The absolute best method to convert to AppleTV?

[DiGNAN17]

Greetings!

I've been off/on trying to research conversion to AppleTV for a couple years now, and I have never found a decent solution. I've been through so many terrible/sketchy applications and conversion guides, and I don't think I've ever successfully converted a file. Every single attempt results in one of three things: the file won't import into iTunes, the file won't work on AppleTV, or the file is just plain unplayable by everything.

I swear I've done my due diligence. I've done all the research I can think of. I've searched this wonderful site dozens of times, but all I come up with are threads that are well over a year old at least (which seems strange to me - is it just that nobody talks about the AppleTV anymore?). Regardless, the threads I've found are either unhelpful or seem very outdated.

Ideally, I'd like to convert HD MKV files with surround sound, but I'd be willing to settle for stereo SD...or anything that works!

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[neomaine]

.... is it just that nobody talks about the AppleTV anymore...

Pretty much...yes. For the most part its considered to be an oops by Apple.

I don't have an AppleTV or use iTunes but let's step through the process to see what's happening.

1 - Fill in your computer specs so we know what you'll be working with. Helps set some expectations.
2 - What video codecs does AppleTV support?
3 - What audio codecs does AppleTV support?
4 - What combination video/audio codecs does AppleTV support?
5 - What containers for the video/audio combinations does AppleTV support? (You've mentioned .MKV)
6 - What video/audio/containers are you source files?

And then we'll go from there...

[jman98]

I swear I've done my due diligence. I've done all the research I can think of. I've searched this wonderful site dozens of times, but all I come up with are threads that are well over a year old at least (which seems strange to me - is it just that nobody talks about the AppleTV anymore?). Regardless, the threads I've found are either unhelpful or seem very outdated.

AppleTV is seriously dated technology. Its inability to display anything over 720p doomed it from the start. Now there are significantly cheaper and better solutions like the Western Digital HDTV player available that can handle 1080p video and have significantly fewer compatibility issues. My advice, which you are not going to like, would be to retire your AppleTV and get something like the Western Digital player that is a lot easier to deal with. To be fair, at the time it came out AppleTV was pretty good compared to other offering in the marketplace, but it has long since been left behind by products that came out after it.

[DiGNAN17]

IF i had my choice, I'd wait for the WDTV2 and THEN I'd have something compareable to the appletv. The attraction to the appletv is wireless networking, easy use with iTunes, etc. Unfortunately this is for a parent. I dont think she's going to want to use the wdtv. I don't see her doing the sneakernet thing i could see doing it in conjunction with the appletv though.

Unfortunately i dont know what the specs are for the supported appletv video/audio codecs. The appletv is like the opposite of the wdtv in terms of codec support. Not only does it appear to be h.264 mp4'ls, but it seems. To be veeeeeeery specific about how those mp4s are encoded.

Im running a windows 7 machine, core i7 with 6gb of ram. Im trying to convert xvid files and mkvs, though id be fine with just xvid conversion.

Sorry for all the mistakes here, im doing this on my phone

[poisondeathray]

You can try handbrake which has an appletv preset. Other options are ripbot264 and megui which also have presets for appletv

[neomaine]

Though, there are mods to use wireless on the WDTV. Wouldn't even need iTunes integration. Just a bunch of audio/vidoe files in a folder. Could actually be easier.

Hadn't heard about v2 with networking yet. Excellent news, glad I've waited. I was looking at the PopcornHour for that reason myself.

[jagabo]

Hadn't heard about v2 with networking yet. Excellent news, glad I've waited.

Some details: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic371982.html

[DiGNAN17]

Though, there are mods to use wireless on the WDTV. Wouldn't even need iTunes integration. Just a bunch of audio/vidoe files in a folder. Could actually be easier.

Ha! For you and me, maybe, but not for mom I'm not sure she even knows how to get media on there as it is, though, so maybe it wouldn't make a difference to her

I've read about the hacks to get wireless on the WDTV. Frankly I've had enough of hacking and modding. I currently have the AppleTV patchsticked, which gets me more video codecs and USB hard drive support, but the AppleTV keeps freezing and it's seriously annoying. I want to do a factory restore on the AppleTV and take one more shot at trying to convert video to it before I bite the bullet and get the WDTV. I'll try the above applications! Thanks!

[jman98]

Hadn't heard about v2 with networking yet. Excellent news, glad I've waited. I was looking at the PopcornHour for that reason myself.

There are hacked firmwares that work RIGHT NOW that enable the current Western Digital HDTV product to do wireless networking. RIGHT NOW. I cannot get more explicit than that. That's fine if you want to wait, but as Western Digital has not announced this product or a release for it, nobody knows how long you'll be waiting.

[neomaine]

What part of my last reply made you think I wasn't aware of the hacked firmware? Running any mods requires some level of risk. Right now, using my 5990 and not having high def needs for playback doesn't have the reward I need to make the jump.

[DiGNAN17]

You can try handbrake

Okay, I'm embarrassed now. I had tried Handbrake on my old computer and the conversions it made failed miserably. I now chalk that up to my old computer being completely wacko.

I just tried a few conversions of xvid AND MKV files, and they all imported perfectly into iTunes and played perfectly on the AppleTV. The MKV conversion looked gorgeous, surprisingly.

Now I want to play around with it to see if I can get surround sound. I believe I'd heard that Apple didn't support surround on the files that were playable on AppleTV, but maybe I'm wrong. I know that most movies on the iTunes store aren't... hmmmm...