New Apple Lust Objects for 2010 and onward

Ok my fried from Canada does indeed use plex

I have used all of the media centre type things and there's still no solution as good as VLC. It plays everything (and, crucially, handles subtitles and out-of-sync audio without any difficulty). Personally I don't care about DVD box art, summaries, or whatever the media centres do. I'm also really skeptical of using an iPad, iPhone, or iPod as a remote. Why wouldn't you just want an actual remote where you only have to change the little battery every two years and you can drop it on the floor if you want? I use the Apple remote with an app called Remote Buddy which basically puts up a HUD/visor type of thing that you can navigate folders and open your videos with VLC. It works really well and I've been using this setup for over three years.

what you want is this -

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=catalog&mainItemId=24

plays anything on your network, no weird libraries or whatever, it just reads your directories. comes with a remote. HDMI out (and others)

though i hear Syabas have come out with the next-gen called PopBox, which is supposedly the same but better - http://www.popbox.com

I bought my parents the firstgen popcorn hour, it's okay but strictly for tech dork geeks only, iirc

it does take a bit of set-up yes, but after that it's really peasy

wd live isn't a billion times cheaper than apple tv, I think they're almost the same price? wd plus (which is all I found) is $89. apple tv is $99.

i'm pretty happy with this apple tv as I said above. BUT, dont' try to rent movies from itunes on it. do it from your computer and stream. it's also cheaper that way, I think.

the best thing would be if it also supported divx/mvk/avis, but I have a blue ray player with a usb port that does that so it's not that big a deal.

pop box.

wd live isn't a billion times cheaper than apple tv, I think they're almost the same price? wd plus (which is all I found) is $89. apple tv is $99.

Here WD TV Live is $124 and Apple TV is $129. Mac Mini is the one that's loads more expensive.

If you want to stream anything other than iTunes-compatible media to your Apple TV you have to transcode it first.

guys max has a mac mini already do u see

max mini

xp yes but I think we have moved from from helping max in a useful way and bickering about media centres.

and to

apple tv is a lil more fluid than roku but roku has more stuff, havent used the others

converting all these avis to mp4 for my dad via handbreak was sort of a pain in the ass - itunes org scheme is p nice once its set up tho

1) playlist called "not ipod". put stuff you previously unchecked in there.
2) smart playlist which is all of your library except tracks on "not ipod"
3) sync this smart playlist to ipod.

in future, instead of unchecking/checking you move stuff in and out of "not ipod".

and now you can play your entire library on your apple tv.

― caek, Sunday, 21 November 2010 11:34 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Just did this. I am indeed a moron for not doing it sooner and in the future will buy you one (1) caek.

think i decided to go with the roku instead.

Just did this. I am indeed a moron for not doing it sooner and in the future will buy you one (1) caek.

― leo tldrstoy (Autumn Almanac), Monday, December 13, 2010 3:17 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark

spirit of christmas right there

ayo : )

Wish I could set some sort of router-level QoS for AirPlay. Having to kill all downloads/xfrs every time I want to play music through the Apple TV.

Can't you, if your router supports that?

Sorry, by 'could' I meant 'knew what I had to do in order to'. There's a QoS section in the router's menu thingy but it might as well be written in Arabic.

If Enable QoS checkbox is selected, choose a default DSCP mark to automatically mark incoming traffic without reference to a particular classifier.
If Enable Qos checkbox is not selected, all QoS will be disabled for all interfaces.
The default DSCP mark is used to mark all egress packets that do not match any classification rules.
In ATM mode, maximum queues can be configured: 16
In PTM mode, maximum queues can be configured: 8
For each Ethernet interface, maximum queues can be configured: 4
If you disable WMM function in Wireless Page, queues related to wireless will not take effects.

http://www.anatomorphex.com/picts/shatter/FX013_EXPLODING_HEAD.jpg

hahaha, that looks like the stuff that was on my parents' router after my friend put a "good" firmware on it

high on features, low on comprehensibility

If there were an option that said 'MAKE ITUNES SHIT PLAY THROUGH APPLE TV WITHOUT STOPPING ALL THE FUCKING TIME' I would just tick it.

I think that is the main feature of Apple's own wireless gear, that it has that ticked by default.

According to research I did yesterday loads of people with Airport thingoes have the same problem.

Are they using 802.11n? If so, seems pretty messed up that it's saturating the network.

Yep.

Mac App Store opens 6th January US time, according to Steve Jobs who was 'speaking through a press release'.

I wonder if that's like 'talking through your arse'

I am stoked for this btw. Guessing it will have a huge impact on Mac software sales and availability.

I wonder if that's like 'talking through your arse'

Genuine lol.

yeah thinking this will be v good for mac development xp

Even it only makes buying things easier (no manual credit card payments etc.). Impulse purchases on the iPhone are ridiculously easy to do because you don't have to jump through those hoops every time.

Best case: developers and publishers will find a market for apps that didn't exist, and programs will drop in price due to more sales.

Worst case: Half of the garbage from the iOS app store shows up on Mac OS poorly ported, or the people who can barely get their apps to compile but somehow got approved start releasing a million shitty applications

both those things will happen ime

yep

In the longer term, do people see this as a step towards a world where you can only install App Store apps and have to jailbreak your Mac to put non-authorised software on it?

Ultimately yes, but jailbreaking will always be viable and easy.

Nah, I really don't want that. Psychologically, feeling like an OUTLAW living in fear of the bricking sheriff doesn't appeal to me.

Bah, as long as these people implement geographical restrictions I will never have any guilt about jailbreaking anything.

It's not guilt, it's just not wanting to have something else to worry about (ie things not working because I've jailbroken it)

OS X isn't ever going to be locked out like that without major changes, but I could see the Apple seal of approval being a big factor in your success.

I'm wondering how long until Adobe or Microsoft has a "rival" app that's mostly a website wrapper with just their crap for buying their applications.

Yeh, there's no way they lock down OS X -- Microsoft and Adobe would never wear it, for one thing.

I dunno, I can see there being a hard distinction between home users of computers (iOS, probably a MBA-like iPad with a keyboard) and business users (full OS X but heaps expensive) in 3-4 years.

Yeh, there's no way they lock down OS X -- Microsoft and Adobe would never wear it, for one thing.

Why not? They might not like it, but Adobe don't much like Apple keeping Flash out of iOS either.

Yeah, good point: when recently has Apple bent over backwards for anyone? Apple's used to calling the shots and everyone else is used to doing what they're told. Look at the whole Flash thing.

(I'm not talking the near future, btw, I'm thinking maybe 5 years time? When perhaps the OS isn't OS X at all)

(oops, xp on the flash thing)