Media tools for Mac

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player offers a simple way to store and move your movies/videos, photos,  and music from your PC or Mac computer to your TV, allowing you to watch, share  and enjoy your digital media files in comfort. Have you ever thought about  using the 1080p media player to play back Blu-ray movies with 1080p  video and surround sound audio? Supposing you have not found an available  solution, then this article may be of some help for you. It provides Mac users  with a workaround on how to watch Blu-ray with Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD  Media Player by using Pavtube Mac Blu-ray to Seagate FreeAgent  Theater+ Converter. Go to see a detailed guide in the following  contents.

Step-by-step guide:

How  to watch Blu-ray movie with Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player? （for Mac）

Briefly speaking, to watch Blu-ray with Seagate FreeAgent  Theater+, what you need do is just decrypting the copy protection applied in a commercial  BD movie, and play the M2TS streams directly, or you can rip Blu-ray to Seagate  FreeAgent Theater+ supported other HD formats to use less storage space of your  external hard drive. The details of the two methods are listed as below.

For your reference:
Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD Media Player supported video  formats:
MPEG–1,  MPEG–2 (VOB/ISO), MPEG–4 (Xvid), DivX®, DivX HD+ , Xvid HD, AVI, MOV, MKV, RMVB  Real Media, AVC HD, H.264, WMV9, VC–1, M2TS, TS/TP/M2T

Method 1: Do “Full Disk  Copy” to remain Blu-ray originals.

Step 1: Click “BD/DVD  Folder” to load your Blu-ray movie files

Step 2: Do “Full Disk  Copy” to rip Blu-ray to Seagate   FreeAgent Theater+ 
Once your source BD movie files are loaded, you can  directly click “Full Disk Copy” to rip Blu-ray to Seagate FreeAgent Theater+.   

Step 3: Click “Start”  button to start Blu-ray full disk copying
As long as you click “Full Disk Copy” icon of Mac Blu-ray Converter for Seagate FreeAgent  Theater+, a dialog window will pop up, just click the “Start”  button on it to begin Blu-ray copying.

Step 4: Click “Open”  button to get the final output files
Once the copying task is finished, you can click “Open”  button to get the final output M2TS files to your Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD  Media Player for playback.

Method 2: Convert Blu-ray movies to a HD format that is compatible with Seagate FreeAgent   Theater+ HD Media Player

Step 1: Click “BD/DVD  Folder” to import your Blu-ray movie files

Step 2: Select output  format for Seagate   FreeAgent Theater+  HD Media Player
Click on the pull down menu of “Format”, and then tap on “HD  Video”, after that you will see there are lots of HD video formats available,  including H.264 HD Video, MPEG-2 HD Video, DivX HD Video, MPEG-4 HD Video, MKV  HD Video, and more. We choose “H.264 HD Video (*.mp4)” as an example.

Step 3: Customize video  and audio settings
Pavtube Mac Blu-ray to Seagate FreeAgent  Theater+ Converter allows users clicking “Settings” button to adjust audio  and video parameters. The options including codec name, aspect ratio, bit rate,  frame rate, sample rate and audio channel are all adjustable in the following  pop up window.

Step 4: Rip Blu-ray to Seagate FreeAgent Theater+  HD Media Player
Click “Convert” button to rip Blu-ray to Seagate FreeAgent  Theater+ with Pavtube Mac  Blu-ray movie to Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ Converter. Once the ripping task is  completed, you can click “Open” button to get the converted Blu-ray files. By  then copying these files to your external hard drive, and placing it into the  Theater+ HD media player. Once you connect your external hard drive with your  HDTV, your favorite Blu-ray movies are at your fingertips with 1080p video and  surround sound audio. Just watch Blu-ray with Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD  Media Player for more fun.

For win Users: How to play Blu-ray with Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ HD  Media Player?

Take web browser, better messaging and contact management, excellent call quality and long  talk time aside, its 3.7-inch,854×480 screen makes Motorola Droid X  perfect for watching HD movies,camera footage,TV shows,music videos,and more. However,because  of copyright and format issues, to play commercial Blu-ray and DVD movies on this amazing  device is not an easy thing. You have to use a blue ray ripper mac to remove  copy protections as well as ripping them to Motorola Droid X compatible format.This  tutorial intends to show you the best way to experience Blu-ray and DVD movies  on your Droid X with Pavtube Mac bluray to Droid X Converter,please feel free to check the following detailed instruction.

