MKV to MP4 5.1 Solved for Apple TV

The AppleTV will not playback AAC 5.1 properly at all. Only DPL2 which is actually a stereo track. AAC 5.1 would be six channels which is called oddly ... 6 channel discrete in HB. The AppleTV does not play this back properly and it ends up a 3.0 downmix. The AppleTV's best audio is from the 5.1 Dolby Digital AC3 track but it will of course require an audio device that can recognize and play it back. iTunes *will* take it if it just has the AC3 track but no apple iOS devices or the AppleTV will play it. Has anyone tried iMedia Converter Deluxe?

HI Everyone,

Thanks DrNarutofor the post.

I was able to convert 3.8GB mkv file into m4v in just under 8 mins on Macbook Pro running Win7 Bootcamp.

If the Video format is x264 - the process is must faster, since it does not need to be converted.

the only convertion is the audio from AC3 to AAC

Follow these steps.

Under the Format tab, Select the profile as Apple > Apple TV (H.264)

Video Tab > Mode = Copy.

Audio Tab > Mode = Convert > AAC > Channel 6.0 or less whatever is available from the source audio.

My first post to share my experience, hope this helps.

I just find a step by step guide on how toconvert MKV to Apple TV MP4 format

It also applies to convert other video formats like WMV, AVI, DivX, Xvid, RealMedia (rm), Flash format, GIF, SWF, FLV, ASF, MPG, 3GP, WebM, and etc to Apple TV supported format

I've been using a software called Smart-Coverter. It's super fast to convert MKV to Apple TV and they also convert other format. The best of it is that the basic versioin is free. They also have a Pro version that allows you to do batch conversion and more. It's available on Apple's App Store.

If you want a tool with more control you can try Subler which is also free. A word of advice make sure you choose the right format for the audio otherwise the files won't play.

If you already have H264 and AC3 in another container like MKV, just try MP4Tools to transcode - takes a couple of minutes only.

I use it with options Video: Passthru, Audio: Passthru + AAC5.1

This just copies existing video + audio into an M4V container as audio track 2, and creates 1st audio track as AAC

You could use AAC2.0, but I have had no problems with iPad etc using the 5.1 audio, so why not use 5.1 ?

If you have a receiver, then the appletv will always choose track2 and play the AC3 track, else it will play 1st track.

MP4Tools knows this, which is why the AAC track is always the 1st audio track.

Then I load that file into iDentify to get the Artwork/Movie info etc (could use tagChimp or whatever for this step), and then add into "Automatically Add To iTunes Folder"

FYI -

I used to use Handbrake as EyeTV records into m2ts files, which wasn't liked by most applications.

But now EyeTV can export native h264+AC3 audio in mp4 container in about 2 minutes, as a simple transcode Then I go into MP4Tools to copy that with an additional AAC track inserted in another 2 minutes

Have to be careful not to record in 1080i though, as iTunes doesn't like that.

The first thing to know or has well known is that there are only two official and free methods to stream video files to Apple TV from computer: iTunes or AirPlay. Unfortunately, neither of the two supports MKV as the input format. Likewise, you'll be greatly disappointed if you turn to other alternatives since most of them are not only expensive but also have inevitable defects: only support several formats, require installing some plug-ins, and with an endless line of embedded goods, etc.

To successfully stream MKV or HD MKV to Apple TV, here, I strongly recommend to convert MKV to Apple TV as well as iTunes and AirPlay supported formats