Mac Digital Cinema

Requirements for HD DVD Playback

2005-04-17T20:04:00.000-04:00

Playback of HD DVDs authored in DVD Studio Pro 4 requires a PowerPC G5 processor, Mac OS X v10.4 and Apple DVD Player 4.6 (or later). Source, see last bullet under requirements.

Tiger Approaches

2005-04-13T07:36:00.000-04:00

Apple will release Tiger on April 29, 2005. You can pre-order now. QuickTime 7 demo shows off Tiger's H.264 codec.

Call for EyeTV Helper App Beta Testers

2005-03-17T07:34:00.000-05:00

This AccelerateYourMac article provides really interesting news about the development of an EyeTV helper application. The developer is seeking beta testers. The link to the article shows the features list of the application in development.

CenterStage Alpha Could be Released Today

2005-03-17T07:20:00.000-05:00

The developers of CenterStage report that the alpha release for CenterStage could happen today. They delayed the release to add more features. Watch this space for the download.

Tiger Needs More Than Two Weeks

2005-03-17T06:57:00.000-05:00

Bucking the trend of today's earlier posts, it has been reported that Tiger may be released in April. To meet the 1H 2005 delivery promise, it may need a couple bug fixes following its release. Hopefully, QuickTime 7 is ready to go when Tiger is released. This major revision to QuickTime is expected to provide high resolution video at low bitrates for efficient storage and high quality playback.

Voom Has Two Weeks

2005-03-17T06:52:00.000-05:00

Chuck Dolan has until April 1, 2005, to finalize his plan to purchase Voom from Cablevision. How many death knells has Voom escaped? For those wanting to maximize HDTV content, Voom has a $1 deal to install up to three receivers. I am getting Voom next week. Voom has added 11 SD channels in the last week and is rumored to add a few more by the end of the weekend.

Flag Opponents Have Two Weeks

2005-03-17T06:48:00.000-05:00

The appeals court hearing the Broadcast Flag case have given critics of the new FCC rule two weeks to demonstrate standing. The critics will have to show how they will be harmed by the rule in such a way that meets the judicial test. One judge on the three jurist panel has already written a dissent saying that the critics do not have standing.

Apple Adopts Blu-ray

2005-03-10T21:37:00.000-05:00

Apple joined the Blu-ray Disc Association's Board of Directors. You may remember that, during the last Stevenote when the Sony president was on stage, Steve Jobs said that Apple was looking forward to Blu-ray which Sony supports.

I wonder if the return favor is that Sony supplies content for the iMovie Video Store?

CenterStage

2005-03-08T19:19:00.000-05:00

An alpha release for CenterStage is due on March 14, 2005. A link to the project has been available in the Link section to catch up on development notes and access the forum.

Audio Hijack

2005-03-07T21:21:00.000-05:00

You can timeshift audio using the aptly titled Audio Hijack by Rogue Amoeba. Certainly, you can use this program to timeshift whatever audio program on the internet for later playback. Audio Hijack Pro adds more encoding options. Audio Hijack starts at $16.

EyeConnect Public Beta Is Available

2005-03-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

The EyeConnect program allows the streaming of files from your Mac to your UPnP media player to be viewed on your display. If you have such a player, then give the beta a try.

Device Compatibility

EyeConnect has been tested intensively with the following UPnP AV devices: The D-Link DSM-320 MediaLounge, the Philips Streamium SL400i, and the Philips Streamium MX6000i. Since any UPnP AV compatible devices will be recognized by EyeConnect, field reports from users with other devices are especially welcome.

Known issues

EyeTV MPEG-4 recordings do not play back on either the Philips Streamium or the D-Link devices.

The public beta will expire on May 19, 2005. Elgato requests feedback.

Voom

2005-03-03T21:11:00.000-05:00

I hope Voom succeeds. Voom offers about 39 HDTV channels. Voom subscribers remind me of Mac users - very loyal to a good product. The more HDTV, the merrier!

Updates

2005-03-01T19:35:00.000-05:00

EyeTV is now 1.7.1 and Matinee is now 2.1. The Matinee update brings cover art to the application.