Step 1: Download, install and launch Pavtube Mac bluray to Motorola Droid X Converter
Once  launched it, you can click “BD/DVD Folder” or “IFO File” to load  Blu-ray/DVD files.

Step 2:  Select subtitle and audio track
Click pull down menu of “Subtitle” and  “Audio” to select your needed subtitle and audio track respectively.The drop-down list will show you all the info clearly, including language and  stream ID of subtitle, language, audio codec, audio ID, and channel of audio.  You can choose one according to your own requirement. The preview window will  show you the changes in real time.

Step 3: Select output  format for Droid X
Click the drop-down  menu of “Format”, and then follow “Common Video H.264 Video (*.mp4)”.

Step 4: Do optimal settings
Click”Settings”  button to optimize video and audio parameters, the optimal settings of  Pavtube blue ray ripper  mac for Droid X are recommended as below:

Optimal  Video and audio settings:
Video  codec: H.264 MP4
Size (resolution): 848*480pix
Bit rate: 2500kbps
Frame rate: 24fps
Audio codec: AAC
Sample rate: 48khz
Bit rate: 64kbps/ 96kbps/ 128kbps
Channels: Stereo

The above mentioned settings will ensure you a perfect playback quality at full screen, without frame skipping and any video/audio out of sync issues.If you prefer a smaller file size, just  adjust the video bit rate down to 1,500kbps and it will still look well while watching  on the screen.

Step  5: Start ripping Blu-ray and DVD movie to watch on Droid X with Pavtube Bluray to Droid X Converter Mac
Once all settings  are done, you can click “Convert” button to start Blu-ray and DVD  ripping.
The output MP4 files can be found out via clicking “Open” button  effortlessly, what you should do next is adding  the MP4 files to the SD card and enjoy them freely on Motorola Droid X.

Learn more about Bluray to Motorola Droid X Converter for Windows.

For some reasons, I haven’t made full use of my 40GB Apple  TV in the last 2 years. Recently, I have more spare time to do so, and would  like to use it in my living room with my wide screen TV to enjoy its  functionality fully. It works fine to playback all the files I throw at it, but  40GB is too confining for all my photos and music, not to mention my movies and  other video collection. To solve this problem, once I have to make my Mac Pro  and iTunes running to stream all my data to the Apple TV. It seems a bit troublesome,  I dislike it. So I look for a solution to expand the capacity of my Apple TV. Via  Google, I’ve found some useful articles talking about this issue, and I  followed them, and finally successfully upgrade the hard drive of the Apple TV lately.  Here I’d like to document my process below, but before that, I’d like to show  my gratitude to people who I’ve got useful info from their articles, even  though I can not remember their exactly names now.

In summary, the process is relatively simple, a small 40GB  hard drive can be freely replaced, thus becomes a DIY Apple TV.

Dismantle the Apple TV, remove the hard drive, and connect  it to an Intel Mac Pro via WiebeTech Forensic DriveDock or other 2.5-inch hard  drive FireWire bridge. Start the Mac, and you will see that hard drive  partition of Apple TV is structured as follows:

/dev/disk5

#: type name size identifier

0: GUID_partition_scheme *37.3 GB disk5

1: EFI 34.0 MB disk5s1

2: 400.0 MB disk5s2

3: Apple_HFS OSBoot 900.0 MB disk5s3

4: Apple_HFS Media 36.0 GB disk5s4

400MB of space which could be used to store the system  restore data. Extract overall image via CopyCatX, and recover them to a new  hard drive which you want to change back. I found lots of people like using a  Western Digital 120GB WD1200VE hard drive. Install the new hard drive to Apple  TV, and in the test, you will find the system continues to recognize only 40GB  of space, because the partition information is the same with the original 40GB  hard drive. But in fact, there are more than 70GB of space not being used.

Remove the new hard drive to re-connect to the Mac, and  allocate the unused more than 70GB space to the Media partition with the help  of iPartition or other partitioning software. Be careful, not to change the EFI  or the other 400MB partition.

After install it back to the Apple TV, all the 107GB space  will be recognized completely, you are done!

Now I’m able to store more photos, movies, music, and television shows on the  Apple TV. But when it comes to video playback, Apple TV has strict formats  limitation, it caused troubles again, and I have to convert all my videos to  Apple TV formats .mp4 and .mov in advance. However, this does not the most  important thing I’m concerned, because I have already have a video converter on  my Mac Pro, and my most intention is to watch my Blu-ray on it. Fortunately,  via Google again, I get an available Blu-ray Ripper for Mac to  meet my needs, which is able to run on Mac independently as long as you have an  external BD drive. To keep HD quality as well as compress BD size, I usually  select HD video as my output option. A great product, I like it. Besides this,  it seems there are also another version developed for Windows user, attached  this BD ripper here, maybe  it’s your choice.

