Near Toxaway Trailhead

Idaho is such a great state to live in for so many reasons, mostly for the outdoor enthusiast.   As a life-long resident of this beautiful state, I am continually humbled by the immeasurable beauty of the landscape.  On a recent camping trip I had the opportunity to lead a small group on a couple of very short but beautiful hikes in the Sawtooth Wilderness, which is part of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in south-central Idaho.

The Sawtooth Mountains (referred to as ‘The Sawtooths’) are a collection of mountains which are home to at least 39 high mountain lakes.  The most well known of these are Stanley, Sawtooth and Redfish Lakes.

Along Parks Peak

The 12.5 mile hike began only 8 short miles from our group campsite, at Pettit Lake.  At 7000 feet with crystal clear water and stunning views of beautiful McDonald Peak we headed West along Pettit Lake quickly making it to our first of several creek crossings.  I found it was much easier (and safer, wearing trail runners) to simply wade across these streams rather than hop on slippery rocks.  The trees eventually give way to a dense rock field about 1.7 miles into this hike.  Full exposure to the sun and incredible vistas dominated the hike to Alice.  The trail conditions were fantastic considering the number of people making this hike even on the day that we visited.

Distant White Clouds

Around the 4 mile mark, we got to a final switchback with a great view of the White Cloud Mountains to the North-East, and proud, El Capitan (9,901 ft) to the South.  Once to this point, it was a very short hike to Alice Lake, which sits at approximately 8590 feet above sea level.  When we “turned the corner” and got our first glimpse of Alice Lake, I was struck by it’s crystal clear, bluish green color and the majestic backdrop of jagged, glacier carved mountains surrounding the lake.

El Capitan near Alice

Alice Lake marked the turn around spot for this moderate day hike.  We made our way back along the same path we had taken to Alice, and was a much faster trip due to it’s gentle 9% grade from the 8600 foot high-point.  Before escaping to the vehicle for the short drive back to camp, I took time to take in the beauty of Pettit Lake one last time.  This hike was just the beginning of several more years journeys back to this beauty of a mountain range.

Pettit Lake, goodbye for now

TJD

I have had a few email requests for printable maps of some of the hikes I have gone on lately.  From the main page of my blog at http://NWEoutdoors.com, you click on the Maps tab.  A direct link is http://nweoutdoors.com/maps/

I hope you find them useful.  Check back from time to time, as I am still building the library.

-TJD

In my quest for useful paperless Topo maps, I downloaded another app from the Apple App Store, Topo Maps App. This application, like others, attempts to augment the need for compass and paper quads by making use of online free USGS map quads. I recently reviewed another app, Topos2go which had similar function and ease of use. What made Topo Maps App stand out are the availability of higher quality maps and an improved method of downloading them to my iPhone and Ipod Touch.

When you load the application you are presented with a satellite view of the United states. The user then uses the standard swipes and pinches to navigate the map and zoom in on an area of interest. As you zoom in, a yellow grid appears which has the names of the quadrangles which cover the area you want to dowload. With a simple half second press on the screen, you have an opportunity to rapidly download the map. If you have previously downloaded the map, the grid will have been filled in with a green fill. Pressing on the green area will automatically load that particular map. If you have previously downloaded the map and you are at the trailhead, pressing the find location button will automatically open the map which covers your current position.

In addition to the standard navigation you can expect from any of these maps, the feature I really enjoy are the shadows. Along with the map, bump maps are downloaded which overlay the quad which give it some depth. You can even configure the sun’s position so perhaps you can plan your hike to keep you shaded as much as possible.

As for the glaring omission in this app, it would be the inability to import or place waypoints. The developer is working on this functionality. I look forward to that feature! I would consider this app a good buy for the outdoors oriented people out there. It is not a street navigation app, so it’s purpose is somewhat limited.

Tjd

– Post From My iPhone

Last night I picked up another really cool app for my iPhone which allows me to take high quality 1:24k maps with me. The application is called Topos2go, and get this, it was only $3.99 in the app store. What’s so great about this application are the high quality USGS quads you can download on the Desktop computer, or directly to the iPhone itself. The quads you download are high resolution scans of the actual Topos which have been geocoded and saved as geotiff images.

