John is Awesome

Just wanted to give you guys something to read…

I originally posted this on Tuesday, July 29th 2008.

It seems that everyone has there own way of watching movies. Whether it’s running out to blockbuster, renting on iTunes, watching instantly on satellite or pay per view, or waiting for DVDs in the mail, everyone has their way. Well here is mine.

There are really three parts to my movie collection. There is the Netflix part, the movie server part, and the Apple TV part.

The First thing is Netflix. I have a Netflix account and I currently get two movies at a time. When I get a movie I pop it into my MacBook Pro and start up Handbreak. Handbreak is this great free application that lets you rip DVDs onto your computer . I rip the DVD on Handbreak’s “Apple TV” setting, which is really just DVD quality with a iTunes supported format. This process usually takes a little longer than the movie is, it is ripping a very high quality so it takes a while. At the end the movie file is usually anywhere from 1.8 to over 2 GBs. I usually put the disc right back in the mail so they will get sent back the next day so I get the most out of my subscription.

Next is the movie server. My Brother gave me an old computer that he didn’t need any more and put Windows and iTunes on it. I went out and got a 500gb hard drive for the computer to hold all of the movies. After the movie is done ripping in Handbreak I use some simple file transfer software to send the movie file to the movie server. I throw it into iTunes once it’s transferred, make sure the title is correct and give it the highest resolution poster art I can find. The cool thing about the server is it’s basically unlimited space. The 500gb hard drive I have in there now can hold around 250 movies, which is way more movies than I have ever heard of in peoples movie collection. The best part is though, if I run out of space I can always add more. The rest of the job is done by the Apple TV.

For those of you that don’t know, Apple TV is this little media playing device for you TV. It takes all your media from iTunes, and plays it on your TV. You can either sync your media to the Apple TV’s hard drive, or stream it over your wired Internet, or Wi Fi connection. It even lets you watch YouTube, subscribe to podcast, and rent movies straight from your TV. To learn more about Apple TV watch the guided tour on it here.

I have my Apple TV set up to sync my music and photos to the hard drive, and to stream my movies from my movie server. I named the server “Movie Machine”. Once I throw the movie into iTunes on the server, BOOM, I can watch it whenever I want on my HDTV. Plus, the Apple TV up converts all my movies to 720p(which is high definition) so movies look awesome on my TV, especially newer movies which are shot in HD.

So there it is. It might of sounded complicated but it’s really not. I just get it, rip it, move it, and then I can watch it. The great thing about this is though I really have unlimited movies at the cost of my Netflix subscription and the hardware investment. As soon as I rip that movie I have it, it’s mine forever. I can watch it whenever I want. Even if I decided no more netflix I still have all my movies, they are mine now. I have recently started ripping my own personnel DVDs to my digital collection and as of right now I have about 65 movies. That number undoubtedly grows every week as I get more movies in the mail.