HVX and Apple TV question
- Thread starter Halny
- Start date
Ted Spencer
Veteran
No, but I saw Apple TV demoed at the Apple store in Manhattan, and as expected, given its ultra-low bit rate (necessary for downloading speed), the video quality is dreadful by any professional standards. I don't think it will much matter what acqusition medium is used. The inherent quality decimation will all but make it moot.
Cynic821
Carbonite Member
Halny said:
Ill be giving it some tests asap with the compression, but in the meantime if you really need to demo your footy and want to just up your entertainment experience at the same time, the PS3 makes for a great HD Media Player.
I use it to demo work in 1080p and its instantaneous, fast and supports rediculous bit rats. I have some stuff playing back at 25mbps. Of course its gotta be local, kinda, but you can attatch a USB Hard Drive or flash drive or memory stick, SD, whatever you want.
Oh did i mention it plays BD and PS3 games?
Yes, I actually was planning to use the apple TV as a digital signage appliance, but since there's no video playlist support it's not too practical now. The footage that you can actually see in it's native size is 720 24p otherwise there is a different size that quicktime will export to. It looks great!
bruiserbox
Active member
Never thought of that
Never thought of that
Wow Cynic, that's great info. Duh, I thought. I love my PS3 and it plays out in full 1080p. You just dump your footage onto a portable drive right. What format/codec do you play the PS3 HD files in? Thanks.
Never thought of that
Wow Cynic, that's great info. Duh, I thought. I love my PS3 and it plays out in full 1080p. You just dump your footage onto a portable drive right. What format/codec do you play the PS3 HD files in? Thanks.
cordvision
Well-known member
I already tested it. The problem is the maximum bitrate for videos which is 5MegaBit/s. I viewed the footage on a big LCD screen and I could clearly see artifacts resulting from the heavy compression. I have to say that the footage I have chosen was from a concert where they used a lot of red lightning. All in all it looks ok but it doesn't show the real potential of the HVX...
Ted Spencer
Veteran
cordvision said:
I think you're understating it. Apple TV is basically an "iPod Video" paradigm, and like 128Kb/s music files, quality is all but thrown over the transom for the sake of download efficiency. Moreover, since radical bitrate reduction is probably easier for most people to see than hear, Apple TV is arguably less successful than iPod music.
Incidentally, for those who find an iPod's sonics "fine" (like my nephew, who's a great kid), please make a comparison of bass quality between a bass-rich CD source and a 128Kb AAC iPod rip of the same. Worlds of hurt in there.
Back to Apple TV, 5Mbit/s works out to 625 KB/s, which is a small fraction of even standard def DV, like a cheap digital camcorder (or the HVX to tape, not considering its vastly superior optics and sensors) which runs at about 3.6 MBytes/s, or about *6 times* Apple TV's bitrate. An HVX in DVCPRO HD, at 100 Mb/s runs 20 times the bitrate of Apple TV.
You can't get something for nothing, and in the case of Apple TV, a 95% bitrate reduction won't be an exception.
I think it will be just fine for what it's attempting to be - a quickly downloadable codec that will look acceptable (even if only barely) to younger viewers in particular, ones, that is, who are already accustomed to watching low-rate videos on YouTube and the like. I'll be surprised to hear my nephew (or anyone) assert that it looks "as good as" a DVD though, or even broadcast TV, although people with poor reception via an old-fashioned antenna may be pleased.
Once high speed internet connections increase by several multiples in speed and become commonplace it'll (hopefully) be a different story. Until then, AppleTV will be the video equivalent of junk-food. Quick, cheap, and serviceable, but unfulfilling.
Last edited:
Ted Spencer said:
We saw the Apple TV at the Apple Store in Seattle a month ago, and we not impressed with it.
Of course, we HVX200 users are a little spoiled with the quality, but I wouldn't buy the device based on what I saw.
TwistedLincoln
Veteran
cordvision said:
Ouch! I had no idea it was that bad. I'll take my home-theater PC with MythTV over that any day...
It's very interesting to see so many negative reports on the apple TV. I Tested it out and while I did see some noise in some footage, there was noise on that footage to begin with. I had clean footage as well from my HVX and on the display that I tested it on (the Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42" Plasma) it looked great. I'm not saying it's the best way to show off HVX footage, but i was surprised how good it was considering the bit rates and file size. Maybe it's the display or source material that makes a difference.
Folks, the product's name is Apple TV, not Apple HDTV or whatever for that purpose.
There's a message in the name, you know. So I would not stretch and try to use it for something it is obviously not intended for.
Kust kiddin': If Steve will read this, he might decide for an upgrade or an upgraded version. Steve, Apple HDTV is a name, I have the Trademark for. Send cash or cheques to my known address ;-)
There's a message in the name, you know. So I would not stretch and try to use it for something it is obviously not intended for.
Kust kiddin': If Steve will read this, he might decide for an upgrade or an upgraded version. Steve, Apple HDTV is a name, I have the Trademark for. Send cash or cheques to my known address ;-)
Ted Spencer
Veteran
psts said:
I agree that it looks good "considering the bit rates and file size". So do most massively compressed graphic formats, considering. But it's sort of like saying your brand new shoes are really comfortable considering they only cost $1.
As "TV", it looks awful.
I saw a bunch of movie samples on Apple's demo at their store on a 42" plasma. It was like film festival for motion and gradient artifacts.
But it was great, considering the bit rates and file size : )
Xrayspecs
Active member
AppleTV and Ethernet?
AppleTV and Ethernet?
Is there any chance that using an ethernet cable connection from my Mac to the AppleTV box will improve the image quality as compared to a wireless connection? That would seem to be the case because an ethernet cable provides higher bandwidth than a WiFi connection. But I'm wondering if the AppleTV forces you to use a specific codec that will degrade the quality of your footage regardless of the connection scheme you use.
AppleTV and Ethernet?
Is there any chance that using an ethernet cable connection from my Mac to the AppleTV box will improve the image quality as compared to a wireless connection? That would seem to be the case because an ethernet cable provides higher bandwidth than a WiFi connection. But I'm wondering if the AppleTV forces you to use a specific codec that will degrade the quality of your footage regardless of the connection scheme you use.