really really slow and don't expect the video to look as clean as with a standalone HDDVD player. Depending on your internet connection, it may be faster for you to download movies that have already been re-encoded, though I'm not entirely sure they would be compatible with AppleTV? You'd need to check the video/audio specifications (in the NFO) to see. Does the QuickTime reference movie trick work with AppleTV? For example, I can open almost any movie in QuickTime (with Perian + Flip4Mac installed) and choose File > Save as a reference movie (.mov). I believe this option is Pro-only. Then just drag that reference movie into iTunes. Does that work for AppleTV? Then, if you can find an HDrip of the movie online (usually x264 video in an mkv container format) maybe you can just save it as a reference movie and play it on AppleTV? I don't know if that would work. You could try this with a sample .mkv file to see if it actually works before you potentially waste time downloading a >4GB file. And if you look in the right places I've seen some movies encoded/labeled specifically for AppleTV. Also, I would recommend Handbrake over VisualHub, but I don't think Handbrake supports HDDVD. Then again, I also think that re-encoding a DVD (not High-Def) would be more suitable for AppleTV. Handbrake does have an AppleTV preset. For the best quality with HDDVDs use x264 (H.264). Or if you have DVDs just use Xvid/FFmpeg (MPEG-4). And make sure your compression settings meet Apple's standards for AppleTV for either H.264 or MPEG-4; check the audio too. I hope something I mentioned helps. Interesting article on Engadget: Apple TV and HD quality: It's not the hardware. FYI, there is an AppleTV Forum on InsanelyMac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric.C Posted November 21, 2007 Author Share Posted November 21, 2007 ya, i played around with the settings, and it took about 7 hours to reencode the movie, i have a bunch to do, so i'll just dl them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special-K Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 I have no idea if Cucusoft supports HD or Blu-ray. I don't have either so that's never really bothered me. And everytime I dl-ed a movie and converted it, it got all out of sync. Just speaking out of personal experience here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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