I’m not sure if anyone from Apple is reading this post, but hope springs eternal.

Listen, I love my AppleTV.  Every week I convert more and more of my movies to MP4 and add them to iTunes.  And I love the fact that FrontRow 2.0 in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is basically the AppleTV software.  Beautiful.  My Mac Mini, with a 500GB USB 2.0 drive, is an AppleTV on steroids.  Perfect.

I now have over 200 hours of movies and TV ripped for my two Apple boxes.

But there is a problem.  Two, really.  I need to request two key feature additions for the next dot-release of AppleTV and FrontRow:

Request 1: Please add video playlists

This should be obvious, because you already have them on the iPod, but I really need these on the AppleTV.  I have a lot of ripped TV shows and cartoons that are only 5-20 minutes in length.  What I want to do is arbitrarily create a video playlist, and have the AppleTV play continuously some number of shows in a row.  Right now, the device has no playlists.  So either I have to rip a customer MP4 of different combinations, or I have to actually manually play each show individually.

Example: School House Rock

I ripped this DVD.  37 Episodes, each 3 minutes.  Of course, I could not possibly rip the individual shows given the current AppleTV interface.  Instead, I ripped a full two-hour block of all 37 episodes back-to-back.  I then ripped smaller, 8 or 9 episode sequences based on topic.

What I should have been able to do is:

1. Rip each 3 minute short as a separate file
2. Create playlists of different groups and sequences of those segments

A lot of great video content is short, and makes sense to view in playlists.  Ripping different combinations into a single video file is wasteful, and clutters the interface.

Request 2: Folders

This one is easy because Tivo already figured this out with version 4.0 of their interface (they are now on 9.x I think).

Let me create folders to group together content so that I don’t have a linear list that goes on forever.  For example, if I have all 6 Star Wars movies, let me create a folder for them.  If I have 10 hours of Band of Brothers, let me group it together.

Right now, the only “grouping” functionality is through the TV Shows interface.  Frankly, that’s pretty clunky.  I’m not even sure I like breaking apart video into movies and TV shows.  I certainly don’t have that breakdown on my Tivo, and I’m not sure I like it.  I’d rather just see TV Shows as a folder of video, sorted by season, then episode, kind of like music that is broken down by artist, and then album.

True, I wouldn’t mind dynamic grouping based on tagged elements of the movies, but that’s actually overkill for now.  I’d settle for good, old-fashioned, manual folders.  A simple directory structure could help me scale the current interface with the remote to handling hundreds of movies, instead of dozens.

So, if you are listening Apple, help me out here.  Thanks.

This is the absolutely best user-based review of the various high definition digital movie formats out there.

Apple TV 2.0 vs. Blu-Ray, DVD & HD Cable: The Comparison

Very fair, very balanced.

More importantly, this is the first review I’ve seen that doesn’t focus on the technical specifications and argue theoretically about which format should be better.   Instead, this article provides actual example frames and examples from a viewer perspective in a very realistic setting.

Gorgeous screen captures and zoomed/cropped images highlight the text along the way.

Definitely a must-read.  But, in case you find it too long, here is my take-aways:

• Blu-Ray wins, but only matters if you actually have a 1080P set.
• AppleTV HD is surprisingly good, despite being 720p.
• Comcast HD seems to be the loser here, although color is better.
• All 3 are noticeably better than upconverted DVD (once again, on a 1080P set)

The article ends up arguing that Netflix may have the best model here… but I’m not 100% sure.  I’m currently in a movie buying freeze right now as I debate what form my HD library will eventually take.  It’s hard for me to consider a format that I can’t use freely on multiple devices (Blu-Ray), but it’s also hard for me to consider a rental option where I don’t have the movie at my disposal.  A Blu-Ray disc that comes with a DRM-protected iTunes MP4 would work for me, since I’d happy pay the $20 per disc to have a physical copy and the freedom to have a file that I can use on any device.

Too bad no one is providing that… yet.

As I posted last night, I’ve hooked my new Intel Core Duo Mac Mini to a Vizio 42″ 1080P LCD.

If you read the specs at Apple, it says the Mac Mini, with 64MB DRAM driving it’s Intel GMA 950 video, can support a 1920×1200 based resolution on a monitor.  I assumed that this meant it could drive any 1080P display, which is 1920×1080.

It turns out, there are a few hurdles that could get in the way of succeeding in getting a Mac Mini to drive a 1080P TV display.  Some of the hurdles are simple, but one was quite tricky.

