Video

Overheating Apple TV (Updated)

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I’ve had an Apple TV for a number of years now, but in the last 12 months I’ve noticed an increasing number of problems with graphical glitches – some pretty minor, such as the odd white pixel in the menu (shown above), up to the horrendous video playback problems like this:

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I’ve done quite a bit of experimentation, and the most obvious problem turns out to be the culprit: Heat. I’ve always thought my Apple TV (ATV) ran a little hot, but it seems to be notably hotter when the problems arise. None of this is very scientific, so I’ve set out to see if there’s a fix to this problem. (more…)

By Oli Trenouth, ago

Video encoding strategy for all Apple devices

I’ve had an Apple TV for a number of years, along with an iPod Touch and now (finally!) and iPhone. Before I had any of those things I made a conscious decision to transfer all my CD’s to iTunes and change the way I manage and access my music. This was clearly a success, as I can’t remember the last time I got one of my CD’s out of its case, (come to think of it, I can’t even remember where my CDs are!).

This setup was ideal. The music was wherever I wanted it to be: Streamed through the Apple TV, played off a PC or laptop, or copied to my iPhone. This got me thinking, “why can’t I do the same with my DVDs?”. With the cost of storage being so low I bought myself a 2Tb Lacie drive with that very same thought in mind. (more…)

By Oli Trenouth, ago

HD here I come!

Ah, at last … a post where I can geek out: I visited IBC this week in Amsterdam (Flickr Photos), and was blown away by the high-def goodies on show. I got back thinking that it was finally time to take the plunge, and upgrade the edit suite to fully Read more…

By Oli Trenouth, ago

Podcasting Apples

Well that was fun… I’ve just returned from a meeting at Apple’s Europe HQ in London about podcasting. Admittedly, it was a Apple-biased view towards the technology behind podcasting, and they made the sweeping claim that ‘podcasting’ was a merging of the two words ‘iPod’ and ‘Broadcasting’. Hmm … they Read more…

By Oli Trenouth, ago