60 replies to this topic

[starsky]

In the end i gave up with Plex.

I just got so frustrated with the lack of compatibility across devices (ala PS3).

So I just converted my whole library using handbrake and dumped everything into itunes (don't ask how long it took me, or the power bill I just received!)

So now I use Itunes sharing for the idevices, and DLNA (windows media server) for the PS3.

If I didn't play games on the PS3 I would buy an apple tv. But ffs I have enough devices already, and adding ANOTHER one just makes no sense!

[larry]

i am waiting to see what the new ios5 brings, being able to play apps on the tv via wireless is quite appealing. I like RR HD on the tv, but using hdmi cable is a hassle. Once io5 feature are clear, then will decide about ATV, or next one if coming out soon

[bda]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I don't seem to be allowed to post a new topic.  My query is regarding the upscaling on an ATV1 and I'm wondering if it's comparable to other media players like the boxee of WDTV Live etc....

I was recently gifted a 1st gen ATV but noticed very quickly that DVDrips looked very soft on my 1080p TV compared with the same DVD upscaled via my old Pioneer DV-400 DVD player which was clear and sharp. In fact all SD sources were soft when played through the appletv compared with the DVD player. It made no difference if the ATV was set to output at 720p or 1080p.

So now I'm on the hunt for a media player that upscales as effectively as my old DVD player! Any suggestions?  Is the ATV1 known for average upscaling?  Are most of the other standalone players better?  Otherwise I'm on the hunt for a blu-ray player with good SD upscaling, NTFS support, Divx support, DNLA and region free for DVD - this is a tough list as I'm finding the opp93 is the only player that gets a tick in all boxes.

Brett

ps if anyone can tell me how to get permission to post a new topic I'll repost there.

[blybo]

bda, on Nov 18 2011, 11:15 AM, said:

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I don't seem to be allowed to post a new topic.  My query is regarding the upscaling on an ATV1 and I'm wondering if it's comparable to other media players like the boxee of WDTV Live etc....

I was recently gifted a 1st gen ATV but noticed very quickly that DVDrips looked very soft on my 1080p TV compared with the same DVD upscaled via my old Pioneer DV-400 DVD player which was clear and sharp. In fact all SD sources were soft when played through the appletv compared with the DVD player. It made no difference if the ATV was set to output at 720p or 1080p.

So now I'm on the hunt for a media player that upscales as effectively as my old DVD player! Any suggestions?  Is the ATV1 known for average upscaling?  Are most of the other standalone players better?  Otherwise I'm on the hunt for a blu-ray player with good SD upscaling, NTFS support, Divx support, DNLA and region free for DVD - this is a tough list as I'm finding the opp93 is the only player that gets a tick in all boxes.

Brett

ps if anyone can tell me how to get permission to post a new topic I'll repost there.

I only use my ATV2 for music directly from itunes but I believe they only stream up to 720p, hence the soft look. I also have a oppo93 and the upscaling of DVD is superb. Mine was bought through Amazon and got a region free mod done locally, cost ~$720 all up with the pro mod kit. I've also played with the streaming od music through the oppo, but it's a bit clunky, happy to still put a disc in the player.

[pgdownload]

blybo, on Nov 18 2011, 01:26 PM, said:

I only use my ATV2

The query is about the ATV1.

Just a guess, but the DVD Up scalers basically have one format to upscale (i.e. a DVD). Its possibly of little surprise that they have been tweaked and refined to do a very good job.  On the other hand a media player has to take any number of formats and try do the best it can with them.

Also DVDs contain a very high quality of SD material (big about 5Gb for 2 hours). Your DVD Rips are possibly less than 1/2 Gb? Or are you playing full sized ISOs?

With regards to the question, i suspect you'll find most media players have roughly a similar upscale quality (searching the net doesn't really find all that many comments about what might be the best SD upscaler etc.) That said the ATV is getting a bit dated, so possibly something like the new WD Live might provide better performance in this area.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Edited by pgdownload, 18 November 2011 - 12:52 PM.

