My Media Delivered

News: Open Media Library (easy access to all formats of DVD rips via Media Extenders)

This is really awesome. This software streams any format of DVD, HD-DVD, or Blu-Ray rip straight to your Media Extender (Xbox 360). Of course, it does require a PC to stream the data over to the Xbox.

Try it out here: Open Media Library.

Seen first at EngadgetHD.com.

News: LG Netflix Blu-Ray Player BD300 shown

Well, it doesn’t play back your entire video library, but this is certainly an interesting combo device.  I expect we’ll see lots of things like this in the coming months.

Seen first on Gizmodo:

LG’s Netflix-streaming, Blu-ray 2.0 playing BD300 made its public debut tonight, and we’re impressed. The box is slim and it won’t take up more space on your shelf than any other player. An LG exec confirmed a September launch for the sub-$500 player, so check out the gallery and start lickin’ your chops. 

News: Apple TV Flash V 3.2 released

What is it:

One click modding for your Apple TV.  It mods, then installs the latest plugins and applications for your Apple TV.  It’s fully compatible with Apple TV v.2.1.  No modifications or coding is necessary. The installer goes on a flash drive and is run when the software reboots.

Here’s what you get:

From the Apple Core website: The aTV Flash is back, now available in a downloadable “bring your own flash drive” form. This software upgrade will greatly enhance the functionality of your Apple TV. The software installs automatically, and no modification or coding is required. Also, it will NOT void your warranty.

Key Features:
- Play most video formats (DivX, Xvid, AVI, WMV, RMVB + more)
- Play DVD files WITHOUT converting them (includes DVD menu support)
- Surf the web with a Safari based web browser
- Easily enable external USB hard drive storage
- Enable FTP, SFTP and SSH access
- View local weather forecasts
- All original Apple TV features remain intact
- And much, much more…

The install process now features a graphical interface, that requires no technical knowledge whatsoever.

News: DVD Catalyst 3.5 (1-click DVD rip software for the PC)

From the DVD Catalyst Website:

DVD Catalyst 3 converts movies quickly and easily into a format that can be played on a portable device (Apple iPod, Apple iPhone, Sony PSP, Creative Zen, Smartphone, PocketPC and more) It offers a multitude of different video types it can create, allowing it to even create video files for non-listed or brand-new devices. 

DVD Catalyst 3 incorporates an extensive feature list, with many unique, handy and industry-first options to make your conversions as easy as possible, while providing you with the best possible quality. 

DVD Catalyst 3 uses the award-winning open source mplayer/mencoder projects for detection and conversion, which allows DVD Catalyst to convert just about anything to any format without the need of having codec’s installed on your computer. 

*Converts to all common video file formats, including AVC, H264, MP4, DIVX, XVID, WMV, 3GP, MPEG * Includes an ever expanding list of conversion profiles for all the popular devices on the market, including Pocket PC, Smartphone, XBOX 360, Playstation3, PSP, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPhone, AppleTV, Archos, Zen. If your device is not listed, you can try using a profile from a similar device, or modify the settings according to its specifications. 

Looks like a winner to me. First seen on Lifehacker.

How To: Backing up your movie collection

Why would you need this:

If you’re anything like me, and you rip your movies at the highest quality possible, you’ll never want to lose your data.  Those large file sizes and long rip times should never have to happen again. If you lost all that data, think of how long it would take to re-rip your whole DVD library.  That’s why you want to back up your files.

How to:

Lets face it, inevitably your hard drive is going to go kaput.  Wouldn’t you feel better if you had a backup of all that data?  These days, hard drives are cheap, but finding a good backup solution that works for you could still end up being costly. I’m going to look at two solutions here.  One’s cheap and requires some initial set up from you, and the other is a little more costly, but is a no brainer for security and ease of use.

The first solution is to just go purchase a second hard drive, in most cases you’ll be getting an external USB drive of some sort. Get something large and cheap, hopefully large enough to hold your collection.  Drives come in sizes up to 1TB currently unless you buy a RAID set up (see step two). A 1TB drive can hold roughly 200 5GB movies.  Obtaining the drive is the first part, the second will be to install an application that you can use to automatically copy the files over to the drive for you. On the Mac, I would recommend something like SuperDuper! It features basic scripting where you can set it up to backup your files in the middle of the night when you’re away from the computer. This is a fairly secure method, however there’s always that .01% chance that both drives fail at the same time. Eww.

The second solution is a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) setup. For a setup like this, I’m going to recommend a Drobo storage device. The benefits of a setup like this is immense. First off, this isn’t a backup solution, it’s a storage solution that provides redundancy if a drive fails.  No backup’s necessary. You’ll store your whole library on this device. It’s a set of four drives in one storage unit.  The magic of Drobo is that if one drive fails, another drive has it it mirrored, and you just pull the defective drive out, and stick a new one in.  What’s even better about the Drobo is that you can swap in drives of any size.  Let’s say you stuck in a 500GB drive because it was cheap, later on if it fails or you just want more storage, yank the drive out and stick in a 1TB drive. The drives can be hot swapped, you can use any size, and you don’t have to worry about losing data, the Drobo takes care of everything for you.  The only down side is that a fully loaded Drobo with 4 drives will cost you $750 or more depending on the size of the drives you use.

