How should I encode my movies to stream from iTunes to my Apple TV?

Question

How should I encode my movies to stream from iTunes to my Apple TV?

I've been able to stream several MP4 videos just fine, but now I am attempting to convert my some of my matroska (.mkv) videos into .mp4 so that they will play on Apple TV. I first tried using the h.264 video codec at 720p resolution 4000 kbps with aac audio at 128 kbps with a 44.1 kHz sampling rate. The .mp4 that I created this way could play in iTunes, but when I sent it to my Apple TV, it would just sit at the 0:00 second loading screen. The Apple TV claims to be able to play 1080p video, so I would like to convert my movies using that resolution. What video codec/bitrate and audio codec/bitrate should I use to ensure that my movies play?

AppleTV 2, Windows 7

Posted on Jun 16, 2012 5:05 PM

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Answer 1

Rudegar

Level 10

180,378 points

Jun 16, 2012 5:32 PM in response to Duncan Fairbanks

the free converter program called handbrake got presets for appletvs so it's output will be compatible

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Answer 2

Jun 16, 2012 5:35 PM in response to Duncan Fairbanks

The problem with.MKV video, is that the majority of it comes from the Internet and is very often corrupt, even though it appears to play correctly. This means that when you come to convert it to another format, things will often go wrong. This may well not be the case with your files, however I'm just making you aware, it may well not be your conversion workflow that is wrong but the original files.

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Answer 3

Sep 2, 2012 3:42 PM in response to Duncan Fairbanks

I convert my MKVs to MP4s and AirPlay them through iTunes to my Apple TV 3. I've done upwards of 8Mbps on the bitrate and everything still plays prefectly. I do the conversions through Handbrake.

As an experiment, I tried streaming a 40Mbps file to the TV, and while the Apple TV handled it flawlessly, I had to wait quite a bit for the file to buffer far enough ahead over my LAN.

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