For fun, I downloaded the quads for all my major hikes coming up and loaded on the iPhone to have a look. Trinity mountain is what you can see in the above sample. It allowed me to import ( or easily create my own) waypoints from my desktop route planning software. They landed in the correct positions, thankfully. I also downloaded the quad for my part of town and drove to the store. I turned on the internal GPS tracking. It followed the road as printed on the quad perfectly! Naturally, you can zoom in or out to get the view you want to see.

With all the quads I wanted to have downloaded on the device, I can hit the locate button. The program then automatically reorders the quads on my device by their distance from my current location. This makes it really easy to find the right quad when you arrive at the trail and are ready to navigate.

Topos2go is a wonderfully simple app which performs a task only available on the most high end of dedicated GPS receivers at a very minimal investment under $4. The iPhone still doesn’t replace my need for a dedicated navigational device, but it’s a welcomed addition to my pack each time I head out on a hike.

TJD
– Post From My iPhone

Trip stats: Table Rock
Trail: Hiker, Runner, Mountain Bike
Gain / Loss: 1800 feet
Length: 6.2
Time: 3.5 hours

Table Rock is a landmark for Boise. With the big “B” on the side and the cross at the top, it’s seen from across the entire valley. At just over 900 elevation gain, it’s a moderate hike but depending on the route taken, an easy one for just about any level of hiker.

Due to the early rise in temperatures here in Boise, I prefer to do the entire loop early in the day, early in the season. This trail system is very popular due to it’s proximity of a couple minutes from downtown Boise, as well as access to the historic“old penn”.

I prefer to take the scenic route, rather than heading straight away for the steep climb to the top. Rock Gardens has single track for mountain bikes, and takes you out to a ridge where you can overlook the Warm Springs Golf Course and the highway up to Lucky Peak.

As you progress along the trail, I encourage you to take the Table Rock Quarry Trail #17. Here you will see an active sandstone quarry working it’s way along the back side of the mountain.
Stay on this path and you eventually meet back up with the trail to the top of Table Rock where you are treated to grand views of the Treasure valley. You should also explore the “caves” below the top and take some pictures.

Now – for the video:

– Post From My iPhone

I went on a fun hike today in the Boise National Forest to Pilot Peak. It stands at approximately 8,158 feet just below the lookout tower. Getting to the trailhead is easy. Take the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Highway from Boise past Idaho City and prepare to turn off immediately upon reaching Mores Summit. There is a large parking lot available and there are Vault Toilets. It’s a long trip, who can’t appreciate those?

You will set off for the Sumit traveling North-East. Travel is via a forest service road which is in pretty rough shape. While on this hike was passed (very slowly) by a couple 4×4 trucks and at least 10 ATVs which had no trouble with this road. There is very little water available on this hike due to the creek being far below the road. There are a couple stream crossings, though they are supposed to be going under the road.

The most memorable part of the actual hike was the typical 15%-20% grade you fight the entire way up. The climb (according to the new Garmin) is just shy of 3,000 feet gain over only 4 miles to the top. No wonder I am so tired!

Eventually I reached the top. There is a lookout tower on this peak, covered in solar panels. It appears to be unstaffed, with only video cameras mounted around the roofline. The view did not disappoint, though the haze and cloudcover did affect my ability to take great photos.

After a quick 10 minute rest to take photos and enjoy the wildflowers, I took off back to the trailhead. I advise taking it slow though, plenty of opportunity to trip on the many rocks sticking up through the road surface.

From the parking lot, you can head the other direction to Sunset Mountain lookout. There is even more gain on that one, due to the up and down over the terrain, so that is best to wait for a second trip. I expect to have fun with that one in another week or two. I need to take the motorcycle on that one though. Such nice twisties on that road!

Tjd

Okay, I admit that my blog updates have been pretty few and far between as of late. I have been neglecting my WordPress blog in favor of updating Facebook. I want to mend my ways.

I am now using the WordPress app on my iPhone along with some great new photo programs on my iPhone and feel I can now post meaningful content on the run.

This photo is a sample panorama I created using Autostitch. It really is amazing that you can actually stitch photos together on your phone, no need to upload them to the computer for post processing work. In addition to the Panorama software, I am using another helpful tool called Photogene on the iPhone. Photogene allows me to crop my video, adjust levels and add cool frame affects. I finally have a complete photo suite, gps tracker, blogger on the iPhone I take everywhere. What a great platform! I send my Apple-love to all my readers!

