Solution Spheres

Using Apple technologies (and possibly others) to create a seamless digital lifestyle for home and business.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Video EVERYWHERE!

1. Video on your iPod
While you still can't view video directly on the iPod screen (sorry, but "The Matrix" looks foolish in 2-inch widescreen) I have played video from the iPod on a Mac. Here's how:
- taped an episode of one of my TV shows using the El Gato EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0
- exported the video "for the web" as a QuickTime movie
- copied that file to my iPod
- plugged in the iPod to another Mac
- opened the file from the iPod in QuickTime

Obviously this process could be partly automated. While I could do it in AppleScript right now, using El Gato's thorough documentation, I'm going to wait for Automator.
Also, Apple doesn't recommend you use the iPod for things like video, because the hard drives are not really designed for such heavy usage... Driving video tends to make the drive constantly work. The iPod uses RAM cache to allow the HD to rest for periods.

2. Video on your wall
Want to watch all that cool video content you illegally downloaded, er, *legally* purchased on your shiny new walls? First you'll want to buy a projector, right? Yeah, I can't afford one either. So build one!
Once you've got the hardware figured out, you'll want to be able to play any sort of video full screen. DVD's automatically show up full screen on the mac. But if you've got other stuff, you'll need something extra. For example, I've been recording old VHS tapes using the EyeTV and Mac mini. I'd like to transfer those to my iBook, so I can watch them on the big video projector at work.

Personally I like QuickTime Pro, because not only does it enable fullscreen movie viewing, but it allows you to export out a variety of formats... I'll dish more on QT pro later. The downside is that it's $30.

To accomplish the same thing, check out Cellulo. It's free, plays fullscreen, allows scaling, and does a whole lot more.

3. Video in your Palm
There's a process of conversion involved, but Kinoma makes a nifty product that allows you to move your movies into any Palm OS device (running OS 5).

What's really cool about this? Imagine recording a how-to, family video, or again, something off the TV using the EyeTV. Now you can have that in your pocket, but unlike the iPod solution, you can actually watch the thing on the go!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home