Converting to Apple TV friendly format

low-def.

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Hi all, after some advice.

Thinking of getting an apple tv 2 for xmas. I have a lot of brrip movies in 720p mp4 format.

What is the best way to make these show up in itunes?

Also, when in itunes do they show in itues with cover art?
 
MP4 should show in iTunes. If they don't, for whatever reason, use Handbrake to convert them, using the Apple TV preset settings. Then you'll have no problem.

Can't help you on the artwork side - I don't think they do, but I could be wrong!
 
Thanks do you mean the universal setting or the apple tv specific one?

Cheers
 
My friend just uses the AppleTV one (he uses the ATV in standard "Apple mode") and I use the AppleTV Legacy preset, as I use my ATV with XBMC...
 
Out of interest...

Once you have converted your collection of movies/vids etc to the AppleTV friendly format - are they backwardly compatible with everything else, and is there minimal loss of quality?

Im assuming people tend to delete the original?
 
right i've copied a few of my mp4 video files into itunes but when i play them playback is very choppy.

This includes 1 files that was put through handbrake on universal pre-set.

any ideas?
 
They shouldn't be - should be smooth as the original file. Where are the files kept? Local drive or NAS?
 
my mistake they are all in original 1280 x 536 format. so the one through handbrake would have been in normal preset.

they are pulled from a second internal hdd.
 
also do you lose any picture quality when converting video file for apple tv?
 
I haven't noticed any PQ loss using the Apple Legacy preset (which keeps the AR and res strictly; ie if the file is 1280x720 or 1280x688 it retains that strictly) but haven't converted any using the AppleTV standard preset, which reduces the res a little
 
does legacy setting work on atv2?
 
No idea, I haven't got one.

The basic principal of the ATV, 1 and 2, is that "if iTunes can play it, the ATV can" but I have found this to be untrue. I have a few MP4 and M4V video files that iTunes will happily play but the ATV won't. And I'm not sure why. After a re-encode in HB it's usually back on track tho...
 
Another issue I'm having with mp4 video is they are not even running smoothly in QuickTime now. I can play them fine in box, WMp and ps3. Something wrong here? If I can't get atv2 to run mp4 then I'm going to have to opt for another media player like wdtv.
 
iTunes performance under Windows is terrible, one of the worst H.264 decoders on the market. There isnt even any hardware video acceleration so if your playing on a system without the pure CPU power to handle Apples bad H.264 decoder than you will have playback problems. WMP12 is hardware accelerated as are other Windows media players like MPC-HC, Potplayer, XBMC, VLC and so forth.

The ATV2 might be able to play them it's very hard to say without actually testing the files and the player. The ATV2 is an iPhone in a box so thats the decoding power available it wont necessarily be the same in how iTunes handles decoding videos. For example you could have a file that plays in iTunes with a powerful enough CPU but couldn't play on the ATV2 and likewise you could have videos that dont play smoothly on your computer but do on the ATV2.

I think a WDTV Live is a much safer choice as it will have no problem playing the files or just stick with the PS3.
 
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The wdtv is looking a likely bet. My ps3 is having issues now 3/4 way through mp4. Which is the best wdtv to get?
 
The basic WDTV Live is fine, though the WDTV Live Hub is a newer model with a built in hard drive and new GUI it is still the same chipset as the Live. If you prefer a nicer GUI the Live Hub might be worth getting.
 
Just to answer post 2, you can use subler to get artwork, film info and cast :smashin:
 
I have ATV2 and I'm in the process of putting some home movie footage into short films to put into itunes to watch on the ATV. I'm editing these using Sony Vegas 9 which has an mp4 option to render to, but it wont play in itunes. I'm having render as a .MOV file and then run it through handbrake which is all a bit time consuming.

Does anyone know if Vegas 9 have a format to render to that will work directly with itunes and ATV?
 
I'm not familiar with Vegas 9 but does it have a lossless or output the footage in original codec mode then encode that using Handbrake ?

I dont know what sort of H.264 settings Vegas allows but the Handbrake AppleTV preset uses Main Profile @ L3.1
& 3 ReFrames so try matching that if you can.
 
I have the ATV2 & I use Handbrake to convert .mkv files to MPG4 using the 'High Profile' @ L5.1 setting making the max bitrate 5000kbs, also selecting AC3 5.1 audio. I then use MetaX to add cover art & info before importing into iTunes. Sounds complicated but once you have done it a few times its fine. BTW i am using Mac OSx.

The Appletv setting in Handbeake is for the Gen 1 Appletv which needs a lower bitrate to run smoothly.So you will not get the best performance from the Appletv setting on the newer Gen2 ATV.

I would personally prefer the slight messing around with the converting to get the great GUI from the Apple TV rather than the horrid front end of the WDTV.
 
I've converted hundreds of DVDs and blurays using handbrake just using the universal setting. Works absolutely fine. But yes also using a mac.
 
The Appletv setting in Handbeake is for the Gen 1 Appletv which needs a lower bitrate to run smoothly.So you will not get the best performance from the Appletv setting on the newer Gen2 ATV.

If you have a recent nightly build, there are two Apple TV profiles, the second being very similar to the "High" profile.
 

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