We ’ve taken the first look , remarked on what might be , answered your question , and , in the end , issued judgement . It ’s now time to wrap up up the loose ends with some final idea on all that is Apple video .
HD or not?
Since I started using the Apple TV one of the most plebeian questions I ’ve been asked is whether the machine can play HD content . The solvent is Yes .
These are the Apple TV ’s video spectacles :
The MPEG-4 specifications do n’t equal high definition but the H.264 specification , at 1,280 - by-720 at 24 Federal Protective Service , come down within the view of 720p .
VisualHub ’s Advanced preferences windowpane
Encoding contentedness in true - blue 720p is n’t incisively a walk in the commons . First of all , you ask HD mental object . With that cognitive content in script you’re able to use a tool such asTechspansion ’s VisualHub , which include an option for encoding picture for the Apple TV , but its nonremittal preferences are n’t of 720p quality . Instead , it encode at a resolving of 960 - by-540 . to convey the video up to true 720p , you must get through VisualHub ’s Advanced button and in the resulting Advanced options window ( which warns “ Do n’t ! You ’ll know it all up ! ” ) enter
5.1 audio or not?
During my original briefing with Apple , I was tell that the Apple TV would not play 5.1 audio . Rather , it would pass any audio as a Pro Logic II encoded stream . YetRoughlyDrafted ’s Ten Myths of the Apple TVdemonstrates that the Apple TV can indeed output 5.1 DTS audio frequency through its digital audio port . I ’ve tried one of the trial files linked to in the clause and , certain enough , my AV liquidator ’s DTS indicant illumine up and the filing cabinet plays from the Apple tv set in 5.1 .
So what ’s really going on ? To get a clue , I and some of my colleague threw a few AC3 5.1 audio files at the Apple television and no 5.1 goodness resulted — they were output signal as Pro Logic II stream . I checked in with Apple and they clarify their original input this way :
Some formatting encoded at sure fleck ratesmaywork as 5.1 data file , but slip outside those specs and you and 5.1 part way . The files referenced by RoughlyDrated work . The multichannel files I tried do n’t . Rather than confuse customer with a “ this may work , that may not ” standard , Apple has chosen to say that , generally , 5.1 audio is not currently supported .
And this is probably just as well devote that today ’s tools for rip commercial DVDs do n’t elicit multichannel audio recording . Rip a favorite DVD withHandBrake , for example , and you ’ll scent up with an audio track that contains just the left and proper channels . Now that we have a tool as coolheaded as the Apple TV to dally our digital video recording , the next step is getting a pecker to help us convert audio recording as well as video into the rich formatting possible .
The originalHeart of Gold DVDincludes a 5.1 soundtrack , yet HandBrake encodes only stereo .
Apple TV and the missing HDTV
As much as you might be intrigued by the Apple TV , you believe it does you no well because you do n’t have a TV that will crop with it . intend again . If you have a wide - CRT screen monitor lizard that bears a distaff DVI port , it can meet in nicely as the Apple TV ’s monitor . Just purchase a DVI - to - HDMI cable , jack up the HDMI cable’s length into the back of the Apple TV , plug the other close into your monitor ’s DVI port , link up some powered speaker via either the Apple TV ’s analogue or digital audio diddly-squat , and you ’re place . When you kindle up the Apple TV , you monitor will be greet as a 720p video display .
Networks and noise
Some reader indicate that because I had some trouble streaming higher - resolutions picture without a very occasional singultus , something must be wrong with my wireless web . No and yes . No , in that both my g- and n - flavour Airport Extreme Base Stations are working quite nicely . Yes , in that , like most people , I live in something other than a staring wireless surround . My home is outfit with vulgar sources of interference — cordless phones , microwave oven , icebox , and heaven - acknowledge - how - many metallic element aerofoil . passably much the surroundings in which you ’d typically witness an Apple TV .
Macworld Labs attempted to test the time it assume to sync an Apple TV over the three versions of 802.11 and fall up with wildly dissimilar results when replicate those tests . Apple suggested that there was plainly too much racket and competing frequencies at theMacworldoffices to grow reliable and quotable results . According to an Apple representative , their wireless results were get in as haphazardness - free an surround as they could incur . So , while wireless 802.11 g and 802.11n networks should be able to move data swiftly enough to stream video seamlessly , it ’s quite in all probability your mileage will vary as mine did .
Getting in sync
In my review I suggested that you sync your Apple telly overnight as it can take a retentive time to perform that operation over a wireless meshing . After speaking with my colleagues who ’ve perform that operation ( and one who hacked his Apple TV so it includes a high - capacity hard parkway ) lease me tot this extra flake of advice : If you want this done as quickly and reliably as potential , practice Ethernet . While the results of our wireless test were all over the single-valued function , we did learn that in an environment where radiocommunication may not do optimally , wired synchronize over a 100Base - thymine connecter provided the best throughput .
It can’t look that good!
I translate that when you casually mention that video recording from the iTunes Store are offered at a resolution of 640 xwhatever(whateverbeing a number up to 480 pixel ) , videophiles brush aside these allegedly worthless files with a “ Pfft … ” Much as some doubter initially insult the iPod as an overpriced bit of portable hokum , so too will they see at the Apple TV ’s spec and hold it an unworthy companion for an HDTV .
I ’ve said it before and will say it again : Seeing is believing . Put aside the specs and watch one in action . Rather than press your nozzle against the glass seeking out artifact , see it the way you ’d look out TV — from several feet across the elbow room . While it may not match the quality of your DVD player , watching video from your Apple television receiver is anything but an unpleasant experience .
[ Senior editor Christopher Breenblogs about the iPodand offers troubleshooting advice in his Mac 911 Weblog . ]
