Apple releases Bonjour update

I just purchased an Apple TV and will be getting it in a few days. I have been ripping DVD's furiously with HandBrake and saving them to a 1 TB external harddrive connected to my iMac using Firewire 400.

I'm hoping someone can help me with my most desired use of the aTV - which is streaming movies from my external HD to my aTV. Do I HAVE to move the movies from my external HD into iTunes on my iMac OR is there a way to stream them direct from my external HD?

I guess the main problem is that I have 600 GB of movies but my iMac hard drive is only 320 GB, whereas my external HD is 1 TB.

Please help, thanks!

I use Handbrake to rip my original DVD. Since the update, i can't get certain files to be copied over to ATV using iTunes.

The files will play in iTunes but get an error message when trying to sync them to ATV saying "**Film Name** was not copied to the Apple TV because it cannot be played on this Apple TV.

Any ideas anyone?

Using latest version of Handbrake and latest version of everything else.

There doesn't appear to be a PPC update. Is it affected or not?

On the ATV front, this works great in my house. I keep an old Powerbook running with itunes and it keeps the family's music, movies and tv shows in sync. I just wish ATV had user profiles so one person's viewing doesn't mark another's as viewed. Also, why does itunes have an option to sync 1 or 3 shows and not 2? If I'm going to watch a tv show I usually watch 2 shows and don't have room for all shows to sync 3.

The setup:

MythTV with an HDHomerun and a custom app I wrote automatically transcodes the recorded hd shows and imports them into itunes. Shows are scheduled through the MythTV web interface.

Movies are loaded in from handbrake.

Music comes from either the itunes store or amazon... whichever is cheaper.

I was hoping my iTunes would now recognize my ethernet-connected AppleTV (which it hasn't lately). It may be because there is an ethernet switch between my Mac and ATV that's causing the issue. Wirelessly, it connects fine -- but quite slow considering it is far from my AirPort Extreme N. Any guidance would be helpful.

Oh, and FWIW, I really do like my AppleTV as a family room media player/rental machine. It has high 'wife factor' acceptance.

I use an xbox 360 with 360 connect and am able to perform essentially all the same functions of an apple tv without spending any money on new hardware. It's an alternative if you are in the market for a cheap but powerful media center solution.

Regarding the software update that was the subject of the post, I've found it to - so far - completely eliminate the hiccups/stuttering/silence that often accompanied streaming audio through the AppleTV. Since this is how I use it primarily, my initial impression is that this update may have rid me of my biggest complaint about the device!

Video Monkey http://videomonkey.org is what you're looking for to transcode for iTunes/AppleTV/iPod.

Its basically Visualhub, but has a feature that adds metadata too.

Only thing I cant figure out is how to keep the 5.1 audio.

Good lord, you're a writer. It's "supposed to."

Have you tried Handbrake, It converts most formats to mp4. I also use iTunes itself if if it's .mov.

That being said, I too love my apple tv but have replaced it with a Mac Mini running plex. Awesome once you set it up. The ATV, with any regular use seems to need to be reset at least once a week. I find that if I try to run some Higher Def movies, it seems to stutter a little bit. At first I thought it was maybe the bitrate was a little low, but turns out the Mini runs it perfectly.

The ATV, could be a wonderful device (and is for standard def) but it is starting to show its age. It seriously needs some speed and memory bumps as movies get higher in definition. A 1 Ghz machine just struggles with HD Content.

I had lots of problems with ATV and then ran ethernet to it,and ever since it has been rock solid.

I DO wish that it could pull photos off of my iphoto library in real time, instead of having to push the albums you want to the device. would make it much more useful when we have guests over and they want to see a certain album that's not synced. If it can stream video, why not stills?