Processing HD for Apple TV

palewhitemale

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Hey guys,

I'm sure I"m not the only one here that's specifically trying to prep my video for an AppleTV, so I figured that I'd go ahead and start a thread specific to this hardware.

I'm an HD noob, and as such, I'm having some problems getting my playback to work properly. I'm pretty sure I've figured out how to fix this, though, and I'd love some feedback. Maybe my time can save others some time too, who knows.

I'm certain that I've converted to the correct format, using the MKV into mp4 with Quicktime, export as mp4 with 2 channel AAC audio. The only problem is that when I play it on the Apple TV, it freezes after just a few seconds of playback and crashes the ATV.

After reading up, it seems that there are some limitations on the ATV that this direct "re-containering" 720p rip exceeds.

While its really hard to figure out exactly who to listen to regarding these technical topics, I'm using trial and error and I'll post my results here. Luckily I've got the horsepower to just keep trying until I get the process down.

To understand the limitations of the Apple TV, I suggest having a read here, as the different limitations interact with each other.

http://www.macworld.com/article/57237/2007/04/encodeappletv.html


The first couple steps are certain. The MKV container needs to be done away with in exchange for a mp4 (using H264).

I've found the quickest way to do it is what's already been posted in the other HD thread. Go ahead and follow these steps, which will give you a properly processed HD mp4 without transcoding (read: save a ton of time).

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6819606&postcount=1


The properties of the mp4 output are 1280x720, bitrate ~3.5Mbs, and framerate = 25fps.



On to the problems:

1. The frame rate for 720p on ATV needs to be <25, not < or = 25. It seems that the solution for this is to go ahead and re-process the video in a way that drops the frame rate to 24.

Unfortunately, there is no real way to use Quicktime to process out that extra fps, so I've started using Handbrake on the file from the above procedure, at 100% constant quality, H264, MP4 format, and we'll see how it comes out.

Looks like it'll be a little while before its done. I'll report back when I've had a shot at comparing it to another rip I did. Once I know what's going on I'll grab the exact handbrake settings and post them too.

Any input? If not I'll keep updating as gather info.

I don't know how this'll be received, but I've just realized that all of this framerate problem could be avoided by the initial rip being done in 24fps instead of 25. Dunno who to talk to about that, but input on that would be appreciated as well.

-bill
 
1. The frame rate for 720p on ATV needs to be <25, not < or = 25. It seems that the solution for this is to go ahead and re-process the video in a way that drops the frame rate to 24.

I don't have an Apple TV to play with right now, but as the standard framerate for TV content, be it SD or HD is 30fps in the U.S. (which is not exactely the smallest of markets) and QuickTime handles diverse framerates quite well on a vanilla OS X i think you misunderstood something here.

24fps is used in feature film cinematography and (theatrical) projection - and nothing else. Any content you get on your TV is 25, 30, 50 or 60fps, depending on what broadcasting standard is used. Same, of course, applies for digital media created from these sources like DVDs or iTunes videos.

See the Wikipedia entry on Apple TV:
Wiki said:
Content has to be in certain formats to play on the Apple TV.[34] It supports video encoded with either the H.264 video codec for a maximum resolution of 720p (up to 1280 ? 720 pixels) at 25 frame/s or the MPEG-4 video codec for a maximum resolution of 720 ? 432 (432p) or 640 ? 480 pixels at 30 frame/s. Audio can be encoded with AAC (16-320 kbit/s), MP3 (16-320 kbit/s, with VBR), Apple Lossless, AIFF, or WAV audio codecs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_TV#Content_support
 
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I suggest using handbreak. It has an Apple TV preset which will set everything up for you,

http://handbrake.fr/
 
you Coups use the built in vuze thingy, it only has to dedect your iTunes and afterwards you can pull every Movie you want into the iTunes Section and it'll do the Job without any problems

i Know this Cause im watching tg o my iPhone and it converts it to that format aswell ;)
 
I have a apple TV and I use it to watch Top Gear...

I am unable to watch the HD files...

What you've said is correct.

Have you come up with a solution?
 
I have done a ton of experimenting with handbrake. My best result is somewhat smooth(almost watchable, but definitely not good) video and really choppy audio. The default apple tv profile produces this. I have tried different bit rates, different audio compressions(even pass through), nothing. I have not tried reprocessing at 24fps, mainly because the audio is so horrible that I'm not going to start worrying about video yet. I get the same result playing the resulting file on my PC, so it doesn't seem like this is just an apple tv problem, but a mp4/m4v/itunes/apple issue?

Anyone?
 
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