Apple TV + Vuze
Anyone who enjoys television should really think about the combination of these two things. In one hand, you have a teeny tiny little box that sits next to your television that streams content from any iTunes-running computer in your house and plays it on your TV. In the other, you’ve got a bittorrent application with built-in transcoding for any device type you want. Which means, essentially, you don’t have to worry about all that video codec/importing bullshit.
Essentially, you google a torrent for a season or episode of a show you like, you download the torrent file and open it in Vuze and when it’s done, you just drag the finished torrent over to the little iTunes icon in Vuze’s sidepanel. It’ll ask if you want to transcode for an iPad, an iPhone, a bunch of other gadgets, or an Apple TV. And then you go have a sandwich. Later, when you sit down on your couch and pick up the teeny, tiny three button perfection that is the Apple TV remote and browse over to TV Shows… there’s the stuff you just downloaded.
At last, Gos and I will finally finish watching Dead Wood, and start watching Mad Men, The Wire, Twin Peaks, and countless other shows we’ve missed. We’ve got a comfy couch and many blankets. These are good times to have bad sinus infections.
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My Tivo pulls files from my netbook using Vuze, too. It also streams Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, etc. I got it (Tivo) for a very decent price and I’m pretty happy with it. I’d be interested to see if Apple TV handles the same tasks similarly or better.
Is there a reason to get this if you have an Xbox that streams Netflix? I guess you just have better (i.e., illegal) access to things that Netflix doesn’t happen to be streaming? Any other advantages?
You can stream stuff to your xbox with WindowsMedia center or Connect360
Tivo has a DVR and Apple TV doesn’t. Tivo also has a monthly fee, if I’m not mistaken, though, and costs far more up front.
I have an X-Box, but the interface for networked computers (at least, networked non-Windows computers) and for Netflix is fucking awful. I hear the new X-Box dashboard adds search to Netflix, but unless they dramatically revamped the rest of the app, it’s still totally shitty.
I’ve no doubt there are comparable set ups, possibly even better set ups, but this post in particular was just on my experience with Apple TV, which I got cause it was super cheap on Amazon for a day ($70! Normally $100, I think) and has a gorgeous, responsive, intuitive interface of the sort that only Apple (and occasionally Google and Nintendo) seem to design these days. I’m generally the sort of user who would take fewer features for a better interface, and Kev V’s setup at his house makes a pretty great case for it (he has all his DVDs on his main computer and streams them down to his TV — plus the whole Home Sharing thing with photos and music and whatnot). So seeing the new 2.0 one on sale was all I needed to pull the trigger.
I’ve streamed Vuse through my xbox a few times, but the picture quality was kind of iffy. I was thinking of getting Apple Tv if it was better.
Picture quality is pretty much 1:1 from the source.
I’ve had 2 Apple TV’s in my house, 1 for almost 2 years and the other for a year. I love them. They can be buggy at times but overall I love both of them.
I burned all of my dvds to my computer and can sit down on my couch and watch any of them with 2 clicks of a remote. I can also play all of my music on my tv with any type of background visual slide show of photos or anything else. I’m not sure if the new one does it but I can also go on youtube, get things direct from itunes, etc.
The only complaint I have is the same one I have for any streaming device and that’s the fact that it can cut out. But that’s the same issue I have with my Blu Ray player that streams netflix as well.
I don’t really use torrents so I can’t vouch for John’s new set up. But I pretty much use handbrake to rip dvd’s of movies or full tv seasons and just store them on a 2 tb harddrive connected to my imac.
Kev, I’m not sure what your wireless set up is, but so far we haven’t had a single dropped connection. I suspect this is because our Router and the Apple TV 2.0 are Wireless N which is nearly as fast as ethernet and requires very little buffering. Unless you switched things around since the last time I was up, you have the old apple TV downstairs which is using Wireless G, a slower connection, which would be more liable to overrun the buffer.
Make sure you’re using the 2.0 box and that your router supports WIreless N and it should kill that issue.
I have an Airport which I’m pretty sure is Wireless N. I also thought the ATV was a wireless N as well? Either way, early on I ended up getting a base station to plug in next to the ATV’s and connected them via ethernet cable to them. And now it works fine. And by drop outs I mean the ATV disappeared from Itunes as a device and I needed to close out and start up itunes again to find it. But since using the Airport/Ethernet connection that hasn’t happened.
Hmm… I’ve seen an Xbox icon in the Vuze menu for some time now. I’mma try this tonight.