well_armed Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 I am unhappy with C4 media management; and I just don't think they will ever get their act together and create the streaming integration we need.I and my wife (and like a lot of other people), use iTunes for all our music/tv shows/movies. Having them located on the NAS, and on iTunes, and in C4, and in ____….gets to be too confusing and a pain in the ass for users. If my wife buys Curious George episodes in iTunes, there is no way for her to play them through C4 (you cannot rely on your customers to manage a NAS or other complicated device reliably). Obviously not everyone uses iTunes, but I bet a lot of people who buy C4 do.iTunes Match is going to change everything. Obviously its only music, but it will be only a few months before they start integrating it with tv shows and purchased movies. it is just too tempting to not jump onto the iTunes match bandwagon and have everything available (from a cloud service) to any iOS device and computer running iTunes.Rhapsody and Pandora type web apps are growing because people are moving away from large physical music libraries. This will also happen with movies/tv shows, etc. But for the meantime, I think I have found a good solution with Apple TV and its ability to play iTunes libraries from local networked computers (with iTunes turned on)The mobile device is becoming the center of our digital lives. Integrate and profit.Apple TV-your music is synced with iTunes match-You can access your wifes iTunes library as long as her computer is on-If you download a tv show on the device, TV shows are accessible in the cloud an iTunes matching on your iOS devices (and vice versa)-This means that you can download a show on a phone/computer/ipad and can immediately play it on the Apple TV-It has streaming content, and Netflix has a ton of kids contentI am converting every one of my movies to 720p using handbrake to work well with ATV2. I don't really need 1080p 40GB files, as its unrealistic to think I won't run out of space on the NAS.Managing a NAS (especially in C4) is just too painful and buggy. I just don't have the time to physically build my library anymore (ripping purchased discs), I would rather pay for digital content which gives me instant gratification. C4 is going to just do what they do best, turn on devices and control volume, etc. I am going to let the pros manage my media...More to come. I will post some pics of the system up and running.I can pick up a C4 remote and control Apple TV, or I can use one of the 12 iOS devices I have lying around and use the native Apple Remote (which is awesome btw). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_armed Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_armed Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 I have my main iTunes library reside on a Mac Server (mac mini).Since I have a ton of content, it wont all fit on my laptop and I need it to be open and available on the network at all times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_armed Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 I honestly think that Apple and Google are going to be the only ones who can monetize and make the studios happy. This means they will dominate the streaming media industry. Have an Android phone? No problem, get a Google TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 W-A. I totally agree with everything you say (again)! Quick questionIs there any way of pulling all this together without itunes match? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_armed Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 Right now, match is only for music. But it is only a matter of time before they do tv shows, then movies...after they get more content from the studios. Their music store is fully baked, so that obviously is where they started.If you only have one computer/ios device and it can hold all your itunes files, then yes, you don't need itunes match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_armed Posted December 12, 2011 Author Share Posted December 12, 2011 So far so good. It's actually performing better than I thought.My parents visited for dinner tonight and my mother was able to play a home movie recorded on her iPhone on my television utilizing AirPlay. Pretty sweet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitalcore Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 The problem with streaming though.. is that its streaming. Unlike from a hard drive, streaming takes up bandwidth and has huge network overhead.I too am frustrated with the C4 media management. C4 not being able to import an iTunes XML playlist is just unacceptable.Sonos would be a good option for you as well. Which can import an iTunes XML file and even read from the active one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdepaola Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Itunes match rocks on ATV now that it does movies and tv series as well. Now if it only did IP control Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_armed Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Yup, that would be cool, but it doesn't distract from their experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I 100% agree with the very first sentence of the OP..."I am unhappy with C4 media management; and I just don't think they will ever get their act together and create the streaming integration we need."The problem here is the content providers. And their 'locked in' legal contracts they continue to sign with certain manufacturers. Thats the problem. Content is *not* open source. For Apple content, I tried, then went back to running straight from iTunes. Sure I'm only running this in one zone (it's all I need), and I'm not using a remote, but this works for me. Running a computer also allows me to easily view other content I can't easily get into Control4. I can't see any way around this problem right now. All users can do is continually request for direct control of iTunes, Vudu, Hulu, Netflix or whatever. That is individual Control4 apps that run these program's from Navigator. Now this maybe near on impossible to do, but until that day, we will all continue to have a dog's breakfast for a media player. They *could* do this. If they wanted to. But Control4 ...the company..would need to spend up big, to develop these apps, and more importantly sign some very expensive contracts with content providers, to make this happen. And I'm sorry to say, like Well_Armed, I can't ever see that happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_armed Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Since apple added movies to the cloud, it really has made my switch to full itunes integration a no brainer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdepaola Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_The_Lucky Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Agreed with W_A on this thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wappinghigh Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Since apple added movies to the cloud, it really has made my switch to full itunes integration a no brainer.Does that mean you are now no longer using a matrix? And have converted all mkv's etc with handbrake? Or have you hacked your Apple TV's?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Since apple added movies to the cloud' date=' it really has made my switch to full itunes integration a no brainer.[/quote']Does that mean you are now no longer using a matrix? And have converted all mkv's etc with handbrake? Or have you hacked your Apple TV's?...I think he means iCloud.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well_armed Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 I have converted everything to mp4 using handbrake.I no longer buy physical DVDs. No reason to unless it isn't on iTunes or Netflix, even then I can just wait until it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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