Tjd

I am so fortunate that I live in Boise and have so many beautiful destinations within such easy reach of the city. Today I decided to visit Mores Mountain which stands beside Shafer Butte, our local ski mountain.

Getting to the trailhead is very straight-forward. Head North from Boise to Bogas Basin Road. You will continue up the mountain until you arrive at the lower lodge of Bogus Basin Ski Resort. Continue past the first parking lot until you see signs leading to the Pioneer Lodge. Take a hard right turn and park near the Upper Lodge. My hike began here.

Now I would classify this as a moderate hike based on my particular fitness level. There are steep portions which will have your breath a bit more labored, however take it slow and enjoy yourself. Initially, you hike up the West side of Shafer Butte to meet up with the saddle to Mores Mountain. At this junction, take a left and follow the trail to the picnic and camping area. You have a choice at this point. If you follow the trail Left, you make your way down the road to the South side of the mountain. The was the way I took in order to maximize the time I was in te shade of Mores Mountain.

When I made my way to the West side of the mountain (still following the dirt road) I started observing the many granite spires this hike showcases. Kids will be amazed at these giant rocks projecting up through the Earth. If you go this way, keep a lookout for the sign leading to the trail. It’s easy to miss unless you are looking for it (or have downloaded my GPS track).

Once on the trail, I proceeded North-East where I was treated to an unobstructed view of the Boise National Forest. Through some haze I was able to make out some snowy peaks in the distance. More granite, a few lizzards and wildflowers were everywhere as I continued my journey on the trail.

Eventually the trail ended as it met up with the campground. At this junction I made my way back to the saddle to Shafer Butte and back-tracked to the trail head. If you still have enough energy after you make it back to Shafer Butte I recommend taking a quick side track to summit and check out the view from the lookout tower. It’s worth the small climb another few hundred feet. You can see those stats in my blog entry for the Bogus Basin Mega Hike being posted soon.

Tjd

– Post From My iPhone

Sturgill Peak was the destination of the first official peak hike in 2009 for the IMR club. The original plan had been to go out on June 6th, hike, then come back and camp for the night. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. There was a brief break in the weather for Sunday, so we headed out for just a day hike.

Before leaving for the hike Frog (our trip organizer) had scouted out conditions and let us in on the fact that a week earlier there was an infestation of Mormon Crickets. This presents a problem to enjoyable hiking in that the keep moving and can cover the path in front of you. It’s not the most beautiful sound, crunching under your feet. Thankfully, none came out to play while we were there. The hike started out ahead of the old campground along Mann’s Creek. The forest service road is the direct route and was a bit on the moist side thanks to the week of rain. As we followed the road there were plenty of wildflowers to photograph and enjoy.

Once we passed the halfway point, the road became much more steep and we had a great view of Hitt Mountain. Hitt Mountain was previously a ski area, but there were no signs it was still open. Finally we came around that last corner and the lookout tower at Sturgill Peak came into view. We gathered that last burst of energy to summit that challenging last 400 feet to the top. Once there, the view was worth the effort.

Sturgill Peak watch tower sits at an altitude of 7589 feet above sea level. We had hiked 7 miles and a total gain of 3000 feet, so we took this chance to rest and have some lunch. Well, I didn’t eat, I had photos to take! The temperature was a comfortable 55 at the top, and a bit windy. There are plenty of radio towers as well, though clearly none were intended to give a good cell signal. Oh well, it’s nice to unplug from time to time (so I hear).

After about 30 minutes we set off to get back to the base. The descent took just shy of two hours. The sun had come out and the heating had begun. When we reached the truck and started for home, guess what we saw? Mormon Crickets in the streets. So glad they were napping earler! I will be back, next time with more friends and a tent.

Now a Video of the adventure

Tjd
– Post From My iPhone

Trailhead to Dry Creek

I love hiking. It’s a wonderful way to see things you may pass by every day without a second look. Most of my hikes are within an hours drive of Boise, and this is no exception.

Dry Creek hiking begins a few miles up Bogus Basin Road, at a turnout prior to the switchbacks in the road. There is limited room to park, which explains why this hike was not particularly crowded.

