One of my favourite devices revisited this week - the Apple TV. Now revitalised with a brand new software update, this is the Apple TV Take 2.

As announced at this years Macworld, Apple have released a brand new software update for the Apple TV that turns it into an amazing entertainment hub for the Living Room. For the first time, the Apple TV no longer needs a Mac or PC and can function as a network connected media center. This weeks full Extra Members show takes you through some of the new features of this ground breaking device including:

• Installing the Apple TV Software Update
• The Revised Interface for Movies, TV Shows and Music
• Podcasts On Demand
• Viewing Photos via .Mac Web Galleries
• Viewing Photos via Flickr
• Adding Flickr Contacts
• iTunes Automatic Sync
• iTunes Custom Sync
• AirTunes in the Apple TV

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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You'll really need to concentrate for this weeks show! I covered this topic many moons ago and it was in fact, the very first pseudo members only show but before we had the Extra! membership scheme!

This week is all about searching, accessing and downloading from the amazing wealth of content that's available from the UseNet binary groups.

There's an awful lot packed into this week's show so you'll need your wits about you. The show covers:

Usenet - All about UseNet
GigaNews - A commercial UseNet host service
NewzBin - A Commercial UseNet Indexing service
iGrabNews - A brilliant newsgroup reader with support for NZB files
MacPar Deluxe - A great par checker and unpacker
Split & ConCat - A concatenation utility

By the end of the show you'll have a good idea on how to harness the power of the UseNet binary groups and fully understand how to access and download tons of content.

As promised, here are the links for the various services and software packages described in the show:

GigaNews
NewzBin
NB Since the original show was published, NewzBin have temporarily stopped taking new members. This may have changed again by the time you read this update! If you can't join NewzBin, check out the ScreenCastsOnline forum post for some alternatives.
iGrabNews
MacPar Deluxe
Split & ConCat



Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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Yes, it's only just been released, but I thought you might like a quick overview!

This week's show takes a look at the new YouTube integration delivered for free to your Apple TV. Instead of crouching over your Mac watching postage stamp sized, badly encoded video clips, you can now watch them in your living room on your HD TV in h.264 goodness.

OK, so it's not quite HD quality but it's a much improved user experience.

Take a look and see if it's enough to make you finally decide to get the Apple TV - This is the first of many upgrades and additions that are slated to occur over the next two years following Apples recent change in accounting practice. This means that can add functionality to existing devices without having to charge for it and still remain within the bounds of corporate governance (or something like that!).

Also this week, my good buddy Victor over at the Typical Mac User Podcast has asked me to co-host this weeks live podcast with him on Talkshoe - the interactive podcast. If you've not used Talkshoe before, it's a great service that allows you to host a fully interactive podcast to a live audience and includes a live chat room and the ability to telephone in and chat with the hosts. This weeks show is on Sunday 24th June at 5pm PST, 8pm EST and 1am for me over in the UK. I'll be staying up late with some strong coffee and I'd love for as many ScreenCastsOnline viewers to join in.

The screencast gives a quick overview of Talkshoe and shows you how to get setup for Sunday.

If you don't want to participate directly (or if it's too late for you!) you can listen live or download the podcast once it's finished.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

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Yes, the 100th show!

Thanks for all the support and good wishes from everyone which has made reaching this milestone possible!

This week is a double episode covering two very distinctly different product areas.

Elgato turbo.264 Video Encoder - The first is the new hardware based H.264 video encoder from Elgato. This innocuous and inexpensive piece of kit plugs into a spare USB 2 port on your Mac and turbocharges your H.264 video encoding with amazing results. If you do any amount of video encoding for your iPod or Apple TV you must watch this screencast!

You'll be amazed at how cheaply you can double, treble or even quadruple your video encoding speed, even on an older Mac!

Product Link

OmniPlan - The second part of the screencast is all about the Project Management application OnmniPlan from Omni Group. I don't usually cover business based applications in ScreenCastsOnline, so this is a bit of an experiment. If you like it, let me know and I'll cover some more business applications.

OmniPlan is another of those Omni Group applications that just works and make planning on the Mac a pleasure!

The screencast covers the basic UI and functions of OmniPlan and leads you through making a simple project plan. I also cover some of the exporting features on OmniPlan.