Here is the solution, for all those intrepid Mac warriors out there:

1. Getting the Max Resolution on the Vizio.  The Vizio display says on the box it only supports 1366×768 for computer display.  This turns out to be the onboard limitation for their VGA port.  If you use a DVI to HDMI cable, you can drive the full 1920×1080 through the HDMI port.  I used a 10ft DVI to HDMI gold plated cable from Fry’s.  (Price $19.99)
2. How to Get Sound on the Vizio.  I bought a cheap 3.5mm Mini Plug to RCA Red/White 6 inch cable (Price: $2.79).  I then used a standard 12ft Red/White RCA Audio cable to plug connect the Mini to the Vizio TV.  The second HDMI port on the Vizio is paired with an auxiliary set of RCA Red/White jacks, seemingly designed for this situation where your HDMI does not actually carry audio.
3. How to Get 1080P, not 1080i, out of the Mac Mini.  This is the tough one.  When you go to the Displays control panel on the Mac Mini (Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5), you are given lots of video choices.  However, the maximum resolution says 1920×1080 (interlaced) at 60Hz.  What gives?   I’m not sure, but it seems like a bug.  The secret is to enable the checkbox that says “Show displays in menu bar”.  If you do then, a displays icon appears in the menu bar.  Click it to get a drop down menu of all display resolutions.  Interestingly, there are now two 1920×1080 options, which are labeled identically.  Choose the other one!  You’ll now be driving full 1080P (confirmed by the Vizio).

I’ve searched the web, and this issue is tricky enough that lots of people complain about the lack of the ability to drive 1080P from the Mac Mini.  Most of the debates seem to argue that it depends on the TV.  I don’t buy it.  I think the issue is a bug in the Mac OS display detection in DVI/HDMI scenarios that is somehow hiding the 1080P option.  Either that, or the Mac Mini for some reason thinks that 1080P is too much for it for some other reason, and the drop-down menu is missing that filter to remove it from the list.

I’m not going to spend time on the why.  The point is, if you are looking for the how, you just got it.

BTW Leopard is a huge improvement for applications like this.  The improved network browsing and FrontRow application are incredibly well-timed.   It’s going much better than I expected.

Tonight begins our newest experiment in home computing & entertainment integration.

Yes, I’m proud to welcome a Mac Mini to our household.  This is the first full-fledged computer that we’ve purchased for primarily an entertainment purpose.  While we’ve loved our 160GB AppleTV (and believe me, when your 2-year old makes AppleTV one of their first words, that’s love), the limitations on storage and software have been, well, limiting.

So thus begins the Mac Mini experiment.  Upgraded with a 500GB external USB 2.0 drive, this computer will be plugged into our new Vizio LCD, via HDMI, for full 1080P resolution.   Apple Remote, Wireless Keyboard, Wireless Mouse.  The new FrontRow 2.0 has everything we love about AppleTV, plus we’ll now have ample storage for ripping all of our DVDs to MP4.  In addition, now that Jacob is 3, we’ll be able to start using the machine as a computer as well, using it for kiddie software and educational games.  We can even use it as a DVD player in a pinch.

I’ll have to say, the Mac OS X Leopard start-up sequence for registration is just stunning at 42″ at 1080P, with full stereo sound.  Really awe-inspiring.

We’ll see how it goes.  I don’t know why, but even after setting up literally dozens of Macs in my life, setting a new one is still such a rush.   Literally, it’s like I drank a six-pack of sugar-free Red Bull or something.

At least, I believe Michael is the last big studio exec to piss Steve off.  Don’t worry, Jeff.  At least he got a  big paycheck on the way out.

From Valleywag:

NBC CEO Jeff Zucker puckers up to Steve Jobs’s posterior

“We’ve said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple,” NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said in the Financial Times this morning. Of course you have, Jeff. Except for maybe that time last fall when you told an audience at Syracuse University that “Apple has destroyed the music business … If we don’t take control on the video side, they’ll do the same [there].” What does Zucker’s pirouette mean?

Let’s hope Steve Jobs doesn’t hold a grudge… 🙂

It’s funny how your mind drifts to things like this when your birthday is coming up.

This guy can be controlled from your computer, and can pull sentry duty in front a doorway, relaying video and photos to you of intruders, etc.  Very funny.   There is also now a Spykee Miss, and a Spykee VoX.

Full story here.