Evolution?

2005-03-01T19:27:00.000-05:00

We are in the middle of a transition to digital television. Miglia introduces EvolutionTV. This product does not compete with the EyeTV 500; in that, high definition viewing is not an option. I suppose it will ultimately evolve into an HDTV product and redeem the promise of its name.

Nearly One Million Units Projected for Mac mini

2005-02-27T08:33:00.000-05:00

An analyst for Banc of America has raised first year sales estimates for the Mac mini from 305K units to 900K units. Source .

iFlicks 1.1 Has Been Released

2005-02-27T07:51:00.000-05:00

iFlicks has returned from exile with new features. There is a demo but it has a limit of five movies that can be put in the library. iFlicks does not recognize .vob or .m2t files. iFlicks does not provide a VIDEO_TS launcher.

Apple Will Not Buy TiVo

2005-02-26T13:45:00.000-05:00

This deal was recently rumored. Such an acquisition does not make sense. Apple has the R&D to make its own hardware and software to market a Mac-based PVR. If Apple releases the rumored HD hub, it would facilitate a Mac-based PVR. Such a hub would have to be HDCP and 5C compliant and ensure plug and play connection to a consumer HDTV display. The HD hub would also be a step toward the rumored iMovie Video Store.

Early Adopter Woes

2005-02-25T18:30:00.000-05:00

I have tried connecting a new JVC HM-DH5U digital recorder to the Samsung HLN507 using an HDMI to DVI cable. Both components are HDCP compliant but the handshake fails. Certainly, Hollywood feels no shame for frustrating consumers. For now, I am using the component connection to view the few D-Theater movies I have.

Being an early adopter has its risks as newer HDTV displays have HDMI connections.

The Tattered Flag

2005-02-22T20:54:00.000-05:00

It doesn't look too good for the Broadcast Flag team as two out of three judges on the appellate panel spoke disapprovingly of the FCC's effort to foist the flag. U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards lectured the Federal Communications Commission in saying it "crossed the line'' by requiring the new anti-piracy technology in digital television devices such as the EyeTV 500. The judge went on to say, "you've gone too far.'' "Are washing machines next?''

However, another appeals judge on the panel questioned whether consumers can challenge the FCC's rules in the courtroom.

Using a Bluetooth Remote on Everything

2005-02-21T08:38:00.000-05:00

Well, just about everything that can be controlled by an infra-red remote control. iRed can be used with Salling Clicker to turn your compatible Bluetooth device into a powerful remote control.

A USB transmitter/receiver by IRTrans properly placed and aimed at your non-Bluetooth A/V components can be controlled, for example, by your Palm Zire running Salling Clicker to ultimately control your A/V components.

This reminds me of a line from LotR: "One remote to rule them all..." or something like that.

Blu-ray Is Around the Corner

2005-02-20T21:42:00.000-05:00

Blu-ray can store over 2 hours of HDTV on a 25GB disc and about 13 hours of standard-definition television (SDTV) on a 25GB disc. A dual layer Blu-ray disc or BD-ROM can hold 50GB. Today's DVD can hold 4.7GB of data or about 30 minutes of HDTV.

A Blu-ray player should be able to read a BD at up to 54Mbps. Videophiles should take notice. Some pre-recorded HDTV movies under the DVHS D-Theater format are clocked in at 28Mbps. We should see pre-recorded HDTV BDs by early 2006. We should see BD burners/players by the end of 2005.

About This SIte

2005-02-19T07:56:00.000-05:00

Finally getting around to administrative stuff, an entry about this site is due. I have been using the Mac to timeshift over FireWire since January 2004. At that time, Comcast started providing the Motorola 6200. However, there was no way to schedule a recording on the Mac. I stumbled into the idea of using iCal and AppleScript to schedule recordings. The Mac has been in my living room since then.

The purpose of this site is to present tips and news about the integration of the Mac in the living room for home theater. There are links in the sidebar to relevant vendors and resources. I hope you will choose to bookmark this site.

