Comments on: Digitize your life

By: Christian

Christian — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:28:13 +0000

I have a Time Capsule / Apple TV combo – the “reasonably sized” files were for the Apple TVs benefit – the little pizza pie ATV just doesn't have the best processor/memory config so I had to keep the files down to a size that it could handle.

That said, on my 37″ (??) LCD television the picture and sound quality was great – as good as anything I have downloaded from iTunes.

I do store the files on an external drive (connected to time capsule) and not my laptop – but if I travel it's an easy process to dump a couple onto the laptop. One of these days I'll get around to posting how I've got my home network set up – it's been working really well ever since I wrote this post: http://www.knuetter.com/christian/2008/07/16/th...

By: covercopy

covercopy — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:58:15 +0000

I've been doing this for a while now–very convenient, though I don't think the MPAA would approve. I use Handbrake to convert to MP4s (H264) at a 1600 kbps bitrate. On my meager 27″ screen, they look indistinguishable from the DVD (examine the shadow areas though and you'll notice some pixelating). Most movies come in at around 1Gig.

(Yo! Hey Christian!)

By: Christian Knuetter

Christian Knuetter — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:28:13 +0000

That said, on my 37″ (??) LCD television the picture and sound quality was great – as good as anything I have downloaded from iTunes.

By: covercopy

covercopy — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:58:15 +0000

(Yo! Hey Christian!)

By: dfett

dfett — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:22:18 +0000

I've been considering something similar myself, although I'll need considerably more space that my laptop offers as my collection is hundreds strong. We've got absolutely no closet space here, and DVDs take up a ton of space.

I'm considering picking up a few TBs to start converting movies as a result. I'm less concerned with the mobility for airplanes and such (I prefer crosswords and sleep while flying), but setting the media drives to be accessible from anywhere in the house sounds pretty dreamy... I can then watch my entire collection from the living room, my office, my bedroom, my wife's office, etc.

A friend of mine (hi, G!) swears by his new Time Capsule, but I'll admit that I haven't done much research as yet.

On your "reasonably sized" files, how is the compression? How would they look on a HD or big screen?