Which video converter is best for quality on apple tv?

PavTube trial version works like a champ! This conversion tool is fast and the quality of the video and audio on Apple TV is outstanding.

well, could u share which video parameters u use for playback on your atv.

The video that I could not play on Apple TV is in H.264 mp4 format. I converted it using the built-in setting of Pavtube - Apple TV H.264 1280x720 *.mp4

Is this helpful? I'm not sure what you mean by video parameters for playback. My Apple TV is set to output 1080p via HDMI to my TV.

I checked the audio encoding of my video. Pavtube used 96 kbps if I understand the iTunes information correctly. That's on the low side for me, as I prefer 160 kbps or higher. I don't think this version of Pavtube is customizable in bit rates. Plus the product is somewhat pricey.

cheers!

80s=best_music wrote:
I checked the audio encoding of my video. Pavtube used 96 kbps if I understand the iTunes information correctly. That's on the low side for me, as I prefer 160 kbps or higher. I don't think this version of Pavtube is customizable in bit rates. Plus the product is somewhat pricey.

is there a reason why you're not using one of the many free apps that convert files for appletv?

handbrake being the most common.

80s=best_music wrote:
Very odd. Someone had posted a reply about a software that converts to formats for Apple products; now that posting is gone!

Sometimes the forum gets spammed with seemingly helpful advice for commercial products - no idea if this was the case here or if the mods percieved it as that or if the post mentioned things that aren't allowed.

It would not have been deleted without reason, and it's not our call what's reasonable to post - that's handled by the moderators.

As Chenks said I wonder why you've not tried the free options mentioned?

It may be "common" as you claim it to be, but I can assure you that Handbrake is not for the average user who wants to simply convert videos for Apple TV without being overwhelmed with the various options, most of which is not understandable by the average user. The built-in template may help, but when I used it, I couldn't figure out how to tell it to encode as a 1280x720 video. The best it could do was 1152x720. I also changed the audio to encode 160 Kbps. My Apple TV can't play it. I may try again later, but so far, Handbrake is not winning my vote here.

The software is not easy to use in that regard, plus it took 15 or more minutes to convert a small file of 477 Mb to into a 472 Mb file.

In 4 minutes, the free trial version of Pavtube converted my video which did work the first time.

80s=best_music wrote:
....Handbrake is not for the average user who wants to simply convert videos for Apple TV without being overwhelmed with the various options.... The built-in template may help, but when I used it, I couldn't figure out how to tell it to encode as a 1280x720 video. The best it could do was 1152x720. I also changed the audio to encode 160 Kbps. My Apple TV can't play it.

The simplest thing is just to locate your source and click the AppleTV preset and run it.

I wonder if you tweaked a quality setting that then produced a file with too high a bitrate for AppleTV.

Handbrake may produce file dimensions that seem a bit odd but I would ignore that as they are usually tweaking the output automatically, and they should just play using the AppleTV preset without any adjustment from the user.

I may try again later, but so far, Handbrake is not winning my vote here.

Fair enough.

In 4 minutes, the free trial version of Pavtube converted my video which did work the first time.

If your favoured app produces equivalent quality output faster then fine. You might want to do a side by side comparison of a short conversion from both apps to see which gives better quality, then if one if better but slower you can decide if the quality improvement is worth the time conversion.

h264 is very processor intensive to encode as I'm sure you've found.

Hi Alley_Cat,

Yea, I plan to try the template in Handbrake and convert the video again. In terms of quality, I would think that Handbrake offers higher quality since the converted file using that tool is 471 MB compared to 270 MB using PavTube.

Off topic: I notice when I reply in this forum, I can't include the quotes, as there is no option for me to choose. How do I reply with quotes?

When you reply under the Compose tab you should have formatting icons for:

Bold Italic Underline Spellcheck Quote

Do you see those?

i wanna know which video and audio setting will make movie perform great on Apple tv. And as i see, pavtube can offer 160kps for audio enconding.

Alley_Cat wrote:
When you reply under the Compose tab you should have formatting icons for:

Bold Italic Underline Spellcheck Quote

Do you see those?

Yes, I see them now. I'm so used to other forum software that has the quote button on the main thread page. Thanks!

hatetea58 wrote:
i wanna know which video and audio setting will make movie perform great on Apple tv. And as i see, pavtube can offer 160kps for audio enconding.

If your video converter software allows you, set the target file to be at maximum 1280x720 HD and use 160 Kps for the audio. Apple TV's only supports video and audio files according to these specs: http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

80s=best_music wrote:
If your video converter software allows you, set the target file to be at maximum 1280x720 HD and use 160 Kps for the audio. Apple TV's only supports video and audio files according to these specs: http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

that's very poor advice in my opinion.
you should never change the resolution of the file (unless you are making it smaller).

the simplest advise is to just use handbrake, and use the AppleTV preset.
that will convert the file automatically based on what the source file actually is.

Chenks wrote:

80s=best_music wrote:
If your video converter software allows you, set the target file to be at maximum 1280x720 HD and use 160 Kps for the audio. Apple TV's only supports video and audio files according to these specs: http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

you should never change the resolution of the file (unless you are making it smaller).

Yes, you're right. For best quality, your original video should be higher in resolution and greater in audio bit rate than the maximum supported by Apple TV. That's a given and was meant to convey that in my reply.

cheers!