You will hike up for a short bit on the single track until you are pretty high above the creek below. About a mile into the hike, the path leads you down to the creek where you can now enjoy year round running water, and you come to one of your first of many creek crossings.

Creekside - "Dry" Creek

You follow the path up, staying with the creek through several more creek crossings, until the half-way mark when you again separate from Dry Creek. Soon, I was starting to see more pine and less sagebrush, and the hike began to take on more of the forest hike I love. At this point, roughly 6 miles up, I was in the forest complete with birds singing and smell of Pine.

With the last couple of miles comes the climb to the summit and the more challenging part of the hike. Eventually, I made it up out of the trees and was treated to a beautiful view of the valley. Rain clouds were approaching from the West, and from the North, so I decided to turn around and back-track to where I parked.

Treasure Valley View

The trek down was pretty quick, downhill the entire way. Only people I ran into were on horseback and a couple of mountain bikers. Trekking poles can be pretty useful on the way down to keep you balance, I highly recommend them. I have to admit, the trip down felt like it took twice as long as the trip up, but it could be because I was pretty excited to get home and crack open a cool one. It is a beautiful day-hike, and worth your time again and again. It’s among my favorite nearby hikes, and will quickly become one of yours as well. Please enjoy the album, and I will be uploading the movie of this hike as soon as I get it edited. I will also include my trail from the EveryTrail site, where I track all my favorite hikes for you.

Dry Creek – Out and Back Full at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Travel Community

TJD

View from the visitor center

This weekend I decided to go and check out Celebration Park.  It’s located along the Snake River, just South of Melba, Idaho.  Celebration Park offers camping, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking, and tours of the Petroglyphs to name a few things.

Basalt Field

My choice to start off the day was to hike east toward Swan Falls, along the river.  It was a warm day and I quickly discovered I had forgotten my sun screen!  Well, I did get burned, but the scenery and hike was incredible.  I took the river canyon trail first.  I wandered around quite awhile in the basalt fields, amazed at the size of these boulders which were washed in during the Lake Bonneville Flood at least 15,000 years ago.

Halverson Lakes

About mid-way through I headed North toward Halverson Lakes.  It is truly a desert oasis which suddenly comes into view.  During my visit there were birds, rabbits, lizards and plenty of bugs flying about.  It was a wonderful place to take a break and enjoy the scenery.  I started back along my way, this time following the Halverson Lakes Loop trail.  This took me eventually back to the river, where I followed it back to camp.  At the end of that hike, I was at about 8.5 miles.

Foot Bridge across Snake River

After a rest and some late lunch, I headed in the other direction

from camp to hike up and out of the canyon via the old train trestle bridge.  This hike goes along a path through  Guffey Butte.  The view is spectacular.  You can see for miles in each direction.  By the time I reached my vantage point, the sun was moving behind the mountains, so I decided to head back and visit the Petroglyphs at Celebration Park.

One boulder with Petroglyphs

The Rock Art in Celebration Park are Petroglyphs which were carved into the rock following the Bonneville Flood some 15,000 years ago.  It is thought that some of the Petroglyphs at Celebration park are as old as 10,000 years.  This rock art was created by Paleo-Indians, which makes this site sacred to the Native Americans.

The Egg - Interesting cracks in basalt

I very much enjoyed looking at these historic drawings, and wandering around seeking out others.  There are literally thousands of these basalt boulders to look at, so you can spend quite a while there.  After many photos and video captures, I headed back to camp to watch the sunset and hit the sack.  This was a wonderful place to visit!

Below, enjoy the movie I made of my travels.

Posted in Hiking / Backpacking, Includes Video, Outdoors Tagged: Camping, Desert, Hiking, Lake, Mountain Bike, Snake River ]]> http://tjdmobile.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/hiking-at-celebration-park-melba-id/feed/ 0 tjdmobile DSC00152 Basalt Field Halverson Lakes Bridge1 Petroglyph 1 The Egg http://tjdmobile.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/review-kill-a-watt-p4400/ http://tjdmobile.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/review-kill-a-watt-p4400/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:50:58 +0000 tjdmobile http://tjdmobile.wordpress.com/?p=205 ]]>

This is one very cool gadget.  I have been wanting one of these for the last couple of years.  I just picked it up today, and need to share my thoughts with you on this very useful cost savings tool.  With the cost of energy going up all over the world, any way you can isolate and stomp wasted energy is a good thing.