In the "why not" department, I have included Google generated ads that relate to HDTV. Please click on those links. We might get a nickel or two; but importantly, it does not come from your pocket. On the other hand, there are Amazon links to certain neat things to have. If you want to buy what is featured here, please click on the related Amazon link here. We might get a dollar or two from your transaction. I hope you will consider to support this site.

DVHSCap and Editing

2005-02-18T20:19:00.000-05:00

You can record copy-freely or, if you are so lucky, 5C-free content to your DVHS deck and edit it on your Mac. You can use the EyeTV 1.7 editor or MPEG Streamclip to remove unwanted portions from the transport stream. The trick is that you use DVHSCap from the FireWire SDK 19 from Apple to import the transport stream from the DVHS deck.

After making the edits, the transport stream can be exported back to tape for later playback on your DVHS deck.

Hardware-Accelerated Video Processing Is Coming

2005-02-17T21:09:00.000-05:00

From Apple's Tiger Preview of Core Image:

"Core Video, joining Core Image in Mac OS X Tiger, delivers a modern foundation for video services, providing a bridge between QuickTime and the GPU for hardware-accelerated video processing. This highly optimized pipeline for video presentation increases performance and reduces CPU load, freeing up resources for other operations.

And Core Video allows developers to apply all the benefits of Core Image to video — blazingly-fast performance of filters and effects, per-pixel accuracy and hardware scalability."

When Tiger is delivered, this will be a significant feature. Apple Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger should ship by the end of the first half of this year.

Beat the Flag!

2005-02-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

On February 22, 2005, the United States Court of Appeals will hear oral argument on the legality of the FCC's broadcast flag rules. The FCC has had a bad appellate track record of late. Hopefully, our fair use rights will be upheld. The EFF provides a good background on the flag.

In the meantime, beat the flag by getting an elgato EyeTV 500.

Toast 6.0.9 Update Is Now Available

2005-02-16T20:25:00.000-05:00

Roxio has released the 6.0.9 update to Toast 6 Titanium.

Let's Have Popcorn

2005-02-15T22:42:00.000-05:00

We are Finding Nemo. With Popcorn by Roxio, we would not have to worry about Finding Nemo. The kids caused the DVD to fall in between the cracks where the brand new floor meets the wall before the baseboard was installed.

Popcorn can put movies from your hard drive on a backup DVD. With a dual layer DVD burner, there is no compromising quality. With a single layer DVD burner, you can have a copy for the kids knowing that scratches or anything worse will not set you back another $20 for replacement. Or you can still be Finding Nemo.

FireWire HDTV Recording

2005-02-13T13:47:00.000-05:00

There are three ways to record HDTV on the Mac. Two are outboard while the other requires an expansion slot. First, if you have a FireWire-equipped set-top-box (STB), you can use iRecord to capture programs. Second, you can leverage your antenna and/or cable connection in using the EyeTV 500 to capture OTA and/or cable programs not restricted by the 5C copy protection scheme. Third, there are now drivers available for the DVICO FusionHDTV 3 PCI cards.

Watch HDTV on your terms...

Does That Mac Have a Hemi?

2005-02-12T12:57:00.000-05:00

Some people ask whether a Mac has the power for HDTV. Well yeah. A Mac with a G4 1.25 GHz or better processor running EyeTV 1.7 can play 720p and 1080i files with plenty of CPU usage leftover, 25% to 40%. The recent 10.3.8 OS update included improvements that optimized playback of HDTV files. Since more power is better especially when it is available, the minimum recommendation is the Mac mini G4 1.42 GHz with 512MB RAM, though maxxing out the RAM to 1 GB is preferred.

Go DLP!

2005-02-11T18:54:00.000-05:00

There have been HDTV articles in the mainstream press about what display to get in time for the Super Bowl. These articles gush over the form factor and status symbol nature of the plasma. Save some money for the rest of home theater gear and furnishings by going with a DLP. For the price of a ho-hum 480p plasma which is not high definition but rather enhanced definition, a 720p DLP can be purchased which is high definition.

A DLP is a great performance value for the money and would make a great display for your Mac in the living room.