Leave a message in the comments if you have a solution that works for you. Now go back up your media!

Glossary: DTS (Digital Theater Systems)

From Wikipedia:

DTS (also known as Digital Theater Systems), owned by DTS, Inc., is a multi-channel digital surround sound format used for both commercial/theatrical and consumer grade applications. It is used for in-movie sound both on film and on DVD.

Fun Fact:

One of the company’s initial investors was film director Steven Spielberg, who felt that theatrical sound formats up until the company’s founding were no longer state of the art, and as a result were no longer optimal for use on projects where quality sound reproduction was of the utmost importance.

How to: Get the best image quality out of Handbrake

Why would you need this:

You might be unhappy with the the video quality of the DVD rips you’re getting from Handbrake. Don’t fret.  Almost all the devices you are ripping files for can handle higher bitrates.

How to:

Lets take for example, the Apple TV.  When you currently rip a DVD using the built in preset for Apple TV, you’ll notice that the standard average bitrate (kbps) is set to 2,000.  What does this mean?  It means the compression rating is set to allow only 2,000 kbps of data throughput per second.  If you up that rate, there is more data, less compression, hence more quality in the image.  The Apple TV can actually handle around 5,000 kpbs, but begins to lock up with any more.  In most of my DVD rips for the Apple TV, I usually change the setting to around 4,500 kbps.  This is more than twice the quality of the default setting, and provides an image that looks almost indistinguishable from the original DVD.

DVD’s are typically encoded at around 8,000 kbps bitrate.  Despite the fact that my Apple TV setting is not quite half that, the quality appears to be just as good.  This is due to the type of compression used in the Apple TV.  Compression algorithms have become extremely efficient compared to the days of DVD. DVD’s are encoded with MPEG2 compression, and the Apple TV files are encoded with .h264, which is an extremely efficient high quality compression algorithm.  As a result you can compress more data into a smaller bitrate.

The second setting we can look at changing would be the 2-pass encoding section.  You will want to check mark this setting. Since a VBR (variable bit rate) encoder will vary the bitrate depending on the complexity of the images, it tends to make mistakes from time to time. Handbrake can do two passes to correct for the compression mistakes. The encoder will make a first pass at encoding the video, then start from the top and do it again. When finished, the encoder analyzes the results before finalizing. By using 2 passes and analysis, the encoder is less likely to make a mistake in choosing the appropriate bit rates.

Due to the fact that you are now essentially encoding the disk twice, it will obviously take twice as long, and due to the higher bit rate, more space is required on your hard drive. But you can be assured that high motion scenes in your DVD’s don’t lose any quality due to abrupt motion artifacts.

Take one afternoon, and experiment with the bitrate and your end device.  You might find that your PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, or other device can also handle a lot more data than the default settings lead you to believe.

Informative: AwkwardTV Wiki (Apple TV Hacks Wiki)

The Awkward TV Wiki is currently one of the most comprehensive websites dedicated to hacking the Apple TV. The site covers almost everything you can do with your Apple TV including version one, two, and even non-hacked Apple TVs.

Hacked Apple TV’s can offer a few advantages over a non-hacked ATV.  With certain plugins installed you’re able to watch DVD Video_TS files directly on the unit, sort of like a DVD jukebox, but no DVD’s necessary. You can install OS X on the unit and use it as a computer.  There are even web browsers available as plugins too. The biggest advantage yet might be that you can install extra video and audio codecs onto the ATV and avoid having to convert every video file you download.

Glossary: Matroska Multimedia Container (.MKV)

From Wikipedia:

The Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free Container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks inside a single file. It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows.

Fun Fact:

Matroska is an English word derived from the Russian word “matryoshka” (Russian: матрёшка, IPA: [mɐˈtrʲoʂkə]), which means “nesting doll” (the common Russian egg-shaped doll within a doll).

Glossary: Dolby Digital (AC-3)

From Wikiedia:

Dolby Digital, or AC-3, is the common version containing up to six discrete channels of sound, with five channels for normal-range speakers (20 Hz – 20,000 Hz) (right front, center, left front, right rear and left rear) and one channel (20 Hz – 120 Hz) for the subwoofer driven low-frequency effects. Mono and stereo modes are also supported. AC-3 supports audio sample-rates up to 48kHz.

Fun Facts:

Batman Returns was the first film to use Dolby Digital technology when it premiered in theaters in Summer 1992. The LaserDisc version of Clear and Present Danger featured the very first Home theater Dolby Digital mix in 1995.