Choosing a standard??

[jingo_man]

i am not new to encoding videos - i have all of my library converted into divx or xvid format, using primarily gordion knot as the tool of choice.

i have upgraded my tv to an hdtv and am now at a crossroads. i have also bought an appletv, so started encoding a few dvd's, using handbrake, to .m4v to import into itunes.

however, i am unsure of the capabilities of this device and the need for an active itunes library to connect to. it allows up to level 3.1 main profiles. wanting to maintain quality (rather than compression), is this an acceptable level to future proof myself for upcoming HD content?

a friend has a ps3, and having looked into this, it only seems capable of playing level 4.1 high profile content (unless its from the blu-ray drive). how much better, in real terms, is this? the max bitrate i can get out of appletv is 2500kbps. what would be the preferred?

so my questions are:
1. is it worth encoding my entire library to level 3.1, main profile content at this time? is there noticeable difference to 4.1?
2. is the appletv a worthy competitor in the market? if not, what are the best alternatives?
3. should i reencode or just mux the dvd source material?
4. audio streams. is it best to maintain an ac3 or aac? compatability sounds like biggest issue.
5. best encoding or muxing tools? handbrake seems easier to use and all films will play at the end. all attempts to use megui have failed for the appletv (think this is to do with the pd-appletv being incorrect)

[cross_syd]

1. no, it is fine
2. tivo, logitech, sony
3. don't understand?
4. depends on your appletv support (i don't have one, google for its support)
5. super for encoding,

[ArdenDag]

so my questions are:
1. is it worth encoding my entire library to level 3.1, main profile content at this time? is there noticeable difference to 4.1?
2. is the appletv a worthy competitor in the market? if not, what are the best alternatives?
3. should i reencode or just mux the dvd source material?
4. audio streams. is it best to maintain an ac3 or aac? compatability sounds like biggest issue.
5. best encoding or muxing tools? handbrake seems easier to use and all films will play at the end. all attempts to use megui have failed for the appletv (think this is to do with the pd-appletv being incorrect)

Well, first of all, you seem a little more knowledgable, you should ask in the HD forums/Software player forums. There are currently some threads which may be of interest to you already:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=76655
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=129030

Also, it depends a lot on what hardware player you will be using for your TV. Are you using your computer as your frameserver? Or will you be *re*encoding into a DVD/HD-DVD/Blue-Ray to play on a hardware player connected via analog into your TV? The content you have on your computer may not even be of a sufficient quality to warrant being viewed on an HDTV as well, so you may be forced to re-encode to get HDTV quality, but you did not specify bitrates/sizes of your videos.

Good luck
Arden

[jingo_man]

thanks for the replies, guys.

ok, so a 3.1 profile seems to be a good standard then. thats great - i didnt want to have to go back through my library in the not-too-distant future and encode it all again at a higher level! i am, however, still mainly mucking about with SD MPEG2 content, with an anamorphic aspect ratio maintaining the 720x576 PAL ratio, which scales to 1024x576 on playback.

in answer, ardendag, i use the appletv and sync it with my itunes library over the LAN and it connects to tv via hdmi. this would be preferred as all media will be "under 1 roof", but it does have its limitations! but it seems all devices have some drawback or other...

the appletv seems to have caching issues with playback. think this will require further analysis (could be networking issues, processing issues of either device, too higher quality of the mpeg4 files) but i am still unconvinced that this is the definitive, preferred device!