DVD Software Toolkit

2005-02-07T23:33:00.000-05:00

Certainly, you have Apple DVD Player. However, there are two other programs that should be in your applications folder. They are Matinee and MacTheRipper.

Matinee provides a nice interface for all those VIDEO_TS folders you created when you ripped the DVDs you own to your hard drive using MacTheRipper. These two programs offer convenience and protection in playing and safely storing your DVDs.

Serving HDTV Transport Streams

2005-02-06T13:47:00.000-05:00

You can serve HDTV transport streams to your HDTV or HDTV set-top-box using your Mac for playback. This website provides all the info you need. This solution will work if your HDTV or set-top-box has FireWire connections. A little known Apple sample program, VirtualDVHS, is used to pull this off. The linked website provides some scripts I wrote to work with iCal, VirtualDVHS and your HDTV or HDTV set-top-box with FireWIre connections to record on your terms.

Is Your HDTV Centered?

2005-02-05T20:11:00.000-05:00

This is not a philosophical question but rather one about geometry. There are no axioms to remember. This is about aligning the center point of the video with the center point of the screen on your HDTV. You can use Digital Video Essentials to run some test screens to center the image on your screen. You might be able to access a user menu to do this or, if a relevant user menu is not available, the service menu. If your HDTV is still within its warranty period and it is necessary to access the service menu, have a service tech do this.

If you are not faint of heart, you can get instructions to access the service menu of many different makes and models of HDTVs at AVS Forum or Home Theater Spot.

I recently corrected the H-Shift and the V-Shift by a half-inch and a quarter-inch, respectively, on both of my sets. On the 26 inch set, the corrective effect was much more pronounced than on the 50 inch set. Doing this is useful as a preliminary step when trying to set up a customized resolution on the Mac to display the desktop on the HDTV.

DVI and HDMI Switchers

2005-02-04T20:25:00.000-05:00

Say you have a DLP with the DVI input taken by the HD cable box and you are left with the PC input for the Mac. That PC input is high resolution but analog. If you want the digital experience, then you will need, for convenience, an HDMI or DVI switcher, depending on the specs of your HDTV display. Examples of these switchers are found at the Digital Connection website. Recommended are those switchers that are HDCP compliant unless you do not want your HD cable box to show a watchable picture.

HD cable boxes require HDCP compliance. Your display also needs to be HDCP compliant for the HD cable box to provide a digital picture as opposed to snow. Most, if not all, DLP displays are HDCP compliant - so no worries here. Without an HDCP compliant display, you would have to use the high resolution component or RGB (PC) inputs which are analog.

Connecting your Mac mini to Component Inputs

2005-02-04T11:40:00.000-05:00

Not everyone has an HDTV with digital inputs or even RGB inputs. If your set only has component inputs, then Audio Authority has a solution. You may still have to use a custom resolution program like SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX to send a 1280 x 720 signal to the display, for example.

What is your frame rate?

2005-02-03T22:24:00.000-05:00

Are you the least bit curious about the performance of your Mac when playing HDTV files? Use Apple's Quartz Debug from the XCode Developer Tools Package. Quartz Debug has a nifty speedometer that you can drag onto any window that is playing an HDTV file. The speedometer provides the frame rate for that window.

XCode is a free download in the developers section on Apple's website.

720p content has a frame rate of about 60 frames per second while 1080i content has a frame rate of about 30 frames per second, Use elgato's EyeTV player software when testing. It is a free download too from elgato's website.

The Free Mac mini Quest

2005-02-03T21:59:00.000-05:00

Okay, I have joined the ranks to get a free Mac mini. Oh why not. My referral link is this web page and it takes about ten minutes of your life to complete.

There is an easy deal to complete and it is aptly titled, "Complete Home." You have to click about a dozen "no" radio buttons to get past a dozen ads before you get to the list of offers which include the "Complete Home." It costs $1 and you get a $20 Lowes gift card. You have to be a member for at least seven days before cancelling so that the completed offer counts. Make sure you have pop-up blocker disabled and cookies enabled when completing an offer.

Thanks!