I was asked to give more details on how my setup works. Frankly I am amazed that it even does. 😀
Warning – tech talk ahead!
I returned the Comcast box a few weeks ago, so now the Apple TV box takes up that slot on the switchbox. Then the Roku Player is on a second slot, and my XBOX is on a third. (I unhooked my PS2 – haven’t used it in ages.)
One of the really cool new features of the Apple TV is that you can stream or copy video to it from any computer that has iTunes on it. Here’s how I have it set up: My MacBook Pro has an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid USB television tuner connected to it. Using this, I can schedule programs to record off basic cable. I upgraded the Hybrid to the newer version that supports Clear QAM so I could record programs in high-definition.
A little known fact is that the cable company broadcasts some high definition channels “in the clear,” meaning if you have equipment capable of receiving it, you don’t need their converter box. This usually only applies to local channels, mostly because you could receive them for free anyway if you had a good antenna and decent line of sight (which we don’t have here in Podunk, Cow Hampshire.) If you have a set-top box or computer tuner capable of receiving Clear QAM channels, you’ll be able to watch those high-def channels for the cost of basic cable. If you want Sci-Fi, HGTV, Discovery HD, etc, you’ll still need the cable company’s over-priced converter box, since those channels are encrypted, but if all you are interested in is ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, you can most likely tune those in for the cost of the receiver. There was an initial investment of $120 for the USB tuner, but instead of paying $80 a month to Comcast, now we’re paying $15.
So the EyeTV software records a program. The schedule is set to automatically export to Apple TV format, so once the recording is done, the software converts the movie file to a format the Apple TV can use. It then tags the movie file in iTunes. As soon as a new recording appears in the “Movies” or “TV Shows” playlists, iTunes syncs it with the Apple TV box (which takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on how large the video file is. Longer recordings and surround sound mean a larger file.) Once it’s done, you can sit downstairs and watch the movie as if you had recorded it on a DVR connected to the television. Video quality is the same (at least as far as we can tell); the only drawback is that Comcast does not appear to broadcast Surround Sound audio over Clear QAM.
But wait, there’s more.
As many are aware, you can download movies from the Internet. Yeah I know, it’s kind of a grey area where legality is concerned, but for right now, television shows seem to be under the radar, since downloading a recording someone else made is not that much different from recording it yourself. (DVDs are illegal though, as someone somewhere is losing money on it.) Since the EyeTV software can only convert content it recorded, I needed something else to do the transcoding. I experimented with the pilot for the “Knight Rider” 2008 remake, downloading the show in .TS format. TS is one of the formats that supports Dolby 5.1, but doesn’t work on an Apple TV. (Basically, if it will play in iTunes, it will usually play on an Apple TV.) I downloaded a program called Handbrake, which claims to be able to convert anything to anything. It has a preset for Apple TV, so I let it run overnight (conversion time claimed to take about 7 hours – yikes. Mental note, next time use a shorter recording for test runs.) When it was finally done, it would play in iTunes, but the sync kept giving me an error that the video format was not supported by Apple TV. Did some reading, and found that the Apple TV is limited to a max resolution of 1280 x 720, but the video was originally created at 1980 x 1024. Whoops. Okay, take two… 7 hours later (or however long it really took, I was at work at the time) I tried again. Still didn’t work. Some more research, aha, 1280 x 720 at 24 frames per second. Well duh, everyone knows that… the video was encoded at 30 frames per second. Okay, fine… third try is the charm, right? Yep. This time it worked fine! WOO! Copied the movie to iTunes, and it immediately began sync’ing it with the Apple TV. High definition, Dolby Surround, life was good. I have no idea why Handbrake had the presets wrong, but now I know to change it. Again, there’s a downside – it takes a long time to convert video formats depending on how long it is and what kind of audio it uses. There is an accelerator available for $100 that not only speeds up conversion to h.234 format, but also offloads the work from the processor. This frees up the system for other tasks, and cuts down on the heat (typically my laptop runs at 120-130 degrees, but running video conversion takes it to about 170.)
Note that this setup does not REQUIRE a Mac. The Apple TV will sync with any computer that has iTunes on it, and while the Elgato EyeTV is designed for Macs only, you can use any TV tuner card. I have no idea what kind of video conversion software is available for Windows, but I am sure there are many with capabilities to convert to Apple TV format. (One advantage to running it on a Mac is that a lot of OS X software out there is available for free, which is nice when you’re running on a limited budget.) I may test it out on my old Happauage WinTV USB2 setup some day when I am bored. Might be nice to be able to record two shows at once when the Fall Season starts.