The unit I am reviewing, the P4400, retails for between $18 – $24 depending on where you pick it up.  I chose my local electronics shop and paid $24 plus local taxes just so I could have this in my hot little hands immediately.  As with so many gadgets these days, it’s packaged in the typical plastic sealed packaging that can lead to serious cuts while trying to remove it.  Once the package was opened, I took a quick look at the very short instructions and got to metering!

The unit itself is roughly 5″ long, 2″ wide and almost 2″ thick.  It has a three prong, grounded plug projecting out of the rear, and a matching outlet on the front for plugging in the device you are measuring.  You can display Voltage, Current (in Amps), Watts, Kilowatt Hours, Line Frequency, Volt Amps, Power Factor and Elapsed Time.  Not only are you able to measure power consumption, but get a view into condition of your power as well.  Look at the Voltage and the Frequency and you can detect brownouts.

The tests I performed are extremely simple, as I wanted to figure out under different situations how much power devices use in my home.  I have provided a very simple example below.  Use of this device is very easy, and responds quickly (within a couple of seconds) to major changes in power consumption.  The display is easy to read, and allows you to change modes on the fly.

The P4400 (the lower end unit) has no battery, and no memory as you find in the higher priced, higher end Kill-A-Watt units.  Because I am only looking for simple DATA, measuring one device at a time doesn’t bother me.  I can leave the meter in over a several day period in order to measure usage based on average viewing / using habits of my electronics.  I will be doing this starting tonight.

I highly recommend this to everyone.  Ignorance is not always bliss.  Wasting energy when you can so easily unplug something you aren’t using is just kissing dollars goodbye.  Purchase a Kill-A-Watt soon to start saving some real dough.

Open the .PDF attachment for samples.

power-use-wattmeter

Wow – this gadget could not have come along at a better time. With increased travel for me, and a growing distaste for my company issued boat anchor laptop – this was the perfect fit. Well, it was almost the perfect fit. After 3 weeks with this PC, it’s time for me to share my opinions with you.

Introduce the Asus EEE PC900a. Sticker price? A cool $279 in most places. What kind of gear do you get for under $300, you may ask. Well, you get a REAL computer with a 1.6 ghz Intel Atom processor, 1 gig of RAM, 1024×600 wide-screen format 8″ display, SDHC slot, VGA port, sound input / output, built in microphone and speakers, 4-cell lithium battery, 3 USB 2.0 ports, multi-touch touchpad. Last but certainly least is a 4 gig Solid State Drive with what has to be one of the worst distros of Linux on it.

Now that I have named off it’s basic feature set, I love ALMOST everything about this unit. It’s very light weight, feels pretty solid with the hinges for the lid. The screen seems to be plenty bright, and has good contrast. The processor is snappy, and power saving at the same time. All the ports are arranged very well. Although this unit is sold with Linux rather than Windows XP, I have XP Pro Media Center 2005 on mine and it will even play back High Def TV when the processor isn’t in power save mode. I have hooked it up to my 22″ Samsung monitor, and it is able to play full screen video perfectly. The Asus site has all the necessary drivers to make XP run perfectly on this little machine.

As for my gripes – Top of the list is the Xandros distro which is shipped with the EEE PC. I played with it for about 20 minutes and didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t get rid of the installed programs, and space was less than a half-gig remaining for my “stuff”. Scratch that, and load either Ubuntu Linux, or Windows instead. Because this only comes with a 4 gig drive, no chance of my getting Vista on this unit without some serious modification to the install (such as Nlitefor XP). I have really geeked out a perfect Ubuntu Live CD with all the drivers loaded in it – so I run this as a CD image on an SD card for my Linux needs, and have Windows XP for the times that only Windows will do. Perfect example is the lack of drivers for my Epson scanner in the Linux world. Other gripe would be the keyboard. Yes, it’s super small, but it’s also really cheap feeling. Typing on it gives you the impression that it’s really fragile, which I suspect it is. Luckily, typing is not what I primarily use this for. It’s mostly for reading manuals, checking email, and playing with Ubuntu linux (love it!)