As mentioned in the screencast, you can get a 10% discount of the usual price of OmniPlan by using the coupon code SCREENCASTPLAN when buying via the online store (valid up to 15th July 2007.

Product Link

As mentioned in the show, as a celebration of the 100th episode, I'm releasing both the Hi Definition version (1280x720) and the Enhanced Definition (960x540) for freedownload together with a time limited offer of a discounted Extra! membership offer. Please follow this link to download the HD shows and check out the details of the discounted membership offer.

Discussions: Forum

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Did you know that your Mac comes with the power to be part of a multiprocessor supercomputer, straight out of the box!

Yes, included as part of OSX (Tiger 10.4) your Mac has access to Xgrid, software developed by Apple's Advanced Computation Group which allows you to group and access a network of Macs and share the under utilised processing power using Distributed Computing technology!

What's even better is it's pretty easy to setup (at least if you follow this screencast!).

But why would you want to do this?

Have you got an Apple TV?
Do you encode or convert lots of video?

Well Xgrid is fully supported by VisualHub, one of the video converters demonstrated in SCO0095 - How to Get Videos Onto Apple TV. So if you have a few spare Macs, you can create your own Xgrid network at no cost and speed up the encoding process significantly.

Check out the screencast for a brief explanation of the technology and a walk through guide on setting up your own Xgrid network.

Even if you don't want to set Xgrid up, it's pretty cool technology and yet another reason why we love the Mac so much!

Here are some of the links as mentioned in the show:

GeekMeetsGirl - VisualHub Xgrid Enabler
Xgrid Wikipedia Entry
Apple Server Admin Tools
Apple Xgrid Page
VisualHub Forums

Discussions: Forum

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It's the first week of the month so it must be an Extra! members only show!

This week I follow up with part 2 on the Apple TV. Last week I looked at a basic overview of its setup and operation, this week I look at getting content onto the Apple TV. This is incredibly important for those of us outside of the US with no access to video content from the iTunes store except for video podcasts.

So this week I look at:

* Moving your iTunes Library to Airport Extreme and External Drives
* When to sync and when to stream
* Configuring your Apple TV
* Using video "watched" status to automagically manage your Apple TV content
* Ripping and Converting DVDs to Movies
* Creating and Installing DVD cover art
* Using your Mac as a PVR and importing TV shows into Apple TV
* Using Bittorrent to find TV Shows on the Internet
* Converting TV Shows to play on Apple TV
* Accessing hidden MP4 metadata to organisise videos and add special tags

So as you can see, it's another pretty packed show running to over 40 minutes of content.

You'll need to be an Extra! member to get this weeks show (it's the usual monthly Extra! only show). Get yourself a membership to make sure you don't miss out - full details here And don't forget, Extra! members get access to this show (and over 70 other shows) in Apple TV compatible HD format - that's 720p or 1280x720 - to watch ScreenCastsOnline in HD on your Apple TV.

Here are some links mentioned in the show:

Handbrake/Mediafork
VisualHub
EyeTV
tvRSS
xTorrent
Lostify

Also in the show, I mention the new ScreenCastsOnline Affiliate scheme, a free way for you to promote ScreenCastsOnline and get rewarded in the process! If you're interested in taking part in this new scheme, checkout the details here

Discussions: Forum

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Well at long last, the Apple TV has finally hit the UK! Following on from the anticipation, does the Apple TV match the hype? Find out by watching this weeks show which takes you through the basic setup and usage of Apple TV.

Using live video capture and screencaptures, I take you through the process of setting up an Apple TV, the basic menu structure, syncing with iTunes, streaming from other computers, basically everything you need to know about the Apple TV.

Next week, I'll be looking at some cool utilities and tools that help you get your own content on the Apple TV, especially useful if you're not in the US as we don't get TV shows or Movies from the iTunes store anyway! You'll need to be an Extra! member to get get next weeks show (it's the usual monthly Extra! only show). Get yourself a membership to make sure you don't miss out - full details here

Also in the show, I mention the new ScreenCastsOnline Affiliate scheme, a free way for you to promote ScreenCastsOnline and get rewarded in the process! If you're interested in taking part in this new scheme, checkout the details here

Discussions: Forum

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