[Nomar1245]

I'm getting an AppleTV 2G shortly and I would like to access my current media collection from it. My XBMC setup has 800+ movies and 6600 TV Episodes.

I'd love to be able to access this same collection on my new Apple TV device. The problem is that they are mostly in AVI format. I'd say all videos, save for 50 are in AVI format. The rest are MKV, MP4, and DIVX format.

I'd like to convert everyting, to H.264 or MP4 so I use it with XBMC and Apple TV, but I have a few concerns:

1) I'd like to be able to keep the same quality
2) I don't want to have all my files double in size. I'd say a 15-20% increase is as high as I'm willing to accept
3) Most importantly I want my collection re-main XBMC compatible.

There is a lot of upside to this for me if I can do it. I'd have my entire collection iPhone, iPod, and, hopefully one day, iPad compatible on top of being able to use XBMC and Apple TV in simultaneously.

Edit:

Additionally: Does anyone know of good software that can accommodate my requests.(Same quality, similar size, etc..)
Also I noticed title is dumb. Sorry

[apeg]

I'm getting an AppleTV 2G shortly and I would like to access my current media collection from it. My XBMC setup has 800+ movies and 6600 TV Episodes.

I'd love to be able to access this same collection on my new Apple TV device. The problem is that they are mostly in AVI format. I'd say all videos, save for 50 are in AVI format. The rest are MKV, MP4, and DIVX format.

I'd like to convert everyting, to H.264 or MP4 so I use it with XBMC and Apple TV, but I have a few concerns:

1) I'd like to be able to keep the same quality
2) I don't want to have all my files double in size. I'd say a 15-20% increase is as high as I'm willing to accept
3) Most importantly I want my collection re-main XBMC compatible.

There is a lot of upside to this for me if I can do it. I'd have my entire collection iPhone, iPod, and, hopefully one day, iPad compatible on top of being able to use XBMC and Apple TV in simultaneously.

Edit:

Additionally: Does anyone know of good software that can accommodate my requests.(Same quality, similar size, etc..)
Also I noticed title is dumb. Sorry

humm this may be a better question for an encoding forum... but re-encoding your entire collection for apple TV sounds crazy. i havnt run into anything XBMC cant play, so if it works on apply TV it will work on XBMC.

but ill stress again, re-encoding your entire collection for mac is nutz... it was a big thing a while ago to switch over apple TV units to XBMC because its better lol

the codecs that most videos/shows are released in is for a reasons. Size/Quality ratios are @ their peek. try encoding a few things, im sure once you get into it you will see how difficult encoding can be, especially if you are maximizing quality while minimizing size

solution: think twice b4 spending a cr*p load of money on an inferior product :-)

[Nomar1245]

Here's the thing tho. I'm not trying to choose one over the other. I want them to be able to work together. If I'm using Netflix or AirPlay I don't want to have to switch over to use another. Additionally, I'd like to have the change of pace. I love XBMC and would never get rid of it, but sometime I just want to use something different.

I guess I'm more interested to know if anyone knows of quality software that will make a conversion were audio, video, file size, and resolution.

If I could just delete the .avi extension and make it mp4 I would because it makes more sense to do so than not, if it were that simple.

[stoli]

If you have a mac you can jailbreak the iTV and use Plex - that will transcode the avi's on the fly...

[Nomar1245]

If you have a mac you can jailbreak the iTV and use Plex - that will transcode the avi's on the fly...

I do have one and I did consider that, but my media is stored on a Windows computer internally, so I think the video will be choppy having to go from one computer to another to trans-coding to AppleTV

[stoli]

I'd give it a try though... It's been a while since I've transcoded anything, but iirc you are looking at a TON of time to convert your library; like 30 min to an hour per vid.

[poofyhairguy]

The program you are looking for is Handbrake, but you are gonna need a Quad Core and like a month of CPU time to convert such a library.

[darkscout]

ZumoCast, if the server these is on has a good enough CPU. It'll do the trans coding live. Has an iPad & iPhone/iPod Touch app. I'm sure they'll have something for the Apple TV soon.

[waldo22]

The program you are looking for is Handbrake

I'll second that...

http://www.handbrake.fr

[DejaVu]

I do not know as much about Apple's as I should, but if your unable to play AVI's on it, I'd have Jailbroken it ages ago. Why are they limiting it to MP4's etc, probably due to DRM videos.

Get free of Apple's cage here

[Nomar1245]

The program you are looking for is Handbrake, but you are gonna need a Quad Core and like a month of CPU time to convert such a library.

I do have an 3.5 GHz Quad Core CPU, and I did anticipate it taking a good amount of time, so I'd do it in phases. Things I watch the most ---> things I watch the least.

It'll be a sort of side project.

Thanks for the help though. For some reason I didn't even consider handbrake. I guess I mostly eliminated everything I'd use to convert to a specific format (ie iPhone, iPod, PSP, etc.) because I don't want to change the size or scale of them.

Thanks again. This is one of those major DUH sort of moments.

I do not know as much about Apple's as I should, but if your unable to play AVI's on it, I'd have Jailbroken it ages ago. Why are they limiting it to MP4's etc, probably due to DRM videos.

Get free of Apple's cage here

I know what you mean. I have jailbroken my iPhone's and iPod Touch, but at the moment I don't see a reason useful enough for me to do it now to the Apple TV 2G