Would I buy again? Absolutely. Would I recommend to others? Definately. I look forward to the next round of improved EEE PC

01/25/09 UPDATE: EEEPC has died. No real reason to speak of, it just refuses to power up and get past POST. No beeps, no screen. Battery and power lights come on, and that’s where it ends. Reset button does nothing, and an external monitor doesn’t show any signs of life. I have started the grueling process of RMA on this unit. After a 30 minute hold time, (and three calls) was given a Service order on Saturday, but still no RMA. Although the sticker says that they are 24/7 support, two calls at different times of the day results in “the notebook division is currently closed. Please leave a message”. I left messages both times, but do you supposed they ever called me back? Nope!

So – it’s unknown when or if this device will be repaired. I appreciate that this will be covered under warranty, but after research on the Asus forums, and my own experience so far, I would not call this a strong buy. I will update if or when I receive the replacement.

01/26/09 UPDATE: EEEPC is revived. Unfortunately, no thanks to Asus support. While trying “everything”, I put a bootable USB drive in the slot and powered up. The screen came to life and told me the BIOS was reset to defaults. Yay! So – this device has lost my trust and I will be waiting for it’s next failure. Hopefuly it will die of old age first.

07/12/09 UPDATE: EEEPC still lives and remains extremely useful. Though it is no longer available new, is really a great value on the used market.

The overall loop

Here’s a nice tiring ride for you to go on when the weather is cooler.  Today I joined some Harley guys from work to head out to Owyhee Dam and Reservoir.  It is more of a cool weather ride because the ride is primarily through desert plains.

The promise of this ride is spectacular views.  It didn’t disappoint.  We made our way to the dam via a zig-zag through small towns.

Owyhee Dam

The ride captain was Jon, who works with me at Boise Cascade (Boise Inc.).  Other riders were his Brother-in-law Chuck, Kris and myself.  We stayed in standard formation most of the way there.  Four riders are a nice manageable group.

Rock Formations

In addition to the beautiful views, we encountered pretty poor road conditions the closer we got to Oregon.  Although the road was “black” as though it were in new condition, it was literally falling apart with many potholes and loose gravel.  This is not such a big deal in the straight runs, but can be a problem when cornering.  The biggest problem comes when you are enjoying the scenery and you look down to discover that there is a cow in the street.  Watch out!

Park Views

We made a couple of stops along the way to fuel up, and get something to drink.  Just before you get to the dam, there is a spectacular “One Lane Tunnel” through a massive rock.  Going through this echo chamber was fun with loud motorcycles, let me tell you.

Once to the dam, we were a little disappointed that the “Glory Hole” wasn’t in it’s full glory.  It’s the end of the season, so we weren’t expecting to see water flowing in.  It’s a definite visit next Spring for that.  The Glory Hole is one of three in the nation.  It is used in place of a spillway for high water.

Glory Hole Late Summer

The water from the reservoir is sucked in, and exits on the other side of the dam.  I wouldn’t want to be kayaking and discover that by accident!

We then headed to the park and visited, enjoyed the scenery, and took more pictures.  It was the only “pit-stop” if you will, so don’t drink too much!  Heading back, we didn’t see any “wild-life” out in the street (thankfully), and had no incidents.  Went up through Nyssa, Parma, Caldwell and back to Boise.  It was a fine ride with plenty to see.

One Lane Tunnel

As for improvements on this ride, I will venture out a little more along the mountains.  Our loop took us though plenty of straights which is rather dull on a sport bike.  I found my back starting to hurt quite a bit by the time we got to Parma, which happens due to prolonged body position on my bike.  I can’t stretch out my legs like you can on the cruisers.  Ouch!

Today I would like to give a quick overview and opinion on my latest gadget, the Apple TV – Take 2. I have been following this product for awhile, and with it’s latest upgrade was willing to take a chance on it.

Hardware overview:

Would I recommend to others?

Yes, but for the right reasons. If you are most interested in Internet content, such as movie rentals or Podcast viewing, I would recommend. For those who already have a Windows Media Center machine who just want to extend your shows into another room, I think you would be better off with a Media Center Extender device. I have both. I use the Media Center Extender to watch live and recorded TV which I don’t plan to archive. I watch the Apple TV for the already mentioned Internet Content. If I do decide to archive content, I convert it to the H.264 format that the Apple TV can play. That way, I can put it on my Ipod or watch on the Xbox 360 or Apple TV equally.