Well, by the way, Apple installed Fujitsu hard drives in  original, and this could be due to their relatively small power and heat  consumption, so when replacing the hard drive, you can also take this factor  into account. In addition, the replacement of the hard disk will let you lost  product warranty, please proceed with caution.

Wanna make better use of  the 3.7-inch 854 x 480 touchscreen display of Motorola Droid, or the larger  4.3-inch 854×480 screen of the new Motorola Droid X to watch videos, DVDs and  Blu-rays? If so, you may come to the right place, because this article intends to  provide Mac users with a solution on how to [http://www.pavtube.com/guide/convert-videos-dvds-blu-rays-to-motorola-droid-x-on-mac.html]convert videos, DVDs and  Blu-rays to Motorola Droid X and Motorola Droid. Just feel free to see if  it is what you are looking for.

Required  software:
Pavtube  iMedia Converter for Mac
The reason why we choose  this program is that it performs very well to transfer videos, DVDs and Blu-rays  to Motorola Droid X, and many other Android smartphones, such as HTC Hero, Nexus  One, HTC  Evo 4G, Motorola Droid and so on.

Step-by-step  guide:
Convert Videos, rip DVDs and blurays to Motorola Droid x and Motorola Droid on Mac?

Step  1: Download, install and run Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac
Once run it, click “Add  Video” to load different video files, like TiVo, MKV, MTS/M2TS, FLV, etc. or  click “BD/DVD Folder” to import standard DVD or Blu-ray movie files, or click “IFO  File” to load general DVD files. Once movie files are loaded, you are ready to convert  videos, DVDs and Blu-rays to Motorola Droid X and Motorola Droid on Mac.

Step  2: Select output format for Motorola Droid X or Motorola Droid
Click on the drop-down list of “Format”, and then follow “Android”  > “Motorola Droid (X) MPEG-4 Video (*.mp4)”. This format is specialized for  both Motorola Droid X and Motorola Droid, which enables you to watch videos, DVDs and  Blu-rays on Motorola Droid without troubles.

Step 3: Set advanced  settings
When convert videos, DVDs and Blu-rays to Motorola Droid X  and Motorola Droid by using Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac, you are allowed  to adjust audio and video settings in your own ways, including codec name, bit  rate, frame rate, aspect ratio, sample rate and audio channel. Supposing you  are not experienced in adjusting these settings, you can totally skip this step  by using the default settings. The default settings will produce you files with  acceptable quality when play them back on your Motorola Droid X, or Motorola  Droid.

Step 4: Convert videos,  DVDs and Blu-rays to Motorola Droid X and Motorola Droid
Once the above mentioned three steps are finished, you can  click “Convert” button to transfer videos, DVDs and  Blu-rays to Motorola Droid X and Motorola Droid. iMedia Converter for  Mac is able to complete conversion at speed without any video and video out of  sync issues. When the conversion task is finished, you can click “Open” button  to get the resulted files for your Motorola Droid X or Motorola Droid for  entertainment.

Additional Tips:
How to select your needed subtitle and audio track when convert  Blu-rays to Motorola Droid X and Motorola Droid on Mac?

1. Select subtitle
Click the drop-down list of “Subtitle”, then all the  subtitle info in the Blu-ray will be shown clearly, including language and  stream ID, so you can select your needed language as your subtitle in an easy  way.

In addition, Pavtube [http://www.pavtube.com/guide/convert-videos-dvds-blu-rays-to-motorola-droid-x-on-mac.html]iMedia Converter for Mac also offers an option called “Force Subtitle”. When you check “Force Subtitle”,  you will see subtitles only when actors are speaking a different language. For  instance, if you specify English (your mother tongue) as your subtitle, and  meanwhile tick off “Force Subtitle” option, then when actors are speaking  English, no subtitles will show up, but when they are talking with each other  in French, the English subtitle will appear accompanying with the French.

2: Select audio track
Click the pull down menu of “Audio”, and then the popup  list will give you the detailed information of audio tracks, including  language, audio codec, stream ID and audio channel. TrueHD audio and DTS-Master  Audio in a Blu-ray movie are both supported as well.

If you are using a Windows PC, you can see How  to transfer videos, standard DVDs and Blu-ray movies for playback on Motorola  Droid X.