[bda]

pgdownload, on Nov 18 2011, 01:42 PM, said:

The query is about the ATV1.

Just a guess, but the DVD Up scalers basically have one format to upscale (i.e. a DVD). Its possibly of little surprise that they have been tweaked and refined to do a very good job.  On the other hand a media player has to take any number of formats and try do the best it can with them.

Also DVDs contain a very high quality of SD material (big about 5Gb for 2 hours). Your DVD Rips are possibly less than 1/2 Gb? Or are you playing full sized ISOs?

With regards to the question, i suspect you'll find most media players have roughly a similar upscale quality (searching the net doesn't really find all that many comments about what might be the best SD upscaler etc.) That said the ATV is getting a bit dated, so possibly something like the new WD Live might provide better performance in this area.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Hi Peter. Thanks for your reply

I'm playing full sized vobs from the ATV1 so the comparison betwee the ATV1 and my old Pioneer DVD player is right. Both are via HDMI too but maybe I'm missing something. The same is true if I'm playing a crappy downloaded divx file - much clearer and sharper on the DVD player.

I guess I'll have to find a newer media player to borrow and test, because at the moment I'm considering ditching the flashy interfaces a la boxee or xbmc (which I'm running) and just going to a no frills interface on a DVD player that can play divx from ntfs drives. I'm actually still burning shows to rewritable media to play on the DVD player rather than watching them on the ATV1 so I'm feeling a little down on media players at the moment. Perhaps the oppo is the answer but I won't know until I borrow a boxee box or wdtv off someone

Brett

[bda]

blybo, on Nov 18 2011, 01:26 PM, said:

I only use my ATV2 for music directly from itunes but I believe they only stream up to 720p, hence the soft look. I also have a oppo93 and the upscaling of DVD is superb. Mine was bought through Amazon and got a region free mod done locally, cost ~$720 all up with the pro mod kit. I've also played with the streaming od music through the oppo, but it's a bit clunky, happy to still put a disc in the player.

Thanks blybo

Good to know the oppo is a solid option. How do you find the GUI/interface?

[By43905]

Fantastic little unit, only problem is that it up samples music. So is not so good for music playback other then casual listening.

[blybo]

bda, on Nov 18 2011, 08:31 PM, said:

Thanks blybo

Good to know the oppo is a solid option. How do you find the GUI/interface?

The GUI and speed it responds to remote inputs are not as polished as the ATV2 but entirely usable.

To give you an idea I use the Oppo for streaming in the HT and the ATV for streaming in the family room as SWMBO is more likely to use it with pretty GUI and screen savers of our family photos etc... And the speakers are just basic units in the family room for casual viewing/listening.

[:)]

blybo, on Nov 30 2011, 11:51 AM, said:

The GUI and speed it responds to remote inputs are not as polished as the ATV2 but entirely usable.

To give you an idea I use the Oppo for streaming in the HT and the ATV for streaming in the family room as SWMBO is more likely to use it with pretty GUI and screen savers of our family photos etc... And the speakers are just basic units in the family room for casual viewing/listening.

clunky definitely apt as description, usable maybe but I'd say any $100 media player would walk all over the oppo in that role. oppo definitely disc player first. media player side a bonus. and to be honest if they had kept the oppo as disc player only it would be as sluggish as it is at bootup looking for external discs and stuff on network etc that it does !

re the atv, anyone presented with it seems to be able to use it navigate around load up photos, music videos etc. extremely slick and acomplished as media player I would say

[com5984]

Atv2 jail broken and running xbmc faultlessly. I have it connected to my qnap nas and have ripped all my movie collection to it via handbrake and some bluejays to check out the quality.
The waf factor is off the scale withe ease of use.

Edited by com5984, 30 November 2011 - 07:40 PM.

[bda]

com5984, on Nov 30 2011, 08:39 PM, said:

Atv2 jail broken and running xbmc faultlessly. I have it connected to my qnap nas and have ripped all my movie collection to it via handbrake and some bluejays to check out the quality.
The waf factor is off the scale withe ease of use.

