[Gizzer]

Now that Film rentals & purchases are available in the UK (as of today) in iTunes, it pretty much makes my case for buying an Apple TV a bit more clear cut and more likely for the Board of Finance to agree to (for she hath final say )

However, my next question is whether I can rip my DVD collection (using say MacTheRipper and store them in a folder somewhere on my Mac (or a drive attached to my Mac) for Apple TV to see them. Can this be done, or do the ripped video files then need a further conversion in order for Apple TV to be able to play them?

[Wyatt]

If you control-click or right-click on a video in iTunes, there's a "Convert for apple TV" option (or something like that). I'd recommend ripping with Handbrake, though. It has a preset for Apple TV that should work pretty well. I've not used it, but I love the iPod touch/iPhone preset.

[Gizzer]

Ah, ok. I've not used Handbrake, but that sounds like the functionality I'm after. Thanks

As for the second part of my question, assuming I've ripped in Handbrakes' Apple TV format, can I just dump the files in to a folder on an external firewire drive (attached to my main Mac) and expect Apple TV to see them, or do I have to import the file into iTunes?

What I'd ideally like is my DVD library available to Apple TV without filling iTunes (and therefore my primary harddrive) with Gigs of additional files. Can this be done?

[Wyatt]

The videos have to be in iTunes for Apple TV to see them. However, your iTunes library can be on an external drive if you wish. Or it could even be in multiple locations.

There's a setting in iTunes that allows you to manage the library yourself, which means you can put files where ever you want.

[torifile]

Here's what I do for my AppleTV:

Rip the DVD using the Handbrake AppleTV setting. Import into iTunes and properly tag the video. I've got all my library stored on a terabyte drive. After the initial sync, which takes a while even if you've got 802.11n, it's a quick process.

My recommendation is to get the 160 gig AppleTV. A 40 gig one will fill up very quickly. You can stream videos from your computer but then you've got to have it on, etc.

[Gizzer]

Thanks for the info. Seems like that answers my query.

[Boomerangmacuser]

I have an old coworker who kept movies on an external drive but dropped an alias in their iTunes library. I his case he had AVI files and Flip for mac Quicktime plugin. He created a shortcut and changed the extension to .m4v so it would play nice with iTunes. When he selected the movie in iTunes it referenced the .AVI file in it's original location and played it. He even found a script that would automate this task. I believe he found it on Lifehacker.com but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, it's worth investigating.

[Yonzie]

You don't want to use MacTheRipper. The available version is hopelessly outdated. There's a beta* of version 3 available, but it's donationware** and the method of acquiring a license key and getting the software to work is ridiculously complex. I was quite willing to pay to get it, but it just seemed like too much trouble.
* In the sense that it's not formally released and you need to download stuff from elsewhere to get it to work.
** It's a "donation" like you "donate" to Scientology to get services. A "donation" is required to get a license key for the software to work. The required size of the "donation" is (seemingly deliberately) unspecified so you have no clue if you need to pay $5 or $50.

Also, MacTheRipper only copies the .vob files to your harddrive, it can't make it work on your TV

Handbrake is what you want to use.

If you want to just rip the DVDs to your harddrive and batch-encode them later with Handbrake, use FairMount. With FairMount you can just copy the files directly off the DVD in Finder.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by Boomerangmacuser I have an old coworker who kept movies on an external drive but dropped an alias in their iTunes library. I his case he had AVI files and Flip for mac Quicktime plugin. He created a shortcut and changed the extension to .m4v so it would play nice with iTunes. When he selected the movie in iTunes it referenced the .AVI file in it's original location and played it. He even found a script that would automate this task. I believe he found it on Lifehacker.com but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, it's worth investigating.

That works for iTunes because you've got Perian installed. You won't be able to play that on the AppleTV unless you hack it and install it. It's doable, but not without risk. The best way, if you've got an .avi you want to play on the AppleTV is to use an application like VisualHub to convert it to an mp4. This is what I do with, umm, acquired videos that are .avis.

[k squared]

Originally Posted by Yonzie If you want to just rip the DVDs to your harddrive and batch-encode them later with Handbrake, use FairMount. With FairMount you can just copy the files directly off the DVD in Finder.

How well does this work for copy protected DVD's? I still find MTR the best (on the Mac) for handling newer DVD's. Does FairMount strip the DVD of protection or just copy it?

[torifile]

Originally Posted by k squared How well does this work for copy protected DVD's? I still find MTR the best (on the Mac) for handling newer DVD's. Does FairMount strip the DVD of protection or just copy it?

I've also had good success with MTR. There have been a few newer DVDs that MTR couldn't handle, but those were also the ones that Handbrake couldn't work with.

[Yonzie]

Originally Posted by k squared How well does this work for copy protected DVD's? I still find MTR the best (on the Mac) for handling newer DVD's. Does FairMount strip the DVD of protection or just copy it?

It strips the copy protection yes. It works just like MacTheRipper, except you manually copy the files in Finder.
MTR is fine, it's jut that the public version (2.6.6) doesn't work on some new DVDs.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by Yonzie It strips the copy protection yes. It works just like MacTheRipper, except you manually copy the files in Finder. MTR is fine, it's jut that the public version (2.6.6) doesn't work on some new DVDs.

I'll second the usefulness of FairMount. It's worth it and works with any DVD that can play in DVD Player or VLC. I haven't found a disk it can't copy yet.

[709]

* bumpity bump bump *

So, a friend of mine got an Apple TV for Jesus' birthday and she's asked if I'll come over and set it up. I thought I'd try ripping a DVD to see how that goes and I have a quick question: Will the Handbrake route retain the DVD menu structure/extras/etc., or is this just a "Feature Presentation Only" thing? If the latter, is there a way to retain the DVD "as is?"

I know nothing of this Apple TV device, so I'm pretty excited to play on it for a bit.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Originally Posted by 709 * bumpity bump bump * So, a friend of mine got an Apple TV for Jesus' birthday and she's asked if I'll come over and set it up. I thought I'd try ripping a DVD to see how that goes and I have a quick question: Will the Handbrake route retain the DVD menu structure/extras/etc., or is this just a "Feature Presentation Only" thing? If the latter, is there a way to retain the DVD "as is?" I know nothing of this Apple TV device, so I'm pretty excited to play on it for a bit.

Handbrake is a "FPO" think. If you just want to decrypt the DVD so you can run it from your hard drive you need to use Mac The Ripper or something similar. MTR just removes the different encryption / DRM embedding from the data and saves the decrypted files to a directory in the same structure as it was on the DVD (you'd need DVD Player.app to watch the movie, not just QuickTime).

[709]

Hmm. That's kind of what I expected. It would've been nice to be able access the DVD extras and whatnot, but no biggie. I use MTR for the occasional DVD rental if I don't get to it before it's overdue, but that's about it. Thanks for the info.

Playing with Handbrake a bit...I noticed a massive difference in compression speed depending on machine. I started a test on a G5 iMac and it estimated 16 hours. Yet, on my Quad it took just a little over an hour and a half.