How does the quality compare between playing the same file via the ATV2 and a standard DVD player? (b/c my ATV1 is soft soft soft compared to my ancient pioneer dv400)

[com5984]

bda, on Dec 1 2011, 01:27 PM, said:

How does the quality compare between playing the same file via the ATV2 and a standard DVD player? (b/c my ATV1 is soft soft soft compared to my ancient pioneer dv400)

I have handbrake rip them to 720p and the quality is fine, you wouldn't think it was ripped

[Htpc-online]

com5984, on Nov 30 2011, 08:39 PM, said:

Atv2 jail broken and running xbmc faultlessly. I have it connected to my qnap nas and have ripped all my movie collection to it via handbrake and some bluejays to check out the quality.
The waf factor is off the scale withe ease of use.

Can you take some screenshots of your tv with it running xbmc and a shot of your collection so i can get the jist of what it would look like running

[pgdownload]

Htpc-online, on Dec 1 2011, 09:22 PM, said:

Can you take some screenshots of your tv with it running xbmc and a shot of your collection so i can get the jist of what it would look like running

Its identical to the xmbc skin on any xmbc setup.

Gallery here

On the ATV2 it defaults as Conflence skin. You can load in other skins easily enough however as the ATV2 and XMBC is still a WIP its probably best to sit with the default for now.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[blybo]

Have found since Christmas days storms (we were in south Gippsland for the day) our atv2 does not automatically see our iMacs iTunes library. It tells me to enable sharing in iTunes, which it already is, and I have to disable sharing on the iMac and re-enable it and bingo, it pops up straight away. Very annoying and I've read of similar networking issues being reasonably common for those running Lion os. We run both iMac and atv hard wired to the network.

It appears our router and iMac copped some water while we were away but everything except this appears to working faultlessly.

Hope it sorts itself out as Mrs B can't be bothered with such issues and just sits in silence with the kids...

[ajm]

Picked one of these up last night (along with a WDTVLive) and spent some time playing around with it.

Out-of-the-box it's not much more than a plugin for ITunes purchases, but after jailbreaking and installing XMBC it opens up quite nicely.  It's certainly very pretty

Unfortunately it lacks the oomph to be an everyday player for me, it chokes on most 1080p material and the odd 720p .MKV as well.  I'll keep it to muck around with but, to be honest, it's not a player I can see myself getting a lot of use out of.

[extremeaudiowa]

Get a Boxee Box. I have used ATV 1 & 2 and the WD Live and i find from my experience the Boxee is the best easiest to use

[ajm]

I keep hearing about audio dropouts on the Boxee which has put me off.

I have a PCH A200 working well in the lounge, just looking for something to use in the HT.  Another A200 (or 210) might just be the answer.

Edited by ajm, 24 January 2012 - 12:08 PM.

[windeath]

Finally got this to work. I bought another ATV2 as I am a stubborn SOB and was determined to get it to work.

I'm now one WDTV Live down as it has been replaced with the ATV and the very swanky XBMC. Brings back memories of using it on my Xbox.

[diesel]

windeath, on 27 January 2012 - 02:51 PM, said:

it has been replaced with the ATV and the very swanky XBMC.

Are you using the ATV (black) flash or just JB and XBMC?

[windeath]

diesel, on 27 January 2012 - 07:35 PM, said:

JB and XBMC?

This. It was a very pain free operation. SeasonPass.

Edited by windeath, 27 January 2012 - 09:20 PM.

[windeath]

Speaking of ATV Black. Can you have XBMC installed then put Black on, or, is it one or the other?

[pgdownload]

Black adds a number of programs (You just enable them in the black menu). XMBC is one of them.

I can also recommend enabling Nitro which provides easy access to a bunch of handy features. One I use is called Overflow, that allows you to hide all the ATV menus you don't want to see all that often.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[windeath]

Why cheers Peter. I think I'll take the plunge. I'm so into this damned Apple TV it's becoming a bit of a fixation. As a matter of fact I'm becoming so Apple I bought a MacBook Pro a week ago.